Wednesday, April 30, 2008

10 The Ideal Weightweenie


Times have changed. Brothers and sisters, I speak unto you the truth, with the shining light of the table above. The destination of the ideal weightweenie is not a quest for the philosopher's stone, as some of our purist brothers and sisters will have us believe. To live and act the purposeful climber's life, we must look to our inner selves. Literally. There are multiple avenues to buy power. We do not see. Look to your inner self, yes inner self.

Times have changed, brothers...

Fat is our enemy, and duplicated body parts superfluous. Oh I tell you, when the road turns up to the heavens, and gradients become hurdles, the struggles of life blends itself with the pounds of waste we carry and every gram magnifies itself by tons, until they turn into evil demons in the air and tingle our feet with lactic acid and our lungs with the fire of Shahmuth. Lactate is our foe, weight its foot solider! We must leave no stone unturned! Yes, we must destroy both with one sprint!

Must we toil and burden this much as we climb mountains, I ask? We are blinded by the prospects of further lightening our bicycles, but I tell you surely - In the end of our cycling days, we will be ridiculed in online forums, our pockets will be devoid of money and some of our families will have already cast us out of our homes for eating up the savings. To add insult to injury, the evil UCI will formulate further rules to throw us out of competition. It is going to be a struggle, my friends but I tell you, this energy must be put to good use, not through crying or fighting back but in climbing hills. But before that, we must free our inner selves by looking beyond, I mean beneath what we are made of.

In the end of cycling days, you will be ridiculed...


Surely all that water bottle and fat can go, which you will have all known and heard of at our earlier convention in Kaanan, but what about all that hair? 21 grams of dead cells that have no use under a helmet can surely go for a mere 10 dollars at the salon. These are weeds that compete with the lightness of our head. We need to think more clearly, shouldn't we? Studies at Hairvard University have shown how each tiny hair follicle acts as wind drag. How easy it is then, to get rid of them and make ourselves faster! Compare this with the hundreds you will pour into the Campagnolo coffers! Evil!

Fat and hair can go!

How about emptying your bowels before the crucial times?! 2000+500 grams of waste! Thats, what....2500 grams of waste! Humbug! Is there a prize for carrying waste up hills? I surely haven't heard of any. I know one thing and that is the finish line. Where were you, dawg?!

Kidneys and eyes, should you need both? Ofcourse no! Centuries of medical records suggest we can do easily with one. Be selfishly benevolent to a suffering man, sell him one of your organs and you will be lighter, with some more money in the pockets to feed the cycling deficits.


Hence the great racer Marcus Pantani was called Il Pirata by his Tifosi, because he gouged his left eye and climbed hills like nobody's business. And what did he achieve? Oh, I tell you, he achieved great things. Some of you know that he is not among with us today. He missed our congregational meetings a few times in his boldness (which was folly), to be even further lighter which ultimately made him too light that he floated off to the heavens above, but he is undoubtedly a martyr to all of us weightweenies.


Teeth, some of it we must need for the podium. But inner teeth? Surely no camera angle is wise unto itself that it can go around our mouths. Light travels in a straight line, brothers! Those little stones of enamel and cementum must weigh a lot. Again, studies at Hairvard have proven they have something nasty to do with tight jaws. Must these things keep torturing us any longer? Liberty, I call out loud! Dial that dentist, today!

Teeth = weight. Weight = 0 power.

Nails can be cut since there are hardly any cat fights here, only bicycle fights that we engage in with our strong shaven legs...only Alpine fights, where the mighty have shown their force. Their names are engraved on the roads in white, and surely, none of them could have had... nails. So get rid of those 1.1 grams and shave, I mean save your arms for the victory salute.

At times, brothers and sisters, you can welcome disease! Yes, you heard me right! For studies have shown (no it was not at Hairvard) that they improve the natural defense mechanisms of the body and will make you lighter!! For example, Appendicitis is our friend. We recover and lose an inflamed appendix. That is itself 300 grams gone away, which is equal to the weight of Boonen's saddle. Boonen can't climb hills. But we can! If we have Appendicitis.

More lightness!

Finally, I encourage you to seek other ways, my friends. Its time to cast weight and buy power. There are hundreds of other methods to get rid of these evils but I have spoken of the biggest areas for improvement. I hope that these secrets I shared with you today will be helpful for climbing power and accelerations of stiffness.

Now if you will excuse me, I have an appointment for some minor surgeries.


Table Courtesy : Physics of the Human Body, Irving Herman



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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

4 A New Header

A new header for this blog has gone online tonight. How do you like it? Does it represent this blog better? Does it suck? Can you view it? Is it too distracting?

What do I think?! I think its pretty stimulating but I'll leave it there.

I credit the overall design to Divya Daniel from Long Island, NY so give her a holler ya'll! We did it fairly quickly today, taking us about 2 hours. Its all done in good ol' MS Paint since I'll frankly admit that Photoshop simply escapes me. Someday, I'll master that rascal. The images were my idea, including that weird bee but we hope it's friendly enough.

2 Nokon Brake Cable Failure


My front Nokon cable snapped at the race this Sunday. Thankfully it happened in the last stretches of the race so I was able to use both my brakes for the most part. Now this is a dangerous situation, especially if you're riding somewhere hilly. The front brakes are crucial. I think a fair share of good luck was with me.

Now I haven't paid too much attention to the cables, but I'll just presume that they started fraying around the clamp point, and the brakes were also not sufficiently adjusted closer to the rim. When that happens, you keep braking on and off with a larger travel and soon the cyclic tensioning snaps it at some point in time. The rear brake cable looks fine though.

I don't think this should have happened so early. I rode only 1200 miles this season so far. :(



Bontrager Tubular Spoke Failure

Another friend, a young 17 year old racer broke one of his spokes on his Bontrager tubulars. I wish I had a camera to catch it. This boy is pretty talented but the fact is, he's big.

I inspected it and it was a midsection fatigue failure. Fatigue is characteristic in that you can almost put the two broken pieces together at their snap point.

He needs to shed off some weight if he wants to reduce the radial forces on the wheel. Or he should go with a wheel built for his size, which I don't think many people pay attention to. The other obvious fact is to not abuse the wheel too much, as through bunny hopping or meeting every single road bump out there. I would also caution him to check his bike fit and see if he's putting more weight on the front end than he should be, because I think front spoke failures are rare. I guess its going to be an expensive fix for him since they were deep dish tubulars.

0 BBC Marilla East 2

Lets do some racing!


Local champs - (left to right) Bryan Bonn, Attilio Nicosia, Mr. X and John Garrett


Its a communal time post race. Everyone goes to everyone else and yaps about how well he rode and how better he could have done if it weren't for "insert main complaint here".


Coach Frank Grillo's ZIPP hubs from the early 90's... I think he said they were no good.


Bananas and cold water make the nutrition corner. Thank you guys.

0 BBC Marilla East 1


A Race



B Race


Time: 1 hours 55 minutes

Time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Distance: 47.5 Miles

Distance: 40.0 Miles
Plc. Name Pts. Team
Plc. Name
Pts. Team
1 Jason Skalski 39 Handle
1 David Van Horn
47 Berts
2 Joe Cooke 38 TBS
2 Gary Nadeau
46
3 Steve Burgett 37 Dundees
3 Adam Trost
45 TBS
4 Ken Thomas 36 Wachovia
4 Cameron Townsend
44 TPB/P2P
5 Dan Youhess 35 Handle
5 Stephen Hoadley
43 Job One
6 James Cowle 34 Wachovia
6 Greg Jensen
42 TBS
7 Peter Nuessle 33 Ingram
7 Vince Lorenz
41 TBS
8 David Hawkes 32 Ingram
8 Larry Watkins
40 TBS
9 Jeff Yurko 31 TPB/P2P
9 Bob Patterson
39 TPB/P2P
10 Steve Forrestel 30 Job One
10 Peter Ziolo
38 Job One
11 Ben Badagliacca 29 Job One
11 Stuart Green
37 TPB/P2P
12 Mike Bridges 28 Shickluna
12 Rob Hillyard
36 Wachovia
13 Andy Cummings 27 Wachovia
13 Jim Kuberka
35 Job One
14 Joe Niezgoda 26 TBS
14 Tom Wehling
34 Job One
15 Steve Toorongian 25 Ingram
15 Ed Knab
33 TPB/P2P
16 Attilio Nicosia 24 Job One
16 Tim Galvin
32 TPB/P2P
17 John Roden 23 Dundees
17 Rob Johnson
31 Ingram
18 Vinnie Bolt 22 Shickluna
18 Sean McGovern
30 Job One
19 Mike Loranty 21 Wachovia
19 Tom Tobias
29 Job One
20 Chris Cej 20 Wachovia
20 Jim Puglisi
28 TPB/P2P
21 David Bisenius 19 Wachovia
21 Debbie Matteliano
27 Job One
22 Joe Halter 18 Handle
22 Larry Fillinger
26
23 Tim Putman 17 Ingram
23 Tim Bouchard
25 TPB/P2P
24 Frank Grillo 16 Job One
24 Brian Rohr
24 Wachovia
25 Glenn Hansen 15 TPB/P2P
25 Larry Wehling
23 Job One
26 Bryan Bonn 14 Handle
26 Ron George
22
27 John Fabian 13 TPB/P2P
27 Glenn Speller
21 TPB/P2P
28 Tony Hoffman 12 Ingram
28 Garrett Getter
20
29 Scott Farrell 11 Ingram
29 Craig Polston
19 TBS
30 John Garrett 10 Handle
30 Rolf Weberg
18 TBS
31 Rob Nowinski 9 TPB/P2P
31 Allen Erb
17 TBS
32 Stan Skotnicki 8 Wachovia
32 Rob Leary
16
33 Traci Mariniello 7 TPB/P2P
33 Joe Saviola
15 Wachovia
34 Peter Cummings 6 TPB/P2P
34 Rick Ferro
14 TBS
dnf Todd Backes 0 Handle
35 Rich Milazzo
13 TPB/P2P
dnf Eric Curtis 0 Handle
36 Jason Kozak
12
dnf Chris Fuller 0 Wachovia
37 Bruce Hoover
11
dnf Joe Giovenco 0 Job One
38 Keith Pellerin
10 Wachovia
dnf John McClory 0 TBS
39 Bob Glanville
9





40 Thomas Bamrick
8

Preems: Pts.

41 Stefan Buczak
7 Wachovia
1 1. Jason Skalski 3 Handle
42 Melissa Nicosia
6 Job One

2. Steve Burgett 2 Dundees
dnf Elizabeth Persons
0

3. Joe Halter 1 Handle
dnf Dennis Blair
0 Job One





dnf Bill Dowling
0
2 1. David Bisenius 3 Wachovia
dnf Dan Park
0 Wachovia

2. Mike Loranty 2 Wachovia
dnf Chuck Yates
0

3. Joe Niezgoda 1 TBS





















Preems:
Pts.
3 1. Steve Burgett 3 Dundees
1 1. David Van Horn
3 Berts

2. Mike Loranty 2 Wachovia

2. Gary Nadeau
2

3. Joe Halter 1 Handle

3. Stephen Hoadley
1 Job One











C Race - 25 miles

2 1. David Van Horn
3 Berts
1 Lindy Erb 10 TBS

2. Gary Nadeau
2






3. Stephen Hoadley
1 Job One


26th in B race at the Sunday BBC Marilla, a 5-6 mile circuit with some short leg burning technical climbs that we went around some 5 times for a 40 miler.

There was an early breakaway of 3, one included a new friend I met, Dave Horn, from the mechanical engineering department in UB. We let them go and never saw them for the rest of the race. Obviously team strategies kicked in and Job One did all the blocking up in front, which made solo riders like me a little frustrated because the pace was kind of slow and something in me wanted to have a go.

I was at the front of the main chase group, and tried accelerating a couple of times to no avail. With some 3 miles to go, I drilled it at 28mph for no reason to catch up with some lone rider up in front, which I did pretty quickly but I soon found out that he was slowing and I had burnt a critical match I had for the last remaining climb. What I should have done instead of slowing down was to counterattack him and just time trial in no-man's land but lactic acid was not too friendly to me, I think.

So the final hill saw me sucked up by 20 some riders and ended up finishing mid pack. We saw some crashes - atleast one that I can remember behind me. Lots of DNF's. Fat people can't do races like these.