It's been three weeks and I barely have even received a phone call back from the bus company. I had no choice but to contact a lawyer. Seeing as the driver got a ticket, I have witnesses, and damage to my bike (for a little extra proof) Mr. Lawyer seems to think it would be worth persuing. I'm not a person who ever felt like I should sue someone. Maybe now is my time. I just find it amazing that one of their drivers wasn't paying attention and I'm the one ignored when I want my stuff paid for (parts, clothes, medical bills). Maybe I'm the one that is messed up but shouldn't they be kissing my saddle sores (I don't actually have any just so you know)? Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought but if I were them I'd see my offer as very reasonable seeing as all I ever wanted was compensated for my stuff. We'll see how this pans out...

It's Official...

Being that we are a small team we have to allocate our resources with efficiency. We decided to have a meeting at Isaac's Deli in downtown Lancaster. This turned out to be an expensive meeting for Joel since he got a ticket on his way from the Philly area. Joel, racing bikes is ok. Racing cops, not ok. Got it? Our goals in 'cross are always the same...to win. Road and mountain get more complicated due to the fact that the seasons are longer. All in all I say we covered a lot of important items and came to resolutions on some of the logistics for certain races. It looks as though a website will exist in the near future too.
There were lots of pictures taken. Mostly of the candid variety but the team photo was finally taken. We couldn't have picked a more wonderful day either. Mid 20's with a 20-30mph wind. We braved it (most of us in the short sleeve jerseys). These photos should be available in a few days.
If you are a veggie (like a few of us on the team), Isaac's has your back. I think there are about 10 or so different sandwiches to choose from. Plus there is always a veggie soup. So our meeting was amist pita wraps, pretzel sandwiches, and the Creamy Pepperjack Tomato soup. YUM! Not only was the food in the picture but also the President of Isaac's himself. It's was nice to see him get excited when we presented him with a team jersey and cap. I think our waiter was jealous.

Super Tuesday...

All that seems to be decided is that no one has really decided. My guy dropped out a few weeks ago but still managed a few votes, though not as many as Edwards. I never really liked politics because everyone of them lies. You have to. It's all the blame game, like, our schools are failing. It must be the teachers union. All they care about are their pensions...BULL ONY! It can't be because our schools are underfunded in the BILLIONS! "No Child Left Behind" is a complete failure due to the way it is implemented. I guess that is a teacher problem though. It has nothing to do with the fact that the top percentage of students stay stagnent, those that are close to the minimum requirements are focused on, while those at the bottom are forgotten.
Since when does the United States attack other countries preemptively? That's a few billion coins we could've spent on education. A few years ago I thought one person can not ruin this country. Congress would make sure of that. After all our founding fathers set it up that bureaucracy would slow things down so much that one couldn't do that much harm. They did it that way on purpose. But hey, who am I? I just work for a living and ride my bike as stress relief. Before I completely impode, I decided to figure out my schedule for the season. Being that I orginized this rag tag group of riders I have many obligations...

3-15 Strasburg Road
3-29 Kirkwood Road
4-6 MASS XC Team Relay MTB
4-12 Mt. Joy Road
4-13 Fair Hill MTB XC
4-19 Bakers Dozen MTB Enduro
4-20 Hibernia STXC
4-26 Deep Blue STXC MTB
4-27 Greenbrier XC (Nationals Qualifier) MTB
5-3 Granogue XC MTB
5-10 French Creek XC MTB
5-17 Union Grove Road
5-31 D&Q XC MTB
6-1 Tom Bamford Crit Road
6-8 Tour De Tykes XC MTB
6-21 Peiffer Hill Road
6-22 Neshaminy XC MTB
6-28 Brownstown Road
7-4-6 Marysville Weekend MTB
7-12 Mt. Penn Road
7-13 Fair Hill XC MTB
7-27 Nottingham STXC MTB
8-16 Iron Hill XC MTB
8-30-31 24hr Seven Springs MTB Enduro

Throw in a few CX races from Oct-Dec and you have a very full season. In some stretches I have 4 races in 9 days. It should be a blast though since all the riders on the team are close friends. I know I can rely on them to pull their share.

Excuse me...

Last Thursday I was out for a nice 60 mile ride. Well, almost 60 miles. My ride was cut short due to a conflict with a bus. See, I being a part of traffic didn't think that the bus was going to pull out from the stop while traffic (that would be me) was passing by. I guess I was wrong. Now the darnedest thing though, I could see the entire length of the bus (being that I was about halfway out in the lane). It still pulled out and I just had no where else to go but into it or the traffic in the left lane. I didn't want to take the chance of being actually ran over by other traffic so I ate the back of that bus...

Cruising down King St in Lancaster is a lot safer than riding Manor St so I always take the long way home instead of Manor via King. I'm moving along, riding about 25mph (the posted speed limit), traffic is passing on the left. No big deal. I see a bus. I move out into the lane so said bus sees me. Now like I stated before, I could see the entire length of the bus, there is no reason that if the driver looked in the mirror (which I could clearly see) that they couldn't see me. Bus pulls out. I grab the brakes in an effort not to eat bus. My rear tire locks up, goes sideways, blows and BANG! Me eating bus. Bus leaves. No harm, no foul, I guess. Luck would be on my side though.

A lady cruising down the street caught up with the bus and got the plate number. A witness gives me their contact info. A cop two blocks away takes the info. Gives me a ride home. This is were we stand now...

I went to the ER for what turned out to be a badly bruised knee. The bike, well, about $1400 worth of damage.

My bruises are almost healed and the bike is rebuilt with old parts...

Will they pay up? Will I go to court? Will there be criminal charges filed? We shall find out.

To be continued...

But what will I wear?

Today was warmish, mid 40's, which is pretty nice for January. I decided to take a short 50 mile spin in my new kit (which by the way, has seen use 3 of the 4 days I've had it). Knowing I'd be out for some time, I took it easy. 'Cross season killed me this year and has really taken a toll on my off season legs. Usually at this time of year I'm ready to really train. This year, I'm still doing LSD (that's long slow distance). Whether or not this turns out to be a good or bad thing, only time will tell.
Doing a LSD ride is nice for focusing on climbing so that is what I did. Easy on the flats, hit the hills. I did climbs on this ride that I usually split into two different days. It hurt but now that I've had a chance to recover, my legs really are in good shape. This is after a Friday that I just blasted as hard as I could (for fun). Saturday was a 2 plus hour mountain ride that covered about 24 miles at Fair Hill with Shawn, Joel, and Tom. We stopped a few times to chat with some Bike Line rides we passed along the way. Basically, a little over a 5 minute mile pace. That's pretty fast for a fun group ride. Then there was today. 50 miles in under 3 hours. I weaved back and forth over the same hill four times. Each time riding a different road up and down. There aren't any mountains in Lancaster but there are big hills. Some have an average grades of 10% and are about a mile long. Some are longer with a lower percentage of grade. The hills I was riding today were definitely the first kind. This was suppose to be an easy day. Oh well there is always tomorrow.

Gearing Up

So, I'm not a male model but I'm taking one for the team. Here is our team uniform. Paid for by the fine folks at Allied Milk, Isaac's Deli (also designed it), and The Arro Group. I have a bad habit of making stupid faces and standing in an awkward way when I have my picture taken.

I have to go for a ride now. See you later suckers.

Skellington and myself were out for a walk one day. Everything was normal. He lifted his leg to pee and when he put it down he was limping. I picked him up. Searched the bottom of his foot for a splinter, glass, whatever. Nothing. Not even a scratch so we kept on going. A week or so went by and he was still limping so we took him to the vet. The one doctor said that it was arthritis. I found this hard to believe and I told her the story about how he started limping. He never had shown signs of this before but she insisted that that is what it was. Well, who am I to argue. We bought the medications and went on our way. So a week later and the poor guy is still hobbling around on three legs. We took him in again to see a different doctor this time. This one did x-rays and lots of other motions with his leg. She determined that he tore his ACL. That's right, his ACL. He was just peeing! She said that we had two options. Let it heal on it's own or surgery. Surgery requires 12-16 weeks of recovery while letting it go meant 4 weeks of bedrest. If you know what Jack Russels are like this is nearly impossible but since he is 10 years old we went with this option. We went home feeling like we finally had the right answer to his limping. We did what we could over the next few weeks. We carried him up steps. After he would go #2 we would carry him home. Anything we could to take the stress off of his knee. It never would've been enough. The little guy went under the knife on Friday to repair what turned out to be a ruptured meniscus. Are you kidding me? He was peeing!!! Now you see the aftermath of all that ordeal. A green cast with Skellington from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" on it. I thought that that was pretty cool. The little guy is recovering but you can tell the painkillers are making him loopy and he sleeps with his eyes open a lot. I'm surprised at how well he gets around with his peg leg though. He can "jump" on and off the couch eventhough we are not encouraging that. He tries to run but often will just sit down because he can't the peg gets in the way. Oh well, at least he will be getting better soon.