It is finally official, Team Type 1 will be racing in the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. You can read the press release here. I am also now officially stoked, that if I am selected for the ToC team, that I will be able to race in our recently adopted hometown of Sacramento. The entire race should be a party, so don’t be a party pooper, clear your calendar and join the fiesta. I have been nominated to write a periodic dairy during training camp for Bike World News, and will update it daily during the ToC. The BWN website claims, “ALL THE NEW THAT SPRINTS, WE FIT”…maybe they don’t know that I don’t exactly sprint…but on the other hand being a climber I am slight in build so maybe I “fit”? Either way, it is a superb site and you can check out my first entry here. Last thing, I’ll try to post a bunch of entertaining pictures of us from camp tonight or tomorrow.
Sorry for the extended absence between updates, but after cross nationals I needed a vacation. Where did I go on vacay? Not Hawaii, nope not Mexico, actually I didn’t go anywhere. After a long year of travel it was a pleasant experience just to be at home with #1. With our proximity to Tahoe area I decided to pick up some new planks for us. Neither of us had been skiing in quite some time, but the skills have come back quickly, and skiing provided a nice mental break from riding.
The 2009 season with TT1 is going to be rad, yes rad. First up is a two week long party called training camp in the Solvang and Santa Barbara area. After that a crew of us will stay in a California for a stage race in February. I’ll keep the updates frequent and check back for the latest news at the top of the page.
Here’s a parting shot of what our team kit might look like for ‘09 according to this website.
This past weekend, #1 and I set out to explore out new homeland; Nor-Cal. Saturday we took the jaunt of to San Fran to hang out with some of our Yalie friends. Geoff and Morgan were gracious and played culinary guides for us. We started out at a hole in the wall Indian food place, that was great, then found a coffee shop to chill in, but the true highlight was Bob’s… a doughnut shop. Apparently Geoff eats doughnuts often… We then caught the bus back to the hotel and thankfully caught the tail end of warm cookie and milk hour.
Sunday we started off with a healthy breakfast of crepes (yes, we do eat a lot) and then headed off to Golden Gate Park for a cross race. GGP is huge and is similar to Central Park and was packed with people on what the warmest day I have experienced in SF. The course layout was true west coast style, with narrow single track sections, a mt. bike feel, and lots of beer/ cash hand outs on the run up. Note to my east coast homies - there are some legit racers in the bay area and it would be sweet to see some UCI races held there to give the area cross scene some more exposure.
On Tuesday we went polar opposite from our visit to SF; we went redneck style and celebrated our manhood by chopping a tree down. Cass comes from a long line of loggers, while my family prefers to pillage the black gold from the earth. So we both have family ties to borrowing resources from mother nature, but it was our first experience felling a tree together… let me tell you, nothing strengthens a relationship like yelling timber at the top of your lungs in harmony and feeling the earth shake under foot as a 6′ white fir hits the deck.
Click on the picture of Cass (her glasses are courtesy of the boys at Smith Optics) with the saw to see highlights of our Christmas tree expedition.
Cass and I are spending our first complete weekend in Auburn together! It is weird to think that we have been here for three months and haven’t both been in town at the same time for an entire weekend…
The cross season is winding down for me and I only have three races left. The combination of my friend, Mr. Parasite, that I brought home from Mexico wiping me out for first month of the season and the team only being able to focus on one of the main series has made this a weird cross season. I’m stoked that I am finally getting back to full strength and am looking forward to the last races of the year. Last weekend was a muddy one in New Jersey. As usual Dave did a stellar job in the pit and kept my bikes running. Apparently there weren’t enough pressure washers to go around so he used his MacGyver like skills and dunked my bike in the lake every lap to clean it!
The Jersey mud…
…made me long for more socal sun from the previous weekend.
Last week actually concluded my cyclocross training for the year and this week is a rest week. Rest weeks are awesome. #1 agrees and has decided to declare this a rest week for herself. She’s much better at resting than I, and is pulling double nap days. Apparently she dreams of bacon too…
Since her beach cruiser was stolen in the Haven, Cass has been without a bike. So with the help of Bob at College St. Cycles and the boys at Williams Wheels, she got her first road bike last week and we took it out for some hot laps. I have plenty of pictures, but need to get approval before I post them… ah who needs approval… I live life dangerously…sometimes… Here they are.
Is the intoxicated Vermont local pictured below with the American flag:
A) Spraying us with a fire hose B) Emptying his bladder C) Showering us with champagne to celebrate the Garneau-Sonic boys leading the race
If you haven’t heard, white is the new black for ‘cross.
Finished up with USPro. At this rate in seven years I’ll win the thing…man I’ll be old!
My teammate I-mac is heading to the Havizzel with me for a few days. I will have to introduce him to the LCC goodness at Claire’s and the speed of the SG ride. Too bad #1 has that whole job thing and will miss out on all of the fun.
The days following a stage race are usually made up of traveling home and a couple days of recovery rides. After hitting the trails yesterday I decided I needed a nice little spin for this morning’s session and headed out on the big bike. While cruising around the new hood I was reminded of how friendly motorcyclist are. Almost every person I saw gave me The Wave during my originally planned short spin turned house cleaning procrastination session. As a cat 5 biker the wave always catches me off guard and puts my minimal skills to the test. There are so many questions on how to wave and look cool, do I wave in turns, at every motorcycle, how low do I extend my hand below the bars? #1 laughs at me every time we encounter the wave because as she puts it, I “wave like a dork.” The only I see to overcome my wave ‘dorkiness’ is to ride the big bike more…
Tour of Utah has been going fairly well for TT1. Chaddy is 3rd overall heading into the last stage tomorrow. I feel like I have been breathing through one of those red stir stick straws all week. For some reason the altitude is killing me. I am looking forward to heading back to sea level on Monday. Two more weeks to get in shape for USPro.
