Hub Crawl II

Do not read this if you are against drinking and riding.

T'was two nights before Thanksgiving and I swear i could not sleep. Thoughts of beer ran through my head. It was that time of year --- HUB CRAWL II

Andy stopped by (dressed in full kit - rebel) and we headed to The Hub with beers in hand. Waiting for everyone - the drink commenced. In attendance - well... I don;t remember all - so here it goes.

After a few beers we headed out. The first plan - Hwy 40 recon. We got on Hwy 40 at Bellevue and rode down to Kingshighway. Nice and smooth.

Place 1 - Atomic Cowboy. The place was packed with a good looking crowd. We rode up and put our bikes in the patio - I think we interrupted a couple having sex and a few pot smokers- and headed in. The drink of choice was Skullsplitter Beer - good stuff. Once again, the place was packed. Planned Parenthood was on a condom mission and I was determined to get a pink scarf. After taking a pledge to hand out 50 to 100 condoms - the scarf was mine. I also ran into some former students from the 1990's - crazy. We stayed at Atomic Cowboy for about an hour and than headed to Lafayette Square.

Place 2 - Square 1 Brewery (thanks to Phil and Stephanie for taking the pics) Had a great time at Square 1 - Started pounding the beer away. Alex met two girls he knew and they would stay with us the rest of the night (even going home with a lucky two). Had some really good smokey porter. When leaving, Mattew Crews put Ron's bike in the fountain while he was in the bathroom. Ron was last person out and we were all standing around - I swear I almost pissed myself laughing (and yes, Ron threw a hissy fit). After we left, we met a guy in full kilt with bagpipes in the middle of street - he busted out a great tune and in return got a payment of condoms!

Stop 3 - Tower Pub
Tower Pub quickly became a blur - the beer and shot of Tequilla was flowing. Stephanie and I handed out the condoms - we were a hit - and after that - I can't really give specifics. Leaving became a problem - We successfully closed the bar and riding home was a chore. I walked out of the pub and saw Kevin laying across the hood of a parked car. Alex couldn't ride 10 feet without taking a fall. Crashes were galore. Alex went down on the River trail, cracked his helmet and took out Matt - awesome crash, Rock went down, Devin went down earlier, and Kevin took a header. Finally got home at three in the morning. Hub Crawl II - epic.

Saturday - did a great ride - rode with The Hub - did not do well - The pace was not that fast but for some reason the cold made my throat freeze up - it burned when I took a breath. I took a short cut and caught the ride and finished in time to meet Judy, Phil, Stephanie, Kate and Alice for round two of the Hub ride. Turned out to be a beautiful day and I was able to ride close to 70 miles. Awesome. I, once again, pussed out on cross. Actually not true - we had symphony tickets for the family concerts - it was really nice.

Summer in November

Week started off good. Bought a new seatpost for the cross bike - WCS Carbon 2 bolt - super nice - perfect fit - now all I need to do is race the fucking thing! But no luck here.

Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Nothing but rain - so bad I did not commute at all

Rode Thursday on our night ride with ANdy, Rock and a friend of Rock's. A really nice ride - great weather - Rock had a flat but nothing else eventful happened - forgot to take a picture. Andy and I hashed out the Hub Crawl for Wednesday - Atomic Cowboy via Hwy 40 - McGurk's - Lafayette Square - and finally Tower Pub! A little new a and a little old!

Rode Saturday on The Hub ride - super fast - 20.5 average for November - the weather was awesome. The group started off large and due to the pace, was whittled down quickly. I felt great and stayed at the front the whole ride with Bill, Heine, Mathew, Dave Smith, and David Mark. Nate brought his son on the tandem and pushed him way too hard. David was pulling down at 28 mph and Nate passed him on the tandem into one of the big hills. When we got to the top at Manchester, the kid was beyond smoked and almost passed out. A little scary - we all waited until things were OK. It was cool to wait as the whole group was able to get caught up and ride in together.

Later that day - Judy and I went on the Thursday Night ride, except on a Saturday afternoon! Judy stopped by The Hub and test rode a new CR1 carbon Scott. She seemed to think it was a really nice ride. Had a really nice ride with her - beautiful weather.

Saturday night was Trail-net Trivia - At our table was Stephanie and Phil and a few others. It was a good time. The questions were really freakin' hard but we did not end up in last place! The quetions were written by some 5 time Jeopardy champion and he sucks!

IT'S FOR CHARITY - DAMMIT!

The week:

Well, not much to report - no racing and I'm getting fat.

Monday: commuted to Harris Stowe

Tuesday - Saturday - no riding. I went on a work trip to Atlanta which constituted a lot of beer.

Sunday: Cranksgiving. A great ride for a great cause. Rode with Judy, Stephanie (blog follower) Phil and a lot of ladies from Team Revolution. My plan was to buy a complete Thanksgiving meal - minus the turkey. We bought mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, green beans, rice, baby food, gingerbread men cookies, and a bottle of wine! We rode to Trader Joe's, Straub's, Shop and Save, Foodland, and Jay's foods.
It was really fun -
One might say a titty grabbing experience! (for charity, of course)

From rain to shine and heat in November

Fun week on the bike. No cross - too damn hot. Props to Bill for going out there. Will be there for Augusta.

Monday - Commuted.

Tuesday - Rode with Michael and Jeff after school - Rode my fixed gear. Did the Alternative Maplewood Ride (like the Art Show). In Attendance was a really nice group: Andy, Loren, Judy, Bryan, Stephanie, Joe (mesa Jr.) Todd from Ghissalo, Kube...might be missing a few. It was a great night and fun ride. The Maplewood group caught us at the end of the ride. Not riding with them was a plus. On the way home Rock popped out of nowhere - commuting from work and rode with us. We all thought we rode about 1 mph faster than we wanted so we all agreed to slow it down next week.

Wednesday - No riding - I was being honored by a senior at the football game.

Thursday - Did the Hub late night rode with Alex, Rock and Andy.
This was a great ride. Great weather and a great pace. We went out to Forest Park and Rock showed us a really cool way home. This route is a keeper.

Friday - no riding.

Saturday - Rode the Hub ride on the Jake. The pace was super fast. The weather was so warm by the time of the ride. When I showed up, everybody was there - pretty much the whole team plus others - all on there race bikes... and me on the Jake. We went out at a fast pace and then ---crash. There was a spray paint can on the shoulder and Ron Clipp hit it and went down hard. He and Andy headed home. We continued and I felt like there were gaps all over. I covered two on Conway and when I got to the top I was smoked but held on with the group. On the South Outer Road, I lost contact trying to cover another gap and was behind. While trying to close up on Ballas, my seat popped right off. Man is my ass fat. The bolt just broke in half. I do not know how I did not crash - going 20 mph plus and you seat pops off.
I called Judy and she had to pick me up. CRAZY.

Later that day I went on the Chocolate Chocolate Treat ride with a very fun group of people. We went to Chocolate, Chocolate - Merbs - and a few other coffee places and finally ending up at Bailey's Chocolate bar. The ride was a very slow 27 miles and I had a very good time.

Sunday - No cross. The temp. was off the charts warm. This was road season weather (plus I had no seatpost). I went on Knucklehead and it was awesome. Hubbers Kevin, Marc (the ride annihilator) Matt and New Hubber Jeff. The pace was great going out and great on the Strucker Road section - really light. When we hit Clayton, Marc took off at the front - I mean really took off. Going back, the pace was 27-28 mph. I took my turns at the front and had a blast.

Rain, Rain Go Away - but it makes for some damn good cross!

The past two weeks in recap-

First the rain. There have 12 dry days in the entire 31 days in October. Forth wettest month in Missouri history. Every day I wanted to ride - RAIN!

Second - Our fixed gear rides have begun! (sort of - the RAIN!) Our plan is to ride Tuesday at 6:30 with Maplewood and 8:30 on Thursday. The plan on Thursday is to ride to Forest Park, around and back. Maybe if the fucking rain stops long enough to ride, we will actually be able ride it. We officially kicked off the winter with the Tuesday ride. In attendance was myself, Andy and El Cavano. The ride was fast, but the fixed gear proved worthy. I will say two things about this ride. First 0 there are some yea-hoos - who do the whole blow through stop lights which is pretty nuts. We weren't on the road for two minutes and a couple of guys rode through a light and almost got hit. Now some will say they choose not to associate themselves with rides like this - and I say you are approaching it all wrong - GO - Watch - Enjoy.

Third - Still commuting - going good. So far I have rode everyday but one - The RAIN!

Fourth - Nothing to do with me - On Wed. I had the honor of taking the two girls to Miley Cyrus - Yeah - I know - Dad of the year. Judy and the Team Rev girls went on their Halloween ride. On this one - well the old saying goes - A picture is worth a thousand words! Wow - That's the Mrs.

Fifth - Cross:

Jefferson Barracks C Race -
JB sucked. Hubbers in attendance: Bill and Matthew. B Race - Robert, Matthew - Brian A race - German The course was super difficult for me - a lot of technical for me and some power runs in some thick ass grass. Also - The C race is no joke. Guys showing up in deep dish carbons - and many cat 3's. So my run of problems. First - I miss the start. What the hell. The group is lined up and I am on the other side of the course coming down a hill. I jump the course and ride across the field just in time for the whistle. Damn - I started out like a bat out hell to get position and after the first lap I was redlined. Good idea - redlined after lap one with like 10 more to go - WTF. Judy and Grace came out to watch my suffering. Into lap three, I came off the a hill run-up and and as I rode down I rolled the tubeless off the rim as I went sideways off the bike right in front of the family. I popped up and ran, with bike in tow more than half the course to the pit. Although it was a shitty run, it was nice to say to everybody passing me - Hi Bill - Hi Matthew. After I got to the pit, wheel changed, I was back out. As I wound through the technical part, I tried to pass a slower lady on the inside of a turn and Bam - pancake into the mud. I laid on my back and looked at the sky not quite knowing what to say. I sucked so bad I was not even scored. Stupid JB

Halloween Night Cross - Creve Coure Lake C Race -
A blast. Hubbers in attendance: Bill and Alice B Race - Robert, Matthew, Heine and Dave Smith A Race - German
So I dressed up as Abe Lincoln - complete with a top hat, suit and beard. Man, was I frying. The C race was full of costumes including a gorrilla, Super Mario and a crazy dude in some fucked up tie-dyed leotard. The ladies were all decked out including Supergirl and a bevy of Hooters Girls (these stick out in my memory). The best costume was Heine in a full rabbit outfit with the ears sticking through the helmet.
The race itself was fast at times but the course became super muddy. By the end of our race, the course was nothing but soupy mud. There was one section where the mud was 4 to 6 inches deep, Near the end, it was quicker for me to hop off and run it rather than struggle through and ride it. I watched the A race and was amazed how the rode right through it. I finished 22nd with the beard in tact. Judy and the girls came out in full costume after trick or treating to root on Honest Dad and many Hub guys came up for the festivities including Ron, Andy and Kevin - it turned into a regular party - I stole the picture from Bill:

The Hub Party
First day of November and WTF - the sun! What a nice day for a Hub party. Judy and kids went with me and we had a good time beer, food, beer, and hanging out. Danny brought the video from the Tour of Missouri when he and Heine dressed up and ran along side the Tour as they climbed the hills on stage four - Danny looked hilarious as Dog the Bounty Hunter and Heine was wearing no shirt and a Chinaman's hat.