Slow Motion with D

...that I don't feel like writing! Lots went down in Cali. I probably should have kept updating throughout, but alas, I'm not very good at it. Fontana Norba went like this....Crap town! The short track went well, but it was super fast, so the result (12th), wasn't too great. There were a lot of us close together, so it could have been a bit different. I've decided that targeting Norba races doesn't really work for my life style. I'm not against them, but not gonna make them a priority either. Anyway...Cali was pretty good. Good shop visits and a beautiful area. This was my route: Santa Barbara, Fontana, Redlands, San Diego, then up the coast back to Santa Barbara. I didn't ride too much. It was my first trip doing the actual job, so I was learning as I was going. Bottom line is, I need to manage my time better. Lesson learned. I also need to call shops b4 I travel, so I can find out when/where the group rides are. I was good at learning of group rides the day after they happened in SD. I attended 1, "practice," race and it kicked by b o o t y. Some SoCal pro on a tt bike popped me out of the lead group. The last weekend was spent in SB w/GF's family and it was great. Her older sis got married and it was so relaxing and fun to be attending the wedding/next day party. Plus I ate my first cactus...er napales. Here are some pics to tell the story of my trip. I already wrote more than I wanted.

The drive down...rain, the whole way.

Santa Barbara trails are fun!

Brig inspired me to start cooking in my hotels.

These are a few of the visit hilights. Check 'em out in SD. Adams Ave Bicycles, Pedal Pushing Bicycles and Mission Hills Bikes. The one at the upper right (Pedal Pushing) was all old stuff. Just bins and bins and bins of old parts to look through. I spent hours in there putting a fixie together for GF. Amazing. If you wanted to put a vintage Dura Ace group together, and had the time, this is the place. It's like looking through records.

Bio Dielsel baby!

He looks thrilled to go for a mtb ride, huh?

Yup.

Headed to SoCal for my first solo Pedro’s trip, the Fontana NORBA and V’s sister’s wedding. First up was meeting up with Brig in Santa Barbara for a few days. Pretty nice place. I got a sweet mtb ride in. Great roads winding up to the foot hills and some long sustained climbing with bomber down hills. I climbed longer than I’ve climbed all year, up a fire road. Once I hit the top I followed a nice single track along the ridge and got some sweet views. Turned around, bombed down the hill just as it was getting dark and made it home in the dark. There was a good walking/riding path for a while, so I was able to stay off the road. I was having a hard time riding in the trees since the sun was down and took a pretty good digger. Put the first big scratches on the mtb. Oh well, that’s what they’re for. Got some shop visits in to a few good shops and then it was South to Fontana!

We loaded the Pedro’s van and headed north to the Bear Springs Trap MTB race. Now, I’d never done BST because I’d always heard about how people get lost there all the time. Well, I got over it and headed up w/the buds. We had a good crew. James, Mike and I in one car and a whole slew of Bendies in other cars. Good showings by all! My race went like this: Good warm up (I’m seeing a pattern!), good enough start, good climb, moving up during the start loop, then ptsssss. A flat! Not even 10 minutes in. I was taking my time and not starting too hard, but when I started to move up I hit a rock that ended my charge. Well, the rock didn’t end it, but my operator error with my CO2 did. I goofed and blew most of the CO2 out the sides and not into the tube. A single speeder came by with his bike all f’d up and gave me his cartridge. Only problem was that it was a 16g one and didn’t fill the tire up much. I got enough air to head back to the van, getting out of the way for the sports…then the beginners who were coming up the hill 20 minutes after I had started my race. I rolled back, borrowed a tube and pumped up the tire. Then I thought to myself, “self, I should go out and keep racing for a hard work out.” So, I did. I skipped the second half of the start loop and hopped on the big loop behind all the Pro/experts, but, I think, in front of all the sports. Once I got going, I felt awesome! I’d see someone up ahead and reel them in, then it was on to the next person in the distance. I did this all day and was able to attack the course. A feeling I did not have at the Otter, so it got me feeling good about my riding again. Maybe the extra 8lbs I have since getting the job helped…When all was said and done, I’d finished in 2hr 45min. 26 minutes off the win and good enough for a DNF! James killed the Semi Pro class by 7 minutes. Duder is fast this year. Great race, great course and no one that I know of got lost. I’m going back next year.

After 3 weeks and thousands of miles on the road, I was home for a few weeks!  Nice.  Much needed time with my Gf, my dog and my bike.  All of which I’d been missing.  First on the plate was helping to take care of Gf.  Her ankle was still pretty messed up and I needed some quality time w/her, so it was a few lazy days.  Real nice.  While home, I was able to get most of my stuff done:  Gf time, dog time, giving kitty and fish love, store projects and rides.  I took some lazy time, but also got a lot done.  I did some quality training in hopes to get out of the hole that the previous month put me in and I think it’s starting to work.  Next on the plate, Bear Springs and a trip to Cali.  L8r.

Post Sea Otter had me flying back to company headquarters in Mass for the 2007, “Pedro’s Summit.”  I was pretty excited because Timmy, Carl and V drove the van and trailer back to Bend for me.  That meant I got to fly into Redmond, instead of back to Cali to drive the van back to Oregon.  I was thrilled.  I’d already spent enough time that month driving and was looking forward to some time at home!  The summit was alright.  I got to meet the 2 employees that we have in Europe, and that was cool.  Right now we’ve got 2 vans in the U.S and 1 in Germany.  Yokin (probably spelled wrong, but sounds like Yo Kin) is a funny, funny German.  The two Euro guys just make fun of each other the whole time, so it was pretty entertaining.  The summit was 2 days of meetings where we talked about the past year and the next couple of years.  I mostly listened, since I just started and have no background working in the industry.  I learned a lot, but didn’t feel like I was able to contribute too much.  Oh well, there’s always next year (if they keep me around).  Oh, and we got one of our new carbon multi tools given to us!  Not a required tool, but it is sexy…if a multi tool can be sexy.

I was looking forward to riding there, since the weather was bad last time, and because I had a Ti-Carbon Independent Fabrication loaner bike waiting for me…BUT, guess what, the weather was bad again!  Frak!!!  That’s a’ight though, ‘cause we went to an indoor climbing gym instead.  It was great.  I used to climb in college w/Chris a lot, but since I started riding bikes, I’ve been single minded and put other activities on the back burner.  Strange though, because I’m not near fast enough to justify doing that.  That’s a whole ‘nother blog though.  It was fun and I got a few difficult routes completed.  The staffer said I had a strong core, so I guess my off season got something accomplished.  Thanks Bart!