Holy crap is that the zebra?

Doug has been doing a complete overhaul on the zebra. It has needed a little love. We took apart the bottom bracket, but had some difficulty getting it off. It was so rusted and dirty that a sledge mallet wouldn't even get it off. We had to cut it with a hacksaw, and that didn't work either. Finally I got my 18" pipe wrench and we torqued it off. The picture shows after we actually washed off most of the sludge on the bracket. Pretty nasty to realize how much gunk builds up by just commuting and riding in the rain.

We did get some good rides in so far. It is hard to explain how beautiful it is to ride out here. You are out in the middle of nowhere, no cars, and trees. This is Doug coming up an extremely steep hill. It is a brutal hill. He is looking pretty strong out there.

The garage looks like a Specialized bike storage.

Planning on doing Wolf Creek on Saturday. Will update some pictures later.

Ole Trek Paint Job

I have always wanted to see if I could paint a frame. I had this older Trek that many of you have seen. It was one of the first bikes I bought. Many from our family have ridden it in our pass down system. It came back to my stable so I decided to see if I could paint it. I first had to take it totally apart and then the real fun began. Because it is a carbon fiber frame you can't sand blast it so its good ole hand sanding. You have to be real careful just to get the paint off without taking carbon off. This turned out to be the hardest part of whole deal. Flat surfaces weren't to bad, and this smile had left by the time I finished. The curved parts of the frame were just plain hard to do.

Once I got it all sanded then I masked all the openings and end pieces.

I made a paint space in my bike shop and it worked really well. I have just primed the frame and fork.

Then I started with the fork to practice. I got the paint from a custom auto body shop and some pointers as well. This is the masking and layering technique to get the design I wanted. I didn't want to just have one color, which would have been alot easier.

Each color has to be free hand masked, I found some flex masking tape that won't leak and really turns corner nicely.

This is the first layer of gloss black on the frame. It took a couple of coats and soft sand to get a good looking job.

Then the masking and layering of different colors.

The final look of the fork, with the bike put back together.

The finished product. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I learned alot and had alot of fun trying something new, (Thanks to retirement).

The weather is improving and warmer days are coming. Ride Safe.

Say it aint so!

As I click on Velonews today, I am very disturbed to see Alberto Contador winning the stage at de Murcia. I am finding it hard to believe that the Spanish Cycling Federation would clear Contador of the doping charges. Actually, I am disgusted! I am wondering if they plotted to bring the beef in, knowing that they might get caught doping. The likely hood that it did happen from the meat seems so extreme. And what about the plastic traces? Did the Spanish federation, just forget about that? Anyway, after years of holding out with the belief that not all are using, I have finally come to the conclusion that all the top riders are using. I have read the complete Landis article. Do I complete trust Floyd, heck no! But I think there is truth behind some of the things he is saying.

So my question is - Is doping killing the sport? With all the athletes wanting to perform at a higher level, is it taking away from the sports fan base? For example, I feel Lance retired from professional cycling because of the ongoing investigation. The numbers for the Tour of California with Lance compared to without Lance are astounding. Does the normal fan even care that they are cheating? I don't think they care. I for one would like to see a clean sport. But with the drug companies one step ahead and the athletes willing to take the risk I don't know if they will completely get a handle on it. But it is still frustrating to see someone like Alberto ride off into the Spanish sunset with a get out of jail free pass.

Take your road bike off road

Seattle to Portland

I guess I was feeling a little left out after not being able to ride the Lotoja this year. But the DZ power stache is coming back! My friend got me started on the idea of riding the Seattle to Portland race with him this year. His parents live outside of Seattle, so I looked into it and thought why not. So I just signed up (along with Sutt, Mindy, and Doug - have to call the GC boys, and girl) to ride the Seattle to Portland 204 mile road race. It will be a lot different then Lotoja. The highest elevation is 465 ft above sea level. It appears that there is 3,000 feet of elevation gain, but nothing compared to past rides.

All I can say is bring back the DZ stache and watch out for the tandem bus coming through.

Organize!

I decided it was time to get organized in my bike shop. I built this unit and it really has been nicer to work in. Rode outside today and it was nice. Winter is slowly moving on. Ride Safe.

33

Happy birthday Brady! 33 years old, husband, father, educator, life's good. You make a father proud. Ride safe. Doug

Going to win the "Natty!"

I am getting nervous/excited/anxious for the Ducks to bring down the almighty Auburn. I would have to say I am more excited for this game then I have ever been for any Super Bowl. It should be a good game. The Duck trend is picking up right now and people tomorrow will see how good they are. We will see if I will be able to sleep tonight...

GO DUCKS!

Where's my Ski?

Daren lost a ski up here this morning and couldn't find it so he and I snowshoed up to try and find it. This is the shute we tried to go up and through. To icy, steep and dangerous. So we tried to go around to the right. But we couldn't get in to the basin and decided taking our next breath was more important than a ski. Daren's so good he only needs one anyway.

Happy hiker!

I'm GC dressed.

Looking across the valley at Snowbird.

Superior, what a view!

It was quite a work out with 3 hours of hiking, 2700 vertical, but sadly no ski.

Have a happy new year. Ride Safe Doug

Old School

This is old school cyclocross. Pretty cool!

The good and the bad of 2010

In the words of Charles Dickens 2010 “was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” As the end of the year approaches I have been reminiscing on this year in cycling, the good and the bad.

Good: I had a good year racing in the crits. I won three races and moved up to the A group (we will see how it goes next year in that group).

Bad: I wasn’t able to ride Lotoja! It was a sad realization that I would not be able to do it this year. There were a few reasons as to why not, but just wasn’t able to this year. The week leading up to the race I was a wreck. I was more nervous not riding, then riding. Glad it went well for everyone who finished this year.

Good: I was able to race a cyclocross race. I was battling for first when I went down.

Bad: I crashed and busted my rims and didn’t get to race again. After the crash and wait for the new rim I burned out. My desire to kill myself was lost.

Good: Been taking a break from training real hard.

Bad: My desire to start training again has not returned. Enjoying my leisurely pace.

Good: Got my first cell phone this year. Hard to believe, but yes I did.

Bad: Sent my first text message. Now they keep coming.

Good: Doug had a great season, winning the Utah Cyclocross championship for his age.

Bad: All his crashes! Heal up soon.

Good: Didn’t have to ride over 2 and a half hours all summer. I got to on a few occasions, but not very often. This helped my training for the crits.

Bad: Signing up to ride the Seattle to Portland 200 mile race. Need to get my distance legs back a little.

It has been a good year overall. Can't wait to see what next year brings. Life just seems to balance out - Yin and Yang.

Last crash of the year!

Saturday was the last Cross race of the season, even though it should have been over at nationals. I really didn't want to race but I went anyway. When I raced this was all snow and slush. I was chasing back hard after I dropped my chain. I cooked this corner to fast and my front wheel slide out and a smashed my left shoulder into the ground. I thought I could continue but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I drove back to Ogden and went to the emergency room and had an x-ray done. I was diagnosed with a class 3 shoulder separation, and a crack in my hip from a previous weeks crash, thats why my hip hurt so much at Nationals and on the drive. Its time to put the cx bikes up and heal my old body.

Cx this year has been alot of fun and stress as well. There are so many factors that can effect your race, many out of your control. I'm looking forward to a break. We are going to start some winter rides in Jan. so get ready. Ride safe Doug

Seattle to Portland

My friend is trying to get me to ride the Seattle to Portland bike race. It is 200 miles on July 9-10. You can race it in 1 day or 2. It sounds pretty fun. Here is the link:

http://www.cascade.org/EandR/stp/index.cfm

It looks fun!

2010 Nationals

For some reason Blogger won't up load anymore pictures. I'll try with more after I post. This is what the course looked like at 8:30 in the morning. Icey, wet and muddy. This was ice I was on here and then you turn left on to a grass mud bog. It was very hard to ride fast. This is one of the steep run/ride ups. No one could ride it this part of the week but as the course changed most rode it in the elite race.

The lovely stair run up, 26 stairs 2 at a time makes for a tough climb after a few times up.

Here I am finishing in 8th. I rode as hard as I could and even though I was disappointed, I thought I was going to win, I did the best I could.

I prepared for a year and felt good about the effort. My bike was perfect, conditions were tough, but not unrideable. The thing about age group racing is that there is always younger guys coming up. I beat everyone that beat me last year, except the winner but there were new fast guys that turned 60. All in all it was a great experience. It is alot of work and getting everyones equipment there, finding housing, food, travel and the race. This was my shot as none of us are going to Madison Wis next year. Now I hope to have some fun on the bikes and enjoy some other physical challenges, (Ogden Marathon/Boston Marathon). Enjoyed hanging out with alot a great people and learned a ton. Hope to see you on the road. Ride safe. Doug

Finally Nationals are here!

Daren, Mark and I are heading off to Bend tomorrow for Nationals. It should be exciting and hopefully we will all feel good about our efforts. It looks like it will be a muddy track so we will see how it rolls. Ride Safe Doug

Sat. school, yet again

Sitting in another Sat. school, wishing I was out riding. To keep me entertained I found this video. This is a pretty cool.

State Championship 2010

The State Cyclocross championships were held Sat at beautiful Mt. Ogden Golf Course. It was very scenic fun course to race on. This was the first time a cross race had been held at Mt Ogden Golf course in Ogden, but it was layed out well with minimum course damage, except for my body pot marks on number 7 where I crashed twice, slow learner.


Thanks to our great supporting fans. Grand kids are good for something. Bonnie and Kim made the trip up to the race and it was great to have them there. Bonnie looks like she has seen the light, and Kim saying oh well. Kim's getting back in great shape and the Clydesdale division was calling his name.

Tanner races in the A division with all the big boys (actually they are all very small). This is the steep off camber section that I crashed on twice. Daren and Tanner both went down in warm-ups. It was wetter earlier and always an adventure for me.

These are the big boys, with Bart Gillespie leading the charge.

Tanner and Rico going up the climb again. It seemed very hard to me, but guys are flying up it.

Daren going over the barriers. He is very smooth and fast over any obsticale. I do like his bike! (it is my A bike as Daren was having some shifting issues with his at the start).

Daren on the podium in a super fast 45 plus group.

Out of order, but this is Daren's start. He got off great and put out a massive effort, some days it is just harder than others.

This is the start of my race. I wish I was as relaxed as we look.

I got off to a good start and Bob, Lou and I were off to the races. I was determined not to make any stupid mistakes, so I was leading in great shape and crashed on the down hill and had to chase back hard to get on. Next lap the same thing I go down again in the lead and watch them ride away. I drilled it back on and decided on the climb it was time to see if I could get a gap, I went as hard as I could a got a gap in time for the crash zone, but I didn't go down this time and just went as hard as I could. At the top of the climb the next lap as I looked back down I could see I had a pretty good lead. I was tempted to walk the barriers on the last lap, but was feeling great

The podium with Lou and Bob. I did get to raze my arms at the finish line but forgot to put the picture in.

My number one supporter. Thanks Betty. She puts up with this crazy passion we all have. Three weeks til nationals and then a break.

Ride Safe, Doug.

Crash

I didn't race last week do to my numerous crashes and it was Russ b-day party. I didn't go to his party as Darth Maul (check Mindy's facebook page to see that costume), because he did. However, I did go work as the dark Jedi. I won the best costume prize and got a pumkine pie for my efforts.

I no longer call it cross, but go to the lead and crash season. Cross I mean crash has been fun, yet painful. After two races I have crashed 5 times. I have a messed up thumb, scrapes and scratches on both knees, hips, shoulders, back, and elbows. The only problem is I have to admit that the last 4 were high risk bunny-hops in an effort to get back to the lead after dropping my chain. I was going to post pics, but my mom didn't want me to (she had no desire to see my hip/ back side). Although, I have spent time on the ground this season I atleast finished a race. I finished with a flat front tire, but for me that is only normal. I'm planning to race on the 13th, but I have not be on a bike for a week so I'll make that call on the 11th around 9:30 pm.