I was paging through
VeloNews.com this morning, and was glad to see that Floyd Landis and his new team are
having a training camp in SoCal, and seem to be enjoying themselves pretty well. (After all this time, I still don't know if Floyd was guilty. However, he's an amazing rider, passionate about the sport, and, from everything I've heard from people who've met him, a decent guy. I wish him well -- as long as he doesn't take the
ToC from
Levi, who I'd love to see get a
trifecta.)
The part of the story I loved the most was that Floyd led the team on a ride up one of his beloved mountain bike climbs in the area. On their $6,000, featherweight, 23-mm-tired road bikes. Here they are starting the climb:
And, funniest of all, here's the team car, trying to follow them:
Can't you just hear Floyd at the front, yelling, "Hey, guys, isn't this fun?" while the team car bottoms out, spins its wheels, and gets dropped at the bottom of the mountain?
My folks have a farmhouse in upstate new york where the terrain is just absolutely gorgeous for just about everything, including cycling. Lots of 10mph climbs and 40mph descents, all past rolling fields full of cattle and waves of corn. So often I'll just take the bike out on these roads and get lost on purpose. One day I was feeling particularly ambitious and took the Raleigh out for a many-mile loop with a 19mm tubular up front at 160psi (I *love* descending). After a few solid climbs I ended up on the home stretch, about 3 miles from home. I took a turn down a road that I knew let out near the house, and almost immediately it turned into a single-track-esque series of climbs, with rocks the size of my helmet, losing traction with regularity at every ripple in the terrain.
ReplyDeleteWhile it convinced me that cross might be my calling, I felt it in my shoulders all week.
De.Corday, you should ride with Floyd!
ReplyDeleteMy folks have a place in the southern Catskills (Ulster County). Where are your folks?
They're about 20 minutes west of Cooperstown, in Otsego County, about 45 minutes north of Oneonta. Beautiful old dairy-farm country. Aboslutely frigid up there about now, but I just can't wait until spring.
ReplyDeleteDC, I know the area. I've been to a few Oneonta Yankees games (they're a minor league team for some other club now, I believe)at the beautiful little field in Oneonta. Beautiful up there!
ReplyDelete