LOVE this post.......

......from the Moots-ridin' Alicat! Yeah, this is her Moots gettin' ready for that Zamora Bariani Road Race.

Merkeley - How'd Orosi go???

Dr. X - Did I hear this right??? Did you get a Velo Promo t-shirt or podium or some such over at that Hanford Crit today??

So.....this Saturday, March 31st......

.....is the annual Ronde Van Brisbeen race in Brisbane, CA. To wet your appetite for Saturday's course, I uploaded some pics of the 2005 race. Fun little course - has a little bump of a hill in it - definitely a big-ringer. And, according to our own Daniel H., brakes are not required in this race.....as long as you stay up front!

We don't need no education.......

.......we need more Tour of California!!

The elementary school kids in Santa Rosa were let out of school for an hour or so to see the start of Stage 2 of the TOC. Talk about a cool field trip!!

Priority Health........

..... Team, bandaging up a fallen rider after Stage 1 of the TOC.

Me, Mark McCormack and Lori......

.....talkin' it up at the TOC Stage 1 expo. Man, let me tell you, that Mark is one cool dude....and he likes to talk! Think I spent about 45 minutes talking to him about training, cyclocrossing, training, cyclocrossing, bikes, then training, then cyclocrossing. It was great!!! But I think Lori got bored after the first three minutes. Sorry Hon.

Doping control......

.....and then autographs for this T-Mobile rider after TOC Stage 1 in Santa Rosa.

"Uh, Rodney, whatcha doin???

Yeah, this was me at Stage 1 of the TOC in Santa Rosa testing out the latest and greatest from Computrainer. That thing is too addictive. Look at that fat butt - man, need to ride more.

And, a pic from the start of the TOC.....

......Prologue in SF. Anyone see our Team Mom in there?? It's like playing Where's Waldo.

What in the world?

So, Lori and I were walking down the street at the Prologue of the Tour of California in San Francisco, and I noticed this dude walking his Tarmac down the street. Lori's like "Uh, why are you taking a picture of him?" Well, I had to. The dude was nor-cal cycling stud Patrick Briggs. He had a noticeable limp, but other than that, looked like he was okay after that Early Bird Crit crash.

Friday Ride Rant......

.....Nah, it's not too bad. In fact, it's minor at best. But it still gets me.

So, Friday after work I decided to do a little Cohasset hill climbing. I needed to get out and stretch the legs a bit, open up the lungs and get some hints of that spring-time air.

Well, me being the old-school kinda guy I am, I have this tendency to wave to other cyclists I see out there. Heck, I even wave to 'em when I'm in the office here(I can see them out my window) or in the car! But on Friday, man, my enthusiasm for that practice took a hit. From the time I left my house to the time I got home from that ride, I:

--Saw 14 other cyclists out there.
--Made eye contact with all 14.
--Waved to all 14.
--And didn't get as much as a single acknowledgement from a single one of 'em. Nothing - no Hi, no waving, no head nodding.......nada. Just lifelessness.

And you know, it kinda bummed me out. Now, I'll usually go out and get maybe a 50/50 ratio of wavers vs. non-wavers on a good day. The ones who don't wave....big deal. I know the next cyclist will give some type of acknowledgement out there, maybe. On a bad day, I woulda had two out of those 14 give me some kinda love - even a head nod would do.

But Friday........man........I don't know what was going on out there. The weather was great, the weekend was upon us, we were all out doing an activity we love.......and I guess snobbishness was in the air.

So, today being Sunday and all.....a full 48 hours later.......I figured I'd try a different approach. On this afternoon's ride, I'm gonna flip the bird to all the cyclists I see out there. See if I get any kind of acknowledgement. Just have to see if they're actually from the living.

Victory! Yeah, I know it's late.....

....but I'm just getting caught up on all the results! Way to go out there Gianni!! Yeah, I know......I'm slow.

Uh, these pictures really.......

.....don't have anything in common......well, except for the fact that they were both taken by me......and they're both pre-race pics. The top one is the only picture I took from the Cohasset Time Trial we had here a couple of weeks ago(sorry Jeff!!) - riders pinnin' the numbers on for that brutal grunt up the hill. And the bottom pic is of the EMC squad at the Zamora(Bariani) Road Race this past Sunday - Vic, Gianni, Mike and DD - and I know Kareem's in there somewhere.

Anyway, this is a pretty silly post......but I haven't had enough Peet's just yet. Sorry.

Oh....okay.....

.....so that's what went on in Hernando's race. Yikes.

Well, hmmmm. Are you really an A-hole if you stick up for yourself after someone threatens to kill you??? Nah. Just dudes bein' dudes.

Uugghh. Racing......

.....why do I continue to do this stuff???

So, I showed up yesterday in the thriving metropolis of Zamora, California to do the Bariani Road Race in the Cat. 4s. Call it anxious stupidity or a loss of realityness, but I should know better than to race with a bunch of 4s when I should be wearing an "Old Guys Who Get Fat In Winter" jersey. Yikes. Wasn't pretty. Need to start taking my own advice - If you wanna get better at riding your bike, then ride your bike. Yep, that about covers it. I loved Sara's oh-so-fitting comment to me after "my" race yesterday - "Rodney, the cycling isn't going to come to you through osmosis!" Love that Sara! Oh so true.

But I do this stuff because I love the racing, love the scene, love the people......I just love it. I had to be there. It was great seeing all you guys out there yesterday - too many to name here. One guy I didn't see, but probably because he was way too fast for my viewing, was Olaf - how'd it go out there Hernando??

Third Pillar - Geezo Dudes - Now, are you guys like some sort of ex-pro team racing the 4s or what??

And as for our guys - although I wasn't in there long enough to see much or to help, I was just happy to be in there taking part. Now, that's not to say that I'll be happy about that for long. But, considering I should be wearing the Fat Guy jersey, I'll take what I can get.......for now.

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout......

......Vic taking the Big V at Snelling! Love the I-Eat-Other-Riders-For-Breakfast face there Steve.

Some pictures from Sunday's......

....Tour of the Unknown Valley Century.

Bike lust just won't leave me alone.......

.....in addition to my usual lustyness of all the blogged-about bikes, I found new lust in the ones pictured above this past week.....and these too. But I took a bike out of the lust-list too recently - just didn't dig the ride of these for some reason. May have been having an off day or something. Speaking of day.......I swear, I'm ready to break out the shorts today - sunny and 70?? Awesome!!

Now, if only......

.....all of our bikes did this......