manhattan thursday

kickin' it with supah G tonight... we stopped in at marz for a few manhattans.

pizza, maudite, and red sidis

lis loves her new shoes.

coffee addicts

we need espresso. lis and i stopped by cultiva for a latte.

boats, hiboy tractors...

and kitties! :) it was a really great night for a ride. on my way to branched oak i stopped at that little bait shop at the corner of hwy 79 and west raymond road. as i munched on a snickers and drank a gatorade i noticed a few gatos were also having a snack. later while coming back to town on 79 i stopped to put on my lights and there was a little black and white gatito staring me down from the tree line.

tnmwr

it was a perfect evening to be out on the bike. there weren't too many peeps on the tuesday night mwc ride, but it was still fun.

the shoe man

friday afternoon... just running around downtown like usual. stopped in at the public to see what cool stuff jesse has in. along with shoes he even has a few bikes in there, like this old english ss he was riding around on out front.

flower power

heading out for a ride and i almost forgot to water the lovely b-day bouquet that kate brought me on tuesday. yes, even a rugged guy like me can appreciate flowers. thanks again kate :)

cumpleaños bike posse

lis, gina, kate and i heading for dinner. the best way to spend an evening for sure is riding bikes with a few friends, followed by stuffing ourselves with delicious indian food and going through a few bottles of good wine. thanks ladies for a nice birthday evening :)

hey kate

kate came down from omaha to ride bikes and help me celebrate getting old.

lady roadies

while at oso i saw gina and lis riding by. they had just got back from a ride out to branched oak lake. keep it up ladies!

ode to P-R

though it's been many many years since i've been in a road race and have no desire to do so again, and am quite content being a recreational rider just who rides for fun, i still follow the sport, though mostly just the european scene. this sunday one of the most storied one-day races of the calendar takes place. apart from the tour de france, paris-roubaix was one of the first big races i learned about when i was a teenager just getting into cycling, probably because it's always on or very close to my birthday. so along with everyone else i'll be watching the 'queen of the classics' with keen interest on sunday. p-r is a great race with a lot of drama and history. one of the best ones i think, with the greatest show of bravado... was the one and only edition the great bernard hinault raced it. it was 1981, he was world champion and made no bones about how he hated the race. but to honor the rainbow striped jersey he decided he needed to do it once, win it, and get it over with. as always it was one hell of a race, and he dominated it in a way the likes of which we don't see anymore. he always rode at the front and dared anyone to attack, and if they did he'd chase them down on his own. toward the very end though he was almost done in by a black dog, and yet he still managed to chase back on and get right to the front to lead the sprint in the velodrome. so this sunday i think i'll go ride some gravel (i wish we had a few cobbled paths here in nebraska like they have in france) for a few hours and then maybe open a bottle of wine afterwards.

rogue chocolate stout

perfect for a rainy day.

heading for dinner

after checking out the centurion (unfortunately it was a bit too tall) we headed for some dinner. the north 48th street el chaparro got the nod, and off we went into the sunset.

then there were four

holly and i were still downtown when lis called. she wanted to go check out this nice old centurion she saw on craigslist, so we arranged a rendezvous and headed east. gina came too.

hello holly

yes, yours truly likes to ride with the ladies. my friend holly came down from omaha and she brought her newly acquired late 80's vintage bianchi axis with her so she could try it out on the lincoln streets. she named her new steed selena. we headed downtown so she could buy a good lock at mwc and then ride around a bit. holly also was wearing her new boots that she bought at the blackmarket the day before. i thought they looked super hip, and she said they were super comfy for riding too. we had to get some pics (... for fashion purposes ofcourse) so we went down to the old RR station in the haymarket for some rugged urban ambience.

thursday bike stroll

though i really wanted to jump in with the ladies on the inaugural GBN, i went on a spin on my own through some neighborhoods. it sure looks like they had fun... waytago lis and gina for starting it up. i hope they get more girls on bikes to join them.