familiar faces

on my way south i came upon al and his daughter shannon. i call him 'father BRAN' (or he's known as the BRAN man to most) because he's ridden in every edition since BRAN started in '81. i met them both in '06. she's ridden on BRAN with her dad since she was 9.


i also ran into sue from bend oregon at the sag stop in orleans. sue is 75, and has traveled all over the world on solo and group bike tours. in '06 she rode a bit with sydney and i one day, and i remember her sharing a few good stories in a bar later that night in maywood as a thunderstorm blew through. she's a firecracker, and i hope i can ride as strong as she does when i'm 75.

heading out of cambridge

day 2 was probably the best of the whole week. absolutely a perfect day for the 64 mile jaunt down to alma. i started out with breakfast (oatmeal) at shirley K's cafe in downtown cambridge. this was my second visit, as BRAN passed through here in '06.

day 1 - trenton to cambridge

a strong headwind and grey skies greated us on the first day. we stopped at the massacre canyon monument just outside of trenton, and then did some site seeing in mccook. we also made one stop to do some group stretching.

tent city

ok, so more about BRAN last week. it started in trenton this year, and being a ways out west the only difficult part about BRAN is getting to the start. there is a shuttle available but usually you can just bribe some friends to drive you, your camping gear, and bike(s) out to the start town. i was lucky because i was hitching a ride with my friend brent and his parents volunteered for the job. after a stop in brent's home town of aurora for a delicious lunch, connie & greg drove us to trenton and helped us unload. on the drive there i asked connie to help me name my corsa. being a native of bogota, she suggested cochise (but pronounced in spanish... 'co chee say'), which was the nickname of the colombian cyclist martin emilio rodriguez. we even share the same birthdate, april 14th, so cochise it is.
on the way there we stopped in lexington because connie and greg (and myself included) insisted that brent have a tent. he didn't want one, as he was just going to use a rain fly held up with twine between two trees and use twigs or whatever he could find for tent stakes. he likes to rough it, in the spirit of george nellis (of an american cycling odyssey, 1887, which i plan to read soon) he said. i admire anyone who goes the minimal route, but there was a good chance we were going to get a lot of rain that week so connie bought him a kid pup tent at wal-mart. it's not a bad little tent for $20. after setting up camp we headed over to the grandstand for the opening meeting. it was a good crowd, i had heard there were around 635 participants this year. i was rider #614.

BRAN '09 is in the books

BRAN is over and it was epic (lot's of wind and rain), but i had a great time because i was with a fun group of old and new friends. i'll be posting more pics soon.

invading mccook

the schnert bakery was closed, but we were able to check out the frank lloyd wright house.

on the road to BRAN

listening to manu chao as we make our way to trenton for the start of BRAN. brent's volvo is sweet, leather seats make for comfy interstate cruising.

artwalk

ben moving pieces over to his studio at the parrish. the gallery openings should be real fun tonight.

shakedown

i put some miles on the corsa for the first time today. i even rode it on a mile or two of gravel, just to see what it felt like and to make sure everything was tight. she probably weighs 2-3 lbs more than my carbon bianchi, but it's way more comfy that's for sure. it felt like an old friend... and took me back to the late 80's when i raced on a similar frame (which i still own). i'm leaving saturday for BRAN along with a group of friends. though some rain is forcasted, it still should be a good time.

burritos, jarrito sodas, and crits

perfect day for taking in some bike racing.

going old school

building up a new ride... well a new 'old' ride actually. i'm doing BRAN this year, and i want to have a comfortable bike set up for it. for me that means a steel frame. the last time i went i rode a surly pacer, this year it's something a bit classy. it's euro, lugged, and circa 89'/90' vintage... it's gonna ride sweet. it will be able to handle anything. we'll see if the fun tour turns into a race again like it did in '06.

purple

getting a few cheese quesadillas at the d'leons on south street with lis and ande.

good morning ladies

slowly but surely we all woke up, except holly. we found her on the porch swing still fast asleep. hopefully she enjoyed her last weekend in lincoln. after waking up sleeping beauty, we then headed for breakfast. thanks for coming down ladies... come back soon! good luck in chicago ms. elle, keep in touch.

cuatro chicas

leslie, melissa, holly, and monika... getting ready to head out for afterhours, which would include negra modelos, quesedillas from d'leons, and dancing to david byrne at 3am.

tres chicas

some lovely ladies came down from omaha to hangout and ride bikes this weekend. the L sistas holly and monika, and leslie (the artist known for her sounding stones, which caused some controversy up in the big O a while back) wanted to meet up, ride downtown, and hit a few bars. on my way to rendezvous with them it started to rain. not having rain jackets, i found them taking shelter under the awning of the mexican bakery on 11th and G. they were quite content waiting out the rain whilst consuming coffee and delicious flan. a short while later melissa showed up too.

shiiiiiit

avery and i headed out to branched oak for a ride. after completing one lap i unclipped my right foot to stretch my leg a bit and then i couldn't clip back in. upon closer inspection i found that the retention spring broke. major bummer, time for new pedals i guess. it sure made the ride back to lincoln a slow one.

here's to tailwinds

i hooked up with tanya this afternoon for a ride. the 20-30 wind gusts from the south made for a good workout, and ofcourse when we turned around and headed north through the denton alps it made for some fast fun. i was trying to get tanya to hit 45mph on some of the downhill sections... we only got to 42.3 but there's always tomorrow.

number 6 to win

lis, brent, and i rode to state fair park to take in some horse racing. i bet on four or five races and found out that i need to learn more about picking a good horse, but i had fun though. mas fotos by lis.

coal cars

album cover

if we were a band this would indeed be our first album cover. we'd need a name though... lis balked at my suggestion of 'gears for fears'. anyways, another afternoon was made even better by friends and bikes. yo mart, i hope you've enjoyed your time in the states. we plan to ride bikes and hangout again, but in belgium and in the spring. after some infamous belgian steak et frites and a few rounds of good belgian beer we'll step outside to watch the big race.

bicis y búfalos

lis and i took mart out for a spin this afternoon. we headed out to pioneer's park so mart could see some buffalo.

bici mart

mart is enjoying his biking time before he leaves nebraska in a few days.

late night shenanigans

lis, mart, and i heading for afterhours breakfast. being from belgium, i felt that the only cap in my collection i could give mart was a quick step one. he liked the cap a lot, and he said that back home everyone is talking about boonen and his latest mess.

"that won't get you there"

by kimberly brown, oil on canvas - 2009. kim had her final showing for her BFA. some of her paintings are inspired by the cycling she has done, and this one in particular recalls a moment a few years back when she was on a tour on the west coast with a few friends. one of their frames broke and they had to find a replacement somewhere. anyways, along with being an artist she's just a really cool gal all around. congrats kim!

swedish colors

after some delicious dinner last night at the blue O, i got right to building this up into a fixie for lis. as soon as she settles on a particular set of bars, we have some deda bar wrap that will match the blue pretty close, it should look pretty sweet.

cinco de moustache

i was having a brew and a slice of pizza downtown and caught the girls heading out on their GBN numero cuatro. nice touch with the staches ladies.

heading for breakfast

good morning miss sunshines. after a late night on the town with las hermanas, which involved hitting a few bars and catching a UUVVWWZ show at the box (you know a lead singer like ms. teal is awesome not only because of her voice but also because she rides a bike), we woke up early to head downtown and watch the marathon. afterwards we headed for breakfast at the green gateau where eric joined us. i had the huevos rancheros and it was quite delish! stuffed and happy, we then rode around a bit enjoying the perfect weather. what a great weekend!

hey hilary

hilary on her peugeot. she came down to sit in with me on my radio show on KZUM. we did kind of a cinco de mayo themed show and i think it sounded pretty good. thanks for stopping by hilary, feel free to come by again anytime :)

hermanas

ms. elle and her sis monika came down from omaha to kick it, and they brought their bikes. sweet!

mohawk is in town

johnny mo is in town.... and he brought gigi. she's still learning to stay in the trailer.