SOS

Dear Mr. Jungels of Prairie Path Cycles,

Please, I don't have much time. I hijacked Mike's computer while he's walking down to the store to get more fruit for his confounded daily smoothie. 

Mr. Jungels! Rob! Jungle-Juicer! He's torturing me! It's been months since my chain was replaced, my cables adjusted, or the bearings in my rear wheel properly tightened so that I don't roll along like some old beach cruiser! And a proper cleaning? Ugh, I'm afraid I've lost all hope for such a pleasure. The build-up of energy drink under my bottom bracket shell is like a constant itch that never gets scratched. 

I suppose he tries, every once in a while pulling out some wrench and pretending that he knows what he's doing... but it's no use. I miss the way you look at me: you saw me for what I should be, and looked past whatever neglected state he left me in. Your gentle, yet firm, hands are like human torque wrenches- always knowing just how much I like it. And I hope your fiance doesn't mind me saying so, but no one can make my drivetrain purr like you can.

Sigh... will we ever meet again? Is there any hope for me? Oh no! I hear him coming up the steps! Please, if you ever come to LA- steal me!

Respectfully,

Mike's Bike (the LeMond)

My friend will have the turns well done...

As I mentioned earlier, teammate Alex Sharon came up from San Diego last weekend to do a little riding and maybe ride over to the Rose Bowl to watch the finish of the ToC. Well, the weather kept us away from the race, but on Saturday morning we had sunny skies long enough to do the Mullholland Drive ride from here to the ocean and back. 

It was a pretty good ride: we put the hurt on each other, saw lots of big houses, fancy cars (the best being an Audi R8), and even a gathering of the paparrazi on the side of a cliff hoping to catch a glimpse of that hot new ABD/GEARGRINDER kit... (actually, we were in our old kit and are pretty sure they were there to snap photos of J-Lo's twins).

But the highlight of the ride came near the end (well, at least for me). We were about 3.5 hours in and descending off the Mulholland ridge down to the 101. Alex must have been feeling a little randy (the only explanation for such kamikaze behavior), and was sprinting all out down the descent. He dropped me in the first switchback- but then, as I neared the bottom, there was Alex standing on the side of the road-- looking all p-r-o as he prepared to remount his trusty steed. He'd already picked himself up from what had to be a momentarily terrifying slide into the guardrail. But he's tough-- don't underestimate the little guys.

Three reasons to keep a PC around the house.

As most of you know, I'm a Mac guy. I was sucked into Uncle Steve's Reality Distortion Field about five years ago and planned on never looking back (although I do have some issues with the iPhone and MacBook Air...)

But, as a bike rider there are two major reasons to keep a PC around:
1) Computrainer's indoor training software
2) TrainingPeaks (formerly CyclingPeaks)
The Computrainer software is pretty outdated and looks it, but it's still the best thing out there for training inside and is only available in the "Windows" PC Flavor. TrainingPeaks, on the other hand, is an extremely-powerful training analysis tool (we ABD coaches use it), but alas, is only available for Windows as well.

But really, the most important reason to have a PC around (or run Boot Camp on your Mac):
3) Netflix's "instant" program. They've loaded up tons of movies and TV shows for their subscriber's online viewing pleasure. Wednesday night we weren't up for reading the subtitles of "Infernal Affairs" (the original version of Scorsese's "The Departed"), so instead we queued up "Ghostbusters" instantly. Then last night when our copy of "Breach" showed up cracked (Netflix ain't perfect), we kept it old school and instantly watched "The Neverending Story" for the first time in about 20 years. The rumor has it that Netflix will have a Mac version of the instant service this year, but there's 10 months of '08 left...

We'll get to "Infernal Affairs" this weekend. Teammate Alex is coming up from San Diego for the weekend to do a little riding and catch the end of the ToC. Hope you can roll with the foreign film, Alex.

So that Gear Grinder Coffee?

Yeah, it's awesome. Even Rosa, the 6-year Starbucks barista veteran, said she loved it. Big, dark and bold-- just the way she likes her men.......... So, where does that leave me?

But seriously, what's she's really hoping for is a full-sized poster of the "Big Gear Blend" label to put up in our kitchen. (hint, hint. nudge, nudge sponsors).

You can order up some of this caffeinated goodness through teammate Rob White, just $7 each 8oz bag. As soon as Mr. White hooks me up with the order form I'll post it here.

Time To Get My Java On

Thanks to teammate Rob White for sending me the good stuff. What you're looking at there is the official "Big Gear Blend" coffee from our sponsor GearGrinder. The saying next to the picture is "Puts hair on your chest, not on your legs" and the fine print reads:

possibly
DRANK BY TOUR CHAMPIONS
on occasion

I'll be brewing up a pot of this tomorrow morning... but with the overcast day here maybe it's an afternoon coffee day.

Mario's message

I do love me some 'Cipo. Nobody's come close to replacing his panache...

http://roadmagazine.net/road_home/index.html

...and this is courtesy of Mr. Sharon, may the Sugar Glydar's blog rest in peace.

Project

I've lacked a green thumb my entire life, but there's something about
this plant that got me. I took over it's caretaking from Rosa a couple
of days ago, and this is actually an improvement since then... we'll
see how this adventure goes.

No Team Astana at le Tour

The cycling wires are hot this morning with news that Tour de France race organizers ASO will not invite Team Astana, and defending TdF champ Contador, to any of their events this year.

C'mon Team Astana , you knew this could happen. But my heart goes out to Levi... I never wanted to say I told you so.

Yeah for Griffith Park

During a few minutes of scouring the internet last week, I discovered that most of the Griffith Park was now open for hikers and bikers.

This weekend on the rainy Sunday that found the competitors of ToC suffering through the final stage, Rosa, Dad, Alex and I went for a hike up through the park. It was nice to show off a seldom-seen section of LA. The only other people I've hauled up the mountain were ST and my uncle.

As for the riders that finished up the ToC? Gentlemen, you're table is ready. That was an impressive performance and looked absolutely miserable.

Got Me A New Hat

...courtesy of the folks at some financial company. They sent a free hat to the Voice along with a press release for their campaign aimed at high-schoolers. But of course it works well for hiding helmet hair post-bike-race too.

My Girfriend, the Enforcer

For your reference, this is Rosa:

How about those steely eyes? That iron will? You don't want to mess with that.

Yesterday Rosa walked into a Starbucks (where she worked for 6 years) to grab a coffee. The barista is cleaning a machine, her back to the register, and says she'll be right there. There is one other customer standing in front of Rosa- a kid in baggy jeans with his sweatshirt draped over his shoulder. Rosa can't see his face. Then, as they stand there waiting the kid leans forward to look into the bakery case and casually reaches into the tip jar and grabs a handful of singles. He straightens up and without a moment's hesitation Rosa leans into the kid and quietly says, "I saw you do that. Put it back." ...and he does. Then they have to stand there about another 30 seconds, during which reason catches up to action and Rosa thinks, "He might turn around and punch me in the face". But no, the barista turns around, the kid asks for a glass of water, and he walks away.

The best appositive of a cycling related news article in 2008

From VeloNews.com's recent article on KBS/Medifast:

Five of the team’s riders are in school, including all four of the team’s Canadians — Gilbert, Lacombe, Hinnen and Veilleux — as well as Mumford, who is studying for his PhD in high-energy particle physics at John Hopkins University.

Granted, Candelario's "spent January training in Hawaii" is enviable, but the uber-geek factor gives Reid the win hands down. (He even runs Linux on his laptop!)

'07 Wrap. Blog's moving.

2007 was a helluva year...

- A few people knew this, but I started '07 with barely riding my bike for 3 months but instead doing Physical Therapy 2.5 hours a day, five days a week. X-Rays in October '06 revealed my right hip was twisted 1" lower and 1" set backwards from my left hip. Apparently it's a common thing that happens to pregnant women... and me. Awesome.

- April: screw up my back royally days before the first race of the year in the Midwest, Hillsboro Roubaix. Race anyway and get into a break with 75 miles to go with all my old teammates: the Bird, Mumford, Puffer. Pure comedy. It didn't turn out so well for me. Puffer probably suffered more than anyone that day for a very respectable top 5 finish.

- Aggressive PT exercises lead to a hernia two days before the Tour of Virgnia. Worst organized stage race I've ever been to, saved by the comedy and experience of one Beth Wrenn Estes.

- May: spend 10 days at best friend's wedding in Europe. Munich, Germany is my new favorite city. The hernia gets to come too, which means that Rosa carried the luggage. 

- Hernia surgery. Sucks. Tendontis of the groin still happens to this day.

- Summer: the ABD team is fast. Josh Carter wins lots of races including the team's first stage of Superweek.

- August: I start taking care of Grandma. She was a trooper.

- October: Grandma passes. I return to L.A and hang up my ABD race director hat.

- November: Get to announce the ABD/GEARGRINDER Pro Development Team. Fast team of fun loving guys.

- December: Rosa's Dad has a heart attack and dies two days before Christmas. I'm in Oakland for the night with my family when we get the call. I catch a 4 AM flight to Phoenix followed by an 8 hour drive across the desert to Ojai, California. Jeff SanMarchi was a one-man show known as the Ojai & Ventura Voice, a biweekly newspaper that ran for 18 years. For a week or so I think about donning an Editor-in-Chief hat with Rosa's sister, Ana. After an exhausting 10 days we decide we're not passionate enough about Ojai's small town politics to do it justice.

And here we are, 2008. It's a big year, folks. It's an election year. I'm starting some new jobs. And although what I most like to do is ride a bike, I can't guarantee this blog will just be about bike racing. In addition to commentary on cycling, I like gadgets, tasting new beverages and have caught some election fever. Thus, I'm moving to ebertchecksin.blogspot.com . Maybe I should have renamed it to "Ebert Checks Out..."

Thanks for reading.

The Bird's Blog

It's about time. Former ABD'er Bryce Mead can now share his deepest thoughts with the world
http://www.brycemead.missingsaddle.com/
Bryce, what is your deepest thought ever?

One more reason United now runs the unfriendly skies

I've had so many bad experiences with United... and here's one more reason to avoid them from the ChicagoTribune.com: United Airlines to charge passengers $25 for second bag...

I'm even a member of United's frequent flyer program and this tweaks me to no end....

coming back

Working on a post...