Posts Tagged ‘George Hincapie’

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Shoulders and knees

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Yesterday started with me laughing at André Greipel and ended with me feeling bad for him.  A lot can happen in a day… or a week.  It is part of the sport — rolling with the punches and overcoming.

My last post was about George Hincapie’s “non-standard” jersey.  That brought to my attention the story about André stealing George’s jersey.  Seems George was almost treating that thing like a security blanket and the younger rider was going to get some of that mojo (or play a prank on his mentor).  The jersey came up missing, but Greipel was caught because of the Hincapie markings.

It is neat to see some of the inner workings of a team.  It makes you understand the riders a little more when you see them on the bike.  It also makes you feel all the more for a guy when things don’t go his way.

Greipel was sitting second in the standings at the start of stage 3 yesterday.  He was poised to make a good run at being a two time winner in the race.  That opportunity went down to the pavement early in the stage as he ran into a motorcycle that was jutting out into the race lane.  He ended his day with a dislocated shoulder.

Just like that his race changed.  The week is done for him and his whole season will have to adjust.  Thankfully, he is young and nothing was broken.  He’ll be back.

George carried the banner for the Columbia team with a fourth place finish.  That allowed him to move up one position in the standings, but he is still 20 seconds back.  The old man is showing some legs this early season!  Must have been that last UWBL ride :-)

Me?  I got home last night from mid-week service at my church fully intending to spin while I watched the UNC vs. Clemson game.  However, during the day I started to feel some soreness in my knees.  It has been a long time since I’ve had the feeling.  I know why.  I’ve just got to work it out.

The reason is because I was pushing too big of a gear during my 2 hour trainer workout Tuesday night.  I felt no pain at all during the effort, but I know that the low cadence is what did it.  It was the first long effort after being off the bike for a week.  I thought I had warmed up enough, but I’m pretty sure I overdid it.

I skipped out last night to give them a break and focused on relaxing them and stretching out the muscles around the joints.  Tonight I’ll get back on, but I’ll back off doing anything really hard.  I want to make sure I am good to go this Saturday when I hope to take part in the longest ride yet (5 hours) for the Upstate Winter Bicycle League.

BTW, thanks for reading LowCadence.com.

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Posted in Life, Racing | 4 Comments »

Hincapie’s jersey

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

I climbed off the trainer last night after two hours.  I had a couple of sustained efforts over 300 watts.  For the first time in a while, I had a good feeling about it.

Sometimes after a ride, my legs feel really good.  I’m not sure how to describe it, but my legs just feel strong — tired, but strong.  The times I don’t like are those when I get off the bike and my legs feel weak.  Last night’s “ride” gives me a little more confidence.

Of course, I’ve been following the Tour Down Under.  Team Columbia took the first stage while Quick Step grabbed the second.  George Hincapie came in fifth after his team made an effort of controlling the race.  This moved him up to 13th in the overall classification with his teammate (and stage one winner) André Greipel holding down second overall.

A mystery to me was the jersey George was wearing.  It looked very similar to his teammates’, but some of the outlines on it seemed to be lighter.  I was trying to figure out the significance of the difference, but couldn’t find anything on any of the cycling news sites.

So, I decided to ask the man himself.  George replied, “Its actually an aero jersey that Hincapie made. We thought we had the art exact but its a little off. Will go back to normal Jersey.”  Then I remembered reading something on Kirk Flinte’s blog about a new aero jersey.  There was my answer right there.

As for me, it looks like I will be wearing last year’s Spinners jersey in the Spring Series.  We just got our order in for our new kits and I can’t imagine they’ll be ready in a month.  It will be nice to get a new one.  Mine is pretty beat up from a crash.

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Posted in Racing, Training | 1 Comment »

It’s here

Friday, January 16th, 2009

I have my Assault on Mount Mitchell passcode. Thankfully I remembered to renew my Freewheelers membership on the last day of 2008. That means I get to join the online registration for club members on February 6th. Otherwise it is a bear of a time getting a code.

The balance of the slots will be available for nonmembers that rode in the 2008 Assault on Mount Mitchell and Marion. They are made available on February 9th at 9 PM. If you are not a member, and you rode to Marion last year, make sure you are in line at Active.com soon after that time.

According to the mailer I got, there will be some changes this year. The Assaults will have staggered group starts. This is going to be interesting. They will ask at registration what you think your realistic elapse time will be. “Please be honest about it,” the paper reads.

I wonder what group I’ll be in? Last year I finished in 7:15 — and that was with a stop of about 15 to 20 minutes for road construction. I really think I can finish in 6:30 this time. Hope they think that is an “honest” assessment!

Also new for this year will be a new timing system. Riders will be wearing chips in 2009. This will help with timing, but also they’ll use it to keep you in your group. “Any rider who does not cross the start line in their assigned group, will be shown as DNS in the finisher’s list.” Waypoints will be at the start, Marion, the entrance to the Parkway off Hwy. 80 and at the finish.

Well, I guess we have a little more to think about that morning as we try to make it to the start line on time. Of course, I understand that the organizers have even greater logistical nightmares and it only makes sense that they would try to find ways to better manage the large numbers of riders.

You might enjoy this piece that appears on an Australian website. It features our man George Hincapie talking about… you guessed it… Lance Armstrong. George really seems to be glad to be hanging out with the old man, but I can’t help but wonder if he gets tired of always having to “speak for Lance.”

Finally, it is going to be COLD tomorrow for the UWBL. It is looking as though I will not be there. I’ll admit, part of it is because of the cold. However, it is more because I still have that balance issue with my inner ear and I don’t know how I’d do in a close group. No need putting anyone at risk. Not to mention that I have not ridden my bike since last Friday!

You can read about last week’s ride here. Make sure you go by UWBL.net before heading out to the start. Word on the site is that if the temperatures are really low, they may alter the plans.

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Posted in Events, News | 2 Comments »

Aussies and dizzies

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

George Hincapie news from Twitterville…

Lance Armstrong first comments, “At dinner with George Hincapie in Adelaide. Catching up! Love this guy like a brother.”  George comes back with, “Dragged Lance Armstrong out to a bar. He’s not happy. I love it. He’s getting mobbed.”

Earlier in the day (Australia time) we have this report from the official Tour Down Under Twitter account, “Huge day today! Had a Columbia Press Call this morning with George Hincapie being the favourite.”  Of course, there is a ton of press on the scene because it is Lance Armstrong’s first race in his come back.  The question Hincapie gets the most?  “What will it be like to race against Lance Armstrong?”

The Tour Down Under starts January 18th.  Versus will have a 30 minute recap of each day’s stage at 4 PM.  The final stage will be shown in its entirety on January 24th at 10 PM.  You can see the full schedule here.

I’m still fighting something.  It would appear that the cold I had/have has settled in my inner ear.  I get quite dizzy at times and have to sit down.  This is very discouraging.  I have not been on the bike for nearly a week.  I’ve got to get on today and at least spin my legs a bit.

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Rise of the Sialia sialis

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

There’s a new bird in town. Perhaps you’ve seen the little blue bird on some of the websites you frequent. Facebook, say hello to Twitter.

Twitter is the new Blogger in a sound byte world. Back in my days in media relations I knew that if my message couldn’t be communicated in 15 seconds you might as well keep your mouth shut. Okay, I’m exaggerating about the 15 seconds. Now you only get 140 characters.

Like most new social media applications I approached this new one with a little skepticism. I kind of got it because it was very similar to the Facebook status updates. As a matter of fact, that is what first got me using Twitter. It allowed me to update my Facebook status using texting from my cell phone.

As an avid cyclist, I started looking around on Twitter to see if I could find some of the professional riders. The first I came upon was Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) and then Dave Zabristkie (@dzabriskie).  It wasn’t long before George Hincapie was on board as well (@ghincapie).

One thing is for certain, when Lance Armstrong gets into something, he gets in with both feet!  As of the time of this writing, he is up to 24,488 followers of his tweets.  Of course, that is just a drop in the bucket to accounts like the Obama campaign with over 165,000 followers.

You know that Twitter is starting to have an impact when it starts shaping the mainstream.  Take for instance a recent event with Lance Armstrong.  It would appear that Lance was trying to make an under cover entrance into the land down under for the Australia’s Tour Down Under.  His cover got blown… not by giving information, but from the lack of it.

Armstrong is such a prodigious Twitter user that people noticed when his tweets went silent.  Before you knew it, the word was that he on his way to Australia.  As Lance says in his first tweet on location, “So much for sneaking into Australia…my old journo buddy Rupert Guiness says since I didn’t twitter for 10 hours, it tipped them off. Haha.”

Yes, Twitter is the new Blogger in a sound byte world.  It is easy to use which makes it seem less cumbersome to people busy and on the go.  It is also easy to deal with on the follower’s side because the information comes in very short bursts so it is easy to digest.

The service is also a great way to build your brand.  If what you tweet is useful and interesting, you can gain a following that can lead to more traffic to your “traditional” means of communicating on the web.  Here at LowCadence.com, tweets of my own and others that link to my articles generate more traffic than any other source.  Once, when George Hincapie, linked to my site in a tweet, I had my largest spike ever.  I still get some traffic from that entry several weeks old.

Some companies are even using it as a means to provide better customer support.  I mentioned in an earlier blog about Twenty20′s VHoldR.  I mentioned a problem I was having with their camera in a tweet — remember under 140 characters — and they found it by a word search.  They made contact with me and that proactive action helped build a more loyal customer.

Some things I have learned?  Don’t over do it. I still believe there is such a thing as “share fatigue.”  It happens for both the “follower” and the “followed”.  For some people, it is possible to share so much of yourself that you reach a point where you want to escape!

However. more likely, it is possible to share so much that people tune you out.  Thirty fifteen second sound bytes in a row equals seven minutes plus.  Unless I am REALLY interested in what someone has to say, I skim right over some tweets simply because of the number of them.

Use your links judiciously. Another tweet I will overlook is the one that doesn’t give much information in the tweet but simply links to a URL.  Granted, you may have found this article because you clicked on the link that my software automatically sends out when I post.  However, I make it a point to use that sparingly.

Again, you want to avoid the Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome.  A few judicious posts opens the door for your links.  Of course, it never hurts to make sure you are linking to information people really want to see!  We all know that person who forwards every “funny” email that comes into his or her box.

Twitter isn’t a gimmick.  In this relationship driven culture that we live in, it is a growing phenomenon.  Who knows what the next thing will be.  For now, the blue bird seems to be on the rise.  Join in the fun and be sure you give @jpait a follow :-) .

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45 miles 4500 feet

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Earlier last week, the beautiful redhead asked me if I could stay with the kids on Saturday while she spent some time with her mother and sister-in-laws.  My initial reaction was that cold feeling you get when you realize you are caught between a rock and a hard place… this was to be the first UWBL with points!  Everything else had been a warm up for today and I didn’t want to miss it.

However, you have to understand how wonderful my wife is about my riding.  Of course I told her I would watch the kids.  When I told her about UWBL, she started feeling badly about having me miss it.  I had to convince her it really was okay.  It really was.  Sure I wanted to go, but she sacrifices a lot in order to give me time to train.  This was just a small way to pay her back.

Not long afterwards I received a call from an acquaintance of mine who asked me if I would like to go on a ride Friday.  This ride would leave from Greenville and go about 47 miles up to The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center near Rosman, NC.  It would be a good solid ride that could help make up for missing the UWBL.

Then Wednesday I started coming down with a cold.  By Friday morning I didn’t even think I would ride up to the camp.  I went into work fully planning to call and cancel.  However, around 10 AM I was starting to feel a little better.  I rushed, got my bike ready and made it in time to join the guys for the ride.

The riders were a varied group.  John Lehman, the organizer of the ride, is quite the runner but only gets on the bike occasionally.  His future son-in-law, Ben, would be making his longest ride ever on this day.  Doug and Web I knew would make it.  I’ve seen them ride plenty of Hour of Powers and know they had the fitness.  Mike was the last of the group to start off with us.  He has really gotten into riding and has surprised me with his fitness.

Still, I knew this could be a long trip.  It took us some time to get to Marrietta where we were to meet up with two other riders, Chris and Dean.  We got there in about 45 minutes.  Chris was waiting for us.  Dean was running a tad late.  We waited for a bit and then the group started off leaving me behind to wait and help pull him back to the group.

He showed up shortly afterward and he and I rode on together and met the group at a station at the intersection of Hwy. 11 and Hwy. 178.  After getting some snacks there, we started off again on the main leg of the ride… the one where we climbed.  What started out as a social ride turned into a ride of survival.

For me, I settled into a pace that had me riding between 200 and 250 watts.  If figured I could do that all day, so I found the rythm and kept at it.  I believe I am really starting to understand my abilities in relation to my power.  I know how long I can go at certain power outputs and that really helps me manage my riding.

Chris had turned around at Hwy. 11 to go back to Lake Robinson where he was going fishing with his daughter.  I arrived at the camp 20 minutes or so before Web.  Then Mike and Doug arrived another 15 minutes or so later.  John and Ben came in after that.  Dean was still out there.

He was cramping.  John and Ben offered to stay with him.  Several of the people coming up for a weekend conference also offered to help.  He would have none of it.  He was going to finish this ride!  As Mike and I were driving off the camp site to go back to Greenville, we saw Dean coming in the front entrance.  Way to go Dean!

This morning (Saturday) I woke up feeling like crud.  Turns out I would have been killed on the UWBL ride.  Frankly, I’m not so sure my ride yesterday helped me.  Things have turned out to work perfectly.  I wouldn’t have been able to do the ride today anyway and I got a chance to have an awesome ride the day before.

Here is my video from yesterday’s trip.  It was 46.75 miles and just under 4500 feet of climbing — most of that coming in the last 20 miles.

By the way, I got a message from my friend Matt Tebbetts when the UWBL ended.  His assessment?  “It was fast.  George (Hincapie) led the entire way… a tune-up for Down Under… The pace between sprints was like intervals at times.”  Man, my heart tells me I should have been out there!  My body and head tells me it I shouldn’t have.

Another friend messaged me, “Glad the rain held off but one rider got cut off apparently and went down. A couple others piled up as a result.”  It appears this was a rider in the B group.  She was taken to the hospital for observation and word is she is fine, though she will have a headache for a couple of days.  Hey, I’d love to have some other reports from the ride… send them in!

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Posted in News, Rides | 3 Comments »

Backs and blogs

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Last night was another trainer night. I was a little bit motivated after reading the latest e-mail from TrainRight where Chris Carmichael talks about Lance Armstrong being ahead of schedule with his training for the upcoming season. Yeah, like jaw dropping ready!

Actually, it is just the difference between an elite international pro rider and a category 4 club rider. Here is a typical training day for the Astana rider:

Day 3: 4 hours at endurance pace staying below 315watts, include 1hr at Tempo power, 350-380watts, low pedal cadence during Tempo (60-70rpm).

One hour at 350 to 380 watts… that ain’t happening with my body! However, I’m not riding in the Tour de France either. So, I take the encouragement out of the fact that with proper training, Armstrong (according to Carmichael) has been able to improve his overall fitness by 25 watts since an earlier test last year. It is all relative.

So, on the trainer I climbed. The plan was to ride easy for 10 to 15 minutes and then give it a sustained 20 minute push trying to stay over 250 watts. Then I would just spin out the rest of the hour. After a short break I would come back to spin for 5 minutes intervals and then do an all out sprint for 20 seconds. 30 minutes later, I would call it a night.

Well, I didn’t quite make the steady 250 watts though I was able to average close to it. On the sprints in the final session I was pleased to see I was able to get close to 1000 watts on the first several tries. Then my legs started going on me and I was just topping 800.

I think I could have gotten more except my trainer wanted to start taking off! One thing about sprinting on a trainer is that you don’t have much lateral motion with the bike. It remains pretty stiff and upright. This morning I’m feeling it! My lower back is pretty sore.

Well, that is where the “back” comes from. What about the “blogs?” Well, if you haven’t heard anywhere else, there are now some blogs available over at Hincapie.com. I enjoy every chance to read what other cyclists are doing. There you’ll find a link to George’s blog over at GeorgeHincapie.com. There are also blogs from some of the staff and riders at Hincapie Sports.

I was especially attracted to the Training blog. Here’s to hoping that they will keep things going. I’ve seen a lot of blogs start up and then fade away. Some have only gotten one entry up (are you reading this, Alder?) and I would really enjoy reading more.

Thanks, Kirk, for getting things up and going over there. Good luck on your own blog. I too have learned the saddle bag lesson!

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Posted in Sites, Training | 2 Comments »

The Fabulous First Fifty

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

I was unable to ride the First Fifty ride today.  It sounds as though there was a great crowd and fun had by all.  Since, I can’t report on it, I was thankful that John Davidson recorded his thoughts of the ride and Ken Drescher — the director of the ride — took a couple of cool pictures.  So, here you go…

A view of Table Rock on Final Fifty ride.

A view of Table Rock on Final Fifty ride.

The first fifty is always the hardest!
by John Davidson

Today I enjoyed some great fellowship with other bicyclists at the Greenville Spinner’s First Fifty.  This is a ride through Northern Greenville County (SC) from Furman University to Table Rock State Park (Details here ).  Although I have been riding regularly lately, this ride was going to be the furthest I had ever traveled on 2 wheels (well, on 2 human powered wheels anyway!).

I arrived at Furman University’s PAC building parking area about 20 minutes before the ride started.  The weather was foggy and cool.  It was tough trying to decide how much clothing to wear, as of course, I’m going to be working up a sweat once I start pedaling!  I decided to layer up as I HATE being cold!

I got signed in and we had the safety briefing and off we went.  We followed the roads through Furman’s beautiful campus, intermixed with the local YMCA’s Resolution Run half Marathon.  I was a little concerned about us being mixed in with the runners, as those folks are going for time, we’re (supposedly) just out for a tour.

We got clear of the campus and the runners, and I was trying to get into my groove.  This put me in the front 1/3rd or so of all the riders (G-ville Spinners report something close to 175 riders).  I caught a real break as we approached a stop light – it was changing to red, and I was just lucky enough to be the last bike through.  This kept me in the lead group.

I heard later that there was a group of 6 riders being chased by 3 riders then the massive peleton I had hooked up with – we initially had about 50 riders (give or take – I’m trying to keep up, not count the riders!;).  As the miles came on, riders started dropping off. I was able to hang on the tail end, but it was touch and go for a while.  I began to get my second wind at about 13 miles. By this time our peleton had dropped to maybe 20 riders.  We were moving at a pretty good pace, and other riders (hanging out at the back of this group) mentioned that as well.  We lost a rider here and there, but to my surprise, I was feeling well and was managing to keep with the group.  Still at the back though.

We crossed Hwy 11 at about mile 21 – our peleton now down to 15 or so.   This put us into a hilly section that started breaking up our little peleton further.  From Table Rock Road, we got back out onto Hwy 11 for a couple of miles before our break / turn-around point at Lake Olenoy.  There was a nice downhill before spitting us back onto Hwy 11, so I managed to make up a little distance on the lead riders from what was our little peleton.   I pushed as hard as I could, and managed to bring another guy along with me in an attempt to reel this little group back in.  He did a great job pulling us up a hill, and I took over for the downhill on the other side.  We thought we’d catch those guys, but alas, we were maybe 20 seconds behind them coming into the break area.  While not earth shattering, I had  clocked an average of 18.5mph for the 29.5 miles.  I’m pleased with that result.

I scarfed down a couple of yogurts, a chocolate pudding and a gel pack, stripped off a layer of clothing (the sun was now out and it was feeling pretty warm!).  I wasn’t sure who I might link up with on the way out, but I looked up and saw a small group of guys who had been in the group I had been traveling with up to that point.  I rushed to hook up with them for the ride out.

Heading out of the break area we had formed as a group of about 5 and as we travelled Hwy 11 towards our turnoff, four other guys joined up in our group.  We had a nice little pace line going and it was working pretty well.  Everyone took a turn out front – some stronger than others pulled for a greater distance.  It is really fun to ride inches from the rider in front and all I see when I check my helmet mounted mirror is the head and shoulders of the rider behind.  Great Rush!

Before we made our turn, we picked up another rider in our little group – this now made us 10 strong.  As we turned off of Hwy 11, we caught a glimpse of the Land Rover team out for a training ride.  We pushed ourselves (or I should say the guys leading our group pushed all of us) and we managed to catch this Land Rover Team.  We rode with them for a while.  There was a bunch of those guys – we must have now had 25 or so bikes in our little peleton.

We had a great pace line going and our average speed was increasing ever so slowly.  The Land Rover team turned right when we turned left on Hwy 288.  Somewhere along Hwy 288 (~mile 40 or so?) we started dropping people – including me (I thought). This is where I started getting cramps in my quads (first time ever for that!).  I managed to stay at the back of what was now 6 riders until mile 46 or so. At that point, I knew I was done, so I just dropped to the small ring and tried to keep spinning for the remainder.  The 5 (or so) guys remaining from our original 10 kept moving at a good clip although I think they dropped slightly from the pace we had been running.  I’m sure they finished strong.

The last 10 miles were mostly a battle to keep the cramps at bay.  I was mostly by myself.  One of our original 10 (who had gottten caught at a traffic light just after we left Hwy 288) caught and passed me – kudos to that guy!  I passed one other rider before I made it back onto Furman’s campus.

I pulled in with an average speed of 17.7mph – again, not earth shattering, but respectable based on my riding level. Obviously, I was well off the pace for that last 10 miles or so. I’ll need to re-evaluate my hydration and nutrition before the next ride.

One thing I can say in my own defense – I had surgery last monday and have not really been able to eat solid food since then. This definitely held me back a bit today

Overall, it was a great ride.  After packing up my bike and getting changed out of my wet riding clothes, I immediately stopped at the nearest McDonalds and treated myself to a large chocolate milkshake.  I think that made the day complete!

George Hincapie crashes the party

George Hincapie crashes the party

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Posted in Events, Rides | 1 Comment »

Video of Break the Chains of Cancer Ride

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there was a good amount of rain during the Breaking the Chains of Cancer ride.  Because of that, there isn’t a lot of video of the actual ride.  However, there is a bit as well as vido of the crowd beforehand.

You’ll find the Sullivans, George Hincapie, Criag Lewis, some of my P3 buddies, and lots of good-hearted Upstate cyclists.  Another great reason why Greenville, South Carolina and the Upstate is a wonderful place to live and ride.  I love covering it here at LowCadence.com.

I also realized today that it is the first day of winter.  What has that got to do with cycling?  Well, from here on out the days will only get longer!  For us recreational riders, that is important because we have to do much of our riding after work.

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Can’t shake the embarrassment

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

What a morning!  It feels soooo good to be sitting here in a nice warm house.  After spending the morning riding my bicycle in the rain with mud flying up from the bikes in front of me, I’m happy to be home!

Still, it was worth it.  Over 200 cyclists came out for the ride organized to raise funds to help the Sullivan family fight the battle against cancer.  A special thanks to Blair LaMarche who arranged this event.

The day started off nearly perfect.  If the sun had been out, it would have been.  However, not long after we got started, the rains came.  There isn’t much to write about most of the ride.  A good amount was seen through squinting eyes or rain spattered glasses!

There is something about riding in those conditions that seems to bring the group together.  It is as though we are all suffering together in a common battle against the elements.  Of course, the purpose of the ride did a lot to help unify the group.

The only interesting thing that happened to me was something embarrassing.

It was cool having George Hincapie and Craig Lewis on the ride.  They rode along with us like any other regular guys out there.  Of course, that ride was just a warm up as they kept going after we all stopped once we reached the 65 mile mark.

Well, we started off the ride and the group split.  There were a good number of riders who were out ahead of my group.  At each stop light, we seemed to get caught and they were increasing the gap.

“I thought this was a charity ride,” I thought.  “Why are they increasing the gap?”  Finally, we reached a stretch where I knew they would not hit a light for sometime.  So, I went to the front and started pulling the group to catch them.

After a time, I heard a voice back behind me and then a rider came up along side me.  It was George.  I’m not sure exactly what he said, but it was something like “Calm down.  Ease up.”  As he said this he was holding his hand out motioning me to slow down.  “Well, they keep building a gap,” I defended myself.  “Don’t worry,” he replied with a smile, “We’ll catch them.”

Well, I was embarrassed.  George pulled up beside me and we rode in silence along at the front of the group for a bit.  Finally, I asked him something about his recent trip to California.  Funny, I was here riding with one of my sports heroes and I was wishing I was back in the group!

One other cool part of the ride was near the middle when about 15 or so riders started a rotating paceline.  It took us a bit to get organized, but once we did we were flying.  We did a number of rotations before we ran out of road.

It reminded me of riding in Austin and participating in the 5 man pace line with Lance Armstrong.  Now, two months later I was here riding in a pace line with Hincapie and Lewis.  For a cyclist that is like a basketball fan playing a pickup game with Michael Jordan!

One thing that made me feel a little better before the ride was done was having several people mention that they had seen the video of recent rides on LowCadence.com.  I started taking some video of this morning’s ride, but I’m not sure how much I got.  Once it started raining, I was just trying to survive and didn’t feel like adding to the danger by holding a camera!

We love you Joey and Susan!  Keep up the good fight!  Oh, and Happy Birthday, Big Joe!

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Posted in Events, Rides | 2 Comments »

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