The Kaos Theory

Looks like a large number of the contenders for the Tour de France title have been booted for doping including pre-race favorites Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. I should say “alleged” doping. Evidently, in the world of cycling you are guilty before you can prove your innocence. Guilt by assocaition is enough of a burden of proof to get you kicked out. What I think they should do is test them right now and find out if they are currently doped up. If they are enhanced then suspend them like they did David Millar else let them ride. And if you have to, test them after every stage, so be it. I was going to write a post about who I thought was going to win but my top two riders are out so I have to rethink it. I’m done thinking so here are my top three.

1. Allesandro Valverde

2. Floyd Landis

3. Cadel Evans

OTB traffic jam

**Update**

My bad it’s Alejandro Valverde. Show’s how much I know.

I mention back on this post that my wife and I had signed up for the Barlow Trail Century. Well the ride was this past Sunday which coincidentally happend to be the hottest day of the year so far. The wife hasn’t much experience on the bike so we decided to do the 40 mile route together. Still this is 6 miles more than The Monster Cookie ride she did in May so she was a little apprehensive about the ride eventhough she didn’t express it verbally. I could tell the night before. A little snippy to say the least. LOL. We fueled up on oatmeal, vitamins and fluids and headed off. The ride start was only about 5 miles away so we left at 7:45am for a 8am start. Did I tell you it was hot? We arrived at Paesano’s Cedarville Park and unload our gear. Since I had pre-registerd and I picked up our ride packs early, we hopped on our bikes and trudge off. Up the Springwater Corridor for 5 miles and then on to the back roads in and around Gresham. The roads were rolling and the wife was not having a terrible good time. I kept urging her along and giving her kudos for every hill we went up. About mile 8 we came accross a fairly steep hill and she exclaimed “I don’t think I can do this!”. I explained to her it was just the little gremlin talking to her and not to listen to him. I asked her if she wanted to turn around and go back but she clipped herself back in her pelddles and motored up the hill. I thought to myself “this is good, she didn’t succomb to the mysterious shoulder traveler”. Here’s the kicker, I had done a topo of the ride the night before with the intent of showing her but after I saw it I decided it be best that I don’t. I knew there were worse hills to come but I wasn’t going to tell her. She would have talked herself out of it for sure. After a few more hills, she seemed to get her second wind and the road also flattened out for several miles. Then the fun began. First a short but steep climb and then a super long, almost 3 mile decent down to the bottom of a river valley. I think it was the Sandy River we crossed on our way to Roslyn Lake for the only rest stop of the day. At this point I told my wife I’d meet her at the bottom, I love bombing hills. Hit 36 miles per hour on this one. On my way down I noticed some riders coming up the hill and I knew right then that we’d have to come back up this too. I didn’t let her know. She’d have called her friend to come and pick her up if she knew. Once at the bottom of the river valley it was about 2 more miles of rollers before the rest stop. The wife loved the downhill, it gave her time to get her wind back and cooled her off.  She had already finished her Camelback allotment so the stop came at a perfect time. We ate some food, replenished the Camelback and got out of the sun for awhile. Did I mention it was hot? It was funny how she was grilling some of the support people, trying to get an idea of what the rest of the route was like. I already knew and still kept my mouth shut. We set off again. Why does there always seem to be a hill right after you’ve leave a rest stop? Well the road to us back around to the bottom of the hill we previously sped down. Then I told her, “We need to go back up that hill we went down awhile back”. To my surprise, it didn’t seem to phase her very much. I told her to put it in her granny gear and go up at her speed. We weren’t in a race. I’m beginning to like climbing ever since I got the new Campy gruppo. Something about the gear configuration makes it alot easier to climb while in the saddle as well as keeping a decent pace of about 8mph. Based on what I’ve read on how the classify climbs at the TdF, this fell between a Cat2 and Cat3. The climb was about 3 miles in length and a 3-4% grade. I wanted to get up the hill as fast as I can but I knew I better keep close to her. I didn’t want to get to the top only to have to ride back down and do it again.  I was amazed at her. She did the climb only stopping 3 times to recover. There was only one more big hill to do and she handled it fine. Except at one point where she cursed the race organizers for not having more rest stops on the route. Did I tell you it was HOT!? The rest of the ride was a breeze and we got back to the start after 3hr 19mins in the saddle. Before the ride I promised my wife I would ride with her the whole way, I kept my promise. BTW, by the time we got back it was 102 degrees.

I know, I know, I’ve already hit most of you up for cash for the Reach the Beach ride but I have another I need your help with. By clicking the picture of me victoriously crossing the finsih line at the top right of the page will take you to my donation page for the Summit to Surf ride. This ride benefits not me but the American Diabetes Association. Hit it hard folks!

**Update**

Here’s the link to my fundraising page.

I almost forgot about our ride in Forrest Park. Well the usual suspects were in attendance, Van, Chris and myself. I tried to get my other friend Josh to come along but he had some lame excuse about family coming into town or something like that. I really think it had to do with Japanese Pr0n TV or some fatty food substance. Go check out his blog Random Rants and you’ll see what I mean. The main reason why I asked him to come along was to make sure he gets some miles under his belt before he rides the Live Strong ride in July. I don’t want him to embarrass himself in front of 2500 other riders. I’m trying to look out for ya bro. Well, on to the ride. The trail, if thats what you’d call it, is basically a fire road on Tualatin Mountain in NW Portland. It snakes upward for eight miles to Skyline Drive. Not a steep ride, something like 650 feet of climb, but a good work out anyway. Since we haven’t had any sun yet the trail was soft in some spots but generally in good condition. The ride can be boring but not for the pretty girls in shorts walking or jogging up the road. We talked and joked as we climbed through the forrested trail mostly making fun of Josh(just kiidding). It took us about 1 hour 20 minutes to go up and 30 minutes to get down and the best part of the ride is coming back down. Put it in the big chain ring and go man go dodging pedestrians and dogs as you go. I almost rode off the trail because of this. Once again a good time was had especially at the end when we hit the local McMenamins Pub for burgers, beers and soccer. Next on the agenda, Barlow Trail Century on Sunday. BTW, the Barlow links to one of the worst designed webpages on the planet.

Another ride tomorrow, woo hoo! Back on the trusty Kona Cindercone MTB for a nice ride in Forrest Park. The usual subjects will be present. I’ll post a recap sometime this weekend.

My friends Van, Chris and I went on a moutain bike ride around Timothy Lake. I can’t believe this place is only 1 1/2 hours from my front door. This has to be one of the coolest places to ride a mountain bike. The single track trail circles the lake mostly along the lakeshore. It’s only 16+ miles all the way around but some of the trail is super technical including about 800 feet of elevation gain. You must dodge softball sized rocks and tree roots seem to pop out of everywhere. The trail is well maintained and is quite picturesque. We were lucky because the weather turned out to be perfect with only a couple of sections of muddy trail to negotiate. Here’s Van and Chris taking a short break.

Chris had some problems early on with his bike and basically was not a happy camper. Nothing worse the having your bike ghost shift while climbing a gravel trail. However, he soldiered on complaining only every couple of miles, LOL. Here’s a pic of Chris expressing his feelings towards the bike shop, Bike n’ Hike, that was supposed to tune his bike PROPERLY.

As you can see Chris has difficulty expressing his sensative side. Here’s a pic of me by the lakeside.

All in all, it couldn’t have been a better day. Personally, my fitness level is the best it has every been since I started riding bikes 2 years ago. I’m sure when I was in my early twenties, I might have been somewhat firmer but my endurance level is ridiculous. I was climbing like a mad man not realizing that I did the whole ride in my largest chain ring. Not once did I feel fatigued nor did the evil gremlin make an appearance on my shoulder imparting his negative wisdom. I had him conquered, locked safely away. Here are some other pics I took. Enjoy!

Above is a nice pic of the lake.

Here’s a pic of my bud, Van the Man.

Here’s a self portrait. Note to all, don’t try to taking pictures while riding a mountain bike. It’s not a good thing. Holding a camera in your right hand while trying not to drive off the single track while breaking only with the front break.

I finally got to take the Merckx out for a ride today. And what a beautiful ride it was, the weather and my state of mind were near perfect. The weather, 75 degrees and partly cloudy and my mind…that’s for another post entirely. My wife had an engagement at 5:00pm so I slipped the surly bonds of my home office and sneaked out the door at 3 in order to make it back in time. This was the first ride with the new Campy gruppo and I was anxious to see if my investment was worth it. Damn right it was. Instead of clinking along with the old drivetrain making so much noise as to warn others of my arrival several minutes before I get there, the bike now purrs. It’s friggin beautiful. I was afraid the 50/34 combined with a 25/12 wouldn’t allow me to crank out the speed on the flats and hills. My fears were unfounded. Before with the old gruppo 54/33 I would have to change into the 33 on the hills but not now. I was flying up the hills on the 50.

Another advantage to the new gears is the index shifters on the handlebars instead of gravity shifters on the downtube. Everything is right there at your fingertips. No looking down to locate the shifter while your riding on the white line of a road with no shoulder…In Traffic. I can’t say enough about the new wheels either. Wow, smooth as silk, baby. I decide ride the Linneman Station route so I knew I could get back in time. See here, here, and here for other accounts of the same ride. It almost seems the bike got measurably lighter with the new set up but I don’t think the weight difference is that great. I think it rides much more efficiently, definitely smoother. As always the goal is to average 15mph for the ride, well I beat it. I rode 21.86 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes for an average of 15.1mph. That’s almost a full 1/2 mph better than I’ve ever done on that route.

I’m so jazzed right now I could almost get back on it and do it again but I have babysitting duties to perform.

I finally got “Eddie” back late friday but other than a jaunt around the neighborhood, I haven’t taken it out for its paces. I’m reluctant to get all the new components gunked up due to the horrible rainy weather we still are experiencing up here above the 45th parallel. Forcasts for the rest of the week look good though and I’m going to take advantage of it. Oh, BTW I misspoke about what the specs where in my prevouis post. The crankset is a 50/34 not a 50/29 and I’m using a 12/25 cluster. Here are some pics of the groupset and new Mavic wheels. Aren’t they pretty.

This ride is going to be super fun. Check out the map and elevation gain on the ride profile. The first 22 miles are all up hill but the ride to Hood River is a pure speed blast.