One last thought on 08!

So here are a few thoughts and reflections on 2008.

*Obama- Thanks to everyone who voted for a change!!! Its a pretty big hole that we're in from the past 8 years, but Obama is looking good so far. Man it sure was fun watching the republican party maneuver.

* Oilgate-in the 70's we had Watergate, for sure there will be some good stories in the future that will explain the oil prices per barrel from $60/b upwards to $150 and down to $37. Funny thing with freight charges and airlines charging extra, so far they have not removed any of these fees...wtf? Bush retirement package I figure.

* Bailouts???great..extending credit and putting consumers in debt is what got us into this mess.

GM-Ford-they started sucking in my opinion after the 60's. Ford Pinto, Taurus, K car, Nova, Escort. yup my parents had a couple of these when I was growing up! I still think the 67 Mustang Fastback is the coolest car on the planet. I wonder how much of a rebate it would take for me to buy one?? $10k, $20k,..nope..for me I think it would have to be around $25-30K. Probably never know, I'll just have to pay for the bailout in some way for sure in the future.

* Media sucks! I think they are one of the biggest reasons the US is floating in the crapper..I consider the financial terrorism that they are promoting crippled everyone. They just groan endlessly about housing foreclosures, consumer spending being down, oil prices, fear, etc. Turn off the TV and go ride I say!!

* Masters Track Nationals- can't complain, highlights was the TTT going up against Bostick, I raced against him in 87-88 when he was a legend. We had a great team and smoked our PR during training. Thanks to everyone who helped get it here in our back yard and congrats to everyone who raced.

*Hopefully no more back surgery in 09!

*Thankful for people who get that Spain produces some kick ass wine! There really is no rival for the quality for price ratio. People are starting to get it...

*** Most of all thankful for the little Rylee that is very healthy and the best thing ever. If I had a dollar for every tom, dick, and harry who told me.."say good bye to sleep..or your life is never going to be the same" well she would have one big fat college savings. Thanks for all the family & friends that really supported us and helped. 

Having her is the best thing that happened to me. One smile a day is all I need today I got two.

Happy New Year!

Whoo ville. look who just moved in.

Holy crap, I was pretty pessimistic about getting an owl to move in to the house I bought Tracey last year.

I went to the tree today, thought I'd take a look and see if I could pretty it up with hopes of attracting an owl. I read the manual on installation last year, it didn't say anything about getting your girlfriend on the chainsaw, but oh well sometimes you just have to get creative.

I opened the box and saw these big amber eyes looking at me..I almost fell off the frickin ladder.

What to do next??? get a camera, take a picture and never bug the little owl again.

East meets West- MSTS Bikes for Kids event.

This weekend we were riding, eating and drinking like there was no recession, no war, gas prices were $1.65/gal, Dow was 10,000 and Clinton was the president. ahhh the good old days!

 Shawn Oliver pulled off another great charity event for Bikes for Kids. We started off making it to the ride not so fashionablly late. Good group of friends that I haven't seen for tons of moons. The ride had its share of drama as all group rides, flats, bumps and bruises, etc.  All is well.

The dinner on the other hand, what a party! I started going to Bikes for Kids event 4 years ago, then I was there on a cold wet December day and helped give the little kids the bikes. Seeing them light up when they get to pick a bike was pretty cool.

Phipps our Masters 35 climbing superstar collected all the wining$$'s & t-shirts we picked up for the year and donated it for the kids.  Then the auction started when the wine and lobster boil started to kick in. This year I did have a little hangover, but didn't have.."ohh I shouldn't have bought that" hangover. Good thing I had a breathalizer on the bidding paddle.

My guess is the Bikes for Kids-Morgan Stanley event has raised over 500 bikes over the years. 

Astana is the Dope!

I just heard the news... Vino, love that part. Wants to come back. Thats just what cycling needs..

I think this all time team would be great, and why don't they get Amgen as a sponsor so they can get a Bro deal?? Top fuel!

Coach

Fuentes

DS

Johan or Riis pretty equal.

Armstrong

Heras

Hamilton

Landis

Tricky Beltran

Levi

Vino

The Brother Schlecks are next to take a fall. Transfering $10,000 is alot to pay Fuentes for intervals.

Palin supporter recently wrote a bit...

"I knew you would take down my comment, pussy liberal bitch. Just like liberals, tolerant with their views, but not others".

Thanks , this is most excellent!

I suck at bike racing too:)

Woman of the Year...please vote.

PBS is doing a poll which asks if Sarah Palin is qualified to be VP. The right wing has organized a yes campaign--and currently the YES vote is leading in the poll.

Translation: Sarah Palin's competence as a powerful woman and a world leader is currently WINNING an N.O.W poll. N.O.W.. that's the National Organization of Women... Champions of choice, equal pay, women's health and other issues that Palin doesn't give a hoot about...
Please take a few seconds, go to: Vote NO!


thank you,

TTT- Golden ride & one Hell of a year.

Cliff notes:
We busted a 4:40 for the 4k for gold.
A couple of weeks ago the Special kids did one of these 4:40's I was stunned and amazed with that time. Plus they looks so damn fast!
Fahey showed up with his A game, Dan Smith has been riding great since we called him up to the team after a Special shuffle, Metcalf was on fire all week and always gets us rolling into those 22's, and I needed to ride smart...

I heard there were a bet being placed on the Amgen guys, Tracey always has my back!. They were out gunned today, but kept us focused and when we saw the likes of Bostick and Thurlow coming to Hellyer. Fahey & I thought it would be really cool to be standing one step up from those cycling legends. You kids out there may be familiar with Thurlow, but for me I remember reading Winning magazine before the internet and endless articles about Bostick's TTT's. I did see him in action in 1988 at the Olympic trials and it was impressive.

Bored yet??

Tracey knows splits like no other, this morning when she was getting ready for work she says" do you get much draft in the start?" I think you left a second there...this track stuff is a total different language. Tracey has been soooo supportive of the TTT and the TT this season. Long days and nights at the track are coming to an end. It was a really great vib to have the nationals here and us locals gather so many medals.

Nationals will never be the same. Thank you Rick, Warren, Peter, Simmons and everyone else that helped, sponsored, or just came and cheered.

Got some vino to sell,

Later,

Hotter at Hellyer-Bronzed again by a taint er

on with the 3k, its a pretty boring day up until the 10-5,4,3,2,&1 beeeep.

My start is like pouring molasses out of a cold jar. I didn't even think about the start honestly, just was thinking about when I was going to catch the rider on the other side of the track. Coming into this I knew I'd ride fast hoped for the ride of my life. It didn't happen.

Warren got me all worked up with about 4 laps to go when he said I was down on my track mate on the other side of the track...I was like wtf??? Who is riding faster then me today??

It was good motivation Tainter beat me by 1/1000 of a second for second place. The 333 was the hottest time of the day. I figure I can get there, just need a better start- as Warren said"Its painful to watch your start"

Points racing last night at the track was a blast!. THis was the first time I was in the stands on the outside looking in. The crowd was pumped and cheeery and for sure buzzed. Gary Westby local champagne ace showed up in style with a Magnum of bubbly, lots of good vino in the stands and it seemed at one point I was triple fisted.

Then it dawned on me...every time I've done well at nationals I've never changed my routine except this year when I skipped the beer and vino all week.

A little lovin in the afternoon, a nap, couple of beers, and a glass or two of vino. Thats the secret!

Guess I better go pack up the car to go and pick up our gold today in the TTT:)

I had a dream, I won the points race!

Then I woke up, went to the garage at 5am to look at the sweet Hooptie grid of all the riders and sprints.

Yup, still third. Its amazing what 42 gels with caffeine loaded gels and cola cliff blocks will do to your sleeping pattern.

It was a great race, no real BS, just good fast racing. It was great to have some help from the MS/TS crew on the track, but I gotta give it to everyone who shouted encouragement last night. It really helped keep me in the game.

Highlights-
Seeing my first ever cycling coach for the first time in 18 years! No shit, he races the 45-49 points race. His name is Bill Pedlar, really with a name like that I guess you gotta ride a bike.

Support from Tracey/ Proman, friends and family.

Podium chick.

Seeing Bostick roll a 56x14. I'm still trying to figure out how many inches that is.

Metcalf's winning ride.

One more thing....

Big thank you to all the volunteer's, sponsors and especially to Rick Adams and Warren Geissert for bringing track Nationals to Hellyer.

Labor day Taper. "laughing, crying, and going out on a limb"

So Tracey and I had a great weekend. She has been bucking up with coming to the track commute the past few weeks shouting out splits, writing them down, etc. Its been great having her support the track thing...an ex-con said to me 20 years ago.."the same thing that makes you laugh makes you cry" well Tracey is the one who really got me to the track in the first place, so its kind of her fault.
Last year when I went to the track the first time I felt like a foreiger, different language, different people, having no clue what was going on. I still do loose my bike every now and again, but I think I'm getting it figured out. I'm looking forward to the points race on Wed for some good warm-up for friday. Just hope its not as stoopid as the entire master districts were for me. I hope I've my head out of my ass this week and some good bike Karma too.
40-44 Masters
Wed PM Points racing (around 6:00 I figure)
Friday am 3 K pursuit ( around 12:00 estimate) this is where the fruit is...
Sunday TTT 11:00?

No name yet, but got the grandmothers attention!

Tracey and I had a visit to Siemens for some 4D ultrasound. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. I think this one will keep us taking for awhile.

Olympic yawn.....

I'm getting tried of swimming, swimming, and more swimming and a little gymnastic and beach volleyball marathons.

Lets see a bit more of the other sports pleaze. I hear we USA's went gold, silver and bronze in the sword fighting for the chicks.

I'm so sure the TT and the track cycling will get nada.

Oh yhea, Tracey and I agree the synchro girl on girl shower sceens could have some xxx potential.

Chinese - Food for thought.

Overpopulation, industrialization, oppression, Communism, cyclists wearing masks...baby girls!

Tracey and I had a discussion about the athletes wearing masks in the airport thing this am. I never take it personally when I see a person wearing a mask here in the states. In fact after a few months of those fires I've been having some problems with my VO2 bags too!

I really think its pretty stupid.

Tracey also told me that there was a list of do's and don't that was sent out to all the residents of China about what they should or shouldn't do during the games.  Like women with thick legs must wear black stockings. Man in that heat...nasty!

Eight Don’t-Asks” When Chatting with Foreign Guests


Rules for Interacting with Foreigners

Don’t ask about income or expenses, don’t ask about age, don’t ask about love life or marriage, don’t ask about health, don’t ask about someone’s home or address, don’t ask about personal experience, don’t ask about religious beliefs or political views, don’t ask what someone does.

General Rules for Etiquette with Foreigners

One’s manners and bearing, and image should be graceful;
Be neither humble nor haughty, but at ease and self possessed;
Seek commonalities while reserving differences, have reason and integrity;
Adapt to others’ customs, respect ethical code;
Abide by agreements, adhere to promises;
Be enthusiastic in moderation, differentiate between insiders and outsiders;
Be appropriately modest, be affirmed in yourself;
Do not ask private questions, respect others’ customs;
Ladies first, be gentlemanly;
Seat honored guests on the right, and get along harmoniously.

Man I'm so wanting the people to stand up for their rights. Come on Tibet!!! 

Baby dictionary

So I get a email from Tracey today who has been busy recovering from the back  surgery. She has been making great progress and has been telling me that we are going to need things for the baby.

Ok, she has a list of about 1000 and growing.

Swaddling blanket, premie outfits, boppy slip cover, breast pump (ok I can figure that one out)..

Gotta go shopping.

Le Tour ouch!!!!!

Ohhhh man, the guy from Gerolstiner nailing the traffic sign yesterday doing a flip and landing on his back made me not wanna race 40 mph around traffic islands.

The bike broke in two pieces..

Bon Voyage Barlo (go up climbs) world. Un frickin believable that riders are still doing drugs this season.

Windy city to PDX

So a quick trip to Chicago for some tastings. 300 bottles of vino on the wall, lips were blue, teeth purple and brain was empty after our annual distributor tasting.

Then here in PDX with some first class accommodations with friends, great food, wireless, TDF on TiVo. Life is good. Just wish Tracey could make the trip. She is home suffering with the back and the little girl has been doing some serious kicking. I think that's pretty cool. 

If anyone could drop her off a veggie pizza that would be cool. Call me and I'll give you the details...thx

A friend of mine just had a baby boy this week, the little guy got his nob trimmed today. Glad we don't have to worry about that with our girl.

I got a couple of  hrs of sleep on the plane yesterday, drooling on people I don't know is always kind of weird, but what ya going to do??? I was happy to get some needed rest.

Thanks to Kelly B for bringing my bike and gear here, Hooptie and Shelly are doing 90 in my rig and it should be here tonight. Its a really cool track scene and being from out of town we all kind of gel and bond a bit.

I made it to the track for a warm-up ride, got a little scared with the steepness...hoping I didn't make a fool out of myself and slide down the wall. I jumped into the Thursday night elite race. It was a good leg opener and had a chance to blow off some carbon and vino. Ended up being a little out gunned and out numbered. First looser in the points race, but it was good practice for the weekend.

Today I did the 3k 40+ race. Me and Tom Fahey were neck and neck. I just squeaked by in the last lap by a nose. He is really going to keep me on my game for nationals. Mark was giving me lots of inspiration and time splits. It totally made a difference.

The 4k was pretty OK. I did a 5:17 for 5th, I was hoping for a low 5:00, but oh well.

Then a quick few sales of vino and back to the track for some points stuff.

The NorCal squad is looking tough...Mark Alt, CC, Peterson, Gio, Hooptie, Kelly B, Shelly, Jon Simmons, and of course Pete Bohl and a bunch of others..

Snowballs chance & Coyote creek

Home late Thursday night, early to rise..not ride:( on Friday

So after a full day in the office which means driving back and forth to Napa, violating the recent hands free laws (due to not being able to find my blue tooth), making promises I hope I can keep etc. I finally made it to the track for some racing.

The Velobella party was first class. Don't know why anyone wouldn't come to the track for these races, cool people, killer beer, and well lets say some of the best damn  cured meats and sausages and I'm an authority here. Thanks to Mary for cooking up a ton grub for the racers after we were finished.

The races were fun. I did the snowball first time. Gio was leading out Hooptie for a sprint and I got a free ride. When I was of the front for the last few laps..I kept thinking..snowball..

snowballs chance in Hellyer!

Anyway after seeing some friends get injured (our best wishes for a speedy recovery) , I kind of started thinking...which means sprints back and forth to the keg sounded better then racing the last couple of races.

Then the Coyote creek local race was fun sat afternoon, slept in and drove to the race. Coats and a few others went up the road early, good thing. My legs and lungs were not working at full capacity. Maybe its just I'm getting older and wiser..? The air really did suck today, lungs still ache.

Then Tracey and I went to a little bit of Vietnam here in San Jose. We found a really cool Vietnamese restaurant off Tully road called Anhhong

 Check it out !

This week a bit of wine will be tasted in the windy city, then off to the races. Looking forward to some good racing at Alpenrose for the weekend.

Hellyer

So I did a little wine delivery to Testarossa yesterday for Rob(I love it when winemakers ask me for vino). He has a really cool new label comin out soon and his office is full of car racing, bike racing and an occasional bottle of wine on the floor.

He started showing me pictures of Hellyer, it was way cool and thought about what it was like some 20 years ago racing at Hellyer.

Happy 4th of July!

Weavers on VS.

So the coverage on VS was underwhelming to say the least. However, I do want to join the PA cycling team The Weavers..

Great job Daniel!

ABC's of AVC's

First off don't think you can just show up after a week on the road in Denver, dealing with the UN-friendly skies, staying up late, not riding, & selling vino. But whatcha gonna do? Baby needs a new pair of shoes!!!

Then coming home, couple of world record holders with the last name being the same "Williams" already arrived at our house for the weekend and Tracey not back from Chicago yet made for being off the back before I even got to the track. 

We get to AVC and all I want to do is lay on the grass, get a massage at the massage bar and drink some Testarossa vino. After one pedal stroke I pretty much knew I was going to be off the back quick like. The pisser is when you line up at the rail, friends, hecklers, and cycling fans are only a whisper away. "Can't I just go crawl under a rock?" 

It was great to get all the congrats on the baby, I did do a couple of races scratch & missing out.

Well when D Holla said "counter" in the scratch, I had nothing. Then I had a whole lot of missing out in the missing out.

I hate seeing those crashes on the track. In my opinion that kid that went down in the Kerin never should have been allowed to race again that night. His helmet was crushed and the sound of the THWACK of his head on the track is one that I'd like to forget. We had a few unlucky ones in our scratch that stacked....phew, glad a missed that too, I did see sparks!!!

Kenny Mc Williams said that they have to have a EMT at every track event at his local track in Seattle. I know that costs $$$$ it sounded like a really good idea!

Saturday started and finished much better!!!! Get up, go for a ride, check out Testarossa for a quick tour, then big lunch, nap, and get to the track some 4 hrs early.  Once I found my bike after I miss placed it on the infield and borrowed some of Scottie ZZZZZ'zz gears ....duhhh I did the elite race. Legs were good so I was pretty much ready for the Masters points.

All I have to say was that one was fun! Best of all was I was feeling normal again. Eric from Los Gatos was flying, and well Larry Nolan... rocks.

He is in a league of his own, classy, cool calm and a great racer and long time ambassador of the track. He helped and encouraged me all weekend in between his trips back and forth to the podium.

Then we had a little after hours into the wee hours back at our house. The first 4 bottles of vino when down pretty quick and thanks to Hooptie we had some beers too.

Sunday was breakfast, some sunburn, and bed by 8:00.

Great weekend!

Halfway to Fathers day!!!!!

I've been holding this one back as long as possible. As many of you know my mouth is the only fast twitch fiber in my lanky body. It's true, so far all is perfect, Tracey and I are having a baby girl!!!!!!!!! She'll be here in November, we have been considering names. Tracey informed me that sometime after giving Roger a leadout for the win and then the following day, me riding in solo that we should think about calling her Merced... I like that better then McLane or Merco.

Hope I can be half as good as my father!

Dad- we wish you a very special fathers day! Hope to see you soon.

Shaw's bike shop-

So with track being more of the focus, it is time to get the Transition dialed in for the track. I've heard about Shaw's  for a couple of years and finally decided to make the trip. What a great shop, it reminds me of the shop I basically grew up in back east. Tracey warned me that the owner may talk your ear off, well I think I was the one who wore him out.

I sat around looking at all the vintage cycling stuff on the walls asking for help from Jerry the head wrench who has been working on bikes for a few decades. I kind felt out of place with a carbon bike and found myself ooogling over the Steel vintage bikes with Campy Super Record parts.

SaTT ley good, bad, and the ugly.

Phipps and I headed up to Truckee on Sat. He drove the Silver bullet, that thing going around corners at 70 made me nervous. It must of made someone else nervous too -- there was no chicken handle for me to hold onto...I didn't ask...

We stayed the night outside of Truckee with a Craig & Susan Z Team friends of Phipps. After a quick ride to dust off the legs from the 3 hr tour.. Susan treated us to a 4 course dinner tomato and mozz bruscetta, insalata mista with blueberries, sausage pasta and a huge berry and cake thingy that was awesome. I think they were a little concerned when I opened the third bottle of wine. Good thing I'm training. Thanks Craig and Susan! Great hosts and they have a fun pup called Wrecks.


In my opinion the conditions were perfect!

Turnout was less then perfect-I noticed it when Phipps and I were pulling into the reg. Afterwards I asked about this years reg. It was down 30%...gas?? ambition?? June burnout?? I dunno??

Gentle headwind breeze for the way out and tailwind on the way back. The cracks are bigger then ever and perfect for a
5k prostate crushing at 30mph. I must admit I was really looking forward to getting back to those cracks on the way back. That's when the entire body is pretty much screaming in pain and I don't seem to mind those cracks as much do on the first part.

Winners were
Elite
Roman's been stomping the locals with his TT's this year 49:30-crap that's fast!

U 23- holy crap!! Shawn Rosenthal is killing the TT's this year. He was a teammate a few years ago on Spine and he's having a breakout year..50: & change Great ride! Go get Nationals!!!!

Master 35-Bosch vs Innes. Bosch won 52: & change.

Master 40-you know who..pulled that one out. Only 20 seconds off my PR & watts were up 10% from last week. Got to get another 15% then I'll be riding full speed. 51:50. Foy from San Jose who has been really doing great rides this year just got back from a killer bike trip in France was 2nd and Kieran from AV was third. We should of carpooled.

Master 45-49 Bubba 53: & change!

Master 50-54 Novitsky??? I know Nolan was second.

Elite chicks
Katherine the great did a 55& change. Blazin. Loved hearing about her catching guys last week at Dunlap. Hats gotta hurt the fragile males ego.

Other bummer stuff.
Not so Specialized.

Metcalf-not so ergo stem slipped.
Roemer-figured he was gonna beat me this year, flatted for the second year in a row.
Mick had some Hellmans mayonnaise floating around in his chest and pulled the plug after 20k in the interest of health. Good call.

One last sound bite.

BAR and BAT.

I got to thinking that the BAR and BAT is more about racing 100+ races in all the categories. Why don't they make it a little easier on themselves and have a District Best all around rider and just keep track of the District TT, Crit and RR? Just a thought??

The race of truth-Truth is SRM's don't lie.

The Dunlap TT course was so great I had to do it twice!

The first time Roman came by me in his fixed gear rig after about 10k. I thought that was pretty risky but the flatness and light winds proved this risk would pay off. Roman gets the win! Nice job, I guess you have to take risks to win.

Me on the other hand...legs felt good, I just had to keep telling myself that my SRM was not reading right 290 watts avg for the first tt-- my usual 370 seems like another lifetime... Booze, food and basically not doing crap on the bike for the past two months has finally caught up to me. Now I feel like I'm cramming for an exam and have to pull some all nighters. This is a bit different style of training for me as the thing that works best is long base miles for months with periodic weeks of endurance thru the season.

Phipps had a pretty killer ride too. He finally popped his 138 lb cherry on Tracey's old Cervelo w/o a disk and finished second to Innes. Since Innes has been riding on another planet lately I figure we either kill him or just say that 2nd place is the new first place when he is racing.

And Curi/Mattis....I did flinch when I saw her scar from the recent surgery. Didn't seem to slow her down any. She smoked it! And she is so nice. The sexyist chick bike of the day was Bev Harpers Orbea. Man that thing looked stealthy.

Dawn District champ who also couldn't be Nicer. Ripped a good one and won her race by over 45 seconds and would have nailed a top to in the Women P12 race.

Lastly--Metcalf pulled a negitave split doing the impossible. He went 30 some seconds faster in his second TT of the day. If he only did 3, you would have to wonder.
Oh well-I didn't stick around for the results as I knew I would be pretty far down but it should be a good tune up for Sattley.

My prize for Hernando's track night

So last night was really really fun.

I wish I could have done more of these friday night Her-nanagins, at first I thought it would keep us(my tapeworm and I) away for the fridge and the wine room. But with JANDY and always smiling Sukie saving me a plate of ribs (thank you) and after my brief show at the missing out...I won the sprint straight to the keg, nothing like cold pork ribs and colder beer that makes me feelin like I'm happy to be home!
I think that was the first american beer I've had in 24 days. I made up for it with about 15, then had to show Andy why I ride Shimano pedals..the perfect bottle opener!

Legs felt better then I looked last night, not really wanting to go into the red to much as I had a few weeks of 2nd hand smoke to clear off the lungs and little riding. But there were a few times when we got rolling, I don't think I've gone that fast on the track with so many people. Hope I didn't piss anyone off. Sorry.

It did dawn on me when they were calling the cat 3-4 dudes to the line,,that uhhh I'm a cat 3 on the track. I sheepishly went to confess to Sabine that I was a Cat 3 and maybe I shouldn't be racing with the P12's. She comforted me by saying it was OK. Phew, I just keep learning.

Oh yhea.....the Prize!

I get to drive Sputnik for a week. Stay tuned for the tales and pictures of good Old Sputnik. I don't think I can help myself. I did think I'd give it a bath, maybe?

I'm gonna have some fun tomorrow at the TT, I'm Innes's 30 second man and I'll have something for him if he (which he should after he ripped Hood) catches me.

Coq a Vin vs Linguini

Things I like about the Giro this year.

TV coverage:
RAI- In typical Italian fashion-things take a long time:) They basically make commercial free live race footage. They are the only ones who can take a 6 hr race and give you 10 hrs of footage.

VS on the other hand, sucks! I think for every minute of coverage, they have a minute of bad weed eater BOB commercials

I did like the bluffing that Jens did yesterday until he punched it with 20 to go.

Its such a close race Contador is gonna have to stay sharp for the TT Sunday.

Things I didn't like..

the weather sucks, not seeing more of it in spain on euro sport, not being home to see the TT on sunday as I'll be doing a double.

Eur-itis & Jamonariha

Toto its good to be home!!!!

After a long uneventful flight back from Madrid and waking up at 3am I'm happy to be back! Missed a few races, but its probably a good thing to take a break.

Man I didn't miss the news back here!!! Gas prices are nothing to be compared to Europe! Also I'm happy that when I pay for a cup of coffee or go to an ATM I don't have to do the mental conversion of ...OK thats really 1.6 x 1.00. I never thought that the 50km per hr = 30mph would come in handy. $50.00= 30 euro.

Eur-itis=shrinkage of dollar that makes you stress twice when spending. Once when you pay for the item and again one month later when you get the credit card bill.

The dollar have some serious shrinkage in europe!!! I was wandering around yesterday on the bike in a bit of a fog. Thinking about how much I dislike the current administration. I'm not much about political blabbing , but man...things are pretty screwed up.

I figure that if all the people who voted for Bush the first time ...well OK, shame on you. The second time... wtf???

I think if you voted for that moron the second time, you sit this one out! Fuel, bank intrest rates, war, pulling funding from National parks, housing all pretty much suck . Thank you Mr Bush for your Bush speak ---your a babbling idiot!

Back to food and whine..and ridin.
Jamonariha=eating a diet of bread & jamon for 25 days, mixed in with some bread and unripe tomato's too make for another size in the skinsuit:)

It was great to ride the Transition yesterday for a few hrs after a few to many rides on the Break-Away. With a few TT zzz coming up - I've never been this far behind or unfocused, no intervals, no group rides to try to ride off my wheel, not really much of anything for the past few weeks except eating, drinking, and sleeping.

After catching up on things a bit here and dealing with a crashed Apple hard drive (please let the computer gods be kind with whatever I have in that big back-up thing I plugged in a few months ago) I needed to get some fresh air and blow off some steam...

I did get a bit of a wake up call yesterday that almost knocked me off the bike. I was riding along Uvas when all of a sudden out of nowhere I heard the noise of a helocopter coming over the hill, flying really, really low with a big bucket. By the time I figured out what was going on I took this quick pic.

It looks like there was a Triathalon out on Uvas recently both good and bad. Good news there was enough water in the res, bad news all the frickin Gu wrappers and crap they left behind. Makes me kind of think about that urban legend of a scuba diver getting found in the forest..after being dropped on the fire.
As responsible cyclists, please don't litter and leave behind a wake of gu wrappers. I'm sure its another reason people in cars get pissed off at cyclists.

I really was sorry to hear about the fires and everyone effected. Scary stuff!!

Hearding goats & la alqueria

Tracey and I have been here in Spain for a couple of weeks now.

Me for work..well if thats what you can call it and Tracey after 5 years at her job gets a month off.

She has a new part time job here in a local village helping a local farmer hearding his goats. The road does get a little slippery.

Last night we had dinner at the best restaurant I've ever eaten at in my somewhat charmed life. Adr Ferrand an one of the worlds most innovative chefs and has several restaurants. Most noteable is il bulli outside of Girona (popular cycling village) in the north of spain. We ate 27 courses at restaurante la alqueria and it was amazing!

Operation Mucho vino...

Well after my uneventful Cat's Hill this year, its true....I have an allergy to Cats!!!! I dunno why the past couple of times I've felt like someone put glue on my tires and no matter how hard people cheer on the hill.

Oh well, now I'm here with Tracey in one of my favorite hotels Santa Maria de Paular in Rascafria, Spain 1 hr outside of Madrid. Maybe I can get some gogo juice this month:) Just kidding.

Its amazing how fast I can fall into the life of living in Spain. We struggled last night to have dinner by 8:00, wanted to go to a restaurant in this tiny town, but most were closed and we started to fade pretty quick so we went to a bar instead and had a muy bueno tortilla (huge egg, cheese and potato omelette), patatas bravas (fried potatos with a spicy sauce) and a few beers.


Then slept in until 9, breakfast and out the door by 11 for a 3hr ride (mas o menos) Tracey is getting the hang of my ride time estimation being off by at least an hr. I rode thru familiar towns, waved to the a few of the local pros riding, rode by a few others and said Hola.

I did see more horses and cows today then people and rode jet laggy up and down 100km and 3000 meters up to a ski resort.

Gonna do it all over tomorrow.
Que bueno!

ps- Mom's and Dad we are great, sorry we didn't call this weekend.

Uphill TT stage 1

Buckley nails a leaders jersey with me in a close 2nd by a second.

Funny thing that wattage:) Holy crap!416 vs 367=1sec
80kg/416=5.11watts per kg I came in a wimpy 5.00 per kg.

We are both looking forward to the flat TT today.

Rides of the day-

Buckley

Lindsay Crawford retired airline pilot 67 years young 38th

Maria Monica 2nd

There is a Mexican squad of about 10 here in the P12 race called Tecos, did they do a TTT on the Hill climb with 8 in the top 10..F-ing Fuego.

Too bad not many from the great state of CA are here..TODAY IS A DOUBLE

First a RR then a flat TT. yumm

Good luck MS/TS Wente Brutal.

Bisbee bound!

Looking forward to doing some riding here in AZ this weekend. Planning on seeing some new to me courses at Bisbee. This is the 30th time they have run this race, but the first time for me.

Have fun at Wente!

Make over.

Some people have been asking over the past few months about an old friend.

Well he's had a make over and still getting more tattoos.

We did watch the Boonen win this year over the weekend. Not like two years ago when he and I were riding over the cobbles in the forest with Boonen.

Lunch break!!!!

Ok after the last two days of cutting, binding, coping, pasting, more cutting..I gotta go for a ride. A long ride away from people, cars, etc. My head is going to cramp and need some fresh air as I've been in the same sweat pants for the last two days, in the same room with the fish and 4 walls. Working from home is not very glamourous.

The only work outs I've been doing have been the frequent sprints to the kitchen to get the HR up for cardio and for the upper body strength training referigatator door curls. The core training has been an occasional sit up straight and arch the back from my otherwise slouching TT position on the MAC.

Later. See you on Eureka:)

Bailbonds, Beaches, and Belgian beer!

I wish that weekend didn't end.

First with the cruz to Martinez. This was the first time I've ever been to the very refinery town of Martinez. Them Shell bucks really know how to throw a bike race. Reg was quick, bands, spectators, free drinks, mayors, etc. It was really really a great race and if you ever need a bailbond (whatever that is) you can get them on just about every corner. The only thing that wasn't safe was a few of the races had lots of crashes. Not really sure why, things looked pretty safe to me except when Capt Mc Hook started drilling my ribbs with his head Robbie Mcewen style on a corner with 20 laps togo for no good reason. wtf?

I had a chance to corrupt some great San Jose Cycling Jrs Sunday am before Santa Cruz. We did a little TT work down on Santa TTTeresa. Hope it helps them with the district's in a couple of months. Man these kids got alot of support...SRM's, bikes for the track, road, etc. We should start to see more awesome Jrs. come out of here soon.

The Santa Cruz was fun as always, lots of hippes, famiilar faces, and overall pretty low key until the whistle blows..and the racin starts. Only one race for me, had a date with Tracey so we went off in search of a burger and a Belgian beer to celebrate Flanders.

We spotted this really cool restaurant downtown called 525 where they had brunch not that we were into the egg thing, looking more for the lunch program at 2:00. Holy crap...the beer list...it was well lets just say amazing! I love Belgium for lots of reasons and beer is one of them.
1) They make them in super size bottles
2) Higher in alcohol
3) Always tasty

And they had burgers...not just one..or two, but three. Yup thats right three burgers a plate of great fries and the best Belgian beer I ever had! Perfect day, then we came home and well you know....took a nap:)

Easter in Santa Cruz

Man had a killer day in Santa Cruz riding some awesome trails with names like..blair witch, sick and twisted, etc.

I was in way over my head and realized where my skills were pretty quick when I biffed for the first (of several) times after watching BJM and Hooptie do some pretty sick stuff on mtn bikes. I mean really how do you do a wheelie coasting downhill????

This was my first day on real trails, at one point Jandy and I said at the same time "I'm getting dizzy..."

The chicks were blowing by me too..didn't matter if it was going up or down. One (Stella) and her Fella were both on single speed. I still don't get that one?? I needed every gear I had all day.

Came home in time for hitting a couple of bottles of Tecnu to rinse off the posion oak from all the rolling around I did on the ground, clean up a few scrapes and brusies. Then Easter dinner w/o Tracey with some friends.

We ate tons and well you know drank many bottles of beer and vino.

Almost a perfect day.

Tuesday track night

Thanks to Larry for keeping me away from the fridge and more importantly wine room. Looking forward to seeing Hoopties moto doing some laps.

Should be fun!

Stoopid pills and the bathroom????

So Tracey says that bad things happen in threes. My car has taken a beating in the last week, first at Berkley Bowl when I was like a kid in a candy store buying produce. Some not so nice person hit my mirror and kept on walkin...when I pulled out of the parking lot...crunch, I ran the thing over.

Uhhhhggg, then there was the broken bottle of wine in the back seat a couple of weeks ago...

and to top it off on the way to the race on sunday I didn't lock the strap down on Tracey's bike it flew out of the rack and nailed the car...no damage to the bike phew, just the dent in the car..

Races-

TTTTTTTT's,

it sounded like a good idea to do two TT's at the time. Even after the first one the second one didn't feel so bad until about halfway thru. Bosch and I had a nice little conversation as we rode up the hill to the turn around.  Good to have some company out in Yolo's or where ever?

Bosch said we got there in 35 min...oh man it was going to be a long way back...

with about 5 k to go at the base of the climb, I started going backwards. Full bonkage in the last 5k...I reached for a gu...dropped it..(sorry Exeter residents-- I did pick up and throw away 5 gu wrappers later that day). I was toast! hummm- only 2 min slower= 55 watts less then the first ride.

Crit #1

Then the Bosch Squad had the A team to keep him in the 99 series jersey. Hey I thought these guys were going to focus on the big leagues... Nothing of note for the first 35 minutes, pretty quick pace until about three to go when Joel and Tim G (aka Biscuit) kept the pace up on the front for their man. He won, we finished 4th. That sure was pretty to watch from the bleachers. Who says nice guys don't finish first? These guys are classy and strong. Oh well can't win them all.

Oh, yhea Metcalf won this weekend up north, he is pretty nice too:)

Crit #2

fast safe fun. Just got out of the way with 5 to go..plus my franks and beans were pretty sore from 100+ laps around them bumpy roads in Visalia and the 80's of TT's.

Los Banos! That was a great way to end off a fun weekend of racing. 

Paella and porron at Grapevine in Willow Glen Wed, April 2nd

Ok this is an event that I'm really looking forward to hosting. I tried out my paella skills this week with some Proman's chicks and Hooptie. Everyone survived! I've got a few kinks to work out in the next few weeks, but should be able to get it dialed. Cara owns a great wineshop in Willow Glen called Grapevine 

Its a great shop and she has been a huge supporter!!

Its going to be a blast! Above is one of my favorite pastimes in Spain. Drinking local wines from a porron and eating food typical of the region. Normally I enjoy crosswinds, with a porron it calls for a bib.

Menlo madness..

Fun crit today in Menlo!!! After seeing a few pretty bad crashes I was sure that I wanted to be safe 100%!!! I was either going to be first across the line with two to go and help Roger...or I was going to pull out.

We had two in a pretty impressive break, it was coming back quick like with 3 to go. Judgement call 100% .... jump across when the break started shadow boxing or wait and see it get crazy like..

Well I figured I'd be more help up near Roger and Chris, Shawn gave me the green light-- I went to the front and tried to take some wind for the break so they stayed clear.

Things were going our way until the last turn, Roger got pinched off and had to slow down.

Thats bike racing!

Congrats Briggs to taking it from the last corner!

TT fever...

Manchester Cycle Shop

Its where it all started, as a 13 yo kid I sucked at hockey, finished last at just about every BMX race I entered. I started going to this Wednesday night TT series. I started to get the hang of it. I also spent hours at the local bike shop, my mom should have paid them for baby sitting.

Got lots of TT's coming up. Get out there and do um...do um good! Good luck!

Mondays bits and pieces leftover from Central Valley

The Merco this year was a really great race, you'd never know that it wasn't on the NRC calendar. It felt big. Fields were full and with all the breakaways in the Crits and RR's, made for some fun racing.

I'm getting to really like that D Holla, the more I see him race and the fact that his mom & and pop are so proud and come to all the races makes me smile. Plus he is a huge talent and knows how to race his bike. I hear his mom has been putting on a kit too. Good to see them fancy stars and bars!

And Hernando...$300 clams. That was pretty sweet.

Had a lots of fun and the MS is getting on just fine with things falling into place. Its great to roll with friends and teamates both new and old.

Also had a chance to have dinner with the Proman chicks and a few of their dudes Saturday night at Hoopties family. It was a blast!!!
I found out Emily has a girl crush on Jenny Reed (Trackie)....??

I saw the Bissell Team truck miss a turn, Tracey and I got to thinking..we need a new vacuem cleaner. Think they have any for sale?

The P1 RR ride of the day...how about that Wohlberg? I mean I knew he was up to something by not doing the crit...wtf? Why didn't his team get an invite to TOC? Maybe $$$ issues?? I dunno, but Tracey and I gave a hoot when we heard he stuck it to them in the RR.

Oh well, back to the vino.

Spencers-for Steaks and Chops!!!

Friday March 28th 7:00pm

I'll be doing a Wine and Tapa's event with the chef.

If you like red wine, red meat and have $65.00 to spare you will not leave hungry or thirsty. You may even taste a few new wines from Spain I've been talking about.

Hope to see you!!!

Spencer's San Jose
2050 Gateway Place
San Jose, CA 95110
408-437-2170

For more information 

Yhea...Amgen coverage with Frankie!!!!

OK, enough pissin and moaning, my friend Philippe called me with the good word on the Amgen TOC site.

Great coverage, best I've seen so far in any race...better then Eurosport!!!!

Thanks Philippe!

Looks like there is a ray or two of that big yellow thing in the sky, gotta get a quick ride in.

TOC...VS...Snelling

Ok yesterdays stage was brutal. 135 miles of rain and headwind down HWY 1 sucks! I would never want to have their job on a day like they had yesterday!

Versus just plain sucks! Granted there wasn't a whole lot of interesting parts to the HWY 1 stage to SLO, but come on...wtf?? I resisted watching the stage on cycling news so I could see it on TV. There were more commercials then a half time show for the Superbowl..

com·mer·cial (kə-mûr'shəl) Pronunciation Key
adj.
Of or relating to commerce: .
Engaged in commerce:
Involved in work that is intended for the mass market:
Of, relating to, or being goods, often unrefined, produced and distributed in large quantities for use by industry.
Having profit as a chief aim: a commercial book, not a scholarly tome.
Sponsored by an advertiser or supported by advertising: commercial television.


It pissed me off more then when I went to see the finish of the TOC in San Jose. All you could hear 15 minutes before the finish was the announcer for the BMX whatever yelling out the names of the tricks they were doing for the crowd of 3. Who gives a rats ass about the BMX??? I would have much rather heard what was going on with Mt Hamilton and Sierra from Dave Towle.

I mean really, how many people are going to move for frickin Modesto city of 200,000 people know for its wonderful history, great industry and agriculture???? No I don't want any Bank of America ads either, of bankruptcy help, etc. There was all of about 5 minutes of coverage for the hr. What a waste~!!!!!

Tour of Snelling, CA weather report!!!

Sat, February 23

11am Few Showers 53°F wind SSE 18mph.

Looks like we are in for a treat!

Bring the leg salsa!

Velo Classic tours

Well today feels like a Monday and after a sunny weekend of riding and playing around with the Tour of California, it just hit me that we have our very own Spring Classic's coming up starting with Snelling this weekend. Yahoo!!! I pray for driving rain and gale force winds so we can have a tough guys race. Racing and riding in Northern California makes you soft this time of year. Don't get me wrong, but after spending some time with some east coasters yesterday it always makes me realize how easy it is to ride around here all year. Someone asked me yesterday, how many months of the year can you ride around here...I was stumped...."12 I think I did touch the trainer once or twice last year. " I said.

I had a great day riding to watch the TOC with my friends Peter and Lisa who own and operate Velo Classic tours. Clint and I went on the "Spring Classics" two years ago and had such a great time. If you have ever been thinking of going to watch some of the Classics, stay in wonderful hotels, get treated like royalty, and oh yhea and ride your bike 3-5 hrs per day depending on your fitness/desire check them out.

www.veloclassic.com

Saltzman went on the trip to Italy with Velo Classic and had a blast riding up all the climbs that make the for epic stages in the Giro.

When we were riding up HWY 1 yesterday I had a smile on my face when I saw the familar site of Lisa's idea of a feed zone. We offered some to Jackson, but he was busy eating up all the KOM and sprinter's points. Great ride Jackson!

Tour of CA...

Once in a lifetime day.

Highlights included, meeting Nelson Vails in the starting gate, lots of friends coming out to cheer and my very own podium girl Tracey. Mick Hellman is such a class act! We both had a great ride!

3k to go....I'm in

Just hope riding mucho K's with Quick Step didn't do to much damage.

Hope to see you at the race Sunday!!!!!

Temporary outage

Going to be out of blogging for a while.

Busy thinking, riding and traveling.

Salud.

Bird watching.

So it was an interesting day.

I had a chance to ride for a couple of hrs from SJ to PA to meet Roger and clear the head and legs.

Tracey and I met three years ago at an early bird, she came to be my own personal cheerleader today even though her back is basically fkd right now and is in pain every minute. Tracey and I met thru a mutual friend Laurel Green. Happy Birthday Laurel! And thanks for hooking Tracey and I up. Its been a great 3 years!

Last year Briggs busted his leg, he won today! Good for him, kind of got that monkey off of his back.

We were playing around and it ended up being a AARP race. Kids these days!

The break of 10 or so...

unofficial results---

1st Briggs (pushing 40)
2nd Nolan (pushing 45+)
3rd Bennet (40+)
others
Michael Ma (35+)
Joel Peterson (40+)
Me (42)

There was one kid (National jersey today-BPG yesterday, I dunno his name-sorry) he's the real deal and was nailing it on the track all day yesterday, and today never skipped a pull in our break, then attacks the group and gives it a really solid effort on the last lap. Classy! I kind of wish he stuck it, its coming soon for sure!

Love to see these kids coming up, good kids, racing their bikes hard.

Much more interesting then Ball supporting Hamilton, Sevilla, & Botero ... used up, unwanted in europe, ex-dopers, that have broken codes, laws, taken gold medals, dreams, and $$$ from others. Why encourage this crap in the US racing. Happy to see HED pull out. I want one of Hooptie's anti drug jerseys for the TOC>

I hope they drug test every frickin day at TOC! Tracey had a great idea, Amgen (lead sponsor and maker of EPO...wtf? ) Its like Jack Daniels sponsoring a AA meeting (stole that)--- should do drug tests every day on every rider. Now that would shake things up and give the clean and talented a chance to shine.

Oh yhea, one last rant!

Dear Mr Stanford with the BJM calfs,
Wearing an ipod in any race isn't so smart or cool, when I call you on it for my safety and the safety of others you should just agree, not say" OK old man" not classy.

Take the ipod out of your ears and go win some bike races.

Proman track day was a blast!! Great job Hoop & Nic:)

Great turnout, it was fun to do a bit of racing and even though I didn't have a clue of what I was doing I gave it a college try. It reminded me of a story my parents told me of how I would run head first into the kitchen cabinets, then get up only to do it all over again. My parents stopped me from running into the cabinets, gave me a bike, and yesterday I think the cabinets would have felt better.

BJM, Roman, and Pelaez were ripping me a new one. I tried to slip away for a few points, only then I'd see Hernando (Capt flower power) coming around me with 100 meters to go at warp speed. This will be some good training this year! I hope to get it figured out soon.

At about lap 90 of the Hellyer 100, I started to get a little parched and the thought of cool water and cured meats were sounding pretty good, I had visions the BBQ dancing thru my head after seeing Nic & Kristina chomping away earlier.

Hernando and I arrived, they were gone. Bummer, oh well, next time I'll put an order in earlier!

Then off to a wine tasting for like 20 at Lothar's fancy crib. Feels like the racing season has started!

Hip hip horray!

Double sessions!

Looks like the weather is going to be to good to pass up on riding this weekend. I wish I had a double of me, one to climb all day in the Santa Cruz mtns and one for the track. Going to do a bit of each.
Ran into boy wonder(Holla) today on the very Specialized hour of drooling, he should be ready to rumble tomorrow.

I'm going to do the usual 8:30 am Cafe Sienna, coffee, ride (2-3 hrs) easy breezy like, then get a piece of the old cattle prod at Hell yer in the A's race.

This is going to be quite the week, track, early bird, ride down to solvang to meet the new gang for a team camp.

Then off to Madrid.

Um and um sunset

Stump jumped two fences and froze my ars off on the way home, it was worth it! 3500 ft of climbing in two hrs, that was the fun part.

Stay inside please!

OK, not to be grim, but we did have a memorial ride for my friend Dan Plummer this weekend who was killed when struck by a falling eucaliptis tree two years ago. He was a friend, teamate, and great man. He was riding with another teamate/friend that narrowly escaped the same tree when they were descending on 1/1/06 in Los Altos.
I remember the day pretty well, Tracey and I were riding in the storm, I just had my rod removed from my tibia a few weeks earlier and we were climbing by fallen trees, downed powerlines, road closures, etc. We were careless and we used poor judgement that day.

WE were OK, Dan is dead. It was tragic!

Please stay off your stoopid bike until this storm passes. Ride the trainer, go to the gym, light a fire, make love, eat dinner, watch a movie, take a nap, clean your garage, wash your bicycle, do your laundry, make pancakes, read another blog, most importanly be safe.

Thanks Dave Mr Piano man Stahl

Thanks Dave for the Wed ride!!!!! For over 16 years Dave has been sending out routes and showing up every Wed in Los Altos. This is my favorite ride, and the core group this season is the best so far! Dave, Bruce, Katherine the great, Yuki, Wolberg, Roger, and Erin a few others. Every week I can make it I see lots of dedicated riders, some new faces, some of the same, some I've known for years. Some just in for a week or two looking for some winter fitness from somewhere up north where the mercury stays in the single digits.
Yesterday some young couple showed up from Bend, really nice guy that rides for McDonalds and his cheery Cheerwine girlfriend with pigtails. He went up Kings pretty quick and from the sounds of his cracked BB and the steam coming out of his pussotron he should have a great year in Europe racing. Then we got to chattin and I had a chuckle when he said "some mid-aged pros"..to me that's like 35-40 right, nope, I was off by 10-15 years. Oh well, I'll keep on living the dream. Talk about marketing...at 10am I started thinking of giving old Ronald a call and asking him for a delivery of a hot Big Mac to the top of HWY 84.
Then I ran into another old face that I haven't seen in like 5 years..."your not still racing are you?", uhhh yhea, kind of, just a little here and there I said.
This ride has had lots of stars and bars past present and future. Its an all day affair with a very classy group, everyone helps each other along, stops when there is a flat, waits on the top of the climbs.. I'm already looking forward to next week!

Dave good luck with getting the house, welcome to the hood!

2007 bye bye!

Ok for us it was a tough one too. The year of the house we'll call it. Trying to be a full-time wine guy, full time master racer doing a few Pro 12 stage races, and doing a full re-model to the house makes for a busy year. One trip to Austria, Mexico, Spain, Boston, Somerset, Rhode Island, not to mention the 12 other trips to LA, WA, CO, AZ etc. Phew.

Favorite race was a pretty local crit in RI when I ran into some college cycling friends and my niece Vanessa was going balistic on the sidelines cheering. Then we went to the merry go round and celebrated with some ice cream.

The building right behind my head is owned by a guy named Jim McNamara and used to win running races all over the East back in his day. He was very generous - back when I didn't have enough money to make it home from a race and had to count on winning a prime or something to put gas in the car, he helped me get to the Olympic trials. Thats something I never forgot. Every summer when I go home, my second stop is to go see Jim in his estate jewlery shop in Watch Hill, RI. Its a cute little town thats been the same for as long as I can remember. This year he told me to go win the Nationals, I sure was happy my mom was able to give him the good news.

I did learn how to play Dave Towle bingo, what else is there to do for 7 days in Somerset???

2008 is going to be more about family, having them out here, Tracey and I are already talking about a week back east for a New England tour. I'm really looking forward to racing with my team here in the good old NCNCA, and since they haven't really figured out the details for the Road Nationals, my eyes are focused on doing more track racin.

Best of luck in 2008.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Love Michael