No Mo Snow

Rains came and washed the spider, eerr snow out! SUCKS.

Mt. Washinton via Lions Head Winter

Powdah wednesday +

Quick blurb today.
Powder day up at Sugarloaf Wednesday. So what if the visibility at the summit was about 3 feet. The snow was mint. The snow on the o'natural trails was more like mint chocolate chip, but both are good.
Skied with Rumsey at Pineland in the snowstorm Tuesday afternoon.
Like I said the early focus has turned to skiing. DH and XC.
The Winter also means picking up heavy things. Gym time.

Spent today at Mt. Washington. Awesome day. Stay tuned for more on that.

Listen to Mikey. He knows stuff.

The Verge New England Cyclocross Series wrapped up in Warwick with some rain, snow, and cold weather. I know that was a ways back. I made a poor glove choice Saturday. 35 degrees and raining with lightweight gloves equals Burns' hands not functioning. I could not physically move my left hand enough to push the shifter and get into my big ring. My right hand was marginally better, which lead me to reach across the handlebar and use it to operate the front shifter.
Sunday was just plain cold, no precipitation. The one mud puddle on the course would flash freeze your feet every lap. The picture of Snyder and I post race is pretty telling. After crossing the finish line, everyone put on tights and jackets and made a bee line for the heated enclosed gazebo asap. Picture 30 or so elite riders split into packs of 5 or 6 sitting huddled around portable heaters stripping shoes and socks trying to regain feeling in their feet. Grimaces mix strangely with post race euphoria, but it created a truly awesome scene.

Once Cyclocross ended I shut everything down. I put a quick video together to sort out everything else. Check it out. I am hoping to get some more/better video going soon.



Monday update. Skiing on Oak Hill yesterday was very good. Did I say Pineland was gettting thin on snow??? Well, it is dumping today, looks like about 10 inches or so. Nice.






How much time have you spent hanging out at Pineland.

Fishing

Here are some photos from the mid season break summer 09 fishing trip. A little video too. It will have to hold you over while I decided how to recap the final '09 cyclocross stretch. I'm off to watch the U23 CX Nats on Cyclingdirt. Hope Jerome and Keough put the hurt to Summerhill and Mac Donald.

cyclocross updates

Three weeks, 3 more cyclocross double headers. The Verge New England races up at Pineland turned out to be mud bogs. I help set up the course friday afternoon and put in some nice fast dusty laps. Then the rains came. Saturday was cold and wet. By the end of the race, my hands weren't working, and I could barely hold onto the handlebars.Since it was still raining the mud was flowing and not too thick. I had an alright ride placing 18th. The Sun came up for Sunday and thickened everything up nicely. I was struggling once again but still managed to finish in the money.

Mid Atlantic double header in Bridgeton and Jamesburg NJ.
The bees were out Saturday in Bridgeton. I was parked next to Broderick, and we both got stung getting ready for the race. The sandy soil was just damp and packed down enough to make the course ultra fast this year. I was ok off the start, but I made a couple of mistakes early on and wound up riding most of the race solo. This was definitely a big disadvantage compared to the packs. The "Amphitheater of Pain" was, as always, tall kid approved, and I had some fun double jumping up the steps. I grabbed some money in 22nd.
Sunday in Jamesburg was another mudfest. Thick mud has been my nemesis this year, and I was not that psyched to trudge around in it again. I was taking a fresh bike just about every lap, thanks Dad, and I had pretty unmemorable ride placing 23rd.

Verge New England Cyclocross Series Northampton
What do you need to know? Start loop CRASHES. Big crashes. Both days. Below is the video from Saturday. You can see just how close the cartwheeling bike comes to tomahawking me right before Pete "T bones" it.

Cycle-Smart elite men start (and crash) from Eric Silva on Vimeo.

While I avoided the crash, I broke my rear derailleur clean in half gunning it up the steep ride up and then wedged it in my rear wheel. Now I have broken a lot stuff in my day, but this one I am still trying to figure out. A broken derailleur wedged in my wheel equaled a long run to the pit. By the time I got to the pit, the leaders were only about 20 seconds back. I looked at the leaders, I looked at my second bike, I looked at the race official, and I sadly told him "I'm done." DNF.
As always at the Northampton races, it's dinner with Ryan and Kelly at Pasta E Basta and desert at the Black Sheep in Amherst. I was considering deviating from my Lasagna Bolognese, but I eventually decided not "to defy the laws of tradition." I would say dinner salvaged the day.
Sunday morning a threw on my spare derailleur, trued my rear wheel, or trued it well enough, and put on a new chain. It turned out the chain got seriously twisted in the melee as well. I did my warm up laps on the repaired bike to test it out. No problems.
Like I said above, we started the day with a crash. See bleow.
Maybe 25 meters in, and people are on the pavement. I hit the brakes FULL ON. I didn't get tangled up in the crash, but now I am chasing. I eventually make my way up to Reuter and Wilcox. I yell out to them that we can close some more gaps down and I go straight to the front. Wilcox and I are pulling and we bridged up to Wheels and Bray. That was the group for the last few laps with Wilcox and I driving. Bray attacked going into the sandpit just before the finish, but he buried his front wheel and stacked it. Reuter was smart and played his sand pit card when Bray went down, and he got a gap. I guess I spaced a little, and I didn't close it down right away. Instead, I towed and then lead out Wilcox. So, I finished 19th. Fun day racing. I hope everyone from the crash is ok.
What else has been going on? I've been riding the mountain bike a lot. It's a little bit leaf surfing, a little bit of "where did the trail go," but the trails are finally starting to clear out a bit.
Also a bit in NYC.

Tomorrow I am going to head down and preride the U.S Gran Prix course and stay for the number pick up party. If your at the party look for me.
It is supposed to rain 1-2 inches tomorrow. This weekend looks to be a repeat of last year.
Stay tuned.

ski??

I got a comment the other day about skiing this year, so I figured I throw up a quick post. I am thinking Black Diamonds new Justice skis. Maybe the new Rossi S7 or Volkl Gotama. I want to try the new rocker stuff. I'll stick with the Fritschi Freerides.
Skiing on ice sucks no matter what skis you have. I've answered my fair share of questions on the chair lift from VT to ME about why I am skiing my Pocket Rockets and it is boiler plate.
Thinking some more trips west this year. SLC is easy, and sweet. NO brainer airport to the mountian. Maybe a big trip way west, JAPAN.