Grace is smooth...

So I'm riding this other guy's bike frame, and I don't know how to describe it to folks who don't ride. Parts of this frame are carbon fiber where mine had been aluminum. So any crack in the road, the aluminum frame would transmit that kick up to my backside. But on the carbon frame, it was more of a mumble than a kick. Some parts of some roads were rough and the old aluminum frame would really transmit a lot of chatter to my feet, hands, and backside, but on this, it was like they didn't exist. I was intimidated when I got to the base of Cockrell Hill, but when I got to the top, I was a bit disappointed. I had expected steeper or longer or just plain more. I think that it was easier because I was on the much lighter frame. After all those miles, it makes a difference, it really does. I met the owner at the lunch stop and told him that riding his frame was "like buttah," to which he asked "Did you slice it up and eat it?"
I haven't heard anything about my busted frame yet. I called the outfit in Cali on Friday and yesterday. They said they haven't seen it. They also pointed out that there might be an issue if Fed Ex was the shipper. They tend to arrive before the place opens and leave packages with random neighbors at the little industrial park. I guess I have to check at the shop. I'm kind of hoping that a) the place will say "sorry, no warranty, you want a cheap frame for cheaper?" and b) the owner of the really cool titanium and carbon frame will be in the mood to sell his to me. If all those stars align, then I could save the costs of buying a cheap frame and shipping it here and getting all my components swapped over and invest those into this super duper frame. I'm thinking that if I could get it for $800, it would be a steal, but it's about all I could afford, and that's only because Uncle Sam is going to pay me plenty in taxes on the same day I get my yearly bonus. Right now I'm flat broke. Ah well, it's just money.

Grace so totally rocks

So last night, I get a PM from a guy on the Team Bikes Inc forum. He's someone who used to race and has been known to help out some Jr's with lots of gear. I had posted that I wouldn't be able to ride on Super Bowl Sunday and he had asked me on the forum what size frame I ride. In the PM he said that I needed to call him ASAP about my bike frame. So I called him and he asked me if the only reason I'm not riding on Sunday is because my frame is busted. I confirmed that, so he said that he had spoken with Scott (who I find out owns the shop) and got me a loaner frame. The shop moved over my old components today. I'm going to the shop right now to pick up the bike after a quick fix. And it's not just any beater frame. It's a Titanium/Carbon frame that literally makes me salivate.


My frame is on its way to Cali right now. Hopefully they will warranty it and send me a new one. Still, I hope I can give back the Ti/Carbon beauty. I also hope it doesn't have a weight limit.

It's those tiny little things that hurt the worst

Ok, my bike is just a possession. It's only a thing. I accept that. I am not made to worship things, I am made to worship Him.  And I'm totally bummed because my bike is busted. I was going to go on the Saturday Shop Ride yesterday morning. But I slept late. So I pulled the bike into the sunroom and set it up on the trainer and that's when I saw it. A crack, a tiny crack that goes straight through a small part of the frame. It's right where the rear wheel bolts on. 

A testament to the fact that I am a big, heavy guy who pedals really hard to get up hills. I took it to the shop and asked about it. I just had it in the shop last week and though that they had messed it up, but no, if they had, the crack would have been different than it was. I can't ride it until it gets replaced. The frame is made from aluminum and once aluminum bends or breaks, you can't weld it back. It's busted. It's flat busted. And that means that I can't ride.  Riding on this, I would risk a catastrophic crash, or I might just goof up some of my other components by having all the stresses wrong.  I don't miss the bike, I miss riding. The bike is just the means. And for me, as funny as it sounds, I think of it something akin to worship. I float and I suffer. I offer my efforts and taste the rewards of my relationship.
So the frame maker has a warranty program. I think that, with a couple more pictures, I could get a new one sent out. Then I could ride again.  Maybe next week.

Ice Cycling

For those, ok, for you, Professor X, who has been waiting for me to continue my Orthodoxy vs Orthopraxy blogging, I'm working on it when I can. I'm just not satisfied that I have some posts worth publishing yet.

Yesterday, I rode my bike in to work. It was below freezing and it felt like skiing. Wind in my face, the urge to blow my nose every two minutes. The roads were clear of any ice and the sun came out every now and then, so it wasn't too bad. It felt cold at first but I started to warm up about ten minutes into the ride. What was I wearing that I could cycle in freezing temps? A light, silk weight DuoDry shirt > a thicker, long sleeved version of # 1 > jersey > wind-vest. I added arm warmers and gloves and liners. For my legs I had leg warmers, no not the kind from Flashdance, like these ones from Specialized. Then I had on a set of thermal bib knickers. Most folks would wear leg warmers with standard shorts or bib knickers, not both, but I wanted to keep the blood going to my toes as warm as possible. I had on some really warm shoe covers and wool socks. My toes did get chilly. The best part? Pulling ice out of my beard when I finished.

The triumph of Orthodoxy over Orthopraxy, part one, personal perspectives and bias

So I've been a Catholic all my life. I've also been involved with other Christian traditions (or "ecclesial communities") over the years. I went to Young Life and some Baptist events as a teen. I worked with Young Life for five or six years through college and into my career as a Catholic Youth Minister. And my family attend a Baptist Sunday School in addition to Mass each week. Long stories behind each of those, I'm still Catholic though, still Orthodox in my understanding of the Eucharist. I don't have any issues with Church theology from Trent to Vatican II, or even with Humanae Vitae or Mary. We have six kids and respect the fact that God may call us to having more. But suffice to say that I have a fairly adequate understanding of both Catholic theology and fundamentalist theology. I won't put that last one with a capital "F," because it's a loose system, especially in Southern Baptist churches. I also see some things, some things that trouble me.

Why the disclaimer?
I say this because the direction I'm going is fraught with the limitations of human perception (so if the Church really is the Sacrament of God's Presence here on Earth, being able to wrap your brain around it would be as difficult as trying to wrap your brain around God) and the fact remains that I may very well be looking at things with an improperly formed conscience or a damaged set of life-filters. So be it. All opinions here are just from one guy named after a barnyard animal. This is all free advice and you get what you pay for, your mileage may vary, etc. But as Chesterton wrote, "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." He was talking about generalists who do things out of love as opposed to specialists who do things because they get paid lots of money, taking the most important parts of life (child rearing, for example). This is something that I feel I have to write despite the fact that I may be a poor writer, or one with a skewed view of reality. I have to say what I see because it appears that folks in these two polis' are too wrapped up in the validity of their own respective viewpoints and their historical differences to see the areas where they are deficient. Or Heaven help us, actually look to the other for guidance. One has the right theology, and sees that as their credentials, but the other has a better sense of the practice, and of course sees that as their "fruit."

Which side am I on?
In the title, it may seem as if I have a side, or that I see one as superior, and that is partly true. On one hand, I am going to speak mainly from the Catholic view, one I can't help but shake, and yet on that I have freely chosen. On the other hand, I see this triumph as a bad thing. The fact that these two traditions don't cross-pollinate enough to see the ways that they could benefit from each other is a great thorn in the side of Christ's Bride. We are not whole in the way that we should be. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things, points out that in some way, we are unified, else the prayer of Jesus that we would be one didn't come to pass, and I'd hate to bet against the Lord Jesus and his interests, but this communion is not one that we fully live out. I am for the Catholic "team." I wish for all other "ecclesial communities" to know the truths that God has vested in the Church for their own edification. And I feel that the Catholic Church, while flawless in theology, had deep issues in how it practices, and I'm not talking about Liturgy. But more about that later. OK, everybody up to speed on where I'm starting from and a general idea of where I'm going? Good.

The Jr. team is doomed, I tell you, doomed!

Last night, the Junior section of my cycling team had a pizza dinner/parent's meeting. Last season was a rough one, the couple who has been the heart and soul of the junior team got overwhelmed by the responsibilities. Since the guy is a total cycling geek, he's stayed on trying to coach. But the gal has pulled herself out of the team to spend more time with career and kid, I think. The problem is that he was the cycling coach but she was the Momma Bear. She organized everything, got deals on registering the whole team at once, made sure everyone had a ride, etc. So the team has just been running on inertia since then, doing what they always have done, just showing up and waiting for stuff to happen. Being a new year, the pres called everyone together to get some level of organization. In the process they named me as Race Director. I pointed out that I had never finished a race better than last. I pointed out that at my first race, I got beat by a girl. A girl who mentioned that she had just finished her last Chemo four months prior. I took the position. Those kids are doomed.

Oh, and Joseph got a very nice trophy, the only award given, for being the most improved rider. The pres and VP had very nice things to say about him, and even though I'm his Dad, I know they weren't just blowing smoke up his backside. You can see it in the way that he finishes, the way he goes past the point where he used to quit, in his results, and more importantly, how he gets treated by his competition. They respect him now when before they just ignored him. Little brother Jacob spent the rest of the night playing with the trophy while making space battle sounds. Those are my boys.

OK, it looks like I only have one spare der, not two

Upon further review (it took a while), my old derailleur cage is bent. It looks like it's not, but the teeth of the two pulleys don't line up, so something is messed up. A buddy of mine (Matt) who works as a wrench in the Keller shop told me that you can replace the cage, he even showed me the part, but he said that it's a pain in the butt. Actually, he said it was a *itch, but I don't like using that kind of language. Maybe if he had said that it was a positively craptacular way to spend an afternoon, I'd post that. But instead he said bitch. Doh!

Why I have three rear derailleurs

There were only four of us on a "training ride" three weeks back.  One guy was about the same level as me, the other two are really strong guys.  So as we're starting up another hill about an hour into the ride, I shift into the big ring to catch up and promptly drop my chain.  It fell off on the outside, towards my pedal.  I shifted back, hoping to pull my chain back onto the ring (it's worked a couple of times), but it didn't this time.  I felt the chain catch, or I should say lock up.  I tried to force it a bit (just a bit), and then I felt the whole bike lock up.  Fortunately, by this time, I had lost a considerable amount of momentum and the bike was almost to a stop.  The wet pavement helped me from doing further damage to my drivetrain.  I pulled over and noticed my rear derailleur in my rear spokes.  Not good, not good at all.  Worse, the other guys were over the hill and gone, and I didn't have anyone's phone number with me.  So I pulled over and tried to get the bike rideable.  Did I mention that it was cold, like mid-30's?  And windy?  And the sweat in my gear was starting to make me shiver?

I was about to call home and get my wife to come get me (it would have taken her an hour plus) when my ride mates came back over the hill looking for me.  Chris Moore was able to get me one gear, one stinking gear, but that was enough to ride on, and we took off.  My one gear was 53x13 or 14, I forget.  And the derailleur hanger was at a 45 degree angle, so the derailleur pulleys were out of alignment with the chain, meaning a huge amount of drag (Chris said it felt like 50 watts, I have no clue).  It felt very tall.  Well, we went back the next 16 miles to the shop.  The whole way I can't shift.  I can't accelerate worth a flip and I don't want to stop.  At the shop, the wrench (a guy I trust a great deal, despite his misdiagnosis) informs me that, now that he's worked the derailleur hanger back, the derailleur itself is bent.  Time for a new one.  Oh, new ones cost $100.  And it's right before Christmas and with six kids, I'm pretty much broke.  So much for finishing off those last 120 miles to get to 2500 for the year...  So I did what any other near-broke cyclist would do, I went to eBay.  I put the bike in the shop, it needed a new chain anyway, and I told the guy "I'll provide the derailleur and the hanger." I spent the rest of the week looking on eBay.  Meanwhile, another wrench at another shop who's a pretty good friend (I'd buy him lunch on his birthday kind of buddy) says, "Hey, maybe I can find something at home to help you out."  Of course, I'm impatient, so after a couple of days of no news from him, I found a nice Ultegra 9 sp rear der, which would work with my 10 speed system per Shimano, and I bought it the Friday before Christmas.  Then I wait and wait.  I bought it on a Friday.  The following Thursday, I ping the eBay seller.  No response.  I ping him again on Friday, he says "Your der is on its way."  Ouch, no way it will be here before the big ride on New Year's.  Sat night, my buddy at the shop says, I've got a better der, Dura Ace, and it's yours for $5 more than the eBay der, and it's ready tomorrow.  Rock and roll!  The eBay one will be a backup.  So I buy it, take it back to the shop my bike is waiting at (same franchise), and get everything set up.  I picked it up today, but the guy tells me that the "broken" der isn't really bent.  It must have been the hanger.  Dang it, I had that the whole time!  I ordered a spare when Joseph bent one last Summer.  Then I get home, and guess what's in my mailbox?  The eBay der!!  So now I have a 9 speed Ultegra, a 10 speed Ultegra, and a 9 speed Dura Ace, with the last one installed.  Yuck, now I have to go back to try to sell one to make back some change.

Prospero Año Neuvo

I don't know if you can tell, but I came very close to using some foul Spanish in the title for this post. Many years ago when I was a Youth Minister, I came to understand the difference between "Año" and "Ano." One means year, the other means anus. The Catholic Church was making a big deal about the year 2000 and there was a National Office that was created to promote all kinds of stuff for it. They called it a Jubilee year and everything that was written in English was also in Spanish. Unfortunately, they let something slip in a final press and had to recall thousands and thousands of Spanish pamphlets proclaiming the Jubilee for Anus 2000, or maybe it was the Jubilee of 2000 Anuses (Anii?). So fast forward a year, and I'm in Six Flags at their Holiday in the Park, and there's all these signs everywhere with Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in different languages, and there's this one in front of me with "Prospero Ano Neuvo!" Happy New Anus! I included it on all my Christmas Cards that year.

I really want one of these

In the Netherlands, they are called bakfiets (bach-feets), the plural is bakfietsen. They are huge overseas. Check out this footage of them outside a local zoo.



I especially like all the child sized seatbelts. I don't know how these would play out here unless there emerged a real bike friendly trail system, but I would love to find out. Here's an example of how family-friendly they can be.



Sleeping babies, how cute!

Better than a Blog award!

Today I experienced an epiphany. I checked out Sitemeter and saw that I had a hit. Yes, I know, I'm so desperate for attention that I check out each hit on my blog, but that only proves my eventual point. The entry click for this hit was a Google search for "lame blogs." And yessir, this one came in third!!

Check it out for yourself.

I'm so proud. And I can't believe I'm so proud. It's a tribute to the insignificance of this blog. To all the little people who have never checked out my blog, thank you. Although you'll never know how much your missing this blog was so important to me, and you'll never know you missed it because you never saw it, your apathy and ignorance is a source of courage and inspiration for me.

Edit: *sniff, sniff* I guess the vagaries of Google are beyond the ken of mortals. I am now no longer #3 on the list, but #36. Maybe the very nature of lame-ness requires that you be ignorant of it. Sort of like those folks who are sooo cooool that they shop for plaid pants at thrift stores even though they pull down six figure salaries. If you are knowingly lame, you no longer qualify as lame, but have progressed beyond lame, straight past vaguely hip, around the corner from faddish, to sit down next to passé.

Bike Lights

Ok, a while back I put up a post on riding in the dark. It is different than riding in the night, obviously. There are two points to consider. 1) Can drivers see me? and 2) Can I see the road enough to ride at a decent speed? The first point can be handled pretty inexpensively. I've got a Planet Bike Blinky Super Flash tail light and the dang thing is bright. It's not as bright as a Dinotte tail light, but it seems to do a good enough job. I even had a driver tell me at a stoplight that he liked the taillight that I had, and that was on a Saturday morning. It was cloudy, but it was between 11 and 11:30 am. If I had a spare $150, I'd get the Dinotte. Joey from Trinity Bicycles showed me one on his bike back this summer and the thing is bright. The pics from the bottom of their photo page that show a huge amount of red light look exactly like what I saw. But the Super Flash was $20 or so. Case closed. I guess if I were concerned that someone was going to hit me from behind, then I'd get the Dinotte. Yeah, the busiest part of my commute is a road that had a shoulder that's a whole lane wide. If I didn't have that, I'd spend for the Dinotte. Despite the high cost of living, it's still popular. You can handle the first question for headlights (Can drivers see me?) for relatively little cash as well. The Fredcast recommends that you actually have two lights for visibility, one flashing on your handlebars and one constant on your helmet. Folks can see that you are looking at them and respond quicker. The one for your head should probably be a relatively expensive one though, so you can use it to see the road better. I got a cheap Cateye LED for Joseph last month. I didn't realize how weak it was until I got it, but it will work as a flashing light just fine.
But for the second issue, can I see the road, you need to be prepared to spend the bucks. I originally got a NiteHawk Phoenix halogen light that had been sitting in the shop for three years. Since it had been sitting there for so long, it was marked down to 1/2 MSRP. I liked the brightness, the charger, and the setup on the bike. Unfortunately, the yellow light tended to get washed out at dusk, especially when there's cars passing by. On a dark night or on a trail, it's great though. So I ended up getting an early Christmas gift from my Pop, a NiteRider Minewt. It's the '07 model, not the one they sold last Spring. It throws the light a bit farther than the halogen and the light picks up contrasts a bit better. It also has three settings: high, low and flash; and the battery lasts longer. My commute is short enough that I don't worry about the Phoenix dying out, but on longer night rides, the 3 1/2 hour burn time is nice.
Last night I rode about 12 miles from the office to try to catch up with the bi-weekly night ride. I brought along both headlights, as I was worried that I might run through the Minewt's battery. I haven't ever had a light go out on me when I needed it, but I'm pretty good about making sure the things are charged up. I missed the ride and had to turn around and go home. So I got a chance to see how the lights worked at twilight, at dusk, and then after sunset. When there was enough light to see the road clearly, I had the Minewt on flash. It gave me the comfort I needed to approach intersections and basically let folks know I'm there. Eventually it got a bit darker and I had to go to the low beam. The high beam didn't help me see the road better, although you could see a difference between high and low, plus I wanted to be able to use it for the entire ride. Turning on the Phoenix didn't give me better vision at this point either. After I figured out that I had missed the ride and had turned back, it was after sunset. I started to head home. Unlike my normal commute, this was mostly through neighborhood streets with no defined shoulder instead of on a major road with a full lane of shoulder. The Super Flash was still adequate but the Minewt just didn't seem to throw out light far enough as I passed from block to block in mostly-darkness. After a couple of miles, I threw it on high. Then I turned on the Phoenix and noticed quite a difference. When I was riding down the major road with lots of light pollution (streetlights, car headlights), the halogen Phoenix was washed out. If I had the Minewt on low and turned the Phoenix on and off, there really wasn't a discernible difference, except at the far edges of the beam. I think this is primarily because most headlights and streetlights are halogens, so the light pollution from them washes out the halogen Phoenix. The LED light freqs thrown out by the Minewt are different enough to help me see up the road. But when there's not much light out at all, the Phoenix was a tad brighter. Using both gave me the best vision though. The Minewt threw the light out a bit farther and the light itself is easier to adjust, so it was tilted a bit further up than the Phoenix. I was planning on giving it to Joseph or to my Brother-in-law, but now it looks like I'm buying some more lights for Christmas for them. Maybe I'll buy them some different types and try them out first.

Sherman named head coach - News

Sherman named head coach - News

I dunno. He's never been a head coach in college, so never been in charge of recruiting. And that's more than half of college coaching. He's been an NFL head coach, but never of a team that had a quarterback not named Brett Favre. Methinks that he might not be that much better than Fran. At least Fran had a great pedigree. And for 7 years at $1.8 million? I know that's what the head coach at a "major" team like A&M should be paid, but this guy seems like a reach. If he has a cheap buyout clause, then I'm on the bandwagon. Otherwise, I'm just kinda hanging here, waiting to see what the recruit class looks like and see what he puts on the field.

Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris approved

This is just freaking hilarious.



I don't really support Huckabee, I actually think all politicians are basically out for themselves instead of the betterment of the nation. But this, this makes me want to vote for him. This is just too much chutzpah to ignore.

Need to do work while still getting in that winter training?

I need one of these. A very nice mix of hi-tech and lo-tech.

Check this out

Just found this on accident and found it fascinating. It makes me think all about my own kids' experience with homeschooling.



So it seems that educational structures and objectives are totally skew with what college students experience or how they see the world.

H/T to Digital Edu. Like I said, I just stumbled upon it, no guarantees that this guy would approve of anything I say, or vice versa.

Reunification, everybody's doing it

OK, for something different, a blog entry that has nothing to do with family or cycling...

I just read this about possible reunification between the Roman Catholic Church and elements of the Orthodox Church. Hat tip to Marcel at Mary's Aggies. I say "elements of" only because the Russian Orthodox (not the oldest or most prestigious, but certainly the largest) members walked out because there were reps from the Estonian Orthodox church there, and the Russians apparently look on the Estonians like the Chinese do the Taiwanese. It will be interesting to see if this sticks. Since the Orthodox church is "Autocephalous," meaning that the Patriarch of Serbia has no real authority over folks under the Patriarch of Romania, it remains to be seen if each Patriarch will have to independently agree to the document, although maybe they already did, the reports I've read aren't clear. I also did a bit of Googling and found an interview with the representative Bishop from the Russian Orthodox church where he makes it clear that he agrees with the primacy of the Patriarch of Rome (the Pope) but that it's a primacy of honor, not of jurisdiction. In other words, yup, he's the first, but not really in any meaningful way. It's like letting your older brother ride shotgun so he won't mess with you you in the back seat. It looks nice and all, but it's really not something all that meaningful. It might be a good start, or it might not go anywhere. There's also a CNS report out that has some interesting tidbits. The Russian Orthodox are saying "We weren't there, it might not count." And Cardinal Kaspar points out in a Vatican Radio interview that "I think it will need a whole decade." OK, something to pray for, but it doesn't look like anything's going to happen soon.

And it reminds me also of this, although this is a bit less autocephalous and a bit more "OK, now that we've got spit in the eye by the Episcopalian Church, we can see a bit more clearly. Please let us in your club."
Hat tips to Marcel (a buddy of mine from college), to the Shrine of the Holy Whapping (never met him), and to the Bovina Blovinator (never heard of them, but that's more about my ignorance than their importance).

It get too dark too early now

OK, so I'm walking out to the car after work. I had spandex on under my clothes and my bike in the trunk. It was between 5:30 to 5:40. Fortunately I had remembered to grab the battery for my head light before I left this morning. When I finally stepped off at nearly six pm, dusk had fallen. In fact, sunset was at 5:30, so dusk had not only fallen on his keister, but he was passed out on the median mumbling something about an old college flame. No problem, I thought. I've got my trusty 10w halogen headlight mounted on the handlebars. That with a blinky taillight will keep me visible. And those items did just that. Unfortunately I came to understand why my headlight was on clearance for $80 and why some folks will pay > $400 for a top flight HID system. I'm sure cars could see my headlight, but with all of the streetlights and headlights of traffic passing, I could barely see 15-20 feet in front of me. If it had been darker, then I would have done fine. But as it was, I needed more light to cut through the light pollution to really see the ground. It'll be fine for those night rides through the parks, but I think I need to spend a couple of hundred bucks to get me a dinotte or maybe a minewt dual. Then Joseph can put on my niterider and come meet me halfway or something.

"Doping in sports is a victimless crime"

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be so. This is troubling in that not only are innocent children the ones bearing the burden, but that the athletes probably didn't even know that they were taking PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs). Today's athletes are putting not only their own health at risk, but the health of their progeny if/when they dope.

Saturday ride

OK, there's more in my life than just cycling, but that seems to be one of the few things I feel OK blogging about. So it goes. Saturday morning I decide to take the plunge and go on the big shop ride, 55 miles. I remembered that Andy Hollinger has said that if he's there, no one will get dropped. I've done some other shop rides, 30-odd affairs, and I usually fall off after about 12-15 miles and make my own way home. This ride goes to a completely different part of Ft. Worth and a part that I don't know well enough to get back on my own. But I knew that I couldn't ride on Sunday (HS cycling league practice), or Monday (business trip) or Tuesday (conf call at 8 AM), so I wanted to get in some miles. Of course, I forgot my cell phone in the car, so I couldn't log the miles with bimactive. And I don't know the route, so I can't manually input it. So I get on this ride. I think I fell off the back four times. Once, they came to a stop light barely a hundred meters after I popped. Then I fell off again, but they turned away from the wind and got a little slope down, so it was no problem to get right back on. A third time I fell back and thought I would be waiting for Andy (who fell back miles before), but I think the group got held up by another light. The last time, I was riding on perhaps the worst chip-seal that I've ever ridden on. I don't mean that it was broken up in semi-potholes. I mean that it was without blemish, except for the chip seal itself was so bad it was like the road had some sort of skin disease. And there was a hill, and I was tired, and, oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the chipseal was all kinds of nasty. One of the better riders, Colt Bates, came back and rode with me up the last few hills. Quite an encourager. I never really rotated through with anyone, just stayed in the back and took what draft I could. I did jump at the end, but after a short rally I popped and sharked back to the back of the pack. I still finished with the pack though. I think I'm getting an idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are. Of course, like everyone else, I hate hills, but on long low-grade climbs, I think I have an advantage. Being 250, I don't have to get up out of the seat to really mash down with power, so lots of hills where other guys are standing up, I'm motoring past still in my seat and not putting in that much effort. And on the other side of the hill, I can totally tear up most smaller riders. I need to work on steeper hills, longer high HR efforts, and maybe learn to sprint in there somewhere.