New Eye Liner....

Courtesy of a Chalazion Incision. Nothing like having three needles in the eye lid before they make the incision on the inside of the eye lid. The doc flips the eye lid inside out and tells you to look down. I would prefer to close my eye but that's not an option.

Of course I recieved no sympathy from my long lost friend Diana. Evidently Botox injections are a little freaky too but you get used to them.

Hopefully this picture is blurry enough so I won't get any Botox comments!
This post is for my Aunt Celeste, our family medical consultant! Love you!

Tuesday Night Worlds

Pretty much a no frills ride this week. It's hard to top last weeks antics. We rolled out with a nice crowd and great weather. A guest appearance by local strong man Fred R. and son Michael. Fred stayed just long enough for me to be thankful he only did the warm up laps. Ouch! That guy is fast and watch out for 15yr. old Michael on the racing scene.

The guy in the photo below greeted us at the top of the first KOM. He was very excited to see everyone on bikes. He was yelling something but I couldn't quite catch what he was saying.

Check out the basket

Our featured rider this week is.....

The Grinder

The Grinder earned his nickname by never shifting to the little ring and keeping the same cadence the entire ride. Pretty impressive. Strong as an ox, The Grinder races for NCVC, his chinese zodiac sign is The Rabbit, and he is married to The Mare.

As a former jockey and horse lover, The Grinder thought nothing of jumping off the bike to rescue this poor horse that had its legs tangled up in the rails of the fence.

Success!

Tuesday Night Worlds...Elvis is ALIVE!

Crazy stuff this week at the Tuesday Night Worlds. First things first...when Elvis showed up for the ride everyone knew who the featured rider would be.

Look people he shaved his chops

Elvis showing off his new jersey

Born in southwest Virginia, Elvis adds alot of flare to the Worlds. From the cammo jersey to the handlebar bell, we just never know what's next. These are his low key glasses. Elvis is an Aries, his favorite song is "That's All Right Mama" from '54, and he thinks Priscilla went a little too far with the nip/tuck. He was riding like a rock star Tuesday despite his absence from the local peloton. Welcome back, King.

This is going to be hard to believe...Lumpy is at it again!

Cheesecake, Tiramisu, and Pork BBQ primes this week -tablecloth and utensils!

Looks like this unidentified "recreational rider" hit the motherload

The ride got pretty intense-there was blood

The after-party

Body Double?

Mt. Pain Road Race

With not much going on in our area for bike races this weekend, the traveling circus made a trip to Mt. Joy, PA for a short, painful road race. The generous promoters at Red Rose Races changed the women's race to an open field which attracted a nice crowd of 41 ladies at the start. The open windy course was a 5.7 mi. loop with one very painful short hilly section. Our race was 4 laps. Not being one for the traditional race report, I'll try to hit the impressionable moments as I remember them.
*HPC powered by Altarum lined up 5 ladies, Anna, Bellie, Kate (start a blog!:), Lorena and me
*Also on the line was a pro from Aaron's Pro Cycling Team, super fast junior and eventual race winner Sinead Miller, former teammates Marjan and Heidi and lots of other familiar faces
*Marjan and Lorena stuck a nice two women break for two whole laps.
*Lots of attacks began after they were caught which made the hill even more painful~at one point Heidi was looking for confirmation that she had a rear flat tire, nope. (everyone has experienced this at some point)
*The last time up the hill, Lorena had a unfortunate mechanical, Anna gave me the inspiration I needed with her steady wheel to suffer over the hill for the final time, the field was shattered.
*Just over the top of the hill Heidi made a funny turn off course (oxygen deprivation is powerful) and had to scurry back to the pack.
*In the last 3k a crash behind me took out Bellie, Heidi and a few others. Everyone is o.k. I think.
*In the end Kate took a hard fought 6th place, Anna came in an impressive 9th and I rolled in for 11th
*Red Rose Races posts results online super fast!!
*Corey "The Kid" raced early and Steve, Shawn, and PhilBilly from the Tuesday Night Worlds were lined up as I was leaving.
*Check out the links for more info and results.
All for now...

Tuesday Night Worlds...Jimbo's 50!!

Great turnout this week for the Tuesday Night Worlds. We started to use an abbreviated version of our tradtional long route. Which meant no more loops on the Walkersville Road Race course. Training on the road race course proved to be quite effective as many of our TnW regulars had some great results. The majority of our warm up loop was a recap of race day. Check out Country Cycling for some of the local banter and race reports.
A few new faces joined in this week. Scotty and Beth from Antietam Velo Club . Strong man Erik Engle was hiding out in the group stretching his legs.
Now what you are really waiting for....our featured rider this week....

Jimbo~aka. Racing Chef, BamBam, BB, The Czar

Jimbo had a big day today. He turned the big five-O. The Racing Chef, brings alot to the table organizing our Tuesday Night Worlds. Not only does Bam Bam keep the ride consistent, we have 200m markings on the road for all our sprint and hump points that have been carefully scouted. BB rides for Antietam Velo Club . A native of Philly, the Tuesday night Czar, also organizes the complimentry ride to Kelley Acres...The Garage of Pain (GOP). This is the winter indoor trainer jam session in Jimbo's garage. Although I haven't actually experienced GOP (I'm scared), I can honestly say it has been very effective for the ones that go.

Jimbo is a Gemini, drives a Toyota Camry with a little fish on the back, likes the color green and is married with 3 kids.

Happy Birthday Ol' Guy (I'll pay for that next week)

Peep Madness

This is a cocoa peep with a missing ear left on my counter by Jdub and Bellie. I had no idea there was such a thing as a cocoa peep. We had a bet and if Jdub won the bet I would have to eat a peep, which I have never done. Evidently the cocoa peep is somewhat of a delicasie in Appalachia. To lessen the shock of eating a peep, Jdub got it started with an ear.

Proof! Not too bad really.

Jdub is hard core! She was so excited to see the bag of Circus Peanuts that Goat and Chicken had given us, she couldn't resist. Actually this is after she calmed down. I have a video of her tossing them in the air and catching them in her mouth. We'll leave that alone.

Fast Freddy's Shoes

Who knew going into the weekend how fast Freddy's shoes were going to be. It all started Friday night when cycling teammates Jdub and Bellie headed to Kelley Acres for a sleepover. We had to be ready for an 8 a.m. start time on Saturday for the Walkersville Road Race. Jdub calls me about an hour from arriving to tell me she forgot her cycling shoes. She sounded a bit relieved after a rough week at work. Thinking maybe it would be a good weekend to get some R & R, until I asked what size shoe she needed ~46 and she can only ride comfortably in Sidi shoes. No worries, Fast Freddy has 46 Sidi's and we can just switch pedals....anything else?

These are Fast Freddy's Sidi's and the infamous royal blue Simpson driving shoes used to bury his competition on Sunday in the test and tune at FedEx field. I must give a shout out to his buddy Ben who is turning some heads in this early season.

These are Fred's Sidi's modeled by Jdub just after winning the Tyson's Corner Circuit Race on Sunday. This dude I'll call him "Pelvis" was wearing these platform boots and an outfit you had to see to believe.

Check out the dice in the heal. Crazy stuff. The boots were very white.

And here he is posing with Bellie post race.

Check out the dollar sign glasses, the hat was pretty sporty too.

Anybody know Pelvis?

Ants In My Pants

After this weekend I no longer have ants in my pants. It started the middle of last week when I became obsessed with weather.com (more than usual). Fred and I both had weekend plans that were dependent on reasonable weather conditions. Fred had an early season SCCA Test and Tune autocross event at FedEx field on Sunday. It is like a training race in bicycle racing that gives you a guage on performance. I had two bike races lined up with my new team, HPC powered by Altarum, one local on Saturday in Walkersville and the other in Tyson's Corner on Sunday.
The more the weekend approached I noticed I was becoming more agitated and anxious. This seemed to be directly related to weather.com and my desire to race my bike. I really wanted to race. As Friday approached I had resigned myself to a rainy Saturday morning with no racing and happy that Sunday was forecasted to be great weather. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I was up at 5a.m. Saturday to check the weather AGAIN. NO RAIN in the forecast the opposite of what was predicted 7hrs prior. Freaks. The race was on and I was ready to roll. The team had a great races on Saturday and Sunday (despite the rain that was not in the forecast). The ants in my pants are gone. In fact, they were gone after Saturday's race and I was a little concerned they would never come back. I know now when I have ants in my pants it can be a good thing. Check out Anna or Chicken's blog for race reports.

I'll be posting later about Fast Freddy.

Update...Dinner, Autocross, Jeff Cup, Stolen Peeps

We headed out Friday night to capture some local flavor.

The Red Horse Restaurant

Crock Cheese and bread sticks!...I bet in Appalachia they leave it in the crock

Check out my cowboy in front of the real Red Horse

Next up Autocross...

This is what Fast Freddy does before he kicks everyone's butt

The Capital Driving Club had their first Autocross of 2008 at Baysox Stadium in Bowie. Fast Freddy came away as FTD (fastest time of the day) out of 135 competitors. Notable improvements by Ben of blog post "Project Du Jour" shows he is going to be a force this season.

And on to the Jeff Cup...

We have a little saying around our place. "No pictures, didn't happen". The only validity to a story is picture confirmation. This house rule played perfectly into my world on Sunday after allegedly traveling 3hrs to Charlottesville, VA for the first big race of the season.

In fact, as I scroll through results and all the wonderful images being posted, I am no where to be found. There is a very good possibilty I didn't even race. I am embracing this house rule more than ever. No need to go to Anna's blog .

I must give a HUGE shout out to Lorena for winning the Women's race AND to Fast Kate (start a blog!) for charging hard to 5th place. HPC powered by Altarum had a great day.

Goat and Chicken both regulars on the Kelley Acres rides had fantastic rides at the Jeff Cup. Check out Chickens blog.

Stolen Peeps...

Jdub and I received the nicest gift from Goat and Chicken. A bag of JenUwine Circus Peanuts and a 10 pack of JenUwine Peeps!! You have to read Jdub's blog to understand the love and appreciation of trailer park candy. Did you know that the serving size for Circus Peanuts is 6 and it totals 163 calories? Not bad! After I captured the heist below, I hid the Circus Peanuts.

The Duck stole the peeps!! Check it out....

Ciao for now...