Odd Thursday

Today was an odd day. But let me backtrack and begin by saying that I wish I had a camera on my phone to have documented the view from my bike this morning. A toasted melted my cell phone last year, which left me with a cheap-o, camera-free phone. I swear, the toaster ate my nice camera-cell phone. But I digress.

5:45am, the Moots and I depart our Berkeley garage for some intervals on Tunnel Road. Birds are chirping, commuters are still sleeping, and Olivia (Ms. Moots) and I are bonding for our first real ride since Kern. Bliss.

We turn onto Old Tunnel Road, a standard climb for us East Bay folks. What a lovely day. I swerve to avoid a well-worn toilet bowl which lies alongside the road. Weird. I assume it has mistakenly fallen out of a construction truck hauling debris from a new home construction up on the hill.

But then, 100m later, on the left-hand side of the road, I see no less than 30 toilet bowls strewn in the brush along the hillside. Who had the nerve to use Old Tunnel Road as a dumping ground (no pun intended...)? I was pissed.

About 2 hours later, I found myself on the baseball field of my school, living through a real-life bomb threat. A teacher arrived at school this morning with a document open on her computer which read that a bomb would be going off within 10 minutes of when the students arrived. We calmly ushered the entire school out onto the baseball field while the bomb squad did their duties. Nothing was found. But there is a prime suspect among the 8th graders. Our vice principal is amazing. That woman can solve any crime. Working with her is like being on the set of CSI. Please don't offer me her job...

Yep. It sure was an odd day.

Kern Photos

I posted Ali's Kern snapshots here.

Looks like I missed some great fun and sounds like some epic racing. Nice job!!

I'll be there next year...manning the feed zone.

Go Ask Alice...

Just ran across this article. Made me wonder if Geezer Racers can get a Therapeutic Use Exclusion.

When the Ipod dies

I forgot to charge my Ipod this weekend. Drove Bakersfield--> Berkeley on radio-only: Christian radio, Country and some Mexican polka. It's amazing how many ex-American Idol contestants can be found on Central Valley radio stations. And no, they don't sing Mexican polka.

And damn, was that not a bike race today in the P-1-2 or what? I haven't heard any details about the 35+ race, so I'm hoping for a report soon.

Madera 0 Kern 2

Slowly, but surely, I might be convinced that hilly stage races are where the action is at.

We pulled into Starbucks at 6:10 this morning, relishing in the cool morning air and an iced triple latte. It was super delish and I savored it all the way to Caliente, CA. Aha...a road race in Caliente. Now that's hot!! If you're looking for real GC results, they're here, but you've got to read to the end to find them.

The highlight of the day was none other than this wonderful woman who runs the historic museum in Havilah, CA, a tiny town of 300 rural families. Knowing we were coming for the hill climb, she baked batches and batches of cookies which she had out for us. She was the real hero of the day.

In other news, during the rare (ha!) dull moments in the Circuit Race, I came up with the idea of having a GC competition for the teachers in the 3s. There are 4 of us and 1 school nurse. Erin, the nurse is kicking our ass in the race, so we're not sure we're gonna include her cause we just can't hang. Going into the hill climb, only 45 seconds separated each of the 4 of us. We have Heather from Paramount, Lauraleen from Mako, Shari from EMC, and me. Post-hill climb, Lauraleen now has a commanding lead on the other teachers so we're going to have to work together tomorrow to reel her in. Rumor has it that Robert is working on a trophy for this stiff competition.

And how did the real racing go, you wonder?

In the 4s, Sarah M. got 4th in the circuit race after Julie's bomber leadout. Julie went on to win the hill climb which will be a team highlight that we'll remember for a long time.

In the 3s. I led Laurie out at the circuit race and she ended up 3rd in a group of 4 of us which gapped the field. The circuit race was part of the Bay Area Women's Point series so Laurie will move up in the standings, as will our team.

In the 1-2s, Amanda took 3rd in the circuit race, followed by Jane in 4th. In the hill climb, Molly got 2nd with Amanda in 4th. GC news coming up, but the RR is going to be a good one tomorrow with Proman, Touchstone and the Mints hitting the road in force.

There's a lot more stories about the Bagboys and the Bellas, but my brain is so undercaloried right now that the fun stories will have to wait. Man am I pooped!

Madera 0 Kern 1

Kern's got nothing on Madera in the heat category. It had to have been 20 degrees hotter in Madera this year than it is in Kern. Madera wins in the heat category which is great news to all of us down here in Bakersfield. Olaf and Sabine loved the Madera heat so much that they spent last night in Madera and drove down here this morning. I guess they couldn't get enough!

The mints have arrived at Kern and despite our strong individual results in this morning's TT, we're wondering whether our team TT position will earn us a spot in the Tour this year now that Basso and Hamilton are out.

In other news, Mary Ann is BACK and is already ripping it up in the 35+. She was mauled on her bike by a drunk driver in December and has made Berkeley Hills RR and Kern her first two races back from her injuries. Having her here is such an inspiration and a testiment to her incredible spirit.

There was no shortage of fashion today as Laurie and Julie donned their TT helmets. Rumor has it that they arrived Fed-Ex, straight off of Dave Z's head.

But the real woman of the day was Molly who not only placed 2nd in the TT in the P/1/2s, but wins the fashion award with her nails and toes, PROFESSIONALLY painted. I think that's what I was missing with my mediocre TT today...

Photos are up!

Follow the link in the side bar to see a few photos from Berkeley Hills or Steinbeck.