rbart4506

Seven days of no internet, sitting on the beach, drinking and eating, and experiencing a bit of the Dominican beyond the resort's border with my family! couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas

Now it's back to reality...

Fat Boy

A very good, if somber, read. https://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...-family_268919

shovelhd

It was a very tough day.

hammy56

Happy New Year

Fat Boy

I've thought about it since reading the article. Although we've never actually met, it doesn't surprise me at all that the guy who stopped was Aki. It took both the situational awareness of quickly recognizing it was a very bad crash, and the caring in a personal sense about his fellow racers. It's the kind of reaction that shows what a genuinely good person he is.

May 2013 be safe year for all of us.

kensuf

Thanks Hammy. Nice video.

Racer Ex 

Amen.

botto 

oh, i'm as tired as you are, my friend. bigest difference: i haven't been a www addict as log as you, nor have a been a parent as long as you.

that said - homey - you - grumpiness & all.

shovelhd

get a room

Creakyknees

the loss never stops hurting. 2012 was a very tough year for me too. Lucky 13 here we go.

echappist

Amen. That and a healthy and prosperous year to us all.

carpediemracing 

Thanks Fat Boy. You give me too much credit.

Having said that I never want to repeat that day, ever. Sometimes it still seems unreal, like seriously. I have a Markus Bohler sticker on my bike, two of them in fact (one put out by his team, another by some local racers that work for a large local bike company and therefore had access to print out such things on short notice). I was looking at them just today, while on my trainer. Looking at them helps ground me.

A safe year ahead to all.

roadiejorge 

Happy New Year guys! Hope your NYE was well spent. My wife and I had two events one more interesting than the other. The first was a parent "play date" with my daughter's former schoolmate which was a nice relaxing time chatting with other parents about all sorts of things; good time reminiscing NYC of old among other things. I dropped our daughter off at my MIL's then me and the mrs. went to a friend's NYE party. Now I've had many realizations about where I am in life regarding the things I find enjoyable and let's just say loud party's with jealous boyfriend/interloping parents of jealous boyfriends's girlfriend/forced party games are just not my thing anymore. Come to think of it they never were but my level of tolerance for nonsensical drama was a bit higher. Driving around Union City, NJ (a town I find incredibly depressing) looking for parking took about an hour so we greeted 2013 trying to find a spot to park. It wasn't so bad but I would have been ok ending the night with the first shindig we went to and spent the remainder of NYE at home with the mrs. and offspring.

botto 

clearly not.

Creakyknees

Happy Birthday RacerEx! And Happy New Year to all you racer types.

big john

Great NYD ride even though we couldn't go the last 5 miles to the summit because there was too much ice and snow on the road. Freakin' cold coming back down @ 45mph. Got to see some old friends and some of the regulars. Didn't see Kiddsisko, the last time I saw him was last Jan 1 up there.
An excellent way to start the year.

ridethecliche

Woke up in my new apt this weekend. It's a good feeling

topflightpro

I'd gotten used to sleeping in until 8 the last week and a half and getting up this morning at 4:30 to take my wife to the airport is starting to affect me. I am really dragging. It didn't help that I did not get much sleep last night. I don't know about you guys, but when I know I have to get up super early for a flight or something, I have a hard time sleeping.

But on the plus side, I was in the office by 6:45 and was able to go through all my built up email rather quickly, so I can probably leave around 4 and get a couple hours in on the trainer.

Creatre

Took 11 days off of work between the holidays and a couple burned pto days.

The plan as of beginning of December:
Go home, see the family, ride as much as possible. Sit on my butt and watch TV and movies as much as possible. Basically do nothing but mingle with family, eat, sleep, and ride.

Actuality:
Chaos but awesomeness. Was told at the last minute I needed to dog sit my moms 1 year old 80 pound poodle that is not house trained. First 2 nights I got about 2 hours of sleep each. Eventually about mid week found someone else to take care of the dumb thing. Then got set up by a friend with a girl and proceeded to see her most of the break, putting the cycling on the back burner. This created a lot less sleep and a lot less eating, I was getting the rides in but not focusing on recovery. Every ride I did was in the lower 40s temperature and pouring rain. Still had a blast and was totally worth it.

So in the end was still able to get in a solid 16.5hr week and now have a girlfriend. Funny how things work out.

valygrl

Any of you Florida guys want to help me out with some ride ideas? I'm visiting Jupiter FL next week, and will rent a bike.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...6#post15111336

kensuf

Yeah, go do the lemon shark dive. They're congregating in Jupiter until the end of February.

merlinextraligh

Not that familiar with Jupiter, but the next town down is Palm Beach. Riding around Palm Beach (the island itself, not West Palm) around the Breakers is pretty cool. Beautiful scenery, lovely expensive homes, and bike friendly roads.

From Palm Beach, you can make your way South along the coast, on reasonable roads (mostly with bike lanes IIRC) to at least Pompano Beach. We did a group ride from Palm Beach down the coast and back on a Saturday morning down the coast one weekend when we were staying at the Breakers. Lot of the local racers, but we just stumbled upon it, so I don't know precisely where they start or the exact time.

johnybutts

Just renewed my license for the race this weekend.

carpediemracing 

Tired from 4 days in a row of riding (and the last day I could only manage 30 min before I climbed off the bike). Instead of riding I renewed my racing license and Carpe Diem Racing's club account (to promote races). I don't want to jinx myself so I'm not starting work on Bethel until I hear the meeting went well. The meeting was this past evening. I hope to have USAC permit stuff filed over the weekend. If I can get that done then BikeReg will go live in a few weeks, maybe Feb 1.

Racer Ex 

I took a moment to reflect on the boat load of friends I've made online through BF and a couple of other lists over the years.

(insert sarcastic yet poignant comment here)

It was an accident. Screw all you people...