j.c. mckeen

j.c. mckeen skip to main | skip to sidebar j.c. mckeen monday, november 12, 2007 cyclocross and such well, since i haven't written anything here in over three months, you've probably all stopped checking my blog (and rightfully so). but, with some cyclocross pictures finally in hand, i though i would throw some up. the pics are from the convert cross outside of ventura. the course was really fun, and my fitness is finally starting to come back up. wow, how i miss being fast.i unfortunately didn't race this past weekend due to illness (i can't seem to kick this cold....f'in crappy green phlem) but will be back in action in two weeks at the turkey trot cross in glendale.for now, enjoy the pics. props to fritz for a great finish, and jason for flatting, running over half the course to the pits, and still catching me by the end of the race. right on! posted by john mckeen at 2:39 pm 2 comments   friday, august 3, 2007 i'm back so, let's get a beer! give me a call or shoot me an email if anyone is interested. posted by john mckeen at 11:04 am 4 comments   some excellent riding as i sit in my hotel room in my last night in france, (which has already happened as i’m not willing to pay the 10 euro price for internet access to publish this post) i figured that i should (and wanted to) write about my last few days in grenoble as the experience and sights of this past sunday will stay in my mind for a long time to come. as i didn’t have any more experiments i wanted to do, i decided to make thursday my last day at work to do some epic rides on friday, saturday, and sunday. well, i actually only intended friday and sunday to be epic, but saturday turned out to be longer than i planned. friday morning i got up a little after 8am, had a good breakfast, stuffed my pockets with energy bars and a banana and set out for les deux alpes. first, let me back up for a moment. in one of my first blog posts i wrote about how great one of the local bike shops looked from the outside. well, i finally decided to check it out, and while i can’t say the bike selection was outstanding, the selection of accessories was excellent! i even got to check out a new pair of mavic wheels with the r-sys technology (carbon spokes and a reported sub 1400g weight). i’m not sure if they were for sale, but they were cool. needless to say, i walked out with more than a bunch of energy bars. i finally ditched my slr for a flite gel flow, and it was the best 80 g i’ve ever added to my bike. the thing is so comfortable, and, and orders of magnitude better than the minimalist slr. and, as my crank brothers pedals have come apart (the pedal body actually came off the spindal while i was riding twice nearly causing me to go over the bars and crash), and the cleats have come loose three times on each mounting plate, i bought a pair of look keo carbon cro-mo pedals, and for $125, none the less. yes, that is over $100 less than i would have paid in the states. finally, i have a solid set of road pedals, and what a difference! (and a but lighter than the crank brothers pedals, so i’m about weight neutral) ok, back to my friday. the ride to les deux alpes heads out of grenoble as if you were going to alpe d’huez and goes through bourge d’osians, which is where you would turn to start the climb up to alpe d’huez. rather than making the left, however, i continued down the road and started the climb up to les deux alpes. i won’t belabor you with the details, but the climb was great! not as steep as alpe d’huez, but still long enough to be challenging and scenic. the i alluded to in my previous post, the town of les deux alpes was very cool! it definitely was a ski town, and the whole place reminded me of any of the base villages you might find at any colorado ski resort. lots of outdoor café’s, bars, and plenty of places to rent gear and sleep slopeside. i would love to go back in the winter and see what it’s like. i didn’t expect the town to be what it was, but what surprised me the most was the fact that there were people in ski gear! jackets, bibs, goggles, gloves, etc. and carrying skis or snowboards. i did see one glacier, but i didn’t see a way to get there. according to quentin (friend from lab) there is a skiable glacier open all summer. at the top, i had a coke and croissant, and headed back down for a total ride time of 6 hours, 4000 calories. saturday, my plan was to ride a little shorter (4 hours) as i didn’t want to be tired for my truly epic ride on sunday. alas, fate had a different plan. the vercors mountains and park lie to the west of grenoble and have stunning gorges and tunnels cut through the cliffs. i’ve ridden through part of them before, but there were still some places i wanted to see, namely the col du rommereye and the grand goulets. i figured the ride would take 4.5 to 5 hours with a decent amount of climbing. i set out a couple hours earlier than on friday as i wanted to have time to eat lunch and then head to lab to catch the final time trial of the tour (i didn’t get tv reception in my dorm). the climb up the r*** was, as most of the other climbs i have done here, was quite steep, but well paved. after hitting the summit, i decided to keep climbing up to the col du mont noix, which was only a few more clicks and set me up to descend to where i needed to be to get to the grand goulets. the descent was excellent, with great views of the valley below. i’ll try to post some pics i took. i then headed out to the grand goulets with the intent of eventually climbing herboully (another mountain) and then descending back to grenoble. but, when i arrived to the entrance of the goulets, they were closed! damnit! i unfortunately had to backtrack at this point as there wasn’t any way around. this cost me 45 minutes. oh, i should have mentioned, i had stopped for a crossiant and coke in one of the towns on my way to the goulets. man, i love those croissants, all flakey and buttery..mmmm. after backtracking, i was forced to repeat the route i had done on a previous ride, which i wasn’t really pleased with. on top of that, i was running out of bars, and my sunburn from the previous day was starting to hurt again, as i had now been in the saddle for 4.5 hours on the day and was very exposed to the sun. well, i climbed for another hour and a half or so, and finally ran across a café where i bought a pecan tart…perhaps the most delicious of my life. the descent into grenoble was fun, and while i didn’t see the whole tour stage, i did get to watch levi and evans. in summary, 6.5 hours and 4200 calories. i was a little worried that i was going to be tired on sunday after these two long rides, but i actually felt good and set out on a ride i had really been looking forward to. cyclists and non cyclists alike, if you are in france, you must go up the col de la croix de fer and col du glandon! absolutely amazing! truly tour worthy, and above the tree line at the top! incredible! i’lll post some pics below. the ride, again, start by going almost all the way to bourg d’osains, and then turns north as you begin to climb. i can’t even describe the glory of this climb. it’s stunning, and definitely challenging. quite steep at the bottom (7% or so), but eases off a little more near the top. there was one section in the middle where you descend basically down the side of a cliff at 12% and then climb at roughly the same gradient for a click or so. as with alpe d’huez, there were lots of other cyclists on this legendary ascent and it was nice to have company. as you climb above the tree line, you can almost see the end of the climb 8 or so k’s in the distance, and there were some pretty waterfalls flowing from the surrounding mountains. the glandon and the croix de fer are actually only 2 k’s apart, so if you climb one, you can easily do both. i rode the climb from the south west, but you could also climb the glandon from the north east or the croix de fer from the south east. more on that in a minute. there is a nice little café at the top of the croix de fer and i stopped and had a coke and a mars bar (no croissants). i then descended the back side (heading north east) of the glandon. there was tons of tour “memorabilia” painted on the rode, but on the way up, and down the backside. it was pretty cool to see, and got excited just thinking about how cool it would be to see the pros coming up the final few kilometers. i think it actually gave me goose bumps, and made me think that being a pro would be fun for that climb alone. in any case, i think that the ascent took me about 2 hours, and i went over the top having been in the saddle for about 4 hours. the first few k’s down the back side would be a truly epic climb, and i can’t imagine racing up them. the grade was probably 12 or so percent, and i’ll try to post some pics to show how challenging it would be to race up. i descended for quite a while and then rode an hour to the base of the col du grand cucheron, again steep, but nothing special. it took me about an hour, and i went over the top at 6:15 in the saddle, finally arriving back in grenoble after 8:15 ride time. 5200 calories and 125 miles. the views up the glandon/croix de fer were worth every pedal stroke and i don’t think i have ever felt so good after such a long ride. it was awesome! again, if you are in the area, the summit is a must see!ok, that’s enough for now. i’m going to go do some sit ups before i go to bed. tomorrow morning i’m going to spend my last 5 euros on coffee and pastries, and then catch my flight back to the states. i’m looking forward to being home and seeing and talking with many of you soon! until then….. looking up the last 8k or so of the col de la croix de fer me at the top down the backside of the col du glandon self explanatory posted by john mckeen at 10:52 am 0 comments   saturday, july 28, 2007 i am so sunburnt i'll elaborate more when i get a chance (i'm currently watching the final tt in the tour and am too pre occipied to write), but this is the last time i will have internet access before i leave. so...yeah....very sunburnt. yes, it hurts. but, i guess that's what i get for riding 6 hours yesterday (les deux alpes, which is a great climb and a very cool town. people were actually still skiing, although i don't know where as i didn't see much snow. but they were dressed in full ski gear and carrying boards or skis) without sunscreen. i bought some yesterday and put it on this morning, but my "shorter" ride today got a little out of hand and ended up taking 6.5 hours. tomorrow? yep, the longest of all. col du croix de fer, col du glandon, and the col du cucheron...over 200 km. i'm guessing 7 hours in the saddle, so i will probably really be a lobster tomorrow evening. i take the train to paris on tuesday afternoon and catch my flight back to la on wednesday morning. i'm looking forward to being home, especially for my own bed and my car...and my cell phone, none of which i have used for two months. i will definitely miss the bread. that's all for now. i'll add more about the rides with some pics later. the scenery today was unbelievable! later! posted by john mckeen at 7:58 am 1 comments   wednesday, july 18, 2007 the past couple weeks yes, yes, i know it's been a while since i've updated this thing, so here goes. i've mostly been working the past couple weeks, but have a couple of stories to tell. i also got to visit my relatives in switzerland two weekends ago, which was great. we took some pictures, but i don't have them yet. in short, switzerland is one of the most perfect places i have ever visited. beautiful lakes and mountains everywhere! i really don't think i could ask for more as far as scenery and a great location, although it would make flying challenging. meeting all of my relatives was really fun, and they were incredible hospitable and generous. i'm already planning how to get back there in a couple years. now, on to the stories. for this, we need to go back in time to last wednesday. having missed the 4th of july, with the 14th of july on the horizon (bastile day), and the departing of two of my friends for holiday, we decided to go out for a couple beers. so, here's the situation. a norwegian, a romanian, and an american, drinking belgium beer (delicious leffe brown and kronenbourg) in an irish pub, in france. in addition, we had live music played by a half scottish, half irish guitarist who, of course, spoke fluent french and english, both with an irish accent. he selections included tradition irish folk music, some french music i didn't understand (but that was good) and some good ole' american 70's classics. priceless. i told the guy my last name and he seemed to appreciate that, and yelled across the bar to some of his scottish buddies that we had more scottish blood in the pub. so, after a couple beers we discussed politics (what else), health care, science, etc. you know, the basics. at the end of the night, our norwegian friend started chatting with another group of people, who turned out to be french medical students who had just gotten the results of their final exam which ranked them for residency. apparently, some hadn't done so well. but, they were off to some party and invited us to come along. so, we called up another of our coworkers and he and his fiance drove and met us at what turned out to be the end of the party. as the tram had now ceased operation he was nice enough to give me a ride home, and thus my evening ended. happy birthday america, happy birthday france, and lucian and stian...it was fun! keep in touch. my second story isn't quite as entertaining as my first, but it was, none the less, a good time. sunday the 14th was bastile day, and stian's last day in grenoble. so, we decided that we woul get some dinner and then walk to the park for the festivities and fireworks. we had some very good (albeit expensive) indian food, then some excellent italian gelato, and finally headed to some park on the edge of downtown for fireworks. now, i've seen some good fireworks shows, but i have never seen them quite so "intimately" as this show. first, the show was one of the best i have seen in recent memory. it was set to music and had tons of shells. secondly, and most importantly, we were so close to the fireworks that it ended up being a 20 minute heavy metal and shell shrapnel shower. (talk about an insurance nightmare in the states!) the crowd was so close to the fireworks that some of the longer lasting shells actually caused sparks to hit the ground in the crowd. pretty impressive and very cool! after the display, the streets were filled with people, and we walked and had a beer before i caught the tram back to my apartment. well that's all i've got for now. i wish i could report on live tour stages, but it just wasn't in the cards. too much to do in lab coupled with difficulty in getting to the stages (the closest was about 100 miles away) was just too much hassle. the equipment is booked this weekend and mon-wed next week, so maybe i'll try to catch a stage in the pyrenees, if i can figure out how to swing it. i'm pretty satisfied with what i have accomplished and have gotten through all of my samples (some twice to check the results) and made good progress on some things that i knew nothing about when i arrived. until next time.... posted by john mckeen at 1:31 am 1 comments   monday, july 2, 2007 grocery stores, health care, and public restrooms, etc. let me start with the etc. part. i don't really have much to report from last weekend. i spent about 6 hours in lab on saturday and 6 more on sunday (not saying that that's a lot, just reporting) and then hopped on my bike for a couple of rides. on saturday, i left lab about 2 and was on my bike shortly before 3. i had planned a route to the west, southwest of grenoble partly through vercors, another park in the area, that i thought would take about 3 hours; turns out i was off by an hour and a half, which was fine. the first 1:50 of the ride was flat and uneventful, but then i turned left and started climbing. i unfortunatly didn't have my camera, as i didn't really expect a) to do as much climbing as i did, or b) for the ride to be that scenic. i feel like i climbed forever, (only about 16km) as i wasn't feeling so well and was having some stomach issues. but i forged ahead, and the scenery was excellent! i rode along a river through some beautiful gorges, and under some very cool overhanging "cut outs", and finally reached the ~1300m summit. at this point i was about 45 km from grenoble, rode a little on some flattish roads surrounded by meadows that reminded me of the sound of music, and then was duely rewarded with a fun and fast descent back into town. it really was a great descent; the road was well maintained and had a nice mixture of gradual and hairpin switchbacks. i again was feeling like a euro pro. i can't say i was that tired when i got home, but i was having trouble holding 200 watts, and man, did i want to get off my bike. i think i was under fed going into the ride, but it was beautiful, none the less. on sunday, i got on my bike about the same time as on saturday and headed south to vizille, a town i have ridden through a number of times. this time, however, i had picked a small mountain road to climb on the south face of whatever mountain runs between there and grenoble. bad choice. there aren't many things that can make a ride not fun, but this climb seemed to have a number of them. first, i was apparently still dealing with hunger knock, because my legs just weren't there. second, the road was bumpy (that's what i get for picking a small road). third, i'm guessing 10-12% for 8k or so. fourth, lots of bugs. in any case, i wasn't really happy to be riding my bike on this thing, but made it none the less. it was really steep. the descent, however, was most excellent! wide road and new pavement, again with a good mix of semitechnical corners and tight switchbacks, and fun straightaways. i actually caught and passed two cars...until it started to rain, at which point i throttled back a bit. total time, 2.5 hours in the saddle, but i was happy it was over. now on to other things. first, congratulations to jason lowetz for winning the cat 3. race at manhatten beach. pretty cool, man!.second, a brief rant. i hate going to the grocery store here (i actually hate grocery shopping anywhere, but even more so here). no, i don't mind not being able to communicate, i don't mind not having some of my favorite foods(like peanut butter and bagels). but, i hate waiting in line. oh, and there are always lines. maybe i pick bad times to go, but every cashier has 6,7,8, etc. people waiting in line. in fact, i think that the least amount of time i have waited at the grocery store is 15 minutes. the most, you ask? oh, yes, at least 30 minutes last saturday. wtf? i don't understand. i never wait more than 5 minutes in ca, and i can't figure out what takes so long here! people bag their own groceries, but still, that's not hard. so, i ask again, wtf?and the final installment of this piece is maybe aptly titled "there is no free lunch". i was thinking about health care this week, as we had been talking about different systems at lunch. (i eat with a couple of french students, one from romania, and one from norway (who also speaks no french). i'm not sure i really know enough to argue for one system or another, but i know that the us doesn't have governmental health care systems like much of europe. (and we also don't pay 40% federal tax like in norway, although with state and sales tax, i feel we are close if not in excess, of that.) i'm not going to take sides on this issue, but i generally believe that i am better with my money than someone else is with my money. i now need to digress for a moment. when i was in the paris train station last weekend, i needed to use the restroom....and it cost me 0.5 euros. i hate paying to take a leak. where are my public bathrooms? see where i'm going with this. no, i'm not suggesting health care is as simple as public restrooms. what i am saying is that i want to figure out my own health care, but i want the los angeles airport to provide me with fast and clean access to a toilet. do i really believe that access to that toilet is free? of course not. northworst, et. al. pay fees to the airport to maintain the terminal, and are inevitable included in my ticket price. on top of that, my tax dollars go to supporting lax. so, i end up paying for the toilet anyway, just not at the time of use. and i like it that way. so, back to health care. i like being able to choose where my money goes and how it gets spent...but i like "free" toilets. if i had been born in europe, would i like to choose whether or not to pay to use the bathroom, and love the convenience of "free" health care? ok, so i've drastically over simplified things and i'm sure there are economic and legal flaws in what i've written. just some thoughts. and always remember, in life, just as in thermodynamics "there is no free lunch"! please don't hesitate to chim in. i love seeing flaws in my logic (or, possibly, lack thereof). posted by john mckeen at 6:45 am 6 comments   wednesday, june 27, 2007 bike paths and battlestar gallicta just some random stuff today. nothing too exciting going on, other than lab work. with all the emails flying recently about the rose bowl ride and cyclists in pasadena, i thought i would share my own experience yesterday of getting yelled at by a french motorist. most drivers here are incredibly courteous to cyclists, and most cyclists here almost completely ignore any sort of traffic sign or signal. if there aren't any cars, you're clear to go. but, i was riding down a wide road which leads to and from where the lab is, and a truck pulls up beside me, and the guy inside is furiously yelling and waving his hand at me. now, his window was up so i couldn't hear what he was saying, and it's not like i would have understood it anyway, but the message was something like "you idiot! get off the road! there is a bike lane right there! use it!" now, he may have had a valid point. there was a bike lane right up the curb, but i hate most bike paths for two reasons, and these apply to california, minnesota, and france. first, i'm going faster than most people commuting, so riding on the bike bath is annoying. but secondly, and most importantly, is it impossible to make a smooth bike path? is it really different thatn paving a road? seriously, nearly every designated bike bath i have ridden on a road bike kills my butt and shoulders with the bumpiness and waviness. i'm suprised i haven't gotten sea sick.on a final note, i downloaded the battlestar gallactica miniseries from itunes yesterday and watched them last night. fantastic! i'm hooked, and will now need to buy the other seasons. i'm just contenplating whether i should buy them from itunes or on dvd when i get home.later! posted by john mckeen at 2:14 am 5 comments   older posts subscribe to: posts (atom) friend's blogs alex's blog brooke's blog enzo gucci's blog john's blog lyle's blog matt horner's blog   links to check out airventure web site cessna aircraft cirrus design cycling news eclipse aviation lancair mooney aircraft paa cycling pez cycling news team bearclaw velo news   about me john mckeen pasadena, ca, united states grad student, cyclist, pilot, outdoorsman. view my complete profile   blog archive ▼ 2007 (20) ▼ november (1) cyclocross and such ► august (2) i'm back some excellent riding ► july (3) i am so sunburnt the past couple weeks grocery stores, health care, and public restrooms,... ► june (14) bike paths and battlestar gallicta my day in paris paris air show 2007 pics of grenoble sunday's ride check out all the pics at fotki saturday's ride bicycles in france and nutella criterium du dauphine libre alpe d’huez france – day 2 france – day 1 fishing in ontario i now have a blog    

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