Brentani’s Cycling Blog

Somehow I’ve managed to attend the last three tuesday night smack down rides. The first was the memorial ride after Mark Nicholson, the creator of the ride, passed away. On that occassion, I returned home completely destroyed. I had done the 35 miles of the loop earlier in the day, marking the road with Mark G. (Unfortunately, we didn’t do a very good job, and they’re too small and already fading…) But nevertheless, I was dropped hard at the first sprint point and again on the second. On Tourtellot Hill Road, I was dropped by all the good climbers and finished at the back with the big riders. Last week, I decided to contest one of the spints with Nate. Pop. I broke a spoke (or actually a nipple) on my rear wheel and we had to turn around and ride slowly home.

Today…the ride, in general, felt much slower, but I don’t think it really was. I was taking pulls, feeling pretty comfortable. I sat out the first two sprints. Nate went onto the front and tried to ride us off his wheel. He set a blistering pace, but it wasn’t too hard to hold on. Geoff jumped and easily took the sprint. I was looking forward to the second sprint, but I decided to wait for the Naveen who had dropped off during the first one, since there was a pretty confusing turn, that he probably would have missed. (which probably would have been for the best, but anyway…) Sprint 3 came up quicker than I thought it would and Geoff took that one too. Next up was Tourtellot Hill Road. It’s a long gradual one, so I didn’t really want to be on the front. Geoff took a turn at the front for a bit, but then Nate took over. I was expecting him to really crank up the heat, but to my surprise I was still feeling very comfortable when we saw the 400 meter to go marker. I knew someone was on my wheel, and I thought it was Geoff. That meant, I thought, that Nate must still be feeling good, and that Aaron would probably be able to match any attack I might try. I figured if I attacked, Aaron would be able to hold my wheel and Nate would be able to grab Aaron’s wheel as we went by and then get us at the top. Aaron attacked. That’s when I realized that Geoff was indeed otb. I launched my own attack at the same time and both Aaron and I came by Nate (who is consistently the best climber of the group). I was able to open up a pretty big gap on both of them, and still had the energy for a final kick before the top, which thankfully I didn’t have to use. This was a big confidence boost after the previous two weeks.

and, oh, yeah, then there was this.

Here’s my report, on the Refunds Now Site. Enjoy.

This is one I’ve passed several times on my way in and out of town on High Service. It looks pretty hard looking downhill from High Service, and there are a few others in the same area that are of roughly the same difficulty, although Sherman is definitely the hardest. When I rode them before (although I’m not sure I actually did Sherman) I wasn’t terribly impressed. However, last week I took Jude out for a meandering ride though residential streets near my house and ended up there. (I’m not yet willing to take him on the main roads that would be required to bring the trailer to either my normal routes or to one of the local bike paths.) Towing a 23-pound baby in a 10 pound trailer, Sherman is pretty tough. I actually shifted into the 24 (front chainring) on the Gazelle. Of course I was trying to take it easy that day, but still…here’s the gradient map:

For those who have ridden with me, this post is probably the biggest shock imaginable. I’ve been milking every ounce of life out of my pair of zens that I bought back in 1996. (To add to their nostalgia-factor, they were purchased at a little shop in Cesanatico, Italy…Marco Pantani’s home town.) When I returned to riding 2 years ago, the nose-guard was pretty gummy, and gradually deteriorated over the course of the next 2 months. Eventually I just took off the guard, and clipped off the two little tabs. I’ve been riding with them like that ever since. I wasn’t ideologically opposed to buying new glasses, I just could never decide on something I liked. All of the new Briko designs were pretty lame. (Nothing bug-eyed enough.) I was close to pulling the trigger on a pair of ekynoxes, but they just weren’t quite nice enough to convince me. I followed several ebay auctions for Zens and Stingers, but was unwilling to pay 100+ for a used pair of sunglasses. (In most cases they were going for well above what retail was.)

And then Briko released the X-peed. (A rather unfortunate name.) They seemed to be pretty much a new version of the Zens. So I set about to find out a bit more information about them, and to order myself a pair. This is when I realized that Briko has, for all intents and purposes, dropped off the cycling map. While their website prominently displays the glasses, there seem to be almost no retailers actually selling them, and no pros seem to wear them any more. (What happened to the glory days when Pantani, Bartoli and Cipolini were never seen in anything other than a nice set of Brikos.) The only place that seemed reputable was eyeshop.com, located in France. A google search for the glasses turns up just about nothing. Half the results are in Japanese, and all the images available are commercial pics. I was hoping to find a review or some indication that someone actually owned a pair of these things. Nothing. Now, most people would say, “hey, I should probably get something a little more tested and less obscure.” Not me. I bought them immediately thinking of the immense Euro-cache that I would get from having these almost-completely-unavailable-sunglasses. Plus, I figured this post would rocket to the top of google searches for information on X-peeds, so that’s a plus for publicizing this blog.

Now, for my reactions to the glasses. I opted for the X-peed Duo. The only difference between the Duo and the Solo is that the Duo comes with an extra pair of lenses. Figuring the obscurity of these glasses, coupled with the fact that Briko doesn’t distribute in the US, I just went ahead and got the extra lenses. I don’t feel like organizing my thoughts tonight, so here’s a bulleted list:

• Aesthetically, they are a little less bug-eyed and a little more “ski-mask,” but still look pretty nice, I think. (For those of you who aren’t as big a fan of the bug-eyed look as I am, they probably look better.)
• The fit is a little more snug, but possibly a little less comfortable. The part that goes over your ear (I can’t believe I can’t think what that is called…) curves in a bit more, so there’s a bit of a pressure point behind the ear. Those sections, unlike on the zens, are hard plastic, so that adds to the pressure. I’ll let you know if it becomes an annoyance after a long ride…right now it still seems pretty comfortable.
• the lenses are one solid piece, but there is a plastic bridge that runs behind the lens in the middle. I think it’s kind of a nice touch.
• The plastic looks a little cheap. Not horrible, but it kind of reminds me of the plastic you’d expect on sunglasses from a gas station. But they are noticeably lighter, so that might be a plus.
• Lenses. Mine came with a dark (grey-brown) and light (pinkish) lenses. The pinkish seem to be for low-light applications. (I really know nothing about optics, so take the rest of this with a grain of salt.) They seem crystal clear. Maybe my old ones were just getting too scratched up, but these look really nice. (Don’t ask me about “polarization” or anything like that. I have no idea.)
• peripheral vision is as good or better than the zens. (Which was always a strong point for the zens.)
• they ship with an extra nose-guard! So when the one on there disintegrates in 10 years, I can pop on a new one. I’m excited about that feature, since if the nose-guard hadn’t died on the zens I probably wouldn’t have bought these in the first place.
• It comes with a very nice case, which will hopefully keep them nicer longer.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for, here are some pictures:

Every time we did Mark’s Rhode Island Smack Down (RISD) ride, I hobbled home after only 35-40 miles feeling like I had just been put through the proverbial wringer. The funniest part was that every time, Mark would finish the ride with some sort of comment to the effect of “jeez, you guys were killing me” or “I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep up some of the time”…but every time, the rest of us just looked around and scratched our heads. The person who had been making all of us suffer the whole ride was Mark, and pretty much Mark alone. On one ride, I lamented the fact that we didn’t have the (then new) Versus work-load calculator that shows the percentage work being done by various members of a breakaway. On the RISD rides, our work-load monitor would have shown that Mark was doing 75%, with the remainder of the 25% being done by the rest of us, who were only barely surviving. Mark, however, never saw it that way and sacrificed himself for the good of the group and to give us all the beating we clearly needed.

Just back at the end of March, Mark sheepishly downplayed expectations as we turned onto Mount Tom. As soon as the ridiculous pitches started however, the other three of us watched Mark calmly ride away, seated the whole time, as if 25% gradients held no particular fear for him.

And why should should they have? He was, at the time, silently battling a recurrance of his brain cancer he had beaten a few years back. Just 2 weeks ago, he was still leading the RISD ride and still making the rest of us suffer (except me, sadly, because Tuesday night rides no longer fit in my schedule). Mark, you will be missed.

Here is Mark Greve’s announcement on the Refunds Now page, and here’s his obituary.

Just north of the intersection with Branch Ave, there are some steep little hills on the eastern side of Charles St. (Only about 1/2 mile north of Circle A.) I pass these hills frequently on the way back from the Blackstone River Bikeway. Looking at them as I rode by, however, never really encouraged me to try them. Sure they looked pretty steep, but they also looked short and I was pretty sure the didn’t go anywhere. Brian mentioned to me that he had driven up Christoper St. and it had given his car some trouble. So I went up Sunday afternoon and gave it a closer look.

It’s actually slightly longer than it appears looking up from Charles. That is mostly because the 7.2% section in the map above can’t be seen because the initial section is so steep. Anyway, it’s roughly comparable to one of the east side hills. It’s just long enough that sprinting up it feels long, but short enough to not really cause any difficulties. However, once you get to the top, you then realize that you’re sitting on top of a rather impressive little geological feature. Running for maybe a mile between Charles and Smithfield Ave (126) is this little bump, which actually seems to be almost as high in elevation as the East Side. Looking east you realize how high up you are, and you have a pretty nice view of the East Side hills. The nicest climbs, however, are down the eastern side of the bump. Smart Street may be the hardest of them, but Seneca and Toledo which run parallel are also pretty nice. Here’s Smart Street:

That 20% section at the top is for real. It tops off at over 25%, but only for a few meters. All in all, the cluster of hills in this area are worth the trip, especially if you combine with doing the East Side hills, as I did this morning.

Yikes. That’s one tough course. I knew from the start I wouldn’t finish with the pack, so I really just wanted to feel like I put in a respectable effort at the end, and avoid crashing, flatting, etc. I did all that, so I’m happy.

Here’s my report.

first collegiate race in 10 years. Either the B’s have gotten faster, or they’ve always been faster on the east coast, or I’m not as good as I was back then. Pretty embarassing in fact. oh well…the full report is at the new refunds now blog (which isn’t really fully cooked yet, so I probably shouldn’t be linking to it, but oh well…)

It’s official. I’m out of shape. My time today on the hill circuit was 58:45, even with perfect luck on every light and intersection. (My previous best was 55:34.) There was a pretty tough wind from the northwest, but I couldn’t decide if that was going to be helpful or not. It made the descent down 123 very fast, but also made Wilbur and the rolling hills after Wilbur seem to take an eternity. That’s what I get for only riding once a week, or twice when i’m lucky.

I went back to Mount Tom on Saturday, and this time I took some teammates to see it as well. For all that I tried to prepare them, I was the only one who opted for lower-than-standard gearing. Last time I had a 24 tooth little ring, with a 13-26 cassette on the Gazelle. This time I took the Circle A w/ the 13-29 cassette (and a compact crank), which meant I’d be using a much higher gear than I did last time (24-26 v. 34-29), but still much, much lower than some of the others. Mark had a compact w/ probably a 25 for the low gear. Aaron had 39-25 for his lowest, and Marcus made due with 39-23. After all that, I ended up finishing 3rd. Mark left us at the bottom and made us all pretty much look like chumps. He seems to have done the whole climb seated, to boot. Marcus and I were pretty even for most of the climb. He lost traction and had to unclip on the sand right at the bottom, and gradually caught up with me. Marcus, Aaron and I all stopped to catch our breath about 3 or 4 times. The last time, Marcus started up again before I felt able to, and made up the last little bit of advantage I had, then leaving me a bit before the top. Aaron finished not more than a minute behind me. Then we rode back to Hadley where our car was parked and down the other side of the CT river to Mount Holyoke. We did that one twice and I was fourth both times.

All in all, even though I definitely did better on Mount Tom than last time, I’m not really pleased with my form. I’m about 10 pounds heavier than I’d like to be, and last summer I was beating Marcus up most hills, and Aaron, who is a great time-trialist and not generally known for climbing, really shouldn’t be beating me up a hill like Mount Holyoke. Anyway, I at least managed to get some photos this time, although you still can’t see just how tough the gradient is in most of these: