GOOD RIDE

Saturday I got in a good ride. Started out from the house a little after 0600 and headed up Kunia Road. I got to Schofield and didn't see the rest of the HACCers, so headed up Kolekole solo. After a quick break at the top, I headed back down and saw Kelly, Tony, and Jason starting the climb. I turned around and headed back up. After coming down and doing a loop through the base, we decided to do Kolekole one more time. After that and a quick stop for a coffee break, I headed back home. Ended up with just over 50 miles...good ride!

SATURDAY RIDE

Haven't posted in a while...

Started training back up....been riding, running and swimming. Even got in a Saturday ride. Thanks Ben, Steve and Kelly.

DICK EVANS MEMORIAL ROAD RACE

Yesterday day I rode in the Dick Evans Memorial Road Race, a 112 mile bike ride around the island of Oahu. Things were going pretty good. I believe I was in the second group back from the lead group. After clearing Kunia Road, I hooked up with Brian Denaro and a pretty big group and we were hammering away. Then I got a flat. I got a new tube in and found out my CO2 cartridge wasn't working. Luckily, one of the support vehicles had just pulled over and had a floor pump. I got back on and hammered away until I caught two guys who wanted to work together. As soon as we started to get organized, I got another flat. This one was worse. I was changing things out when the support vehicle pulled over. We found a cut in my tire and the tube was showing through a little. Luckily (again), one of the guys offered me a new tire and it just happened to be the same kind I had on. This evolution took about 30 minutes and by this time almost everyone had blown by me. I hammered it out as long as I could and passed several people. My goal this year was to better my time from last year. With the two flats, that didn't happen. I know I would have done well if I hadn't gotten the flats and had been able to stay with a group because despite having done the race solo from the North Shore, I felt pretty good. Oh, well...there's always next year.

TANTALUS - HACC PHOTO RIDE

Saturday I got out for a ride with HACC. This was to be a ride up Tantalus for a group photo with a stop at the Yard House for beer/food after the ride. Tantalus is a great place to ride...lots of climbing and great scenery.

Heading up Tantalus.


John and Debi took the tandem up.

Jason and I stop for a photo...Daimond Head in the background.

Steve and Kelly Becker did a great job of coordinating this ride and snapping photos!

Diamond Head.

This is a cool shot of us heading up the road.

Our group shot. Fun ride.

I had to depart early so didnt' get to stick around for the Yard House festivities.

PLOTTING NEXT YEAR'S REVENGE?

BACK ON THE BIKE

After two weeks off due to surgery, it was good to get back on the bike yesterday...well, sort of. I probably picked the best or worst day as a first day back...depends on how you look at it. I went out for the HACC Hammerfest yesterday and it was brutal. We were rolling along and I was feeling pretty good. When a car passed the group on the left, I saw an opportunity to get in its slipstream and take a flyer off the front. I got a good lead on the group and was hitting it hard. Just as we were getting out to the beach, the lead group caught me. I tried to hang on but didn't have the steam...they were cooking it! I dropped back to the second group and got in with them to finish up the ride. Kelly and I had a nice little sprint at the end...fun! I was spent after the ride but it felt good. This morning I started back my riding to work and had a great ride in. Next move is to decide on whether I'm going to ride Dick Evans in September.

DAVE Z. SHOWS PROPER DESCENDING TECHNIQUE

Here is a great shot of Dave Zabriskie showing us his descending technique.

ALOHA STATE GAMES - TOUR OF WAHIAWA

This weekend, a few of us HACCers participated in the Aloha State Games - Tour of Wahiawa which consisted of a Time Trial and Crit on Saturday and a Road Race on Sunday. It was a great weekend of racing with three awesome races!

Getting things set up to race.


Ready to go!


Jeff ready to attack Kolekole!


Steve at the line, assisted by Bennie, while Casey waits for his turn.

Ben stylin' on his Transition...the look of SPEED!

John is ready to go!


At the top of Kolekole...that wasn't so bad!

Kelly reaches the top! Awesome!

Some of the HACC pose for a photo.

Everyone anxiously awaiting the results of the Time Trial.


HACC Daddy..."and the winner is..."!

AIEA HEIGHTS ON A 23

This morning as I was getting ready for my bike commute to work, I noticed my rear tire was flat. I was in a hurry and need to get to work so threw on a different set of wheels. The wheels I took off had an 12-27 cassette and the other wheelset had a 12-23 cassette. No big deal for the commute and even for doing the AMR ride at lunch. However, when I met everyone for the lunch time ride the plan changed. Everyone wanted to ride up Aiea Heights Drive...first thing I thought was, this is going to hurt...and it did. The heat didn't help much either but I got through it and actually didn't do too bad.

JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON

Yes I'm jumping on the bandwagon. It looks like the thing to do is post stats for May...so here are mine.

MILES: 642
AVERAGE MPH: 17.07
MAX MPH: 44.90

All done on my Trek..."The Griffen" has been feeling neglected, may have to take her out for a spin one day.

COFFEE RIDE

On Tuesday a group of us met for a nice ride out to Kaimuki. Our first stop was in Waikiki for some coffee and a couple of photos. We then headed out to Kaimuki for a quick stop for a bite to eat. Along the way, John pointed out a hill that looked like it would be a pretty challenging climb...I'll have to check that out later. On the way back, we stopped at a cool little place called the Kalihi Bike Exchange. I had never seen this place and thought it was pretty cool. I'll have to drop off some old bike parts to them and see if they have anything for the fixed gear/single speed project I've been contemplating. We made it back in time for the HACC Hammerfest which was brutal as usual. After finishing up with my commute home, I ended up riding about 82 miles...on a Tuesday...not bad considering I was supposed to be at work.





We stopped for a pit stop and I noticed something...John, were you trying to tell us something? Just kidding!!!

HACC BBQ - LATE POST

Forgot to post this...last Tuesday HACC had a BBQ at Hickam Beach to say goodbye to some of our riders that are leaving in the next few months. We have a lot of families leaving the island and Kelly coordinated a great cookout to send them off.

BIKE TO WORK DAY

Yesterday a group of us rode downtown to Tamarind Park for the Bike to Work Day festival. It was a beautiful day out and it was good to get some people out on the road that would probably not have made a trip like that had they not been with us.



As we got into town, we started seeing a few other cyclists.


Bike To Work Day 2009!


This is a bike they had set up with a blender that you could peddle to make smoothies.


Good riding by everyone today!

HACC SATURDAY RIDE

Today I got up early and headed up to Schofiled to do the HACC Saturday ride. I haven't been on this ride in a LONG time...the only one other time I did it, I actually ended up taking a bus back to base because of a couple of flats.

Today was a beautiful day...the sun was out, no clouds...very nice. We had a pretty good group show up for the ride. John made a couple of comments about me being there...I think he was in shock!

We did the Kolekole climb, then headed towards North Shore and climbed Pupekea, and then it was a climb up Pineapple Hill. I felt good and would have liked to have done another Pineapple Hill climb but kept getting phone calls to come home so Steve Lindsey and I headed back to Schofield. Got in about 50 miles.

Awesome ride on an awesome day in Hawaii!

CARTOON FOR CYCLIST

Check this out...

http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-01-22

OUCH!!!

As a lot of you know, the HACC Hammerfest lunch time ride gets fast...and fast equals dangerous. However, speed is not what caused me to crash today...it was a little girl about 9 years old.

It went down like this...we were headed out on our usual Tuesday lunch time ride. As we were rounding the turn before the beach, I saw a little girl on her bike followed by a lady pulling a kid trailer behind her bike. I saw the little girl stand up and peddle hard as a couple in our group passed by her. As I got closer, I swung wide to ensure I was very far away from them. Just as I started to pass, the little girl stands up to peddle hard, her left foot slips off the peddle, she wobbles and swerves right into my path, and then she falls...right in front of me. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, locked it up, see my front wheel hit her or her bike (not sure), fly over her and her bike with my bike still attached to my feet, and land hard in the middle of the road. I took most of the fall with my right elbow, shoulder and right side. OUCH!!!

I laid there in the middle of the road for a second, not sure what just happened...then I remembered that I was lying the middle of the road in a turn. I jumped up, grabbed my bike, and made my way to the side of the road...already inspecting my bike for damage. I noticed the chain off but nothing serious so lean my bike against the wall and start assessing other damage...blood on elbow, pain in my side. Then a couple of other guys pull up and start asking me if I'm alright and helping me check things out. I truck drives by and offers a cell phone...no need. I can hear the little girl saying "I'm sorry" over and over. The lady comes over and asks me if I'm alright. I am, bike is, no problem. I ask her if the little girl is alright and she says that she is but she is very sorry. I tell her not to worry. She gets a couple of our thoughts about her and her kid riding in flip-flops and we are off riding again.

I do a couple of early turns to get back with the front group, take third in the sprint at the end, and call it a day. Jason hooks me up with some great bandaging before I head back to work...thanks Jason!

Ended up with a pretty scraped up elbow and a few on my back...bike was good, front wheel may need aligning...definitely could have been worse for me, the little girl, or my bike!!!

Best thing said today: "I am worried everyday by you getting hit by a car while riding to and from work and you ended up getting taken out by a little girl." - LT Fortino (my boss).

Here is a bit of the damage...

TANTALUS TIME TRIAL

This past weekend I raced in the Tantalus Time Trial. This is one of my favorite races of the season. The race is about 5 miles long with about 1,400 feet of climbing...fun! We had great weather for the race. I improved my time over 2 minutes from last year. A few HACCers grouped up at the top for the descent which is always fun. I took a slight off-road detour when I saw a break in the trees and was checking out the view. I kept the bike up right and got it back on the road with no issues. Jeff A. told me later that I was headed right for a sign but pulled it back on the road just in time...whew! Fun morning!

BACK ON THE BIKE

My first bike ride after my week off from our Georgia trip was three times up to Camp Smith. It went well and was good preparation for the Tantalus race this weekend. I was getting some chain slip when I stood or pedaled hard. I had taken off my crank/bottom bracket the day before and don't think I got it back on tight enough. I checked it out when I got home and everything seems to be o.k. now. Hopefully there will be no issues during the race tomorrow.

Last month I got in some pretty good miles despite being off the bike for a week and some bad weather.

Miles - 264.42
Average - 17.58 mph
Max - 44.0 mph

I am way behind in the commuter challenge. Maybe I need to do a couple of trips around the island to catch up!

MORE PICS FROM THE TEAM TIME TRIAL PLUS RESULTS

Here are some more pictures from the team time trial...plus I found out that we finished third in our category, so I scored my first medal since taking up racing.

Getting ready to roll!

And we're off!

Marianne and Linsey in action and striking a pose.

HAWAII STATE TEAM TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Today the team participated in the Hawaii State Team Time Trial Championship near Kualoa Park. I woke up around 0530 and decided to go ahead and head out. I had packed up the truck the night before, so I was ready to roll. There were a lot of people already there when I got there and HACC had a great showing with four teams competing and all were mixed teams.

I rode with John Girmsey, Brian Denaro, and Linsey Cousins. All three are strong riders and I knew we would be a good team.

The aftermath...looks like a bomb was set off in the middle of a bunch of bicycles.

Lots of fun today!

The HACC family!