a little bit of me time

Went out for some base miles for the first time this winter. The mayor, Alex, Big E, Mikey MC and Jeff were all in attendance as we rolled out towards Collettsville at 9 am. It was cold. It was ice-cream-headache-on-the-descent cold. Jeff seems to think it was an inversion layer, but regardless, it was a nippy start to what I knew would end up being a pretty warm day. The mayor whined a bit and said that he needed more mangina cream, but he perservered.

We rolled out at a great pace, just cruising along, talking and generally staying relaxed. The plan was to ride out to and around Lake James, about a 4+ hour ride. I planned on turning around early in order to help with holiday stuff. We made it to 181 and I turned around, while the group cruised on. I pulled over and pulled out my iPod (I can't stand it when people wear them while riding with a group, "HELLO! Human interaction is ok!") and found that it had been playing away in my pocket and the battery was showing this tiny sliver of red on the display. I turned it off and stuffed it back into my pocket and started back on the 20 miles home. Golden said I was doing it "old school" meaning sans music.

I don't think I'm freakish, but maybe the fact that I sort of let my mind wander and then bam!, I was almost home without even realizing it is a little weird. Anyway, it was good to have some time to just be alone and think. NPR has been doing this series on sounds where people send in some sound and then talk about the situation that it was created in. I got to thinking about all of the sounds that are associated with cycling. The way the tires make different noises on different kinds of pavement, or the variety of noises different freehubs make when freewheeling, or that weird little ZIP! noise of a front tire hitting a rear tire just prior to somebody hitting the deck. I guess it was a nice, relaxing 3 hours...

Congrats to Ryan Trebon for finally moving up to the top step at 'cross nats. He just got 10th in a SuperPrestige race in Europe (a race where there is no rider cap on nationality, so of the top ten, seven were Belgian. Had it been a world cup, Trebon would have been a lot closer to the podium!), so the dude is flying. Hopefully, that means a good showing at world's is within his reach. I wish him nothing but the best on that endeavor.

Well, I'm off to bed. I do want to throw out a little trivia question, though. First correct response gets a large Luna Cycles sticker to be proudly displayed wherever you would like. Email your response using the contact me link in my profile box, don't forget to include your name and address!

What does the jersey in the picture signify?