Archive for January, 2007
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Smithers bothered me long before I knew him.
I first knew him as the spank in Belgian team kit lined up at my Cat 3 races, astride a bike painted in the Belgian tri-color scheme. If you show up for a local MN race like that, and you’re not vacationing from Oudenaarde, then you’re a spank, right?
I was the guy intent on blowing the race apart to see what would happen, maybe a break would stick and I’d get a result, eh? I was so sick of Cat 3. He was the guy who seemed to follow my wheel, looking for an opportunistic sprint.
At the St Paul Capital Crit, I eyed him on the line thinking, “Not this time spank, I’m getting rid of you and winning solo.”
Capital Crit was a long race for Cat 3, 1 hr, so I had time. The gun goes off and we ride around as we do at our bike meetings. A few laps go by and somebody attacks, a few guys follow and we’re racing. Nobody’s chasing and I’m staring at Mr. Belgium as he looks at me, like, “why aren’t you chasing that down”. Someone else says it for him and I’m all stoney about it. Another lap goes by and Mr. Belgium takes off and I follow. He sits up when he notices me there, he flicks me and I say “Forget it. You want in the break, you’re going to work for it.” Then spank looks all hurt like.
So I’m thinking, good time to go. I go, he gets on my wheel. We get to the hill, I go again. I’m stronger here, I keep it steady past the start/finish, but then it all comes together. This goes on for the rest of the race. We eventually get in THE break together, I roll the dice a couple times on the hill and blow the break apart, but I don’t win solo. I think spank was second and I was fourth in the final sprint. And spank raced smart and did his share in the break, so I was fine with him. I remember this as a great race.
So, that fall, I’m all cx guy and one of my cx guys, Ped, was trying to hook me into a new team, giocatore interne sella. I wasn’t sure. He was relentless; he and some Q guys were getting it all set up and it was going to be cool. I wasn’t sure. He told me about a meeting they were having at the Q and I should come check it out. I agreed to check it out.
I show up, and there’s spank Mr. Belgium, but he’s not wearing kit with too many vowels, just Q office guy clothes. And he and Ped clearly had some closeted issue with EuroPro worship, pro kit and videos and our kit has to look like ONCE’s Vuelta kit and foofy crap like that. Anyway, I stuck it out and ended up spending lots of time riding with Smithers.
It turns out we have lots in common. We even wear the same size and ride the same size bike. People sometimes mistake us for one another on the bike. One way to tell the difference: my hands and feet are way bigger (and Smithers insists on setting up his bike like he’s Roger de Vlaeminck with his ass 12 inches above his bars).
He moved to ABQ and WifERob and I went to the big Smithers wedding in New Mexico, had a great time. We were pulling for the evil cereal scientist aka Mrs. Smithers to transfer back here, it happened, and here I am, pulling double blog-duty while Smithers is up to his tits at work in France.
Posted by scotterob at 11:58 am in Local Cycling | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Lyon-Saint Exuper station le gare
Originally uploaded by smithersmpls.
TGV to Paris this afternoon.
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 9:48 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
I am getting the idea that you guys don’t feel sorry for me while I am on my business trip.
It is very stressful however. Yesterday for lunch I had to eat a real fatty piece of ham with a mushroom glaze and a side of sweet peppers. Dessert was creme brulee which I have had 3 times already this week. Geeze!
I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this hardship.
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 4:24 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Fatigue Cycle Testing
Originally uploaded by smithersmpls.
This frame was at 138,000 cycles on the way to 450,000 plus cycles. I’ll have some cool video to post later.
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 2:19 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Three cheers for Scotterob!
With only two days left in the month his work will help set a new record.
Who thinks he should start a blog? I do!
Posted by Smithers at 1:06 am in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
I like anagrams. I really like ‘em when they’re used as pseudonym: Vivian Darkbloom = Vladimir Nabokov
Secret: When I meet you, I make anagrams of your name while we make small talk.
I’ve got a new Ritchey road tire for best name anagram. Same rules as last time apply. Jared can’t play, he’s on vacation in Hawaii.
Smithers’ name makes lousy anagrams: Smirch This/Rhit Schism?
Can you guess my favorite anagram of my name?
Posted by scotterob at 1:47 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
At the factory
Originally uploaded by smithersmpls.
Le cadres nouveau. Who wants one?
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 11:25 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Prapoutel-les-Sept-Laux is the place I went skiing yesterday. It’s not too far from l’Alpe d’Huez if you are familiar with the area.
For Jared’s reference, it’s about a hundred million times better than any skiing in Colorado.
Actually, it was ok. They were lacking a real deep snow base and there were a number of icy patches on the slopes so, at times, it was kind of like downhill skiing in Minnesota.
Just off the top of the second lift.
Valley looking towards Grenoble.
Valley looking towards Chambery and Aix-les-Bains.
Sitting around enjoying the pain apres dislocation. Life was awesome.
Posted by Smithers at 2:55 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Just watched the world’s cross championship on the teevee.
Page was clearly strong on the last lap and was leading almost the entire lap. One little mistake in the last few hundred meters cost him the rainbow jersey. Today demonstrated that Page is one of the top cross racers in the world.
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 9:32 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Shoulder feels better today.
For those who don’t recall, I fell down the stairs a few years ago and dislocated my left shoulder. It’s bothered me ever since but it has been a while since I have had trouble with it.
We went skiing up in the Alps yesterday morning east of Grenoble. On a descent through a bump section I planted a pole and dropped around a mogul and some kind of shock pushed the shoulder out of join again.
I quickly hit the deck in surprise and pain and, once I was laying in the snow, used the ground to ease the shoulder back into joint. Very painful, not much fun.
I then had to baby myself back down the mountain twice as I needed to take a lift to get back to where the ski station was located. It took a while but I got down ok.
Once back in Lyon one of my coworkers at the company called a friend who was a therapist for the FDJ.com pro team and who currently works for the French national downhill bike team. He came over and worked on my shoulder for 30 minutes to loosen up the tramatized muscles and then gave me some good pain pills so I could sleep last night. I also had a few glasses of champaign as well which helped.
I should have some photos from the skiing and a Motion Based report to post as soon as I find a decent internet connection. The hotel tonight is supposed to be “modern” so I am optomistic.
I am going to take is easy today but I should be pretty much back at full speed by the time I head home next Wednesday.
Tomorrow we go to the factory to see all the new cool junque for the 2008 model season. There will be no photos of that for you.
(sent wireless via Treo 650)
Posted by Smithers at 5:39 am in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »
