How many of you Chico guys......

.....remember Peter Allen??? I know Charlie and Ed remember him. Well, here he is - still racing after all these years(he's the dude in the lead, with the AMD kit on). And he still looks like a monster on the bike(taken at Saturday's race in Sacto). I remember when he first started riding - he was just this big muscle dude back in the early 80s wanting to race bicycles. He'd be out training and saying things to himself like, "No pain, no gain!" Kinda wacko in a way......but cool too! "We're gonna go up and ride Mt. Lassen all day tomorrow - allllll dayyyyy llllllooooong." Have fun man. He was one of those hardcore guys.....those Cascade Racing Team guys. GP training.....oh yeah, they Bob Rolled it all the time. And were they any good???

Well, here's an interesting statistic for the locals:

Our 10-mile time trial course out on River Road. How many of you guys can break 22 minutes out there??? How many can break 23 minutes???

Okay.......now, do the time trial on a 22-pound steel bicycle, no aero equipment or aero helmet or aero bicycle or aero-anything, with toe clips and 32-spoke wheels......and not a single gram of carbon or titanium anywhere on the bicycle. Your biggest gear = 54x12. Now, time yourself over the course. This was Cascade Racing - and all of their guys could do it in sub-25 minute times....but the majority of the team could do it in sub-24 minute times....and the top dogs were doing it in sub-23 minutes times.....and their toppest dog did it in sub-22 minute times.....week in, week out. Hardcore to the bone.

Yeah, as you can probably tell - it's retro-grouch night!!!

In reality, I thank God almost everyday for carbon fiber.......and my health.....and aero stuff!!