Podium

once in a while, a photograph, captures a true moment.
our team, at a sponsor's place, hanging out the day before putting on a local race.

I don't know, nothing to say, much.    People raced, tactics, a bit of rain, Podium, Podiums are quite important, for sure.   

 

The women's fields were a bit small, next year, I want us to double the number of women racing.
The frickin men's 1,2,3.  good race to watch,  attacks, f' bombs in the sprint,

mostly a good day for all, a little road rash, and I hope the PC master rider, who  crashed hard,  I hope he is fine, and that his wife is not too mad at him.


Frodo was spent,   Craig and Natalie's rescue, he is a swell pup,  look for him at grasstrack, or come say hey to Frodo at NittanyCx, have a beer, ring some cowbell, Lets gets some Cross on!

cheers racers, d.

Ride on Philly

The land it motivates me.  Food, beers, art, music,  the weather, it motivates me.
not money, power,... I'm trying to get past the need for respectability.  a need for applause.

Stopping on a ride, the smells, beauty, a view from a ball busting climb, its more empowering than anything.  It is a truth.



I've thought a lot about my reactions and what I said, about being asked not to ride on Belmont Plateau.
and its hard for me because, when I get on the bike, and I see the world as a place to ride.  I tend to disregard fences, property lines.
Land, on a bike is,  a place to ride, not owned.  This brief freedom, rare.

an informal group of cyclist/cx'ers  have assembled, we met with the Government.
We talked like people, standing in grass, under a tree.  Me in my kit, and the others of us cyclist, all had pedaled over.  I told them of my route to the meeting, from Bala Cynwyd, to the Belmont trails, across Strawberry Mansion bridge, the boxer trail, to the short steep climb into the back yard of Macpherson house (1765).

an old post from 1/17/11  CR Picking Up Trash

I want us to have a place to ride, legit enough, clean, safe.   I'd love it to be more like a pick-up game of baseball,  more than, chalk lines, officials, time limits, permits.  I'll do what I can, to make my world, work in this world.  We have found a new spot, for PHLCX now to see,  how to make it happen.

Got out for a nice ride on the CX bike yesterday,  places like this, they exist inside the city limits of Philadelphia.

Ride on brothers and sister, free!  dlowe

my types

Rockwell Kent.
Alice Austen.

mostly stumbled across these people, and their art.  Almost, its the story, the hearts, their lives, that make the paintings and photographs, so much more than painting and photographs.


that's it, all I offer. 

Regards my friends, david.

Filler

I like the heat, I don't mind at all to ride when its hot.

I looked down at the top tube, at where the gloss was dulled, from the sweat drops.

I looked at my gloveless hands.  Resting ontop of the cx bikes bars.  I am riding into the sun.  And it's kicking down into the liquid seeping up outta my skin.

To finish the ride, as a reward, to keep pedaling harder, I'll ride over to Narberth.
I just lean the bike against the wall.   Walk in.   Pick out a couple of big bottles.
I put the cold bottles in my jersey pockets.

I swung my leg over the bike.  Bumped down the curb, headed home.


Nick Lowe - "Restless Feeling"  playing live @ WCL 8/8/13 a wee bit $$$ @ $35 but smooth, gotta go.


Cheers, d.

Pink Flag

a few years ago, I'd never saw myself becoming a cyclist.  Just happened. 
Friday I raced a crit, Saturday, some short track mtbike,  Saturday night, a nice long ride to the city, and back, on the beater to see a legend to me band, Wire.   Sunday, a long cyclocross ride.


Wire
a band I have listen to for over 30 years,  last night was my first time seeing them.  sort of a let down.
I'd be better off not of seeing them.  I would rather live with my imagination,  of not having bodies, faces, clothes, personalities, to go with the songs.   It sounded good, they played well,.... I'm not sure what it lacked for me?
I expected too much?     with over 30 years of listening, of just hearing them.

 

 

 

 

Wire -  "Reuters"

 

 

 

Riding home from the Wire show.

Late for sure. at this hour The river had stopped. I stopped, took a picture. . 

 

 

Then, up the Cynwyd paved trail, pitch black, really dark.  I sat further back over the saddle, in anticipation of unexpected.  I rode into the blackness, just trying to sense where to go.  Could be a big branch, could ride off the lip,  rocks.  No matter how hard I looked into the night, I only had my imagination, and memory to guide me.
 

 Wire - "In the Art of Stopping"

 

 

 

 

I left the show early,  before they finished, now, I wished I'd stayed a bit longer, maybe something happened, maybe a moment?    I already miss Wire.

 

 

 

 

Cheers, dlowe.

 

 

The Belmont Tree.

I hope that when my time comes, that I have a brief second, a second I'd use to remember, to think back of some of the images that live in my soul.  This is one of them.

I had stayed after grass track, just sipping beer, cooling down.  The sun hit Liberty, one of the last pics I took that night.   Grass track is burned into the ground.   Into my soul.


its hard for me to be a positive force, when I just find the best solution, or the most gratifying to me solution, would to be to say "Fuck Off".

I really want my life to be about being inclusive.

What's the matter?  Grass Track.  Again, a FEW peeps want us to move. 

Philadelphia is a beautiful city, and the current home of grass track on Belmont Plateau is a beautiful place.   and our grass oval, such a small plot of land, that respects, and loves, and admires, ....it overlooks it all.

There are many activities in this park, cricket, ultimate Frisbee, cross country running,  football, lots of baseball, Mountain biking, Mud Runs, Breast Cancer camp outs,  horseback riding.

The area is urban, its full of crime, broken glass, drugs, booze (ok boozing on the plateau should be in the positive side) Sex, trash, atv's.   I remember a body being dumped on a trail, a trail I was riding around the time it was dumped.   A body burned in a dumpster.
Its urban.


There is no room for grass track.   Just leave.


I really love Belmont.    I have taken 100's of pictures of the tree,   there were two, the other big one, it was lost years ago.
I know a lot about the park, its history, the trolley, the Woodside Amusement Park, the Centennial Fair. The old gravity railroad tracks I ride over to get into the mountain bike trails.

another one of my favorite photos is of the cyclocross clinic,  just held mostly by word of mouth.
It really just comes down to a single man that wants to share what he knows and loves, with anyone, who wants to learn.

I am too young and immature to know when to stand, to make a point, when to concede, negotiations is a weakness of mine.   I figure I'll do what I do know  to do, be positive, be inclusive, try to be respectful.    but boy does it feel so much better to say fuck you.

grass track will happen inside the city limits of phiadelphia  somewhere, and everyone in the world, is invited to participate, free, fun.   "LOVE BELMONT RIDE BELMONT"  that's a dlowe quote.

Cheers, d.

 

LONG LIVE GRASS TRACK!