Long Overdue Post - My Summer/Fall

Asheville Trip #1 - Pickleseimer Fields

Asheville Trip #2, Labor Day Weekend - Kitasuma
Laurel Mountain/Pickleseimer Fields

Kansas City

National MTB Oktoberfest

Disco Anson

Road Trip

I'm in Asheville for the weekend. Dad and I did a road ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway today. It was really nice except for the storm that passed over during the ride. Even though we got a bit wet, it was still a lot of fun. Pisgah is scheduled for tomorrow. I am a little worried, I went to one of the local bike shops today and they told me that I should do fine with a 34-19 gearing, only one tooth different than my standard 34-18. I forsee a lot of walking, but am hoping for the best. The guy at the shop said that he runs a 32-17 and most people he knows run that or 32-18. We'll see how it goes. Weather looks good for tomorrow, I think I have picked a route, so I am hoping for the best.

Cooking Up A Casseroll

Speedgoat Link.

Kayakalon

This past weekend was the 2008 Race for the River Kayakalon in Washington NC. Since I just happen to have a future sister with a house down the road from this event and a future, past, and present brother that is all about triathlon, I signed up to race on a relay team. I was joined by father Puryear and several of the Ritters for this event, so we ended up with three teams total. If you are wondering what exactly a kayakalon is, it is just a triathlon but instead of swimming you kayak.

The day started bright and early so we would have enough time to load up the kayaks, eat some breakfast, and get to the race with time to set up. My team, the Lanky Lady Legs, had already decided to wear green for our team colors, which was a perfect opportunity to show off my new jersey that I got last week. My team was made up of E.A.'s mother Ann kayaking 1.5 miles, myself biking 15 miles, and ending with E.A.'s sister Cori running 3.2 miles. The other teams were E.A. (kayak) and Ethan (bike+run) on one team with the other team consisting of E.A.'s dad Bull (kayak), our dad (bike), and friend of the Ritter's Lauren (run).

The Group.

Once the kayaks were launched and the race had started, the Puryears headed over to the transition area to set up our bikes. We found some spots to rack the bikes and Ethan and I took a quick jog around the parking lot to stretch the legs. After a short wait, the kayakers started to show up so we could head out on the bike. E.A. was the first to arrive which sent Ethan on his way, followed shortly by the other paddlers just a few minutes after. I was the last of our group to leave and one of the last few cyclists in the race to get started. Fortunately, this meant that all of the cyclists that were anywhere close to me in the race were slower than me, so it wasn't that difficult to catch and pass them. My main goal for the race was to keep up with Ethan, which I knew would be difficult since he has been training for months while I have done nothing. Being in Eastern NC, the course was perfectly flat and very fast. I tried to keep my pace in the 22-23 mph range but dipped down into the upper teens during some of the windy stretches. I was able to pass Dad about 3.5 miles in and thought I would open up a really big gap on him, but after the turn around spot I saw that he was only about a mile behind me. I did a good job of pacing myself and maintaining a good steady pace that I thought would challenge Ethan's time, even though he had the advantage of aero bars and I just rode in the drops. Once I arrived back at the transition area I realized that our bright and early start may have been a little too early for some since my runner was asleep in the grass. After waking up and taking the team bracelet from me, my part was done. I ended up finishing the ~15.5 mile course in 42:30 or so for an average speed of 21.4 mph. Although I didn't quite keep up with Ethan I wasn't too far behind, he finished in 41 minutes. Dad came in a little while longer with a time of 56 minutes and a 16+mph average, much faster than his normal rides. This was a super fun event and I am already ready to go for next year, or maybe another similar event this year. Hopefully we can get another good group together for the 2009 race. An extra big thanks to the Ritters for hosting us this weekend and to E.A. for the photos.

Ethan.

Me.


Dad.


Me lecturing Cori on how to be prepared...

And then crying by myself in the corner.


The Puryears.

Tour of California

I am currently living it up out West with one of my biggest blog groupies, spur. He just happens to live about a mile away from the race course for the Tour of California's Prolouge, close enough that we woke up yesterday to the smell of fresh EPO. Since we were so close and I happened to be here we decided that we should go check out what was going on. It was a really good time. We got there and walked around the team areas for a little while checking out the bikes outside the team buses and getting a couple of glimpses of some riders. It was fun to see the set ups for these top level teams (Slipstream, Astana, High Road [formerly T-Mobile], ect) and get a glimpse of the flashiness that comes with the biggest joke in the sport (Rock Racing).

Steve's Next Bike.

Before the real race got started, there was a charity race where some local celebrities got to ride the race course. The most notable of these was Mike Sinyard, founder of Specialized, who rode the course on a hydraulically powered tricycle. His ride was far from fast, but it was definately interesting. Once the celebrities were out of the way the real race started up. We hung out around the team areas a little longer to watch some of the guys warm up and see some of the more notable riders.

Sinyard (in the red and white) with his water powered trike

George Hincappie Before the Race

The Slipstream Guys Warming Up
(from left to right: Tommy Danielson, podium finisher Tyler Farrar, and Steven Cozza)

After that we got a spot on the railing near the start line to catch some of the guys taking off. After seeing a few of those we decided to head towards the finish before the big name guys got there. We did a quick walk through of the area with all of the booths set up to get some swag and chat up a couple of world champs at the specialized booth. Spur's blog groupie partner, Ethan P., will be glad to know that we got him one of the autographed world champion posters featuring a couple of triathletes (Ironman champ Chris McCormack and Xterra champ Conrad Stoltz) as well as XC mountain biker Christoph Sauser and all around endurance athlete Rebecca Rusch. Once we got through hanging out with those guys we headed towards the oval to watch the big names coming through. We got there just in time to see Tom Boonen fly past followed shortly thereafter by big Jens Voight and brief leader Bradley Wiggens. We eventually made it to the inside of the oval to get away from some of the people and get a better view. We ended up getting a great view of the final riders so everybody got to see there favorites: Steve got to see his boy Levi, Melissa saw Paulo Bettini Tiny, and whoever my favorite was probably there as well. Overall, it was a ton of fun and hopefully I can make it to another race sometime in the future.

Levi Coming Through

A Note to Ethan P.

Ethan P,

Thank you for your concern over the state of this blog. It is true that before this post there was a two month drought in my posting. Part of this is due to me not really riding that much. Dreary weather, a couple of minor colds, and general laziness over the past couple of months have kept me inside on the weekends instead of on the bike. When I have gone on rides recently, it hasn't been very interesting. I doubt that you really want to hear about the 10 mile mountain bike ride at Harris lake where nothing particularly exciting happened or the half and hour I spent on the trainer. Another reason for the post drought is that I am really getting into NCSU basketball. Those guys have shown me just how long of a drought you can go on. I used to think that six or maybe seven minutes of game time without scoring was all that was possible at that level of play, but this team has come together and broken the ten minute mark. What an inspiration.

Anyways to answer your question, this blog is not dead. I have at least a couple of entries left that will stem from my fast approaching trip out west for Tour de Cali, an Old La Honda time trial to take on your family record, hanging out with frequent commenter Spur, and other fun that will certainly be had. After that, who knows. The existence of this blog is at least partially dependent on you making me do interesting things with my bikes. As long as you are able to talk me into some mountain trips, races, or other two wheeled adventures then I will write on here to inform the rest of my two readers about what we did. So you should really be asking this question to yourself, not me. Let me know what you decide.

Your beloved blog author,
Andrew P.

The Perfect Holiday Bike

I haven't been riding the mountain bike as much as would like to recently but I have come to the realization that it is perfect for this time of year. It is no secret that the cooler weather makes a lot of people trade in their skinny road tires for some knobbies but the 1x1 goes further than most bikes when it comes to celebrating the season. Here are a few things that make it perfect for this time of year.

Halloween - It is pretty obvious how my mountain bike relates to Halloween. Much like the traditional Halloween pumpkin, Mikey has a lot of orange. I also dress up in a costume when I go out riding, usually in assorted pieces of spandex and tight fitting clothes. The only time you ever see someone else dressed like this is on Oct. 31. On a night dedicated to frightening others, Mikey and I excel. Seeing 215 lbs of awkwardness rounding a corner on a ninja turtle bike like mine will frighten a lot more people than some cheap mask.

Christmas - Mikey's other featured color is green. No color symbolizes Christmas better than green. Green is everywhere around Christmas time in the form of trees, wreaths, garland, and tacky sweaters. While these are traditional symbols of Christmas, the most common sign of green around the holidays is the flow of green from your wallet to the sweatshop lucky enough to have this years must-have trash. This bike was also my first big purchase after graduation which is a constant reminder of the real reason for the season, capitalism.

Thanksgiving - While it is widely accepted that steel is real, it is not light. Neither or Americans at Thanksgiving (or any other time). Also, with daylights savings time over the bikes spend pretty much every weekday perfecting another one of Thanksgiving's past times, laying around and doing nothing. While weekend warriors everywhere head inside until the spring and start packing on the winter weight, Mikey is relaxing by letting that lube dry up and the tires deflate.

New Years - Since I first started riding it has been a new bike for each new year. Maybe Mikey will be the first to make it a full year without exploding. While everyone else is counting down for the ball to drop, I am counting down the days until bearings seize, spokes break, and frames crack. Maybe next year I will get a 29er to break.