Blowout!

Not too awfully much going on just now to write about. However, last Thursday I had a MASSIVE rear tire blowout on my after-work group road ride. No idea what caused it, but I actually suspect a bad tire. It had just under 500 miles on it, and was rated to 160psi...of which I only had it filled to about 105psi which is my usual. Here are some pics after the fact:

That's a nickel for size comparison, and then my finger poking thru in the photo below. Both show the HOLE in the tube.

The blowout was like a gunshot. Gary and Eric were in the process of dropping me, and were about 20 yards or more ahead and they BOTH instantly turned wondering what they heard. I didn't run over anything as far as I know, it just WENT. We all stood there a few moments looking at the damage, and wondering now  how I was going to get back as we were still 11 miles from our start (and on a nearly deserted road, and nobody had a phone with them). I always carry a few chunks of old tire tread, cut into rectangles for just this purpose. I replaced the tube with my spare, and then slipped in my 2 pieces of tread between the hole and the tube, finished seating the bead of the tire and then pumped it up to about 40psi. That's not very much for a road tire, but the rubber held the tube inside the gaping hole and I was able to ride (albiet slowly...it felt like I was pedaling in sand). And I did made it back without blowing my spare tube! It's the strangest (and largest) blowout any of our group had ever seen. The first picture was actually taken after the ride, you can clearly see the cords are gone and the tire pieces I slipped in showing in the hole. I was amazed but VERY HAPPY that it held!

That was about all the excitement I've had in my life lately. In other news, someone we all USED to root for (and believe in) is actually going on trial in France THIS WEEK for computer hacking. But he won't be there, and there's pretty much nothing they (the French) can do to him unless he were foolish enough to set food on French soil. Here's the article link if you are interested:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/landis-on-trial-for-hacking-charges

Rant has discussed this on occasion and I'm sure it will come up again now that the actual trial is happening. Just what the endgame is here for whoever is actually pushing this trial is anybody's guess. It's not like anybody can get any money from the man. I have no idea what he's doing to survive the last year or so. Also being as they came up, I have to admit I'm wondering where the Lance witch-hunt has gone. They held the Grand Jury and had testimony from pretty much anybody who ever knew Lance. So what's the deal? Do they have ANYTHING substantial at all, or is the utter silence indicative of nothing more than 'he said, she said'? I'm afraid the old saying "no news is good news" doesn't' apply here. The man running the investigation is the one who went after Barry Bonds, and doesn't appear to be the kind of guy who backs down from what he believes is the truth. Based on that alone I fear we will be hearing more on this in the near future....that he has NOT given up. But truth be told, I've rather enjoyed the last half-year or so of almost NO cycling related doping scandals.

And so. I fly to Colorado Springs on Monday for a week, come back and then drive BACK up to Sunnyvale for 2 more weeks, come home from that just in time to fly to Hawaii for our Thanksgiving vacation. I'm just a busy guy I tell you! No rest for the weary I tell you.

Have a great week, get out there and enjoy the fall!