I'm a winner ... of a Giant Rincon Mountain Bike

At the health fair at work, I entered a drawing for a bike and it turns out that I won! (Now I can't say I never win anything!)

Verry cool. Since I converted my '96 Stumpjumper to a commuter, soon I will have a bike I can use out in the nearby McDonald-Dunn forest this winter!

Tip of the day

TIP: RTFB!

Excessive hugging a crewmember at the side of the road won't get you across the finish line.

We saw this at the 508. We encountered a rider embracing someone at the side of the road. We felt for him thinking he had just DNF'd. To our surprise he passed us later on, only to be found pulled over -- once again -- hugging someone...

Such a foul is verbotten when Sandy is the chief! And don't even think about wimping out and getting in the vehicle -- she'll lock the doors! :-)

Century #23: 112 miles, Brownsville, Harrisburg, Bellfountain, Decker

I extended the MVBC ride to Brownsville into a century. Started out with arm and leg warmers and a capilene undershirt. It warmed up enough in Brownsville to remove the arm warmers and shirt; by the time I hit Decker Road the temperature started to drop so I put the arm warmers back on.

The most pleasant part of the ride was the section from Hwy 99 to Bellfountain. Hardly any cars at all. Passed a pumpkin patch between Harrisburg and Monroe -- I guess these pumpkins are rejects considering they should have been harvested already.

Calories: 5300
Miles: 112
Elevation gain: 1965 ft.
Cadence: 61 avg, 93 max

My 508 Totem: Nutria!

Myocastor coypus

Nutria are gnarly, seem to cause a lot of havoc, and are virtually indestructable. I've actually seen one at the cooling pond at work. There are signs that say, "Don't feed the nutria."

See http://www.nutria.com

Crewed for the Hoary Marmot at the 508

The photo shows John Henry Maurice (the Hoary Marmot) receiving his medal from race organizer Chris Kostman.

The crew consisted of Sandy (chief), Ron, and me. We had a good time and worked very well together -- this was the best crew I've been a part of.

See http://www.the508.com for the webcast. I posted some of my photos at http://www.capitolvelo.com (click on Gallery).

Next year it's my time to step up to the plate -- I already have one of the best crew chiefs (and *accomplished* racer) in the business willing to help me. Believe me, a good crew chief is crucial!

Tip of the day

Sandy's pet peeve: Excessive photo-ops at the start line are for people who aren't certain that they'll get to take pictures at the finish line.

What does Mark do on a friday?

..and every other day of the week?

I ride my '05 Ritchey Breakaway travel bike! This bike rules -- particularly when tricked out with a pair of HED Alps wheels. (The Breakaway's stock wheels are quite good actually!) The bike is equipped with Ultegra 9-speed shifters, a SRAM cassette, and Ritchey most-everything-else. (Great stuff I might add).

The Breakaway is a *full-size* bike that comes with its own travel bag. You can check it as luggage and fly with it for no extra charge. This travel bike weighs a scant 20 pounds, not bad at all. (Besides, it is much more responsive than my old 26 pound folding bike, which I sold on ebay. No more 20" tires -- and flats -- for me.)

Got a great deal on the Breakaway from the Beaverton Bike Gallery (fantastic shop). Before the Lance Armstrong Foundation ride, I was shopping for some shoes and left with the bike -- but no shoes. (I was looking for a pair of Nike Poggio shoes that I had bought there a few years ago.)

I put the Alps on this bike because it has *vertical* dropouts. The rear wheel kept slipping on my '95 De Rosa Primato, which has *horizontal* dropouts. I could get it to stick on the De Rosa only by "hogging" the skewer, making it a pain to remove the wheel. Seems the locknuts are made of an alloy material that doesn't bite into steel very well. I think HED intends for these wheels to go on a bike from *this* millenium, most of which have vertical dropouts...

Since I bought these Alps wheels with a 10-speed Campy cassette body, I had to use a Wheels Manufacturing shim kit (Shift-7) to respace a loose 9-speed Campy cassette. I picked up a Miche 9-speed cassette (Campy compatible) from Universal and replaced the shims. I also had to adjust the derailleur stops because the cassette is slightly offset in position from the original wheel.

I took the bike out on the Decker road loop, which has a bit of everything, including a nice climb and descent. The drive train was spot on! (Who says you can't mix components?) Yeah, I could have purchased a Shimano cassette body from Hed, but they say you have to redish the wheel and that seems like a lot of trouble!