Griffociraptor

How much does this cost?

2008-06-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

Not to be the kind of blogger who never blogs and then finally blogs something completely negative but here is the most up to date price tag for providing "freedom" in Iraq.

Fine print: Prices do not include the impact of the falling dollar, rising oil prices, and high unemployment that you might be feeling in your wallet. Nor do prices include estimated future costs for rehabilitating our armed forces. Nor do they ease the pain for 4000+ dead young americans or 100,000+ dead Iraqis and the those who have been severely injured.

Thanks George, love ya, can't wait till you're gone. We'll miss your lies.

Poke'n Facebook

2008-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

I was talking to John, aka Johnny GoFast of BeatsGriff - yeah, I actually talk to that dude quite frequently to give him new material for his blog. Anyway, we were talking about Facebook and how difficult it is to use and how we don't understand it and what a couple of 40-year-old loosers we are for not being so hip. I'm sure you'll understand. Anyway, this sort of sums it up right here. You'll get a kick out of this John:

Spencer's First Baseball Game

2008-04-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

Spencer started playing baseball a few weeks ago on an optional coach pitch team. That means they can hit a coach pitch or off the batting t. His first game on his Granite Bay Cardinals was yesterday.

We're going to go check out the real SF Giants vs. STL Cardinals this weekend with Mondo and Jackson.

Tahoe to Truckee Great Ski Race

2008-03-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

Field size: About 1000
Team Riders: 2 (me and J Laine)

They started us in waves and I went in the 4th wave, about 400 back.
J Laine went in the 1st wave with the olympians. I felt really good
off the start and immediately started working my way to the front of
the pack. Felt very much like the start of a mountain bike race where
you get up toward the front until you find a group that is going your
speed. There wasn't much room for passing though so it took a while
to move through the group.

My trek toward the front was going pretty well until someone stepped
on me and made me fall. Doh. Then a few minutes later someone
stepped on my pole and it came it apart. Doh. After I got that
fixed, I started moving again toward the front but had lost a lot of
places and a little steam.

We started to hit the big sustained climbs and people began to slow
down and it became even more difficult to pass. I came upon a 5k
marker and thought "crap, we've only gone 5k". We had another 5k of
climbing. After so much climbing, I started to cramp. After all,
this was only 6th time doing this and it was a month since the last
time I tried it. I really started to lose ground to my competitors
when I cramped, and those muscles were cooked for the rest of the race
even after we crested the climb at 10k.

Since I was just in this race for "fun", I took a moment or two to
stop at the check points for a frozen snickers and a couple of
drinks. Probably lost about 5 minutes in all, but who cares when
you're so far of the back anyway.

Things got a lot easier physically after the summit, but also a lot
dicier and mentally demanding as we were descending icy slopes. I
fell three more times, losing ground to people I had labored to pass
each time I fell. Doh, doh, doh.

I finished in 1:51 which I guess is good for a rookie, but J Laine was
1:23 so lots of room for improvement and the winning time was a
seemingly physically impossible 1:06.

Ok, that's the end of my cross country skiiing adventure with the
Tahoe-to-Truckee Great Race. Now back to our regularly scheduled
programming (bike racing).

Just riding around in in Kauai

2008-02-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

Novell gave Veronica and I a vacation trip to Kauai because I knocked it out of the park last year on the sales gig. It was a bunch of fun with lots of stuff to do with about 200 other Novell-ites from around the world. Not often we get to get away from the kids for some R&R like that. The biggest bummer was Veronica was sick the whole time! I mean stay in the hotel room bed with the flu type sick. She spent all of about 6 hours outside the room. It was miserable for her.

I took my bike stuff and rented a roadie for a few days of riding. I went on a couple of 4 hours rides up the canyon. The first day it rained almost the entire ride. At least it wasn't that cold. The second ride out was beautiful and I captured some video. Warning: pretty boring video. You'll only like this if you really love me (like my mom) or you really, really love cycling.

What a flippin rip...

2008-02-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

It better be fun!

Not that, but that

2008-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

I grew up being forced to watch british shows on PBS and channel 54 in the Bay Area. Aside from MASH it was pretty much all PBS all the time. On the comedy side, it was Faulty Towers, Monty Python, Rumple of the Bailey. My parents are both Brits and BBC on PBS was the tether to England. This video below is for my parents and my other friends who share a British sense of humor". Enjoy.

Speaks for itself

2008-01-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

ground breaking for pool today

2008-01-21T15:52:00.001-08:00

Rapping Friday

2008-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Highly suggest checking out their music vids on youtube. Good stuff.

video for Grandpa

2008-01-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

City Folk

2007-12-12T22:06:00.001-08:00

Training Camp #2

2007-11-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Met in Forresthill above Auburn this Saturday for a ride with the Team. We dropped down Mosquito Ridge which is about a 10 mile drop, crossed the American River, and climbed the canyon on the other side for 15 miles. 7 of the guys did the long loop with Dan and the rest of us opted for the 3 hour out and back. Good fun. Here's the evidence.

History note; It wasn't always called Forresthill and the post office has been there for 148 years! Here's how it got changed from Forrest Hill to Forresthill.

Geico brings back memories to 40-year-old white guy

2007-10-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Come listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer. Barely kept his family fed.

Then one day while shoot'n at some food,
up from the ground came a bubble'n crude.

Oil that is. Texas tea. Black gold.

Well, the next thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire.
The kin folk say; "Jed, move away from there."
"California is the place you ought to be"
So they loaded up the truck and the moved to Beverly.

Hills that is. Swimming pools. Movie stars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exWljYapkAQ

Thanks Geico!

Hagan Park Cross Race

2007-10-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the only thing that matters is whether you beat your buddy. You can come in at the back of the pack, but when you get home and your wife asks how'd it go? You swell up with pride and say; "Pretty good, I beat Joe." Then it was a good day of racing.

Last Sunday at Hagan Park was one of those days. I went to a neighborhood Oktoberfest party the night before. When I went to bed I was seeing double and the room was spinning. Got up the next morning and if had not been for Colleen, Oz, and John racing I probably would have stayed home.

At the course, Johnny takes one look at me and get's the biggest shit eating grin I've seen in a long time. This is Johnny of BeatsGriffRacing fame. He's feeling good and thinks he's got it in the bag. It's his kind of course too. He pretty much tells me he's going to see me going backward after two laps.

I had a plan though. One I've been planning for a few weeks. Ya see, this was probably my last CX race for the year. CX is John's baby. I'm just stretching out some road racing fitness and having some fun. My last road race was Challenge on Labor Day weekend and I've been watching the fitness fade. I know John will get me if I keep losing form and he keeps building, so the trick is to get out before that happens. It's already been a painful year to have him beat me in Phoenix, at Sea Otter and Leesville.

My plan; ride John's wheel until the end and pip him at the line. I'm somewhat hopeful I can execute this even while hung over.

So this one's for you Johnny. Enjoy! (Actually, it's for me but I feel like I earned it!)

Training Camp #1

2007-10-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

We have a good team going into the 2008 season. We all got together for Training Camp #1 on Saturday and had a great ride. So, 53 miles with the Team on Saturday followed up with a little quality time at Jeff and Sherry's Oktoberfest party and one very hung over but very fun Sunday cyclocross race at Rich Maile's Hagan Park CX race. Good weekend.

I'm sharp

2007-08-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Feeling super brianiacal this morning.

Maybe I should look into that tax audit... nah, going for a ride instead.

Yesterday at Dunnigan for our team

M1/2/3 - 1st and 5th
M4/5 - 2nd and 4th
45+ - 3rd

Good day.

Wednesday hill repeats

2007-08-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

For Rick (Mr. 700) and Rick (Lovey):

Thanks for the workout.

Go'in to Esparto

2007-08-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

Esparto TT race report (sort of)

One of the perks of racing bikes is going to places you would never otherwise go, and essentially seeing the backroads of California. When I go to places like Copperopolis, or Challenge, I always wonder what the particular history of the place is. I wish the places could speak and tell their story.

Esparto is one of those places. A little central valley farming town long abandoned by time and the railroad that once served it. It has a nice little shady park and its share of decrepit run down buildings. One of which is an old train depot which you see on your left just before the start of the TT.

Trappers and settlers came to the area in the 1820's as it sits on Cache Creek and the surrounding Capay Valley. By 1888, Esparto was served by the Vaca Valley Railroad which came out of Vacaville and through Winters. If you've raced Winters, you've seen the remnants of this rail running through town and the old rail bridge. By the end of the 1800's there were probably 3 trains a day going through Esparto to carry out the local produce to the rest of the nation. The rail went all the way up the Capay Valley toward Clear Lake with termination in Rumsey. Close to where the Cache Creek Casino is now.

By 1937, the rail line from Esparto to Rumsey was abandoned under Southern Pacific's ownership. Eventually the leg from Winters to Esparto was abandoned too and 1957 was the last time a train ran to Esparto. Over the years, most of the track has been pulled up. For a while there was a nursery operating out of the depot, but it's empty now.

As for my race, it wasn't one of my better efforts. I struggled through for 8th with a somewhat pathetic time. I probably should have warmed up a little better but didn't. I mashed a big gear the whole way and couldn't get my HR or my legs moving. There are some rollers near the turn around and I thought I would come to a complete stop on one of them and had visions of my chasers whipping by me in an instant. I had the misfortune of drawing the #1 start, so there were no rabits to chase and I really needed some on the way in. I was a perfect rabbit for a smack talking Paul Carter from Pegasus starting 1 minute back and finishing 10 seconds down. He came in 2nd (and won Patterson on Saturday). I also got beat by Brian Staby and I was pretty motivated to beat him too.

Anyways, I was home by 10:15 AM and got hammered last night so all is well.

Summer is here

2007-05-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday: Went for a solo creeper in Truckee for 2 hours and 25 minutes.

The weather was gorgeous and warm.

Went out past Northstar and over Brockway. Down to Kings Beach and along to Tahoe City, and back highway 89 past Squaw to Truckee. Rode moderately hard (250W) from old town Truckee to top of Brockway, again from Kings Beach to Tahoe City, and then after stoping for coke and choco milk in Tahoe City I wound it up one last time to come back Hwy 89 at 25-31 MPH.

I flatted once just before the light near the tunnel on Hwy 89. So I went

to the bike shop in Truckee to get another tube and CO2. Chatted up the shop guys for a bit. They know the Chico clan (Creswell, Trowbridge, et al).

After I nice chat, I started my climb back up the hill to the cabin but then I flatted again on Bull Pine, went back to the shop for another tube and CO2, and finally finished the climb back up to the Oz Cabin. 220 average Watts.

It was a great day and we finished up with an awesome meal with Colleen, Steve, Little Sam, BC, Brian Bruckner, Lori, Big Sam, and McKinley on the back deck of Oz's cabin.

Sunday: Went for another solo creeper in Truckee for 2 hours and 55 minutes.

The weather was gorgeous again but a little windy.

The Sunday ride was to be a tour of local climbs with a plan to do climb over Brockway to Kings Beach, then turn around and do Brockway again back to Truckee and then head over to do Donner Summit.

I started out from the Oz cabin and immediately headed over to Skislope and climbed that. Then onto my planned Brockway summit. I was pushing near my 3 hour target by the time I finished the Brockway climbs so I skipped Donner Summit.

I'll have to save that for another day.

Another great ride. 200 watt average with climbing at a moderate 240-280 watts.

Again, we polished the day off with a great BBQ with the Bruckners and Ouzounian's at Oz's cabin. This time feasting on fajitas and margaritas.

Monday: Finally persuaded Oz off his mountain bike and onto the road with me for a targetted 3 hours and 30 minutes.

We discussed our ride plans as we drifted out of Northwoods to Truckee.

We both wanted to keep the ride as flat as possible with some long moderate tempo sessions. So we planned to hump it out to Tahoe City on Hwy 89, take a breather, hump it again along 89 through Sunnyside to Backwood and into the canyon, then hump it back to Tahoe City. Take another breather and hump it back 89 to Truckee.

We did just that.

Getting in 30 minutes on 89, then another 34 minutes into Backwood and back to Tahoe City, and finally 22 minutes coming back 89 to Truckee.

We were far short of 3.30 so we humped it

around Donner lake and back for another 26 minutes of tempo before limping back up to the cabin with tired legs.

All told it was 3 hours with 1 hour and 52 minutes of tempo at 250-280 watts and 210 average for the whole ride.

We made a couple of stops along the way to fill up on cokes and candy bars.

After a quick shower at Oz's it was load up and head um back to the homestead. Tulip and I sailed down the hill in our volvos. I with Spence and her with Phoebe. We met up at the Mickey-Ds in Colfax for some burgers and the kids enjoyed vanilla softserves while Tuli enjoyed one of her favorite Oreo mcFlurry and I enjoyed watching them scarf their snacks and begging for scraps.

We made home in time to sip a beer or two with Marty and Jill and let the kids play with the triplets.

Even though I'm still pretty sore from crashing at Madera, and have one scrape that refuses to heal up, it was a great weekend of riding and hanging with the Ouzounians and Bruckners and capping it off with the Yarboroughs. I'm getting over my crash and getting back to my old self. It was a very good weekend indeed.

Uh, Houston. We have a problem.

2007-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I start doing my taxes last night since the anxiety of getting it done has finally surpased my need for procrastination. It's really become harder and harder to do my own taxes as I've gotten older. There's all this stuff that needs to be accounted for. Rental properties, stock trades, blah blah blah. And of course records are hard to find because I generally rely on electronic records and it seems some of my trusted and favorite companies, like eTrade, aren't all that great at preserving records. Anyway, it's huge pain but TurboTax makes it a lot eaiser... love TurboTax. And, I guess I'm a do-it-yerself kind of guy when it comes to my finances and taxes.

Well, last night it became apparent pretty quickly that there was a major problem. Why do I owe so much money when I was expecting to get money back from Uncle Sam this year?

Uh oh, looks like we have a little problem with my number of deductions on my W2... seems I haven't been paying nearly my share of taxes this year. This is going to hurt in a major big way. Like how am I going to pay this tax bill? Ouch.

How'd it go for me

2007-03-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of good days of racing last weekend. Saturday I did the Master 1/2/3 crit at Landpark. I told myself that I wouldn't try any heroics. Just sit in toward the front and make sure I didn't blow up. Mike Hernandez was a one man wrecking machine as he got in a 4-man break and proceeded to ride John Fairbanks (Specialized/Sierra Nevada), Nathan Parks (EMC), and one other off his wheel. Mike continued his reign of terror by winning the Pro/1/2 later in the day.

I got a kick out of talking to my teamie Brian Choi after the race. He says: "I'm making a list. Hernandez is on my list. I mean he's a nice guy and everything, but he's still on my list. I'm going to need to wait another 6 months before I can start crossing people off." Brain is totally great to ride with. He's returning to racing after 12 years. He used to race P/1/2 in the Chicago area. He's totally cool and unassuming. He can totally bring it on the bike too. Can ride the flats and hills, and he'll burry it for his team. He unwound himself pretty good in the last 3 laps of the P/1/2 crit trying to set up our Tim Creswell (6th). I'm hoping for big things for Brian at some point this year, and I'm totally psyched he's on our team.

I was feeling pretty good at Zamora. At the end of lap 2 (20 miles in), I followed a Spine attack off the front and started rotating through with Spiney and a VSRT dude. We worked together nicely taking 20-30 second pulls and built a decent lead. We were a little underpowered as a breakaway. Spiney looked like he was a better ascender than a roller and VSRT looked like he was a better roller than ascender, if ya know what I mean. I didn't care if it was a winning break as long as my team was getting a free ride. So with three of the bigger teams not represented in our break, the pressure was on them to pull us back and my teamies were getting a free ride. I was also more than happy to ride tempo with these two rather than riding the white-knuckle lurch express with 60 or 70 of my closest buddies within 5 inches of me in the pack.

I believe the chase fell to AMD. I can't imagine they were chasing that hard because we weren't going all that hard in the break. Anyway, we stuck it for about 7 miles. By the time the pack caught us I was warmed up and feeling good, so after a few miles rest I launched off with another attack at about the same point the first one started (30 miles in). This time it was Chris Baker (EMC), AMD, and a Trumner Pils rider. No Safeway or Spine, so again I was happy to work this break. We were just starting to get organized when unfortunately Ron Castia bridged up from EMC. AMD and I stopped pulling as Ron sort of killed the balance. In retrospect, I should have kept working this hard as it really would have put Safeway under the gun and there was still plenty of race left to be worrying about a EMC loaded break. Live and learn.

On the back side of this lap a 6-8 man break got off with EMC, AMD, Safeway and Spine but no S/SN. It was a little too far to bridge and had to be controlled since all the teams were in. I and my team mates Dan Bryant, Matt Rozek, and Martin Tam pulled it back. We brought them in just before the KOM hill (really more of a bump than a mountain) and as soon as we got close attacks started flying from all the other teams. I was feeling my prior efforts. I hung on for another 12 miles or so (through 50 miles) and then took a powder on the last lap. By this time the "strong men of the peloton" (Ligget voice) had come to front and were driving it. See how it played out in the last lap on Hernando's blog.

Tuesday night ride

2007-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

So we do this mid-week race ride on our team. Used to be on Wednesdays, but this year we moved it to Tuesdays. We did the first one yesterday. Basically this ride is all about Matt Rozek making us all suffer. Matt's one of the stronger local hammers and he likes to ride hard. Really hard. All the time. Most of us old geezers like to ease in to it a bit. But Matt typically drills it early, drills it often, and drills it some more until the ride is over.

I will typically try to go with Matt when he goes and inevitably he flicks me the elbow when I'm already red lined behind him. I will usually pull through because... well because pulling through just seems like the honorable thing to do. If everyone would pull through then we could take short pulls and have plenty of rest. The problem is many people don't pull through and I am usually completely blown 1/3 of the way into the ride. I can't blame them honestly.

Now, we also have Peter Allen on the ride. Peter certainly can hang with Matt, but he's a little more copacetic on making the ride fruitful for everyone. He guides us toward easing up a bit so we can have a better workout overall rather than ride to the point of explosion. And with Peter's experience of course we all listen. Well almost all of us.

My favorite part of yesterday's ride:

Matt: "Peter is going to yell at me"
Me: "Because we're going too hard?"
Matt: "Peter is going to yell at me. He wants us to ride tempo together."
Matt: "But I'm going to attack."

Ha Ha Ha, got to love em both. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to ride with these guys on a regular basis. Even if it hurts.

Angel

2007-02-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

She: "Come on, go with me. You're so hansome. Don't leave."

Me: "Can't do it Angel. I'm married. It's not my time."

Hulegu and the Assasins

2007-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, set off with a massive army to conquer the Muslim states and their prize city Baghdad around 1255. Baghdad was the cultural and financial capital of the Arab world. A long the way, Hulegu first had to conquer a number of mountain strongholds of the Nizari Ismailis.

The Ismailis relied on hashish to keep their followers and to make them fearless in battle. For this they were called Hashshashin, or "the hashish users". While having no organized conventional army, this Muslim sect of Shiites maintained its political power through one effective method. They would kill anyone, particularly leaders or powerful people, who opposed them in any way. As a result, Hashashin eventually evolved to assassin and spread to many languages for the word meaning the murderer of high officials.

You'll have to pick up Ghenhis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford, for the rest of the story.

I think about this story from time to time when I see us trouncing around in Iraq. Think of the number of battles fought in that land since the time of Mesopotamia and the birth of western civilization. Think of the pride the people must have and the reluctance of being ruled by a nouveau rich state like the US. We should get out of there, but before we go we should also dismantle Iran and then support moderate Sunni led factions from behind the scenes in a Machiavellian way with the hope of a moderate arab state resulting.

But what do I know?

Hardee Ha Ha

2007-02-13T12:30:00.000-08:00

My buddy John rides for Pegasus. He said he got a chuckle when they got their new uniforms for '07 because their blue/orange/white was similar to the Specialized / Sierra Nevada team that I ride for and dig so much.

Well, I've seen their new gitup now and what's really got me chuckling is how they've gone from one the best looking kits in the peloton to one of the lamest. And no, I don't think they look like S/SN.

Apparently the orange was supposed to be gold... a little known secret is our orange was supposed to the color of a pale ale (does it make sense now?). So it must be some Voler thing for mixing up gold and orange.

I wonder how many other teams out there are riding kits that aren't exactly what the designer was thinking?

Passing out

2007-02-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

Racing season must be officially here because I've been getting dizzy spells from standing up too quickly. The usual run of the mill dizzy spell occurs when I'm kicking it on the couch watching TV and stand up to go to the kitchen. I usually get a couple of steps before I realize I'm blacking out. My knees start wobbling and nocking and my whole body sort of shakes as I'm about to pass out. Kind of scary, but it actually feels sort of good. Kind of how you feel when you sneeze. I've never passed out... until this week.

Couple nights ago, I got off the couch with my 5-year old Spencer hanging on my back. He wanted to go wrestle on the bed as per usual. I got to the doorway of the kitchen and realized I was going wobbly. "Uh oh, this is not a good time with the boy on my back" I thought.

Brain to heart (use your Star Trek voices): "Scotty, I need more blood up here"
Heart: "I'm givin er all I can Cap'n. Yer didn tell me yer was gettin up naw did ya."

I grabed hold of the doorway hoping the heart would deliver before I buckled. Next, I heard myself say "Spencer, please get off my back. You're hurting my back." with my eyes shut and a little confused. I thought I was still standing but when my vision returned I was looking at the kitchen tile floor only inches from my face. Spencer was crying and actually 10 feet away already looking for a hug from Mama.

These usually aren't the kind of things I tell my Mom about 'cause... well you know how Mom's are. I told her today just to test her reactions. It was typical: "You need to go to the doctor immediately". "It might be low blood pressure". "You might be diabetic". "Go get it checked out".

"No" I tell her. I won't go to a doctor. It's from riding so much. I just stood up too fast. A little googling confirms it's normal for a trained athlete (I even saw a note that cyclists, rowers, and cross-country skiers typically have the largest hearts from their training - two of the sports I've done consitently for 20 years). The info I saw says anything below 60 bpm is abnormal except for trained athletes. I'm at 54 right now, caffeine and all in the middle of the day. I'm not anal enough to check my resting heart rate daily, as some coaches have insisted, but I figure it's around 37. So what are you all at? OV, you're resting HR is probably 12... although I've generally observed the smaller the person the faster the HR, kind of like humming birds. So maybe you won't win this race.

Anyway, me and Spencer, we're both ok.

How to ruin a good thing

2007-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

I ate three bowls of Trix today. 1 with Breakfast and 2 after my ride. Trix used to be an awesome product. They were sweet tastie puffs of corn in enticing muted colors of yellow, red, orange. They've totally ruined them now. Now they're more like Fruity Pebbles than the Trix you and I used to know. The colors are too vivid and too varied. They've got shapes, like a green and red shaped watermellon. They still give the requisite sugar injection, but they just don't look right in the bowl and now leave me unfullfilled despite having 3 bowls. Many of my sugar cereals have gone this route in some attempt to grab more morning breakfast share. Thankfully Frootloops have stayed somewhat true to form. Long live the king.

Tag

2007-01-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

I got taged by Mondo (JohnyGo________) and have yet to respond. I better get on it before the few remaining bloggers I know have been tagged out. Working on it.

Team Spirit

2006-12-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I've seen these guys before:

Rowing summer of '89

2006-11-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

In the early spring, late winter, of 1989 the US National Team coach, Stuart McLaughlin, came to the west coast searching for athletes to replenish his system. He primarily came to evaluate UC Santa Barbara who was one of the fastest lightweight crews in the nation. He also came north to visit the Bay Area schools and UC Davis where I and my teammate Rich Buie had drawn his attention through test erg scores that we occasionally submitted against national rankings. In retrospect, it was probably Rich who rowed in our lightweight program and scored a time under 8:11 in a 2500m test who he really came to see. When Stuart came on the water to watch us row he also got a look at me. While Rich “the assassin” stroked the lightweight eight, I was the smallest guy in our heavyweight varsity eight. With a time under 8:18 on the test, I caught his eye as well.

Later in the spring, Rich and I both received our invitations to row in the 1989 Lightweight Pre Elite camp for the US National Team. We were to row in the camp for 3 or 4 weeks and then participate in the 1989 US Olympic Festival held in Norman, Oklahoma. All of the other rowers, women, heavyweight men, and the east coast lightweights were to attend their Pre-elite camps in Lake Placid, NY. A few of our women, Marcy Porter, Katie Ring, Leanne Pratt, Chieko Kakihana were in Lake Placid. For Marcy it would be the first step toward the Olympics and sailing on the America's Cup and Whitbread teams. For whatever reason, money probably, Stuart split off 8 lightweights from the west and held a separate camp on Lake Natoma in Sacramento. We were housed at Sac State.

There was Jorge Martin, and Stefan Bennet from UC Santa Barbara, Brian Biggs from San Diego State, Matt Moeller from Santa Clara University, Stuart from Cal, Theo from University of Cincinatti, some kid from Canada, and Rich Hansen the Colorado rancher from University of Puget Sound. The rowing wasn't all that great in camp. We spent time rowing in fours, sometimes in an eight, and we got introduced to sculling in quads. Only Theo and the Canadian had any experience sculling, but for some of the quick learners like myself and Jorge we quickly got up to speed competing in the sculls. The most memorable aspects of the otherwise uneventful camp were riding in the back of Hansen's old ford F150 pickup in the summer heat of Sacramento to and from the lake; staying in the Sac State dorms where to our good fortune they were hosting a cheerleaders camp that seemed to have about 500 girls, and watching on the dorm TV the final moments of the 1989 Tour De France as it was won by Greg Lemond. I knew nothing of cycling at the time, except as a mode of transportation to and from class at UC Davis.

At the end of camp we flew to Oklahoma and made our way to Norman, where we would stay on the Oklahoma Sooners campus for the US Olympic festival with all the other sports. Here the night life and energy picked up significantly from the sleepy camp we'd just spent in Sacramento. The Festival was a drill rehearsal for the Olympics and all the athletes were filed through the gymnasium and doled out with a fraction of the booty Olympic athletes get. We got a bag, cap, and a sweat suit along with some other tokens. I've long since worn out my cap, but I still have the sweat suit jacket despite it clearly being out of style. In Norman, we met the other rowers from Lake Placid. It was obvious their camp had been a lot more fun than ours as the mix of college men and women had led to partying and hook ups. We quickly got in the spirit, ending one evening with about 15 of us skinny-dipping in the Sooners olympic pool until the Sheriff ran us off.

The group from Sacramento were boated in two fours, a West boat and a South. The other lightweights were in the East and North boats. The rumored showdown would have my West boat going against a supposedly very fast East boat for the gold medal. It was Stuart stroking our coxless four, me in 3, Hansen in 2 and Jorge in bow. We'd drive 3 hours in a bus with the other rowers when ever we had to go to the lake. On race day, we had bad weather creating choppy brown waters. I don't remember if we put up a good fight or not. Just that it was as predicted a race between us and East and that we were beat. We'd go home with the Silver.

Ol Blu, Nu Blu, Who Knu

2006-10-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Double Ouch

2006-08-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Coming off the long straight, slightly downhill, and wind at your back road where you easily crank along at 30 to 40 miles an hour before you turn onto the finishing stretches where you get a little bit of cross winds and have a couple of short hills before the finish area. The last time through, after 70 miles or hard riding, my left meathook revolted. Massive inner thigh muscle cramp. All I could do was spin it out and hope for it to stop. Afraid to stand up to stretch in case it worsens. After a few minutes of spinning spasms stop and I could push on a little. Then the right leg starts cramping too and the left starts again Double cramps. That's a first. Other snipets from the 1st race in the VeloBob Cal Cup Challenge, i.e.: the Patterson Pass Road Race...

***
We were heading up the first big hill that comes early in the race. The pace had already been hard for 10 or 15 minutes. A Safeway and Spine are up the road. I'm riding about midpack, close to Rozek. Brown's near the front and Hancock is in between. We hit a steep section and I see Safeway's Martin make an acceleration. Like an earthquake's shock waves it ripples through the peloton and I know it's just moments before I'm going to need to stand and respond. Matt says "there goes Martin". And just like that 1/2 the pack is off. We collect the two off the front by the time we crest the hill 5 or 10 minutes later.

***
We bomb down the other side and hit the 2nd big climb of the loop. Again the pace is hard as we're still about 20 strong. Someone says "don't these guys know we're doing more than one lap" and someone else responds "a lot of these guys aren't doing more than one lap". Toward the summit of the 2nd climb a small gap forms with an 8 man break that includes EMC's Parks, our Mike Brown, Spine's Hutchinson, and a Safeway. Once this gap forms Spine, Specialized/Sierra Nevada, and Safeway stop pulling in the chase. The unrepresented riders go to front and keep the pace very high through the long section mentioned at top. The pace is very high, but the break is not coming back. Too much horsepower in it and the teams with numbers are all represented. I'm enjoying the free ride but have a feeling Martin or Pasco will try to bridge solo when we hit the climb again. We hit the steep hills and I'm immediately off the back with 4 others spread between me and quickly the disappearing peloton. That was the end of the game for me, I work the remaining 40+ miles to pass a couple more riders and finish somewhere around 18th I guess.

***
The Safeway won... don't know his name but it wasn't Lothar, OV, Martin, Pasco or Tofoya. Parks came in 2nd. Brown was 7th. It was about 10 minutes back to Martin and somewhere behind that was Hancock.

***
My legs are still paying the price. Tough race. Thanks Roy for manning the feedzone. I was very popular at the beginning lap 3 when I was offering my fellow racers Ludicris sodas in the feedzone. We were all hurting and needed the energy.

***
There was a Navigators guy in our race. Big strong dude. Don't know who it was. He wasn't in the winning break but from the looks of him I think he'll have a better time in the flat stages.

Horner sighting

2006-08-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Saw Chris Horner riding around the 'hood today. Think he was trying to be incognito because he was wearing his Webcor giddyup. But he could not fool me, the protour officianado that I am. I would know that the beautiful bald pate and rosey cheeks anywhere. So I gave him a shout out as I drive by "Go Chris". He was nice enough to respond with a wave that I caught in my rear view mirror. Right on Chris, treating the fans with respect. I always see him on the same spot when he's in town. On Auburn-Folsom between Granite Bay and Folsom. He must just do endless loops around the lake or something.

***

That little creaking sound. I love my Specialized Tarmac, but it has been creaking all year. I've begged and pleaded in the shop and they always tell me something like... "I dunno, creaks are really hard to find. Probably in your pedals". But I've changed my pedals and it still creaks. I thought I had finally nailed it to the carbon fiber Specialized seat post. You know the one with the zertz insert. I shelled out today for an Easton. I was all fired up to get it on the rig and take it for a spin to hear that beautiful sound of... silence. Still creaking. @#% Well, maybe it's the saddle after all. Switch out the Selle San Marco for the Specialized Toupe. Still creaking. Double @#%.

***

Lieberman is showing what a truly self absorbed power monger he is by running independent. Your party has spoken Joe. Do the right and honorable thing and step out. If you do so, you may have a political revival in the future. If not, you'll be a pariah. If you're going to run independant, you may as well join the republican party. I'd have a little more respect for you if you did, but not much. What a donkey.

***

Three things I see that give me the urge to coach people with the following advice; "You're not in Star Trek", "This ain't the wild west", and "It was bad fashion in the 80's and it's bad fashion now". These people need to be saved from themselves. They'll look back one day and say what was I thinking? Am I right, or am I right?

End of Times

2006-08-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

I had no idea it was the end of times until I saw this clip of the Daly Show. I thought all the fighting was naturally explained. Iraq=Presidentshitforbrains, and Lebanon is because people in the Middle East don't love their kids enough to keep a lid on their aggressions. Carl, as the expert on Christianity at least for the next 12 months, can you confirm Armageddon is really upon us?

***

My heart says Landis is clean, but my mind says he's doped. I can not logically explain how you can bonk one day and have a phenomenal effort the next like in Stage 17. That's not how my body works at least. I want to believe in him since it was such a great ride, but I can't. It's so disappointing as fan to follow the pro tour only to have every great effort tainted by doping. I'm therefore resigning my fan position effective immediately. No more visiting Cyclingnews and Velonews multiple times a day. From now on, I'm just following the local exploits of my fellow racers.

***

I wish every non cyclist I know would stop calling me to ask if I think Landis is doped.

***

Check this Led Zep rif out... gotta watch until the music comes on. That's when it gets good.

***

Wednesday: Mediocre week on the bike. 7x5min intervals on 3 min rest. Was supposed to do 8, with 6 of them on the hill but I only did 4 then aborted the 5th, then I got a flat, then I stopped for a Pepsi (because they didn't have Coke). I recovered a little motivation and did 3 more on the way home but it was on the flats. Ofcourse I focused on all the negative like a proper cyclist should; Am I sick? (maybe), have I lost it?, did I ever have it?, am I tired?, blah, blah, blah. Oh and my powertap was not working... was showing 120watts on the climbs.... where did the power go, and my cassette was skipping big time.

***

Thursday: Followed up the Wednesday debacle with sprints workout with Dunlap and Rutherford. JD told me what was wrong with my powertap, so that was nice. But then he proceeded to beat me up on every single sprint. I had the excuse that he was coming out of my draft, but then he beat me (crushed me really) heads up mano y mano. Then Roy joined us for leadouts and JD continued to crush me regardles of whether I was 2nd or 3rd wheel. Ok, I still have a whole bunch of excuses but I'm keeping those to myself. 9x15-25sec sprints @ 977-1169 watts, 34-37.5 mph. Love the sprint workout none the less. Very easy mentally and physically compared to long intervals but makes you hurt all the same.

Violent Femmes

2006-07-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Blister in the Sun is one of the all time greats on the Hi-Fi top 5 list of punk rock songs. This song brings me back to college days when it got a lot of play. Great, great song. I love the girls lip sync in the video... how her lips are not quite in sync with the music, but she is clearly a prototype violent femme.

***

Floyd, Floyd, Floyd... I'm sorry I doubted your hurculean size heart when I doubted you would return to the top 5 after the stage 16 meltdown. Words don't describe the ride you put in on stage 17. Goose bumps. A ride we dream of executing in our own races let alone the tour when the yellow is on the line. That's not supposed to be possible. A true champine.

***

Yesterday's workout: 10x15-25second sprinties with 10 min rest in between. Workouts like those are easy to get through mentally versus say 8x5min hill climb intervals of the other day. They make your muscles sore later though, in a "hey, I just spent 2 hours pumping iron" way. Loser.

***

Holy shyte! Google doubled it's profits last quarter. Way above analyst expectations. I thought they were getting big enough that it would be harder for them to continue hitting it out of the park, but they did it again. Their CEO, Eric Schmidt, used to be CEO of the company I work for but he was ousted around 2000. Went to work for Google and 18 months later they IPO'd giving him 5Bil. Not bad for 18 months of work, ey? Talk about being at the right place at the right time. I think YouTube is the next big thing in high tech IPO market. They'll be uge.

***

100 degree plus weather to continue in the hood for the next 6 days at least. Not good training weather, so the ride rats have been going out at o'dark thiry in the morning when it's say only in the 80's and feels down right chilly. I'll be launching for 4 hours on Sunday around 5:30 AM or so.

***

Ok, time to fire up that Violent Femmes album and get some work done.

Huge cracks found in France

2006-07-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've been needing inspiration to blog and finally found it. If this doesn't give you grins, don't know what will. The volume is kind of soft, so turn your volume alway the up before clicking the link.

She looks like my buddies wife. Except this girl is younger, and my friend's wife is French. Well ok, the only similarity is the bleach blond hair and rack... although the friend's wife are fake. Not sure about this girl.

***

I'm writing my congressman to ask if he'll sponsor a Bill to keep Mr. Bush abroad for the remainder of the term. He's just has so much more comedic value when demonstrating to the world what a Rico Suave prez he is.

There's an old saying in Tennessee: "Fool me once... shame on ... shame on you ... ... ... You fool me, you can't get fooled again". Doesn't apply to all you fools who voted for 'im twice though.

***

Oh! He's popped. Floyd? No me, dummy. In nearly every race and in this mornings pre-dawn attack on Ridge Road. Did 6x5min intervals on the hill at max effort. I was experimenting with different climbing styles. Did the first two seated at high cadence and made it to the orange mailbox. The next one attacking hard on the steeps and keeping the pressure on the flatter sections with a lower cadence and made it 15 seconds further along. The next one a mix of the two styles and made it to the orange mailbox and the fifth one seated but one gear harder than first two and finished about 10 seconds shy of the mailbox. Did the 6th on a different section of the hill so no comparison and then did two more 5 minute intervals on the flat-rollers on the way home for a total of 8. All on 3 minutes rest in between. No power or HR data because the PowerTap (tm) is on warranty and Hancock took my Polar (tm). So the data clearly shows that the aggresive power riding attack style is faster, the problem is that blows up my legs. What to do? PS - you're a total loser if you just read this 3-dot. Get a life, bike geek.

***

Did you hear they found a huge crack in France? Oprah Winfrey? No, Floyd Landis. Oh it was great theater today. What a monumental break down for Floyd dropping right from the Yellow to 11th place. I feel for him and think he's put in a great effort. Good run Floyd put you're out of the top 5 now I fear unless something equally dramatic happens tomorrow.

Levi's effort was admirable. Great to see him risk it all in order to try to make something happen even if he couldn't make it stick. In retrospect, he could have stuck with the group and probably gone with Sastre, but who knew Floyd was gonna crack so bad.

Also beautiful rides by Oscar P, Sastre and the T-Mobiles. I'm not a big fan of Rassconcentrationcampmussen but have to recognize his great ride too. Still hoping Delafuentes retakes the Dots tomorrow though.

It ain't over yet.

***

I love Phil Ligget, but is anyone else noticing that he get's the call wrong an awful lot? I wonder if he's losing his marbles a bit. How old is he? Poor Sherwin is constantly having to correct the call and sometimes he doesn't even bother because it happens so often. Maybe time to give Roll the seat. Oh, and get rid of Trout-wad... jeez.

OMG is it April Fools?

2006-06-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Ulrich, Basso, Mancebo and others suspended from the tour. Le Triple Ouch.

http://www.velonews.com/tour2006/news/articles/10176.0.html

Big hugs

2006-06-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Team Specialized / Sierra Nevada somehow managed to pull off promoting a crit race last weekend and it's time to hand out a heaping of thank you to all who made it happen:

Specialized, Bicycles Plus (BP), and Voler came through in a big way allowing prizes 5 deep. It was joy to see the racers faces when we loaded em up with the goods. Well ok, the pros and the sourdough-threes were too jaded and cool to show any emotion but the other classes were like “your giving us what? We get those glasses... and all this cash?”. Thanks Dave at Specialized, John at BP, John and Linda with Voler. Also shout out to Adam from BP who manned the Bike Plus mechanics tent all day and another shout out to Dave for lending us the Specialized super tent!

You Velo Bob when he was dropping the stuff at my house (another thank you); “How do cities feel if you paint a line on their road”. “Uh, they usually don't like that”. But he told me about temporary traffic striping tape. We got a guy on our team, John Hancock, who works for Caltrans. He'd know all about that. I call him. I can't finish my first sentence before he cuts me off. “You want traffic tape. I used to have some of that...” And so we got a beautiful yellow finish line. He gave me the inside tip on how to make it stick too... drive your car over it.

Such an insignificant detail, could easily have been overlooked. But someone thought of it and someone took care of it. As racers we expect a top notch experience when we plop down our greenbacks. But as promoters, we're just a Mom & Pop operation trying to create a venue for ourselves and our friends to race because we're passionate about cycling. Below are the passionate people who made our little race a reality:

About a month ago I was ready to give up organizing the race. Keith gave me a shove toward getting it done. Without Keith it simply would not have happened. Thanks for providing motivation to get me going. Also, thanks Keith and Lance for doing the early work to put the race on the NCNCA calendar. In addition to some stellar course setup and marshaling, you both did some extra pre-event work to prepare the course.

Jason, Sara, Matt, Zach and John handling the registration in addition to being the medical angel (Sara), load'n the truck (Jason & Sara), providing the race HQ (Matt's poptop). Roy on the prize payouts and registration. You might have had the best job of the day... getting to give out the schwag.

The crew from Chico; Tim, Kevin, J.Spotts, Mike T. Always good to see you guys and hope we kept the legs fresh for racing by letting you marshal in the shade. Kevin and Tim, thanks for represent'n in the P/1/2 with Brown and Rozek. Good to see more 'n a couple o guys in the Pros'ies for once. And Spotts was the highest placed rider on the day with the 3rd place result.

Angelo, I thought you weren't gonna make it to the race but you did and created great photos as well as making those two go'fer runs. After all the work you did on the website and flyer you show up for duty on race day too. Over 'n above.

Andrew, Eric, Banks, and Dr. Parker... left you out marshaling for hours and not a peep from you the whole time. 'Cept for Lancashire who called me three times before his race. Hey, I got you covered.

Dan and Mike Brown, thanks for marshaling, covering reg and representing in a couple of races along with Matt, Tim, Kevin, Lance, Zach, Andrew, and Spotts.

Did I forget anyone? Well, if I did, I'm sure I'll hear about it.

Tired of the dog, I give you this...

2006-06-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

People complain about seeing the dog, day after day. So here's an update for you. Others always say "You should blog about this" or "You should blog about that". To them I say... get your own blog and blog it yer'sef.

Lots of good blog material from this weekend's races. We pulled off the Specialized / Sierra Nevada Crit on Saturday and I went to catch the Pros at Tour of Nevada City on Sunday. Got good pics of Deadly Nedly, Cruz, Tim Johnson (I think it was him... Prodir-Saunier guy) and of course Moniger off the front. They'll be coming in installments this week. Of course, no racing for me, but I'm on the bike again so that'll get the creative blog juice flowing again.

eh OV

2006-06-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

It was me, wach ya gonna do about it?

Vicious Labrador Retriever

New York City

2006-06-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Off to NYC on the red eye tonight

Tennis

2006-05-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

Under the things to do when you can't ride file:

Yesterday it was a 35 min run in the morning and an evening tennis match with the wife. I've never beaten the wife at tennis. She gets me every time and yesterday was no different except I've been a getting a little closer each time we play. 6-4 yesterday before we retired to starbucks for a cold bevi.

I suppose she senses my pending victory in a future game because she starts asking if she can have tennis lessons.

Uh, no. Not until I beat you.

On second thought, if you think I'm buying off on my hottie wife hooking up with Sven the tennis instructor for some private lessons you're way off the mark. The answer is no.

I've already heard about one local tennis pro porking all the wives at a Folsom club. Reliably told from one of the wives who resisted his advances and told to me under the effects of kirin and sake so true it is.

Yeah, we don't want any part of those adult tennis lessons unless I'm getting them from you know who...

Gratuitous entry

2006-05-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is for my reader, or readers if you count both JD and JM, who are tired of looking at the SOP (Same Old Post).

In the news this week:

Lay and Skilling were found guilty of a whole bunch of white collar crimes that led to the implosion of Enron and lot of people losing a lot of money and then the passage of Sarbanes-Oaxley which in turn created a huge unnecessary burden on American business and made us significantly less competitive with the rest of the world. On Lay's exit from the courts he played the god card just about has hard as you can. Oh, he must be innocent because he's a god fearing good hearted Christian. He knows how to play the bible huggers like a republican. That was a PR move, next you'll see a boat load of appeals coming from Lay's legal team to keep him out of jail in long as possible. Rat-weasel-scumbag-slimeball.

Congress is PISSED about the Jefferson affair. No one gives a hoot about Jefferson who seems guilty as sin, but both republicans and democrats are irate that one of their own was raided by the FBI. You see there is are these things called separation of powers, checks and balances, and there is this duty called oversight that Congress is supposed to be able to apply to the other two branches of government since they do in fact represent you and me. When the Judicial and Executive branch have the prerogative to march into Congress' living room and steal their books and furniture, it kind of puts a damper on their ability to provide oversight without fear of being bullied or threatened. Congress was already none to happy with this President who has been robust in claiming more executive power, thus eroding the power of Congress. Among the list of offenses; Unauthorized wiretapping of Americans (only 2 or 3 Congressmen were told), flouting FISA, adding signing comments to congressional legislation (that essentially say as President I can interpret this bill however I want to or ignore it if I see fit). So Congress was already pissed with this guy on both sides of the aisle, and the fact that he's none too popular means the republicans aren't holding back. They will lead the charge on this Jefferson affair. They will demand any ceased documents be returned. They will pass a law saying warrants can not be issued against congressmen for collecting documents in the future. The law will be based on a similar statute they passed preventing warrants for collecting journalists work notes. And, while not likely, they may even impeach Gonzalez and the judge who issued the warrant. It would certainly be in their right to do so. Congress certainly needs to stand up and demonstrate that they are not a rubber stamp and they can not be an ignored branch of government in order to preserve their ability to do their job.

Magidiot (pronounced Majidiot), David Blaine, has possibly suffered liver and brain damage from stupid stunts.

No not the drill

2006-05-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jack is very delicate with the needle. (That's not him)

Went in for 3 fillings today. I was very apprehensive because I don't like needles or the sound of the drill. The sound is like nails on a chalk board to me.

This was my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th filling ever. Note to future generations... don't start drinking coffee and take a 12 year break from regular dental visits.

Anyway, the experience was a lot less painful and traumatic than I was expecting. Dental technology has come a long way in the 20 years since my last filling. Still not thrilled about going back next week for more work though.

This morning: 15 run, 15 row, 15 cross country ski, 15 recumbant bike. Worked hard to average 2:00 min/500m splits on the erg. Hard to believe it used to 1:46-1:48's all day long back in my youth. 3 weeks, 2 days to go.

This kinda sucks

2006-05-21T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tried to amuse myself on inline skates for the first time in years on account of not being able to ride.

I got blisters after about 30 minutes because my socks were too short.

It rained on me. I almost killed myself coming down a couple of hills that dump into a very busy street (Auburn-Folsom) since I took the brake off the skates back when I was a regular. The streets were slippery too.

Basically, it was a misarable experience. I had to call the wifey to come pick me up after an hour and 20 on account of the wet, the blisters, and not having a good plan to get over the hills on to get back to the house. Thanks wife. You're the best.

3 and 1/2 weeks to go.

Dr. G says...

2006-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

... stay off the bike for 4 weeks. Ouch!

I'm looking for a new sport to keep me in shape for the next 4 weeks. Any suggestions?

Oh, and this means look out Cross season 'cause I'll be bringing it full bore!

Countdown to resume cycling: 27 days

Coffee and Froot Loops

2006-05-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

Coffee, froot loops, and contemplating 3x14 hill climbs at 168hr, 81rpm with 5 min rest. Off I go. Just one more sip of coffee.

We got em Dave

2006-05-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't been on the bike in a full week. Imagine that. 7 Days. Not like some guys who say, "oh, I haven't ridden in a week" which really means like 3 days.

So I go out on the trail and the legs are feeling funky. I get passed by 4 guys, two of whom have aero bars on, and they're all riding tight like they're doing the Giro team TT. As I gobble down the last of my Clif p-nut butter choco bar, I think to my self; "bet I can catch those guys before the dam". So off I go but they must have been going too hard for themselves because as I approach them I see two have dropped off and two are still putting their best effort in. I blow by the guys off the back, catch the other two and blow by them and keep going until they're out of site.

Congratulations, you just crushed 4 middle aged rec riders out for their jollies. Do you feel better now? And I think "We got em Dave didn't we?" "Yeah" says Dave "We got em"

Park City

2006-05-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Staying here in Park City this week.

Missing the family.

Working on the Golden State race report between meetings for a future post.

No bikey bike this week. Gonna have to do something else like run or sumtin, arch, yuck, runnning.

There was an awesome Bob Costas show on steriods in baseball yesterday. The odd thing that struck me is that Canseco's book was probably entirely true but everyone villified Jose and treats him like a leper. Why is it that we treat the ones who confess so poor and the ones who continue to lie get the benefit? Costas in fact asked that of his panel (he's so good), and they basically said they didn't like him to begin with, but his book is true. Maybe I'll have to read it.

Top 5 Bay Area dirt parks

2006-05-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

5 - Skyline Park, Napa

4 - Roberts Park / East & West Ridge, Oakland Hills

3 - Skeggs Point, San Mateo

2 - China Camp, Marin

1 - Demonstration Forest, Niscene, Santa Cruz

Must get back on bike

2006-05-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

not riding this week

eating cheeseburgers and peanutbutter-chocolate shakes from MurderBurger

4 lbs and gaining.... rapidly

dive, dive, dive

Yoda Madera Report

2006-05-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Kinda pissed Zefrank stole my knowledge with Yoda today. I awoke this morning and decided it would be allYoda, all day. Before I watched Zefrank, which daily habit it is.

***
Boss: Hello Griff, what's happening? Listen, are you gonna have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?
Griff: No.
Boss: Ah. Well then I suppose we should go ahead and have a little talk.
Griff: Right now, Not. Busy I'm kinda. Come back later, ask you I'm gonna. In fact, meeting I've got with the Bobs in minutes a couple.
Boss: I wasn't aware of a meeting with them.
Griff: Yeah, home at they called me.
Boss: What’s wrong with you?

***

Warm the weather it was.

Trains, they were rolling as was I in the Trial of Time. 9th was I with 23:22. By 1 second was I behind 8th and by another behind 7th. Count the little things do when the clock you race against.

The Crit prime I battled mightily, but lost I did. A 5-second bonus earned was not. Same time would most receive.

Road Race: Hard it was punched on the road bumpy, each time. Sit in I otherwise did. Up the road a break of three, there was on lap 3. Hard I punched it again on the bumpy at the end of lap 3, and a group of 4 we formed. Break we did catch to become 7. Dropped was one, to 6 we make. Bridged were two, to 8 we make. Two Davis BC, Webcor, Spine, Me, CVC, and two others. Dropped was one Davis BC, to 7 we make. Happy was I with Davis BC only one. Happy was I with the teams big represented. A break we would stick for a GC reshuffle. Sadly, only 1 could I beat for a placement of 6. But happy was I with only 1 other GC contender in the break.

Although the force consulted, I have many times. GC results know I not, so comment if knowledge you have. (Cat 3)

I got 1 2

2006-04-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently it's time to clean up the TT bikes and get them on display: Sassy throws down the Cervelo look'n all pro and stuff ... ok, I can't compete with that ... and Maverick-Lothar tosses in his Blu which also looks nice.

May I present to you this little number; "Blew-by-U", because every steed needs a name, but usually just referred to as "The Weapon". Ok, ok, I know it's not much to look at. It's more of a poor man's TT bike. But it's been good to me, delivering occasional visits to the podium.

I've been thinking/lusting/drooling/scheming of getting a new TT frame, especially every time I see these, but I can't quite bring myself to unload my wallet several times over for something I'll race 5 times a year. That's like 400 dollars per race. Especially when Blew-by-nobodyinparticular has been so good to me in the past.

"Blew" used to be my regular road racing rig, back when EVERYONE rode OCLV Treks. It was originally a forest green '94 5200 until I was lucky enough to bust the frame and get the '98 postal baby blue (never liked the color but they wouldn't give me the silver one). When it took a backseat to the new E5 S-works, since replaced by the new Tarsmack S-works, I figured I'd throw some cow horns and a less than stylish Profile stem at it for giggles. Then I bought a *real* custom TT bike on Craigslist for $900 from retired Ofoto rider, Devon Weeks. I couldn't use the frame because it was too big so I sold it for $700 but kept these old Zip 404s and rear disc. Voila, aero wheels for 2 bills. That's why we love Craig

The old disc on the back is too flexy to use on hills because it rubs the frame, but works fine on the flats like Sattley, Dunlap. Like I said, it's not much to brag about... but it's good to me, so I will anyway. Can't wait to dust off the cobwebs at Madera.

Photo credit: www.abbiorca.com, Pinole TTT 2005

Oh, and another thing

2006-04-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Still fuming about Wente... This guy pulls up to me during the race; "You're pretty strong, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you" Uh, Hello. There's a break up the road. Why don't you start racing. Anyway, he came in 5th so he won the field sprint. Congratulations.

PULL THROUGH

Photo credit: www.ronaldmariano.com

Wente Race Report

2006-04-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I raced the Cat 3's at Wente Vineyard Road Race on Saturday. Four 15-mile laps, plus a little extra, for a total of 66 miles. The climbing was about 1100 per lap for 4400 feet. I always think of climbing in units of Mt. Diablo, so that's racing up 1.3 Diablos... Le Ouch. Most of that climbing comes on one hill which is followed by a big decent, some rollers, another slight decent, and mostly flat to comlete the loop. Wind was bout 7-8 mph, not a huge factor but a little discouraging if you stuck your nose out or helpful when it was at your back.

I was happy to race the 3's to avoid the regular beatings I get in the M1/2/3. I was even more happy, I could convince my buddy Jason pictured at bottom to drive down and race with me.

The first time up the big climb was hard but well within limits. The second time up was a different story. Harder than the fist, but again not out of bounds. Peoples were getting shelled off the back, and given my poor position toward the back I had to constantly move up to keep from getting gapped. I was one of the last ones to stay with the peloton that was now half it's original 80. The reason it was going so hard was these chaps above were going off the front. Two Limeys, a Spine, and Big Red. The photo is toward the top of the climb and you can see in the next photo that the peloton is not far behind.

On the big decent I weaved in and out of riders to the front to be in position to start attacking once off the hill and past a 90 degree hairpin corner. On that corner we were told the break had 35 seconds. I launched the first of what would be many attacks. My goal was to get a break and catch the other group. No one would pull through so I sat up. Then a guy says "let's get organized and pull this back", everyone says yeah, he takes a pull and again no one will pull through. A small handful of us are willing to work. I've got no desire to drag the whole field of free loaders back, so I keep attacking and checking to see if we can get a little break to stick. To no avail... not sure what everyone else is thinking because they haven't got team mates up the road and they're not pulling through. They're basically just gumming up the works and I'm not sure they even have a clue about it. By the end of the 2nd lap, the efforts of a small group of us who are either trying to chase, or trying to make a break (me and maybe one other), have brought the field to within catch of the break.

And here occurs the decisive moment of the race for me; It comes and goes without me knowing it at the time. When we got close to the break all of us who had been working let up. The collective thought was we had gotten close enough and let some other sap do the work to finish it off, or that we were close enough that we would absorb them on the climb which was approaching. A funny thing happened though when we came off the front... our pack slowed visibly and the break moved away again. It was at that decisive moment that I should have tried to bridge because I think I could have gotten across there. The break would go on to become the winning four with a Limey taking first, Big Red second, and the other Limey and Spine third and fourth. Fifth doesn't matter to me in this case because the break was never caught.

The rest of the story: After we came so close to the break without catching them, we proceeded to the climb which was a lot more relaxed than the two times before. The rest of the lap was a repeat of the prior with me and a small group of others trying to form a break. A couple of times it looked like we might have something promising but guys would not pull through hard enough so we couldn't make it stick. The fourth time up the hill, I paid for all my prior attacks and was dropped. I wasn't far off though and did my best to keep close. I was pretty sure I could catch back on maybe on the decent or just after. I collected 4 or 5 other stragglers on the decent. One of them a Webcor who I could tell would be strong on the flats with me. We started a rotation at the bottom of the hill to chase the peloton which was close. But then my chain dropped and I had some trouble getting it back on. When I finally did, my group was a little too far off for me to catch quickly. I watched as Webcor dropped my group, and another fell of the back who I then passed. Once the group was shattered like that, it was much harder to get back on. I think Webcor eventually made it. I was slowly catching the other three but couldn't close it and after about 10 minutes started losing ground to them. At this point my race was over except to finish my TT to the line.

Oh, and I saw Levi!

Photo Credits: www.ronaldmariano.com

Come to the dark side, we have cookies

2006-04-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Is it possible this Rene Wenzel, is the same Rene Wenzel who is a defendent in this lawsuit about doping? These guys contend Rene doped them when they were racing on the junior national team back in the early 90's. Long story short, they say the effect of the drugs made them susceptible to illness and masked the symptoms of those illnesses making something otherwise benign to become serious or chronic. In defense, the plaintiffs basically say "it's too late to bust us" (statute of limitations), and "you can't prove it was the reason you got sick". The plaintiffs don't dispute that they administered drugs and that makes them guilty in my book.

Dopers suck. Coaches who dope kids suck big time. These guys are pond scum. Also note, Chris Carmichael was involved in this and settled out of court. More smoking gun evidence against The Boss.

Call to action: I see a lot of teams with Wenzel.com Coaching as a sponsor. Those teams should drop Wenzel like a hot rock. Don't support drug dealers.

Athletes who dope are in many regards the victims who suffer the most. They are the ones who suffer the negative health effects, including death, which may not be worth the financial reward and hero worship they strive to achieve. When the system allows doping to exist, then it becomes required to compete. It is imperitive for the governing bodies to completely remove doping so the athletes can compete clean and fair and are not forced to make the deal with the devil.

It's difficult for me to be upset with a professional doper if they're competing in sport where doping is already rampant and standard. Take Barry Bonds; He was the best player in baseball before he started doping. Across the Bay you had the A's with a murderous row including McGuire, Canseco who doped. The A's whooped on the Giros in the '89 World Series, so Barry had at least a little exposure to those guys. I don't think Canseco, or any dopers, could carry Barry's jock strap let alone compete with him cleanly. If Barry wanted in on the home run race, he had to get on the juice. To have a witchhunt against Barry now is unfair when the entire system is rotten. So yes, Barry is my favorite doper.

Cherry Coke

2006-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

What's with Cherry Coke lining up with the geezer pro/schmo men at Copperopolis? I was like "whoa, what kind of smackdown is she looking for?" I was shocked... not in a macho "oh no, there's a girl with us. I'm going to have to beat her or turn in my manhood certification after the race" way, but rather I know plenty of guys who won't race M1/2/3 because of the flat out beatings that are doled out regularly and here's this petite Cherry Coke lining it up. I was also wondering why she didn't line up with the pro women because I'm guessing it was a pretty quality field too. Anyway, she was plenty welcome. I see her team is really Cheerwine, but she'll for ever be Cherry Coke to me. Don't you think Cherry Coke when you look at her?

Photo credit: www.ronaldmariano.com

Here's to women lining up with the guys. That's got to take guts. I've seen it in cross races with Gina Hall lining up with us, and I know national CX champion - Katie Compton lines up with the men in Colorado to avoid UCI points. Tough chicks.

Ok, so you thought you were tough finishing Sea Otter? Try riding it with one arm:

Overcoming challenges. That's what it's all about, eh?

Photo credit: Ross McMahon, www.brightroom.com

Summer on the way

2006-04-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

It's warming up now!

The Dare

2006-04-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Dude, I triple dog dare you...

Photo credit: Anthony Kahn

News Flash: JohnnyO turns 4-O

2006-04-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

John is the big 4x10 today. He's been a bud to me for 1/2 his life now and more than 1/2 of mine. (SAT question: How much older than Griffo is JohnO? Hint - A lot, in mosquito years.) We've had many a good adventure together thanks to a mutual addiction to adrenalin and good vibes, combined or separate.

Here's to JohnnyO, aka Johnny Oarsmen, Johnny GoFast, Johnny Gold, Mondo, Mad Dog. A good friend, good father, good person, good brother (to me in the proverbial slap-me-some-skin sense, and to his brothers), good wingman... you get the picture. Happy B-day, pass it on if you see him.

Picture is of the Napa World Cup, circa 2001, unknown photog credit. It was the last time Johnny beat me at anything, so I thought it would be good to rehash today, eh?

Now there was a cool race through Domain Chandon estate. It was actually a pretty good techie course with ample single track, as well as being scenic. The best was seeing the likes of Cadel Evans, Little Mig and the euro-MTB-pros duke it out with Tinker, Brown, and other North-Ams right here in Podunk city. I learned pros ride hills in the their big ring. Oh, that's why they're so fast.

I'd say the last UCI World Cup in Cali marked the end of the halcyon mountain biking era in NorCal, but some of us, like JohnnyO, keep trucking along with cyclocross, road and occasional dirt race.

Copper-pop-olis

2006-04-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Levi and I were racing Copperopolis this weekend. We ride the same bikes, Specilized Tarmacs. The similarities end there:

His Tarmac is an $8500 SL, mine is a $5500 standard

He got his for free, I sacraficed a new couch for mine

He's pro, I'm shmo

The pros did 5 laps for 105 miles, we did 3 laps for 63 miles

He crushes on the climbs, I get crushed on the climbs.

Photo credit: http://www.RonaldMariano.com

Copperopolis is a great race. The course is a 21 mile loop with 1600 feet of climbing per. Starts out flat for about 3 miles then turns uphill gradually at first, but gets progressively steeper as it stair-steps to the summit which comes after about 10 minutes of climbing. Then it's fairly flat or down hill rollers for the next 12 miles or so. You usually have winds to deal with in this section, but not this year. Then another 5 minutes of climbing followed by a fast decent, a short flat, and 400 meters up hill to the finish. Calling the roads potholed is a compliment. On many sections there are so many that you can't pick a line through them. Just have to bomb right through them. Tough course, but very fun in a epic way.

mmm Chocolate

2006-04-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter

Enjoy the chocolates

The other five Otters

2006-04-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: www.brightroom.com

5 - Ride the Rail - It's not easy to race twisty wet single track. Especially with 3 or 4 people tailgating you, giving you the "come on dude" because your letting the gap form. You see that gap forming, hear those guys talking and shifting and riding their brakes right on your tail. Then you start thinking about all that, get tight, and it gets harder to ride fast. It like the feeling I get when I'm trying to tee off at a golf tourney in front of a bunch of people (I suck at golf). So was the case with a Bagboy in front of me. I was right on his tail and 2 guys were right on mine. We were getting the "come on, dude". Bagboy bobbled a corner and rather than fight for the spot he let the three of us go by. Now I was in the lead. Would I also have these guys yelling at me? Better focus and start ripping corners. Curvy single track: One of the great joys of mountain biking! PS - Bagboy placed top 10, also did the circuit and the road race, and was sick. What a bad ass. Good job.

4 - Engaged: The grunt I got from a recently engaged VB when I tried to start a conversation with her on one of the steeper climbs. Urgumph. Note to self: don't talk to people when they're racing!

3 - Scavenger: I looked for my - Only - bottle 5 minutes into the race and saw it was gone. I'm screwed now. No water for a 3 plus hour race except for the single feed zone! Then I notice there are bottles everywhere on the ground from other riders. I'll be able to stop and scavenger a bottle on the 2nd time around which I do, perfectly. It took all of about 10 seconds as I spied a bottle of organge sport drink, veered, stopped, acquired, and was off again. A fellow rider said "good idea" and goes for the first bottle he sees. Picks up, shakes... empty, try again. I guess sometimes you get lucky.

2 - Yard sale: Not funny for whoever the victim was, but it's always intriguing to see a body hurling through the air at high speed as this rider who crashed at the bottom of the first big downhill, you know the one with the 2 foot drop off right at the nadir. That's why people watch NASCAR right? This happened about 15 feet in front of me. That was a white knuckle decent. Heard sirens a little while later. Hope he was ok.

1 - Petrified Man: I was catching a lot of people on the 2nd lap and this one guy in a grey with orange stripe jersey had been in front of me for a long time. I had seen him on and off for nearly the whole race. Now on the back side climbs he was finally in my sights for what I thought would be my final catch and pass. I was working to catch him. Just as I got close on a very steep short section, he froze in his pedals and fell over sideways without ever clipping out. I think he saw Madusa and was petrified. Denying me of the pleasure of the catch and pass but at least gracious enough to fall out of the line so I could ride right by. See ya.

Top 10 2006 Sea Otter'ins

2006-04-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

The top 10 interesting things I witnessed during my journey

10 - Moment of decision: With such long laps, it's inevitable for an internal argument to take a hold of your mind when finishing the first lap and emarking on the second 90+ minutes of slogfest. This year the "finisher" voices spoke louder than the "quitter" voices thanks to my little orange friends (Vitamin A-dvil) and some sage pre-race advice from OV and VB's blogs not to go too hard off the gun.

9 - Nice Guy: I cut this guy off hard just before a very difficult rutted downhill with only one good line. Rather than the expected tirade, he coached me on "staying to the left" where the good line was. I happened to already know that information due to a fall I took pre-riding the course, but what a gentleman!

8 - It's a Sit In: You sprint to the line full out, only to find 5 feet of runway landing space because the "sit in" gathering of other riders who finished moments before you. Come on guys, this isn't Berkeley and it isn't the 60's, clear out.

7 - Freight Train: The guy riding the organge Santa Cruz Superlight going as fast as he was is a mystery to me. He looked 210 lbs and passed me on the Laguna Seca race track between laps one and two going about 25 mph. Being the unhonorable roadie wheelsucker, I latched on for the ride as long as I could. I passed him somewhere on the hills on the back side only to see him reappear on the fireroad sections at the end of the 2nd lap and pass me again. A guy that big, going that fast = Ox!

6 - Blowin in the Lead: Guy in green/black gidup who passed me as we hit the finishing fire road section toward the end of the first lap. He was winning the 40+ category at the time and had made up 5 minutes on me. Gargatuan quads, slight upper body, and crouched low on his bike, just stomping on it for all he was worth. I grabbed his wheel for the ride (see wheelsucker). He looked back at me, noticed I wasn't in his category, and was content to tow me along for a while. Then he says "man, this course is longer than I thought... I should have prerode". "Well" I says, "The 3k to go mark is coming up so you only have 19 miles and 3k to go". I wonder how that sat in his noggin? He dropped me on the hill after the 3k marker but I saw him again thanks to Freight Train, and I'm pretty sure he lost that 5 minutes, and then some, back to me before the finish.

2006 Sea Otter

2006-04-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

It's the grand daddy of Nor Cal racing, especially for the mountain bike set. My favorite Otters are the years when they had in-line skate and volley ball events. It was soo cool to see those in-line'ers come down the cork screw in their ski tucks at 30+ MPH.

The last 5 years or so, I've taken to getting the most out of my Otter by entering as many events as the schedule would allow. My triumph was finishing the road race, circuit, short track, and cross country all in one weekend . Wish the schedule would allow that every year.

This year we had a completely new XC course. It was an exciting , challenging course. With many days of rain prior to the event, the course was very muddy for the last third. The first 2 thirds were sandy and thus handled the water pretty well. At 38 miles, it was an epic event with many athletes resembling muddy catatonic zombies on the 2nd lap. I look forward to doing this course again when in future years when it's warm and dry. It would be fast.

In the next post I'll have 5 of my top 10 funky experiences from this year XC.