:: seanlangford ::

Did the LAMB chop ride on Saturday with strongman Andy Sanidas. L.A.M.B. stands for the 4 mountain passes or (‘gaps’ as they’re called in cycling parlance) over which the ride traverses:

L stands for the Lincoln gap, which will rip your silly legs off,

A stands for Appalachian gap, for which your soul will be demoralized

M stand for More suffering on the Middlebury gap
B stands for Begging for mercy on the Brandon gap

If you do the whole ride, its ~114 miles and ~10,000 vertical feet of climbing.  Read: A HARD DAY.  Me? I was only able to manage the L.A. ride (75mi and ~6k vertical) as I was having some issues relating to my foot and my declined fitness after some time off the bike.  Anyways, it was great to meet some of the local Vermonters who host the ride.  These guys are especially friendly and are also strong guys who do these types of gap rides all the time.  Here are a few pictures Andy snapped:

Was somehow able to recover enough to get down to Wells ave and surf the bunch for some speedwork.  Was able to stay “almost near the front”.  JV incited me to launch an attack but had no matches after L.A.(mb).  I am hoping the fitness starts to come around after my midsummer rest…

What a crazy week its been. Did some training and yardwork last weekend then a trip to the aacc this past week in san diego. Then a trip to vt for the gmha event. San Diego was great: fantastic to see a lot of hard work over the past couple of years finally paying off. The city was beautiful and the weather perfect. The horse show in vt was excellent as well. Got to do a 2 hour trail ride in the mountians surrounding Woodstock w/Jen and her coworkers. These folks are great. They are all professional horsepeople, I am not. That did not deter me from trying to canter which was nearly a disaster. Had fun, learned a lot. Finally returned home last night and got to spend some time with the pups and did some webwork. Here is a shot from the beach last weekend w/Derby.

Spotted a kingfisher outside my hotel room in san diego. These birds are expert marine hunters and are not particularly common in the northeast. Psyched to see one..

It is the eve of the National Championships for the Time Trial and semi-pro rider and friend Ron Jensen will be going for it.  Be sure to drop by his site and wish him luck.

So Jen and I adopted an new pup. We’ve named her ‘Derby’ after the annual horse race held in her home state of Kentucky. She is a lab / hound mix and is very sweet. Here she is taking an afternoon nap near her new friend Harrison.

Andrew D. put in a fantastic ride after the grueling mountian day to get 3rd in the fitchburg criterium. Nice job!

So for most of the road race I tried to stay up front and was largely successful. The final climb was tough for me and that’s where I lost a few spots. I did a bunch of climbing this spring which helped a lot, but evidentally not quite enough. Today’s crit was uneventfull, I worked at staying at the front which has always been a challenge for me. This year though i’m finding I have the strength to be up there at least some of the time. There was no change in my standings today, so think I sit somewhere like 49th overall.