Preppin' for the tour

Forget Lance, forget Jan, Nicole and I have decided to give our substantial endorsement to Tyler Hamilton this year. By some accounts he has a shot at the jaundice jersey.

I was on my way down to Florida last summer when I stopped into a friends house and watched Tyler pull out a crazy stage 16 victory that left me with a buzz for about a week. You can still check out the clip of him finishing that stage here. He's my man this year.

The Widowmaker

OK, I'm now convinced this was no fluke. I first noticed this particular wind about two weeks ago when I was coming across the Queensboro into Manhattan. I ran into the same wind twice last week and it was there again this morning. That rises, for me anyway, to the level of reportable.

So there is this wind that sometimes blows west to east across the East River. I'm going to call it the Widowmaker - it's that evil!

In the mornings I head east on this little avenue in Queens and then do a u-turn to begin the mile-long climb over the Queensboro. On Widowmaker mornings I can feel it as soon as I turn around at the base of the bridge. "Oh no - not that again," is now the viceral response. I can't wait until I get to the "Bring it on" stage. A few weeks maybe.

Anyhow, this is one of those winds that is very thick - you can't slip through it. I scoot to the left, I scoot to the right, it's there. The impulse to get off and walk comes about half way up - at which point walking would probably be faster. Three quarters of the way up I start to get cotton mouth symptoms. Four fifths of the way my quads are in Dantes inferno, all sort of liquids and gasps are seeping out of my face and I'm barley going fast enough stay upright. I'm out of the saddle, I'm in the saddle, I'm in the same place I was 2 seconds ago, the wind is hell-bent on pushing me reverse.

I finally make it to the level part of the bridge, which now feels like a hill and I feel like collapsing on the handlebars. I look over at some flags in Manhattan and they are hanging lifelessly. "LIARS!"

Not Quite a Traitor

I had another eBay victory the other day. I picked up a new Surly track hub for my back wheel. This will allow me to use my 32 hole Velocity rim which I so dearly love. I had planned on using the Velocity rims as a pair, but when I got the bike the rear hub was 36 hole, so no dice.

This is the first non-American Classic hub that I have ever purchased. I've tried a bunch of others, but never really found anything that felt better that AmClassics - yum yum. But since AmClassic isn't making a rear track hub these days, it's all a brother can do.

eBay victory

Hey - I love eBay. Picked up this beautiful Colnago Precisa straight steel fork for my track bike this evening. I'm telling you what - you could save millions on eBay if you had the time to do it, or the need to spend millions on stuff.

One thing's fo-sure. I'll be the envy of all the bike-jackers as I cruise down the street to my undisclosed secure localtion.

NYC Public Transit

Since I've moved to New York (about a week ago now) I've found that getting around is really easy. These folks have trains and buses going every which way and you can get an unlimited subway pass for $21 a week. That's so cheap compared to DC, were you can't even buy a weekly pass. If you could buy one, it would cost something like $40 or $50, based on the partial day unlimited pass. But even with all of these affordable transit options, I still prefer my bike.

I found this puppy on eBay a few months ago. There is a fellow on there from Southern California who gets some good old-school bike and sells them pretty cheap. His username is cino59 if you're in the market. The only trouble I'm having here is getting over the Queensboro Bridge. The chainring on the front is a little too big for me (50) and that bridge is quite a climb - especially going from Manhattan to Queens. I think I need something smaller.