Picked up the album "Saxophone Collossus" by Sonny Rollins the other day. Great stuff.

Cycling in Eugene

This weekend I am taking my son for a campus visit and audition for a teaching assistantship at the U. of Oregon in Eugene. This town is listed by Bicycling Magazine as one of the top cities for cycling in the U.S. I was thinking of renting a bike while in town and have been checking their bike shops and bike clubs for equipment and for group ride listings.

I found this ride sheet for December and January. It is extremely well organized - not at all like the rides around here. Is this a good thing or a bad thing - should we be imitating it, or keep it loose like we already are doing? Sometimes it seems like some of the local rides are a little too loose - we always leave late because we're still negotiating the route. The other nice thing is that people know exactly what they are getting as far as matching the ride with their speed, how much climbing they want to do, route distance, etc. The club website that I got this from is here.

(click to enlarge)

BTW - it is going to be 52 degrees and sunny in Eugene on Saturday.

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Unusual Cyclist

Do you suppose that he complains to other dogs about humans chasing him when he goes for a ride?

Breaking Away

At this Saturday's session in Monsignor Tucker's gym, rather than watching training videos from the Spinervals or CTS series, we watched the 1979 movie "Breaking Away".  I hadn't seen that movie in a long time - it is a classic that stands the test of time.

While watching and spinning, I had time to make several observations:

1) There were seven men there and two women present.  I was the only one with hairy legs.

2) The guys were mostly racer types - some on rollers, some on trainers.  I can't believe how easy they made it look getting on and off the rollers.  If I were going to use rollers, I think that I would need two walls on either side and I would wear a helmet and body armor.

3) Just because a cyclist looks incredibly fluid and strong on a bicycle, that does not mean that they will look fluid and strong in the post-session basketball game.

4) I have yet to get dropped on these indoor rides.  Of course, I have also not taken a pull.

5) The music during the road race scene with team Cinzano from the movie is the Overture to Barber of Seville - recorded at 180 beats per minute, which makes for a nice 90 rpm cadence on the bike.

6) In the famous scene from the movie where the kid racer is drafting the truck at 60 mph - he is in his small chainring.  Talk about a need for a high cadence - you can see this below if you pause at the 3:01 mark.

Trombone God

How's Your Cadence?

These guys seem to be pretty smooth :)

TdN Route Announced

Looks like we are heading to northeast Nebraska this year - Platte City, Tilden, Bloomfield, Ponca, and West Point are the host towns.  Tour de Nebraska website and registration form is here.