Na-Na-Notorious

He is! He is!

A little B.I.G tribute up there. The film comes out next week I think. Expectations are high...hopefully the emotional investment pans out. ME. Hi. Base training has wrapped up. Socal folk know how shite the weather was a couple weeks ago, so I didn't get in the full 25/28/30 hour weeks in for the second phase...more like 18/20/26. It'll have to do. Physiologically, it isn't gonna hurt me...my "base" is there from playing the bike game for so many years, but I'll be missing that "pat myself on the back" feeling from doing those massive weeks. Tant pis! Photos...we need some...


Ahh...the koi enjoying the rain from a few weeks back. Remember when I said I was going to make the pond bigger during my time off the bike? Nope. Didn't happen. Crafty combination of laziness and work got in the way. However, a friend of mine said, "hey, I got fish and need to get rid of them," so ironically, the population doubled while the pond (which was too small for my original fish) stayed the same. I've upped the filtration (there are three filters and two pumps), so they'll be fine 'till mid-spring. Gonna have to give away at least half...any blog readers with koi ponds?

Ahhh...here's another...


The story? A small group of us were riding down PCH a few weeks back. I ran into even-bigger-than-me bike racer Anthony Galvan. "Hey man, how's it goin?" and then I turned to acknowledge the other two guys he was with, just to be polite. Hot damn. I wasn't shy at all "is that Danilo DiLuca?" Yup. It was. Although it was a base ride in the middle of one of my bigger weeks, all bets were off as we turned right to go up Topanga. He was pretty mellow. He spoke spanish (or understood it), so we chatted a bit. Talked about his Amstel Gold win, talked about the Giro he won. Cunego, Simoni, his '09 season. Good stuff. Good guy. Then we got to Fernwood. Ouch. Suddenly I was on 400W for 5 minutes. Hadn't even hit 300 in months. I was the first to crack (sprinting to the front of the group to take photos like these didn't help the situation:




So I got shelled after about 10 minutes. To my surprise, he waited up top for everyone to catch up. Piss break. More chats. More photos. Class guy that di-luke. Would have loved to descend with him, but they were dropping back down to PCH...so said goodbye, and that was that. Also, DiLuca does not ride with a spare tube or food in his pockets...only huge doses of style. Of all the people i've met in my life, he speaks the least english. Rural french hillbillies included. It has it's charm...

Hmmm...what else. This entry has been in draft format for weeks. Time to drive it to a close and publish it. I did my first thurlow simi ride yesterday. Brutal, but nice. The wind makes those rolling rides better for me. Wouldn't it be funny if some out-of-town guy did the ride one of these days and didn't know who Thurlow was? It'd be surreal. "Who IS this old guy that keeps rippin?" "or am I going really poorly?". He's crushing. I think the group was down to 15 or so by the time 7-minute came by. Also, a guy in front of me crashed on mullholland. Classy.


The new [old] bike...mannnnnnnnn it fits nice. I don't know if it's because i'm on tubulars or if the 58 'dale fits better than the 57 it replaced, but i've been bombing descents and corners like a riot. So much fun. Finally flatted my rear tubular on a ride a couple weeks ago (Seal Beach Bike Path). Total repair time: 5 minutes! That includes the time to pump with my tiny mini pump. I replaced the $40 Conti Gatorskin Tub (which barely got 1500 miles) with a $12 Vittoria Rally. TWELVE dollars. Are there clinchers for that cheap? The tire looks class:


And so far, after 500k, it's help up pretty nice. It's round and true. Easy to mount (compared to Conti) and holds pressure well. Did simi at 120psi. Rough at some points, but $12. I've got the training tire thing down for life. I used to ride the Michelin Karbon ($30/each), and they'd go forever, but yeah. The wheels have held up well, except, ironically, the hubs. Had to get the rear serviced. The kitty? I was looking after her this week. Alice. She gives me mean stares when I don't leave to train early enough...so she's nice to have around. And we leave with this:


One of MANY noodle/pasta dishes incinerated over the last couple months...