the hobo killer.. (and you know bike riding)..

Dear Readers,

Earlier this week the local papers had an article about the Hobo Killer, and that he and his girl friend had been spotted in the area. The Hobo Killer travels with his one legged girl friend and a number of pit bulls.

Saturday had a great 3 park ride with  Nick, Jen and Monk. I'll say it was Monk's best ride this year...

I shared the article with Monkey, and kinda half heatedly joked with her about seeing him on Main Street outside of the post office. We were both pretty sure he was there...

Later this week I was doing a ride over in White Clay. I was finishing up an effort and was appropriately in oxygen debt. As I came around the corner I saw a Hippie walking with his girlfriend. He asked me if I knew where there was a pond near by. I freaked out, being caught off guard totally not expecting to see anyone combined with, of course oxygen debt. "SHIT IT'S THE HOBO KILLER!" I thought totally freaked out...

"Excuse me?" I asked the hippie/killer. 

He responded patiently, "we heard there was a pond up here, we were looking for it, do you know where it is?"  

Sunday, I had a really fun ride down at Susquehanna with JH3 and Price! We ripped a sweet section of single track, and Pricey said, "nice FM, that was smooth, not Dennis Smith smooth, but smooth..."

"AHHHH" I stalled for time as I looked around, "no dogs. this is good." I thought to myself. Then I remembered, "the one legged girl friend" My head whipped to the right where the young lady was standing, "TWO LEGS!! SHE HAS TWO LEGS!!" I was stoked and felt a huge smile come across my face, the Hippie was just some dirty hippie and not the HOBO KILLER!" 

"the pond is 200 yards down this hill on your right" I pointed and gave directions with a huge, I'm sure goofy smile." I finished up my ride and called it a day.

In other news looks like the Hobo Killer has been apprehended. 

thank for reading.

respect
fatmarc

Tacos, Flat Bars, and Death-Mobiles...

Dear Reader,

Tuesday afternoon I got a call from Diane.

"What do you have planned for tonight?" she asked.

"I'm gonna ride the death-mobile and do a shake down ride and some efforts why?" I responded.

"I just saw the menu for Tuesday Night Tacos at Two Stones, and wanted to know if you wanted to grab something-"

I interrupted, "Stop. You had me a Tuesday Night Tacos. You didn't need to say anything else."

L-R Duck Taco, Sesame Chicken Taco, Key Lime Pie Taco, and Brunch Taco.

 We didn't sample the Key Lime... 

For most of this year I have been somewhat fixated on a flat-bar cross bike set up. Earlier this summer I set up my Blue Norcross with a flat bar. It required some other adjustments... Longer stem, changed the seat position, and still couldn't get it to work.  It never felt right. I tried some efforts. It was a disaster. The handling was off. The bike felt nimble, but bordered on twitchy. I couldn't get the cockpit comfortable. What I hoped to gain in handling when out the window. It was clear this bike was designed with a traditional set up in mind.

Still, I feel  my strongest suit is bike driving, and that somehow a mountain bike bar would allow me to play to my strengths in cross. Being as I have a limited cross season planned, I figured this might be the year to play with my set up. The initial plan was essentially a failure, I still held up hope.

flat bar cross bike looks fucking cool- functions like a knife at a damn gun fight...

Plan B: the Death-Mobile. I took my old mountain bike set it up with tubeless Michelin Muds, a rigid fork and ditched the bar ends. The bike is really ugly with skinny tires. A monstrosity actually. But riding around it was fun. But riding a bike on the bike path, and putting it through it's paces is a totally different thing...

I love this bike, it's so fun to ride. Not going to work as a cross bike for me... 

 It was time to take it to the test. Frankly, it failed miserably. All the benefits I hoped to gained were wasted. The bike couldn't handle as well as I wanted, and in sections that I compared to my times on the traditionally set up cross bike, I was way off.  I found myself actually more tentative on the flat bar, not playing the drift or cornering as well. Everything that I liked about how the mountain-bike handled went out the window with the skinny tires. Perhaps mercifully, I flatted about half way through my last effort. In theory, the flat bar cross bike or skinny tired mountain bike was a great idea. In actually application, for me it didn't pan out for me.

The upside of all of this is that I have two smoking sweet cross bikes, that I love to ride, and feel really good under me... As I stood winded, and exhausted with my now flatted mountain-bike with cross tires, I knew that this little experiment was now over...

I called Diane from the trail with my now flatted Death-mobile and said, "honey, I need an extraction. I gotta flat. Mission Death-Mobile is a failure. Let's get some tacos..."

thanks for reading...

respect
vanderbacon

pinnacle of my athletic career

Dear Readers,

Last weekend, I had my greatest performance ever as an athlete. And while it would have been awesome if it was at a bike race, it was not. It was at my parent's house, after drinking beer and eating crabs. It was a family battle royale of a game some call bean bag toss, but in this area is lovingly referred to as corn-hole.

 

My apologies for the country music in the video. It is my personal belief that country music is single handily the reason for the decline of western civilization.

But I digress,

The teams were pretty simple, my father and I, versus my two brothers. Let me say historically, I suck at yard games. I am usually the last picked, and pretty much everyone in my family knows that I'm God awful at these events. It's a burden I have to bear. The rest of my family are all stellar at yard games. The gene skipped me.  Sad, but true.

This day was different. Well, not at first. At first, the first couple of rounds, I was awful as usual. But then,  it happened. Three out of four in the hole. My brother Bryan, an incredible smack talker, gave me some jab, that I tried to ignore, but laughed at because it was awesome. Then I threw again, and two more went in the hole Then, then I knew I was in the zone. I couldn't miss. I was pretty sure that this lucky run would end, but it didn't. My father and I smoked my two brothers.... It was rad.

Let me say this, my brother Bryan, he talks shit better than anyone I know. He was giving it to me pretty good, and I dared not say anything, just smile, laugh, and drink. I wasn't fast enough mentally to keep up with his game, so I drank, and threw bean bags and for the most part, they kept going in the hole.

I was in the zone. My father, my teammate howled with laughter as I made shot after shot. We were all shaking our heads in disbelief. Perhaps a crowning achievement. If you told me that's how'd I play, I'd have told you that you were crazy.  And yes Al Michaels I do believe in miracles! 




That's it, the best of my best.

The next day as Nick and I rode towards Elk Neck, I suffered out of my brains, and my sweat smelled of beer. It was one of my worst days on the bike. I struggled., but the memory of being in the zone kept me pedaling. Nick smiled and let me hang on his wheel despite me begging to be left to die. That Nick is a good kid. I finished the ride and vowed to never drink again.... well, at least not until the next corn-hole game.

best to you all.

respect
Vanderbacon

Long Miles in August

Dear Readers,

Pretty uneventful weekend. Lots of riding. Good miles and lots of fun. Earlier in the week, Joe let me know that his buddy was coming into town for the weekend, and asked if we could rally up a nice little four park ride. We had a nice group show up and we set out for what was one of my favorite rides of the year...

L-R Joe, who I thought was John, Wilson, Eddie, Slim and Travis (no pink camel back shown).

Kathleen, Jenn (who rode with Monk), Nick and Ron

When you done checking out my rad new earring, that's Joe and David at the front in the background. 

They were the inspiration for this ride... 

Mad Alchemy Sponsor shot, and Joe and Scotty leading out. 

In the far right you can see Monkey and Jenn.

L-R B-F:  Slim, Shane, Dennis, David, Ron, Dave, John, Scotty, Nick, Travis, 

Joe, Eddie and Kathleen missing from this photo are 

Buddy (shoulder injury) and Travis S (marathon training)...

Here's the Strava data:

Sunday morning, I have to admit I was pretty destroyed. I had thoughts of slipping out for a few miles on the road. As Diane and I were drinking coffee she said, "I want to try a 3 parker today, what do you think?"
Now Monk has only gone over 2 hours on the bike a few times since her injury, this was going to be a bigger undertaking, and I was not feeling so fresh.

She did a great time and was crushing my soul  up these two road sections. I was proud of her, as we pulled in the garage just as the skies opened up. She continues to get stronger and get stronger. I'm stoked for her.

All in all a pretty mellow weekend. Miles and Smiles...

thanks for reading.

Best to you.

respect
vanderbacon

like finding lost sunglasses on top of my head

Dear Readers,

Last weekend, I had an amazing ride with Nick and Jake. Jake was in town for a few days from Colorado, and I was stoked to be able to give him a guided tour around fairhill. I asked him how the trails were, "like home.." he said. "Colorado riding is amazing, but we just don't have singletrack like this..." he continued. I miss riding with Jake. 

Shane starts to rally together the group (Shane, Jimmy V, John Wood, Thayer)

Nick and Jake both seemed to be riding well, and every time I tried to go, I just couldn't. After waiting for me at the top of one of many hills, I said to those guys, "man this humidity is rough, I feel like I'm breathing through a straw..."  They both laughed, "dude, it's not humid at all," Nick said. "damn, I feel like crap..."I commented.

That evening I had to recognize the facts. I hadn't been sleeping well for a couple of weeks. My last couple of intervals were brutal, and really not all that successful. As I planned out my August training/race plan, I wasn't excited about what was to come, but frankly approaching it like something to get through. Work had been stressful, and frankly if I look back I honestly haven't felt good on the bike since Nationals.

Chris Jackson put in the full endurance loop today!

While I was very disappointed to crash out of Nationals, I had worked really hard to have my best form of the year that day. I felt good. And while the bruise on my ass is almost gone, in hind-site that day was my peak, and while initially  I had plans to continue training/racing through August, I know that I cooked myself. I had cracked...

Not totally by choice, I ended up with 5 days off the bike this week. Given how my legs felt, and how tired I was it was for the best. I slept through the night for the first time in weeks Thursday and Friday.

Thayer was out slaying on his rigid 26er single speed today. Watch out in 2 weeks!

This weekend, Shane was kind enough to host two awesome rides around Fairhill. Saturday was the CAT1 course for the upcoming FH race, and Sunday was intended to be the 44 mile endurance course. Shane did a great job of trying to keep the groups together. Saturday, I felt awful- like I had never ridden a bike before. After two hours I sat up and went home, somewhat defeated.  Sunday, was an entirely different story.  I felt great. I'll admit, I was honest about only planning to ride for 2 hours, and I might have been pushing the pace a little. yeah, I know a dick move, and not my normal move, but as I said to Shane (I was second wheel at the time), we can slow down. When I had finally burnt all my matches it was Shane, Nick, Ron, Dr. Phil, Rich and I.  I dropped off the back of the group, and I rolled home. I was totally destroyed but also fully stoked about finally feeling good on the bike again...

Nick, Ron, Phil and Rich- Nick ordering Pizza to pick up at the parking lot.

So the heart of my season is done. Not planning on a cross season this year, which I'll admit is a little weird and leaving me with a little gap in goals. But you know what, I'll figure it out:

Hey now, I want to thank this guy for leading two awesome rides this weekend:

Crappy Picture- Awesome Guy- Thanks for leading two outstanding rides this weekend..

thanks for reading.

respect
vanderbacon

I was cited by the UCI this week..

Dear Readers,

Last evening I was in the garage tinkering with the death-mobile, when Diane came to the garage with an opened letter.

"Watcha got there Monk?" I asked.

"You got a letter from the UCI in Switzerland." She replied coyly...

"Whaa?" dread immediately filled my heart. While I have never had a UCI license, I did get into some hot water with a UCI official at Charm City a couple of years ago.  He was screwing up one of our starts, and I tried to explain how we staged the 45+ and 3/4 women. He wasn't happy that I corrected him.

My mind  immediately went to my last run in with UCI. The Philly Pro Race. Anne Rock and I hanging out of a car in the race caravan. We got yelled at by a UCI commissionaire.

"Man, this is not going to be good." I thought to myself.

My feelings of dread, turned to pure joy as I read this:

Yup,  I was reversed fined, as there was a crisp $100 bill in the envelope!

That's right I got a reverse fine from the UCI!

In the end, I really have no idea who or where this came from. It very well could have come from Peter van den Abeele, although based on my experiences with the UCI they don't like to give away money nearly as much as they like to collect it.  I can only guess as the envelope, while addressed from the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, was post marked Philly. Whoever sent it, know that the sentiments are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. An outstanding random act of kindness for sure... My mind is scrambling with ways to pay this forward somehow...

feeling very lucky to apart of this community today...

respect
fatmarc