Special Guest Expert Weighs in On Armstrong Saga

Wink256 has an unusual keenness for pro cycling and is a student of doping lore and history. He let me know, in between his many feedings, that he wanted a chance to weigh in publicly on the Lance Armstrong "crisis".

Wink, what did you think of the big Oprah extravaganza:

Huh... What do you think is next step for the Armstrong to control the damage:

Well there you have it. I am sure Wink256 will be back soon enough to weigh with prediction for the spring classics.

In Socialist Belgium, Jonathan Page cheer you!

I wrote most of this post last month and never finished it, but in honor of Jonathan Page's national championship victory and the impending world champs in Kentucky, I cleaned it up and added a million photos. I have been a big fan of Page since 2001 nationals and supercup in Baltimore when I watched him win the Supercup race (on a Richard Sachs cross bike) by sprinting full speed around Todd Wells into the last set of barriers, barely holding it together as he tripped/ran/fell across the barriers and holding on to the finish for the win. So congrats to Page for his 4th national championship and read on if you got some minutes.

Jacob Van Artevelde discovers Gent's Socialists Dwelling

So there I was in Gent for a meeting a back in early November, I cleverly had built in two days at the end of the trip for bicycle based shenanigans, fortunately my long lost pal Jeff was living in nearby Antwerp and up for said shenanigans. On Saturday I planned on hitting the Soudal Classic Jaarmarktcross Cyclocross race in Niel Belgium. I hopped on on my fixie bike friday early saturday morning and rode 5 rainy kilometers to Gent Sint Peeters station and hopped on a train to Antwerp.

Excellent train murals in Sint Peeters Station

Once in Antwerp I hopped on the bike and rode a couple of km to Jeff's abode. Where I discovered he secretly is the man behind the evil society of the Ned Van Vlanders Flag. We talked bikes and stuff and set up a road bike for me for the next day's cobbly adventure on the RVV course. Finally, due to a cancelled ride, Jeff graciously offered to accompany me down to Niel to watch the race.

Flag of the free state of Ned diddily Van Flaandersen

We rode down on a very confusing yet well marked bike routes down toward the race. I am glad Jeff had some local knowledge and was able to steer us more or less directly down to the race. The routes varied from separated bike lanes, to sidewalk routes, to suburbs then on to skinny farm roads that eventually dumped us in Niel. The ride down featured varying levels of driving mist and rain. It was clear that it was getting increasingly crossy out there. Once in Niel, we followed the trail of welly wearing superfans, paid our fee and got into the race site just before the start of the women's race. We immediately got tiny beers in plastic cups and frites.

Frites with Diablo Sauce and tiny Primus beers

Jeff watches the women's race from the special vantage place...

The atmosphere was a bit sparse at the Start-finish line, so fortified with more beers, we went in search of mud. It was found. The course was pretty flat with one impressive off camber muddy chicane. Some of the flat sections were more or less unridable. There were sections where the mens field were running for what appeared to be 1/4 mile or more on pancake flat ground. Impressively mucky.

My feets

Deep ruts even for flyweight riders

Manual assist on the crowd barrier

Jeff and I set up camp at an area with a great view of the muddy chicane and with a turn of the head, we could watch the big screen following the race. We watched the end of the women's race, went on a dangerous mud mission to get more beer and returned to our original watching spot to watch the rider's introductions on the big screen. Sven Nys got the biggest cheer. Niels Albert got boos. Jeff and I were probably the only people at the race who cheered for Jonathan Page. The vinyl jacket wearing superclub supporters (Vantourenhout, Nys and Pauls) in front of us, smirked at our homerism.

Me and Jeff and the Bald Superfans, best photo of my whole trip really...

More superclub fans, Klaas Vantourenhout, Sven Nys and Kevin Pauwels

I really enjoyed watching the top Euro's fight it out. There was a pretty big pack at the front initially with a couple guys turning themselves inside out to stay with Nys, Albert, Aeronauts and the reanimated corpse of Bart Wellens. As the race progressed and the field split up we had ample opportunity to cheer on Jonathan Page and watch the big four duke it out. Some mild gamesmanship occured throughout the race, often playing out on the slick climb right in front of us.

Nys cleans it

Chicaney Goodness, I think Albert with Nys behind him

I know you wanted to see the giant umbrella again, note the freshly trimmed tree for TV coverage..

We spent the race cheering Page on as he slowly moved his way from a position in the 20's up to his final position of 18th. The battle between the top four guys spread out over the mud in front of us and the big screen behind us was pretty cool. At the end, much to the disappointment of nearly everyone there, Albert just plain old ran away from Nys and Aeronauts on the long muddy flat run. He opened a 20 second gap there and finished easily ahead of the rest at the line. Aeronauts jumped Nys on the finishing stretch and Wellens tailed in for fourth.

Field blows on by in the beginning

Page wings on by

Page again

Yu Takenouchi was riding a sweet steel Toyo frame with extra cool downtube

Nys hisself

After the race ended, Jeff and I wandered around the pits and checked out the mechanics cleaning the bikes, the cool giant buses and the riders warming down. Nys had a giant personal camper, a big tour bus for VIP's to drink and meet people and a small camper selling Nys branded crap. I bought an ugly ass Nys hat. Other highlights were checking out the Toyo bike and the amazing multi team battle jitney.

Only steel bike in the race

Check that Downtube

The multi team cyclocross battle jitney

Washy wash

washy washy wash

Totally typical mechanic guy

Finally, if you are still reading and are trying to figure out where the title comes from, Jeff and I left the circus of Neil and started riding home on the bike path out of town. Right at the edge of town a camper van passed us and as we looked over at it, Jonathan Page stuck his head out of the passenger window and gave us a hearty heckle or cheer. It was pretty cool that he not only heard us, but recognized us, especially given his intense focus during the race. I am pretty sure there was no one else on the course cheering for Page that day, but it was still pretty cool. Later, Jeff forwarded me this twitter exchange:

I was smiling about this for at least a week. After getting the cheers, we then rolled back through the fields and dales back into antwerp and shared some road beers on the way among the cows and misty fields. Rolled in to Antwerp, grabbed some dinner and then I folded up the mud and cowshit smeared bike and headed back to Gent. A perfect bike adventure, even including the extra few miles I rode in Gent in the dark and rain as I got pretty lost on the way back to my hotel from the train station.

Road beer on a road, covered in mud and cow shit, but it was a road

Trusty steed on the way back

Dinner in Antwerp, beef stew, more frites and beers

The crapulous bike folded up back on the train

So I recommend going to watch some cross somewhere big, whether it is Nationals or a Supercup like event or pretty much any race in belgium or upcoming worlds or something else. It is awesome. More photos from the race here. The entire set from belgium is here

Tarik Saleh Bike Club 100 Challenge Wrap up

I think we had 17 total people participate and most self reporting an achievement, which is about 3 times the number I expected. I would guess about 6 or 7 people did the full 100, most everyone rode more than they would have otherwise. I was going to list everyone and how many miles, etc, but decided that doing so would more or less be counter the aims of the inclusivity of the challenge. If you participated and met one of the three achievements, and would like a pin for doing so, please email me what you did to earn it, and your address, tas at tariksaleh dot com. If you want to have a public reckoning of your achievements, please leave em in the comments.

Mr.J, MikeR, StevenS, JohnL, your pin is in the mail, JerryM if you ever ride to work, i will leave a pin on your bike. I am hugely pleased that so many people decided to take part, I certainly will do it again next year and also will certainly announce it a bit earlier. It will help get me off my butt and blog a bit more too. Anyhow, may you all have a great 2013, and ride bikes, and try not to be asses.

Super flipsy tiny bike riding on the last day of the challenge

Day 8, Tarik Saleh Bike Club 100 Challenge

Got up early and snuck out for a little coffee ride on my Mom's bike again. It was actually just below 40 and I had neglected my gloves. Epic suffering ensued. I basically looped around Goleta and stopped and got coffee at a shop in a stripmall.

The suffering...

The shop had a steady streams of contractors coming in for their morning fix, I watched most of them check out the pink folding bike. I then rode over toward campus and checkout out the excellent bike repair stands with attached tools and pump.

And the wonderful views across the acres of bike parking attached to some of the larger student housing blocks.

Also spied this chevoid mid restoration

I got a solid 6.5 miles in which put me at 101.5 for the week. Hurrah! I did it, rode everyday and hit 100 for the week, and certainly rode much more than I usually would have! The total count for me was 11.5 on the single speed Pugsley in snow in Los Alamos, 17 on my Mom's 3 speed folding bike and 73 on the fixie friday. No deraillers were involved in the challenge for me.
I think there were 14 or 15 participants in the end. I am going to let you all self select on whether you achieved any or all of the three parts of the challenge. Remember though, the bar is low intentionally, so even if you did not do what you wanted to, you probably did ride more than normal this week, right? Please email me what you did and your mailing address and I will get a pin or two out to you. If you already have some pins and don't need any more that is fine too. Los Alamos Jerry, I will leave one on your bike at work. I will try to collate a summary of everyone by this weekend...

The family and I left Santa Barbara late in the afternoon, got delayed in pheonix airport for a bit and then made it back to Albuquerque around 10:30. We drove up home in light to heavy snow and increasingly snow packed roads and got back just before 1am in the new year. Huzzah, happy new year on the road!
Pheonix Airport had bathrooms for everyone

So happy new year everyone and I will almost certainly try this again next year!