Wednesday 26 May 2010

The O.C.



It's been a few days since my last update, so I figure I ought to fill people in on what I've been up to the last few days. I suppose the biggest thing to happen since Saturday was relocating down to Orange County and staying at Brad and Eryka's place in Ladera Ranch. I had earlier planned to stay in LA until Monday and try to catch the final stage of the Tour of California, but with the finale starting and ending in the San Fernando Valley, I pyked and headed down to the OC instead to watch Brad play in the SCAFL Grand Final. In case you're wondering (and most of you probably are), that's the Southern California Australian Football League, which consists of 4 teams that play what could best be described as a condensed version of Aussie Rules, played on a smaller field (which is just whatever is available I guess) and only 9 players a side to keep the game flowing. The league also fields a full 18 man squad in the national tournament, but on Sunday it was the OC Jets taking on the Beachside Sharks for Southern California bragging rights. In blustery conditions, it was the Sharks who won the day with the last kick of the game, leaving Brad's Jets to rue their poor return in front of goal having kicked 13 behinds and only 4 goals.

My mission for Monday was to get back on the bike since I hadn't ridden since Wednesday's climb up Sierra Grade. This gave me an opportunity to explore my new surroundings, and ride some more of the Pacific Coast Highway that I didn't ride on my trip in 2007. The destination I set for myself was Newport Beach, and in particular Balboa Island, which is famous for frozen bananas and The Wedge.



I never did find a chocolate covered frozen banana, leaving me to believe that maybe the banana stand got cancelled along side Arrested Development, which didn't make much sense to me since there's always money in the banana stand. Eryka has assured me though with or without an actual banana stand, frozen bananas are available on Balboa Island, I just wasn't looking in the right spot, so I'll have another crack later in the week. I did manage to find The Wedge, which was working enough to give me an idea of how gnarly that wave can get with a decent swell.





Sunday 23 May 2010

TOC Stage 7 - LA Time Trial



Todays stage of the Tour of California was really the last opportunity for a big GC shake up, combine that with being the only stage in this years race that took place close enough for most Southern Californians to watch the riders go by, and it was always going to be a massive day.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to try to get a VIP pass for todays stage since I missed out yesterday.  Brad's significant other, Eryka, entered me in a contest posted by V Australia on twitter during the day on Thursday, while I was staring out a train window between Oakland and LA.  The first I'd actually heard about said contest was when I checked in to my LA hotel late Thursday night and checked my email, where I found an email from V Australia's marketing manager regarding VIP passes for Friday's stage to Big Bear.  I didn't quite know what to make of it, since at that point I hadn't read Eryka's emails explaining she had entered me in a twitter contest, and while I had been given a contact within the Fly V Australia team before leaving for the race, since the rider wasn't on the roster for California, I thought better of making the call.   To cut a long story short, I had to contact the marketing manager for V Australia by 3.30 in the afternoon on Thursday to arrange to have the pass sent to me, I didn't read the email until 9.30 pm on Thursday, I also didn't have any means to get out to Big Bear, since it's around a 2 hour drive from LA, and the road that goes up there was going to be closed most of the day anyway, so I figured my best shot was trying my luck in swapping stages.  I don't know how many phone calls later (but I have every idea they weren't cheap!) I didn't have an answer, so I thought my best bet was to visit the V Australia tent today and play the poor Aussie tourist card.  Again, I was too late, as they had found homes for their allocation of VIP passes for the day, but I did manage to score a couple of bottles (although if you timed it right, just about anybody could have done the same).

On to the racing.  Being a time trial, and being an out and back/circuit type course, there was plenty of opportunities to catch the riders, and since in a TT the riders are all going solo, it's also a great time to pick out the favorites to try and catch some photos.  Since the leaders were going off later in the afternoon I spent the early part of the stage checking out the lifestyle festival (I only bought 2 T-shirts today, and got another for nothing) and the teams compound, where riders were warming up and preparing for their time against the clock.  Conveniently for the riders and spectators alike, this was right near the start chute, so I could bounce between the compound and start line catching riders outside their busses and on the course, but it didn't stop me from missing current world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (although he has had a very disappointing tour to date, but you can't peak for 8 months a year).  My position near the chute was also near a split in the out and back section of the course that headed south towards the LA Coliseum, so for any given rider I had the potential to see them 4 times on the 2 lap circuit.

[caption id="attachment_67" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Although Cav missed the time cut yesterday, he still showed up to keep the sponsors happy"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_69" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Spartacus post race, and Andy Schleck pre race"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_70" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Avid readers of Bikesnob NYC will recognize this man, The Lone Wolf"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Z evidently likes to warm up wearing a sleeping mask..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_72" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Bjarne Riis, sorting out radios for Andy Schleck"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_73" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Jens warming up prior to his start, his 5th place on the stage catapulted him into the top 5 overall"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_74" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Peter Sagan ahead of his start"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_75" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Michael Rogers warming up"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_77" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Points leader and best young rider Peter Sagan"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_78" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Z dives in to the corner"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_79" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Crowd favorite Levi Leipheimer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_80" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Captain America, US National TT Champion Dave Zabriske"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_81" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Mick Rogers on a flyer"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_82" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Aussie Rory Sutherland, highest placed non pro tour rider in 5th place overall entering stage 7"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Michael Rogers on his way to 2nd place on the stage, and securing his yellow jersey"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Dave Zabriske could only manage 3rd on the stage, losing precious seconds overall to our Mick"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_85" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Mick Rogers, 150 meters to go"][/caption]

At the conclusion of the stage, HTC Columbia were the big winners, with German national TT champion Tony Martin taking out the stage, and Michael Rogers' second place secured valuable seconds over GC rival Dave Zabriske to extend his overall lead to 9 seconds.  Although tomorrows stage includes 4 repeats of the climb on Mullholand Highway, HTC have demonstrated that they are able to defend the jersey, and Rogers has made all the selections the race has created to date.  Well done Mick, and good luck tomorrow.

Saturday 22 May 2010

LA




Ahh, LA, not Lance Armstrong, since he crashed out of the Tour of California yesterday, but Los Angeles.  Yesterday, for the first time on this trip, I got the kind of sensations that I get the biggest kick out of while on holiday, that nervous energy you get when you're put in an unfamiliar situation or environment.

Anyone who knows me probably also knows that this is my 5th trip to California.  My time in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area kind of lacked that bit of excitement, since for the most part everything up there is familiar to me.  I can walk out of a subway station and know which way is north even if the city is surrounded by fog (which it normally is), but downtown LA is a different beast.  The last time I ventured in to downtown Los Angeles was more than 8 years ago, and then, after making one wrong turn out of the subway, Karla and I literally wound up on LA's skid row, not the best place in the world to pull out your map (read: tourist billboard), so I was determined not to let that happen again.

My Journey down from the Bay Area started early in downtown Oakland, and like downtown LA, Oakland isn't well known for it's vibrant culture.  It's not a scary place or anything, just from what I saw of it, there isn't anything particularly redeeming about it, which has me rethinking my travel plans to Yosemite in a few weeks, which would have me stay in Oakland overnight.  Anyways, i was in Oakland to get the Coast Starlight train all the way to LA.  All of the Train journey's I've done in the California up to this point had been nothing if not pleasant (my bus ride to Bakersfield in '07 to catch a connecting train doesn't count), the trains are usually sparsely occupied, so there's ample space, the seats and legroom are closer to business class on an aeroplane (even if it is a plane from 1993), and there is commonly power available in every row of seats to plug in a laptop to make the journey go by that little bit quicker.  The Coast Starlight however, does not have power in the coach class cabins, which was a bit of a buzz kill, what's more, it begins it's journey in Seattle, 24 hours or so before it gets to Oakland, so imagine what the cabin of a jumbo jet looks like after it's made a flight across the Pacific, and you'd have a fair idea of what I was confronted with when I boarded the train.  The train was also apparently pretty full, so I had been allocated a seat next to somebody, which also turned out to be the largest person on board, even by American standards.

Before anyone thinks I'm being judgmental, I'd just like to point out that my blog is as much for me to record my observations as it is for you to read them.  I didn't necessarily have a problem with personal space, since the seats were plenty big enough, and I didn't have any problem with any odour (which considering the guy had been on a train for at least 12 hours was something he could even be congratulated on), what i did have a problem with was heat.  There was an intense heat that radiated from this mans body that made me uncomfortable, it was similar to sitting next to a patio heater on a sunny afternoon, it just wasn't necessary.  The man did suggest that there was a pair of seats a few rows further up the carriage that were allocated to a passenger, but he was spending all his time in the observation car (a carriage with lounge type seating that face the windows, and has windows in the roof as well), so I could move there if I wasn't comfortable, but I couldn't really get up and move seats, since I considered that to be a bit rude, so I stuck it out for a while, knowing that my fall back position was in fact to move to the observation car myself.  I felt bad that my body language had obviously reflected I wasn't overly happy with the seating arrangement, so I did my best to be friendly, and accepted the situation.  After about 20 minutes or so however, the man then suggested that if I didn't want to move a few rows up then he was going to instead, which erased my earlier guilt, since as it happens, he just didn't want to sit next to anybody.  He was very polite about it and I was happy to move since I hadn't been on board long enough to get settled.

The train ride from the Bay Area to LA takes near enough to 12 hours, which sucks when you consider it takes a bit over an hour to fly, and even driving only 5 or 6 hours if you take the most direct route.  What you don't get on the train that you do at airports or in cars is stress.  There doesn't seem to be any hurry on board a train, so all there is to do is relax and take it all in.  While the train lines tend to run through the more downtrodden parts of the towns it passes through, the Coast Starlight spends an a lot of time hugging the coastline or rattling through lush valleys.  I found I didn't miss not having power to run my laptop for the entire journey, since I spent most of my time staring out the windows.  As the day and train rolled on, the scenery kept getting better, and to the credit of the staff on board, the train got cleaner (Oakland had been the first stop after an overnight section of the journey from Seattle after all), so by the time I got off the train in LA, I was content with my choice to travel by rail rather than by air.  My only recommendation to anyone thinking of making the same choice is I think it would be more enjoyable with someone to share it with (that way you don't run the risk of sitting next to anyone who you may not be comfortable with).

With the above ground section of the train ride over with, it was then on to the LA Metro to complete my rail travel for the day.  Contrary to most opinions, LA can be navigated without a car, and they have put a lot of time and money back in to public transport, but since the state of California is pretty much broke, it's unfortunate that it won't continue to grow at the same rate it has since I was here in 2002.  Getting off the subway and returning to street level I was promptly returned to the sensations I had back in 2002, since just like 8 years ago, once I got back above ground I had absolutely no idea where I was, which was kind of exhilarating.  Much of downtown LA was only built to between 10 and 15 stories to minimize risk during the always prevalent earthquakes, which makes it difficult to find any landmark as a point of reference, and as I found out last night, it also makes it difficult for a GPS to get a lock on to any satellites.  By the time my Garmin had a signal, i had found a map, oriented myself, and was headed to my hotel.  For anyone intending to navigate their way downtown, my key pointers are the numbered streets run from east to west, and they are numbered from north to south.  With that little tidbit you should only go in the wrong direction for one block before getting back on track.

Since I couldn't make it out to todays stage of the Tour of California, I instead headed to familiar territory in Hollywood.  While some things are still the same, like the number of tourists, and in turn the wierdo's that they attract, like all those who take it upon themselves to dress up like a movie character and hang out in front of the Chinese Theatre.  In-n-Out Burger on Sunset managed to be the first In-n-Out to ever screw up my order (I didn't want mustard on my burger, blechh) so I guess that was different, what was also different is the amount of new development around the Vine end of Hollywood, which had been neglected for a long time.  Today marked the grand opening of a new Trader Joe's on Vine between Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, so I joined the fun by taking the opportunity to stock up on fruit an Clif Bars for the remainder of my stay in LA county.

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Seriously, who else's star on the Walk of Fame did you think I'd find?"][/caption]

Tomorrow I'll spend the day watching the Tour of California stage 7 time trial take over the streets around downtown LA.  With a bit of luck I might get a VIP pass courtesy of V Australia, since I wasn't able to use the passes for stage 6 at Big Bear Lake that somebody who shall presently remain nameless managed to win for me.  That will have to be a story for tomorrow.

Thursday 20 May 2010

TOC Stage 4 - Sierra Grade

Since the Tour Of California has moved to May, the change in seasons has meant the race can now visit more mountainous areas of California, so today's stage from San Jose to Modesto taking in the Sierra Grade climb is a little less significant than in years gone by.  The climb is pretty hefty, 12% for 5 or 6 km makes it a legitimate Cat 1 climb, and if it were at the end of the stage rather than at the very beginning, it may even make HC status, but long story short, it comes way too early in the stage for any GC threats to gain any time, so all it does is create an opportunity for a breakaway to go clear very early in the day. Thats not to say the climb isn't a spectacle, but the fans are what makes it so, and they don't seem to care that the climb comes within the first 15km of a 195km stage, the fun is in getting yourself up the climb, how the pros approach it is up to them.

I awoke to a gorgeous, sunny California Wednesday, which made a welcome change to the miserable grey skies that have accompanied my trip so far.  After grabbing a bite to eat and watching the Giro get turned upside down, I hit the road for the back side of Sierra Grade, which by all accounts is indeed the easy side of the climb, but since I was staying on the eastern side of the hills, I didn't have much choice.  The road out was quite stunning; leafy, winding roads progressively gave way to rolling hills of lush green against the mornings deep blue sky, but since I wasn't so sure of the climb I had in front of me, and I had  a hard set time to meet, I pressed on without stopping to take photos, since I could always stop on the way back.

As I said earlier, the climb up Sierra Grade from San Jose is around 6km long, and rises up 600m or more, with gradients often over 10%, the back side starts from a much higher elevation than San Jose, so it isn't short and steep, but it's a long grind.  The first few hundred meters of elevation gain happen over probably 35 or 40km, with a few steeper pitches here and there, but more often than not it seemed like I was always climbing up though 3 or 4%, making the false flats of 1 or 2% seem like a descent.  The last 200m of elevation gain happens in a similar fashion to the front side, at between 10 and 14%, before leveling off toward the top.







I made the KOM with a good 45 minutes or more to spare, so in hindsight, I should have stopped to take a few more happy snaps, especially considering that by the time the race had passed through and I headed home, the clouds had once again closed in (but it didn't stop me from getting a touch too much sun, I'm feeling it a little now, and have a fresh new set of tan lines on my thighs).  As for the racing, and the atmosphere on the climb, the highlights for me were:

1.)  The Police Officer who recognized the Lion of Flanders flag that a spectator had just down the hill, and gave him a "Go Tom Boonen" over his loudspeaker.  I swear the cops are more knowledgeable when it comes to pro cycling over here than 2/3rds of the spectators.

2.) Sharkey, the San Jose Sharks ice hockey team mascot who was making his presence felt on the upper reaches of the climb.  Locals were jokingly suggesting he might be better off changing sports since the Sharks lost their second playoff game at home yesterday.

3.) Steven Cozza's mustache is a whole other level of awesome.







The racing itself was a fairly stagnant affair.  As predicted, a break of 5 or 6 formed at the bottom of the climb, Garmin and HTC were content to let them go and didn't start the chase until 20 or 30km to go.  The big surprise of the day was Mark Cavendish getting beaten by Francesco Chicci, but it just never looked like HTC got it going on the front early enough. Realistically, Cav will get another shot at getting it right in tomorrows stage to Bakersfield and probably again on Sunday.

Now as for the rest of the days events, if you haven't already checked it out, be sure to read my previous post and once again, thanks Sheila, you really saved my bacon.

It Pays To Be A Member

Later today I'll post my ride/race report from Stage 4 of the Tour of California, but right now, I want to share a little of the drama of my day in a special little sub-post if you will.

The day had been close to perfect until about 1pm local time, I had glorious weather heading out to today's stage, fantastic roads to ride on (most closed to traffic or incredibly quiet) and I had good sensations in the legs considering the climbing I'd done (and the sort of climbing you just can't do in most parts of Australia.  It all went south, however, about 15km from my base in Pleasanton, when I realised I'd ridden the last 35+ km without my bike computer recording my ride.  For most people that would barely be a blip on the radar, but as a self confessed data junkie, that alone is enough to ruin my whole day.  Following that, about 10km from home it started to rain, not heavy, but it was raining nonetheless, and at about the same time I started to get a bit of the hunger knock.  I'd ridden about 90km (although exactly how far i'll never know), and although I had food in my pockets, I hadn't touched it.  All told, I was really looking forward to getting back to the hotel, slamming down some food, and jumping in the shower.  Imagine my surprise/distress when I reached the hotel, and reached in to my back pocket to find I'd lost my room key, which was especially bad since my room key was living inside my wallet.

Fortunately, my phone was still in its pocket, which happened to be the same pocket I'd put my wallet in, so after a phone call to Brad, I was back in the room to search for the wallet in the vain hope that I never put it in my pocket in the first place.  Of course the wallet I was looking for was nowhere to be found, however there was one small victory in that my everyday wallet (I carry a smaller one with me on the bike) still had my ATM card, so I could still access money, but my drivers license, AMEX, UCI Cycling License and room key were all in the wallet that had been lost.  The drivers license wasn't a massive issue since my passport was safe and sound, my room key could be replaced immediately, my racing license probably won't be required again until the summer criterium season, but the loss, and subsequent cancellation of my AMEX card would also lead to the cancellation of my  other card, which would have god only knows what kind of ramifications with direct debits and bill payments while I'm away.  The situation wasn't the end of the world, but I could certainly see it from there.

Brad and I decided the best approach would be to go looking first, then worrying about canceling any cards later due to its ramifications.  While Brad went back to work for a meeting he couldn't shelve, I showered up, but the more I thought about it, the less hope I held for finding the wallet.  I had only reached in to that pocket once on my ride, and that was on the top of Sierra Grade when I first arrived.  I stayed in that same spot for more than an hour waiting for the riders to come through, and while it was crowded, it wasn't sufficient to lose sight of the ground beneath me.  I had figured that it must have worked it's way out over the course of the day, in which case I had no chance of stumbling across it as I had covered 100km or more.  As I stood in the shower, I had all but decided to call Brad once I got out and tell him to continue on with his workday, and I'd spend the afternoon trying to repair the damage.

When I picked up my phone once I was out of the shower, I had 2 missed calls, a little strange since it was early in the morning back home, and I knew Brad was in a meeting.  Stranger was one of the calls was from Rob Stocker, part of the Footscray Cycling Club Executive Committee (and sometimes training partner), the other number was blocked, so it could have been Brad, since local cell phone numbers don't seem to show up on my phone.

Now here comes the kicker, Rob had left a message letting me know a woman from the Bay Area had tracked him down by way of my cycling license, hoping to reunite me with my wallet.  Not my drivers license, my credit card or my room key, my Cycling Australia, International Cycling Union, Footscray Cycling Club Racing License.  The other missed call on my phone was from a woman by the name of Sheila Cotter, a fellow cyclist, who had found my wallet by the side of the road near a town called Sunol, which is about 15km from Pleasanton, and from where she found the wallet, she believed it must have fallen out on the way to Sierra Grade.

As it happens, Sheila has a research background.  I'm not sure what she does for herself now, but she always has that to fall back on, because she's pretty good at it.  Sheila had contacted every Residence Inn in the Bay Area searching for a guest by my name, but since I was rooming with Brad, that turned up no results.  Fortunately for me, she didn't give up there, and more fortunately she then turned to my cycling license for clues, (I'm going to continue to use the word fortunately a few more times here because was it happened, there was a fair bit of good fortune involved) fortunately Sheila found the Footscray CC website, fortunately (and I should deviate a little here since a lot of hard and thankless work goes in to maintaining a website) the website contains contact details for all the club officials, and most fortunately, the first person Sheila called was the only club official that would have had my number in his phone (a few others might, but who am I kidding, it was still pretty fortunate that she called a training buddy).

So thank you Rob, for answering your phone to a strange number before 7 o'clock in the morning, thanks again to Rob and also Remo, Mick and all the guys who contribute to and maintain the Footscray CC website, but most of all, thanks Sheila Cotter.  You've got some good karma coming your way.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

TOC Stage 3



Just in case anyone was wondering what happened to yesterdays update, there wasn't much to update, so I didn't post one.  Something about a 240km ride in steady rain (the pros were only riding 180km) put me off the idea of riding out to the stage finish, and for anybody who was trying to follow the race at home, the weather was bad enough that they couldn't fly choppers to provide the links back from the motorbikes, so for the most part, there was stuff all live coverage on the day.

Last night I shifted camps from downtown San Francisco to the East Bay city of Pleasanton, which is pretty much the end of the line as far as public transport goes in the Bay Area, which also meant I needed to be out of the hotel pretty early in order to get to the beginning of stage 3 of the Tour of California.  Pleasanton is nearly at the far east of the greater bay area, and today's stage started as far west as it possibly could have, at Ocean Beach, which as it's name suggests, is San Francisco's beach on Pacific Ocean.  The plan was to leave the hotel nice and early since I had a long walk to the BART station, followed by a long train ride, followed by a long Muni ride to the end of the line, with the idea being I'd arrive at the start early enough to see all the riders sign on for the day, and to try and get a photo with Jensy (since you never know when a rider his age may decide to throw it in).  Foolishly I didn't set an alarm, and still being mildly jetlagged, I overslept by more than an hour, so now rather than being early, I was in a race against time just to get to the start before the riders rolled off.  I was pretty lucky in that I didn't have to wait too long for the train once I hit the BART station, and I didn't have to wait at all for the connecting Muni tramcar, so I got to the kilometer zero about 15 minutes before the riders rolled away (it also didn't hurt that they were also 5 or so minutes late either).

Stage race starts are fairly uneventful affairs, and are really more of an opportunity for sponsors to mug it with the peleton's stars before the day's racing wears them ragged.  The real race starts after a few kilometers of neutral riding, just to make sure everyones up and rolling, and the sedate pace makes it a little easier to spot guys out in the peleton to take photos.

[caption id="attachment_34" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Swiss National Road Champion, World and Olympic Time Trial Champion, Fabian Cancellara"][/caption]

Having seen all that I needed to see of San Francisco the preceding few days, I headed back across the bay to try and catch the stage finale at the hotel.  I did manage to get back in time, but only to find that this hotel also doesn't get Vs. (the cable channel with the TV rights to the Tour of California over here), the wifi here is much faster though, so online updates had to do.  At the end of the day and as far as I'm concerned, today's result was win/win.  Dave "Deez Nuts" Zabriske won the stage, just holding off Michael Rogers, which means Garmis-Transitions won both todays stage at the Giro and the TOC, and Australian sit second on GC in both major stage races.  In case anybody missed yesterdays results, Aussie Brett Lancaster won yesterdays stage of the Tour of California, making it the 4th stage win by an Australian in a stage race in the past week!  Sure Mick Rogers was only centimeters from making it 5, but it's hard not to be happy for Dave Z and the Argyle Armada.

Finally, If you're ever in the East Bay and need to visit a bike store, be sure to check out Livermore Cyclery, in Dublin or Livermore. I had a great chat with the manager at Dublin, Chuck, it's just too bad they didn't have exactly what I was looking for. Still, it's a nice store with excellent service. While I was there I got the impression that everyone form A grade racers down to mothers getting their son's low end mountain bike serviced got treated the same, regardless of how much they had spent. All said, they're a pretty cool bunch of guys (and girl).

Monday 17 May 2010

TOC Stage 1

What a day.  Not only was today the first stage of the Tour Of California, it was also one of the biggest freakshows on the San Francisco calender in the Bay to Breakers "run".  The Bay to Breakers is a serious and competitive event for about two dozen of the 15,000+ participants, and it actually offers the highest prize money for any 12km run in the world, but you wouldn't know it from the shenanigans that go on.  In the 5 or 6 blocks I had to walk through the throng I saw every combination of dress imaginable; proper running clothes, superhero outfits, full length unitards, some guy dressed as ALF, another in a full sniper ghillie suit, more cartoon characters than I can remember (but I do remember the guy in a Master Shake costume from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, he won my best dressed for the day) and more S&M gear than was comfortable (it is San Francisco after all).  By mid race, once the "competitors" are adequately inebriated, most of the clothes apparently come off, but the police aren't concerned with the public drunkenness or nudity, just don't pee behind a tree, that seems to be the only thing that will get you in trouble with the law.

Getting out of San Francisco was a bit difficult with all the commotion of halloween in May taking place on the streets, but once I'd gotten to the east bay I was quickly on a train to Sacramento.  As the stage finished with 3 laps of a circuit around California's capital building, criteriums were taking place when I arrived around midday, there was also the "Lifestyle Festival" which was more of a place for sponsors to hock their wares, but there was more than enough bike porn to keep any bike nut entertained.

[caption id="attachment_19" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The love it or hate it Bahati Foundation Cannondale SuperSix"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_20" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The brand spanking new Felt DA, the same bike that had heads turning at the Giro last week"][/caption]

As anyone who knows me could attest, I have way too many T-shirts, and almost as many caps.  Between the Garmin Slipstream, HTC Columbia and TOC merchandise tent I somehow ended up with another 5 shirts, but only 1 cap, so that should be considered a victory.  More good news is that with 5 new shirts, I may not need to do any washing before I go home (I just need more cheap designer boxer shorts).



Now as far as the race is concerned, those of you at home probably have a better idea of how the whole race, and even the laps of the finishing circuit panned out, but it was pretty obvious that HTC had their train set up plenty well enough to deliver Mark Cavendish to the line, although with a lap to go Saxo Bank had Jensy, Spartacus and Stuey lined up to deliver JJ Haedo.





[caption id="attachment_21" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pilot and Bombardier, Renshaw and Cav."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_22" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jens Voigt driving it, with Fabian Cancellara and Stuey in tow "][/caption]

The sprint was pretty much a two horse race  after Tom Boonen crashed on the last lap, although I don't think he has the lead out train to go with Cav here in California.  To me it's also fairly obvious that it hasn't been Cav's off season health issues that have kept him to 3 wins so far this year, I think it's been Mark Renshaw's health that has had a greater impact.  Best lead-out in the world, period.  I can't remember the last time somebody got over the top of Cavendish when he was coming off Renshaw's wheel.

[caption id="attachment_23" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tommeke, missing some lycra and a bit of skin post finish"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_24" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Boonen's banged up Mercx. The team car was moving so I couldn't quite tell if the chainstay was busted, but he certainly wasn't going to finish on that frame"][/caption]

Sunday 16 May 2010

49 Mile Scenic Drive



As a result of still being a wee bit jet lagged, I got of to a fairly late start this morning.  The plan was to go for a ride somewhere, but first of all I still had some bike stores to visit in search of a bunch to join to ride out to Santa Rosa on Monday.  Since I hit all the bike stores downtown yesterday, today I took a bus down to the Mission district where there is another clump of stores all within a few blocks of one another.  The long and the short of it is pretty much everyone I spoke to thought I was kidding myself, as it's about 90km away on the interstate, and you're not allowed to ride on it, which means by the time you add some zig zags on the alternate route, it's maybe 120km+ each way.  The weather for Monday looks pretty horrible though, so as much as I'm keeping my options open, I might have to find something else to do.

Once I'd returned from my bike store run I decided it was high time I got on the bike.  By this time it was already past 3pm, but the west coast is on daylight savings time so sunset in San Francisco is around 8.30pm, so I figured I had a bucketload of time to get in 49 miles of the perhaps appropriately titled 49 Mile Scenic Drive.  It's been a long time since I've been in San Francisco at this time of the year, and one thing I'd forgotten about was fog.  Almost every day, fog rolls in late afternoon off the Pacific and settles around the San Francisco peninsula for the night, then burns off the next day once it warms up a little.  Having missed most of the morning in my jet lagged state, I missed the morning fog, but it would seem as though I spent the few hours of direct sunlight riding a bus rather than riding my bike.  Other than making for a particularly chilly ride, it also made navigation pretty difficult, since I didn't have a sun to reflect which direction I was traveling.  Needless to say, I missed a couple of turns and made a few wrong ones.

The drive does a loop around the peninsula, and cuts through most neighborhoods (or at least the ones that are worth seeing), and since San Francisco is famous for it's hilly streets and being surrounded by water, you get a good combination of hills and riding along the water (read : crosswinds), it's kind of like combining a ride along Beach Road and the Tour De Burbs.  While I didn't have any problems getting up any hills, there were some that were steep enough I had problems going down them, the main problem being there 4 way stop signs at the bottom of most of them.  I still don't know what the rules are with these intersections, but what I do know is I'll probably have to visit another bike shop in the next few days to replace my brake pads.  The only other problem I had with the ride is it wasn't even close to 49 miles, by my count it was closer to 39.  Sure, I might have missed a bit here and there, but I more than made up for it with my shoddy sense of direction in the fog.

My ride details can be found here, there's very little in the way of good training data to be garnered from it since I spent half the ride on the brakes and the other half wondering whether or not I was going the right direction, but it's something to look at, even if it is only to laugh at how many times I made wrong turns and had to turn around and go back.

Saturday 15 May 2010

San Francisco

I can honestly say I do not remember how long the flight from Sydney to San Francisco was.  I know my connection in Sydney was as tight as a fishes proverbial, so I'm glad I got some US currency in Melbourne before I left, but all the stress and running around of the last week or so dissipated in to the extra space of the premium economy seat I managed to secure by checking in online early.  I still have no idea how I got away with it, since I didn't even pay for my seat in the first place (all that travel for work has to be useful for something), and a week ago when I tried to change to the same seat, the website wouldn't let me.  The lesson for the day is first of all, seatguru.com is your friend, and with a bit of research and the right timing, you too can diddle airlines the way they have diddled us for decades.

My arrival in to San Francisco and transfer to my hotel were painless.  Once I got off the train and pretty much instantly got my bearings I quickly realised that maybe I need to challenge myself and holiday other places, since considering I'm so far from home, I'm a little too familiar with this place.  It's not a bad thing, but there's something to be said for the buzz you get from discovering some place new.  I spent most of the afternoon hitting the usual haunts looking for cheap designer boxer shorts, and a compulsory trip to Fishermans Warf for In-N-Out Burger, before returning to my hotel and collapsing in a heap.

The rest stop turned out to be not much more than a nanna nap, since I wanted to hit some bike shops before they closed in search of a bunch ride tomorrow.  I never found a bunch to join, but I did find a couple of shops I haven't visited before, including REI, where I had to stock up on some supplies for my hike in a few weeks.  My original shopping list only really called for a bear proof food container, a pocket knife with a firestarter, and a small shovel for digging poop holes off the trail.  I managed to walk out with more gear than I could carry (including probably 1 of each Clif Bar product or flavour REI stocked), spent waaaaayyyy too much money, and forgot the shovel.   I might wind scratching around like a cat in a litterbox for a week.

Since my bike shop/REI mission took me to the south side of town, I decided to wander past AT&T Park since the Giants were playing and watched the last 3 innings of the ballgame from the free area underneath the arcade in right field.  I figured AT&T owed me something, since they won't sell me a sim card with any data attached to it for my iPhone, so as a result, any updates will have to come when I have free wifi somewhere, which will suck trying to do live twitter updates of the Tour Of California.  Also, my card reader has decided it doesn't want to play, so I haven't got any photos up yet.  I'm just gonna have to go into the Apple store again and play with the iPad again, I mean, buy another card reader (in case anyone's wondering, yes they appear to be fantastic devices, but I don't have a need for one)

P.S. : I know nobody cares about US late night TV in Australia, but Conan got screwed! Leno is terrible, but Jimmy Fallon is better than I thought he would be, and is that Quest Love playing drums in his house band?

P.P.S. : I was wrong, Jimmy Fallon is still a tool

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Welcome

Wow, trying to come up with something profound to begin a new blog is pretty hard.  i wonder how many blogs fail because writers fall at the first hurdle (or don't even jump)?  Stay tuned and i'll keep you abreast of my whereabouts, be it on bikes, planes or trains, and if I ever get time once this trip is all over, this blog will become the dump where I'll periodically empty my head.