Change in the weather

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments
Just a hint of color, nothing like fall in Ottawa, where I spent a few years as a kid.
Just a hint of color, nothing like fall in Ottawa, where I spent a few years as a kid.

Hm. The old updates aren’t exactly coming fast and furious, are they? Probably because there isn’t anything particularly edifying about a 55-year-old tosspost chained to a desk, doing an actual job of work for the first time in recent memory.

I’m on my seventh consecutive day in the barrel at VeloNews.com and won’t get out until Tuesday, so amusing digressions, quips and observations will be few and far between for a couple more days at least. We have the Vuelta a España, the Tour of Missouri, the Tour of Britain, the Tour de l’Avenir, Univest GP and even the world military cycling championships going on all at the same time, all in different time zones, and it makes for a fairly long shift, what with live updates, stage reports, results, photo galleries, rider diaries and all the other bells and whistles that draw eyeballs and keep kibble in an old dog’s dish.

I don’t remember the last time I rode a bike, to be honest. I have gotten out for a few hikes, walks, lurches and staggers, and today’s came in a light rain, with cloudy skies, temperatures in the 60s and leaves on the deck. It was something of a shock to my system, as we haven’t really had what I would call a summer.

Mia Sopaipilla doing her Maltese Falcon impersonation.
Mia Sopaipilla doing her Maltese Falcon impersonation.

Can it be fall already? Yep. Disregard the calendar. If we had a woodstove, I would be feeding it a smidgen of aspen and cedar instead of tapping away at the keyboard, waiting for the furnace to click on. It’s about 68 in the office, even with two large flat-panel monitors and a G4 Power Mac cranking out the BTUs. I’m actually wearing socks in the house. Oh, God.

You know it’s brisk when Miss Mia Sopaipilla takes to sitting atop the Motorola DSL modem and Turkish curls up on the boss-fella’s shorts. The big galoot even wanted some time in the actual lap today, which is a sure sign of a tough winter ahead, the Farmer’s Almanac be damned.

Herself is off to some soiree in Mile High, so it’s just me, the cats and VeloNews.com for a few hours. Last night’s buffalo tacos will enjoy a return engagement this evening, as will a few drams of Castillo de Monséran 2007 to ward off the grippe.

Turkish naps in a virtual lap.
Turkish naps in a virtual lap.

If all goes well I will be a free man on Tuesday, and the comedy will resume shortly thereafter. Until Interbike, that is, when it’s back in the barrel for Your Humble Narrator.

What does one drink to ward off a trade show? I used to use single-malt Scotch, but that was in Vegas, when the publisher was buying.

No lie

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 3 Comments
Just a touch of yellow in the ground cover and some red in the leaves. More to come. Next time I'll take a proper camera along.
Just a touch of yellow in the ground cover and some red in the leaves. More to come. Next time I'll take a proper camera along.

Busy, busy, busy. Having three stage races going on simultaneously blows the meat whistle. Not as much as Rep. Joe Wilson (R-Dipshit), but it’s right up there. No lie.

Happily, the Vuelta a España was on a rest day, so it was fairly light duty today, with only the Tour de l’Avenir and the Tour of Missouri to follow. I even got out for a nice hike and saw that we’re getting a little color in the foliage around here. Leaves in the gutters. Still warm enough for shorts and a wife-beater, but not for much longer.

I lived in Springfield briefly during the summer of ’72, but I had forgotten how hilly those Missouri roads can be. This may be because I spent more time walking or hitchhiking than cycling. Finally I hitchhiked right the hell out of there, taking the scenic route east to St. Louis, west to Kansas City and north to Iowa Falls, Iowa, before catching one last lift back to Colorado with a friend of a friend.

Tomorrow it’s back in the trenches with VeloNews.com for all three races.  Plus there’s a cartoon needs drawing for VeloNews (Dead Tree Edition). I’d hitchhike right the hell out of here and dodge the whole deal, but I had enough trouble getting rides when I was young and pretty, and I’m too old to be that broke.

Labor Day

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 2 Comments
"Is he bitching again?" asks Miss Mia Sopaipilla from her perch atop the fridge. "Give him some cream and maybe he'll settle down. It always works for me."
"Is he bitching again?" asks Miss Mia Sopaipilla from her perch atop the fridge. "Give him some cream and maybe he'll settle down. It always works for me."

“Labor” Day is exactly right. I labored for the better part of quite some time, with a short break for grilling a couple New York strips in the dark (I had to take a table lamp outside to see what the hell I was doing). It was a double Monday in Monday sauce, with a side of Monday, a couple glasses of Monday, and Monday with Monday frosting for dessert. But the steaks were OK.

There was racing in Spain, France, Missouri and Georgia, with live updates, race reports, results and photo galleries. This makes for a longish day when you’re the only guy posting, especially when you throw in a couple of technical difficulties for flavor, and thus I’m feeling a bit cross-eyed this morning.

I finally got out for a short walk around 11 p.m. or so. It was cool and quiet, just what the doctor ordered, especially since it looks like more of the same today. We’ll have another guy in the barrel, which should help. Maybe I can even get out to ride my own bike sometime.

Tim Johnson (OUCH-Maxxis) said yesterday that he’s looking forward to cyclo-cross season. I couldn’t agree more. ‘Cross races don’t start with doomed breaks, finish with field sprints or drag on for three weeks.

Going up

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. More than one, actually.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. More than one, actually.

Looking for a nice hilly ride? Check out the Bike With Pike Westcliffe Adventure next Saturday in my old hometown. The ride, which is a fundraiser for the Frontier Pathways Scenic and Historic Byway, starts in scenic downtown Weirdcliffe and heads to either San Isabel or Colorado City and back, depending upon whether you choose a metric century or the real deal.

The course uses part of the old Hardscrabble Century, albeit in reverse (from Weirdcliffe to Mackenzie Junction). And there is a ton of climbing in both directions — 9,000 feet in the century and 5,900 feet in the metric — which should be an excellent opportunity for folks to debate the relative merits of traditional gearing vs. compact cranksets vs. triple-ring setups, if they have any breath left for idle chit-chat.

If you’re interested, you can register here. Be sure to keep an eye peeled for deer, especially at mile marker six on Highway 96. Stupid buggers love to leap out of nowhere and into the road right about there. I once saw a black bear chugging up a hillside near there, too.