Project one...meet your match

Well with Lance, Horner and Levi beating up on the locals this week in New Mexico (eightplustwo.com), i felt it appropriate to break some exciting news from Wisconsin, the land of cheese and some tricycle company called Trek? During the LANCE TDF OMG OMG OMG years, there was always a fairly large hype surrounding the new bikes that said tricycle company, gave said rider, before said race. I for once in my life have the first photo of the new bike former Team Astana will be riding this year at the start of the tour in July. With the continuing downward spiral of the world economic market, Kazakstans government will no longer be able to fully support the team. Never fear though, new sponsors have swarmed in to fill the void...

I present to you the Mellow Johnny's pb Anheiser Busch/Pabst Team bike...word is some dude from Schneckakentucky has this one already spoken for.

Tour de Epherta

So my rest week got turned around on Tuesday when my team needed guys for the Tour de Epherta.  With an 80mi rr and great weather i figured it would be a good ass whooping, getting me one step closer to not sucking at Fitchburg in July.  Road race was super stop and go with 100+ guys squeezed because of yellow line rule.  I was feeling good but just was dehydrating at an astonishing rate.  When i saw Melcher and Whitman come off on lap 4 of 6 i knew i wasnt the only one feeling the heat.  Shortly there after though gaps opened up in the feed zone on lap 5 with a certian team drilling it through the feed zone...again (SUCH a douchey move).  I got with a group of guys and finished.  When i was done my entire face was covered in salt.  I wish i had a picture as it was pretty grizzley looking.  

Heather again proved why she kicks ass.  When i got home I showered, went downstairs and what do i see but Italian take out !@$#@!.  Nothing like just inhaling pasta after a super hard day on the bike.  Followed that up with a massage and i hoped my legs would recover pretty good for Sunday.  

The heat was even more opressive on Sunday.  I hadnt done a TTT since last year during collegiate season.  The course was all about the first 4 miles as it was super fast and the last 4 miles was a wall which noone was really gonna gain time on especially if you were on a tt bike.  We rotated well and my legs felt super good.  Kevin, Tim, and I were the last men standing at the end of it.  Props to Nick for coming home from the road race on sat cooked, then working till 2am and racing on sunday.  Late day crit is where i finally met my end as my body just shut down and i had zero snap to my legs.  The past two weeks my handeling has been pretty cruddy and i def need some hard rest this week to recharge the mind and body.  Good luck to everyone doing Turkey Hill and Memorial Hall.  Im heading up to State College Friday night to check out PSU kick ass at the ECCC championships this weekend.

Warm weather, cold beer, and a whole lotta bike riding

Yeah Friday!

This has been a fun week thus far.  Monday was a nice chill cruise with a real nice lunch ride to cap it off.  No derby for me this week.  Took the Gf's mother out for a bday dinner.  For about a second at dinner i wished i was at the derby.  Then i realized i had two beautiful women next to me, a nice steak, and beer. 

Worlds was by far the sketchest thing ive seen in quite awhile which was made even worse with the wind which made it impossible to get anything going off the front.  Told myself before hand to take it "easy" and not go all kamakazie.  Went ballistic early on, with only 2 points to show for it decided to just shut it down and sit in for the rest of the night.  Only annoyance this week is moving up/dying and stayin close on the S turn.  Everyone at some point has snuck up on the S turn but the place to do it is at the top not in that final bend before you come down because it causes a massive squeeze play.  Worst is guys that are coming back from an attack, work, blown whatever and stay stupid close to the field and are dead in the water.  If youre a dead stick, just pull over to whatever side the field isnt on and hop on at the back allowing clear lanes for those in the field. 

Today is gonna be a nice 2 hour or so spin followed by a coffee shop somewhere.  Racing at Soyoco and lower prov this weekend then its rest week time.  Next thursday if they do that odd ball loop at the fitness park, I'm grabbing a lawn chair and a beer and watching cause its gonna be interesting.  Good luck to everyone doing Battenkill and any racing this weekend.

Cheers,

Smolko

Friday...full of FUN!

What a kick ass week thus far.  With no racing this weekend, its like just going out and riding like a ten year old.  Wed derby was alright this week.  Not a ton of people, tailwind, and bam bam and blea-ive made for a super fast ride back.  Tried to set up Dave 1k wonder Espinoza for the sprint but couldnt close the gap to lead him out.  Thursday Worlds was just crazy this week. I refer you to www.eightplustwo.com for further reading on the matter.  Frustrated, when i take two multi lap solo flyers and the field just watches me, with no one bridging up, only to be chased down by the "Chinese" National Team.  Today i rolled my creaky body over to SMC for a super cool ride from Emmaus to Easton, and back.  Bowman took us on some sweet single track (On road bikes mind you), had coffee, then time trialed on the rail trail back home.  I was pretty jacked when i got back home but that was some of the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time.  Looks the weather has greatly improved for tomorrow.  Hopefully a good amount of people show up for the Saturday ride with a stop at The Market Cafe afterwards.  Hope everyone has a great weekend and a great fuzzy bunny day.

Cheers,
Smolko


Random:

-Yeah i started riding because of LA in 99, but on that note alotta stuff hes done since then has made me not such a fan.  I am also not such a fan of this cult like following (See 8+2) that has grown.  If/when he would admit to using anything other than a CTS special twinkie, it would make all the "stuff" kinda seem mute eh?  
Like Ghandi..."Be the change you wish to see in the world"

-Also anyone that pays money for this video is in need of a stright jacket.
-OF COURSE GEORGE HINCAPIE IS LATINO!@#!@$  Kinda reminds me of a 16 year old girl going on about how cool the lint on her shirt is, the sky, and anything else that flys through her brain.

In search of...bread???

Two posts in one day?

Well, I thought I would write something non cycling related on here for once. Ryan Smolko thinks about other things than bikes? I just finished up a great book, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Ecology and education are two of my interests as people have become less understanding of the relationship each has with the other. As a cyclist (You knew it was coming back to it), I think of myself as a fairly healthy individual who takes notice of what he eats and as such tries to eat "healthy" things yet i cant name squat on what foods are native to this area. Though eating things I perceive as healthy, I used to rarely if ever look at the labels to their ingredients. A great example is bread...

I began my quest today after my class to go to a Giant and find REAL bread. Ok before you x this and say Smolko is out of his effing mind, I dare you to go into your kitchen and read the ingredients on your bread. Id bet a case of beer that there is at least 10 ingredients in it, with 5+ of which you cant pronounce the name of, and hf corn syrup/soy oil in there too. That doesn't sound like bread to me and before 1973 it wasn't. It was labeled imitation bread when you walked into a supermarket (Hence wonder bread...because its not really bread). With a good bit of pressure from the food industry and moms complaining they couldn't eat enough the Nixon administration dropped the FDA mandate that imitation food products be labeled as such. Now you just see in very small print, natural and artificially flavored. If you walked into a supermarket and saw things like Sure Shine Imitation Bread, wouldn't you be at least a little put back about just what you're buying.

Welcome to the nutrient lacking food we now eat today but highly rich in weird names as we will see...

I like to pick on Sara Lee because she seems like the type of girl to bake you delicious pie in 10 seconds then go at it hot n heavy for 10 hours later, just that kind of amazing wonder woman. But in the dear Ms. Lees kitchen...do you think she had...

Ingredients for Sarah Lees bread:Stone ground whole wheat flour, water, high fructose corn syrup, wheat gluten, yeast, contains 2% or less of each of the following: salt, soybean and/or cottonseed oils, brown sugar, vinegar, honey, wheat bran, soy lecithin, yeast nutrients (monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate), corn starch, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides), calcium propionate (preservative).

Ingredients for a normal loaf of bread: Yeast, Water, Flour, Sugar, and Salt

...And that's in the 100% Heart Healthy Whole Wheat Bakery Classic. Something tells me it isn't so healthy after all. In the end the only bread i could find in the entire Giant that was in fact bread was a few loafs of artisan bread.

Ill be writing about a whole host of different food topics from time to time on top of my cycling antics but this is just a sampling.

Cheers

Case of the Mondays:

Seriously who came up with Mondays?

It feels good to have the first full week of the offical racing season in the books.  Wednesday derby got rained out which meant that it was gonna be a full on first Thursday night crit of the year.  After the second sprint i followed DeWald, Ponch, and a few other guys as we were going through the s turns when i see a junior kids tire blow, then promptly threw anchor and crash. Sometimes I'm glad that i started out in mountain biking because there is another instance of those skills saving my ass after some riding in the grass i was back going again. Overall a good night, got some points, and got some good work in.  One thing that really bugged me is some guys blowing steam at younger kids.  We have all been there at some point or another following someone who is all over the place.  It is one thing to come aside them and tell them to chill out and not be a snake on a bike but screaming at them is only going to make them tense and ride much worse.
Onto Philly...

What a crazy day to say the least.  First off, I am nobody in the cycling world locally to say the least.  There are alotta guys who are duh, way faster and with way more experience.  With that being said, I've done my fair share of racing and have been blessed to go to a few national championship races.  I should know how to not let my nerves get the best of me but Saturday they definitely did.  I was so psyched out that i never warmed up (I shoulda known when Joe Whiteman was on a trainer!) even nearly as much as i should have, with 45+mph gusts and a stacked field, it was going to be full gas the whole time.  I felt like 

i was putting out the whole time just to sit in and a little over mid way through the race as Geronimo and Blea strung out the field a crash happened and alotta guys just sat up and called it a day leaving gaps everywhere which spelled the end of my day.  I was pissed that i couldn't help my teammates, who were busting balls at the front.  It's not easy trying to find your place on a team that is that good and tight knit and Sat was not the start i wanted.  I was happy to hear that Tim got in the break at Lemon Hill.

Went out to the Derby on Sunday which prolly wasnt the smartest idea but i needed to blow off some frustration.  Settled in and did some rotating but otherwise just tried to stay outta the wind. Money was riding back into Emmaus and chilling out with Brad, Dan, and a few others at SMC afterwards with some great espresso as always. C

ame home showered up and went to Liberty Bell to get some brew.  Made a semi mistake in buying a case of Sam Blackberry Witbier.
Stuff is ok but a little too fruity for my taste but with warm weather finally here it is a good change.  It's amazing how a few beers and a good round of zZzZz can rejuvenate the body.  Got a test tonight and with GRE's coming up at the end of the month it's time to crack the books wide open.  Have a good day all...

Smoolllkooo

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