Hair today...

So what do you do when you have a craptastic day at work...

I go torment poor Korean hair stylists.

It takes me a couple years to grow enough hair to donate. In the mean time I suffer thru having to wear a cap to bed because fine, Norwegian hair is NOT prone to getting long and you have to baby it. Oh, and you have to use massive amounts of really expensive conditioners, and forget about cutting it for years...

Ok, that part is not so bad. I seriously detest going to get my hair cut. And I really hate PAYING to get my hair cut. Although that part is probably cheaper than all the expensive conditioners it takes to get this kind of hair to grow...

And not to mention the fact that Cliff says that my hair makes his face itch...

So, after a few glasses of vino, I headed for the mall and did the walk up routine at a nice salon... "Um, do you have someone who can do a walk up?" Now, I knew full well who you get when you walk up. You get a young, right out of school stylist, who probably can't speak English. In this salon, she will be Korean. Which is fine with me, I've know lots of very talented Korean stylists, and Sharon will tell you, there are fabulous Korean tailors.

So I go back with this tiny Korean lady, and she painfully asks me what I need done. And I told her that I was going to donate my hair, and needed it all cut off...

"Scuze me?" said with a panicked look in her eyes...

So I told her again, that I was going to donate my hair, that we had to cut off at least 8", but the more we could snag, the better...

"Scuze me?" she said, looking like a snake had her by the throat and she was begging anyone within hearing to save her...

So I reached over, patted her hand and told her that I was not crazy, that I was cutting off all my hair and just wanted enough left that I didn't look Gay... not that there was anything wrong with being Gay, but that I really didn't want Gay hair...

At this point I thought she was going to faint.

So I picked up some bands and started to show her how to do it, and then had to keep moving the band closer to my head as she kept moving them out... in the end I looked like Pipi Longstocking, but with less freckles.

Now if I had had one more glass of vino, or if she had been American... after she whacked off that first pony tail, I would have let out a wail and cried out that I couldn't believe what she had done to me. But that would have been really mean. I did think about it though.

In the end, I had to talk her thru it, but I ended up with J hair. It looks fine. It will grow out. You know, in about 3 years.... But maybe, someone who needs it, will get a head of K hair... and her boyfriend won't tell her that it makes his face itch. Just maybe...

Centuries... Mafia Style

I use century rides as either a great way to get in mega shape, or at the end of the year as a great way to wind down a race season. Like that Greg Lemond quote, they never get easier, you just get faster. At least sometimes they do.

Today we were given a great gift, a Mafia escort to mile 30 and change... Having Don Vito himself, Pave' Maria, Rat and little Frankie give us the plush puppy ride... priceless. Having Maria give us French lessons, classic. Merci Buckets.

Of course, after that stop, we were on our own. The air was soupy, cloudy and windy. Not ideal conditions, but at least the sun wasn't blazing on us. And then it did.

I've had some bad rides, but today, After about mile 50+, I sucked. It is incredible how it happens... suddenly the legs just don't go. By mile 70 some, I was on my last dregs and suffering greatly. Then we ate pbj sandwiches, and suddenly things were better. To bad there were so many hills left... as long as we were on the flat, I was fine. As soon as we turned up, I was off the back.

But I made it in. Saved two turtles including what must have been a fresh hatchling. I think J has poison oak now as she took the little tacker and put him in the woods and has these cool bumps all over her legs at the finish. There is a price to pay for being good, and J is always the best of us.

Ride to Provide... raised money for the Fan Free Clinic. It was one of the hardest, best rides we've done. We'll be back, but maybe not after doing a hard 100, and some hard workouts the week before!

Big people, little jobs...

There are no small jobs...

And at the Sprint into Spring... no shortage of people ready to jump in and do the little things that needed to be done.

Thanks, Cliff, Steve and Tom for pushing water out of that one corner for HOURS. Its nice to know that my guys step up to the plate when needed, before you can even ask them!

Thanks Kevin Dillard for the photos!

Plasma 3

Aw geez, now they've gone and done it... just make a bike that has me drooling all over...

At the Tour of California there were a lot of comments about the fact that the Scott sponsored Team High Road were not riding the Scott Plasma 2, but a variation of their test bike with Giant.

Now we know why... and man, I want, I want, I want.

I think the P4 looks nice, but I doubt that I could ride it. I bet I could make myself ride this one. And because I'd believe that I would be faster, I would be faster.

I saw photos earlier today and wish I had saved them all. All of a sudden, tt bikes are getting wildly creative. The front end on this bike is not to be believed.

Well, she'll be at the Giro... and it will be right interesting to see how she handles. I hear the tt course there is wild as well.

Stinky Shooz

If you are gonna race in the rain... you better dry your shooz.

Sunday's women's cat 1-3 race was in a deluge. As soon as the 1-3 race was over, of course it dried out. Danielle and Gilbert wanted another official on the other side of the race course, so I got off my bike, threw it on the rack, and got into an officials shirt and khaki shorts and headed to the other side of the course.

Oh, yeah... I threw the shooz in the back of the truck.

Now like every card carrying woman I have multiple pairs of shooz, so Monday when I went out for a ride I just grabbed a spare.

Tuesday it poured and I didn't get to ride.

Wednesday J and Cliff came over and I grabbed yet another pair of shooz. Oh, yeah, and it rained on us again....

When we got back from dinner I saw the shooz I wore on Sunday... and then smelled them. And passed out. Or close to it.... But I did take the insole out. And water literally did come off of it.

Word to the wise. If you are gonna race in the rain... you gotta dry out your shooz. Otherwise the smell will create a hazmat situation. Honest.

How J rules racing in photos...

J giving our new find instructions prior to the race. Christine is a great mtn biker and is gonna rule crits, too!

J showing Col. Sweatsalot how to scowl and look fierce...

J has scowling down pat...

The finish line after J launched her girls on the back side... We wanna be like J!

Sprint into Spring

You gotta hand it to her, Col. Sweatsalot puts on a fine race. Things ran smooth, there was tons of help, games for the kids to play, a bike raffle, race announcers (Mark King, you should go pro...), top notch officiating, and more prizes, swag and primes than you see at anything other than an NRC race. Natures Path bars, Chipotle gift cards, Wawa Gift Cards and more...

Of course, there was that pesky little shower that seemed to dump 3' of water on the women's 1-3 race and the mens 3/4 race... but for all the water, the course was not slick, and the water was soon gone. Gone in one corner thanks to Cliff, Steve, and Tom, who pushed the water off the course between each lap for 3 races. They rock, big time.

A special thanks to our buddy Kevin Dillard who made the trip south to photograph our race. We love Kevin. I'm sure the photos will be up in a day or two... patience.

Of course I would be terribly remiss not to salute the big race of the day... the under 10 junior race, and especially the little 2 year old rider, Luke, on his Trek training wheel bike who made it around the WHOLE mile long course, up and down. The entire crowd was on their feet, with Gilbert ringing the bell for this little future champion. All around the course his Mom ran beside him telling him that he was a BIKE RIDER. I just wanted to eat him up.

And the hardest working domestique of the day... my bud J. She pulled my lazy ass around the field and set me up again... but I could just manage to get 3rd in the 40+ race. All that work for me. Sharon took full advantage of it, and threw her bike to take 1rst in the 4 race. Sharon rocks.

Then J did her best to help our buddy Pave Maria in the 1-3 race. Selfless, but wickedly fast, thats our Julie.

And what about Jake in the 1-3 race, who attacked, and attacked, and attacked, and attacked and finally on about the 100th go, got the right guy to go with him and just obliterated the field. One too many attacks and Jake had to settle for second, but I think he's going to be upgrading here to a 2 soon. Jake is a monster.

So another great race in the books, and when I finish the books I think we'll have a few thousand to donate the welfare fund for the soldiers on the base. Its all good.

Now I'm going to bed. Before 6-almost 10 pm with 2 races, and half the day officiating. I'm whooped.

Wintergreen Congrats

As a non-climber, I can sincerely say that I had my best day ever on the mountain... I was the STARTER! The 30 seconds between riders was tough, but I think I got thru it relatively unscathed. I sure looked fresher than just about anyone on the top, thats for sure.

There were some wicked fast times up there with both Dee Dee Winfield and Jeremiah Bishop breaking the course records. I heard that the air was soupy mid-way, but I cant imagine that it was anything near as bad as the headwind and heat from last year.

So congrats to C'vill Racing and all their volunteers for putting on such an epic sufferfest... I volunteer to be the starter again next year!

Dumb Ass Award

Down here in Va, the lists have been burning up with people demanding satisfaction for the lack of prosecution of motorists when they hit cyclists. I'm all for it.

But to be fair, I'm going to start handing out dumb ass awards...

So award one goes to the cyclist in the yellow jersey on Hugenot Rd today about 12:15. FYI, Hugenot is being repaved and there is one lane open in each direction. No problem for our hero... he made his own lane and was just zipping up the line of cars. There was some debris on the left side of the lane, so I started to swing right, and if I hadn't have gotten a glimpse of the jerk would have nailed him.

Uh, its a two lane road. A work zone. One lane was closed. Just because you are on your bike doesn't mean the rules don't apply...

Kind of like the two motorcyclists on 64 E a week ago... who decided that since both lanes were going slow, that they'd just make their own lane up the middle.

We call you... organ donors.

You know its bad when another cyclist calls you out.