Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mt Snow Race avoidance report (long-belated)

Those of you bored enough to browse by here regularly may have noticed that there hasn't been much racing in the news. Not to worry, I haven't taken up randouneering yet, but the wrench has been a little distracted lately. (So much so that he's started talking about himself in the third person!)

It all started a few weeks back when another potentially rainy ski hill MTB race (Mt. Snow #1) went head to head with an invitation to Dim-Sum. If you happened to read my last race report, the outcome is no surprise. Like a good paceline, once you get dropped off the back of the race train in late season it takes a monster effort to get back on, especially when the race train is in New England and you're in Pune, India. (Did I mention I was in India?)

Despite our purchase of Indian-Made "Hercules" brand bicycles for local travel, the racing scene in India is less than vibrant--not surprising given how hard it is to exert oneself in the midday smog. There is more than sufficient opportunity to ride, however, as I am commuting daily by bicycle to the project site (installaing a FabLab and working on FabFi), in traffic that would make your average urban courier drool with envy. As you might imagine, capturing a ride through utter urban-trnsport chaos with a handheld video camera is somewhat challenging, given the necessity to ride with one hand, but I tried because I love you all so much...



I'll be on a whirlwind tour of Asia (now through India and back in Afghanistan) until early September and mostly posting on the Fabfi blog, but anything that non-geeks might actually read will be cross-posted here.