flying and dying

One more wet day. But the rain stopped early in the morning, high humidity, fairly warm temperatures up to almost 14C, very strong gusty winds. He though about Trevors, but around 6:30 lurking out of the door, all was soaking wet, did not looked any good nor safe to ride in a fast group. Py does not know if any one went out today, likely a few, but never know.

Little later in the morning the sun was taking a peak at times and he could impossibly stay one more day indoors and prepared for a ride, not yet sure how far, just get out.

Minor roads were still wet, but not too bad, and a warm strong tail wind almost made him feeling hot. But this was the only nice thing about that day, it was warm. OK, flying out east silently at 40km/h not feeling any wind, well that is pretty nice -- but there will be a return.

This was about the end of the flight east and one of the nice sunny moments -- he almost got blown away taking that photos.

A mix of cross and head winds with strong gusts for the next leg of the ride, as he decided to go South on Doctors and head towards Mill skipping the out and backtrack part to IPBP.

On a few open sections it was quite some hard work to keep moving and he felt like dying even in the small ring...

A little snack stop here

and still some long way back.

Out of service after 20'000 km

are going Py's worn Speedplay cleats. Here as they (and the shoes) were brand new, this image was taken Jan 14th 2007 / bike odometer 10'100 km:

and today as they were send into retirement Dec 27th 2008 / bike odometer 29'802 km:

... going to the bike parts junk yard/box.

And the new replacements:

Do not trust your mechanic saying he can do it with his screwdriver in fingers only -- he may or may not get close to the specified 35 inch pounds, but no one has a torque wrench in his fingers. Do it right once and ride away in confidence.

A quick indoor hop on the bike test after having the applied dry wax lube settled in and dried revealed a very nice all new again feeling. Smooth and precise, easy operating :-)

the "j" crew ride dec 25

Christmas Day ride on December 25th 2008. A special day, with exceptional nice and for the season warm air, just little windy, but that was good, as it dried off most of the rain on the roads of the night, also the warm weather front took care of removing almost all of the ice of the last weekend.

On special invitation, well, little attention pointed Py this day to a "casual 35mi B+ ride" starting at SUNY. This in mind, he added two times 17mi, his part of the ride to the group ride start.

A nice mix of riders gathered at the SUNY RR parking lot.



En route one more rider joined in... here looking at the lens:



Always welcome, a new route once in a while, they went out South towards the LIE, here Marc having a snack, while waiting little up for rejoin as the group got a bit stretched on a slight incline....





So Py had a few photo options.... :-)

A great day and even better ride, some fun options for sprints on a few great rolling terrain sections to get moving.



Alright, back home he added 13 new WP points :-)

Here is the ride track:


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RRL - Relativistic Ride Lunch

Quick RRL at the Camp. With temperatures and wind back to acceptable levels from a gusty storm with temps as low as -8C it got to moderate wind and just -2C with clear sky today and Py decided to stay save on side -- as there were just unbelievable many unpredictable black ice spots on the roads.

With a full snowed out weekend and missed WP points, some ride was due -- the sign says training, right -- here we start?

So he scouted out one lap for safe conditions around the RHIC, a 3.1km road layed out in a perfect circle.

... and it's going around and around and around ...

.. and around ...

A lap to scout it out, a lap for warm up and a few photos, a lap to go for... up to almost relativistic speeds.... (may be some time) -- it's made for it o-)
Two more laps full warp ahead, one for little recovery and a couple more to go -- he got a total of 10 laps, a total of 37km and got 5WP points.


Funny looking ride track....


View Larger Map

Snow Storm hitting LI

Update from LI. Friday around early noon a snowy weather system was hitting the island. Here a view out of Py's office on Friday early afternoon.

A little chaos on almost not snowplowed minor roads...

And it kept snowing until Saturday... good he got a RRL in on Thursday before the storm. A total snowed out ride weekend :-(

Trevors #4 - skipped three, one WLSCC race Weekend, two wash/ice outs

Was good getting back in one more Trevors ride this Sunday. The early morning was icy cold with about -3..-4C and still very low sitting mostly hiding sun, little wind only, that was good. Py knew it would warm up very soon, but there was no choice, this warm layer need to go on now at 7:30. Moving out at 7:37, shortly before turning into Columbus he meet Karl, arriving together at 8:12 at the PJeff meeting location. The air was already getting warmer out there. The "B" group was about to leave... But Py had plenty of time until the A group was about to go, just a few were already there.

Taking off one layer and leaving it in the car of one of the Kreb guys, was a wise decision -- would have been too much warmth.

About at 8:32 they moved out of the lot slowly picking up speed and getting warm. Py took it easy, just one pull up the hill to the Duck Pond (Mt. Sinai?). Shortly after turning into Lower Rocky Point Rd Owen flatted... and it took a while until he was ready to roll again...

Waiting for the flat getting fixed, they just got warm and moving well... too bad.

From there they were moving until a short reassembly wait stop on top of Little Flower and kept moving all the way out east and back non stop -- well, a few lights needed to be observed. Some work into the wind going South, then pretty easy fly back "home" going North and a little sprint up and back to PJeff.

A good Coffee & Bagel break before heading back home was nice....

That done, 119km, 3h45 (need one more extra lap to make the 15WP Pts full) -- breaking the 200 Pts boundary with that today :-)

Ride stats -- average of 34.7km/h for the group ride part:

RP2IPBP - the first little taste of arctic riding

This Saturday back to the RP2IPBP ride. A late start, as the morning was really cold. Py meet C at Tildas at 11, and quickly realized his vastly vented helmet and the thin hat below barely covering his ears was not sufficient, still being in RP they made a little detour via Py's home and exchanged it with his snowboard helmet with nice cosy ear covers and no (closed) venting holes.
Best decision of the day so far :-) Proceeding around the block taking his favorite climb for some warm up attempts... moving out of RP on NC as usual. One more rider showed up on the way and was hanging on, so they moved out to IPBP together. Nice pace.

Some wind helped going south, but most of the time just felt icy cold in the face. Here at IPBP:

The return was some hard work with a good head wind component at prolonged times... Nice day, good ride. Just cold. C looks a bit stiff frozen here...

Back in RP at just little over 3 hours, 96km, one more lap for Py to make the 13 WPpts.

[[added link to GPS data, inconsitency: GPS moving time=3h13 -- ole computer=3h19]]

RRL solo & little dreaming

Today the Island slowly warmed up from yesterdays cold front, reading -8C on Monday morning, with changing wind direction to South (=warm+wet soon...) it was still about 0C at the morning today, but around noon it got up to almost 7C and still rising with strong South winds.

Py was tempted to ride to the Camp today, but the forecast called for rain setting in from 4..5p, wet + dark = too much no fun, so he stowed the bike in his car and opted for the RRL once more. Seam one one else was ready for it and he had to go out solo today. Strong South wind, what meant most of the time cross wind for his route out east and return via Mill. Moving out strong and fast, he got a little slower on his return, but still, made the 35km loop in an hour and one minute -- counting time from the North Gate, a total of 41km including the slower sections on site, giving a total time of 5 WP points.

QUARQ
a nice toy, may be he should put it on his Santa's wish list..........

Second time, no Trevors for Py

Saturday night snow showers set in, light frost, about an inch accumulation, a icy, dirty, wet mess on the roads -- not safe, no fun for a road ride. Also trails were most likely in a better not ride on condition -- no good for the trails and for the material.

Around noon Py needed to get some fresh air and took the Humwee bike out for a few local laps, this is rock salt, no ice


Here a dramatic view of the Sound

This is the last 2/3 of the multi-level gradient climb on one of his laps, starting at about 15m elevation goes strait up to about 60m and winds around up to 75metes at it's "peak". Not bad for LI and just around the block.


Here we also get a short single trail fun part to play on up and down...


And a view of the beach of the North Shore Sound at Friendship -- who wants to swim there now anyhow, snow on the beach and a freak'n cold wind blowing.


Not to bad for an one hour "hill" workout and about 600m accumulated elevation gain - 4 little tiny points only today :-(

Glacier Ridge

This Saturday Py went for an alternative off road ride at GR, two hours of trail riding fun, 8 points and one full and one shorted "lap" in that maze of trail spaghetti. It wasn't as cold as expected, but a nice day.

RRL -- nice day, last chance for shorts this year?

Road Rid(ac)e Lunch today under crystal clear blue sky with Trevor. Fast moving, windy, so what. Fun, flying out East to Mill Rd.

Five WP Points.