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.