Month: June 2012

  • Alabama State Time Trial race report

    I had been looking forward to this race for the past couple weeks because the course is amazing – with lots of hills – in a topographically interesting area. Several ridge lines merge and end near the turnaround point. See the topocreator map from my post about the 2010 time trial (where I did much…

  • 2012 Elite National Road Race

    Me and Tim Hall (Nashville Cyclist) after the finish of a long, hot race Quick summary – this was a long, hot race with a huge field of more than 175 riders. I rode really conservatively never chasing anything down or trying to get into any moves, and this worked out well as I had…

  • S Cove Dr in pictures

    View from the middle of S Cove Dr shortly after the blind corner There is a road near my house that drops 240 feet in 0.3 miles, which works out to an average gradient of 18%. Since it is relatively flat (-5% to -10%) at the top and bottom that means the middle section is…

  • Birmingham ridges, part ii

    My bike at the Cahaba Beach road bridge. You have to hoist your bike over the barricade and carefully ride the planks to make it over to Cahaba Beach road. Watch out for the holes straight through to the river! A post about climbing the ridges in Birmingham wouldn’t be complete without my favorite ridges…

  • Birmingham ridges

    After three weeks of traveling out west and enjoying some really amazing riding and sightseeing with the family, I have been enjoying a week of riding back in Birmingham. Today’s ride typifies the type of ridge riding that you can do here in Birmingham. I started out this ride with a loop on the side…

  • Out west summary

    What an amazing trip we had out west this summer … 21 days and just over 4000 miles of visiting family and sightseeing in 8 states. The genesis of the trip was our cousin’s wedding in Phoenix for Memorial Day weekend. But there was also a really cool mountain bike race the next weekend in…

  • Out west – days 19, 20, 21 – Tulsa Tough Race Report

    Watching the Friday night fireworks as the pacecar zooms by near the end of the race Friday, Blue Dome Criterium, 38th This was a great kick-off race for the weekend of racing at Tulsa Tough. I didn’t know how my legs would feel after a 750 mile drive on the heels of two days of…

  • Out west – days 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

    Day 17 – Inside the Valles Caldera Day 17 – View of Los Alamos from the Pajarito Ski Hill Sunday, Day 14 – Flagstaff, AZ Bike to work week kick-off parade, Garmin search and non-rescue, Lowell observatory Saturn rings We slept in a bit on Sunday having a leisurely morning before Kip and I took…

  • Out west – day 13 – Barn Burner 104 MTB race

    Me and Josiah immediately after the finish Great race today at the Barn Burner just outside of Flagstaff, AZ. This was by far the hardest race I have ever done – 104 miles of double track forest roads – some very bumpy, some very sandy, some very crazy, all of it a whole lot of…

  • Out west – days 9, 10, 11, 12

    Tuesday, Day 9 – Bike shops plus easy canal ride It turns out that I was really lucky with my Mt Lemmon ride — today when I got ready to go for a ride, I discovered that a front spoke was broken. I had left the bike outside over night so maybe some animal had…