San Fernando Grand Prix (Saturday)

Saturday was an odd day. Each year, on this weekend, we have two really local crits. One in San Fernando, and one about a 15 minute bike ride from my house, in Glendale/Burbank. Well, the story starts with the previous night...a friend of mine, SAKO, is heading to Germany for some World Cup action...so I went to Orange County to hang out with him before he leaves for a month. My brother is out of town for the week, so he's let me borrow his car (Mercedes C55 rocketship). Sure enough, on the way to OC, I notice the alignment is suddenly way off, and yeah. A flat tire up front. Bummer. So I pull off, change the tire, laugh at the irony, and carry on. The irony: I rarely ever drive, but bike lots. Maybe 100:1 (riding miles to driving miles). Bike tires go flat with far greater regularity than car tires. I haven't flatted a road bike tire maybe in the last 20,000 miles...and get the flat with Ari's car just 20 miles in. Pictures to prove I was there:


So. Get to a friend's apartment (an hour later than scheduled), nice times. Couple drinks. Plan is to sleep there, and watch the England-Paraguay game at 6 am. Sleep at 3, up at 5:30. Game on at 6. This lame story's about to get a bit complex here. So I watch the game. England dominates, but only wins 1-0, but we're happy. Set off for hollywood at around 8:30am. Stupid traffic on the 5, we lag, and I get home at around 10:00am. The race is at 1:15, so that wouls give me a solid 2 hours of sleep, then change/shave/prep, and sprint to the race start 15 minutes away. And I do that, everything on schedule, except: I get to the Glendale GP, and there isn't a soul out there. Just a bunch of "no parking" signs. So after some panic and intense thought...I figure out that the Glendale GP is the following day, and San Fernando is the race taking place Saturday. Gah. Long story short...I rode the bike all the way to San Fernando (maybe a 1 hr ride). Feeling the previous night's effects, but heartrate was surprisingly high for once (a good thing). Get there with lots of time to spare (race was at 3:30...the irony, again, is that I could've slept for 2 extra hours), pin up, surprised to see 2 teammates there, and we start racing. On the 2nd lap, a break goes, my teammates are at the front, slowly bringing it back. Then a huge group of 15 or so went. None of us made the break (how?!?!), and it was pretty much race over for me, for us. I tried some attacks, got into a nice group with 5 to go, but the race was too far up the road. Didn't feel well, but I'm not pinning it on the sleep...I've raced sleep-deprived before, and it isn't a problem, especially crits. Some old dude came up to me and shook my hand and said "you were amazing". Which is especially odd, because I dont' understand how he could have seen that. There were 15 people up the road and I was basically just pack fodder trying some hapless attacks. Ah well.

Oilers Oiler Oilers. Smittttttty scored a horrendously disgusting goal with 2 minutes to go to win game 3 for us....definitely a swing in momentum...game 4 is tonight. Gonna be a daisy...in fact, i'm only writing this blog entry to try to kill time before the start....3 hours.......

World Cup:

USA: choked big time. Got outplayed in every facet of that game this morning. It's going to be a long, long 4 years for them...and I'm not a fan of the US coach's demeanor. Anyone know what I mean?


Italy: Love Italian cycling, but cannot stand their national team. So dramatic, too much flair, and yeah. It works for Cipollini, but I'd be annoyed if I were on the opposite side of a soccer field. The entire team throws their hands up at the slightest trace of a foul anywhere on the field. They won today, but props to Ghana for playing a admirable game for the first-ever world cup appearance.

Vamos Englaterra!!!

And more fotos:

Hot Dog Stand? Thai? Huh?

(L-R) Gonzalo, Leif Erikson, Aram, Griffith Park

Vandenburg State Championships next weekend......
[rolling the dice] Cmmmmon form!