Picture This

Leah Nisbet (Jon Nisbet's wife) has been acting as our team photographer for the last couple of years. Not to be mistaken with Ramone Photography who is one of our sponsors and does great studio work (as well as weddings). Leah's interest in photography has grown and now she is trying to branch out a little more. She has started a photo blog and she is anxious to get any experience she can. So if you need a photographer contact here. For the time being she is working for donations. Here is some of her action shots:



Check out more work by her at Journey Through Life Blog.

What I would have said.

Last night I went to the Virginia Beach City Council meeting to show support for funding on the expansion of the bike race course/track at the Sportsplex. I think it was great for many riders and racers to show up from many different teams. Tom Coghill from TBA spoke on behalf of the riders. I appreciate all the work that man has done for cycling in this region. Tom is very passionate about this stuff and I fully agree with some of his reasons to get this track built. At some point, though, I felt embarrassed for being there in support of this. Here's what was said:

• Too many cyclist get hit by vehicles in the City of Virginia Beach.
• Too many health issues are related to sedentary lifestyles and these can be fixed by suppling a safe location for young cyclist to get into the sport.
• The City spends too much money on things that are truly unimportant.

At the point that Tom seemed to be personally attacking the Council members was the point that I started to feel uncomfortable. I love the City of Virgina Beach. I like the fact that we are expanding a large Town Center and attracting larger hotels and businesses to our oceanfront. I have no desire to live in small town USA and am excited about the growth of our city. So I agree that the council spends a lot of money to try and increase the status of the city. But whats unimportant to us could be vitally important to another citizen. Tom mentioned many city projects that were a waste of money..but maybe they are a waste to Tom only. If the city wanted to build a stadium used exclusively for ping pong many cyclist would cry out saying it was a waste of money...but what if your life was focused around ping pong. There are many citizens who feel $350,000 spent on a bike course is a waste of money. Actually if you took a pole, more citizens of the Beach would probably vote against it then for it. So trying to shame the council into excepting it was not what I would have done.

What I would have said:

• According to USA Cycling there are 7 cycling teams who list Virginia Beach as their home location.
• In 2007 there were 40+ races (including training races) in the state of Virginia, 0 of them were held in Virginia Beach. Which means all 7 of those local teams left the city and spent their money somewhere else each weekend.
• In 2008 after the crit course was built at the Sportsplex, over 20 races will be held in Virgina Beach (including training races). Which means the other 27 teams that call Virginia their home will come into the City of Virginia Beach and spend their money here.
• Of those 7 teams that call Virgina Beach home, think about the number of riders those teams represent and think of the businesses in which support those teams. I don't have specific figures on this but if we compiled a list of Virginia Beach based businesses who would love to see riders wearing their logos locally, we would probably have a very influential list.

So although I appreciate the effort of those who spoke, I just don't agree with the tactics. There were many angry citizens who did nothing but criticize the Council and I felt we were not very disconnected from those individuals.

I know what some of you are thinking and I agree. I don't have room to talk because I did not speak at the meeting. I was there in a support role and didn't even think about talking. This is me simply being the Wednesday quarterback.

But anyway we had a pretty good showing and only time will tell what will happen. Council Woman Hennely stated the project is still in the planning phase and that is why it seems like nothing has happened. Many cuts have been made to City projects and I probably wouldn't hold my breathe for this to happen soon.

Thanks for all who come out.

Happy Hot Moms Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there...

...especially the hot ones.

Why I did not race well.

This is a generic excuse post. Racers use many excuses as to why they did not perform up to par at any given race. Whether it be a competitive stage race or a weekday training race I would venture to say that every racer has used these top five excuses as to why they didn't do better. I personally have said each one of these.

1. I rode a hard 40 miles before the race.
2. I haven't been on the bike since last weeks race.
3. I was up all night last night _______________. (Fill in the blank here. Some examples include: for firefighters--running calls. for new parents--with the baby. for everyone except the new parents--drinking.)
4. I made a tactical mistake.
5. What do you mean?....I thought I did great.

The first three excuses can be adapted to pre-race excuses, simply tell people before the race and now you are off the hook. Number four is the best excuse ever. It doesn't down your fitness, training plan or work ethic.

What are some of your favorite performance excuses? Next week will be the top excuses for getting off your diet.

You can help the Tornado victims by riding your bike

Last week Monday tornadoes tore through Suffolk (as well as other places). Miraculously no one was killed. Property damage was high though. Suffolk is a very important city to my team. Our bike shop sponsor, All About Bikes has a Suffolk location, we have teammates who live in Suffolk and a teammate who is a Suffolk firefighter. But even beyond that the city of Suffolk is a huge supporter of bike racing. This is a city that actually approaches promoters and request races to be held in their city. The VBW Smackdown will be a yearly event. The Dismal Dash has been around for many years and I was in the works to set up a road race in Suffolk prior to the storm hitting (the road race may need to be put off till next year because the city officials are a little too busy with clean up efforts). Anyway the Virginia Beach Wheelmen and All About Bikes Racing teams are teaming up and organizing a fund raiser ride in Suffolk. Here is what we have so far:

• Saturday morning May 17th an 8 am start
• I believe Governor's Point will be the starting location
• 40 mile and 25 mile loops
• Aid stations set up for both loops to use
• Police escort will be available (Suffolk police are too busy so Portsmouth will come out to help).

We still have things to figure out. We don't yet know how we will collect money. All money collected will be donated to the Suffolk branch of the American Red Cross. They have been instrumental in the relief effort, especially since Suffolk has been denied Federal Aid. This is still in the planning stage, we just want to everyone to mark there calendar. Most clubs do there training rides on Saturday (no race this day on the VCA calendar) so we are just asking for the groups to relocate for a day.

Think about this: Suffolk has some beautiful roads to ride on. We can show that community that supporting cycling pays off. This is another chance for cyclist to band together like we typically do.

So plan on this ride and let me know if you have any questions. I'll keep you posted as we get more details.

Thanks.

Pictured above: Not the actual tornado nor is it what the ride will look like.

Pictured above: Actual damage.

Helpful!

Today at a party (a coed baby shower) Madelyn was very helpful. She made sure I always had a beer. Thank you Madelyn.

Why I did not race Wintergreen.

If you have been a cyclist for any length of time you have heard every excuse imaginable as to why someone did not do a particular race. Actually I don't think you can even call yourself a racer until you have successfully used these five excuses...and meant them.

1. I didn't want to drive for 3 hours to race 7 miles.
2. I had to skip the race to get in a long ride. My training plan calls for long miles this week.
3. I've been sick and have been off the bike all week long.
4. I had family commitments.
5. I had to work on my house.

The last one is starting to be the go to excuse, and Gene I am not just referring to you. I think I have heard house work or house repairs more often in the last couple of years then anything. But then again I have a team were every year at least one person is buying or selling their house...and we only have 7 people on the team.

This year I have used the family commitments and of course the being sick one quite a bit. However none of them are used for the reason why I did not race Wintergreen. I could tell you that family commitments prevent me from spending the weekend there, and I could tell you because of being sick all year I didn't have the fitness level to compete. Although those might be true it boils down to this:

I'm a f#$king p$##y and that race is hard. I still remember the pain from last year and did not want to race. Besides I needed to get some long miles in this week.

What are your favorite no racing excuses? Next week I'll post my favorite excuses as to why I didn't do well in a race.