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04/01/03-08/28/03 ALMOST-DAILY DIARY
ENTIRES
08/28/03-
WHAT WAS UEYN UP TO? I'm doing my regular
routine, mixing my Cytomax while looking out the kitchen window at
about 7:15am, and I see Ueyn riding up Jefferson. Pretty easy to
tell it's him, with his red & white LeMond and wearing a red & white
Stanford team jersey. Since it only takes about 10-12 minutes to
get from where I live to the start of the ride (at 7:45), I figure
maybe he's getting out a bit early so he can warm up... but when I get
out there, no sign of Ueyn... instead, I get Todd & Kevin, both of
whom agree to take it easy up the hill because they're tired, and both
of whom were lying through their teeth! Thinking that maybe it
would help break up the routine (and slow down the speed a bit), we
rode up via the back entrance to Huddart Park, but still ending up
with times in the 28-minute-range.
08/26/03-
BIG GROUP THIS MORNING as we were joined by Wes from
East Coasters cycling shop back east, along with Ueyn, Todd, Ted,
Kevin... am I leaving anybody out? Beautiful morning as we rode
before it got hot. Quite a few other riders heading up King's
this morning, but none seemed quite as "motivated" as our group.
Kevin and Wes rode in the 26-minute club, with me missing it by maybe
20 seconds (although my heart wasn't missing many beats, staying above
170 pretty much the entire way up the hill, a bit higher than normal).
And unexpected sight on the way down 84 towards Old LaHonda was a
freshly-crashed motorcycle in a ditch at the edge of the road (looked
like an older red Ducati) along with a small number of folk looking
more than a bit bewildered; one I'd guess was from the motorcycle,
while the others (who looked like they were related to ZZ Top) were
probably from an old truck that had pulled off the road. We
couldn't have missed the action by more than a minute or so...
08/21/03-
SPECIAL LANCE ARMSTRONG LIMITED EDITION BIKE ANNOUNCED! You
read it here first... TREK unveiled a special package with a
Lance-signed Lithograph, specially-painted Madone bicycle and
commemorative jersey, all to celebrate Lance's 5th-consecutive Tour de
France victory. Only 500 will be produced, and we're taking
orders now. See the details
on our website!
08/20/03-
GONE... AGAIN! This time, I'm off to TREK in WI
with my brother Steve, to check out what's in store for '04.
Could be fun, were it not for the 6:25am flight out!
08/19/03- TOUGH CHOICE- CHERRY HARVEST BAR OR
SIX OUNCES OF HERSEY'S SPECIAL DARK CHOCOLATE?
That's the decision I faced on Tuesday morning's ride from Lake Alpine
over Pacifica Grade, Ebbett's Pass and back again. I was out
with the family spending a few days in a cabin at Lake Alpine, and of
course couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride one of my favorite
roads (Highway 4). Not so easily done when
 there's
no water to be had anyplace along the route; I actually carried four
bottles of water (two in jersey pockets) and stashed some of it at the
top of Ebbett's Pass for my return trip. For food, I brought
both the Cherry Harvestbars and some chocolate we'd brought along for
cooking... don't know why, but it just seemed like something I ought
to try sometime on a ride! Well, I'm here to tell you that
Pacific Grade, with it's infamous 24% grade, didn't seem to be any
worse running on chocolate. If anything, it seemed a bit easier!
The photo is from someone I came across on the Descent on the
Markleeville side of Ebbett's- an elderly lady painting a landscape.
With the waterfalls in the background, it would be difficult to pick a
better spot!
08/17/03-
NEXT TUESDAY & THURSDAY I won't be at our usual ride up
King's Mtn; for the first couple days of the week I'll be up in Bear
Valley with the family (and yes, I'm bringing my road bike so I can go
ride Pacific Grade and Ebbetts Pass!), and then very, very, very early
Thursday morning I fly back to TREK in Wisconsin. Trust me, I'd
rather be riding up the worst hill than catching a 6:30am flight!!!
Hopefully the usual suspects (that would be Kevin, Steve, Todd,
Ueyn & Pre) will show up to assail, er, I mean, greet any visitors.
08/16/03- A FUNNY FEELING THIS MORNING AT
DONUT KING; I'd somehow slept in too late this morning,
so I had to catch a quick, healthy bit to eat at Donut King on the way
to work (I've been a bit behind lately on the sixth basic food group,
that being chocolate). You see, Donut King, at Jefferson Plaza,
is next-door to a barber shop that's been there since the beginning of
time. Or at least prior to when I was 16 years old, since that
was the place my dad used to get his hair cut, and I remember quite
clearly the barber making remarks about my needing one as well (I'm
sure he was suppressing what he really wanted to tell my father, which
would have been along the lines of how someone as normal as he, a
Sports Editor for the newspaper, would have a long-haired bike-riding
no-good hippie for a son).
08/14/03-
OK, MAYBE HE'S DOING THE VUELTA TOO! Funny how I
bring up the fact we hadn't seen Steve L since his trip to France and
then, this morning, he shows up! Along with Kevin and Ueyn.
Nice ride up the hill, not really fast but made tougher by doing
intervals and generally trying to hold a high speed on the tough parts
and then rest on the easy ones. All three of them had problems
with time however, and couldn't do the full ride out to Old LaHonda...
so I headed back towards 92 and down to Canada with him. Still a
nice ride, and guess it's a good idea to make sure my bike doesn't get
so used to a certain route it doesn't know how to handle anything
else!
I'm trying to convince Kevin that he ought to do the Corral Hollow
road race this Saturday... thank goodness it is on a
Saturday, or I might have to do it myself! A bit of history with
me and that race, since it was the first one I'd done in over twenty
years, and, of course, documented on this website
(one of our most popular articles too, basically all about having a
mid-life crisis on a bike).
08/12/03-
THE GUY FOCUSES ON ONE THING ALL YEAR... THE TDF... AND WHEN IT'S
OVER, THAT'S IT! There's a lot more to life than
Lance winning his 5th Tour de France, but, as notes Ueyn, one of our
Tuesday/Thursday morning King's Mtn regulars, that must be all that
matters to Steve L, who had been showing up frequently before his trip
to France, but since his return we haven't seen him once! But
the party goes on, with or without him. This morning it was Ueyn,
Todd, Per and myself, with Todd pushing the pace up the hill and me
just trying to hang on. Still, anything in the 26 minute range
(well, ok, at 26:57 it's just a wee-bit closer to 27 isn't it?) is
fine for now, and gives me hope that a late-season attempt of Sonora
Pass might not be such a wild idea.
08/10/03-
FAMILIAR FACES AT THE TOUR DE FRANCE? I just put
up a web page
 with some
photos of Chain Reaction customers I found while in France for the TDF
this year... unfortunately, I'm really bad with names & faces,
so if anybody wants to check the
page out and identify a few people, that would be great!
ADDED NEW PAGE LISTING TDF TOUR COMPANIES.
I've been getting lots of requests for info on companies that will
be doing cycling tours for the '04 TDF, so we've put up a page listing
a bunch of them. If you've been part of any of them, please send
me an email letting me know how it went, and we'll try to get the info
listed here.--Mike--
08/08/03-
THE BIG LIE (or maybe just an omission). Did you
know that all those fillings you've accumulated over the years aren't
permanent? Did they tell you when they did the drilling &
filling that you were going to be back, probably in your 40s, with a
bunch of teeth that are falling apart and need crowns because the
fillings are shot? Didn't think so. Guess you know
where I spent my morning!
08/07/03-
SOMETIMES YOU FEEL LIKE RIDING and sometimes you don't.
This morning was one of those times you just don't think it's gonna
work out... you get up but just can't imagine swinging your leg over
the bike and riding up the hill. But of course you do, because,
after 30 years, your DNA's been rearranged (some would say damaged)
such that you would die if you didn't.
Kevin, Mark (a tri-guy friend of his) and Ueyn showed up to torture
me. I intentionally started a bit slow, well below my normal
take-no-prisoners pace to the first timing point, knowing that the
other guys were going to run me into the ground. But, I think
they've been so well conditioned to me taking off that they held back
a bit anyway, so I figured what the heck, go with it, see how far I
could get before being overtaken. If I was still ahead at the
park entrance, I could always wait for them there. And I was
ahead at the park, but not by so much that I couldn't hear Kevin & Stu
conversing quite clearly behind me, while I was deep into
ragged-breathing mode. So the heck with waiting, I just kept
going, as much as I could. Took at least 10 minutes before I
could no longer hear their voices... 10 minutes where I'm thinking
geez, I'm dying out here and they're just having a good old time!
I finally make it to the top in 26:57 (about five minutes faster than
I figured when I woke up), with the rest of them maybe a minute back.
I can only dream of what it would be like to be in such good shape
that I could so easily climb the hill (so easily that you could have a
calm discussion without missing a beat) in 28 minutes though!
As for the Old LaHonda leg, we didn't ride it nearly as fast as
the other day with Per. I looked at the info from my HAC4
computer, and we were about a minute and a half off the pace set by
our newest irregular! New, but not innocent, as Kevin saw him
out riding hard yesterday... we figure he's riding way more than he
claims. So maybe he's a whole lot younger than the 61 he claims
to be as well! Wishful thinking.
08/05/03 10:40pm
WHAT'S THE BEST SHWAG I BROUGHT BACK FROM THE
TDF I asked my 10-year-old tonight at bedtime?
"The green hand, duh!" What's so special about a green hand?
"Who would have thought of it? A large green hand with PMU on
it. It's brilliant!" What, sarcasm, in my family?
08/05/03-
WHO IS THIS PER-GUY ANYWAY? He first showed up
last Tuesday, threatening to come out again the following week.
And he did. Just me & Per at the starting point, meeting up with
Kevin just up the road a bit. Reasonable pace up King's Mtn,
with a relatively fast start and a short wait for Kevin & Per at the
park entrance. 29:11 for Per today (not sure if it's actually
spelled Per, but it's pronounced like the fruit, as in pear).
Nice morning, by the way, no need for leg warmers or wind jacket
(although I brought both, just in case).
Instead of milling around at the top of Kings for a bit, I headed
straight out on Skyline at a moderate pace, but slowly increasing
speed. I figured I'd find a comfortable pace where the three of
us hung together... but no, it seemed that there were never any
complaints as the speed picked up. Dang! So I'm up front
setting the pace and breaking the wind, with no opportunity to sit in.
Now, with Kevin, I know him well enough that there's no issue telling
him I feel like kicking back a bit. But things are different
when you've got a group of three, because at any one time two people
are feeling decent and feed on the weaknesses of the one. Geez,
it's only a friendly bike ride, what the heck am I talking about?
So we're heading up the first sprinter's hill (just past Swett Road)
and I throttle back a bit on top for Kevin to catch up so we can do
the real sprint at Skegg's Point. No more sitting on
Kevin's wheels on the descent leading up to it though... this time
it's side-by-side with a 36mph lead-in instead of the usual 31 or 32
(that testosterone thing again).
But where is Per? Right behind (maybe 50 yards or so), and
either gaining or maintaining position on myself & Kevin.
Beginning to think this guy's real. On the descent to Sky L'Onda
he's dropped back a bit, but not far. Heading down the west side
of 84 to Old LaHonda Per doesn't sit on a wheel as tightly as myself
or Kevin, but doesn't fall behind either, despite Kevin's insistence
on a very fast pace. And then we make the left onto Old LaHonda...
Can you say tempo? Per is setting the pace on Old LaHonda on
up to the hairpin where it turns back on itself and climbs up to
Skyline. OK, so he's riding hard here and gonna burn himself
out. Not. He manages to ride just fast enough at the front
that neither Kevin nor I can take over the lead. So what about
the top part, where it levels out a bit and you're riding through the
trees? OUCH, this guy's flying! The further into a ride,
the faster he gets. All this and a really nice guy.
Oh, and did I mention that he's 61 years old?
07/31/03-
I'D LIKE TO SAY that I was able to maintain a torrid
pace the entire way up King's Mtn, but truth is, I waited at the park
entrance (about one-third of the way up) for Ueyn (Kevin was not quite
but almost on my tail) and, after cooling my jets for maybe 20-30
seconds, found myself unable to stay on the wheels of those who had
chased me up the first part of the climb. Ueyn rode on up with
Kevin and had a new personal best, which I got to watch from a
distance as I clocked just over 27 minutes. Kevin later asked
why I go so hard on the first part of the climb (in addition to
sprinting other parts as well) instead of a steadier effort that would
result in a faster time. But the truth is that I get a better
workout this way and, since I have so little time to ride (now that
I'm back from France), I have to make every mile count.
Had another new rider today- Perry from Colorado. He'd
emailed me a couple weeks back, asking about the ride, and showed up
just a few minutes late so he had to chase us up the hill. Good
thing too... if he'd been on time, the ride would have been that much
faster!
07/29/03- FIRST DAY BACK ON THE OLD HILL
after getting back from France yesterday. Some wondered if I'd
really ride, given jet-lag etc., but it takes a lot more than jet-lag
to keep me off my bike! After all, a good portion of my France
trip dealt with experiments in sleep deprivation. Only one other
person showed up, a local guy whose name now escapes me, but I think
it was Per-something. Nice guy, perhaps just a bit older than me, but
no slouch at all, climbing the hill in 29:07. Best part?
He'd never been on the back side of Old LaHonda before! Always
fun introducing someone to a new road.
07/28/03-
BACK FROM FRANCE! Put
a lot of miles on my bike in the Pyrenees, and saw some pretty
incredible racing during the past 12 days. Now I have to spend a
couple days catching up on emails, sleep and whatever needs to be
taken care of at the shop and I'll be ready for another trip.
Just kidding!!! But each year I learn more and more about what
it takes to watch the Tour de France, ride in France and just in
general get around in a country where you don't speak much of the
native language. And I keep going back for more.
The tough part comes in the next couple of years. I'd
planned to take the year off next summer and not see the TDF, but with
Lance going for #6, that doesn't seem too likely does it? But
then if I skip the following year, it will seem like I only go when
Lance is riding! Life could be worse.
07/16 - 07/28
SEE
FRANCE DIARY SECTION
07/16/03-
TIME TO SWITCH TO THE "FRANCE" DIARY
SECTION! As noted earlier, I'm on my way to France,
catching up with the 'Tour in Toulouse. My flight leaves at
2:30pm on Wednesday, although right now it's 2am Wednesday morning as
I try to finish my preparations. Who needs sleep anyway?
07/13/03-
PROOF-OF-CONCEPT ride this morning. Instead of
doing a ride out to the coast with just a few people, I decided it
might be a good idea to hook up with a larger group that rides fairly
fast, and see how well I'd be able to hang with them, not to mention
what effect carrying a small handlebar bag would have (which I'll need
next week in France, to carry my camera etc). So I did the
notorious "Italian"/PenVelo ride that leaves from Canada Road & 92
every Sunday morning at 8am. Notorious because it's one of
several regularly-scheduled large rides that tend not to exactly stop
at stop signs, and gets harassed a bit by the local sheriff (as in
this morning's warning to ride single file).
I hung in there fine; hey, I can draft with the best of them!
Only problem was that, with a handlebar bag, you can't see your front
wheel, so it can sometimes be a bit dicey when you're following
closely behind another cyclist at speed. Am I ready for France?
Not yet, but getting there.
07/12/03-
MEMORIES OF ALPE
D'HUEZ are inescapable as the Tour de France
encounters the near-mythical mountain Sunday morning. Was it
really two years ago that I was there, maybe 100 meters up the road
from the place Lance gave "The
Look" and rocketed away from Jan Ullrich? What will happen
this year? Will it be the '03 TDFs decisive moment, or will that
wait for my arrival in the Pyrenees later this week?
And that Richard Virenque guy who won Saturday's stage?
Met up with him last year in Macon.
Quite the popular guy!
07/10/03-
BIG GROUP THIS MORNING! Kevin, Ueyn, Todd, Steve,
John & Mike. Did I leave anybody out? Not a great morning
for me, as my kid's chickens (yes, chickens, it's one of those 4H
things) decided to start squawking at 6am, and I normally get up for
my Tuesday/Thursday ride at 7:05. Didn't eat too well last night
either, as we'd gone to see Terminator 3 and, since I had to leave
directly from the shop, my "dinner" consisted of nachos, cheese and
half of a dreadful pepperoni pizza (the movie wasn't much better, by
the way).
So I figure I'm not going to be in it for the long haul, might as
well make them suffer at the beginning, and have them worried that
maybe I'd keep it up. Did pretty well too, right up to my first
timing point, at which I blew apart (or "popped a rivet" as Paul
Sherwin would say). Kevin, Todd & Mike rode off into the
distance, while I did my best to contain my losses, eventually
finishing at 27:10. Everybody finished under 30 minutes, with
Kevin & Mike (Ueyn's buddy from Stanford) somewhere in the 25 minute
range. While not quite a take-no-prisoners ride, it still
featured a pretty fast average time (16.7 mph), particularly
considering that we kept pretty much together throughout. That
is, until we got to the intersection of Old LaHonda and Skyline on the
return; two women who Kevin knew had just crested from the other side
and were riding north on Skyline. Can you believe he
ditched us for them???
07/08/03-
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOUR WERE DOING OK along comes
something that puts your accomplishments into perspective. In
this case, a guy named
  Sean,
who showed up for our ride up the hill this morning (shown at the top
of Kings in the photo on the right; on the left we have Kevin, Ueyn,
Todd, Sean and Steve as we descend 84 towards Old LaHonda). Just under 34 minutes for Sean!
What, doesn't seem like a big deal? Like I should be so proud of
riding in 26-something on a good day?
Sean is 72 years young.
I can only hope that I'm riding up in under an hour by the time
I'm 72. Heck, I've always assumed that time doesn't matter, and
almost looked forward to the idea that I can slow down a bit as I get
older. But not anymore! Sean at 72 is doing 34 minutes,
and Lindsay, a guy in his mid-60s that we see from time to time... he
can probably do 24.
But look at the bright side. No matter how old you
are, at least up until the mid-50s, your best days on a bicycle can
still be in front of you!
07/07/03-
CORRECTION ABOUT TYLER HAMILTON IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE.
The phrase "tough as nails" is often casually tossed around, but I
think Tyler Hamilton defines it. In yesterday's big crash Tyler
broke his collarbone in two places, and yet he entered and finished
today's stage. He did something similar in the 2002 Giro, but
continued on and took 2nd place overall (losing eleven teeth in the
process, as the pain caused him to grind them down).
07/06/03-
HOPE YOU HAD A REALLY GOOD EXCUSE for not riding today!
Met up  with a
whole of people climbing Old LaHonda on my way to Half Moon Bay (via
84, Hwy 1, Higgins Purissima) and back by way of Los Lobitos and
Tunitas Creek. Really nice day despite the drizzle on the coast.
Heck, just about any day you're out on your bike is a nice day
(especially when you can draft behind Kevin's wheel on the way down
84).
The most interesting thing was noticing that, after having my 5900
for almost three years now, I'm finally beginning to really appreciate
how great a bike it is. Or maybe it's just that I'm lighter &
perhaps a bit stronger than I've been for a while? Whatever the
case, it's a gas when you stomp on the pedals and get that feeling
that things want to happen, that "twisting the throttle" experience.
Don't get it often enough, but maybe will have that feeling more in
the days & months ahead. Hey, you can always dream, can't you?
AND IF YOU THOUGHT LANCE HAS A FIFTH VICTORY LOCKED UP, today's
events should put an end to that notion. As I've said, all it
takes is a nasty cold or a bad crash and your shot at the podium is
over. In today's finish,
a massive 30-rider pileup just 500
meters from the finish took Levi Leipheimer and Tyler Hamilton out of
the race... both of whom had a shot at the podium. Lance did
crash as well, but supposedly suffered little more than a bruised
shoulder.
07/05/03-
IT ALL STARTS TODAY! Lance Armstrong will attempt
to equal the record of five Tour de France victories, beginning with
today's time trial and ending on July 27th in Paris. Some act as
if a victory for Lance is a foregone conclusion, but nothing could be
further from the truth. Nobody wins four TDFs in a row without a
certain amount of good luck at their side; all it takes to derail even
the greatest of riders is a bad cold or a crash. And it's not
like there aren't other strong cyclists ready to pick up the pieces if
he falters, including Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich, Simoni, and maybe
even Levi Leipheimer.
My trip to the TDF begins on July 16th, when I fly to Paris to
meet up with the Graham Baxter tour group. From there it's a
long bus ride to Toulouse in the South of France, where we'll catch up
to the TDF and follow them through the Pyrenees and on to Paris for
the finish. Since most experts are predicting the outcome to be
determined in the Pyrenees, things should be very exciting indeed!
Am I ready? Heck no. The tour will involve riding
65-100 miles per day, a far cry from my normal 3 day/week riding
schedule (with two of those days being 31 miles and the Sunday ride
maybe 50-75). A more sensible person might take some of the
shorter options offered each day, but that's not the person I see in
the mirror!
But aside from the bike I'm almost there. Got a new camera
(Olympus 5050) to supplement the D40; for some reason, I just don't
get as good a picture with the smaller cameras. Of course,
carrying a 5050 isn't going to be as easy, since it's not really
jersey-pocketable... so I'm looking for a very small front handlebar
bag (to get easy access while riding, since that's how I get
most of my better photos). My laptop will get a memory upgrade
so it has an easier time with working on the photos each night, and I
might even look into a tri-band cell phone. Also have to get a
different style of bike case, as the Serfas units we presently carry
are great for protecting your bike during shipping, but not so great
if you have to unpack and repack your bike every single day (as is the
case on this tour).
And finally, I have to make sure things are stable at the shop,
particularly the computers, which have to be able to come back up to
speed without intervention in the event of a power failure etc.
Not too worried about customers being taken care of, as we've got a
great staff... my being gone could possibly even be a good thing for
them! But the computers that make the world work... that's a
different story.
Oops, one more thing. We've had several funny glitches on
our website lately, each one happening after I made some updates.
That sort of thing would not be fun to deal with while in
France!
07/03/03-
10 POINTS FOR PERFECT ROTATION! That would be
Todd, our combo mountain/road bike racer, who managed to get a piece
of wood stuck in his front wheel on this morning's ride, causing him
to flip through the air, doing a perfect 360 degree rotation before
landing. Very impressive to those of us following behind!
Now, to be fair, we should point out we weren't exactly doing our
normal loop this morning, as Steve L decided to take us up this dirt
(but legal) road in Huddart Park. There's no outlet at the end
so we had to ride back down, and that's when Todd performed for us.
And yes, he was fine afterward. His mountainbike training seems
to have served him well.
07/02/03-
NETSCAPE USERS WERE HOSED FOR A WHILE due to some
strange editing glitches that came up on this page. All manner
of duplicated lines suddenly appeared, which meant that various
control codes were appearing randomly and in a way that drove some web
browsers nuts. Wish I knew what happened, but at least I finally
got a handle on fixing it (I think!).
07/01/03-
MORE FRESH MEAT THIS MORNING on our regular
Tuesday/Thursday morning ride up King's Mtn. Regulars Steve,
Kevin & Todd, along with newbie Big Will, a former racer who's managed
to rediscover the joys of cycling at a time when most guys are
thinking they've earned a permanent place in the overstuffed chair
with a beer at their side (can you tell I'm having a difficult time
tactfully saying that he's even older than Steve's 50+x years?).
At the top of the hill I even mentioned that Todd was by far the
youngest rider in our group... I believe Todd's 17, Kevin & I are 47,
and Steve is 50-something.
Steve & Kevin headed out to the coast as Todd and I headed back up
to Skyline via the west side of Old LaHonda, where we caught up with
Ueyn, another regular, and his Stanford teammate Gabe. Don't
think I would have caught up with them except that I had a bit more
energy than usual since I hadn't been trying to keep up with Todd up
Kings a bit earlier.
But am I ready for France? Hard to say. I'm not
worried about it though. Sonora Pass showed that my legs aren't
as powerful on the really steep stuff as they used to be (there's a
triple in my life real soon!), but I'm much better at long grinds,
which are a specialty in France. Grades over 8% are quite rare,
but climbs of 6% that go on for 10 miles are not.
06/29/03- YOU TAKE THE GUY WITH THE GUN, I'LL
HANDLE THE GUY WITH THE GATORADE. That's pretty
much how it went down at the turnaround point on today's Sonora Pass
ride, as Todd & I (yes, just the two of us) approached the guards at
the entrance to the USMC Marine Winter Warfare Training Camp for some
water. They're getting pretty serious about security these days,
so as we came up through the multiple zig-zag barricades, it didn't
take long to be approached by a pair of marines, one of them making
the presence of his machine gun quite obvious. When asked if
there was any water available, the one without the gun very nicely
offered us some gatorade from a bottle he was drinking, but we thanked
him and declined. A very nice day, not nearly as hot as might
have been, with a bit of wind to keep us dry as we climbed... and
climbed... and climbed. More on this ride shortly!
06/28/03- IF IT'S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE TIME
FOR OUR ORDER. Denny's in Oakdale doesn't exactly
equal fast service. Actually, it doesn't even come up to the
standards of normal fast food! We waited what seemed like (and
most likely was) half an hour for our order to come up. Why are
we in Oakdale? Well, actually we're in Sonora at the exact
moment, just me & Todd, the only two survivors (so far!) of the annual
Sonora Pass last-Sunday-in-June outing. Our TREK rep and his
wife were supposed to make the trip as well, but decided the weather
might be too hot for them. Others had various other excuses.
But tomorrow morning, there will be no excuse for the way I feel on
that nasty climb! Film at 11; that's about the time I'm likely
to get an update to the website on-line.
06/26/03- BIG GROUP THIS MORNING,
probably because nobody wanted to be out riding in the heat of the
day. Kevin, Steve, Bruce, Todd, and a friend of Ueyn's whose
name I forget (and it's not like you can easily strike up a
conversation with him while climbing 'cuz he's just too darned
fast!). 26:50 for me, so I'm pretty consistently in the under 27
minute range these days.
ABOUT THAT HEAT- At 4pm, weather.com said it was 104 degrees in
Redwood City, but that it felt like (only) 100. One more hot day
tomorrow, then a mild cooling trend on Saturday. The question,
of course, is just how hot it's going to be on Sunday on Sonora Pass?
Hopefully not even close to last-year's ride, where we cut it short by
a couple miles, turning around a bit early when the temp hit 100 on
our bike computers.
06/25/03- HERE I'M CONCERNED ABOUT SONORA
PASS while a couple of our customers,
Gabi and Robert, are 22 days into an adventurous ride across the
country. Kind of puts things into perspective! You
should really check out the link above to their page, which they
regularly update with their progress reports.
But back to Sonora Pass- what would this website be without
Sonora Pass after all? The plans are to ride it this Sunday, the
usual start in Dardanelle, ride out to the Marine base near US395 and
then back again. Latest weather reports look more favorable,
with highs near 80 and no longer any threat of thunderstorms.
06/24/03- 26:28 UP THE HILL.
I'll have to look back through the older diary entries, but that's
the fastest up the hill for me in quite some time (about two years, as
it turns out). Ueyn, Todd, Steve & Bruce on the ride this
morning, a great time to ride in advance of the heat. So do I
still fear Sonora Pass? As they say in Wisconsin, you betcha!
06/22/03- GREAT RIDE TODAY!
Rode the
Page Mill/Pescadero/Stage Road/Tunitas loop again. Put up a
quick temporary page with some photos of today's ride. Kevin
& Ueyn had mentioned an interest in the ride, but only Nicole, one of
our mile-dog double century customers, was waiting for me at Roberts.
It's rare for me to ride at the same time as her; she's out on her
bike at 5:30am and we often see her returning home when our
Tuesday/Thursday ride is heading up King's Mtn at 8am or so.
06/19/03- THIS IS 2 DAYS TO SUMMER?
How quickly we forget that the normal "summer" weather pattern for
Skyline frequently means so much fog
 that it might as
well be raining! It was also what we call a "high gravity day"
with nobody feeling terribly frisky up the hill, with the possible
exception of Kevin. Still, I'm finding that a bad day isn't
anything like they used to be... you're prepared to see something
around 30 minutes, but end up frustrated because you missed a 26.xx
time by mere seconds (as you can see in the photo on the left).
10 pounds ago it most definitely would have been in the 30-minute
range... no question that, if you want to climb faster, losing weight
helps. I guess that should come as a big "duh" to most of you!
Ueyn, Kevin & Todd showed up, with Ueyn flatting out on Skyline.
With the heavy fog we decided to head down Swett instead of the normal
loop, but even then we didn't go all the way to the bottom, as
visibility was terrible and things just got colder (45 degrees) and
wetter as we went. So yes, you could say we wimped out a bit
today.
06/18/03- A DAY LATE
getting yesterday's diary entry up. Why?
Because I just received the intinerary for my trip to France next
month, and was looking over the various ride options (looks like lots
more time on the bike than last year!).
Yesterday's ride... more people than usual, with Todd, Kevin, Ueyn,
Bruce and Steve heading up the hill. Todd & Kevin got to play up
ahead while I strategically fell back, making sure nobody was going to
stage an attack from the rear. Yeah, that's my story, and I'm
sticking to it! Kevin got top honors, somewhere around 26
minutes, with Todd shortly after. I ended up at 26:58 for my
third-straight time in the 26-minute range.
Am I ready for Sonora Pass? Tough to say. This is the
first year I've really feared the hill, wondering if it's really
possible to do with a 39/27 double. On the other hand, this is
also the first year that I've actually gotten my weight down a bit and
am working to keep it that way (proof of that are the four unopened
bags of corn chips on my desk that my wife packs in my lunch...
something I never had the willpower to do previously, but got to admit
I like it better when the scale says 174 instead of 185!).
06/15/03- PARIS ROUBAIX TRAINING IN OUR BACK
YARD? I did a one-way ride today from Redwood
City to Felton, where we were dropping off one of our kids for summer
camp. Went by way of Old LaHonda, Skyline, Highway 9, Big Basin
Way, China
 Grade
and back to Highway 9 again. If you haven't ridden the
abominable stretch of pavement between Page Mill and Saratoga Gap, you
don't know what you're missing. Due to some botched-up patchwork
CalTrans did some time ago, they went out and cut away the top layer
of pavement, and placed extensive, deep grooves across all but six
inches of the roadway. The result is a road surface that's
dangerous to ride on!
Naturally,
we've put up a web page
with photos and a map showing its location, as well as a link to a
CalTrans site where you can report dangerous road conditions.
The rest of the ride? Well, I found out why people time Old
LaHonda from the bridge instead of the speed limit sign. There's
about a 10-second difference between the two, and this afternoon, it
would have made the difference between a time of 21:58 and 22:08.
Obviously, a time of 21-something sounds more impressive!
06/12/03- WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION? That's
what I was thinking as I approached the base of King's Mtn this
morning. My handlebar seemed to have this strong desire to make
a left turn at Tripp Road, heading into the flatlands instead of the
grind up the hill. But Todd showed up for the ride, and I was
determined to try to keep him company for a while. That
determination gave way to trying to keep him in sight, and, fueled by
his unwillingness to totally humiliate his boss (Todd works for us in
our Redwood City store), I managed to hit the top maybe 40 seconds
behind him, with a time of 26:52, almost half a minute faster than
Tuesday! Still not sure I'm ready for Sonora Pass, but at least
I don't feel like it's hopeless, and my weight? One pound less
today than two days ago. Definitely a positive trend.
Now, if I could just keep from going into hibernation mode
(sometimes known as "Jan Ullrich syndrome") in the winter, I could
really get somewhere!
06/10/03- WOW, FIVE DAYS SINCE LAST RIDE!
As if to add emphasis, Steve & Bruce were complaining about not
having ridden since Saturday, but Kevin stayed silent. Evidence today
that he was feeling much better than recent past, as he held close to
me to the first hairpin, and, for some reason, I was setting a nasty
pace up the first part of the hill. Of course, once we got to the part
entrance I was toast and Kevin kept on going! Allergies really
kicked in yesterday, but I figured that only really affects things if
I breathe through my nose, and if I really stand hard on the pedals,
my nose isn't going to be involved anyway! Statistics? I'm
sitting at 176lbs (I've managed to keep five pounds off since the
Sequoia double metric), and climbed at 27:19. Not great
(although best so far this year), but Sonora Pass at the end of the
month is beginning to look possible.
06/05/03- MARTHA STEWART MEMORIAL RIDE?
Sure, I suppose someone out there feels bad that Martha Stewart is
getting nailed for securities fraud, but did that really mean we had
to do a ride this morning with her along? Kevin & Steve showed
up; Steve happens to be an architect who's responsible for a number of
nice places in the Woodside area, and Kevin is Mr. Home Improvement.
So we go exploring off Bear Gulch Road, taking an unknown (to most)
paved path named Allen Road, and check out this beautiful, relatively
new home that Steve had designed. The occupants weren't in, so
here are three lycra-clad cyclists wandering around this guy's house,
peering into windows, clamoring over decks, checking out kitchen
cabinetry and hearing Steve explain that he doesn't design houses with
gutters because they're the most dangerous thing in the world
(apparently lots of people die trying to clean them).
Also discovered something called a "deer sprinkler." As we
came up to the front of the house, this sprinkler comes on, aiming
towards us, as if it's possessed. Turns out it's a gadget that
incorporates a combined sprinkler & motion detector/tracking system,
in order to scare deer away from your garden, where they eat
everything in sight.
06/03/03- EVER FEEL LIKE THIS? Nobody
but me on the ride this morning, me and legs that felt like rubber.
I was hoping I'd feel great today, all recovered from the 200k Sequoia
Century two days prior, but instead find myself approaching the base
of Kings Mtn and giving serious thought to turning left instead of
heading up the hill. But there's always the chance Kevin's
running late (which happens fairly often, with him joining me on the
climb maybe a half mile up from the bottom), so I figure I'll ride up
the hill, maybe try to keep the heart rate down and, who knows, 34
minutes later maybe make it to the top.
How bad was it? During the first mile up the hill I gave
serious thought to heading back down via Huddart Park. But dang,
made the mistake of looking at my computer and seeing that I made it
to the park entrance at almost exactly ten minutes, which would
translate to a 30 minute ride up the hill, not the 34 that I figured
just a short while ago. And, while not exactly feeling great, I
wasn't death on wheels either, noticing that my legs were, indeed,
doing what I told them to. It wasn't unlike multi-day stage
races of many years past, where on the second or third day you didn't
even want to sit on your saddle, and your legs protested every turn...
until, after maybe half an hour or so, they loosened up and things
started to seem normal again.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY? Give yourself time. Just
because you feel like garbage at the start of a ride doesn't mean
things will stay that way. Let your body find its own rhythm and
work with it. Eventually you'll start to feel not so bad, and
then perhaps even normal. My final time up the hill was 29:11,
much better than I would have thought. Not the 27:34 of a couple
weeks ago, but, for a day with rubber legs, it was just fine.
06/02/03-
DEATH RIDE RESPONDS to the numerous e-list posters from our
DeathRide mailing list, many of whom have not been exactly happy with
how things have gone. Jim DeGraffenreid, director of the event,
sent a very well thought out email
describing the thinking that's gone on behind the scenes, and
debunking many of the myths. Not as much fun as believing in big
conspiracies, to be sure, but it's important to get the real story
out.
06/01/03- SEQUOIA DOUBLE-METRIC CENTURY
today, and confirmation that I don't do really well in heat.
Proof? Yesterday I weighed 182 lbs; today after the ride, 171!
Sure would be nice to believe I actually lost weight, but it's nearly
all water.
Rode with Todd and Richard; Todd was relatively mortal, but after
the way Richard hauled us down 84 towards the coast, into a headwind,
I dub him Richard the Lion Hearted! Overall 10,200 feet of
climbing, 126.7 miles, high temp of 86 degrees (not that hot!),
one flat (Todd), one broken spoke (Richard). We'll have a page
with photos up soon, but I didn't get a chance to get as many photos
on the climbs as I would have liked, as I was in survival mode for
most of the steeper ones, and when you're in survival mode, there just
isn't all that much opportunity to take photos.
TO BE FAIR, I should also add that we're not sure how long Todd
was riding with a low tire, as he sped up dramatically after fixing
it. I suspect a low tire was responsible for him not feeling
like he was riding all that great early on.
05/30/03- WHO'S READY FOR SUNDAY?
Could be one of those "Be careful what you wish for" things.
Don't want rain, don't want cold for the Sequoia Century this Sunday,
so instead we're supposed to get temps as high as 95 degrees.
What happened to Spring this year? Winter went straight to
Summer. Doesn't matter, the Sequoia Century is always a great
ride; we've got pictures from
1999,
2000,
2001 &
2002 to prove it!
05/29/03- WE NEEDN'T HAVE WAITED
this morning, as Dean, from Irvine (Southern California) who was
up our way on business, took a wrong turn finding his way to the start
of our ride and pulled up in a car just as we were about to leave.
Had he known the way, I'm certain he could have caught up to us on the
climb, even if we had a pretty strong lead! We also had another
first-timer, Rich, but he's a local and, thankfully, not as fast as
Dean. Fortunately, Kevin was able to keep Dean company during
the climb, as my jets ran out of gas at the first hairpin.
Despite being too strong on the climbs, Dean turned out to be a
very nice guy; too bad he lives in SoCal!
OF GOATS & HEROES (AGAIN)- Same result, but totally different way
of getting there. My son's little league team was eliminated
tonight from the consolation playoffs (where the teams that lost out
early in the real playoffs got to play each other) in the first game,
meaning that, for them, the season is 100% over. But this time,
instead of feeling like
he was personally responsible for the outcome, he played a great
game... including scoring 50% of their runs (which means precisely
one) and catching two fly balls back-to-back, as well as one other
really nice bit of fielding, throwing someone out at second. Oh,
one more thing... when he scored, he upended the catcher! He
claims he wasn't trying to, but I stopped that nonsense fast.
Even have proof on video! But don't worry, no more talking
about my kid playing baseball, at least not until "Fall Ball" starts.
05/27/03- LOCAL LEGEND RIDES UP THE HILL WITH
US TODAY- that would be Lindsay Crawford, a guy who's
been actively riding & racing since the 60s, and is now having a good
time beating up on the young punks in the 45+ age bracket. Oh
yeah, he's in his mid-60s. We rode up in 28 minutes, with him
not even breaking a sweat (despite the pleasantly-warming
temperatures). Noting the ease with which he climbed, I asked
him if we was regularly riding up the hill in 24 (as in minutes),
which he mistook as a reference to gearing. Trust me, he doesn't
need, nor would he use a 24 tooth rear cog to get up Kings!
OF HEROES & GOATS- My son's little league team finished their
official playoff season in the worst-possible way- a game ended
because the other team managed to get ahead by 10 runs before the end
of the 4th inning (which automatically ends the game). Not a
bunch of happy campers as the game suddenly stopped when a two-out run
scored in the bottom of the 4th, just before 7pm (a normal game would
last until just past 8). It was one of those games where things
just didn't quite go right. I suppose you could call it a team
loss, with everyone contributing, but that's a really bad way to look
at it. These kids are playing so much better now than at the
start of the year, and at times have looked pretty darned good!
But they don't feel that way right now, particularly my own son, who,
playing 3rd base, couldn't get his glove down in time to stop the ball
that the winning run scored on.
05/26/03- 88 MILES, 7960 FT OF CLIMBING, BACK
ABOUT 2PM BUT STILL GET IN TROUBLE FROM THE WIFE!
It should have been one of those "It just doesn't get any
better than this" sort of things. Instead of sleeping in on
Sunday morning, I get out on the road at 7:45am to meet up with Kevin
(that's the Kevin who normally shows up for our Tuesday & Thursday
morning rides up King's Mtn) and do a run down to Boulder Creek and
back, via Page Mill, Bear Creek, China Grade, Highway 9 & Skyline.
The idea was to get back before 4pm so it wasn't like an organized
Century where I'd be gone all day. Only it seems my wife thought
I was going to be home at 1pm for some reason, and my son, who I told
when I was leaving to tell her I'd be back at 4pm... he forgot to
relay the message. So I'm back at 2pm, earlier than I expected,
and get in trouble.
 Saw
a lot of our bikes (bikes we've sold) out there today, and came
across a nice guy named Gavin at the Saratoga Gap fire station, who's
a customer of our Los Altos store. That's Gavin on the left and
Kevin on the right, sharing the park bench at the fire station.
05/24/03- TDF TRIP APPEARS GO!
Talk about last-minute plans. I've been to the Tour de France
the past three years, but it was beginning to look like things weren't
going to work out this time. Not that big a deal; I mean, we're
talking about somebody who'd never been out of the country (hardly
even the state!) until that first trip to France in 2000. But I
seem to have gotten hooked, not just on France, but on trying to
capture the essence of the TDF for our website as well.
I'd initially been offered a spot at a cycling camp in the Pyrenees,
where I'd be helping out in exchange for a place to stay... but it
wasn't clear that I'd have enough time to do the things I really
wanted. In particular, it was possible I wouldn't have been able
to update the website each day, and that's a deal-killer! Some
people question why I'd want to spend two hours each night checking
out the day's photos and working on the website, but if the
alternative's a decent night's sleep, it's no contest. I really
enjoy bringing the 'Tour back home on the website, and it's fun to
look back at my experiences the past few years.
Assuming everything works out, I'll be traveling with
Graham Baxter tours, a
group out of England that I've come across in my prior trips.
Very reasonably priced, especially when you consider that my flight
over will be courtesy of a whole lot of UAL air miles that need to be
used someday. I'll be following the TDF from Toulouse to Paris,
including all of the Pyrenees, and be away from the shop July 16-28th.
--Mike--
05/23/03-
THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS.
Well, maybe not the champions, but they sure play baseball a whole lot
better than I
 ever
did. What started out as the ultimate rag-tag group of 10 & 11
year olds, a group of kids that generally lost in their pre-tournament
games by scores like 24-7, has somehow come together as a team just as
the final round of games (the "tournament") starts. They lost
their first game a couple days ago, but were actually ahead during
their half of an inning. And I gotta admit it's cool watching my
son catch balls as if the glove is magnetically attracted to them.
Not all the time, to be sure, but he's got that confidence that eluded
me in just about any sport I ever tried except cycling.
In tonight's game, they actually won by forfeit, since the other team
didn't show up with enough players. Too bad, because they played
an "exhibition" game anyway, and showed they most likely would have
won the real thing. So it's on to the next round, at PacShores
field next Tuesday evening. Don't look for me at the shop after
5:30!
05/22/03- GETTING STRONGER EVERY DAY,
but why? Is there something about warmer weather that
motivates you to do better, or is is simply adding the mileage of the
occasional century or 50-70 mile Sunday ride that you skipped during
the winter because it wasn't pleasant out? Probably a
combination of the two that eventually gets your body out of
hibernation mode and kicks things into high gear. Kevin showed
up on the ride this morning, and instead of going for a faster time up
the hill, I did the interval thing and kinda blew myself up somewhere
in the middle of the climb. Still managed under 29 minutes though, and
rode the rest of the ride strong enough that the average speed was a
fair amount higher than typical.
COMING UP SOON will be the
Sequoia double-metric century,
which I now feel capable of doing. 125 miles is a bit of a push,
especially when you have "lunch" at 3-4pm or so in Memorial Park at
mile 90 and then have to climb up the backside of Haskins Grade, then
Alpine, and finally descend Page Mill, a rather technical descent
which isn't a whole lot of fun when you're worn out. FOLLOW THAT
UP with the annual ride up
Sonora Pass in late
June, and it's all downhill from there!
05/20/03- GORGEOUS MORNING, WHERE IS
EVERYBODY? Nobody but me for the ride up the hill
this morning although, for the first time in a couple years, I saw
quite a few kids riding to school on King's Mtn. That's always a
hopeful sign for the future! But for now, temps in the 60-70
degree range brought out the best in me and, despite any rabbits to
chase or dogs to flee from (rabbits are cyclists ahead of you and dogs
are behind), I managed a 27:34 up the hill. If I can get
somewhere into the 26 minute range in the next month, I'll be ready
for Sonora Pass (or France).
05/18/03- YOU KNOW YOU'VE GOT THE CYCLING
DISEASE WHEN you do a tough 67 mile ride out to
the coast and back and later on, when you're running around doing
chores in your car, see people out cycling and feel guilty that you're
not out there. Somehow you entirely forget that you already got
in a killer ride. That's when you know you've got the disease!
I'll get the route and photos up soon; the route took us from
Woodside to the base of Page Mill, up to Skyline and down Alpine, over
Haskin's Grade to Pescadero, Stage Road to Tunitas Creek, and then
back up over Skyline and on to Woodside. 6900 feet of climbing,
great weather, what's not to like?
05/17/03- THREE HOURS, 42 MINUTES.
A reasonably-fast metric century? No, this was the longest
little league game in history (or at least it seemed that way!).
My son's team (would you believe sponsored by Chain Reaction?) had a
night game at Hawes Field, which has lights. No more
play-until-it's-too-dark-to-see-the-ball stuff. They were
determined to get in a full nine innings (just kidding, a full game is
six) which is tough when you have scores like 28-17. But play
they did.
Parents were dropping like flies, but the kids hung in there. In
fact, I think every one of them ought to get a plaque certifying each
as "Attention Deficit Disorder Free." By 9pm, even the umpire
had to leave (his parents came to pick him up) but the game played on.
And on. And on. Finally, they ended things at 9:42pm,
but not before threatening the parents with a double-header! And
yes, my son got probably the best hit of the game, and should have had
a triple if the third baseman hadn't pulled a knife on him. I'm
kidding, just an aggressive play at third base, tagging him out as he
slid in. This is little league and the kids are having a pretty
good time. The parents? That's a story for another time.
05/16/03- GUILTY PLEASURES
(or, what I watch on TV besides the Giro and TDF on OLN). I admit
it, I'm hooked on three shows. 24, Enterprise (the lastest Star
Trek installment) and West Wing. But today it's 24 that I'm
talking about. If you haven't seen it, it's a "real time"
24-hour adventure in which government agent Jack Bauer gets to save
the world, if he can only keep a couple annoying things from getting
in his way. Last season they got rid of his wife, a minor
annoyance. But TV Guide is offering me some real hope- "We trust
Jack to save the day at the 24th hour. But he lost his wife last year.
What's the cost now?" Please, oh please, let it be Kim!
Kim, who plays Jack Bauer's daughter, has got to be the most annoying
character on TV since Wesley Crusher on Star Trek Next Generation.
05/15/03- DON'T TRUST KEVIN!
I should know better by now. This morning's ride included both
Ueyn & Kevin, the regulars. Kevin said at the start that it was
going to be a slow ride up the hill because he was tired. Hope
springs eternal; we grasp such things as an indication that perhaps
today's ride up the hill might be at a conversational pace. So
hopeful, in fact, that I didn't push the pace to the first hairpin, as
I usually do. But Kevin? Yeah, tired, right. I was
chasing him most of the way up the hill, finally gaining ground on him
on the steep middle section, and then doing everything I could to hang
onto his wheel, falling back, catching back up, over and over again.
For me, it's all about hanging on, knowing that I can hold a torrid
pace for maybe 60 seconds... just have to stay within range.
Helping push me from behind was Ueyn, who was just off the pace,
always just behind that last corner, ready to make one last push to
the top himself.
That's one heck of a lot of drama for a pretty ordinary time up the
hill! At 28:30, no records were in danger but heck, it was cold,
foggy & windy. Ideal conditions would have shaved at least 8
minutes off that time, right? Sure, if ideal conditions includes
turning back the clock about 31 years or so, when I weighed 133
pounds. In the meantime, we fear Ueyn's return to form as he
finally starts to feel better (turns out he has a mold allergy that
was a problem where he'd been living... dang, hope he doesn't find out
I planted it!) and rips us apart both on the hills and sprints.
05/13/03- IF I WRITE ABOUT HOW NICE THE
WEATHER IS, WILL THAT JINX IT? Finally, we've strung
together more than a couple days of decent weather, with no rain
forecast for the future. About time! Almost went without
leg warmers for this morning's ride up King's Mtn. Just Steve
Lubin accompanying me up the hill this morning at a relatively easy
pace that gradually pushed faster and faster as we headed south on
Skyline and onto the west side of Old LaHonda.
05/12/03- IT'S ALL ABOUT IMAGE.
Some guy posted
the piece below on a newsgroup, trying to explain why having a bike
with a triple crankset and lower gears might not be a bad idea-
I've been doing a casual test on the hill
leading up to my house. It's over 10% over a mile, with a short
stretch much steeper than that. It takes about the same amount
of time sitting or standing, in the biggest gear I can sustain
comfortably either way. The gear I use standing is within normal
road bike range, while the gear I use seated is a little lower than
most road bikes have. I prefer the seated solution.
To which I tongue-in-cheek replied-
"That's all well & good, but which looks more
impressive to people seeing you climb? Those
itty-bitty-gear-grinders just don't look like they're working half as
hard as those who are grunting it out standing. It's all about
image, man, get with the program!!!"
Truth is, I'm a big fan of triples on road
bikes, with 95% (probably more) of the bikes we sell going out the
door with them. There's always that steeper hill late in the
ride, or a day that got a bit hotter than expected, or simply keeping
the dream alive that sure, you live in Florida and the overpasses
aren't very challenging, but someday you're going to head out to
California and ride up a real mountain!
05/09/03- DRY WEATHER IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS!
I suppose that should be obvious, but I'm thankful it's true
nevertheless. These last few months have been pretty cruel to
the bicycle industry in Northern California, so it's great to see a
couple really busy days now that things might be starting to dry
up.
BEST '03 TOUR DE FRANCE MAP I've found so far! This
map starts as an overview of France (with the course overlaid) and you
can click on any region for more detail. Goes even further than
that- it also links to hotel choices in the area. In June the
TDF will be releasing more detailed route information; for now, we
just now the towns it will be passing through.
05/08/03- IT'S RAINING, I'M RIDING, LIFE
COULD BE WORSE
(Final ride of the year for the Iron
Pig?). 7am, dry
roads, no rain. Trouble is, I start riding at 7:30am, and it
decided to start raining, heavily, at 7:22am. So my wife's
driving the kids to school right as I'm heading out into the storm,
and they're thinking dad's nuts. It's remotely possible that I
may not be the best example of sensible cycling to them, since if it's
not cold or wet when they see me taking off from the house, they're
hearing about the "fun" of climbing Sonora Pass. Could it be my
fault they don't look at cycling as something reasonable to do?
But more on the weather. I was complaining (ok, whining) about
our weather with another dealer I know in Kentucky. She put
things in perspective just a bit, mentioning that, just 7 miles away,
one of those tornadoes you heard about the other day destroyed a good
part of a town and killed a few people. Given that this may be
one of the nastiest February-May periods in local weather history, we
really don't have it all that bad here in Northern California.
05/07/03- EVERYONE'S ASKING IF I'M
GOING TO FRANCE THIS YEAR, but it looks like I may end
up sitting this one out. I decided a while back that I wasn't
going to go this year unless I could do something a bit different,
perhaps writing about the 'Tour for a publication. Didn't get my
act together in time to make something like that happen, so it's quite
possible my exposure to the TDF this year will be the same as most
here in the US... getting up early to watch the live coverage on OLN!
Life could be worse, but it's definitely going to seem strange, and
perhaps a bit frustrating as I've got all these air miles on United
that I ought to use while they're still around.
If anyone's interested in a first-class trip to France to watch the
TDF and ride, TREK Travel
still has some space available for a
couple of their tours. The one that appears most
interesting (reasonable cost, talks about riding up Mont Ventoux, etc)
can be found on their website, but some important details (like
dates?) are missing... says you need to call. I'm going to try
and find out more info for our customers who might be interested.
05/06/03- LEGS OF RUBBER ON THE HILL
TODAY in my first post-century ride. One of those
days where your legs just don't feel like turning the cranks over, not
because you're exhausted, but because they seem loaded down with
sludge. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that some
days, you have to be patient. Don't get discouraged, just hang
in there and eventually you'll feel better. The trick is
convincing yourself not to turn around first! We did have a
special visitor on the ride this morning; Brian Krause, one of our
part-time weekend staffers, rode over from Fremont. A bit
different type of ride for him. as he recently got back from four
months in Singapore, where things are mostly flat and always very warm
and humid. Kevin met up with us as we began heading up the hill,
and also, if I haven't gotten names mixed up again, Evan (the ringer
from Stanford).
I'd almost forgotten that we didn't do the west side of Old LaHonda a
year or two ago, but was reminded of that by Brian, who was surprised
when we turned right at Sky L'Onda. That extra six miles really
makes the ride, with the views of the ocean as you climb Old LaHonda
and absolutely zero traffic for three miles. That is, as long as
you don't count the guys who train in secret, whom we often see
descending as we're climbing. That would be Steve Lubin and his
friend (whose name, like most names, escapes me), who used to ride
with us once in a while. They claimed that they're not having as
much time to ride these days, but, is it a coincidence that we always
see them, or are they out there a lot more often than they say?
05/04/03- RODE THE GRIZZLY PEAK CENTURY
TODAY and, in keeping with the awful
weather we've been having for the past few months, we did see a bright
thing in
 the
sky a couple times (but you had to look fast to see it!). At
about mile 50 it started to rain, and continued until shortly before
the lunch stop at mile 70. Fortunately that was pretty much the
end of it, so it wasn't a wash-out. As always, great food on
this ride, great road markings, great course (although there's
something about that post-lunch loop that really takes it out of you,
particularly the section between lunch and the last rest stop).
We saw a lot of our customers out there, and I was riding with Jeff K,
a regular for our Mt Hamilton and Sierra Nevada rides, and Kevin, one
of the usual suspects from our Tues/Thurs Kings Mtn ritual. And yes,
that's Kevin, drafting behind a recumbent on Oakland's Skyline.
05/03/03- GRIZZLY PEAK CENTURY
TOMORROW, weather willing. 107 miles in the East
Bay hills.
Last year's ride was great,
and with the dues we've paid (putting up with foul weather for the
last few months), we've hopefully earned another great one tomorrow.
As they say, film at eleven!
Addendum: I just took a look at the photos from last year's
Grizzly Peak Century. How depressing! It looks like it
must have been in the mid-70s, cloudless skies, near-perfect day.
I think we deserve some really nice weather. Isn't that one of
the reasons we live here?
05/01/03- NICE RIDE, NO RAIN!
Kevin, Ueyn, Dennis and a new guy, Mike, showed up this morning
for a spirited ride up the hill, led by new-guy Mike (who has the
appearances of being a ringer, brought in by Ueyn) and Kevin. As
usual when faster riders are present, I held a fast pace for the first
five minutes of the climb before fading into the scenery, ending with
a time of 28:30. The ride on Skyline from King's to Sky L'Onda
was fast, led by Kevin's strong & relentless pull at the front.
Normally I'd come around and pull for a while, but today was
definitely Kevin's; it was enough just to hang onto his wheel (and
nobody hangs onto Kevin's wheel better than me!). By the time we
got to the descent into Sky L'Onda we looked back and noticed we were
a train of two; it was a minute or two later that the rest caught up
to us. Funny how you assume they're right there with you,
sitting on your wheel.
I mentioned there was no rain, so we were definitely having a bit more
fun on the descents now that the roads were dry. Almost too much
fun, as coming down the east side of 84, riding the corners pretty
hard, you're halfway into a tight 90-degree corner and discover water
right where you're going to lean it over. The sort of situation
where you think it's suicidal to do anything but ride in a straight
line, only there happened to be oncoming traffic at the same time.
Fortunately your bike is nearly always capable of far more than you
think, and it's situations like these that prove it. Ueyn felt
his tires slide out a bit, but we all made it through the turn.
But am I ready for Sunday's Grizzly Peak Century? I'm not
climbing as fast as I'd like, but overall feeling pretty good.
Hopefully the rain will have cleared out of the area by Sunday
morning, as the weatherman says. Of course, that would be about
the only time they've gotten it right during the past several months!
04/29/03- BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!
That would be toasted bagels with lox schmear, downed with
the remaining orange Cytomax from the morning's ride. The ride
itself? Hopefully one of the last outings for the
Iron Pig. Very little
rain, but very, very wet. Kevin showed up, and we met up with
another guy about halfway up Kings. Right at the top we came
across Peter, who was riding his "proper" rain bike, complete with
mudguards. Let's hope this weather gets better for Sunday's
Grizzly Peak Century! At the moment, it changes almost by the
hour.
 04/28/03-
WOODSIDE/PESCADERO/TUNITAS LOOP from
yesterday's ride
now online, lots of
photos up and will getting the descriptions written up shortly.
04/27/03- RIDER REVOLT!
Not really, just me refusing to wear leg warmers and a base layer.
With the Grizzly Peak Century coming up this Sunday, and the Primavera
event rained out last weekend, I figured I was going to get in a
decent ride today, no matter what. Fortunately, the weather
(finally!) cooperated. Gorgeous near-cloudless skies, moderate
temps (did get down to 48 at one point, but only briefly, and was 66
at the coast)... a great day to get in a ride out to Pescadero and
back via Tunitas Creek! Came across quite a few of our customers
too, including Rich Domingo, who I rode with from Tunitas on. So
a pretty nice 57 mile ride, followed by...
I get home and ask the kids where Mom is; she's headed out to do
Bicycle Sunday on Canada Road. So I turn around and race back up
over Jefferson and ride like a madman on Canada, burning up the
pavement and literally riding people off my wheel. Not something
I get a chance to do very often, but for some reason I was possessed
as I was chasing down my wife. Amazing how chasing a piece of
tail can motivate a guy! The screwy thing is that my hard
12-mile ride put the hurt on my legs a lot more than the 57 mile ride
out to the coast. But it's worth it to get that dull ache/pain
in your legs when you descend some steps. Let's you know you did
something.
04/24/03- THAT'S NOT COMING
INTO THE HOUSE/HARDLY EPIC.
No high winds, no torrential driving rain, no one else
on the road. Just me. Yes, it was wet, yet, it was cold
(39 degrees), raining heavily and mildly-windy on Skyline. But
epic? Once again the big storm fails to play out. It's not a
whole lot of fun taking five minutes to strip off all the soaked
clothing outside the front door and finding a place to stash the bike
so it can drain, but it's a whole lot better than the alternative!
Yep, "Death before Trainers" is still my motto. While not so
much fun preparing for and dealing with the aftermath of a ride,
there's something satisfying about being out there in the muck, in
weather bad enough that most of the cars aren't even out. Still,
I'm surprised I didn't see a single other cyclist out there.
Well, it's been an hour since I got home, guess the
Iron Pig's finished
draining by now and can come into the house.
04/23/03- WHAT WILL TOMORROW
MORNING BRING? Well, I can be reasonably certain
it won't be sunshine and shirt-sleeve weather! The forecast is
for nasty stuff & wind; so far, at midnight, only the wind has made
its presence known. But weather.com assures me that I'll get
both rain & wind tomorrow morning. Will I actually ride in the
muck? Probably; part of writing this is to maneuver myself into
a corner so I don't have a choice! Whether I do or not, you can
read about
past rain rides on the page I've
devoted to my current "redsled".
04/22/03- I'M 16 MILES FROM HOME, GOT A
FULL BOTTLE OF CYTOMAX, IT'S 38 DEGREES AND RAINING, AND I'M WEARING
SUNGLASSES. Apologies to the Blues Brothers, but that's
the way it is. I'm fairly confident now that I can make it rain. I go
out on a ride, it rains. I come back, it stops. This morning I
leave the house and it's a mess outside; rain off and on, dark and, as
I climb, it gets colder. 38 degrees at the top, and I'm thinking hey,
this ain't so bad! Until you descend. Around Woodside you see
the sun start to make an appearance here and there and, within a few
miles from home, the world suddenly becomes a very bright place with
dry roads. Hate it when that happens; as I've said before, it's as if
you don't even get credit for being stupid and riding in the muck
because it's all nice and sunny at the end of the ride. Anybody else
with me this morning? Nope, just me. Only spotted one other
cyclist the entire time I was out there... a woman on a silver Klein
descending Kings. Sigh. Would be nice to think this was the last ride
of the season for the Iron Pig, but they're saying another messy day
for Thursday.
04/20/03- FLASHBACKS
generated by a strange confluence
of events, partly the seat bag issue
below, partly watching "The Big Chill"
late last night on TV, and partly seeing that Peter Gabriel is playing
in Mtn View on June 7th. So this morning I'm thinking about some
of my most memorable bike races, and
added a couple stories
to my page with the embarrassing photos of my past. And then I
start thinking hey, why not see Peter Gabriel? It's been over 20
years since I've been to a real concert (please, don't tell me that
taking my daughter to Britney Spears a few years ago counted!), so
what the heck? Left an email for one of my best friends from
back in the day to see if he's interested, along with an old
girlfriend from back in the day (30 years ago, yikes!) who still rides
and lives in the area. Add my wife and the old girlfriend's
husband to the mix and you start seeing the "Big Chill" connection.
04/19/03- WHAT WILL
YOU BE REMEMBERED BY?
Sometimes you wonder what mark you've
actually left on the world. For the moment we'll skip the usual
stuff about
 family
etc., and just talk about business/work (a typical guy type of thing).
How about all those people we've set up on road bikes, discovering
that they're capable of a lot more (in terms of distance & terrain &
adventure in general) than they thought possible? Or that we're
the largest OCLV carbon bike dealer in the country? Or simply
managing to stay in business for 23 years? Nope, none of the
above. My most significant contribution to cycling is probably
the shark-tooth expanding seat bag.
Expanding seat bags had been around for years, but it was my idea,
back in the late-80s or so, to put teeth on them. TREK's product
people resisted for several years until finally, some guy (who is no
longer with the company) decided to take my idea, claim it as his own,
and voila, a classic was born. It had an 8-year run before they
retired it about six years ago, but finally, a forward (or is it
backward?)-thinking product manager has brought the bag back to life.
Sort of. I'm afraid the new one doesn't look much like the one
in the photo (which is on the back of my own bike)... the "teeth" look
more like the up-and-down zig-zags on Charlie Brown's sweaters.
Doesn't seem like it should be that hard to get it right but then
that's why I'm at the retail end of the business, where we work on
solutions using whatever's at hand, rather than at the product side,
where you probably have a bunch of people telling you why something
won't work.
Being the final link in the customer chain isn't
such a bad place to be. --Mike--
04/17/03- LAST RAIN RIDE?
I hope so! The weather reports made it sounds like we
had a good shot at avoiding the last remnants of our recent storm, but
it didn't quite play out that way, as Kevin, Todd & I hit a pretty
good cloudburst just as we hit Old LaHonda. It only lasted a
couple of minutes, but then hit again, only stronger, right at the end
of the ride. My wife loves it when my bike drains on the floor
inside the front door...
We did see one squirrel run out in front of Kevin at the base of
King's Mtn, but he successfully stared it down and it made a hasty
retreat. Also came across Nicole while climbing King's Mtn.
We usually see her riding down the hill as we're heading up, but today
I think she climbed it a second time, as she prepares for her second
double century (she's going for the "triple crown", three doubles in
one year). I dunno... about 130 miles in a day is my limit!
04/15/03- OH DARN, SCHOOL'S OUT, TODD'S
ON THE MORNING RIDE! Kevin & Ueyn, the usual
suspects... they're bad enough. But when Todd, our hotshot
part-time warehouse guy shows up, all bets are off. Hate it when
that happens. Means that not only do I get to watch a couple
guys (Kevin & Todd) ride off the front when climbing King's, but get
to hear them yacking away as well (while I'm disturbing the peace with
my ragged breathing, so out of breath that I have to reduce the "car
back" warning to something less than one syllable). At least Ueyn was
nice enough to still be recovering from a nasty cold. Still,
with all the nasty weather we've been having lately, it was a nice
morning to be out on a bike.
04/13/03-
MY TAKE ON THE SEA OTTER CLASSIC IN REDWOOD CITY.
Not out doing the Primavera Century in the rain, so instead I used my
nervous energy to respond to a posting on bicycles.ba from someone
trashing what went on. Click on the link above for the full text
of my response.
DID GET IN A NICE RIDE THIS AFTERNOON though as I headed north
on Canada, up 92 and then south on Skyline. The original plan
was to head down 84, but I got a flat on the way up Skyline and lost
too much time to do the full loop. It was stunningly beautiful
on Skyline though, with a view of the coast that was almost surreal,
with the sun streaking through holes in the clouds, and the ocean
seeming almost close enough to reach out and touch.
04/10/03- 1 FOX, 8 DEER, 3 CYCLISTS
and a beautiful morning! That pretty much sums up the
usual Tuesday/Thursday ride, with Ueyn & Kevin attending. None
of us felt terribly fast; I either had legs or lungs that alternated
between feeling OK and not, often with both feeling bad but never with
legs & lungs feeling good at the same time. Kevin spotted a fox
about halfway up Kings Mtn, and I came across the 8 deer crossing my
path on Albion Way.
PRIMAVERA CENTURY THIS SUNDAY, but not so sure our traditional first
century of the season is going to work out. The weather people
are still saying rain and, while we ride rain or shine on the
Tuesday/Thursday morning ride, the prospect of doing a century under
obnoxious conditions just doesn't seem all that appealing. Not a
problem if there's a likelihood of an occasional shower, but presently
the forecast simply says rain. All day long.
 04/09/03-
APOLOGIES MAY BE IN ORDER. Things
didn't go quite as planned, with the main local event of the Sea Otter
Classic, the Sr Pro Road Race, becoming something of a non-event after
a rider protest halfway through the second lap. People who came
out expecting to see a great race did, but it was the women's race,
not the men's. More on this later; I have very mixed emotions
about what went on. In the meantime, you can
read one of the racer's editorial
detailing what happened, and (for him) why. I'll get something
going on what happened soon, but for now, I have to apologize for
over-selling something that wasn't, but should have been.
04/09/03- FLOYD LANDIS
will be at the Sea Otter Road Race in Redwood City! I've posted
the complete list of US Postal riders on our
Sea Otter page.
HAVING TROUBLE FIGURING OUT THE COURSE? Just look for
the small spray-painted green signs on the road.
04/08/03- FIRST DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
RIDE so I was a bit worried about how cold it might be,
since it would essentially be an hour earlier than before. Not
to worry, it was a gorgeous morning! Ueyn & Kevin showed up,
with Kevin looking like he's ready for his Masters 4/5 40+ Sea Otter
Road Race this coming Friday. Ueyn's still getting over some
sort of nasty cold or virus that's kept him down for a couple weeks
now. And me? I enjoy any chance I get to have fun on a
bike, especially if it comes at a time when one guy is tapering off
for a race, and the other isn't functioning on all cylinders.
DON'T FORGET THE SEA OTTER ROAD RACE IN REDWOOD CITY WEDNESDAY!
This is big-time racing, right here in my hometown. The only
race I ever rode in Redwood City was the Redwood City Criterium, back
in 1973 or so. Left a whole bunch of skin on the ground in that
one,
with pictures to prove it.
This is going to be a classier affair (and not just because
I'm not in it), with OLN (Outdoor Life Network, available on finer
cable systems everywhere) coverage. Helicopters flying over
Redwood City. Cameramen hanging desperately onto the back of
motorcycles. Police escorts. What more could one want?
04/06/03- WITH PRIMAVERA COMING NEXT
SUNDAY it seemed like a good idea to get in a long ride
today, but the combination of the first day of Daylight Saving's Time,
as well as various computers that needed some TLC, conspired against
me. Still managed to get in a fast 27 mile ride at 5pm, staying
off Skyline Blvd for a change. Finished up with the
climbing section of the Sea Otter course, and put up some more info on
where good photo opportunities might be
found.
04/05/03- BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE BEING
PULLED OVER BY A COP (while driving a car), but that
ended Saturday evening. My kids wanted to pick up a couple CDs
at Best Buy so I'm driving with them in the car down Industrial, doing
the speed limit, and up behind me pulls a cop with lights flashing.
Must not be me, right? You pull over into the next lane, ready
to watch him go past. Uh, no. He sticks to you. So
you find a place to pull over, and nervously wait in the artificial
sun that lights up the inside of your car. Hmm... no what
exactly did I do wrong? Turns out it was just for a burned-out
license plate light. Sigh. My daughter thinks that
he must have been having a pretty boring evening, but she was also
greatly relieved that she hadn't been driving (she has a
learner's permit).
04/03/03- BACK TO NORMAL
as both Kevin and Ueyn showed up to ride the hill this
 morning, and I was
feeling so much better than Tuesday! Ueyn isn't operating on all
cylinders though, as he's getting over a nasty cold bug that the doc
told him required 6 weeks of rest to fully recover. I believe
that was a week ago; since then he's ridden to a 4th place in a race,
not to mention showing up this morning. You gotta like a guy
like that!
Pop Quiz of the day- what Chain Reaction staffer produced the ceramic
boat in this picture? It was spotted in a ceramics class at
Woodside High (my daughter goes there so I was attending their open
house). So, how many employees do we have who go to school at
Woodside?
04/02/03-
NEW SEA OTTER RACE COURSE MAP
on line, with recommendations for places to watch the race, as
well as where to buy food & drink on or near the course.
Remember, it's just a week from today... next Wednesday, from 9am-2pm.
Your chance to see the race in person, and then perhaps spot yourself
on the TV coverage later on OLN!
04/01/03- APRIL FOOLS JOKE
or what? Sunday's ride was great, this morning's ride was very
tough. Didn't sleep well the night before, but that usually
doesn't kill me. Nor does light rain. Just one of those
days, I guess.
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