Well, that sucked....

So, I'm back in the Midwest to help with the Winfield Criterium
Weekend. Things are a little crazy running last-minute errands for the
race, when out of nowhere some 16 year old kid overcorrects a mistake
and takes a detour at a 45 degree angle into oncoming traffic... and I
happen to be oncoming traffic, driving back towards the bike shop at
about 45 miles per hour.

I audibly say "oh sh&%", and it wasn't until later that I realized I
considered three options (bike racers will identify with this post-
crash-recollection of your stream of consciousness), I can:
a) swerve to the right and hit him more head on
b) swerve to the left and hit an SUV in oncoming traffic
c) just stay the course.

I stick with (c) and it's unavoidable, loud, fast, expensive and a
little painful. I get a cut on my wrist and bruised ribs, my
counterpart gets a burn on his face from his airbag. Both cars get
totaled. But most importantly, we both had our seatbelts on, get out
of our cars, and walk away. (Although as you'll see from the pics
below I shudder to think if he'd had a passenger in the car.)

All my siblings happen to be home this weekend too from various
locations around the country, so when I call for someone to pick me
up, everyone comes along.... and Mom figures there couldn't be a
better time to get the Christmas Card photo. Sure, her car's totaled
(sorry Mom), but she's got all her kids home for a weekend and we're
alive and healthy.

Just another gorgeous day in LA

Sent from handheld.

May 12: A Day in Pictures

May 12th is my birthday. A couple of weeks ago Rosa asked me what I wanted to do for it and I blurted out "Ride my bike to Santa Barbara".

So I did.


View Larger Map

My plan was to park my car at our boss's place in Augora Hills and ride 90 miles inland over the mountains, through Ojai, down to the coast and then up to Santa Barbara.

The ride started out pretty well, overcast and in the high 50's. I had the roads to myself at 10AM on a Monday.

Then I ventured into the canyons northwest of Simi Valley, which are full of massive sand and gravel pits. It's fun descending but a little crazy with all the trucks.

Then came the Heritage Valley: birthplace of many an orange, avocado and strawberry.

Next up came the serene Ojai Valley...

...then up and over the climb at Lake Casitas.

And eventually down to the Pacific Ocean.

Where the lovely Rosa Linda met me on the beach for a picnic...

...and I asked her to marry me.

That's right, it's official! Take another gander at her left hand in case you missed it.

And here's just one reason why I love this woman: when we're deciding on a restaurant for dinner that night, she says, "You better not pick some fancy place just because we got engaged. I'm totally down for the Brewhouse". The Brewhouse is a great little brewery & restaurant away from the main, fancy strip-- so to the Brewhouse we went for a delicious dinner and some celebratory beverages.

It was going to be tough to match May 12, 2007, which was spent at my best friend's wedding in Austria, but I think we pulled it off.

Catch Up

Catch Up- what I feel like I might be doing when it comes to racing with my teammates this summer. These boys are fast! Big props to Rob White and his 6th place overall at the recent USA Crits Speed Week. Most guys at that race have been going full tilt for a couple of months, and the ABD/GEARGRINDER squad is just getting their legs under them.

Catch Up- what I'm doing with this blog entry. Man, what have I been doing for two weeks? Oh, that's right, working. The new job with Carter Thor Studios has been going well.. and then when I get home from that gig (or on my lunch breaks) I'm taking care of some ABD communique, which is getting hot and heavy now with the 40k TTT this Saturday and then both the big Memorial Day Weekend Msters Races and the Winfield Criterium Weekend at the end of the month.

Fortunately, I have been able to get four or five days of riding in a week too, but no real long rides yet- mostly 90 minute to 2 hour hard workouts. Lots of threshhold and "on road mountain biking" up in Griffith Park and the Hollywood Hills. Riding in the neighborhoods that follow the borders of the park is a blast, the roads are steep, twisty and in horrible shape! The pavement is super cracked and uneven, creating all these mini jumps, berms and obstacles. But all the rich stars and starlets have built their houses so on top of each other that the roads are barely wide enough for one car- much less a road crew! There have been several occasions when I've launched off a lip or over a massive pothole on a descent only to have to grab a handful of brakes to avoid becoming a hood ornament on some Mercedees or Porsche whipping around a hairpin turn.... And yes, I am still talking about riding my road bike. Knock on wood, but my Bontrager x-lites and Serfas tires have neve failed me on that loop.

Oh yeah, it hasn't all been work and riding, I am happy to report that I'm reading a great book right now too: 100 Years of Solitude. I started it three years ago and kept rereading the first 40 pages, but once I pushed through to about page 70 it all became clear and I was hooked. Anyone who's read it or wants to read it and discuss, please shoot me an email. It feels good to get the old English major wheels turning again.

The Stats

Read 'em and weep folks:

2 hours and 30 minutes
24 miles
1,700 feet of climbing
2 sections that required a push

Those are the stats for Rosa's first ride of 2008 on Saturday. I told her that we didn't need to all the way over the mountain to the Rose Bowl, but she said she was "going big or going home", God bless her.

Needless to say, she's been a little sore the past couple days, but not too bad. I installed my compact crankset (50/34) and the 12-27 on her bike, so she was able to maintain a decent cadence on a ride that is all uphill or downhill- no flat roads to speak of. Of course, this also forces me to ride big boy gears now, which is probably a good thing- but I rode that compact for almost a year now (including Superweek and the August crits last year) and it was pretty nice.

In other news, the ABD/GG squad took another win on Sunday with Ryan White taking the honors with brother Rob in 4th place. In Saturday's race they finished 3rd and 7th as well, which ain't too shabby. They meet up with Josh this weekend for the Athens Twilight Crit followed by the USA Crit Series. Stay tuned...

Garret Lemire Race Report

Sunday's Garret Lemire Memorial Criterium was HOT! And not a fun, exciting, (miniskirt) hot, but as our favorite Uncle Fred would say, "Africa hot". When we rolled up to the line for our 2 p.m. start the mercury sat at 96 degrees (just two away from Ryan White's favorite boy band).

Needless to say, two boys from the frozen tundra and my embarrassingly-low weekly training volume were not very effective against squads from HealthNet, Toyota-United, Successful Living, Colavita, Jelly Belly and others. But the team that proved our undoing were some riders from Kahala-LaGrange, who would drift to the back only to let massive gaps open up-- not even allowing us to tailgun in peace, licking our wounds to the finish line. Nope, chalk up three fat D-N-F's.

At least we're all re-motivated to get back to the drawing board for our races that matter in May, June, July and August.

Fun NPR Stories

Most of you know that I'm an NPR addict. Morning Edition is the perfect compliment to a cup of coffee, and nothing soothes an afternoon commute in Los Angeles like All Things Considered. So, I just wanted to pass along some great stories from the past week. 

The first is an interview with Martial Arts master and film star Jackie Chan.  I would argue that his fight scenes are the most well choreographed dances on celluloid in the last 20 years.

And here's the "Wall of Shame" story, where students at a high school out east post their college rejection letters on a wall for everyone to see. 

Island View Criterium, UCSB & Views from Ojai

On Friday night the White brothers, Rob and Ryan, flew into town for a weekend of racing. The docket included a collegiate race on Saturday at the University of California Santa Barbara, and this afternoon's race is the Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, a National Racing Calendar criterium in Ojai. Ojai is where Rosa and I lived with with her dad, Jeff, for the first few months we moved out to California and where Jeff published his "Ojai and Ventura Voice". 

The Saturday morning drive up the ocean was a pretty ideal start to the trip. Spring here in Southern California means lots of green, and the ocean is always good scenery. Then we arrived on the UCSB campus... and we instantly learned why people say that UCSB stands for the "University of Casual Sex & Booze". The campus is a sprawling fantasy land sitting smack dab on the beach a few miles north of Santa Barbara. An extensive network of bike paths runs for miles in and around campus, with a fully-lit path running down the coast to downtown Santa Barbara. When we went to pick up our numbers at 10 a.m. in the morning, the bike paths were full of well-tanned young men shirtless and young ladies in bikinis riding cruiser bikes barefoot to the beach or to various parties. At turn 2 on the race course a frat party was already spilling out into the street, again the dress code apparently calling for as little clothing as possible. This place is not real, and did I mention it was just past 10 AM?

And then there was our bike race. The White boys asked me to what expect and were already eyeing the prize list with dollars in their eyes. I tried to explain that in a place with 20 million people, lots of mountains and never any snow, there are a lot of bike riders in good shape - but I don't think they got it. Then we lined up with 110 riders including three HealthNet riders, a full Successful Living squad, 9 riders on some British team in town, and 90 other guys that have been racing full tilt for three months.

We averaged 30 mph for 75 minutes, and the White boys saw average heartrates not seen since Superweek. They both covered a lot of attacks and managed to finish right around the top 20. As for me, I was just happy to be there. 75 minutes would be my longest ride in three weeks and this was really my first race since the San Dimas debacle didn't turn out so well. I actually hung out at the back with Mark Swartzendruber (of ABD TT Series domination fame), who's brother lives in town. I made up to the front of the race for a few minutes and jumped into a two lap breakaway that ended up with a lot of horsepower (most notably Rory Sutherland and Karl Bordine), but I'm pretty happy we were caught so quickly since four pulls through that rotation made me want to hurl.  

After the race we did a sweet little ride down the coast to cool down, grabbed lunch at the delicious Brewhouse in Santa Barbara, and then drove the back roads up to Ojai through the mountains and past Lake Casitas - the same route the Tour of California takes. The night was just too nice to sit in the hotel room, so after showers and a few minutes of tv-watching we drove up through the East End and upper Ojai. The Orange Blossoms are in full bloom and you can smell it throughout the entire valley. I took the boys up Sulphur Mountain Road, which after 4 miles of single lane, twisty road, crests the mountain ridge to the south of Ojai. Anyone who lives up there might have some of the best views in SoCal: the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands to the Southwest, the Ojai Valley to the North. I'll let the pictures posted at the end do the talking.

And today we take on the Garret Lemire NRC Crit: 50 miles, $15,000 in prize money, and a race time temperature predicted to be 97 degrees. Should be awesome for a couple of guys coming from the "neverending winter".

The view to the north of Sulphur Mountain Road. Those are the channel islands on the horizon.

And the view to the North: Looking down on the Upper Ojai Valley.

Weekend Recaps

Sorry folks, there hasn't been much in the way of blogging juices the last two weeks. Now that I'm working the Studio gig and the ABD gig I don't have many minutes left in the day...

Of course, that's not to say there haven't been some newsworthy happenings. I did my first race of the year, if you'd like to call it that. In the results of the uphill TT prologue at the San Dimas Stage Race you'll see my name fifth from the bottom (I can't believe I beat four people), but in the following day's road race results you will not see my name. Apparently, 5 or 6 hours a week of training does not a competitive Category 1 rider make. At least the Bird said I looked good when I ran into him before the race. 

Then the day after my DNF I had grand plans to ride from my house over to Agoura Hills, a great 3.5 hour ride that takes in mountains and the ocean, ...only to have my rear wheel completely seize up on me 45 minutes from home while I was on Mulholland Drive. I always rock a frame pump and saddle bag, but not cone wrenches! So for only the second time in my 14 years of riding I had to call someone to pick me up. The first time it happened I was in Phoneix in the days before cell phones, and I hobbled to a gas station to 1-800-COLLECT my Grandpa. The tendons in my knee had gotten so swollen I could hardly bring my knee over the top of the stroke. I was off the bike for over two weeks, and then two months later I was in Belgium racing with the National Team. So maybe having to call for help is a sign?

After the weekend of not-so-good riding and training I did the usual commute to work, and then on Thursday did a weekend trip on back to Chicago for a couple of meetings and the John Fraser Memorial Time Trial. It was great seeing everyone at the event and I'm very happy that the weather cooperated for us. 

So, now I'm back here in sunny SoCal and this weekend the White brothers will be joining me for the Island View Criterium and the NRC Garret Lemire Memorial Grand Prix. I've never done the Island View race, but the GLMGP is a great course and I think the boys are going to have a solid race. It will be good for them to mix it up with some of the P-R-O's before heading down to the SouthEast Crit Series at the end of the month. Stay tuned here and at the ABD/GEARGRINDER Team site for updates.

A Zero Emission Day!

On Tuesday Rosa and I went the entire day without driving a car-- a tricky task in this town, (especially when Rosa can get an audition call from anywhere between San Diego and Santa Barbara at a moment's notice). Fortunately, I've found an easy route for riding into "the office", so I'll be able to tack on a few hours to my embarrassingly low weekly riding volume. And we're lucky enough to have the post office and local markets within a couple blocks of the apartment, and Rosa can ride into the Yoga studio. 

Hopefully we can get these Z.E.D.'s up to at least two a week, because we know that for Hunter & Aimee in Tucson and ST in Boise, Zero Emission Day's are the norm rather than the exception.