Dude, Seriously, Update Your Blog (Part 3)!

Oy Gevult!

It's been way too long since I last updated this blog (yes, The Complete Jewish Cyclist has been rather incomplete in his Jewish blogging duties).

So since I've last "blogged" (BTW, I don't fancy the verb "blogging". Sounds like "blob", and as we know, cyclists aim to move a bit faster than a blob), some things have changed. I received a piece of my paper from my company. Actually, it was less of a piece of paper, and more like a slip. In fact, it even had a color. It was pink.

And if you're not familiar with these pinkish slips (lucky you - for now at least), you can ask any of the 70,000 people who received one on a single day last week, or the 515,000 people who received one last week overall, or the 700,000 who received one last month, or the too-many millions who have received one last year. If you're not familiar with them, here's a great way to spot one; they're the people who have gone from choosing between Dura-Ace and Record to choosing between spare tubes and lunch money. Sigh...

As for The Complete Jewish Cyclist, the time has been spent taking a breather from the previous job, prepping for a job search, and riding 225 miles in January alone. Normally this time of year, the riding is merely spinning - high cadence in a low gear - but with a 'cross race coming up February 1st, the rides have been a bit more intense, especially in the area of climbing. Either way, my goal now is to find a job which will be commutable by bike, be a bike-friendly workplace, and be a good job for a racing cyclist to live with and live around.

Giant Riders - Rejoice!

Since becoming the owner of a Giant TCR-C2 last summer, I quickly became an erstwhile fan of Team Columbia, the Pro Tour squad that grew out of the rubble of the former T-Mobile team. Aside from being an early fan of Mark Cavendish and a longtime fan of Eric Zabel (and sadly, I was duped into being a fan of their doped-up Kazakh beast), I was never really excited about the squad. But since owning a bike of the same namesake as those of team Columbia, I suddenly felt an affection for the revitalized and now American-based team. In fact, I even made the purchase on the same day Marcus Burghart won a stage of the Tour de France on a Giant TCR Advanced.

So imagine my sadness when I learned that Columbia would no longer be aboard Giants, but switching instead to Scott. It happened at a time when seemingly every team played musical bike sponsors, including Saxo Bank on Specialized and Silence-Lotto on Canyon. Then a silver lining appeared on the clouds of Giant riders everywhere when Rabobank, the legendary Dutch squad and one of my favorite teams, announced they would be riding Giants in 2009.

That's right all of you riders out there on TCRs and OCRs, even if you're not aboard a TCR Advanced SL, you still will share the same namesake as Oscar Friere, Juan Antonio Flecha, and Robert Gesink, whom The Complete Jewish Cyclist pegs as a future Grand Tour winner. And yes, you can check out the Giant line of bikes at The Bike Rack (link to the right). The Rabos had a down season last year despite some great riding by Friere, Flecha, and Gesink, but they're a refocused team this year with some smart goals, and as any Giant owner will tell you, they will be riding some really awesome machines.

(Update: Nick Nuyens will also be riding for Rabobank in the 2009 season. Nuyens is a killer Classics rider, and expect to see him as the Rabo's key man in races like Het Volk and Kurne-Brussels-Kurne. Flecha will still be their man for races like Ronde van Vlaandaren and Paris-Roubaix, but expect to see Nuyens placed up in any move Flecha goes in, with Nuyens either being the solo break set-up guy or the main rider is Flecha has a bad day. And no matter what, he'll be doing it on a Giant!!!)

Bikes of the Jewish Peleton - Tom's Kona Jake

While Tom Jones' Kona Jake is the second bike to be featured here on The Complete Jewish Cyclist, it shares the dual distinction of being the first cyclocross bike and the first race bike (yishar koach!). Though mainstream cyclists may not be familiar with the Kona brand, serious enthusiasts and racers have an almost cult-like affinity for the Ferndale, WA-based company. Perhaps the best known Kona is the bright orange Major Jake of newly-crowned U.S. national cyclocross champion Ryan Trebon, and the Kona line of 'cross bikes, including the Jake, are a popular sight on any local cyclocross circuit such as the MAC/MABRA series, which Tom races as part of the Proteus cycling team.

Tom's Jake is the entry-level model amongst Kona's three 'cross bikes, but shares the same geometry and 7005 butted aluminum frame as the mid-level Jake the Snake, differing only in the use of a steel fork versus a carbon fork. Still, even though the Jake is geared towards a broader range of riders than the top-of-the line Major Jake, which is geared towards racers only, the Jake itself is very much a race-ready bike and is the race bike of many local cyclocrossers. With its versatility, however, the Jake also makes for a fine commuter or long-distance touring bike.

Tom himself put the Jake through its paces in his first-ever cyclocross season this year, and pulled it (and himself) through in one piece with some pretty gutsy performances in some very demanding races. He also plans to put the bike to an equally demanding challenge by riding all 186 miles of the C&O Canal in one day later this year, a ride which The Complete Jewish Cyclist is also giving serious consideration to doing. You can follow Tom's riding and racing at his blog (www.528k.com).

Thank you Tom for submitting your rig to Bikes of the Jewish Peleton, and be sure to keep it nice and muddy.

If you have a bike you would like us to feature on The Complete Jewish Cyclist, send an e-mail with some info on the bike and a picture of the bike pasted into the e-mail (sorry, no attachments or downloads) to jewishcycling@gmail.com.

2009 First Ride

So here it is, and here we are.

It's January 1st, 2009. The cyclometer shows nothing but zeros; all of the numbers from a massive 2008 cycling season are now erased, and there is left to do is spend the next 365 stuffing as many new numbers in there as possible. Of course, they're not just numbers, but over the course of 2009, they will represent experiences and memories - pacelines, climbs, sprints, descents, breaks, chases, open-road cruising, and even relaxing recovery rides. They will be experienced alone, with team mates, Sunday morning group rides, and most of all, those riders we hook up with along the way out on the open road who's names we don't know, may not know, might not remember, but for a few miles will become friends in the our cycling world.

As for The Complete Jewish Cyclist, the new year is only Gregorian. I greeted fellow velojew Tom Jones (www.528k.com) this morning with a hearty "Shana Tovah", Hebrew for "happy New Year", though it was all in humor as shana tovah is reserved for Rosh HaShana rather than January 1st. He was one of a group of riders out in Washington, DC to turn laps on the 3.2 mile circuit of the Haines Point peninsula. Now of course, people called me everything from "brave" to "crazy" for venturing out this morning - it was 28 degrees with frigid northerly winds - and also strange since at 11:00 AM on January 1st, people are supposed to be in bed with a hangover.

Well, I may seem to be brave and/or crazy, which is understandable when you're just one cyclist rolling out of your apartment building. But when you join about 30 or 40 riders doing the same thing, then you find that normality comes in numbers, even if normality is defined by being brave and crazy. Actually, we are neither: we aren't brave because it really is quite pleasant riding on mornings like this (there were even people out golfing on Haines Point), and we are not crazy because we are highly prepared, geared, and practiced in riding on days like today.

As for today's ride, it was not what I was planning for. I usually make my first ride of the year an easy spin, simply working out the kinks of a month off the bike and starting off my base mileage. Instead, 17 miles of today's ride was like a Sunday morning A-paced ride. Pretty much all of the local teams were out on the Point, including Vday, Bike Lane, Squadra Coppi, NCVC, Kenda, Proteus, and myself as the sole Bike Rack DC rider. There was another team out there who's name I couldn't recall, but thier two guys had matching kits and bikes. Fair to say there were some guys (and gals) out there who live for things like upgrade points. The pace was fast and furious, the big rings came out the moment 2009 dropped, but the riding was still intense. Not how I planned today's ride to be, but I'll take it anyway since it was a lot of fun and a nice way to begin this new year.

All in all a good day on the bike, but there's still 364 days to go, so B"H it will be a season that sees success, prosperity, health, and happiness on and off the bike, a 365 day period to improve on the great 365 days that proceeded it.

Here's the stats from todays ride on the Giant TCR-C2:

• 2 1/2 hours of riding

• 42.06 miles

• ave. speed: 16.5 mph

• max speed: 28 mph

Happy New Years Ride

For The Complete Jewish Cyclist, the new year is already under way. It's already 5769, and that started back in September on Rosh Hashana. For cyclists and everybody else, though, the New Year on the Gregorian calendar begins tommorow at midnight. Of course this is reason to party, and as difficult as the world may seem right now (no reference to a particular issue), it's nice to know that we have a fresh, brand new year to write a new chapter in the continuing saga of our live - a clean slate in which we will try to author the best story possible.

So why not kick it all off on a high note and hoist a champagne flute at midnight, let out an exhuberant cheer, and kiss somebody special if you can, or at least give somebody a gesture of goodwill. And then start your year right with a January 1st ride.

Whether you live by the Hebrew calendar or by the Gregorian calendar, the cycling season truly begins January 1st for the serious cyclist. Just like you have the opportunity for a clean slate in life going into the new year, you also have a clean slate going into the 2009 cycling season. My recommondation for a New Year's ride is simply to enjoy it. Whether you are a recreational rider venturing out on an entry-level hybrid or a hardcore racer set to burn the road on your carbon fiber bling machine, this is a ride to simply enjoy. No pressure and no pressure yet. No goals and no agendas, just get out there, pedal, and enjoy the ride.

After all, hopefully you will have a very full and prosperous cycling season in 2009, and as it proceeds, so to will the needs, demands, and sacrifices to sustain such a season, especially for racers and high-performace riders. But on January 1st, 2009, there will be none of that, just a pure, clean, unhindered ride upon which to build on for another great cycling season, which B"H will be fun and safe.

Year-End Review

Well, Happy Chanukkah (or is it "Hannukah", or "Hanukka". Eh, don't bother - no matter how many ways you can misspell it in English, there's only one way to spell it correctly in Hebrew). Not that Chanukkah is a big gift-giving holiday, unless of course if you're a little child and a plastic dreidel and a chocolate coin mean the world to you, but if you are hoping for an awesomely cool present to out do your Xmas-celebrating neighbor, then I hope you get something light, blingy, and carbon.

As for The Complete Jewish Cyclist, I was hoping for some bottom bracket tools, but in reality, I'm not about gifts on Chanukkah. I prefer my festival of lights Israeli-style. Gimme the Chanukiah lights, a sufganiyot, and my family and friends, and I'm as happy as the Xmas-celebrating neighbor who just found a full Campagnolo Super-Record 11-speed gruppo under the tree.

And while I'm at it, for all of the non-Jewish cyclists checking out this blog, if it's your thing, then have a Merry Christmas. I hope you do get that Campy gruppo, but no matter what you get, ride safe, happy, and healthy anyway.

_______________________

As seems obligatory, a blogging cyclist has to do a year-end review post, and here's mine, which I'll make brief do to me having a lot of work to do:

2008 was the best cycling year of my life. Not only did I rack up more miles than ever before and post my best-ever race results, but I also reached the highest potential of my riding yet. I put less focus on bikes, and more on riding and training. My focus was on the cyclocross racing season, from September through December, and along the way, I concentrated on conditioning my body to go hard for 40 minutes. I spent a year doing intervals, hill work, speed work, and fast endurance riding.

Best of all, I also rode this year while also being a first time father. Like some of you out there, I am not a pampered Belgian pro with nothing to do but ride, train, and race, and get paid to do it. I'm married with a family and a full-time job, plus Jewish commitments which come with time restraints. I rode in the early mornings, I rode in the late evenings, I rode on Sundays, I rode whenever I could invent or create the time, and I paid my way throughout (but with some great help from my shop and team - The Bike Rack).

I did a lot, but I didn't do it alone. No cyclist really ever does, and I can't be proud of this season if I don't stop and thanks those who helped me do it. So here is, to the best of my memory, a list of those who helped me have the best cycling year of my life:

My Wife

Behind many a weekend-warrior cyclist is a spouse, and the spouse sometimes has a hard a job to do off the bike as we do on the bike. My wife has risen early in the morning with me to go to races, helping out on race days when it was below freezing in some god-foresaken field at some ungodly hour so I could live my cyclocross dreams. She has put in overtime watching our son while I was out on training rides, greeted me after the rides with patience and support, and allowed me the financial flexibility to pursue cycling. She has sacrificed for me, supported me, encouraged me, and even disciplined me. She helped make my training rides and race days reach their full potential, and I could not have had this season without her.

My Son

He's only one, and soon he may just be kicking ass on the lil' Belgians circuit. In the meantime he's made sure that I began my rides and races with a smile and a baby giggle, and I finished my rides and races with just the same and more. He's been up with us at the pre-dawn hours to go to races and he's been a trooper on race day, keeping the smile at 7:30 AM on a sub-freezing day at the race course. He never had a meltdown while a race was in progress, and he waved a rattle during the races in the same manner as others wave cowbells. He's my inspiration, and he makes me the happiest and proudest father in the world.

My Family

My Mom and sisters were there with me all season giving support, as were my wife's family as well. Amongst Orthodox Jews, it's not easy to explain leg-shaving, expensive bikes, and 40 minute plus one-lap races in muddy fields, but they supported me none-the-less. Special thanks to my Mom for going the extra distance in the past and the present, and also to the memory of my father who long ago mutter those most important cycling words in my presence: "face it, he's obsessed".

My Friends

Sure they may have poked fun at my lycra and shaved legs, and made sure that I was missing a great Saturday night party because I was asleep early to race in the morning, but they also supported me and encouraged me in this. In particular, I want to thank my best friend Barry from Holland for his support, my Summit Hills crew for mixing good-natured ribbing with real and serious support, and to Andrew Matranga for keeping my work day velo, no matter how much productivity we sacrificed in pursuit of the best that two cyclists on IM can offer.

My Sponsor and Teamates

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; The Bike Rack DC, and in particular, John Bavier, opened the doors of cyclocross to me. Racing CX has always been a dream of mine, and Bavier initiated the grassroots effort on behalf of Bike Rack to start a CX team and give riders like me a chance to race. The Bike Rack itself has been a great shop to ride and race for. They're a new shop in the DC area, but they hit the ground running and reached out quickly and passionately to the local riding and racing scene.

Special thanks to Chuck Harney and Wayne Lerch, the owners of Bike Rack. Chuck helped me this year with the selection and purchase of my Giant TCR-C2 road bike, which made all of the difference in my training. Wayne is always a fun support, but was also a very real support at the DCCX cyclocross, where I had my best race of the season. David Fike is probably one of the smartest bike shop guys out there, and was extremely helpful in helping me with the wheel selection on my road bike. He also gave me technical support at the Tacchino Ciclocross. Also thanks to all of the great guys I've ridden with on the Sunday morning shop rides and at the cyclocross races, in particular Richard Murby, Seth, and Skinny Dutch Guy, for allowing me to keep at least one lung on the climb up Angler's Hill.

And of course, special thanks to the people who make the sport so special - the people I meet along the way. In particular, they are the people whom I spend plenty of time with from the end of September to the beginning of December. During the cyclocross races, I aim to tear them to pieces, but more often than not, they do that to me. And if I'm not racing in their races, then I am proud to cheer them on. Most of all though, it's before and after the races, where I enjoy their company and humorous banter about this very serious velo lifestyle of ours; Matthew Bartlett, Mike "Blue Dog" Giancoli, James "Unholy Rouleur" McNeely, Steve Riskus, Ryan Dudek, Tom Jones, Jim Ventoso, all of the cool Proteus, NCVC, HUP United, and Squadra Coppi folks, and so many other racers, many who's name I don't know but faces and competition I eagerly await every cold, muddy Sunday.

And Finally...

...Baruch HaShem. I wouldn't be The Complete Jewish Cyclist if I didn't acknowledge the Big Directeur Sportif above. Jewish Cycling is about more than keeping a riding and racing schedule around Shabbat and Chagim. It's about more than riding powered by kosher drinks and supplements. Jewish Cycling and Jewish Life are both about discipline and structure that bring about a great life worth living, and I feel blessed to be a student of the bike and a student of the Torah.

'nuff said. Thanks to all, and I won't go into what I'm thinking about for 2009. I'm just thankful for 2008, and for that, I say thanks to so many people out there, thanks to cycling, and most of all and above all, Thank G-d.

Year-End Mileage

This is the cyclometer from my singlespeed road bike. About 120 miles of this is from Sunday training rides and playing around, but the rest of it is from riding to and from work and using those commutes as training rides. I live nine miles from my office, but depending on the route, the morning rides could be up to 30 miles, and the ride home could be up to 15 miles. Through it all, my little Specialized Langster suffered only a broken spoke and no flat tires, though it took a beating and kept on ticking.

This is from my road bike, which I bought in August and only got to ride on a few Sundays plus one weekday ride. However, being that the bike is full carbon fiber, those were 507 fast, comfortable, and confident miles. If you're thinking about buying a carbon bike, I highly recommend the Giant TCR line.

BTW, no mechanicals or punctures on this bike either, plus no flats on my 'cross rig, so that makes 2008 a flat tire-free season for me. Yes, 2,633 miles for 2008 and the only damage was one popped spoke and no flats. Sweet!

(update: just did a quick 12-miler before Shabbat. No flats, no mechanicals. Made it through the year safely - B"H. Shabbat Shalom to everybody, and I'll see you on the roads January 1st, 2009).