Big Bikes

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those stream of semi-consciousness nights

A 10 1/2 hour workday coupled with 2 1/2 hours of training'll do that to ya. For some reason I'm not that whupped. Must be all the chocolate milk...or the Larry David sandwich I had for lunch. Pastrami with Swiss, coleslaw, and Russian dressing on Rye. So much for the whole yogurt, apple, banana plan today. Without that sandwich in the tank I don't think I would have gone for the second half of my double-session on the Arlington Water Tower tonight.

Doing reps up the water tower at night is actually pretty cool. You get a killer view of the Boston Skyline as you crest it each time and the traffic is really light. just watch the potholes on the 40MPH descent. I had a thought while I was out there. Yes I'm riding a road bike, but it's a bike and riding a bike is always better than not riding a bike...even if it's a road bike. Riding a road bike up and down hills is really the most compelling thing about road riding to me anyway. Bright side. The soundtrack was good too. Thievery Corporation is excellent to listen to while riding at night. It pays to have hip young friends to tell you about such good musical things.

Ah, another good thing. I cleaned my bike. It was in a sad, sad state. Sandy like a beach and greasy like a bag of onion rings. I threw on some new (to me) parts too. I work at a shop where things like perfectly good 9 Speed (yes, 9 Speed, and eight too many still) Dura Ace cassetttes and chainrings and partially used 10 speed DA chains are discarded. Looking down at the clean space between the cassette cogs and the space between the arms of the crank spider is a happy thing for me. Feeling a less clapped out chain engage less clapped out cogs ain't a bad feeling either.

While I was riding up the hill along route 2, staring at me shiny drivetrain I recalled something Levi Leipheimer said about Alberto Contador's climbing. I won't put it in quotes because it's half-remembered from a T.V. interview but he said something about how Contador is un-effected by gravity, how he pedals uphill with no dead-spot in his stroke. I thought about that while I pedaled but I still felt the gravity and the dead-spot. I'll keep trying.

OK, one more thing, then I go. I was over catching up on The Dickiness this morning, he had a link to Fat Cyclist's "Live blog" building of his Superfly. I was enthralled as it related to Superflies. What I found was that the mechanic he had building up his bike was none other than Troy Michaud. One of the two guys who I would say truly inspired me to dedicate my racing life to single speeding. In fact I wrote about him and some other awesome single-speedin' dudes a while back. Just thought I would mention it here instead of commenting over on Fatty's blog. Who the hell reads all 8 billion comments on his posts anyway? I am so glad I have such an immensely unpopular blog so I don't have to worry about such things.

I am a man of constant sorrow, I've seen trouble all my day...
like having to ride road bikes and not getting as many comments on my blog as Fat Cyclist.