late update

Sorry this update is stupid late, but I'm stupid busy.

Only about a week of classes left through, so regular posting will resume in the near term.

The ECCC road season ended this weekend at Penn State, but like I said in the last post, UMBRC was not representing, as we couldn't get vans, so to cover what happened a week before at MIT's race.

It was in Westminster, which is near Jeremy's house in Fitchburg, so that's where we stayed. It was fun to see his hometown, which is very hilly, and has a mall.

Because we keep getting the same van with the same broken tape deck, I brought along my magic speaker, which we rocked out to all weekend. Especially to Tone-Loc.

We went to the pizza place that is a pre-race tradition for the Jeremy, Brad, and Jeff L. and it was pretty tasty.

The next morning, Jeremy went to race at Turtle Pond, and took the van keys with him. He was long gone by the time we got up to do our race, so we were at his house with a van we couldn't use.

Jeff Cronin's parents very graciously offered to drive us to the race, thanks again to them for that. The Ford Freestyle (like a tall Taurus wagon), feels a lot bigger when it doesn't have 5 people and three bikes in it, but we made it there just in time.

It was insanely hot, but I felt better than I expected to. It was a hilly race, but I stayed around the pack for most of it. Unfortunately, there was the kind of slow-motion crash that's all too common in C-races on the steepest part of the climb, I got caught up in it, dropped my chain, and had to hoof it up to the top, costing any chance of regaining pack contact. For the second week in a row, I basically TTed to the end.

Looking at the results, it's clear that the heat made this race something of a war of attrition, with 19 dnfs of 75 riders. I got 29th place, which again, is better than I expected. Tom unfortunately broke his chain, but we've not heard the last from him...

In the D race, Josh got 2nd and Jeff got 5th. Nice job you sandbaggers.

The next day's crit was just as hot, if not hotter, but unlike the day before, I did not feel very good at all. I stayed with the pack for 3 or 4 laps, but I just wasn't feeling it at all, and I dropped out. Certainly that's not how I wanted to finish my last collegiate race ever, but what are you gonna do. Tom avenged me by winning in spectacular fashion, breaking away with 3 laps to go, and holding off everyone else enough to sit up, zip up his jersey, and raise his arms across the line. Good show.

In the D crit Jeff and Josh got 11th and 9th respectively, so a mixed but overall good weekend for UMBRC.

Like I told Joe Kopena, I think collegiate cycling the best part of being at school, and I'm sad to see it end.

In a final bit of racing news, this weekend is the ORCHARD ASSAULT MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE! It will be super fun, and everyone should come do it. Even world famous big wheel bicycle racer man Thom Parsons will be there! Sadly Bryan has to work, so he won't be there.

Even if you've never raced a bike, try it here! After-party at the crapshack too, so fun will be had by all.

A few unrelated notes:


I am trying to avoid UP news and clips as much as I can, so the element of surprise is there when I see it, but based everything I have seen, it will be another Pixar masterpiece. I have similarly high hopes for the attached short "Partly Cloudy" directed by Peter Sohn (voice of Emile too).

I'm also psyched about a bunch of stuff happening in business news.

Fiat is taking over Chrysler (in a very favorable deal for Fiat), and if their acquisition of GM Europe (or at least Opel/Vauxhall) is completed, it could bode very well for the US automotive landscape.

Imagine being able to get Fiat Bravos and Grande Puntos, not to mention Alfas and Opel Insignias, in the US. It would make traffic so much prettier. They'll also get rid of the awful current Chryslers, which is good.

Another cool event of the last two weeks is the agreement met between Disney and Hulu, which is a significant step forward in the seismic paradigm shift that is Hulu. One of the only biggies still holding out from a unified big media internet video channel is CBS, but it's ok, because CBS is for old people anyways. HULU TEH FUTURE!

For this week's video, we keep the '80s love going and watch an ad from 1985 that either explains why Chrysler's bankrupt, or would be a step in the right direction. You decide.



Hope to see everyone at the Orchard Assault.

From the mouth of darts!

Apologies for the lateness of this week's blog update, but it's getting busy as I finish up at school (see this post).

Last weekend, we raced out in NH/VT near Dartmouth (which is cool because it's much closer than the races earlier this season, apart from Yale's). While the team did pretty well on the whole, I'll say that I was not feeling it, and that the road race was definitely the hardest I have ever done. I suspect I was sick too, which couldn't have helped matters.

Tom Sampson got 10th (on pimp-ass borrowed Zipps) and I got 53rd (out of 67) in the C crit, which Josh and Jeff Cronin got 7th and 10th respectively (of 30) in the D crit. For the road race, Tom got 8th and I got 55th (of 64) in the Cs, and Josh and Jeff got 30th and 3rd (of 67) respectively. Nice job Cronin, you skinny bastard. UMBRCers for life Spencer and Chris made a special guest appearance the watch the crit, which was fun.

The hotel was like a slightly more backwoods facsimile of last week's, as much of the furniture and layout seemed the same, albeit with little differences here and there. At night, the room got quite warm, so I opened the panel where the control for the A/C should have been and just found what looks like a bunch of cobbled together molex connectors. Also, for the third weekend in a row, Happy Gilmore was on the TV. Well, ok, it was Billy Madison the first week, but still.

We went to probably the worst Subway in the world the night we got there. It was in a convinence store and not only did they not make the sub my way, the peppers seemed to be mostly stems and the toasting wasn't really done properly (think frozen bread into lowest setting toaster. Then just hanging out there for a bit).

The next day all went to the roadhouse cafe across the street from the hotel. It was charming. The server was also the owner, and made us all very generous portions of tasty food. It was Tom's birthday, so I bought him a slice of pie as big as his head. It was very good pie, but I had to take away half of it, as I was not up to the challenge.

This weekend, I'm doing MIT's race in Westminster, MA. It's the closest race in the series, which seems poetic as next week's is the farthest away (PA). This will probably be the last collegiate race I do, as Umass van regulations improse a mileage restriction, and we all know Ferris Buellering doesn't really work.

I did get to see Monsters v. Aliens in 3D as the Cinemark down the street sprung for the new projector, and as with Bolt, the tech's pretty impressive. While the movie was pleasant enough, it seems Dreamworks has fallen back into old habits of rapid-fire pop-culture riffs from an all-star cast and shameless plugs (going as far as HP product placement in the movie). There were certainly parts of the movie that got laughs, and it's visually quite a spectacle, but on the whole, it's not very substantial.

For this week's video, we delve into the deepest depths of 80s absurdity, if not obscurity, with arguably the most confusing music video of all time.

Cold and wet in New Haven

This week, Sean K, Tom S, and myself were representing UMBRC at Yale's race in New Haven, CT. It was cool to have a van with just the three of us, because it meant the bikes could stay warm and comfortable inside on the wet and cold drive there.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn, which was by far the nicest hotel the team's ever stayed at. There was a continental breakfast every morning (including "D+D Egg and Cheese" style egg circles and frosted flakes, yum) and magic comforters on the beds, not to mention lots of entertainment solutions. Tom and Sean wrestled a lot too.

There was a mostly uphill TT on Saturday (again with this?), but once again, I did better than I expected, finishing 40th out of 58. Tom and Sean did admirably at 22nd and 26th of 49 respectively in the B race.

It had started raining toward the end of the TT and while we were all sitting in the van, the temps dropped, the rain picked up, and it got windy to boot. Even New Hampshire raised Bryan (photo courtesy Jason G.) would have found the weather unpleasant. We went to Friendly's.

There, we discovered sprinkle-vision, which is a space age technology I'm not sure I'm at liberty to talk about. We also got a Umass maroon suit jacket at Salvation Army with one arm inexplicably shorter than the other.

The next day's crit was dry, which is good, though it was still chilly. We all had decent results with Tom and Sean getting 24th and 30th respectively in the B race, and yours truly getting 36th of 55 in the C race.

Yale reduced the entry fee for ECCC riders to do the USCF cat3/4 race later in the day so Sean and I signed on to do it. As it got later and later and the temperature got lower and lower, our enthusiasm was waning, and the Umass boys formed a plan. Kamikaze attacks to make things interesting. Sean wasn't feeling it early on and dropped out, leaving me in the race to attack relentlessly. I used up all my energy after like 9 attacks, and finished 25th, but hey, lots of pictures of me off the front, so that's something. The race finished with a remarkable 13 DNFs of 39 starters and UVM/Newton's own Jesse Chebot took the W. Congrats old boy. And sorry about the peanut butter.

New on the blogroll (right) this week is 24 Hour Toons, where they give people a topic and 24 hours to make a film about the topic. Very cool.

For this week's video, I'm putting up a short by CalArts alums Alex Hirch and Nick Butera. You can also check out Nick's "CalArts song", but I warn you, it will get stuck in your head.

Well I thought about the Army

This weekend, I raced out at West Point.

We didn't get the same van this week as last week, and to put it kindly, this week's was not especially confidence inspiring. A shaky rear wheel, some crazy vibrations, and a clearly failing weld holding on the door were bad enough, but the tape deck was broken to boot! Because of this, we had to listen to the radio the whole trip (something I don't really do). Jeremy is a staunch supporter of FM radio, and said he would convince me of its merits. He did not, though the sing-alongs were really enjoyable.

We stayed at Ray from Stevens' house, which was very cool, because his mom made all of us food and we got woken up on time in the morning. That's why UMBRC got to the races on time this week, but don't hold it against us.

It was incredibly windy the first day, and it only subsided a bit on the second. I had an upset stomach, unfortunately, so I didn't do as well as I would have liked. They had cool pace cars though.

There was a hillclimb on the second morning, which was fun, and I beat my goal of not finishing last (4th from last place, yay). I miscalculated the wind's full effect on the second day and went on a solo flier which was soon brought back, but I'd do it again.

On a sidenote, there's a cool dollar store near here, and they had some fun things there, like the unfortunately named (but brutally honest) dish set above.

I'll be working tech at this on Thursday, so come check it out if you like animation.

Hopefully Bryan took the nice weather on Sunday to ride his bike real good.

For this week's video, we've got none other than Dick Vitale in a moment of announcing greatness.



DICKY!

This weekend, I decided not to race in Philly (ECCC)

On Friday, I went on a fun road ride with Jake M and Andrew from UMBRC. We went for about an hour and a half loop to Mt. Holyoke and back. There's still snow up top (despite it being 60 and gorgeous out), so Andrew and I precariously navigated that bit half on tire, and half on cleat. MTB maestro Jake just rode over it, though he did have a front cross tire. At this point I can't give nearly as thorough a list of the music I ride to as Thom P (I just let ye old Dell DJ do it's thing in shuffle), but I will say the songs I found to work especially well on the climb were:

The Stooges-T.V. Eye
M.O.P.-World Famous
Pulp-Common People
Elvis Costello-Lipstick Vogue

And for the descent:

The Rosebuds-Unwind
Calexico-Glimpse
Ben Kweller-Red Eye
A.C. Newman-Come Crash
The Minus 5-The Old Plantation

Later, I saw Jeff Tweedy live at the Calvin theater, and he sounded really good. The seats were very far away from him, which took away from the intimacy of the venue (and also, that's why the shots are so blurry, a combination of 12x zoom, no tripod, and a crazy long exposure to make up for the fact that flashes were verboten.)

It was still warm out, so Jeff, Dan, and I rode there by bike. When I went in, the guy at the door took my headlight (but not my camera) and said he'd be there all night. At the end of the show the new door people said the guy had left, and the light wasn't in the office. Prick.

There was a really cool Saab Sonett V4 outside though, which I enjoyed.

On Saturday, I went out MTB riding at Batchelor St. with Jake again and Hucker Joe. I learned a few things:

1. Riding the trainer all winter has cost me the bit of technical XC skill I did have, Gotta work on that. Bryan would be ashamed.
2. Having acclimated to 30-40 degrees, 60° feels absolutely sweltering on the MTB. Should have brought more water.
3. My XC tires lost less than 10 psi just sitting there for over a month. Wowee Zowie, UST (with some help).

After that, Joe and I rode the almost done course of the upcoming Umass Orchard Assault Course. It's quite excellent, with a good mix of punishing up, and technical down. It should be an excellent race.

For this week's video, we have the newish fourth (or fifth, depending on which you count) installation of Derek Waters' excellent "Drunk History" series. If you haven't seen these, be sure to check out the others too, especially the first and second ones (with Michael Cera and Jack Black respectively).



Happy Birthday Chris J!

Virginia is for Cyclists

In the past 10 days, I was in VA, PA, MA, DE, NY, NJ, MD and briefly PA. First, there was a race right in New York, which was very cool and very fast. The next day, there was a race in Hoboken, NJ (an apparently historic town) that had lots-o-climbing, which is bad news for me, so I did not so good, but it was fun nonetheless. You can see Joey C's excessively humble (he did win his race) race report here.

After that, Josh, Jeff Cronin, Jeremy and myself jammed a whole bunch of stuff (including my big-ass folding mattress, which was totally worth bringing), into Jeremy's Silver-Bullet Honda Accord for a long trip south. It was a fun trip down, especially because we had already passed the dreadfulness that is the George Washington Bridge. On the way, we ate at a Virginia IHOP, where we got our first taste of proper southern hospitality, which always takes some getting used to. In VA, we met up with Jeremy's brother Tim and a couple of other guys from Jeremy's team in Fitchburg, We stayed at an old firehouse in Lynchburg that's being rented by two guys down there. Special thanks again to David and Ashby, it was awesome. Every day would start with a trip to Barb's Dream Hut, where the breakfast is tasty, and real cheap. Barb was awesome too, and she gave all of us hugs before we left. Pictured at Barb's, this is (L-R) Brad, Jeff L., Jeremy, Barb, Tim, myself, and Jeff C.

After Barb's, we would go out for a short ride in the morning, eat at the firehouse, go for a long ride in the afternoon, eat again, watch a movie, and go to sleep. It was awesome.

One of the coolest things about riding down there (apart from the excellent weather) was the fact that the Blue Ridge Parkway was right near us, and it's a breathtaking ride. Quite literally so with a 12 mile climb on Wednesday.

There was ample mountain-biking down there too, so I think Bryan would have had a good time too.

The next weekend, we raced in Delaware, and it's a pretty small state, so the road race actually went into Maryland a few miles in. Also, we went the wrong way for a few miles on the way there and we went to PA, which was cool. My legs were quite beat from the week's riding, so it wasn't great. I wasn't last or first, and I suppose that's what counts. The next day, there was a 5.1 mile TT, which I actually felt really good for, and I passed everyone ahead of me, which gave me a false sense of security in a top 10 spot, as I had only started 3rd or 4th in line. I got 14th of 39, just out of the points. Drat. The crit was a DNF as between spent legs and a fear-of-god inducing-rise-before-a-fast-left-that-sends-the-bike-airborne on the course I packed it in after a few laps.

I rode back to the house I was staying at, we packed up the Honda, and headed back up north. Jeff was crammed into the back (with a bunch of things). We stopped at a BK in dirty Jersey, and I got a BK Veggie. Thom is right, they are good.

We got back to Umass on Sunday night, and I woke up the next day to 31° weather. I can now say I've had the distinct displeasure of frostbite on a sunburn.

This week's video is from Dailymotion, because YouTube's being silly, but it's a good one, Remi Gaillard in real-life Mario Kart!

MARIO KART (REMI GAILLARD)
Uploaded by nqtv

another delay

Uri's in Virginia, but he forgot his camera's cable, so a proper update will come soon. They've got proper hills down here!