Steamy
I was in Boston this week and I got pretty damp walking to my meeting because of the high humidity; then on the Wednesday it started drizzling with the temperature sill high. When I got to the airport my flight, along with loads of others were delayed so I got myself a coffee, sat down and tried to relax. I heard Falls Church (an area near our house) mentioned on the TV and then announcements from various gates that flights had been grounded at Dulles and JFK airports due to bad weather. Then as more people started rolling in I heard that there had been big storms in the DC area and that tornadoes had touched down in Falls Church and Loudon county. Eventually flying into Dulles I saw large areas were without electricity and then on the way home one side of the road was lit up and the other side blacked out, including our close. Luckily as I got out of the taxi our power came on; some people were out of power until Saturday! I was lucky as Helen had decided to go for a bike ride and got caught out in the storm and had to take refuge in a toilet block until the worst had passed over. After getting past all the fallen trees she couldn't get back into the garage as the power was out so she had to break into the house.
On Saturday we headed up to Pennsylvania for a bike ride and it was wonderful as there was very little traffic on the back roads and seeing the Amish working in the fields and driving their buggies was relaxing. It was very hot and humid, you can probably see the melted tar in the photograph, (seeing the pattern yet?) and unfortunately I only had my single speed back which made the hills damn hard. We went through quite a few litres of drink each and finished off the ride with some home made root beer and coke. I was wiped out by the ride and Helen drove us on to our hotel in Philadelphia for the Commerce Bank International bike race the next day. When we were checking in Team Type 1 walked past us into the lift and Rock Racing arrived to check in.
The next day was hot and humid again the air temp got up to 36°C and the the road temp was 49°C! We were sweating buckets just walking and the riders were going all out on in the races. Unfortunately we didn't see much of Vanderkitten in the race but we did see Liz Hatch and a couple of friends on their way back to the hotel.
Helen got some video of the Men's race and will edit it and post to flickr or facebook,. As she was filming a Slipstream Chipotle rider tossed his water bottle into the stands so she got a great souvenir. Later I was taking some photo's and saw Magnus Backstedt, another Slipstream rider, throw a bottle, I even got a blurry shot of it. I'd like to think he recognized me as the crazy ginger headed freak who pestered him in Arlington, but probably not ;o)
A lot of riders dropped out of the race but as the field went onto the last long lap and then the shorter end laps things went ballistic with breakaways and attacks left and right finally coming together on the start finish straight for a mass sprint where Tyler Farrar, Slipstream again, held on for sixth place.
As we were getting ready to leave we saw Steve Cozza, another Slipstream rider, cycling back to his hotel and shouted out to him and waved and bless him he waved back; yes we are bike nerds!
As I press the send button here there's another light show going on here, not as crazy as last week .. yet.
On Saturday we headed up to Pennsylvania for a bike ride and it was wonderful as there was very little traffic on the back roads and seeing the Amish working in the fields and driving their buggies was relaxing. It was very hot and humid, you can probably see the melted tar in the photograph, (seeing the pattern yet?) and unfortunately I only had my single speed back which made the hills damn hard. We went through quite a few litres of drink each and finished off the ride with some home made root beer and coke. I was wiped out by the ride and Helen drove us on to our hotel in Philadelphia for the Commerce Bank International bike race the next day. When we were checking in Team Type 1 walked past us into the lift and Rock Racing arrived to check in.
The next day was hot and humid again the air temp got up to 36°C and the the road temp was 49°C! We were sweating buckets just walking and the riders were going all out on in the races. Unfortunately we didn't see much of Vanderkitten in the race but we did see Liz Hatch and a couple of friends on their way back to the hotel.
Helen got some video of the Men's race and will edit it and post to flickr or facebook,. As she was filming a Slipstream Chipotle rider tossed his water bottle into the stands so she got a great souvenir. Later I was taking some photo's and saw Magnus Backstedt, another Slipstream rider, throw a bottle, I even got a blurry shot of it. I'd like to think he recognized me as the crazy ginger headed freak who pestered him in Arlington, but probably not ;o)
A lot of riders dropped out of the race but as the field went onto the last long lap and then the shorter end laps things went ballistic with breakaways and attacks left and right finally coming together on the start finish straight for a mass sprint where Tyler Farrar, Slipstream again, held on for sixth place.
As we were getting ready to leave we saw Steve Cozza, another Slipstream rider, cycling back to his hotel and shouted out to him and waved and bless him he waved back; yes we are bike nerds!
As I press the send button here there's another light show going on here, not as crazy as last week .. yet.
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