Everyone is getting size small!

RockGod got no responses to our sizing call out. Therefore, if you don't not get in touch with him soon, you will receive bibs and jersey in size small and forced to wear uncomfortable clothing! Rest assured, I will be wearing size small myself as I even failed to get over for sizing yesterday and I was the guy who put out the call out! Sorry Rock, we will improve our ways and do greatly appreciate your efforts on the kits.

Tuesday's Roll:
I am stuck at a Basketball game tonight and can join for the ride. However after a week of nice weather and good temps, all trails are clear and fast. The ride will be blessed with spring like temps and the daylight is lingering more and more...I call for a parking lot roll out without illumination!

Weekend Report:
Cap'n scouted the Auburn to Coloma portion of the Amgen Tour route. He even got a friendly call out on the climb out of the confluence. Jury is still out on viewing strategies.

I rode the road solo on Sunday. It was me, myself, and I along with every Harley Davidson in 1000 mile radius. My ears are still ringing.

Dirt Ride - No report yet...

Racing -

Warning, these are long winded reports; but there seems to be a lot more to tell when you roll around varied terrain in a large pack of peers.

Friday – I had an appointment at Body Concepts for a bike fit and training plan review. Rob made several significant changes to my position. We moved my seat back, feet in and bar flats down. I noticed the difference even without getting out on the road. I would recommend this to anyone doing serious miles. The training plan looks ambitious with lots of hours and racing, hoping to hit peak fitness for two periods this year.

Cantua Creek: The normally ugly hills of the west valley were a brilliant emerald green, the place was actually attractive. It was cold and clear in the morning, no wind, probably mid-40’s just before the start. They split the group into two fields, my teammate Randy Floyd was in the full A group of 47 riders and I was in the B group of 18 riders. The course started above the finishing hill and turn around and rolled down into the valley over I-5. It was a pretty flat boring course for most of the out and back, most notably we had a group of 1-2 Pro Team Yahoo riders pulling a team trial past us, very impressive; we had a flyer of our own on the first lap that we reeled in before the climb to the turn around. As we headed up hill to the turn around I dropped a chain and had to stop, this made for some serious work to catch back on before we started back down. The same guy took off again on lap two, this time getting a much bigger gap, we had a small pack and even fewer willing to work to bring back the big guy from Team Chicken Ranch in Santa Barbara. An Alto Velo Webcor guy joined him with about ¼ lap to go but we caught them on the uphill over pass about 2km before the short climb to the finish. With 1km to go a Chicken Ranch teammate who was allowed to sit it most of the ride took off, I missed grabbing his wheel but accelerated to chase, I got closer but was not able to reel him in. I noticed I got a good gap but a guy from Davis was hauling me in, I barely held in off for the line for 2^nd place. A long sleeve T-shirt to match our team kit was the prize, along with some good post race analysis with the pack mates.

Pine Flats: Sunday was a beautiful brisk morning with sign ups at the Pine Flat Reservoir camp ground; knee warmers and arm warmers were the gear choice for most riders. Our field of ~40 had a great 20% grade promenade to get back to the main road, an interesting warm up for sure. The course went east following the mountain side next the lake, a great winding road with some small climbs. After 11 miles we headed back down toward the start. We had one big squirrel in the pack that made several people nervous. To ensure a safer decent I took off on a flyer just before we passed by our start point hoping to navigate the big decent solo, but I misjudged the summit and stayed out there a few miles, burning a couple more matches than necessary. It was a good call though as one of the previous packs had a major crash and the field was neutralized through the emergency vehicles. I was still able to stay away until the bottom and then regrouped with the pack as we headed along the river into the valley. The pace stayed pretty tame, everyone feeling the ~40+ miles ridden. There were some good leg burning rollers before we started the big climb, two guys took off, the pack stayed in tact. Just before we headed up the main grade two more guys took off and got a slight gap; I noticed the strong Davis guy 3^rd place from the day before was one of them and called out to the group, we swallowed up the first two guys, one flatted and one fizzled. The climb was hard, very much like Prospector on the steepest spots just not as long, but with 55 miles in the legs, it hurt. The two guys, Davis and Pink Jersey, stayed away over the top and four to five more guys were able to get up the hill ahead of Steve Cooke and myself, we crested the summit together and then Randy Volkmar joined us on the decent, our group swelled to 5 and group of 4 came within sight during the curvy rolling decent. We had a near catastrophe on the decent going ~35 mph when one guy in our group got too far left passing a female rider around a blind corner, he nearly met a red Chevy head on but was able barely squeak by. As it transitioned to rollers I put the gas on doing most of the work to bridge to the group ahead, we then had 8 or 9 chasing two, we were all pretty spent and did not make a serious attempt to reel them back; we had three teammates in our group, hmmm what would we do next time?? The road ticked up with 1km to go, one or two guys got a gap on me, the last 200 meters were steep and one more made a surge and got by in the last 50 meters; I crossed the line 6^th with Steve and Randy just couple spots back. It was a great course and race, we enjoyed a 7 mile spin back to the start area.

A great early season weekend, over 100 miles of racing; cross season helped a bunch. The bike position and new wheels worked great. Looking forward to Snelling in two weeks.

Until we ride,

LOtB (Zero)