AJ down at PR...

...but not out.

Taking himself out in a single-man wreck near the front of the pack after the first turn at PR tonight Aaron Johnson didn't get too much sympathy from his fellow racers. Comments like, "couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy" to "karma'll get you every time" had me shaking my head.

Now I understand Aaron history, and he's certainly made his share of enemies with knucklehead moves and immature behavior - but I think that my sometime carpool partner is quickly becoming a reformed & focused racer while showing signs of maturity to match his twenty-four years (half my age).

That doesn't mean he's going to be anybody's poster boy anytime soon. Some may see by my previous posts that I have a certain affinity for AJ & may wonder why I bother with this guy? Well I would answer that despite his piercings he doesn't sprout horns. I see the potential that AJ might possess. True he is still a bit impetuous, brash, and quick to shoot off his mouth in the heat of competition - he has a quality like old-timer Jonny Sundt ("the cat" - Kelly Benefits) - somebody who everybody loves to hate; but is always there when the finish line is rapidly approaching. If AJ can attract the interest of any professional squads next season then we'll really see if he can win any fickle hearts out there or just get lost in the crowd. It's easy to appreciate guys like Ian, Jamie, or Mick, who're pretty humble guys and let there legs do the talking for them; so AJ has a lot to learn from those he can emulate - and I like routing for the up & comers.

Myself I was a little miffed that I had no teammates for whom to work for tonight - I know Chad has the series all wrapped up points-wise and can pass, but where'd everybody else go on such a great Tuesday night? So I took a few flyers here & there that interested absolutely nobody (shows you how dangerous a rider they think I am) and was left to wallow until the pack picked me up time and again. But hey, nothing ventured - nothing gained right?

And a Happy Birthday to Steve "Higgie" Higgins (BRI) who turned 107 today - raced hard, finished strongly, and had his teammies left shaking their collective heads on how he can be soooo strong & fast at his decrepit age.

Thanks Rory - though throw in a few more up & down the S's next year please.

Orlando magic

I haven't been to Orlando since the late 80's and boy has it ever grown. Our hotel is just south of Universal Theme park on the southwest side of town. Looked up some local rides on Google and found a group that meet on Sunday's at 8:15 (http://www.windermereroadies.com/). There was also a RR up in Patakla some 50 miles north, but the 1/2's didn't get going until 2PM for 70 miles which would've put me past my 5:15PM meet with the crew for our flight home.

So I set my alarm to 6:45 with a plan to get my but out the door by 7:30AM for the 1/2 hour ride to the Windermere Elementary School where these guys ride from. So even though I went to bed about midnight, 6:45 came awful early (3:45 PDT) and I rolled over back to sleep. By the time I did get up, put the Pocket Rocket together, download the map of the 55 mile Groveland loop, and get out the door it was 10:20. Somewhere along the 8-9 miles to the school I lost my directions - so I decided to wing it.

I knew it was northwest out to the Clermont, but not all the turns, so instead I rode Hwy 50 out, went south around Lake Minnehaha and then back to the hotel the same way. It was an easy to moderate pace while temps slowly increased throughout to the mid-90's (with a heat index around 104!). It felt great, muscles warm & loose, good sweat going, seeing new sights while out exploring a new part of the country - and was certainly a good way to forget about the Health Net crit in Portland on Friday night.

8 1/2 minutes is all I lasted Friday night in the CAT 1/2 race - eight and one half minutes?! It was a pretty technical course, and the start was just ridiculous. Right away in turns 1 and 2 guys were clipping there pedals & skipping their rear and letting gaps open. By lap 2 & 3 with a couple of crashes the gaps were increasing to an almost insurmountable amount. A few guys like Rob Campbell who have the horsepower to quickly close gaps were working overtime to get to the 1st chase group. The lead group of 15 lapped them about 15 minutes into the race. The rest of us who have more sustained power than those gifted with pure fast twitch power were left in the dust despite not breaking a sweat. I was so pissed that there were such a large group of riders that couldn't hold a wheel, couldn't control themselves in a corner, and wouldn't work to chase back on. I was happy to see Aaron Johnson skitter his way up through the pack and get his butt into the lead group and ultimately finish 7th.

I think I drank 6 large bottles in Orlando and I still came back dehydrated and drinking like a sponge. But it was a wonderful area and look forward to exploring it further another time. Perhaps even somehow magically getting my west-coast butt out the door for the 8:15 ride.

STS - Four Hundred

400 days & counting until Summit the Sun - Climb for Kids next September. Securing corporate sponsorship is my immediate priority, so if you have any leads please drop a note my way.

Knucklehead Passenger of the Day

As I am checking in at the gate with the Customer Service Agent for my flight to Dallas this morning when a disheveled lady scrambles up asking, "Is this the flight to LA?"
To which I replied, "No this flight is going to Dallas."
DL - "But they said to go to gate D1!"
Me (looking at her boarding pass) - "Well this is D3 [deeee threeee], you want to go 2 gates down, thataway (pointing)."

Without a word of gratitude or an ounce of comprehension DL takes off hurriedly in the opposite direction.

How many times do you think she repeated this scenario?
Do you think she made her flight to LA?
Do you think she made any flight to LA?
Today?

AJ wins, takes series - gets fined

Aaron Johnson (unattached) continued his evolution to mature as a racer as he takes the LWV 3-race series in commanding fashion by taking the win in Carnation. Missing the early attacks and inevitable break were Ian Tubbs (Hagen-Berman) & Chad Nikolz (AxleyUSA.com), though both had teammates up the road. Ian seemed anxious to send his remaining teammates to the front of the main group to try and chase the break down while Chad was happy to let the 2 teammates in the break (Shawn Ongers & Ronny Schmeer) try to get results for themselves.

The break ultimately succeeded, though with some controversial riding and words exchanged by Aaron and Mike Hone (Hagens-Berman). Aaron took the group sprint and the series while getting a slapped with a fine ($$) by the USA Cycling officials on hand. He admitted his errors and withstood some post race trash talking by Hone without getting pulled into a further confrontation. I think this showed great pose, maturity and a transformation for Aaron as a person and he walked away with a bigger prize, dignity & respect (is AJ we're talking about?), as well as enough points for what looks like his inevitable upgrade to CAT 1.

Good going Kid!

Blame my Mother-in-Law

My Mother-in-Law moved out of her long-time Mercer Island house in 1999 because it was way too big for her lonesome to continue to keep up with (lots of square feet inside & out). She wanted something smaller & more manageable.

After a few months she found a condo in Kirkland and lived there for a few long years. She was in a downstairs unit and she had noisy upstairs neighbors. The condo unit was supposed to be insulated to the point where the neighbors weren't supposed to hear one-another, either side-to-side or up-and-down, but they could. Along with other condo association issues that she found objectionable she sold in 2004. For the last couple of years she has been temporarily living in her son's rental house in Kirkland while she has been seeking another suitable permanent residence.

She's looked here, she's looked there, and she's been to several open houses. She has been to dozens of good places that she'll find fault with, even after a first favorable impression. And she burns through her realtor's as well - is presently on her 3rd or 4th. She really likes the high rise condos in Bellevue (i.e. Lincoln Tower), and even has made an offer on a couple only to withdraw them soon after because of cold feet; and then only to see prices continue to appreciate outta sight.

Now her son is in a position that he must sell the rental house in the near term; but not to Mom, and not to purposefully force her hand, but that's exactly what's going to happen.

My theory then is that once she makes the ultimate decision to actually buy a place, TA DA (!) the domino effect will steamroll through the real estate market. She buys -the seller has cash, they buy - that seller has cash, they buy, and so on... and the whole economy will stabilize and get back on track.

But until my M-I-L opens her purse things will continue to be as volatile as ever.

Stuck in Newark

I like New York, NY. But I get downright nervous when the state doesn't have a namesake city in it. There is a Washington City in Washington State. Just as there is Oregon City and California City in Oregon & California respectively. Now you might point out that there is a Jersey City in New Jersey; but that doesn't cut it.

So like I said I am a little suspect of the Garden State for not have a namesake city, though it does have a Garden City in New Jersey. What are they embarrassed about?

Anyway, so there I was in the home of the NY Giants and the New York Jets, staying in downtown Newark steps away from Seton Hall School of Law and a few blocks away from Rutgers (where today's NY Post headlines screamed HO HO HO at Imus' $20m extortion from CBS), and also where NY Yankee Phil Rizzuto is hailed as a hometown legend (having lived his last years in nearby West Orange, NJ).

While only miles away from the island of Manhattan, Newark is still mired as a crime ridden corrupt landscape that needs to be cleaned up (i.e. the tragic execution of those 3 students recently). It hails itself on the city signs as a Renaissance City. What renaissance are they thinking about? Within 1 1/2 miles of the city center I saw trash trucks dumping into a local refuse yard. I saw auto recycling yards tearing up cars. I saw buckled & potholed streets. And tons of litter and crap in the roadways I tried to cycle on. Or what the CNBC financial reporter called the armpit of the NE.

Oh yeah; I went for a ride today in this heap - zigging and zagging streets south to a little seaside village called Perth Amboy on Raritan Bay. Perth Amboy?? Sounds like a place where the immigrant Aussies like to congregate, but actually is a combo of quaint seaside houses with a Latino (PR) influence (where they just banned the feeding of feral cats).

On the way down there I stopped in the oil storage town of Woodbridge (whose city sign was sponsored by Shell Oil) to ask a couple of guys directions (eating lunch on a rock wall) as I thought (mistakenly) that I had missed a turn. The one guy asked where I was from? Seattle area out west. Ya, don't see too many folks riding a funny bike like that around here dressed in tight clothes, WHAT'S YOUR NAME (he commands)?? Erik, what's yours? SHELL (he barks). Oh you work for Shell Oil? No Chevron, why? No reason....(so Shell works for Chevron, just so you have that straight).

On the way back downtown I took a slightly different route and was looking across the water separating me from Staten Island and the Fresh Kills landfill. Now I don't know if it's a New Jersey thing or a New York thing but shouldn't the authorities be digging that place up instead of looking under a barn in Milford Township, Michigan? It just makes sense, right?

I did manage to get in a decent couple-hour ride despite the mostly glum landscape, and I'll bring my bike again to continue to look for a quality ride, maybe next time up the Palisades Parkway north of the GW Bridge? And the possibility of a visit to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in nearby Somerville, NJ; if I can ever get them to publish an address (or do I just hang around their P.O. Box?).

Like a Virgin

New airline late out of the blocks on inaugural flight.

What did they really expect flying routes between JFK-SFO & JFK-LAX? Who's the marketing genius who thought of this one?

Weather & airport capacity limitations at both JFK and SFO will make this a one-trip experience for most travelers. Without a route network or enough airplane capacity with which to reroute the severely delayed or stranded, passengers will soon begrudgingly return to the network legacy carriers they love to hate.

We don't need no stinking Tailwind

The bright light shining on the mirrored ball is about to extinguish on Tailwind Sports with their futile search for a successor to title sponsor The Discovery Channel, another chapter of American cycling will close its doors at the end of this season. Seems as though riding with a tailwind, just like doping, makes the required effort way too eazy.

Though with Slipstream Sports, lead by Jonathan Vaughters, ready to fill the void - will we really miss them?

With TdF winner Contador (with a name like that shouldn't he be a champion bull fighter?) now under doping scrutiny, the allegations that continually dog Lance (Tailwind co-owner), and doping problems with a few former high profile Tailwind boys Heras, Hamilton, Landis and short timer Basso; this was high-profile program that failed to convince big money backers that they were going to get a big return on their big investment without big risk. No big for you!

Slipstream on the other hand with their proactive involvement with pre-screening and continual year-long testing for physiological markers by ACE seems to understand the need to play & win clean; and are being rewarded for their efforts to do so.

Let's hope that all other Pro Tour & Continental teams step up to rid the sport of cheats and those who profit from out of the (jersey) pockets of others more deserving who race fairly.

Levi, George and crew have or will find new teams with which to headline.

Interview

Bo Hambuger to Michael Rusmussen...

"So before we let you race all I'll need is to look at your passport, OK?" or
"You know there are no KOM points up for grabs here..." or

"Is it true that chicken do eat crow?" or
"Gee Michael, is it any coincidence that the stuff you're on also erases all team or individual sponsers off your jersey?"

Skyline

There's Skyline Drive in VA that goes north-south through the Appalachians. There's Skyline Blvd in the hills east of Oakland. There's also a Skyline Blvd on the other side of the Bay running the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And then there's the Skyline Blvd that I rode today in the Portland area running the crest of the hills just west of town.

They are all beautifully challenging roads with few stops, many ups & downs, a few Mom & Pop outposts spreading the local yore and lots of local cyclists that'll whip your sorry ass in shape & send you home wishing for more.

I can't wait to come on down to PDX for another chance this summer - 4 hours wasn't enough.

Big D

I flew into DFW the other day and fortunate enough to have my Pocket Rocket with me. I haven't been to Dallas since I lived there for almost a year in the early 80's. The Wyndham Hotel where we stay in North Dallas would've probably been in the sticks back then, now it totally surrounded by suburbia.

I got the bike together and went out for a late afternoon exploratory ride after a brief look in the phonebook to get my bearings. Turns out I picked a fairly decent parkway type road with stop lights few and far between. This was better than the bike path along the Trinity River which still showed periodic signs of flooding from the numerous days of heavy downpours earlier in the month.

I ended up turning around after about an hour and a half when the road T'd into the airport perimeter. Following my crumbs & coming back the same way, I was stopped at an intersection when a big gust started throwing up road debris behind me. Looking back I see the darkest wall of water a quarter mile away heading toward me. Come oooonnn light...

With nowhere to duck for cover when the light eventually changed I decided to try to outrun the sucker. Which as it turned out wasn't that difficult considering the fact I was aided by a 25-30 MPH tailwind. That was fun.

When I got back to the hotel I realized that I hadn't seen anybody else out riding their bike (except the 2 young girls on their pink tasseled driveway cruisers); unless you count the guy on the 3-wheeler selling ice cream (I guess he'd be considered a professional cyclist). Not a single one.

Now turn back 20+ years and I can still conjure up the image of a certain beer bottle flying eye level left to right slow motion-like right in front of my face as the p/u sped on. I figure the Big D still has a problem with the Lycra-clad crowd.

Next morning I head out again, this time in the opposite direction toward White Rock Lake. What I find is the mecca to cyclists in the immediate Dallas area. Nice quiet roads a bike paths for all to share and enjoy. Sort of like Greenlake on steroids. A few laps around the lake and back to the hotel somewhat more satisfied that Dallas does have a bike haven.

This was reinforced by the Competitor Texas mag I picked up at the REI near the hotel - which pretty much stated that it was THE place for runners, cyclists, and triathletes to get in some quality training in the heart of the city.

Oh and if I've piqued your interest I saw a rare 2.48 acre vacant lot for sale across the street from the lake on a nice quiet lane available for $2.75 million.