Oh My God, Is that Tom Boonen?

No, it's Jeremy Boonen with his new Specialized Quickstep S-Works road frame. Pretty bitch'n bike! Can't wait to see it built up. Until then here a couple more pics. Anyone care to guess what the final weight will be? At least sub 16 lbs.

Check out the size of that head tube.

Also got a sneak peak at Steve's newest goodies. So, not only does he have the new Trek Modone 5.5, he just got these components to kick it up a notch. Bham!


If you can't tell that's a SRAM Red Crankset and Derailleur. They look bad-A and are feather light. Nice addition to an already sweet ride. Maybe Steve will give us a look when he gets it together. Oh please Steve!

Man it's hard keep'n up with the Rowands.

On another note, as per my last post, we did half of the Morgantown Road Race course on Saturday. I think this will be a fun and challenging course. I can't attest to the whole thing cause we split off and did our own thing but riding what we did and about the same distance I have a good idea of what it will be like.

Starts with some medium rollers, then a lot of flat and then some climbing for the second half. Depending on how the race goes the transition from pounding the flats to hitting the ups could cause some good leg burn. If you haven't seen a map of the course yet check it out.
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=132721
This was borrowed from everyone's favorite race director, JR, hope he doesn't mind. I hope to get out soon to check out the second half. Not going to happen this weekend, going to Snowshoe to do a few turns. Maybe someone else will let you know what Team RowMan+ is up to this weekend.

Later,
Josh

Morgantown Road Race Pre-Ride....Sort of

What a great day for a long road ride, especially considering it's still February. I had plans to do the Morgantown Road Race Pre-Ride as suggested by the team director of Team Bi-atch/ Backyard Bike Club/FiendRacing Gunnar (wow, he must be a busy dude).

Up early, and consumed grimmus proportions, large bowl of oatmeal w/granola, raisins, 3 boiled eggs and 2 pieces of toast w/ soy butter and jelly. O'boy it was good and topped off the energy reserves. Got out on the road by 10am and it was still a lil chilly, 35, but the sun was out and the temps were on the rise. First stop was at Wamsley's to pick up a few things and catch up with the team mates. To my surprise, Jeremy was ready to ditch work as soon as I dropped the word, way to go man. Steve is still under the weather, going on week 3 now. If someone knows of a secret far east remedy please sent it his way. I though that pimp'n new Modone would do the trick but guess I was wrong.

Jeremy and I had to high tail it to his place for him to do a quick change into his super suit and still make it time to Masson-Dixon park in time for the high noon start time. This required a pretty fast pace up Rt.100 and then to the park. We made it in time. Got to the park in time to see a good size group get'n ready to roll out. But had some time for a few pre-ride pics.

Let's see if I can remember the group. Adam A., Phil, Gunnar, Betsy, Chris, Kean, JR, Matt M., Sierra, Laura, Auvid, Trisha and Dave. Think that's it. We stayed with the group up route 7 to Blacksville and Rt. 218. At this point Jeremy and I decided to catch up with Adam and Phil who had broke off ahead. Didn't really want to leave the group but we were getting an uneasy feeling due to the 3 wide riding, funny stuff (not ha, ha) and failure to fall into line on already skechy roads. So we sped up a lil to avoid being road kill but had a hard time reeling in the other two.

Got to Waynesburg and met up with Adam and Phil. Then tried to find our way around the rest of the course. Didn't do a very good job, but oh well still had some good ride'n.

Got home with almost 5 hrs. and over 80 miles. Made it in time to get some grub and watch today's stage of the ToC. Livi still in the lead. Nicely done.

Twas a day of biking, and it was great.

Later,

Josh

oh yeah...

Yep, those are some blueberry pancakes whipped up this morining by the personal support crew here at the Hobbs's household. For those of you in the dark, that would be Mrs. Myra. She fixed these whole wheat blueberry pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup for me this a.m. Oh yeah, they were good.

After finishing up that fine breakfest, the wife and I headed downtown to Armstrong hall to participate in a communication research project. We had to answer a few questionaires and have a conversation with another couple while being videotaped. Wasn't too time consuming and we were glad to help out a fellow researcher here at WVU.

Next, we headed to the LBS and checked in on Steve. Poor chap, still not quite recovered from his cold/funk, but seemed like he is doing much better. I got his opionion on a few tires for this spring. He pointed me down the same path Chappy recently visited and I ordered some Bontrager Jones ACX for this spring. We talked long finger gloves for a few minutes, the shop was lacking the desired style in my size so the wife and I headed out for some grocery shopping.

Finally made it out on the bike at about 1:30 today. Headed out to Bake's for some muddy mountain biking. To my suprise the ground was still a little frozen in some places. Nothing better than riding big frozen muddy ruts...it's got to be good for the skills, right?

Oh yeah...

What can I say, "I have the greatest wife in the world." After seeing me race the entire 08' season on my 8 (or is it 10) year old Gary Fisher Procaliber, she strongly ecouraged me to splurge on the Superfly. Well, it didn't really take much encouraging...A few slight modifications to the box setup: swapped out the triggers for twistys, immediately went tubeless, some red Oury grips, with matching red bottle cages, and bar ends. Oh, it rides so sweet, can't wait to spend end some quality time on this bike come racing season.

Later folks,

Ryan

New SuperFly on the Block

Check out the newest member of our team, Colson "The Cobra" Annon. He was pretty pumped to get his new '09 Gary Fisher SuperFly frame so he e-mailed me some pics. from his training base in Grafton, WV. Check'em out.

His coach (Big Daddy Nate) has been put'n him through a tough training program but he seems to be real fit and we expect some stellar results this year. Sweet bike Cobra, set us some pics. of the built up frame later dude.

Just watched Livi take the TT in the ToC. Alright Livi and Astana. "LiviStrong" Looks like he's going to take the ToC for a 3rd time. And check out the bitch'n TT rig. I think it's even cooler than Lance's LiveStrong TT bike.

Marvelous Moment

Well me socks got blown off today. My new road bike came. A TREK Madone 6.5 project one. Oh my it is pretty. On the local scale it comes in at 15.6 lbs. On just my short little ride home I can tell this thing is going to be so sweet. No flex in the bb area like my Lemond. Happy Time is here, can't wait to ride it farther and harder. Here are a couple of sneek peek pics. More to come as I get some time on it.

Good Sunday Ride'n @ Bakers

It was a last minute call for the ride today, with the weather being the deciding factor. We eventually decided to stay off the road due to the cold temps, it was low 30's at the time with a skiff of snow on. So, it was an earlier than usual ride at Bakers Ridge.

I got up early this morning and had my usual pre-ride big breakfast. Today it was some yummy pancakes with some eggs and OJ. Then it was time to relax have some coffee and digest. Got out the door in time for the 11:17 meeting time at the lower gate.

Met up with Coach, and Jeremy. Steve is still out of commission with the funk. Coach was on his new '09 SuperFly. Hot look'n bike, I like the new paint job on this years frame, adds a little more pop to it. I've been trying to get Coach to post some updates on his SuperFly, but he's a busy boy with all the thesis writing, coaching and bowling and such. Stay tuned...........Jeremy and I were on SS's. He was on the Trek 69'er and I was on the Gary Fisher Rig.

Trail conditions were much better than anticipated. Still lots of muddy spots but the trails have tacked up a lot since Thursday night. We did some laps up top for a good warm up then hit turbo and a few other trails then headed down spaghetti which was in good shape and a blast to ride down. At this point Coach split cause he didn't want to over do it after being sick. He did say before he left how smooth the big wheels were roll'n. 29'ers ROCK!

Then there was 2, for like 10 minutes. On the way back up to the top we ran into Roberto who was sport'n his bad A super suit. Got a good flow going for quite a bit and covered a lot of ground. Ran into some more friends, Sean Z., Drew and couple dudes who's names I didn't get. Shortly after that we met up with the MonBike Group Sunday Ride. They had a decent group today. Gunnar and Betsy, Jake, Gary, Mark, Andrew and Jay, I think that was everyone. I was getting purty tired about then so I'm not sure. Speaking of getting tired, I took a nice flop on spaghetti while attempting and super cool cross move to get over a downed tree, too pooped to get my leg over the bike. Gave Robbie a good chuckle, so it was worth it. After spaghetti Jeremy and I were done for the day. Around three hours on the SS, I was running out of gas. Great ride'n though and great to see so many out get'n down and dirty.

A bonus for today! We had our team photographer out on course snapping some action pics. Thanks Anna, your awesome.

Good post ride activities followed for me. Yummy grilled Cx salad, Magic Hat Circus Boy brew, and ToC (Go Levi and Astana). Great Day! Life is Good!

Later,

Josh

Thursday Night'r

The Thursday night shop ride went down. We were 3 strong. Jeremy, Nate dog, and I. No Steve or Ryan tonight, both are feeling a bit under the weather. Evidently they haven't been taking they're FRS. Get well soon Dudes.

I got out a lil early then met with the other two guys at the usual meeting time of 6:45 at the lower gate. I pulled up and got bitched at cause I was supposedly late........I still say I was right on time, they were just early. So after my lecture on tardiness we got the ride started. Nate was on his 23 lbs. (as of today) SuperFly, Jeremy the SS 69er and I on the EX with the new twisties and XTR derailleur, which worked butter smooth even in the mucky conditions.

We got stacked up on the very first up hill due to the peanut butter like texture of the trail. Not a good omen at the start of a ride. Trail conditions were variable. Some dry, fast sections but then you would hit a mucky section that would grab your tires and suck the speed right out. But it was nice not to deal with ice or snow. This could be the first ride in quite some time that didn't involve using an ice pic to keep things running.

I was hurt'n pretty good through most of the ride. A lil tired from doing a Time Trial effort yesterday to set some baseline numbers for the current interval torture. Oh mama, I was feel'n it day. Jeremy said he was hurt'n a bit from evil intervals. Sounds like that pain box has been opened. Nate was ride'n strong and looked to be in good form. Way to go Nate dog, glad you could make it.

Quite a bit of debris on the trails from the wind storm the last couple days. We tried to clear what we could, but it will require some chainsaw work to clear some. Jeremy is like a one man logging crew. For a tall skinny kid he sure can wrasle some logs...........Write us down for some trail hours for the trail points.

Ended up with around 2.5 hrs. ride time and some tired ass legs. It hurts so goooood!

Sorry no pics. Don't feel comfortable taking a camara out in these conditions. You'll just have to use your imaginaiton.

Later,
Josh

LUNCH

Just ate 5 Baja Chalupas and all is well. Very key for the WVMBA training regiment. Those out there on the fence are more then welcome to join my race diet. They now offer a fat free low sodium version as well. Also goes well with a chaser of candy.

Welcome to the PAIN TRAIN!

Another great Sunday training ride and this time the whole team was roll'n strong. The first time in awhile. Started with a little caffeine top off at the Moose and then swung by the courthouse to pic up Steve. It was sunny and mid 50's @ the start, damn nice day to be on the bike. So we hit the road, accross the Westover Bridge making our way to Mt. Morris via Rt. 100. Next we went past Masson Dixion Park to Rt.7 Had a couple of hairy moments on 7, I just remember a water bottle skidding by my tire while a line of cars was going past. Someone said something about rubbing tires. I don't know about that, I just know I was not the cause nor the effect, just along for the ride. After 7 @ Blacksville, we turned towards Waynesburg on a very nice smooth road. I'm thinking it was 218........Time out Heroes is on.......Sweat!............Damn, the president is and he's on every channel..............Wow, that was a good one.............From Waynesburg we made our way back down to Kirby were we really had things rolling. I saw 30mph a couple of times on the flats. From Kirby we went on to Big Shannon, Mt. Morris and back to town via Rt. 100. Got home with almost 5hrs. and 85 miles, not a bad day.

I would also like to welcome Coach to the team blog. You've already been graced with his first post. Pay attention kids, you might learn something. He is a master of sports physiology you know, well almost.

So this week starts some interval work on the training plan. Time to get that pain box off the shelf and tare into it. Welcome to the Pain Train.

I did a lil hike around Bakers Ridge today and if you are interested the conditions are looking somewhat better than this past weekend. A lot of wet spots with some dryer tacky stuff thrown in. Another day or two of this weather it could be prime. But it doesn't look like that will happen. Clicked of a few photos for your enjoyment.

Later,

Josh

Ouch!!!

What an awesome day! Beautiful weather blessed Morgantown again today, after a few rain showers this am, the clouds cleared and roads dried up nicely. I finally made it out for my first road ride this year. The boys took me on one heck of a ride; I feel like we touched on every back road I had ever ridden out of Motown today and 4 hrs later I ended up back at my apt., bike dirty, and purty tuckerd. Sure did feel good, thanks for crushing me today fellows.
Rubber Side Down,
Ryan

Josh's Race Ready SuperFly

There was some real nice weather today, but I didn't even make it out on the bike. I spent most of my Saturday at the LBS working on my bikes. There was some real progress made though so it was totally worth it.

The SuperFly is completely operational now and it is look'n real HOT! Only had to get a couple of new parts to complete the build. The last pieces of the puzzle were a BB and a couple of chain rings and cable housings. Not to mention some new team graphics. Check it out.

Warning this is some hard core bike Porn.

I went with some gold shift cable housing and I think it really added to the look. It's like a gold tooth, just adds some class. The only other thing that needs to be changed is the water bottle cages. I will probably have to go with white unless I can find some gold cages. Let me know if anyone knows where to get gold bottle cages.

Also, I got some work done on the EX today. There was a Sram XO rear derailleur on it that had a crapped out pulley cage spring. This caused a lot miss shifts and the chain to jump around in rough stuff. Came across of great deal on a new XTR so I needed shifters that would work with Shimano derailleur. I switched to some twist shifters on this bike too. Sram Attack twisties work with the 2:1 ratio that Shimano uses. These are suppose to be equivalent to Sram X-9 level. I had to get some new bushings for the upper shock mount too. Word to the wise........FS frames need some TLC, spend a few beans to replace barrings/bushings if the rear end gets a lil sloppy.

If you remember my woes from the Thursday Night ride with the EX's fork, the problem has been diagnosed as poor performance do to sub-zero temps. It seems to be working much better in the warm weather. Wonder it Mr. Fox refilled my suspension fluid with pancake syrup.

One last thing, I broke out the official Wamsley Cycles scale and got the weight of the SuperFly and EX. I was pretty happy with the weight of the SuperFly, it came in at right around 24lbs. w/o pedals. Not too bad for a 29er and a fork that's not super light. The EX came in just over 28lbs. There are some beefy tires on it that adds some weight and a bit of mud on the frame that could have added some grams.

Sunday's weather is looking pretty good for a long road ride. I've been taking it pretty easy this week, since it's a recovery week on the training schedule. Next week will start the higher intensity rides. Oh boy, sounds painful, I can't wait to get the that hurt box again.

Later,

Josh

They're Here, They're Here! YEAH!

All right brace yourself, the new team decals are in. Got some shots of Stephen's frame graphics. Old boy's get'n a lot a sticky plastic on his frame, probably adding all kinds of weight. Check'em out.

Steve got red graphics while the rest of us got white. I think they turned out "real nice Clark". Good job Jeremy. That kids got some style.

Also, I made an executive decision and mounted some tires on my new Race X Lite wheels. I went with the ACX's. They don't have the volume of the XDX's but they are lighter and should hook up well in the early season slop. I'm mounting them so early cause I believe these tubeless thingies with the gooey stuff (I use Bongrager's Super Juice) work/seal better if you give them some time to cure. So I'm seasoning my tires. I will give them a spin every day or so to coat the tires with the Super J. Of course this is just a theory, it may do nothing at all, but with the tire luck I've had, I'll give it try. Stay tuned for results of this experiment.

After playing at the shop it was time for the Thursday Night Shop Ride. Not a real strong showing tonight, just Jeremy and myself. Steve said something about it being too cold and going home to watch some cartoons and ride the trainer. So the Team RowMan tough guys headed out to White Park for some riding delight. It was a slow paced, fun ride. There's still quite a bit of snow on with icy patches but not too bad. I was on the "E to the X" which just got it's fork back from Mr. Fox. We Mr. Fox said he replaced almost everything but the damn thing still works and feels like crap. So there was a lot of stopping and screwing with the fork. But o'well those things don't last forever. Maybe new bike time? Hhhhmmmm. Maybe something with big wheels and full suspention. Sounds like some giggling like a school girl fun to me?

This weekend's forecast is sounding pretty promising, hope it holds up. I've been hearing some rumors flying around about some serious training rides. Lets see what the winds of change will bring.

Later,

Josh