I'm not a professional cyclist. I'm not a millionaire with no worries in the world. I don't have that much spare time. I'm a med-school student. My main goal is to learn about diseases and their cures. I occasionally have time to ride my bike. I sometimes have a spare weekend to cycle. But thats about all spare time I have. The computer monitor started to hurt my eyes. I don't want to sit in front of it anymore. I have to, for my studies though. I'm leaving the blogosphere. It's been a pleasant trip. I have to go back to the real world.

If anyone wants to contact me  feel free to EMAIL ME AT: tayfuryagci@gmail.com

bye

Tom, I had to post that comment. You know I like you, you're a cool guy. But I'm a sensitive person and I just can't bear injustice. I know world is too big a place to modify according to my taste. I just had to. You can delete the comment. After all it's your site.

I'm sorry if I hurt you. Many people who call themselves muslims and many people who think that they know everything about "that evil camel-fucker" don't know but one of the gravest sins a muslim can commit is to break a heart. I'm sorry if I offended you. I truly am.

I picked my bike up from the shop yesterday. My baby now has a Carbon+6061Alu Amoeba Scud handlebar and a lightweight 90 mm Amoeba Vitra stem together with a pair of mint-condition Deore shifters and a Sigma cyclocomputer.

Man that carbon handlebar looks SWEET! I just can't stop looking at it! My bike's now a 27 speeder and I'm spo close to having a decent XC bike. All I need now is a decent wheelset and a good pair of v-brakes. My  present ones SUCK, BIG TIME! Anywho I know just how I can fund the new wheelset and pair of brakes.

I have one of the coolest cellular phones in the world. It's a Palm Treo 650 which is used by Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman) of the series Alias. I'm a huge fan of the show. All I have to do to fund my last upgrades is to trade the Marshall phone with an Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) phone which is a Motorola V3 RAZR. I'll probably have 300 big ones after the trade so I can hook my rig up with a beautiful Mavic Crossland wheelset. Another project of mine will fund my Time atac pedals + 661 SPD shoes dream. Yeah Alias is a cool show. Actually we have lots of ABC shows here and many of them are pretty sweet. Lost, House MD, Alias etc.

Lots to study...

My dad picked up two boxes from the Customs Office today. They were full of cool gear!

First box was from Elden. countless jerseys and a much anticipated vest was in it. by the size of the jerseys I can tell that he used to be the same size with me, before becoming the formerly Fat Cyclist. Thank you so much Elden for starting Project Outfit Tayfur (P.O.T.)! Thanks to you now 2 girls and 5 men have lots of stuff to wear.

The second was from Cathy Boland. The box was especially full of womens' clothes. I already found a few racers to give all those clothes. Thanks a lot!

Let's update some other stuff. My bike's been at the shop for 5 days now. Man, the Shop's owner must be furious! I didn't go to pick my bike up during the week. I couldn't, I didn't have any spare time and I honestly didn't want to ride my bike. Now I'm anxious to get my bike and ride it a couple of miles. It doesn't seem very possible under the thunderstorm we have going on here. I guess I'll have to find a car to go and pick my bike up with. Tomorrow I will (hopefully) be the proud oner of a 27 speed bike. The drivetrain doesn't have 2 things of the same model. The crankset is an LX, fd is Alivio, rd is Deore, chain is KMC, cassette is a used old SRAM PG-950. some patchwork! At least it will be a 27 speed.

Anywho, thanks to everyone participating in the P.O.T!

see you later.

The race was at it's usual place. Ssome 20 kms north of Istanbul, in the forest.

There was lots and lots and lots of mud. I was confident. Last race I completed 4 laps and I thought I could finish this one. I even dreamed of a podium finish! I was DELUSIONAL! I completed one lap and abandoned. Let me tell you something, I don't hate myself because of this. I did the right thing.

It snowed the week before, a lot. So the course was unbelievably muddy. 20 cm mud at some places f**ked the crap out of every component on the bike. There were occasional water-crossings so there wasn't the tiniest bit of grease left on the bike after 1,5 kms!

200 meters after the starting point, THE climb started. 2 kms of sheer pain. I walked about %75. It was gruesome. It made me ask myself why I do this. Sadly there wasn't a good answer to that question today. The race today made me question myself. Why I do this to myself? I want to be a surgeon, my competitors stayed home and studied anatomy today as I rode my bike in all the mud and filth of some forest. Aren't things related to thinking OVER things related to bodily exercises? What is the purpose of this stupidity?


I wanted to go back. I wanted to lie on my face in a puddle of mud. I wanted to kick my bike into the nearby lake. I wanted to beat myself with an iron stick for not training, not losing weight, not doing anything but blogging, hanging around cyclists forums and watch TV. Everything that I was unhappy with in my life came up. That hill opened my eyes.

I completed one lap. Around the worst 4km off-road course, EVER. At teh end of the lap I fell of the bike. I fell so hard that I had no time to use my hands to slow me down. I fell directly onto my torso. It hurt real bad and I heard a "Pfooof" sound. I lay there thinking: "Ok, Tayfur, you ruptured your diaphragm. You'll suffocate and die here. I don't want to die at a stupid MTB race." Then I was able to breathe again. It hurt but I could breathe. I finished the lap in agony. I started the second lap but returned from the bottom of that monster hill.

Now, I know somethings very well:

• I have very good friends. Thanks to Halil and Gürkan especially. they are WAY better racers than me and they support me in every possible way.
• I CAN be a cyclist. I'm not one yet but I can be. I'm lacking in lactate tolerance and aerobic capacity. These problems can be solved by losing 25 kilograms of that excess fat.
• I have a fairly good bike. I should give it some credit. The problem's mostly (like %60) at the rider not the bike.

These were the cycling related things I know well. I have some school related things to talk about too.

• I want to be a Hand Surgeon. This requires 15 years of study after med-school. to achieve my goal of becoming a good hand surgeon I have to leave everything aside and study. And I have to start no further than tomorrow! At least 2 hours of anatomy study plus 90 minutes of other subjects MAY SUFFICE.
• I like studying. This may sound weird because I study very little. This is not because I don't like to study but because I'm having trouble intiating the study sequence.
• I must study.

This became a cliché of mine and it's not a good thing but I'm starting dieting. Here's a list of what I can eat. Giving a list of dont's would be harder.

1. Raw vegetables.
2. Raw fruit.
3. Meat (low in fat and boiled or grilled)
4. Tuna (it's a good thing to eat, nutritious and low calories)
5. Milk, yoghurt, cheese

That's all. I must lose about 20 kilograms in 2,5-3 months. It's doable.I can be a good cyclist at the beginning of the season.
I can get that beautiful 90/100 at the Musculo-skeletal systems exam at 10th march.
I can be a better person.

But please let me rest now. It was a hard day.

The likelihood of a "Tayfur goes to America" thing happening is as much as these:

Caloi doesnt stop with winning the Teton Pass but goes to Europe and takes first place at the Alpine Gauntlet, first place by an hour and a half!

Fatty wins a stage at TdF!

Me becoming an olympian at 2008!

Anywho, thanks man! Couch would be a slice of buckingham Palace after 3 months in a sleeping bag! If I EVER get to doing that tour!

I'm glad you're healing well Tom. A little leakage is always possible after that kind of a surgery, I had a pelvic surgery about 9 years ago and it leaked for about a week. So I know how it feels to be losing water from some weird place on your body!

The race's tomorrow, I didn't really have time to train this time. All I want is to complete 6 laps and nothing else! If I do, I'll be on the podium man!

See you tomorrow night!

I have been flying over and around the blogosphere for seven months. I have had this place for six months. This thing consumes a lot of time. I admit it, it's great fun. There are funny people to chat with, there's always some interesting bike stuff to talk about, there's always jokes and stuff but as I said before I'm wasting way too much time around here. It hurts to write this but I gotta cut this off or it's going to cost me big time. The holidays are over and I have school non-stop until the end of June. I have to study my ass off. I'm not good at it. I have always been a "Shining Example" to others, but also I've always known that I'm not trying even half as hard as I am capable of. I should. I should study, read medical stuff instead of bicycle stuff, I should do better things with my time at these years of my life. Wasting 4 hours every day after school on bike stuff is SHEER STUPIDITIY! The books I have to study are right next to me now and man they're thick! Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Pathology, Sociology, Psychology ... I have neglected my duties as a med-school student for months. And stuff piled up.

I have research to do on some very specific subjects concerning the Turkish Health system.
I have to study THE WHOLE FRIGGIN musculo-skeletal system.
I have to learn parasitology, bacteriology and micology.

And in the mean time I have to keep up with other classes.

I'm scared, really scared. There's so much to do and I REALLY would rather cycle all the day long. But I can't. Life's harder than that and there's more to it than that.

Only for once in my life before I studied hard. I studied for 2 months before an SAT-like exam we have here to apply for college. I remember it felt good to study hard. Everything tasted better. Happines was more or less genuine. I'm going to stop kidding myself and thrust myself to school.

It's childish but I planned what I'm going to do with my time. I want it to be something like this:

XX:XX hour: Come home from school
1 hour rest
2 hours studying
1,5 hours catch up with your reading
1,5 hours train for the next race
XX+6:XX hours go to bed

It would be cool.

My holiday is almost over. It's saturday, school starts on monday. I'm not tired anymore after 3 weeks of doing nothing but sleeping and eating and cycling. I have the energy, I have the screams of "Got get 'em tiger!"s in my head. I have the will-power bars in my jersey-pockets. All I have to do is gun the engine and floor it!

What the GAZEBO does this mean? It means my posts will be less frequent after monday until this summer. But I will use my Treo (I love that phone so much I wanna sell it! Anyone interested in a Palm Treo 650?) to check out Caloi's and T's and Fatty's and other people's blogs and leave comments. You shall not despair!  Well I see I still can smile. It's a good sign.

When I ride, my rhinal secretions go out of control! It's not a joke, even in the driest day of summer if I'm riding it means I'm constanty sniffing and mucus is oozing down my face. It has something to do with exercise starting the symphatetic nervous system. Ok, many people produce excess mucus when riding but mine's a freak show! Here are some anectodes:

I'm going downhill with 40 mph, it's cool, I had long hair at that time and I was at least 15 pounds lighter and I felt very very cool. I go : "Wooo hooooo!" all the way down the hilluntil a BIG drop of mucus comes out of my nose flies off and lands on my ear. THAT is stupid. I get distracted and brake early on a hill where I could easily hit 50 on my roadie. Did I ever mention that I have an illegal-in-races 11 tooth cog at the back of my roadie? 52x11 is COOL.

I'm on my MTB which I just bought a new frame and it feels nice to ride a new bike. It's august, very dry, very hot and I'm producing mucus like a character from that show Carnivale! (again) I'm at the sea-side cruising, coasting mainly but still mucus keeps dripping. Suddenly I'm going side by side with this cute girl, she says she likes my bike (My bike looked a lot like hers, it consisted of various very different bits and parts gathered from here and there; as my bike was back then and it still is) all I can say back is: "Sjhczdcspfsss" When I open my mouth that salty, warm fluid comes in and well it's not a pleasant experience to DRINK your mucus. She laughs and pedals away.

I'm at the race, HR around 195, pedalling uphill with 2x5 and I keep sniffing. It totally screws up my breathing. So I get tired sooner than I should and start walking.

I have the nastiest solution to this "Excess Rhinal Secretions" thing. Maybe other cyclists use this too, I really dont want to know. I blow my nose to my Cannondale DH5 glove and spread the mucus in a nice and thin layer onto my MTB shorts. Beware hand-shake enthusiasts I'm coming!

Ok a few weeks ago Caloi said he really wanted to know what I ride. So here goes:

Kron 16" tri-butted 7005 aluminum frame (made in Taiwan, lightweight with only 1550 grams)
Manitou Axel fork, 85 mm travel with an unbelievable weight of 2480 grams
Shimano LX Crankset (rigid and very light)
Shimano LX BB
Shimano Alivio shifters 3x8 (problem-free components, I think I'll put them on my roadie after I switch to 3x9)
Shimano Alivio front derailleur
Shimano Deore rear derailleur
Shimano Alivio 8 sp cassette (best component ever, no wear after thousands of kilometers)
KMC chain (the cheapest possible, I break chains very very often)
Shimano Alivio front-rear hubs
Shimano Alivio v-brakes (crappy is the name of the game here, I'm looking for Avid ball bearing 5's)
Barradine brake pads (almost worn out after the race, I went out and bought the hardest pads as Fatty said, they turned out real good )
Tektro brake levers (both are bent after a stupid crush which ended with me lying in a puddle of mud in front of a crowded bus stop near a high school, yeah those girls were laughing at ME)
Front-rear no-name spokes
Rigida rear rim (sides are completely worn out, needs replacement, bad)
Arriv front rim (real shitty stuff)
Schwalbe Hardclimber 2,1 in. rear tire (I had to get this cheap crap after a tiny shard of glass tore the damn IRC Notos XC, no kevlar for me from now on!)
IRC Notos XC 1,95 in. front tire (it melted like cheese man! a few hundred kms and the knobs are almost gone! talk about a quality tire, this stuff just can't take abuse)
Schwalbe tubes
Velo saddle (brand new and very comfy)
Zoom seat pin
Zoom stem (did I hear someone say crappy? yes it is)
No-name riser handlebar (solid stuff)
No-name alu pedals (it's funny the best parts on my bke are the no-name ones)
Amoeba grips
Alu bottle cage
Shimano wires
Finish Line teflon lubricant
20/50 W motor oil
One (1) buck worth frame-bag
Cheapest bottle ever
No-name made in china front lamp
Rear lamp the same brand with the one above
Insulation tape used to cover some excess writing on the frame especially on the top-tube (it read Xaos, whatever that means, supposed to be the model of the bike)
Insulation tape used as chain guard on the chain stay (because I'm too cheap to go and buy a decent chain guard for 3 bucks)
Lots of mud from all around Istanbul

I love some of the parts on my bike, I'm neutral about some and I really do hate some of them. Actually all I need is a wheelset and a good front disc-brake. I have some plans on wheels, as soon as funds permit I'm going for a rear wheel.

Yesterday's race was cool. I ACTUALLY raced with a few people. I beat some of them and some f them beat me but that's irrelevant. There was especially a girl and a dude, we were passing each other constantly. At the end I abandoned the race but the dude kept going for one more lap even though he was bonked. (Insert shrug here) :D Here are a few pictures from the race.

The second pic is kind of weird. I had my tuff-downhill-guy face on but the man taking the picture took it a little late.
The third picture is of the overall winner's.
The fourth is my friend Halil he had to abandon because of a rear flat.
The fifth is my friend Ugur he had to abandon because of worn-out disc pads.

I went to the second of four winter training races today. It was cool.

I woke up at 0610 AM after 8 hours of sleep. I had a carb-rich breakfast, picked my bag and got out of the house. My father and my brıther dropped me off at the LBS. My bike was already there. We loaded the bikes in a van and took off for the race-place.

I warmed up before the race. No VO2MAX's this time as I did last time and it made me COMPLETELY bonk. I didn't eat any stupid stuff as I did last time, it messes up thephospagene system (or how the heck ever that's spelled). The race started and I was at the head. I keeped up the pace with the leaders for one whole lap! The second lap was the hardest. Every move hurt, there wasn't a single point on my body that didn't hurt. I was breathing heavily and wheezing. Mucus was literally pouring from my nostrils and I was thirsty. I didn't have any water with me and Powerade is no substitute for it. The third and fourth laps were extremely fun. I fell at the technical downhill at both laps and spectators laughed at me but I had no problem with it. At the end of the fourth lap right after the technical downhill I stepped on a giant puddle of mud with both feet. My leather socks are completely water and wind proof and extremely comfy but they sucked in all the mud and water from the ankle-part. The foruth lap ended, my friends (some who left the race and others just spectators) gave me water, shouting "ATTABOY!s and GO GET EM TIGER!s" tried to cheer me up. I started the fşfth lap but abandoned the race after 250 meters. I was there to complete 4 laps and I did so I'm not sorry I didn't go for a fifth lap.

The course was beautiful. Just the right amount of mud. Okay A LOT OF mud. Lots of low gradient ascends, one man-thats-a-tuff-hill ascend, two non-technical downhills and one technical downhill.

I fell 3 times. None serious. I wore leather socks to the race so my feet were doing great. I recommend them to everyone. It's a lot better to use a 6$ worth pair of leather socks than 45$ Sealskinz socks! I know I shouldn't try anything new at the race but I really needed to change my saddle so I bought a middle-sized Velo saddle the day before the race. It turned out great.

The weather was lovely. The word of blizzards is everywhere around here. Storm clouds are gathering and this was probably my last off-road ride for some time. Today was good bacause of a few things: Even though my physical condition is so-so I now know that I have technical capabilities and courage to do hard stuff. I anted to complete 4 laps and I did.

I'm hoping to finish the next race.

That's it for now...

I have a race this sunday. At the same place with the last one but on a different course. Last time I rode at juniors but this time I probably will be at Under-23 category. I'm aiming for completing 4 laps around the course this time rather than last times 2 laps. I will curl in a ball and lie in my own vomit and urine at the end but Fatty sez it's better to have widespread spasms than quitting. He's right. Here are some pictures of me from that race.

Well one look at that title and you think that today's entry is about Rollers or trainers or stationary bikes. No sir it's not!

It's -10C degrees outside. 35 kph winds, not a single ray af the warm sunshine at sight for miles. It's not wet, not that muddy too but I just don't want to go out and ride. It hurts my throat to breathe at -10, -15 with a headwind and with a HR of 150 BPM!  I can go out for a short spin doh. Anywho lemme get to todays subject: Indoor cycling.

When I say indoor cycling I mean looking at maps of different parts of the world and plan for a tour I MAY be able to do in 10 years. That slight possiblity makes me smile. One particular idea has been bugging me for the last cpl of weeks. Lemme just take the world atlas (which I bought at the beginning of the last year, back then I wanted to cross-study different branches like geography, Russian and etc. turns out I can barely manage the elementary classes). Ok here it is.  I'm looking for the North America section... Aha!  I want to cycle across North America, well USA mostly. I was looking for a way around the monetary issues. Then I  had a brilliant (!) idea: I won't be picky about where in North America I land. I'll just get my visa, (not the card, USA visa for my passport) and buy the cheapest plane ticket going to anywhere on the North American continent. I'd like to land somewhere in NY or NJ but I wouldn't mind if I ended up in northern Quebec! Maybe I would a little. I won't be picky about what I eat, I may have cheese and crackers for a whole week, -and another week and another week and another...- that's cool. I'll camp. Wherever possible. My friend Gökhan and I had the coolest idea yesterday: If we can't camp we can just keep going for the other day! Not very logical but I don't know it sounds like a solution to me.

Whadya know! I have a running bike. No-more is needed for a tour. Minimal amount of racks and bags would suffice since I won't have that much gear. Maybe a few pairs of tights, a few jerseys, first aid stuff, the least amount of camping gear possible and I'm set. I even don't have to bring the racks and bags with me over the Atlantic. One big backpack, the wacky big ones those camping/hunting dudes who wear shorts and boots use would take up all my stuff. Where I land I can  go -by my bike of course- to the nearest bike shop and hook my ride up with the needed touring stuff. After that pedal on!

I want to see some places in USA, it's kind of funny I'm talking about roaming around one of the largest, "vast"est countries in the world. But I have plenty of time. I want to see the big cities like NY and Philadephia, DC and Miami, Chicago and Seattle, San Fransisco and LA. Yeah I wanna see these places. I wanna see the Northern Plains (Maybe ride with Caloi for some time.) I want to see the Wild West without Will Smith doing wacky acrobatic stuff and futuristic inventions torching towns! I want to see the East Coast north to south than again South to North.

I don't know why but I really want to cycle at San Fransisco. I wanna pedal along the streets I rode sports cars in Midtown Madness 2.

I don't know how I will pass the Rockies, I don't know what kind of troubles I'll face, I don't know how a religious muslim kid is going to survive in the wilderness. Maybe I overthink stuff, maybe I'm making a big deal out of small things. I just want to pedal across a vast country. From one ocean to The Biggest Ocean.

This is what I call indoor cycling.

We ( Actually my father did) got another box full of bicycle apparel. 4 jerseys, 1 long and 3 short tights, pairs of cycling socks  and 2 pairs of MTB shorts. Many are Cannondale brand. Jerseys are especially FINE. Gracias a bunchos Rocky!

My MTB is in shitty situation. Crankset is in the ICU, rims are worn out, front brake's messed. I'm at the moment haggling for a new wheelset. And I'm buying Dt spokes and a pair of Zac xc420 rims. My rims wore out in 4000 kms! I asked Elden about it and he said it would be a warranty matter! No sirreee, not here!

I'm thinking of buying a whole Shimano LX Groupetto. Except for the front derailleur, which I don't really need in a high quality. It costs about 370 clams. A good pile of money it is! I really need those parts, if ı'm thinking of -really- training and racing  I must have good components. LX 2005 is pretty much the XTR 2003 according to many mtb sites. People who use it say so too. Then it's a good choice, if only I had the dough. I need money for this and some other projects I have going on right now. So I came up with a heart-aching solution: I'm selling my beloved Treo 650. I have absolutely no other way of getting that much money. Except for selling a kidney and half my liver. I love my internal organs more than my Pa1mOne Treo 650.
 After I sell this phone I probably will be buying a cheapo with Gprs and E-mail compatibility. And I'll be chanellising the rest of the money to my bicycle and some other stuff.

Back to the bike: I'll be buying a pair of Rigida xc420 rims and two sets of DT Champion spokes. Rims are cheap, but reliable with extremely good reviews from my buddies. Spokes are heavy-duty DT spokes so no-more needed to say about them. I have fairly good Shimano Alivio hubs. After I sell my phone I'll be switching to LX 2005s.

As I said, my crankset is about to die. It was the cheapest of cheapos. 1 year's worth crankset for 20 bucks I guess. It's now covered with rust. Teeth are almost gone!

But meanwhile I may keep at 24 speeds. I'll just buy the LX 2005 crankset at stay at 24 speeds. I'm changing the wheels, I may switch from Alivio V-Brakes to Avid Single Digit SL. As I figured, braking is a helluva lot more important from drivetrain. With the Avid SDs I of course would like to buy Avid levers. Yeah these are more essential than a new cassette. My present one is spotless! Alivio 8 speed cassette is a solid component! MY KMC chain is holding pretty good so no changes there.

My pedals have the cool worn out look. I'm thinking of buying a pair of metal clips, using my Colnago straps (Which I don't know from where they came.) and not changing my pedal setup anymore.

My tire's are not doing well, were not. The rear tire had a major rupture after having close relationships with glass chips last Friday. So now I'm running a Schwalbe Hardclimber 2,10in. at the back. Comfy and NOISY!. I may buy the same for the front too. Since a LBS has a stock of them trying to sell and it's now worth only 9$! I know I know I shouldn't buy it just because it's cheap but the Kevlar and Me are not doing well. This relationship won't work.

That's it for now.

It was my first week of even thinking about training. It was not bad considering I went to school 4 days and it was raining all of the week. I rode for 61 miles. I walked 10miles. My Phat Kilometer time is very bad. lota over 2 mins so I won't even tell it here. This week wasn't that bad at all. If I nail a 100 km day next week I might even do more kilometers than ArcticJill! :D I know I know she does all those miles on snow!

Bravo is all I can say.

Yesterday was a disaster with less than half the distance I planned to ride. Today's foggy, wet and cold. I'm thinking of a 16 mile ride. Throwing me over 70 miles this week. Not bad for a first try at training. I have some work to do now As soon as I'm finished I'll be going out.

I like fat tires. When I say fat I don't mean freaky 3" downhill tires. I like reasonably fat tires. 2", 2.10", 2.35" these are all good. Weird? Maybe but they defibitely look better than skinny slicks or featherweight 1,95 XC tires. Ok, I admit my rear tire weighs nearl 2 pounds but I like the way it looks and even more the way it transmits the torques to the ground. More rubber = More traction. Thats exactly what I need for winter off-road rides. But the sound on asphalt is REALLY bad. Yup gotta run.

I was going to commute to school today. I was supposed to atten an anatomy laboratory practice at 11:40. I got out of my house at 7:30 thinking 4 hours would be more than enough for a 50 km ride. Turns out it wasn't! At kilometer 2 I was singing to myself: (with a slight country style) I AM DUH mud-man hum hum hum I AM DUH mud-man hum hum hum I am THE stupidest man on Earth WHHYY? CAUSE I CAUSE I CAUSE YOU? Cause I wore a beige sweater to my ride! What? Cause I, Cause I wore a beigse sweater to my ride! Anywho, I was covered with watery and smelly mud HEAD TO TOE! At the 13 kilometer I fell of the bike, the front tire slipped of the kerb and I was rolling all over. Then 3 blood-thirsty dogs chased me for nearly half a kilometer. Some VO2 max it was! This is what you get for living in the suburbs. The 13 or 14 more kilometers I was able to pedal were ok. Then I came to a bridge where homeless dwell (that almost rhymes). I passed it and then got off my bike. I mean FLEW off my bike. The rear tire blew, I turned my head to look at it and then got into a ditch. I rolled over a few times, got myself covered in mud and filth. I got to the bike shop. Fortunately the shop was 3 or 4 kilometers away. I walked there and of course it was closed. I waited for 2 hours in the cold. I recently lost my pump so I had no means of repairing the tire. The mechanic guy came and took care of my bike. Turns out a large piece of glass (pardon my french) fu.ked the sh.t out of the IRC NOTOS XC. Crappy tire it is! I'd rather use a damn pantyhose instead of that piece of crap! Now I'm running a Schwalbe Hardclimber. It's 2,1 in. thick and has teeth like an alligators! Not much of TT material but it'll probably be good for winter off-road riding. Now I'm sitting in front of a computer and writing this listening to Madonna's latest album. Yeah the music's pretty irrelevant. See you at the Phat Kilometer.

Last sunday I raced a XC race at a local forest. I was able to complete 2 laps around the course. I raced at the Juniors category where there was 7 riders. I finished 3rd! Well that rules! The official results came in rather late and I saw that I was 3rd. Well done Tayfur.