Ojai then Oceanside

{I posted two blog entries today so look below this one first to go in order}

After Redlands I was scheduled to hook up with the Timex team for a triathlon in Oceanside, CA and then a 4 day camp. But before that, I had to drive to Ojai with the Colavita Team. Ojai is probably one of my favorite stops on the circuit. Although I wouldn't be there for the race at least I had 2 days there to get some bikes built and play. We have a great host family there. Cool people. Good coffee. Good food. Good ping pong table. Good riding.


Ojai host house. In a rare occurance, Eric from the men's team was staying with us too. It's nice to have a few more guys around. Love those ladies but still need some guy talk around. You know, talking about tools and stuff. Eric and I do talk about moisturizing though. "You got to moisturize!" Our hands get dryed out from the chemicals and such. Talking about moisturizer may not be the most manly topic but nonetheless it's a topic in relation to "manly" work.


Another good ride with the team. Guys and gals on this day. The best time to ride with pros is after they just did 4 days of racing at Redlands or 10 days in Chile. Then normal riders like me get to feel like I'm just as good as them. Yeah right! This ride was lead by our host Roy. I remember this ride from two years ago. It heads through the hills to ride along the coast to Ventura and them back to Ojai.


Riding along the coast. Kept looking for dolphins but didn't see anything.

I've been in Oceanside CA now for a few days. I arrived to a pile of bikes and wheels. Fortunately Tristan, another Timex mechanic we hired, did a great job assembling many of the bikes. We still have a bunch of work to do but with two people it will be manageable. A lot to do but at least it's not just me this year.

Oceanside is as it's name suggests by the ocean. I'm literally working on the beach. Well on the pavement next to the beach. People surfing and doing beach stuff.


Oceanside Ride

So I stopped to drink my coffee (found a good coffee shop in Oceanside. I asked some fireman who were outside cleaning their truck) and watch these surfers. All of a sudden at the exact same moment they came running out of the water. Intrigued I figured out they all had to get to school. Most of them were high schoolers. That is awesome. Surfing before school. When I was in High School (oh I sound like a old guy telling a story) I would accumulate enough credits to opt of of gym class. Then I'd schedule gym for my first period of the day. As long as my mom would call in I could miss homeroom and go in late about 9:00am. On those days I'd do a morning training ride. The office lady knew me by name after awhile and asked how the ride went. Looking back from an adult perspective, I think that shows good time management skills and planning. Definetly no slacking there.

Good Bye for now from the Pier View Coffee Roasters in Oceanside, CA.

Redlands, Ca

Redlands, CA - After Fresno headed to Redlands for their 4 day stage race. Stayed with the same hosts as always except Jim and I were at the Good Nite Inn. Sometimes it's fun to stay at the hotel where other teams are staying but this year many teams opted for the new hotel across the street. Can't blame them since the Good Nite Inn isn't the best place. In fact our room was too hot and the air cooling didn't function right. The race had it's good and not so good but to me everything was good in the end. No bike problems!


Random picture of the van because it looks good!


Picture from the Redlands caravan (my office so if you will). No crashes that day for us but did have one rider flat. Riders are supposed to be serviced on the right side of the road but she had a momentary flash back to New Zealand where they service on the left. We could have be fined for that but I think it was overlooked. Besides the fine, it's really meant to be for the safety of the rider and the mechanic so the mechanic doesn't get run over by the other caravan vehicles. Please think of the mechanic ladies!


Elite athletes make things look easy. That's one reason why the general public doesn't really get the attraction to bike racing. I can tell you Dotsie is suffering at this moment on the Oak Glen climb. She'd probably say her lung was about to pop out of her mouth but from the picture you can't tell.


Bikes are race ready in the rack (another one of my offices if you will).


In the pit for the crit (yet another one of the offices).


Hey there Tim! Tim is another pal from Lake Placid that is involved in this profession. He is working a bit with the Advil/Chapstick Team. He is a jack of all trades. He is the mechanic and is a licensed massage therapist too. That sounds like a lot of work to me. Good on ya Tim! By the way Tim is 6 foot 2 inches. That makes me what..? Really, really tall. So tall that I hardly fit in the picture. I hate that!


Before I left Redlands I had a chance to get in a good long ride into the mountains. This is the road that heads to Big Bear Resort. I started in Redlands at 1300 feet and climbed for about 3 hours to close to 7000 feet (I guessing on the final elevation since my GPS stopped working during the ride but at least I saw this sign). It took about 1:20 to get back home and that was pretty much all down hill.




Here is what lunch on the bike looks like. Those sport beans were particularly good that day. Good chewyness.

Cheers!

Visalia,CA

I think there is a bike race around here if I can only get off the sidewalk!


Hi, so what do you do around here?
Oh, I'm the mayor of this town.
Hmmm? Are you sure?
No really! I am the mayor!


I went for a 5 hour ride today. This is the view from Tollhouse Road. Quite a long climb up but you know what happens at the top? You can come down!

Exeter TT

Here are some pictures from todays race which was a 30km time trial. In a time trial there is no doubting who is the strongest. Alison won today. She is always pretty happy so I'm sure she was extremely happy today.


The podium for Alison

Sarah T.


Andrea D.

A cool mural in Exeter, CA


This is the shelf I fashioned the other day. I think it's quite handy. Simple things can make the job easier.

Cheers,
DJB

76 degrees

It is 76 degrees this evening. I'm sitting on the back patio. Sometimes things aren't so bad.




Here's what I'm pondering. Who came up with "the law" that says men have to put the toilet seat down? There should be a meeting of said law makers to require that the seat in the van, car, truck, hot rod etc.be put back instead of jammed all the way into the steering wheel. Come on let's have some decency here. I'm just wondering!

Even though I've been sucked into watching American Idol with my host family, I have a strong feeling these contestants are not our most talented people out there. I don't claim to know much about the music industry but there are plenty of talented people out there that didn't show up for the contest. What about the hundreds of bands that are out there in some garage. Bob Dylan doesn't sing that good to some yet he has been hugely influential amongst musicians. They out to highlight the band that plays all the music on American Idol. There is more talent there.

I've been hanging around the house the last two days waiting for the 30 bike frames to arrive. Got a call this afternoon that they are coming tomorrow. MAN! Even though that prevented me from riding, I did help a few girls with some time trial position and worked on the trailer a bit. Mounted some t-nuts in the floor to bolt fork mounts so a few more bikes can be carried inside the trailer. Also designed a little exterior work shelf that attaches above the trailer fender and can be removed. It's perfect for a few tools and things when I don't really need to get my folding table out.

Went for a ride a couple days ago with some of the ladies. With riders on different agendas, those who start together usually don't end of together. Had a good ride with Andrea. My knees are feeling broken in and it was in the 80's. Andrea had looked at a map before we left and suggested we take "White something road". When we got to the road it was a dirt road. Inside I was thinking AWESOME! Luckily Andrea was up for it too. (Me and Athena once did an unexpected dirt road and it was one of the most memorable rides). This particular dirt road unfortunately did not go all the way through the valley. It was posted private about two miles down the road so Andrea and I had to turn around. UPS drivers are the best to ask directions and one happened to drive up as we were deciding which way to go. What can BROWN do for me? Tell me where to ride my bike that's what.



Nice roads with hardly any cars. Andrea is officially a lawyer. She wanted to go to Med School but then realized she didn't like blood and guts. If she had become a doctor, would people have called her DR. DRE?


Same ride. I'm always amazed that I can get myself in the frame when doing the self photo thing. I've been trying to shave for weeks now. To me winter is over. (I just looked and it is 20 degrees in Lake Placid. My pal Randy said he skied Porter Mtn the other morning in 49 degrees and perfect snow. I miss those spring klister days. Perfect corn snow and perfect wax).

For yucks I'm using a new blogger version. I think this video is amusing. It's a guy thing. I'm seeing if the link will work here when I copy and paste. See if it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zxlFoZhOC4&NR



SEE YA!

Fresno again

After the Tour of California. I drove 7 hours back to northern Cali to get my trailer and then headed to Fresno the next day. I've been in Fresno for about a week now and it's nice to be back staying with the Eopkins again. This is the the 3rd year I've stayed with this particular host family. Nick and Rebecca and the rest of the family are so generous with their hospitality that it is like being at home.

I've been busy (when am I not) but have found some moments to get in some riding. The weather has been vety nice lately. Cool mornings and warm days. T-shirt and shorts weather. It's hard to imagine it's only March. The east coast blood in me thinks it feels like June in Lake Placid.

The girls who were in Australia have returned so now we are a full team again. Last weekend at the Merced race it was just me and 3 riders. For this weekend's race we have 7 riders. We should have eight but another rider has found out she is pregnant and will have to put this season on hold. CONGRATULATIONS!

Since this weekend is the first time trial race of the year there is always a mad dash to get TT bikes set up. For the last few days I've been helping the girls get their position dialed in. Some are easy and some require taking bars off and on and off and on. Different saddles and so on. One thing has always boggled my mind in regards to woman's cycling. Even if a woman is on a top tier team it doesn't mean that they have been at it that long. Maybe only a few years. For men to be on a team of such a high caliber usually means they've gone through many years of rising through the ranks and getting all that knowledge about equipment along the way. Women can rise pretty drastically in this sport and not get all that education. I have to remind myself of this fact when working with the ladies.


Rode to Millerton Lake today (the other day I was on the other side of the dam. Looks like the water is low. All that brown color must be the water line when it's full.


Here is the dam from below.


Hey Keith! After the dam tour, I went to the dam gift shop for a dam bumper sticker. I got hungry so I got a bite to eat at the dam diner. (Anyone remember what movie I'm refering to?)


I've been riding by this person's house and noticed that the garage area is bigger than the house. THAT IS AWESOME!!


And here we are back at my little spot getting bikes ready for tomorrow's road race.

To my loyal followers who have been requesting an update I hope this is good enough. Keep checking back too!

Cheers,
DOUG