Tom, this forum does rock. Glad to hear you had a great time. Taupo is a fantastic setting for that race.

Have you heard about the infamous TNO thread? You were a central part of it for awhile. I miss Claudia... Heh, how'd the magic bike perform? Did the Arione seat with QR cover hold up? I've battled that wind coming back into town -- in 2000 it got pretty bad but I heard this year it was "challenging")

Hey Tom

Welcome back and great race. Hope you were happy with it, no back problems?

Welcome back.

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"your horse is too high" - tigerchik

Hello Sir,

I have to tell you, it feels more than a little strange swapping stories with the former CO of a planet smasher.

Sir, the saddle worked pretty darn well. No issues with comfort- pretty darn good. I got a very, very minor hot spot on the inside edge of my crotch real high. I think that was more from the tri shorts.

Realistically, that is to be expected with 5:38:00 on the bike in wet tri shorts.

The bike was perfect- absolutely perfect. I can't tell you how pleased I was with it. Absolutely fantastic.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Oh, I forgot to ask, what TNO thread?

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

When you have a few weeks of free time you can go back and read it.... (and of course the parallel topic on trinewbies.com)

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_______________________________________________

"Oh, I forgot to ask, what TNO thread?"

Well, uh, I've been trying to keep a low profile around here since then. But at least we might have found you a girlfriend. Her name is Claudia and she's missing a cycling shoe.

BTW, congrats on a good race.

Oh, I forgot to ask, what TNO thread?

Yeah cerveloguy can tell you all about it. Cerveloguy = Satan. That just about sums it up.

Claudia wants you to call her. She can be reached at 867-5309.

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-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

Read what? I have no idea what you guys are talking about.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Cerveloguy was "bashing" newbies on tri-bikes for creating a sea of carnage on the racecourse and suggested that they might be better off staying home and watching TV (said with my tounge in cheek). This created a shit-storm of grand proportions on two different forums. Classic.

PS. Cerveloguy only does sprints...

Brett

(This post was not intended for the humor impaired)

"PS. Cerveloguy only does sprints..."

Shouldn't that read "PS. Cerveloguy (aka FastTwitch) only does sprints..."

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"your horse is too high" - tigerchik

Tom,

This is the thread they're talking about

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Don't start to read it unless you have a couple of hours to kill.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Actually what really happened is that were a bunch of posts on TNO from newbie tri people who had bought tri bikes as their first bikes and were posting that they were afraid to ride on aero bars. One lady bought a P2K and removed the aero bars to ride on base bars with STI since she was afraid of the aero bars. Another lady (Claudia) posted that she also bought a new Cervelo but had it set up with a cycling shoe/clip-on on one side and a running shoe/clippede pedal on the other so that she would be less likely to fall over when she comes to a stop.

I posted on Slowtwitch that these people would be better served to get road bikes and learn how to ride before just running out and getting tri bikes. Some guy named one "L" Alan, reposted my post over at TNO and then the fur began to fly. Some of the TNO folks completely overlooked what I was trying to say but only thougth that I was making fun of TNO'ers on Slowtwitch. I even got a few private hate mails. It turned out to be the longest threads on both forums. Of course I took (and gave right back) some hard shots, but most regular Slowtwitchers were very supportive of me and what my message was.

It does make sense to learn how to ride a bike before racing one doesn't?

In the interest of saving the global internet backbone from crashing, everybody reading this thread swear right now, on their mother's grave or whatever is handy, that they will not breath a word of this recounting on the TNO forum and start The War of the Forums II.

And if you've really got time on your hands you can also read the TNO thread concurrently with the Slowtwitch one.

http://www.trinewbies.com/...=21542&posts=105

Wow, that is a scary discussion. I worry about things like that a lot.

It does boggle my mind a bit that beginners don't (or aren't) take the time to truly develop the technical skills to use their equipment safely. That frightens me. I wonder why that is?

Thanks for filling me in.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Glad to hear you enjoyed the race experience Tom, how about the jump? Did it happen?



Ken

I need to add that this thread pulverized the previous record of most replies and most read that was held by "What I am seeing on CNN right now" that I initiated (and then got hammered :-)) with 240 replies and the 3D discipline usat thread that had about 9000 views...

Sounds like you and the anti-christ are on the same page. Do you also share a table at the UN? I thought better of you but now I know I was wrong. (It was a Joke!)

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Man, you're the third person to ask me that question.

Nope, I didn't jump. I was in the medical tent for an hour and a half after the race with dehydration. I lost over 12 pounds.

The day after the race I was trying to walk into town and sat down on a bench. I had been feeding this stray cat I found everyday near the lake, so I went out there to give it a can of cat food I bought before the race.

I was sitting on the bench and saw a plane go over and four jumpers make an exit at about 10 grand. I thought, "Man, that looks cool, but it is cold up there and I feel like unmitigated crap..."

So I didn't go. I'll have to add that to the list of things to do in the future....

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I didn't see any mention of me personally on that page. Did I miss something?

Inevitably, when you spend a lot of time on forums people are going to say bad things about you. It is just part of the deal.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Yeah it was an ill timed joke. You really had to be there. The whole Cervelobrother thread was the best thing ever.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Hey, better to save it for a time when you can really enjoy it, right? Only curious because you had mentioned it in the context of a previous not so great jump experience. Except for the medical tent part, sounds like a great trip, I'm definitely envious, like so many others here. Glad you're back, and I'm looking forward to reading more details...



Ken

Hell dude, you even made the Slowtwitch report that Dan emails out!

Gald to have you back.

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<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?

Link to the other thread, Tom.



http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...;;page=unread#unread

Hi D,

You're still a babe. Are in SD these days? There were a ton of people in NZ from SD. Fun crowd. I was jealous.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

"Your future wife;-) "

Is that a proposal. Congratulations. But do you really want to live in Dearborn!!

Hey, have you checked out Delly Carr's photos? He won a gold medal for the single best photograph at the Sydney Olympics. Awesome photgrapher: Great timing, great compostion- amazing.

I just read an interesing book on photography before I went to NZ and it really influenced my photos in NZ. Hopefully you will see the influence. It talked about "distilling the experience to its basic elements" I tried to do that more in my NZ photos which will be on the bikesportmichigan.com website sometime soon.

check out Delly Carr on the web.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Great Race Tom...........Congrats. People were even posting your progress on race day...........Forgive me on the post of taking a poll of having Ironclm intrioduce you to Claudia....I could not help it. Especially after Ironclm's comment to claudia of not even trying to have an AMEX card smackdown...You have to read the TNO thread . Welcome bak to Slowtwitch! Kenney

Well my dear, certainly nice to know you respond well to visual stimulus............. ;)

The book was "C20th Photography, A Complete Guide to the Greatest Artists of the Photgraphic Age." By Reuel Golden.

It was in the bargain book bin. I paid $5.99 for it. It is fascinating. In addition to the great photography the writing and analysis of the photos is superb.

The photo of Marilyn Monroe on page 27 by Eve Arnold is so incredibly and innocently erotic and alluring. It exudes a latent but purified sexuality that makes sex- or the suggestion of it- seem so clean and pure. A very refreshing depiction. -So different that sexual suggestions in photography that seem "seedy" or somehow dark.

There are some great portraits in there, one of Nelson Mandela that is so fun. There are also some horrifying war photos and one of a child that I couldn't keep from crying over briefly.

Amazing how powerful these images are. The book made me ask the question, every time I looked through my viewfinder this past week, "What does this photo SAY to the viewer?"

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I thought a lot about you and what really links most of us "Slowtwitchers" during the long bike ride I did last Saturday around Northern Lazio and Umbria. I'm sure that for many of you my 205km in about 7hours would qualify as pleasure rather than as a huge waste of time as my sometimes not so understanding girlfriend did. I enjoyed every minute of it despite being alone. Beautiful roads, magnificent medieval towns bustling with people, not too many cars and those few all very respectful. Man I really felt grateful to whatever bike god there is for giving me the chance to really appreciate such great activity (you guys know what I mean). And by the way, the Fizik Arione I bought only because you were so convincing in your review, was just the best saddle I ever tried!
I only wished my girlfriend could enjoy this as well...

Thank you very much Filippo,

The images you paint of your ride are very beautiful. It sounded really wonderful.

I recently wrote an editorial for our website called "Slowtwitch" which talks about this forum and the community on it. It will be up in the next few weeks but touches on some of the things you mentioned.

Again, thank you very much for your kind thoughts my friend.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com