Um, well i'm specifically referring to making pancakes for the girls this morning and just reading a bit over at PEZ (between calls and fixes) about one of the most amazing races of the year that isn't cyclocross.
I mean check out the list of hills. All 17 of them. Cobbled mostly. Brilliant freaking RACE. Does it get any better than that? PROs walking their bikes up a hill. That's a tough race, Eh?! I LOVE this line in the article:Such was the state of the road that the hump that had formed in the middle of the ancient way had a habit of smashing the transmissions of team cars as well as the more fragile wheels of the bicycles racing across it.Nice indeed.
Nice.
Of course the gang in Portland is running their own Rhonde. It would be hard, but not impossible to work out a 17 hill climb here and have a Rhonde de Providence. Maybe next year? (would be something I think brentani would be perfect to organize - hint hint). Ah Hell just re-reading the "flyer" for the ride has me itching to fly to Portland this weekend. Why? Not sure, because without a doubt I'd get my ass handed to me on a tarnished platter if I attempted it. So, Brentani, how about it? 17 climb ride? Got one all laid out already?
As much as I suck at hills being a veritable giant on the bike at 90kg (sure sure yes gwadzilla probably is one of the few out there i could draft, and MIF, and freakrich, and ErikV and the rest of the too tall crew) I do love me some hills. Short steep good even long steady power types. Good. Good good good.
Pancakes? Well they are flat. Flatlanders do generate some hardass riders. The Dutch and the New Dutch (Holland Michigan for example - cue Mustard Plug "murder in tulip city"). Flat roads mean wind, unrelenting brutal wind.
But Pancakes are also a damn fine way to start the morning. (Yes the vermonster added to the inspiration part of this). I made a batch of pancakes this morning.
Killer tasty pancakes. The girls devoured them. I stashed a few in the lunch bag for a late afternoon snack, I can't wait.
So it has been a while since a recipe has popped up here. And instead of giving a lecture to the cyclocross folks who want to run double chain rings with the big one smaller than a 48 about which FD to use I'll get the recipe down. Wait. I'm gonna hit the Front Der thing now anyway.
Shimano FD-950.
Yup. That's the one. Top or bottom pull. various clamp sizes. You name it. Absolutely perfect. Killer monster big shift plates. And a curve and profile designed around a biggest tooth size of 48 (can be used up to 50 iirc). 36x48? Brilliant no thinking shifting. Ain't gonna drop the chain either. Saddly the FD970 won't work (44t max). But hey who needs good shifting in the front anyway. You never lose places when ya drop a chain (i've done it - trust me i know).
Seriously. Get one of them front ders. They kick freaking ASS!!!! (for CX racers using a 34-38x44-48 front combo).
Pancake recipe. Yeah.
2 eggs (beat em)
1 cup plain whole milk biodynamic yogurt (or organic if you can't find biod stuff)
1 cup local milk (or apple juice if ya feeling so inclined)
mix well
add
0-3 tablespoons of raw sugar (if plain milk and no fruit added use more)
1 teaspoon vanilla (organic, the stuff w/o corn syrup or sweetners)
1/2 teaspoon salt
mix
add to liquid:
2 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour (or go all whole wheat - this mellows the bran content and helps the texture a bit)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon backing soda
mix well
add
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) melted salted organic butter (or up the salt above to 1 tsp and use unsalted butter)
gently fold in 1 or so cups of frozen wild blueberries (in general don't bother with organic - most blueberries don't have any shit sprayed on them from what I gather - I could be wrong tho).
And well. cook em up.
And enjoy with some nice local Maple Syrup (or with whatever else you want to put on top, Nutella? Sure).
heddwch
G
7 comments:
absolutely...I'll get right on it. though sadly, the Bowen would be the only cobbled hill on our route.
(I actually attended the Ronde a few years ago, and watched the peloton fly up a couple of the climbs...)
we can't have everything can we?
what ever ya come up with will be awesome!!!
add this read to the mix from PEZ as well.
Freaking hell, does that ever sound romantic and tough...
Here's what I came up with
The hills, in order of appearance are:
1. Cobble Hill Road (sadly no actual cobbles)
2. Cullen Hill Road
3. Wilbur
4. Capron
5. Burlingame
6. Farnum
7. Douglas Hook
8. 101 #1
9. 101 #2
10. 101 #3 (RI High Point)
11. Bear Hill
12. Central Pike
13. 102
14. Walter Carey
15. Whipple
16. Southcourt
17. Bowen (taking a left on Pratt and finishing up on Jenckes)
(if you wanted to add an 18th, I'd suggest doing Star/Jenckes first, then going back down and doing the Bowen/Jenckes combo to finish up.)
Ride length would be about 80 miles. yikes. do you want to try this tomorrow?
80 miles...
that distance sounds a heck of a lot like what this past weekend was like...
4-5 hours in the saddle eh? Maybe after battenkill...
maybe we can make this into some sort of team event. We can follow up the ride with copious amounts of Belgian frites and beer at my place, or something like that. I'd be more in shape for it if we waited until later in the season, but if it's really a "Ronde" it should be done in knickers.
as great as that sounds anything I try to cook burns.
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