In the spirit of the non committal tone of my teammates...I'm "probably" doing the triangle ride Sunday. 

Was planning on Sunday until I got the flu.

Was planning on Sunday until I got the fat. Again. Damn.

Gwynna Smith said:

Marc, come to Lewis Morris on Sunday! The fat (which I so very highly doubt, but whatevs) will keep you warm! And it's always warmer in the trees!

Interesting option. How do you get to and fro? And do they have CX-able trails?

Lewis Morris has excellent trails...raced there many times in the mid 90's

Hmm...well something to consider for the future. This weekend I'll stick to the roads.

unless something crazy happens, I hope to be at the Cunningham trails tomorrow at around 11. 67th street entrance

I'll be at BB at 8am Sunday to join JP and his posse of noncommittal and fat friends for a ride to Rockland Lake. I'll be sporting fenders... and a beanie hat.

Think I'm ready for tomorrow's ride...layer cake

twoyacks said:

Think I'm ready for tomorrow's ride...layer cake

Two things that strike me about this picture. One, if I did a similar thing, I'd probably be late less often to rides! (Don't worry folks, I'm going to be on time tomorrow. Making teammates waiting in 18 degrees is not only rude, but cruel. (I'm rarely both at the same time.)

But also, so many layers on top? I realize everyone has their own thermometer, and dressing styles, and that Yacks has plenty of years of experience and knows what's what, but I personally find just one, maybe two layers under a thermal jacket is good for even 18 degree starts. Not to mention, that it might be close to 30 by 1pm.

I guess, I just want to warn our "newer to riding in winter" riders, in case they haven't heard this advice yet, that by over-dressing you risk sweating too much, getting wet, then...well game over.

If I'm snuggly and warm when I leave the apartment building, I know I've over-dressed. But if I'm a little chilly and take about 10-15 minutes to warm-up, then I'll be good to go. Sunshine v cloudy days makes a huge difference in how I dress even if the air temps are supposedly the same.

(Hands and feet are an exception to my "be a little chilly when I first leave the apartment" rule. Those should be pretty warm to start, then they will chill a bit, then warm up again. I actually experience this weird warm/cold/warm cycle with my hands several times through the duration of a 4 hour ride. Sometimes I get it, other times, I don't understand why, but I don't freak if there's a "random" period of 20 minutes where my hands are uncomfortably cold, because more often than not, they warm again. Never a bad idea to bring a second pair of dry gloves on a longer ride)

the hand a feet warmers are a game day decision.  On top I'm running a neoprene headband/ear cover, a lyrca skull cap, glove liners, winter gloves, jersey, arm warmers, a long sleeve jersey, a very thin long sleeve wind breaking jersey, a wind vest and my Kissena winter jacket.  If you keep your heart warm...your body will not move blood away from your extremities (hands and toes) towards your heart.  I will be going out later say 11:00 as this gives the sun a chance to do it's convection thing.  I will be riding alone so no draft or shelter from the wind...but this gives me the freedom to ride as slow as I please.  I don't need to be hammering right now.  Every layer I wear will wick sweat....if I get hot I can remove clothes...but if I get too cold, I'm screwed. When it is this cold out...you want to be as comfortable as possible.  I got caught in a freak hail/snow storm last year wearing cotton gloves and came dangerously close to frost bite = never again.

Bailing on the BB/GWB ride and heading out to Prospect Park around 9.

JP, Patrick and I were the lone gunmen out in the wild west of a chilly, cloudy ride to Rockland Lake. Good ride, pressure on the pedals most of the day. Patrick shared his homemade rice cakes (yum). We hit the usual climbs but took them at civilized pace. We all had assorted excuses as to why we couldn't hammer. And that was good, gave more time for chatting and being social. FWIW, the Rockland Lake bathrooms were open and heated. About 48 miles bridge-to-bridge.

My fake PowerCal HR strap powermeter says I hit 2048 watts, which means I'll be waving at all you suckers from the Champs-Elysees this year.

It was pretty dry and clear out there. Pretty easy to stay warm. Was 27 degrees on the return trip down 9W. Hopefully we'll see more of you out there for some group ride fun in future weeks. In addition to the usual bullshit talking, we spent some time talking about the upcoming road season and shared with each other some of our ideas and goals.

One of the things that makes a team a team, is a good open line of dialog about our ideas and goals about the racing season. More often than not, guys like to keep things open-ended, and that's fine, but others have very specific goals and by sharing them with your teammates it puts everyone in a better position to potentially help that rider meet his or her goals.

At the very least, you have an idea of what is going through their heads as they attack of the front of some race. Please try and plan to do a few group rides this winter with your teammates, so at least you can get to know each other a bit before spring racing season starts up. It's also important for good team racing to have an understanding of what each other is capable. This also will help with pre-race planning.

I know that group rides often don't fit into your individual training plans, and as such, I wouldn't expect everyone to be out every weekend for the Sunday group ride, but it is important to ride with your teammates. And looking at the calendar, there are about 8 Sundays left before the traditional start of the spring racing season.

P.S. My post above in no way is meant in any other way than as a reminder that Sunday is a Kissena group ride day and is available if you want it. Effort level depends on the composition of the group, but always starts out easy to moderate for mostly flat ride out to Piermont then splits up into varying groups from there. The coffee shop stop is one, the turn back on 9W for temp back to the bridge another, and usually one longer/harder option to Rockland Lake for those looking for a little climbing fun.

count it

Eloy this is what that scene looks like in the Spring...Spring of 1996 (pay no attention to the pumpkin headed lad in the foreground).

^what's that giant freakish THING coming out of your shirtsleeve?!?

The hell you think hoss.... fairings...80 mm rounded profiles are all the rage in the wind tunnel....

twoyacks said:

Just a reminder...without pics and a Strava file it's like the ride never happened....bit nipple on Long Island today...

https://app.strava.com/activities/239867974

So you put on your fancy pants wheels and you still noodled for 57 miles?  

Awesome
On Jan 11, 2015 10:33 PM, "mugwump" <

JP, are those "gradients" accurate? I have trouble believing that parts of water-tower climb are only 2.1% at the steepest. Or maybe my brain needs to recalculate what 2.1% is? Even stateline, in my mind is a 5% ish climb.

Marc Bertucco said:

JP, are those "gradients" accurate? I have trouble believing that parts of water-tower climb are only 2.1% at the steepest. Or maybe my brain needs to recalculate what 2.1% is? Even stateline, in my mind is a 5% ish climb.

Marc, you might need to dig in a little.  The water tower climb goes up to 16% in sections, and there are a few spots towards the top where it flattens.  Stateline goes up to 10% in sections, but flattens in others.

So glad Myles the groundhog has popped his head out of the ground...looks like 6 more weeks of winter.

Indeed indeed. I need to jump in on your rides badly, one because moar
riding, and two, your emanating hot air will definitely envelop a small
group of us keeping us toasty roasty.

Any plans for some weekend KCC rides on LI? I'm here in Texass digging
out from the nationals debacle
On Jan 12, 2015 10:49 AM, "twoyacks" <

Nationals...that was a shit sandwich...yack rides on the weekends on long island...like all the time.