Big dogs

Since tonight was the last Wednesday night Edgewater cyclocross ride of the year, we decided some post ride festivities were in order.

Happy Dog it was.

The place has new owners. Owners who must really like hot dogs. And fries.

I had a veggie sausage with lots o' fixins. And fries. And some Left Hand Milk Stout.


Then we rode home across town with all that nonsense in our bellies.

Totally worth it.

Carbon pawprint

According to Fox, having a dog leaves more of a carbon footprint than having an SUV.

According to Katie, even if that study is true, it doesn't affect us because all of our dogs are rescues. We didn't contribute to their creation. If anything, we've reduced their carbon footprint by adopting and spaying/neutering them, preventing them from spawning even more resource hungry critters.

Take that, Fox.

By the way, here are some photos of our newest carbon footprinter, Sparrow:

Hastings Refrigerator Company

That is the name of my newish band. I play bass, sing a bit, drum a bit, and generally pretend to know what I'm doing. Our songs are here, and are also over to the right on the blog panel.

Anyone care to guess where we got the name?

A weekend of firsts

When I crossed the finish line at the Tour De Tamarack this year in early September, I felt the yearly relief of making it through another season of road racing without any crashes.

Joke's on me, though, because I had a pretty intimate moment with pavement yesterday at the Cross My Heart and Hope to Die cyclocross race early in the first lap. After confirming that I did not break my hip (but confirming that I just put two holes in my fancy new knickers), I remounted and tried to salvage my race. That didn't work out so well. I had thought about quitting right there and then, but I figured it was bad form to quit the race put on by my team.

So now I finally know what road rash feels like. Great.

Today I rode for 60 miles, which was my longest ride in a really long time. It was great fun to just ride my bike again with some cool folks.

And I wish I had taken a photo of the milkshake, inside a styrofoam milkshake cup (with straw poking out of the top), that graced the bottle cage of Chris's road bike for the ride home.

The pits

Working the pits at a muddy elite UCI cyclocross race is pretty exhilarating.

Scott, John P., and I pitted for Matt and Steevo on Friday. We had a sad little bucket with a few rags and limited access to a communal hose. The big boys had crews with high power pressure hoses, brushes, and several bikes.

Paid support crews, significant others, and friends of racers lined the pits with focused concentration and attention to detail. As you wait for your rider to pass through for a bike change, you best watch out and not accidentally cause Trebon to crash or Powers to lose a step while blazing through the pits, never missing a beat.

The intensity is crazy, yet the racers remain calm and appreciative of their crew.

Except that one guy who was a complete ass to (what appeared to be) his girlfriend/wife. Maybe someone should remind him that he's playing in mud on a bicycle with other grown men in Lycra. Is it really necessary to be a jerk?

Leroy cx (vid)

I was able to grab a few videos of the "B" race and the women's race today.

When a motor vehicle overtakes a bicycle, the safe passing distance shall be not less than three feet.

That is the language contained in the recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 174. It's sponsors are Senators Fedor and Wagoner.

If you live in Ohio and agree with this bill, find your Senator and call or e-mail him/her to let them know that you support this bill. And don't tell me you don't have time. You have time to ride countless hours, glue on your new cross tubies, and/or drive 60 minutes to this week's race. You have time to do something that really matters.

State politicians truly listen to input from their constituents. Go be a proactive constituent.