FLIPPIN FREEZING
Canada has been churning out freezing cold weather into the entire northeastern USofA day after day for the past few weeks. Thanks a lot Canada. Looking at the weather map is just plain discouraging, as this crazy huge counter-clockwise storm swirls round and around pushing arctic air right smack here across New England… and even colder weather here in western New York. I’ve been told that the storm is abiding, which will offer a nice repreive from the riding in the snow. Yeah, snow. It’s not even November yet, and I feel like I’m riding around northern Alaska in early February! It’s all fine and good when we’re racing in the snow because your mind is elsewhere, but when you have to put on warm clothes for the 20 minutes prior to going out on a ride, it’s just punishing to your morale. This picture here is made possible by Keith Jennings at the race last weekend in northern Vermont. Making the most of the conditions, Keith and his cronies built some very original obstacles on course half-way through the race. They include plowing over entire colonies of mini snowmen and enormous snow “drifts” as seen here, with my backside front and center.

This past weekend, Mayo and I returned to Mayo’s hometown to wish her mother a happy birthday. Canada decided to crank it up a bit and whip up even more insidious weather, since it (Canada) knew I would be in the cold southern Vermont mountains. I heard the weather would be terrible, so I decided to bring the cross bike, thereby eliminated the chance of me riding the road bike and being blown clear into the middle of traffic. I is smart. As I crested Andover Mountain spinning about 13rpms into a headwind, I decided that I am badass. The wind was gusting up to 60mph, it was about 30 degrees, and the snow I think pierced my face in a half dozen places. All I could do was laugh (…and shake vigorously to keep from freezing to death). For those of you who are interested - and I know that’s all of you - the approximate wind chill under those conditions is 10 degrees. TEN. After descending the mountain, Mayo took this picture, which I’m sending to KISS for a tongue try out. I mean look at that thing! It’s awesome.

A PARAGRAPH OF NUMBERS
See that car over my shoulder? That’s Mayo’s family’s 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid. Ever since the advent of instant miles per gallon readouts in cars, I’ve had a moral obligation to slow down. It started with my Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was a very testosterone-rich full-time 4wheel drive beast. That car was so sweet, but I felt like a criminal when I’d look up at the readout, and I would see that I’m averaging a hardy 14mpg. This was back in the day when gas was in the $1-and-change, but still it was enough to make me slow down. My 2003 Passat averages double what the Jeep got, which is pretty sweet, but I still let off the gas when I see my fuel efficiency dropping. This Civic is changing all that. That car is advertised at 49mpg, so when you combine city and highway driving, you can assume that you’ll get 42-45ish. Sweet! Late last night when I was driving this bad-boy back to New York from Vermont, I was pushing into a monster of a headwind (again, gusts reported up to 60mph), doing about 72mph, and still averaged 40mpg! When you grind up hills, the instant mpg readout doesn’t drop below 28! I feel like I’m saving the environment and practically planting a tree every mile with those kind of numbers! Plus when you see that you’re putting out those sort of go-hug-a-tree numbers, you just know that the Ford Excursion/small house next to you in doing single digit MPGs. Sucker. Literally.

BE WARNED
Okay friends, Halloween is a day away. After some serious debate about what to carve, I created two jackolanterns that will blow your sox off. You should put your children to bed right now, because they will be scared for life if they see either of these. They are truly terrifying.

Are you ready?

Hidden your children yet?

Okay here they are:
Whoa… my heart is pounding… even seeing pictures of these candel laden pumpkins terrifies me.

Hiiya gang!

Here is one where I played slip and slide in a pile of poo!

Just kidding. This was from a cross race at Catamount where the conditions were mud, mud, and mud. I finished 2nd on day one, 3rd on day two, and 2nd in the overall two-race omnium. I’ve now raced three times, so including GC placings, I’ve finished 2nd place three times and 3rd place once. I need to win soon, eh?

In photo numero dos, we have our awesome hosts from Saturday night, the Danforths! On the left raising the roof is Harper. You can tell that it was a rowdy night because Harper removed all but her sox and diaper. Next is Coach, Grant, Dana, me, Ruth, Mayo, and Robbie (Kate took the picture). It was really great seeing the whole gang, especially Chris, Kate, and Harper who I missed the entire summer because I was always on the road.

Lastly, the song of the day is Cementalisque by Peter Adams. It is solid as cement (that’s a complement). Download it.

http://spokepost.com/news/story/1581/?PHPSESSID=0222c2243e88e1dd258213f83ee2cdcb

The article fails to mention, “King wowed everyone in attendance with his remarkable bike skills and 2nd place finish; not too bad for the first time he’s ever raced a cross bike in his life.”

Can someone please tell me what all those Sunoco stickers are doing on the back of cars? I can’t go outside without seeing one-in-three cars tattooed with these gasoline ads. I don’t know if it’s just an East Coast thing or what. Weird.

I went home to New Hampshire last week. I had a blast. Ever since the end of school last February, I’ve been trying to see all sorts of friends and family around New England and this trip allowed me to see a whole bunch of them. Here’s a nice list of people I saw. I hope I get them all:

Robbie, Mom, Dad, Eliza, Lauren, Chris, Meade, Jeff, Ben, David, Maury, Amy, Paul, Ethan, Craig, Holly, Katie, Andrew, Liz, Larry (all three of whom I haven’t seen since 8th grade!), Colin, Destiny, Ashley, Amy, Lauren, John, Tom, Ruth, Decia, Janet, David, Dana, Ruth (senior), Sue, Artie, Nate, Dan, Dan, Dan, Johnny, and probably some more. Not bad for only being home 7 days.

During the week at home Robbie, Tom, and I hiked up the ferociously steep Pawtuckaway Mountain in Raymond, NH. It rises an epic 906 feet… I don’t know if that’s 906 feet above sea level or just 906 feet of vertical elevation. Either way, you get the idea that this is no slouch of a hill. We decided on the South Mountain, mostly because there’s an observation tower, which is excellent for observing stuff. As pictured here, you can tell it’s a tough climb because Tom has a backpack on. Tough climbs and backpacks go hand in hand. Here’s a sweet shot of the heroic mountain climbers atop the observation tower. I’m the only smart one in the bunch, as seen by my hat and long sleeves. We got plenty warm on the ascent, but up once you’re above ground in the tower, the wind starts to howl. We’re talking Mt. Washington weather (well, not really, but we’re all frigid in this picture.)
Having now summitted Pawtuckaway twice, Tom is an avid climber. When it comes to climbing, he pretty much knows his stuff inside-and-out. He therefore knows that the correct tools are a necessity to a successful climb. This picture illustrates that; Tom brought a kick-ass COFFEE MAKER to the summit. It’s called a Jet-Boil and despite the lack of cream, we had a deliciously caffeinated pick-me-up miles from civilization. “Jet Boil” is no lie either; it got up to a roaring boil in what seemed like seconds! Yup.The folliage was quite pretty at the top. It was still relatively green, but starting to turn the reds, oranges, and yellows. I don’t think Pawtuckaway classifies as part of the White Mountains, but it was beautiful all surrounding the mountain just the same. Here’s a picture looking towards Middle Mountain. Ooooooooh the serenity. (That one is for you, Tommy.)After a 2 week stretch of NO riding, I am back at it training in full force for 2007. I’m currently working on a new style of training that uses unorthodox methods, but I’m hoping for some solid results. Here’s a shot of me about half way into a 4 hour ride up and down the driveway. Notice the calf definition… I think this training is really paying off already!Throughout the week I poured some serious hours into building a bike. I’m quite proud of it, since I’ve never built a bike up enitely from scratch before. It’s the Ridely Supercross and I’m super excited to start racing it this weekend. I think most New England cross racers will be heading northeast to New Gloucester, ME chasing the Verge Cross Series. However, those in the know will be heading to Liverpool, NY for the Syracuse Grand Prix. BOOYA! Come watch me struggle through my first ever cross race on Sunday, if you’re bored and in the area.

Here are two cool pictures from the Portsmouth Criterium. I found them thanks to some excellent personal photography (thank you!).

The top one has been titled, “One Bad Ass Leadout.” This is where I lead the entire last lap in hopes of catapaulting Robbie to victory, but I ended up dropping everyone and sprinting to the win.
This one is less interesting, but it looks pretty cool cropped like so…

‘k bye.