Veni, Vidi, Vici

The conquering hero's of FT3 were out in it again last night. As Cap'n pointed out at one point, "Downhill may be extreme, but we have done more extreme outings than anyone else." That does it, we are the extremest group ever! Seeing how we only rode a few hours last night and not 24 hrs didn't really give us a good sense of how wet we could have gotten. However, even with steady rainfall, we tore it up and made good on the night.

RG, Cap'n, B, and I all met at Mosquito and headed for the lake. There we met up with Xteric and NoHandle. For the first time ever, FT3 was accompanied by Booker for a legit ride! Booker rocked the route, often pushing the pace and taking his share of flyers off the front. We rolled out on the first half of the qualifier before heading up to Park Creek on the Bull Head climb (kind of new route). From PC we yo-yoed up and down Wedding March before deciding to head back to home base on Rock Garden 1a. Trails were soggy and slippery but generally holding up ok. There was some talk about expecting there to be more mud. The inspection of the gear when I got home left me wondering, how could there be more mud? Upon returning to the the Knot, we were wet muddy and hungry. RG busted the speed skating get up for tacos and the rest of us opted for the more traditional jeans, jacket, beanie and headlamp look. Tacos continue to be consistently good and the current sauce selection is top notch!

Final orders are due to RG, order is going in today.

Until we ride,
LOtB

Hell or High Water

I will make tonight's ride, No idea how I will do it or which bike I will ride, of if I will have any lights, but I will make it. I am on a three week drought and suffering the effects of overwork. I need some two wheel therapy. I may actually need some taco therapy, but the two wheel portion will help.

If you have not talked to RG about sizing, you may be too late.

ONE!!!! Yes one! Bike????? Maybe the Sunkyung will make a debut outing!

BTW
A student rolled to school yesterday on a fixie. I about died as it is the first legit bike to show up. Don't get me wrong, a bmx is a fine ride, wish I had one, but this is the next step of bike love that I have longing to see.

Until we ride,
an overworked and under trained LOtB

So much for Stimulating Sprints

Over the last several Sunday Rides we have added the Stimulus Sprint to the repertoire of the attack points strategically placed around the county. Akin to its cousin, the city limit sprint, the Stimulus Sprint was awarded to the first rider to get to the large Stimulus Fund Project sign indicating the funding source for the recent road project...well, what the hell, all the signs are gone!I got out this morning for the solo soggy outing and was needing the little pick-me-up of a guaranteed sprint victory, but as I came around the corner of where I knew a Stimulus sprint to be, the sign was gone. This occurrence repeated itself throughout the ride, bummer.

Go World:
Terrible as it may be to steal the advertising campaign from Visa, I have to say I have been loving the Winter games. NBC's prime time coverage tends on the lame side, but the weekend afternoon coverage has been great. Speed skating (both venues), cross country/biathlon, and nordic ski jumping have been our family favorites.

Deadline Fast Approaching:
RG is putting the order in for kits on Wed, if you have yet to get your info to him, get it done!

Fat Tuesday Fat Tire Taco Tuesday

For a bunch of guys who have referred to themselves as a "bunch of skinny dorks on bikes," that's a lot of "FAT" in last nights ride title. Oh well, it will have to do, and Rear Wheel Taco doesn't sound nearly as fun! Looks like Xterric will keep the FT3 stimulus package rolling with a new wheel.

Here is the NoHandle ride report.

Great ride. B, RG, X-Terric, Councilman and I hit the trails. Up Barnes Back to wedding March. At the bottom of Wedding March I tried the Carbon 9er on the rock garden after a sweet jab from RG that he had already cleaned it on his Ti-9er (which he was riding SSFT3 style last night). I bobbled and he came around me, clearing it again!

We noted what may have been possibly the first ever all Big-Wheeled FT3 and also that it was FTTF3 – Fat Tuesday.

Also of note was XTerrics first ever Taco order from the road, as in he tacoed his rear wheel while hopping a water drain on PAVEMENT! He got it banged back into rolling status and we rolled back to eat real tacos.

Jerseys were tried on in the lot for sizing prior to departure as well.

If you have yet to contact RG for sizing on your kits, get on it as this order is going in soon!

Well done on the FTFT3! Racing days are getting closer and closer and team one had a poor showing last night. On nights I miss, I am thinking about bringing the trainer into the office and spinning all day as punishment!

Until we ride,

LOtB

Everyone is getting size small!

RockGod got no responses to our sizing call out. Therefore, if you don't not get in touch with him soon, you will receive bibs and jersey in size small and forced to wear uncomfortable clothing! Rest assured, I will be wearing size small myself as I even failed to get over for sizing yesterday and I was the guy who put out the call out! Sorry Rock, we will improve our ways and do greatly appreciate your efforts on the kits.

Tuesday's Roll:
I am stuck at a Basketball game tonight and can join for the ride. However after a week of nice weather and good temps, all trails are clear and fast. The ride will be blessed with spring like temps and the daylight is lingering more and more...I call for a parking lot roll out without illumination!

Weekend Report:
Cap'n scouted the Auburn to Coloma portion of the Amgen Tour route. He even got a friendly call out on the climb out of the confluence. Jury is still out on viewing strategies.

I rode the road solo on Sunday. It was me, myself, and I along with every Harley Davidson in 1000 mile radius. My ears are still ringing.

Dirt Ride - No report yet...

Racing -

Warning, these are long winded reports; but there seems to be a lot more to tell when you roll around varied terrain in a large pack of peers.

Friday – I had an appointment at Body Concepts for a bike fit and training plan review. Rob made several significant changes to my position. We moved my seat back, feet in and bar flats down. I noticed the difference even without getting out on the road. I would recommend this to anyone doing serious miles. The training plan looks ambitious with lots of hours and racing, hoping to hit peak fitness for two periods this year.

Cantua Creek: The normally ugly hills of the west valley were a brilliant emerald green, the place was actually attractive. It was cold and clear in the morning, no wind, probably mid-40’s just before the start. They split the group into two fields, my teammate Randy Floyd was in the full A group of 47 riders and I was in the B group of 18 riders. The course started above the finishing hill and turn around and rolled down into the valley over I-5. It was a pretty flat boring course for most of the out and back, most notably we had a group of 1-2 Pro Team Yahoo riders pulling a team trial past us, very impressive; we had a flyer of our own on the first lap that we reeled in before the climb to the turn around. As we headed up hill to the turn around I dropped a chain and had to stop, this made for some serious work to catch back on before we started back down. The same guy took off again on lap two, this time getting a much bigger gap, we had a small pack and even fewer willing to work to bring back the big guy from Team Chicken Ranch in Santa Barbara. An Alto Velo Webcor guy joined him with about ¼ lap to go but we caught them on the uphill over pass about 2km before the short climb to the finish. With 1km to go a Chicken Ranch teammate who was allowed to sit it most of the ride took off, I missed grabbing his wheel but accelerated to chase, I got closer but was not able to reel him in. I noticed I got a good gap but a guy from Davis was hauling me in, I barely held in off for the line for 2^nd place. A long sleeve T-shirt to match our team kit was the prize, along with some good post race analysis with the pack mates.

Pine Flats: Sunday was a beautiful brisk morning with sign ups at the Pine Flat Reservoir camp ground; knee warmers and arm warmers were the gear choice for most riders. Our field of ~40 had a great 20% grade promenade to get back to the main road, an interesting warm up for sure. The course went east following the mountain side next the lake, a great winding road with some small climbs. After 11 miles we headed back down toward the start. We had one big squirrel in the pack that made several people nervous. To ensure a safer decent I took off on a flyer just before we passed by our start point hoping to navigate the big decent solo, but I misjudged the summit and stayed out there a few miles, burning a couple more matches than necessary. It was a good call though as one of the previous packs had a major crash and the field was neutralized through the emergency vehicles. I was still able to stay away until the bottom and then regrouped with the pack as we headed along the river into the valley. The pace stayed pretty tame, everyone feeling the ~40+ miles ridden. There were some good leg burning rollers before we started the big climb, two guys took off, the pack stayed in tact. Just before we headed up the main grade two more guys took off and got a slight gap; I noticed the strong Davis guy 3^rd place from the day before was one of them and called out to the group, we swallowed up the first two guys, one flatted and one fizzled. The climb was hard, very much like Prospector on the steepest spots just not as long, but with 55 miles in the legs, it hurt. The two guys, Davis and Pink Jersey, stayed away over the top and four to five more guys were able to get up the hill ahead of Steve Cooke and myself, we crested the summit together and then Randy Volkmar joined us on the decent, our group swelled to 5 and group of 4 came within sight during the curvy rolling decent. We had a near catastrophe on the decent going ~35 mph when one guy in our group got too far left passing a female rider around a blind corner, he nearly met a red Chevy head on but was able barely squeak by. As it transitioned to rollers I put the gas on doing most of the work to bridge to the group ahead, we then had 8 or 9 chasing two, we were all pretty spent and did not make a serious attempt to reel them back; we had three teammates in our group, hmmm what would we do next time?? The road ticked up with 1km to go, one or two guys got a gap on me, the last 200 meters were steep and one more made a surge and got by in the last 50 meters; I crossed the line 6^th with Steve and Randy just couple spots back. It was a great course and race, we enjoyed a 7 mile spin back to the start area.

A great early season weekend, over 100 miles of racing; cross season helped a bunch. The bike position and new wheels worked great. Looking forward to Snelling in two weeks.

Until we ride,

LOtB (Zero)

Prettiest Man I Ever Saw -

News from the fashion front:

RockGod has the sample package in from Pactimo. Please swing by either tomorrow or touch base with him on Tuesday for sizing. To race in our new kits at the 24 hour race we need to get our order in pretty fast. RockGod has jerseys, bibs, arms, hats, you name it. If we reach a minimum on any item we can include whatever we want. I am pretty sure our order will be placed prior to March 1st, so don't get left out. I still think we will organize a Google Doc for the order. Try on the gear and stay tuned for the next steps.

Loving the Bike:

I did give myself a bit of Valentines Day gift and got out on the bike for a few hours. There is nothing like a solo outing on a perfect day to remind you of the simple pleasures of riding a bike.

Weekend Report:

A bit more journalistic digging is needed prior to publishing the weekends worth of adventures. Rest assured FT3 was riding and racing all weekend long!

Until we ride,
LOtB

Love those Presidents!

This is the perfect storm of the three day weekend. Coupling Valentines day and Presidents day is an odd mixture of emotion and politics. Personally I can recall a few "Presidential" types that I definitely do not want to shower with Hallmark affection! Based on some serious thought and reflection, I think the three day weekend will be ok, I can live with this!

FT3 is a bit fragmented this weekend. Although fragmented, it does seem like our troops are out getting the job done:

Racing: RockGod is down in lovely Fresno doing a double race weekend. The word from the the shop is that the entire rig with the new super fast wheelset is rolling and rolling fast. I can't imaging any other team leading the flyer out like FT3, but I will be hoping for the best and that his road team delivers him to the line first...make us proud Rock, give em hell!

Saturday Training: Cap'n, squeezing in what he can prior to a family vacation, which is loggable time as far as I am concerned, fired off a Saturday canyon spectacular. There was a noble attempt to get some companionship. Xben was the only other blogger speaking of a Saturday ride, we will have to see if they hooked up or if Cap'n was soloing off the front.

Sunday: Word on the street is that an early dirt ride is firing off from the Knot Hole. NoHandle, feeling the new bike mojo, is pushing up the departure time...could this be a hard mans call out or consolation for Valentines Day?????? Either way, an early ride is what it is...sounds like Bambi, Ghost, and Councilman are at least all in the maybe range. In preparation for the new bike, I might stay off the dirt until I am upon the new steed. I think I will fire off a solo road outing, possibly trying to get Green Fro out there with me.

Monday: Who knows, I will be enjoying the extra day and reflecting on how much I love our Presidential system :-)!

Until We Ride,
LOtB

Dreaming of Riding

There was an epic battle raging in El Dorado County last night. On one side, the Tuesday FT3 ride was pulling riders to the hills and on the other the DTI was equally working to keep riders home. The fighting was fierce and the losses were many. The mighty and brave did make it out for an FT3 ride, the wounded were able to roll, and the causalities probably boosted the DTI with a night at home.

Feel free to start throwing the HTFU calls. The three kid situation is killing my late night outings. Sleep has been a lost art in our household and there is a game of late night bed switching that is driving me crazy. In my haze of wakefulness yesterday I came across an article supporting co-sleeping until age 5. I am thinking about putting a bed in the shed and bedding down there, just me and my bikes!

As for last nights roll, I believe NoCar and NoHandle were met at the Knot by B who was heading west away from the POW. No real report on the ride, other than that NoHandle enjoyed the day on the new bike. Cap'n made the wounded road ride up the hill for Tacos and met Ghostrider up there as well. I made some quick check in rounds on the CX bike in town prior to falling asleep at about 8:00.

Hey, lets remember to keep the rubber side down.


Until we ride,
LOtB

LOtB the Hacker

It took awhile, but my hacking skills prevailed and I am now able to post. There has been at least one HTFU call out today via email as several of us have voiced tentative ride plans or outright stated that we will not be there. Sounds as though there will be at least one new ride rolling tonight. In addition, one rider will be doing a POW to Bike transition. As for other plans, who knows. I am still in the boat needing to run home and give a check on the hall pass. Say what you will, I can take it!

The Amgen Tour of California route was posted today on VeloNews. Sunday May 16th will bring some of the best riders in the world on some of our local roads. Viewing ideas?
http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2010/2010-stage1-map.pdf

Until we ride,
LOtB

Super showing on a super day!

While the rest of the country was settling in for a day of glutenous eating and drinking, FT3 rolled out strong despite of some crummy weather! There were a handful of faces that had not been in the fold for awhile as well. RockGod, NoHandle, Xteric, Ghost, InLaw, Who's Tyler, VD and I made up the group for the soggy roll, great to see FT3 gaining numbers again, spring must be getting close. Who's Tyler stated that the Folsom weather was better, so downhill was the call. Hitting our new favorite road, we headed down Old French Creek to Frenchtown Road to Brandon. We had a series of attacks heading towards S. Shingle, with RockGod stamping his seal of approval on the last kick of the climb out of Brandon. From S. Shingle we cut through a new route for me. It was like Greenstone on 'roids, or as Xteric stated, everyone owned thier own little Greenstone Country. 5000+ square feet of living space would hold a lot of bikes, but outside of that, I am not sure what I would do with that much house?!?!?! From Latrobe, we had had a spirited effort back in to El Dorado Hills. Rock and NoHandle got away on the little climb. I thought Ghost and I would make the bridge, but a chain mishap on the RockLobster left me stuck in the middle alone. I stamped it down to make the bridge and ensured my demise later in the day. From EDH, the group split with various speeds heading back up hill. The route did open up some better weather and we were able to ride most of the day on dry roads with no rain. The ride back was, well it was a sufferfest for me. Word has it that NoHandle was attacking at every opportunity. A 12 year old on a fixie could have taken me. We split again coming into town. At 4+ hours and the DTI dropping through the floor, RockGod and I split up from NoHandle and headed home, Xteric never caught up on the bike trail, hope he made it ok :-)

Zia's is now our second sponsor to post on the blog (check comments in the rain delay post). We had better be careful or else we will be a legit racing team before we know it. We did get a call out on Deer Valley from one of our rival CX teams. Looks like we are making a name for ourselves, Spot On Mates. We will discuss Sunday morning meeting location on Tuesday.

Team Two: The Golden Spoke is holding my new ride for me, yes you got it, I have a bike on lay away, I am just waiting for the blue light special. NoHandles ride should be in soon, keep your eyes peeled on Tuesday for a new carbon 9er. Trevor is getting fired up about being a team wrench at the 24 hour race. Ghost and Utah are both set to go solo 8hr and Team One is in...Team Two, we got to get this one this year.

Rest assured, I got in my share of gluttony and football watching! Go Packers!

Until we ride,
LOtB

Happy Valley Cyclocross on Rain Delay

With pitchers and catchers reporting in two weeks, it is time to bring back the art of the rain delay. FT3 had planned an epic CX adventure for Sunday. However, it appears group consensus is not to go out and get hammered by the weather while we pick our way through an unknown route. Call me crazy but this may be the most mature decision this group has ever made. I remember a race a few months back that I am still finding grit and grime from...anyone else remember that event? I think the photo is Cap'n but who knows!
The route is up for debate...anyone got a good idea?

Tentative meeting time is 8:00 at the Bagel Shop! (Zia's never came through the the art work for us and isn't even open early on Sunday...bummer)

The kits have reached approval by a quorum vote and our team artist is finalizing the artwork. We are going to be tight on the turnaround from the 24 Cool race. I am thinking a nice thank you gift is going to be in order here when this project is done.

Until we ride,
LOtB

2010: Year of the 9er!

It was a good showing, good weather, good route, and good fun on the SSFT3 last night. Xteric, B, NoHandle, Cap'n, Bambi, RockGod and I all showed with either one gear or tape to create one gear. With a bit of snow fear we kept to the West and South exposed trails and had great trails all night long.

Route:
The Qualifier opened up nicely to the Picnic Table Grave Yard. From the resting point for old tables we headed back towards the Knot on the Lake Trail. Took a quick break for Xteric to go grab water and then continued on out on the Lake Trail passed the second dam. We quickly doubled back on the Horse Trail and then headed up Rufus Rising. There was some conversation regarding the origins of this name. No memory of the origins were known, but the name has seemed to stick. Climbing up Rufus Rising we got a good reminder of winter as we run through several snow patches. From the top of the trail system we headed on out to Redneck Rising for a descent into Flemming. "When what to our wondering eyes should appear" but several really big, like really big, freaking holes dug in our trails. To say these diggings were attempting to keep vehicles out would be the obvious statement...however, do I really need to unearth 6 feet + of soil to reach this purpose! Sheesh, these seemed way extreme and quiet frankly pretty destructive to the area. We headed back via Flemming and Palin's Plunge...which is getting pretty good.

Falco rears its ugly head...as Cap'n was siting dates of 29er purchases, I got the old Falco song Amadeus stuck in my head. Still there haunting me this morning.

Taco's:
"When what to our wondering eyes should appear" but a Fetish CX bike and Green Fro in the the Knot Hole firing off the solo taco outing! Spot on Mate. Tacos were good and greasy and the hot sauce selection was by no means "weak". B took it upon himself to venture into the the selective, special services with a unique 0-0-10 order. I am not sure but he may need a secret agent to find his shoes this morning.

A Team - is in
B Team - is in need of a few good men!

Until we ride,
LOtB

In the end, it all comes back to the bike!

As we get back to our roots, we also begin to tune the machine for the coming races of spring. Tomorrow, at our regular meeting time, we may very well be looking at each other under some natural light, which only means it is a matter of weeks before the lights play less of a role for the Tuesday ride. Although winter is far from gone, spring is starting to warm up back stage getting ready to jump on the scene. January was a tough month for FT3. Weather, holidays, other commitments have all forced some of us away from the brotherhood. Now, in this month of love, it is time to rekindle the fire and get those engines running warm. We will see you all tomorrow for a SSFT3.

Mosquitto @ 5:45...Exit 54?

Weekend Recap:I don't mean to gloat, but I had a freakin awesome weekend. The weekend started off with a spectacular day in the backcountry with Cap'n and B. We took down Waterhouse off of Luther Pass. The snow was beyond perfect! It was Cap'n's inaugural ride on the split board and he did it proud. The climb took a very FT3 style direct approach. The fun came in the descent and whoops and hoots could be heard from the trees all the way down. Perfect day of POW with the FT3 boys.I followed the perfect ski day with a equally perfect long outing on the Sunday ride. Pierre, Bambi, RockGod and I all met up and decided a south county loop was in the air. We headed out Union Mine Rd to 49. I got and early jump and took the county line into Amador Co. We headed west in Plymouth and started seeing more cyclists on the road heading down to Latrobe. We headed north back up to El Dorado Hills. Pierre jumped on a super early, yet full tilt attack back for the El Dorado Co. line. The chase was full on, as all of us charged for the line. We narrowly avoided death from an SUV that decided to get in the mix. After the vehicular brush back, we got back to the charge, Pierre took one last flyer, I was stuck on his wheel and able to get around, sign in sight when, whoosh, there goes RockGod for the line. As we started heading back on Brandon Rd. we made a Ghost sighting as he and Who's Tyler were riding with Ghost's inlaw word has it that he may show for SSFT3. We headed back into town having done some good weekend work on the bikes.

24 Hour Update:
Team one is in...thanks to Cap'n, we will have at least one FT3 team representing. Ghost has expressed some interest in doing the 8hr Solo. Utah is also coming back back to town for the race...we will see if he can better the 4 hour performance. The big, yet to be answered question is, Team 2?!?!?!?! Let's go and take over this race...

Until We Ride,
LOtB