Donald’s Daily Draft

I have some more pictures now.  Thanks to the others who had their cameras ready to go.  Thanks Jeff and Kim!  You’ll see the house we rented in the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.  You’ll see the large bag of oatmeal on the kitchen table!  THANKS Leslie.  You’ll also see the great bread, cheese and sausage we enjoyed post ride (maybe a high carb recovery beverage as well).  Thanks Leslie and Ralph!  Oh, there are some cycling pictures too.

What an adventure!  It was my first year for the Cheat Mountain Challenge in Snowshoe, West Virginia.  It was also my first meeting with Sprocketboy (Leslie) of Travels With A Tin Donkey.  That’s him in the solo
picture on the left and then with me in the next picture.  We’ve been communicating through our blogs and email for about a year now but have never met.  We all communicate with great people through our cycling blogs almost everyday. 

Unfortunately, most of us are so far apart.  But this proves we can’t let that hold you back.  So it was great for me to finally make a connection with Leslie and ride together.  Leslie and a few fortunate others make up ”The Lost Boys” also known as “Lost Boys International”… OK guys… which is it?  Two other “Lost Boys” I had the pleasure of meeting are Ralph and Jeff seen in the bottom left picture (Ralph is hiding a bit behind Jeff).  And I cannot leave out Kim, Ralph’s girlfriend.  She was great company and a great help at the ride.  She volunteered the entire day.  Go Kim!
 
We all met up and stayed at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.  Leslie was the great organizer and the house we rented worked perfectly.  The area is beautiful and the Cheat Mountain Challenge ride was epic.  I say epic because it’s not only breathtaking (scenery & climbing)… the roads are a cyclist’s dream.  The 105 mile course took us along for miles on a winding narrow road through the mountains appropriately called Back Mountain Road (we saw one car there).  We pedaled through the fantastic Watoga State Forest and climbed up to the Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150).  There was more than 10,000 feet of climbing and the last five miles was climbing to the top of the Snowshoe Ski Resort.  I would love to go back to the area not only for this event but just to ride again for a couple of days.  But it would have to include this group!  I’m raving about the ride but what really made this event so much fun and memorable was the camaraderie.  We all shared great stories and it help keep our minds off the tough climbing.  We laughed, we sang, we suffered a bit together… and then we toasted our accomplishment with a delicious high-carb malt-based recovery beverage.  Thanks guys!

This weekend I’ll be in Snowshoe, West Virginia for the Cheat Mountain Challenge. It will be my first time at this event thanks to Leslie at Travels With a Tin Donkey. He suggested the ride as it’s not too far for me to drive. Heck… he’s driving all the way down from Ottawa for it. I look forward to meeting Leslie and his riding buddies. I just hope to keep up with them. For those of you who read Sprocketboy’s blog and/or Will’s blog at Cycling Challenge… you’ll know Leslie, Will and others just finished up the Tour d’Enfer. Yes, the “Tour from Hell”… climbing some of the most famous Cols in France. How do you think they’ll do in the small mountains off West Virginia? Well, I’m going to call them the Climbing Monsters. So here’s what we face… 105 miles with 10,000 plus feet of climbing. Click on the profile chart below for the details:

Should be lots of fun! There will be a full post-ride report and pictures… unless they’re influenced by a high carb post-ride recovery drink.

It was a cloudy start and I thought I would beat the rain… but there it was ten minutes in.  Hard to tell by this picture but I was soaked.  I was out for a good ride after taking a week off the bike. 

I took the time off because I tweaked something in my right quad closer to my knee. It happened toward the end of my 201 miles in the 24 Hours of Booty a couple of weeks back.  After a few days off, that next week I rode a hard 72 miles and the twinge came back. 

I was a bit worried and bummed because I have the Cheat Mountain Challenge this weekend in West Virginia… 105 miles with 10,000 plus feet of climbing.  So, on Sunday’s rainy ride my leg felt about 85%.  It was tight toward the end and on some of the tougher hills. I got in 43 miles (51.5 km) at a 19.6mph (31.5kph)average.  I can’t figure it out.  A friend suggested I check my bike fit again… the saddle and my cleat.  I found nothing out of the ordinary… so I’m baffled at what this might be.  I guess I take it easy this week and see how things play out in the mountains of West Virginia…   c’est la vie.    

Thule engineers would be impressed… a mountain bike balanced on one side and a TV on the other. Just thought I’d share this interesting picture.

So, 08-08-08 and I’m looking forward to cheering on our American Cyclicts in the Men’s Road Race tomorrow (Saturday)! You can watch it starting at 10am EST and it hits three times throughout the day… from 10-10:30am… 12:30-1:00pm and then the race wraps up with an hour from 2:30-3:30pm. I know Alejandro Valverde is expected to do well… even “The Cricket”, Paolo Bettini. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching all of them race… but understandably I have to cheer on George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde, Jason McCartney and David Zabriskie. GO USA! And Best to all my fellow bloggers cheering on their countrymen and women!

Before I go… I found the same picture above but a different angle on msnbc.com. You can see this is a Kojima mountain bike (I’m pretty sure not high end).
I hadn’t heard of this brand before so I did some googling. I only found a couple of hits… including this one with a Kojima road bike.

So, I’m asking you all out there… what might you know about the Kojima brand? As for TV… no clue. But it looks like it will be obsolete when we go all digital in the US in Feb. ‘09.

UPDATE:

Smog may delay Olympic road race

The media scheduled to broadcast the Olympics were notified on Friday that the men’s road race could be postponed due to thick smog in Beijing. Broadcasters were advised to make alternate plans just in case.

The men’s road race is still scheduled for Saturday beginning at 11:00 am local time. Organizers have set a deadline to start the race by 1:30 pm or else delay it for 24 hours. The women’s road race is still scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 pm.

Well here we go again… Emanuele Sella has been suspended from the Italian Olympic cycling team after testing positive for the blood booster EPO.  Yes, if you are familiar with the Giro results or you watched the race, you may remember he was the Top Climber in this year’s Giro.  He also won three tough stages and finished sixth overall.  Well, it appears that performance was enhanced. According to cyclingnews.com, the 27 year-old was found to have used the same third generation EPO – CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator) – that Riccardo Ricco admitted to using in the Tour de France.  Here’s the good part: “It was targeted control,” said UCI President Pat McQuaid to Cyclingnews. “The control was done on the July 23 and we sent the samples to Paris for testing.” McQuaid noted that Sella had been targeted based on his actions in and out of racing. “It was a highly targeted out-of-competition test. We are using a range of information to target riders.”

There is not proof that Sella used EPO during the Giro d’Italia, May 10 to June 1, but there is the possibility McQuaid will order his Giro samples tested in the same Paris lab that detected CERA in the July 23 control.

“I don’t know anything about this story, I haven’t been told anything, it’s not true,” Sella was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.The UCI is watching closely! Unfortunately, there will be those who still try to beat the system.  But the good news is the system is getting stronger… and the cheaters are getting caught!

I started out this morning looking to do a longer ride and I was solo. But just as I was headed out of my subdivision I saw a cyclist go by.

Great, I thought, there’s my rabbit. Here’s a picture… he’s (Daryl) right up the road. I thought… I can warm up and maybe catch him. Who knows, maybe he’ll be riding my route too and I’ll have some company. Turns out he was headed to meet some others guys for a group ride. Daryl asked me to come along and I decided to go.

Strong guys… but I kept up. They introduced me to a new route that was really nice. Good roads, hardly any cars and some pretty good hills. I was familiar with some of the area… just not the route. It’s the course for the North Carolina Bicycling Club’s Summer Rally Ride.  I ended up with 72 miles and an average of a little over 19mph.

So here’s my shout out to Chris, Daryl and Gabe (left to right in the picture). Thanks guys! I hope to ride along again sometime soon. I also hope you all enjoyed that cold beer when you got home!

24 Hours of Booty… I know it seems like my posts are going on and on for what was a 24 Hour event. But… you’ll have to bare with me because this means so much to me, my family and friends. So, I edited some video snippets into one little movie (below). But before you watch I wanted to give a shout out to Fatty at Fat Cyclist to show him Susan was represented. I found this dashing cyclist sporting the “Win Susan” Fatty jersey and socks! Susan was also on one of my jersey ribbons. Thanks for your support Fatty! And thanks again to everyone else!