Monday, October 27, 2008

Apocalypse Bike

If the bomb hits and I have to flee civilization, then I'm takin' this one with me. It can go anywhere.



2008 Redline Conquest Pro

I should have bought one of these a long time ago.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Georgia State TT Championship

First, a lot of credit where credit is due: Congratulations to Steve Murray of Columbus Bicycle Racing on an incredible ride and win in Ringgold. Steve finished in 50:16 with an average speed of 24.94 mph. That doesn't sound incredibly fast, but on that course it was smokin'. The course was H-shaped, with three very tight u-turns. It was very hilly -- it didn't have many real climbs, but the rollers were constant. It was twisty and technical. But most of all there was what seemed like a constant very blustery head wind for the last half of the ride. Steve's time was good enough to win the Cat 4 division by over a minute and a half over the 2nd placed rider. He would have also won the overall in the masters division by a minute and 15 seconds.

I had what felt like a pretty good day on the bike. I thought I'd paced myself pretty well and was feeling confident and passing other riders. But at the 35-minute point when I was passed by Shannon Wredge of Fulton Flyers, who had started a minute behind me, I knew I was toast. I can't say I had a bad day, bad luck, or didn't ride well (I averaged 23.3 mph). There were simply 8 riders in my category who rode faster. There's always next year.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Cross Bike Turkey Hunting

When I was in high school in the mid 1980s, wild turkeys were very rare in middle Georgia. My friend, Mike, was the closest thing I knew to an expert turkey hunter, so I bought a 10-guage, single-shot cannon and tagged along in a gilly suit listening to him make squeaking noises with his various turkey calls. In two years of effort we got within sight of a turkey maybe twice.

Yesterday I was hauling down a grassy road on my new cross bike, which I've found is great fun. I rounded a tight corner and rode directly into a flock of about 25 wild turkeys. They flew and ran in all
directions, one of them hitting me in the shoulder on the way by. I'm sure they're still wondering what the hell I was. Mike's never going to believe me.