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Good Feelings.....Alpine Dam and my Pegoretti on a sweet late November afternoon.

Californina Farmers Market ...gotta love it.

How sweet is this?
November freshness.........
Kale, peppers, Dates, Serrano's, tomatoes three different kinds, spring mix, potatoes, shit ton of grapes, green been sprouts, Basil, onions, and apples.

And a green juice/smoothie....compliments of the Vita-Mix blender.
Kale, spinach, broccoli, green grapes, frozen strawberries, pomegranate seeds, lemon, apple, and pear......all in this glass......no freak'n waste.!
Throw away the corporate vitamins!
Alive and Raw.

Day 1 of Season 3 starts tomorrow

Lately I've been embracing the introvert within myself.
Haven't clipped in for a month
talk about withdrawals
got sick 3 days after I hung it up and lasted 2 1/2 weeks
Coughed up a lung and then some.
Time to put the wheels in motion.
And feel human again.
Escape the mundane, wasteful, consumeristic, mind numbing bull-shit that surrounds me.
and just pedal my bike
more to come
someday.

Mt Tam hill climb

The only local race of the year and what a better way to arrive at the start line than by riding your own bicycle. At 7:00 am I rendezvoused at Peets in Mill Valley with Spence and Alex from the AC junior team.
45 min and '1500 of climbing later.....the three of us pull off at the pantol ranger station on the shoulder of Mt Tamalpais, contemplating the slew of automobiles driving by with cycles and passengers warm and toasty inside. Moments later we dove into the redwoods and carved the drizzly, rain soaked, descent to the coast.

I arrived at the Stinson Beach registration soaking wet....White socks blackened with road grime, toes swimming in shoes masquerading as aquatic sanctuaries, bikes that want to be boats and two junior racers looking like they just swam out of the ocean with their bikes.
So Began the ill timed cool down as I headed toward the start line.
Through chattering teeth I heard the whistle blow, and we were off, but all I could think about was my bladder about to burst and how warm it would be if I just pissed myself. I was planning on peeing off the bike, but by the time I was warm enough to do so, we were at the base of the climb and I was fish tailing across the cattle guard trying to keep it upright. I guess no urinating for me.
The bottom of Bo-Fax is a steep twisty kick in the face. I ride it a lot and these guys don't...so when they hit it at 500 watts I was just fine letting myself dangle off the back. About 6 min later the entire field simultaneously imploded and dropped off the face of the planet, leaving only six of us still able to ride a decent tempo...out of which I was last.....The two leaders were about 20 meters ahead and pulling away gradually.... Behind them were three riders, the heaviest being maybe 140 lbs and that was before his pre-ride morning 3lb miracle plastic porta john-weigh loss program, were attacking each other while I rode steady. I was gaining ground biding my time, waiting for one of them to crack. When one of them fell off the pace...I picked it up, and by the time we crested the 6km climb to the ridge I was hot on his heels only about 3 seconds back....then he had a mechanical or forgot how to shift. ...... poor timing, but hey Ive been there myself on more than one occasion this season and it sucks. That was pretty much the end of him as I was sure to keep chasing the riders in front of me....

The chase was on but with visibility low and legs whimpering...I fell into the trap of having no one to push me but, well.......me! It ended up being a lonely and painful ride for fifth, up and over the sisters, into the mist...Pretty sure I was going fast.....but Its hard to chase people you can't see...I ended up losing a little over a minute to the winner and a lot less to the rest.
Congrats to Jesse Moore, of Cal Giant, on the win.............super ride.
Thanks to Chad at Above Category for letting me rock the Moots RSL and Lightweight Ventoux's. The Moots was an obviously choice for my 168 lb mountain ape figure to bash on while still remaining the most supple and comfortable bike on the planet up the rough and tumble famed B0-Fax climb. This sub 15lb masterpiece is constructed entirely out of earthly metal and as far from China's resin filled cookie cutter molds as you can imagine...It comes in any color you like and looks best nude.
And thanks for the sweet photos.....Anthony Little gets the photo credits.

The AC Juniors represented as well, I think they all had top 10 finishes in their respective categories.
Spence
Jack
Alex
Skyler
Bjorn

test blog

I'm just testing this blogger....crap out.
for the last two months, I have not been able to post.
either I was too smoked from work and racing
or
my computer was being eat'n from the inside out by a self cannibalizing virus.
the girlfriend must have been looking at to much porn....er...something.
or
I was climbing out of my truck window after being locked inside when all the door handles simultaneously quit working....for real.
or
I was to busy bumming rides to races, cause my old rig was beyond my comfort zone for driving on the freeway.......and I don't need much.
but mostly
Every time I tried to log into, or post on my account this disposable HP dv2000 computer would freeze.
How's that for an excuse?

Seriously.

Or, ya know, maybe I was taking my time scraping my ass off the pavement after getting tag teamed by the entire Yahoo cycling team....I beleive they keyed into me as the perfect launchpad before I became aware of it...

Any rate I've got a bunch of pics and race reports from cal cup that I need to post soon......
should provide some form of entertainment in the off season

cheers.

Elite Nationals, Bend OR, 2010

 A first time experience for me.....I had no Idea what to expect.....going head to head with what is supposed to be the best amateurs in the country.......Here are few photos from the TT....and road race........I ended up 12th in each........about 31 seconds off the podium in the TT, and 4 seconds in the road race.......Next year I know what to expect and will have much higher expectations.......should be fun.

Crushing the last bit to the finish......Dumbo helmet in the not so aero position ...that's my 30 second man behind me......we battled the entire 35k for position leap frogg'n each other and...passing 3 or 4 guys in front of us...This jerk pushed me to my limit......and I scored a pretty darn good time because of it...I was really hating him by the end...We gave each other a big pat on the back...!



 The top of the climb up Archie Briggs road........a steep 3-4 min power climb that we scaled 6 times over 100 miles of racing.


 

Entering one of Bends many awesome round-a-bouts...

The finish was a tough one.....I chased down a move with 3k to go.....and then got counter attacked by the eventual 3rd and 4th place finishers.....Blew it big.....and then pulled the 5th place guy to the line...He proceeded to torch  me in the sprint....awesome...

That would be me on the far left.....by the barriers...just plain blew it....!!!!!!!!

Fill'n N the blanks

Just a quick update since I left everyone, well at least...(all two of my followers) hanging after Elkhorn....

Quite a rainy day in the saddle......about 75 miles into the race.....this is all that remains...except for a group of 6 riders about 2 min up the road.....Jesse Moore played the role of Crazy Horse, giving up his overall and pulling the break back to within a few minutes mostly by himself............then the rest off us raced our wet spandex to the top fo Dooley Mt......about a 2000' climb..mostly 5-6%, beautiful and in the trees......I blew a gasket with about 3 k to go......and came in seventh........Thanks Mom for the warm hug.!





coincidentally I ended up 7th on GC....for my efforts I was awarded a $100.00 bill.......don't I look stoked!
 
Not a great way to make a living......this would help subsidize my greedy portion of  our planets dwindling liquid dinosaurs supply....and a scarce amount of food on the way to nationals immediately after the stage........ !



Check out the winner of the stage, 90lb Chris Hong, made us look like a bunch of Apes....... He put almost 5 min into us on the last climb...and swept the GC.
Before heading to Bend I made sure to tank up on the free locally brewed beer and pizza.  The volunteers put out a huge effort to make the rainy, cold, 40' finish a sweet place to be. Always a fun stage race........most likely I'll be back next year...!