Feb 28

Merced Crit Pictures

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Here are some pictures of the Merced crit courtesy of:

Mr. Mariano has been taking photographs at most of the early local California races and they are posted at his website. I was not able to find any of Karl winning the road race on Saturday but there were a ton from the Sunday crit.
It is raining here again today. Karl and Alberto got all kitted up to ride and it started to piss rain so now they are both de-kitted and on their computers. It was pretty funny! We are under a tornado warning at the moment so I think I will be riding the trainer for the second day in a row…..yeah!
On an unrelated not I was doing some reading yesterday and I came across an article about “belly fat.” The article stated that no matter how much a person exercises and counts calories they will have belly fat unless their stress level is low. Stress causes the body to release cortisol and the cortisol then makes your stomach flabby.
Since yesterday evening I have eliminated all stress in my life. If stress comes around I just say no and go to my happy place. I think it is working becuase I thought I saw an ab in the mirror this morning…….or maybe that was just a shadow?
Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Taiwan and will be there until March 13th. It is nice that we are getting there a few days early to relax and recover from the jet lag. The race that we are doing is the Tour of Taiwan and it starts on March 5th and ends on the 12th. I am excited for the trip and am hoping I have good legs and can also find a nice Tag Heuer look-alike watch !
I am not sure how often I will be able to update the next few weeks but when I do I am sure I will have some pretty good pictures. If anyone is in the Merced/Fresno area the next few weekends they should go and check out the non-Taiwan Health Net crew tear up the first NRC races of the season.
later,
g.
Feb 27

Merced Weekend

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Sorry that I have not updated in a few days but Karl and I were on the road doing a few races. Plus, when we got home last night our internet was down again and I did not feel like going out in the rain to our “balcony interent cafe.” Here is the run down of the weekend.
Saturday morning Karl and I drove to Snelling for a seventy five mile road race. The course was good and the weather was even better. I raced without an undershirt and went with the SPF 40 over the SPF 30. Pretty soon I might have to bust out the SPF 90?
I felt pretty average in the race and Karl and Roman got up the road with Menzies eventually soloing to victory. That is pretty impressive……..three races and three wins for Karl. I think Boonen started the season like that?
After the race a few people came up to me and asked…….”Do you really know Karl?” Yep, he is the dude who EATS all of my frickin’ peanut butter and chocolate chips! After Menzies signed some autographs and let people get close enough to touch him we left for the hotel.
We stayed at a pretty nice Holiday Inn Saturday night that cost $55 a piece. It was a nice hotel and even had free wireless internet. Karl did a good job setting it up. However, it cost more to stay there for one evening than I paid for my queen sized bed at home which I sleep on every night!
Sunday was a thirty five mile crit in fifty degree rain. Great fun! We did manage to log a few hours of riding in the morning before it started to rain which was nice. On the ride in the morning some dude almost ran us over and then stopped and got out of his truck and wanted to fight. I took a few deep breaths and told my self to relax (something I have been learning to do) and tried to talk sensibly to the “hilbilly” but he got back in his truck tried to run us over. Some witnesses saw it and called the cops so we had to sort things out with them. It is sorta of crazy becuase instances like that are becoming rather routine and I don’t even get worked up about them anymore. I don’t think that is a good thing?
The race was really sketchy/dirty in the rain and I don’t think there were too many people that managed to stay upright the entire race. Eventually, Karl and I got in a break of five with Glenn Mitchell (Priority Health), Sterling Magnell( Toyato United Pro), and a Lombardi guy (sorry I don’t know your name). Karl and I messed up the finish and got beat. Losing is never fun but nice job to the other guys in the break.
Today it is raining and miserable………….I am going to ride six hours!
later,
g.
Feb 24

New Blog

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Welcome to the new and improved Blog! I decided I had better keep pace with technology and make the jump to 2006! Actually, I liked the look of my old blog but the sidebar content got all screwed up and the only way to fix it was change the template. No worries though because even though the look has changed the material will remain the same. That is a good thing…….I think?
Today was nice except for the fact that my legs felt like logs. I really did not want to get out of bed becuase walking hurt. I guess that means that the massage I got yesterday is working? If it hurts it has to be good!
Friday is also bike wash day. That involves spraying the bikes down with degreaser and then riding across the street to the pressure washer. Three minutes and two dollars later the bikes are sparkling clean.
When Karl and I rode over to the car wash today the owner of the place was there. He felt bad that Karl and I were going to pay to wash our bikes so he let us do it for free. Thanks Ken! Now I can use those extra quarters to wash my cycling shorts in the wash machine instead of the bath tub.
I also made a slight mistake in my last entry. I insinuated that Thai food was from Taiwan. However, it was brought to my attention that in fact, Thai food, comes from Thailand. That makes sense considering the spelling. I have also been told that the main cuisine in Taiwan is Chinese food. I am still hoping that they might have some Thai food there though becuase I like those mini corn cobs……..sorta reminds me of Wisconsin.
later,
g.
Feb 23

Massage Day

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I forgot to put this picture up last week when Karl, Alberto, and I were on tv. It is a “special” behind the scenes shot.
Nothing overly exciting has happened the past couple of days which is……….sorta nice! Today was massage day for Karl and I. We made the journey to downtown Sacramento to meet up with our five star top secret masseuse.
Karl was first up on the massage table so I ran some errands while he was getting a rub and then came back for mine. The massage lasted and hour and was lovely. I think I could get one everyday………..any volunteers?
This weekend Karl, Alberto, Roman, and I are doing two races in Merced. There is an eighty sonething mile road race on Saturday and a crit on Sunday. We are planning on staying in Merced Saturday night but that could change since Karl is handling the room reservations.
Then next Wednesday, March 1st, I am off to Taiwan for the Tour of Taiwan. It is a seven day tour and we are going to be in Taiwan for nearly two weeks. Taiwan is sixteen hours ahead of California so it will be interesting to see how I feel once I get there. The crazy thing is when we fly back we leave Taipei at five o’clock PM on Monday and arrive in San Francisco at eight o’clock AM on Monday. That just doesn’t seem right.
I have been logging some good hours on the bike and have been practicing eating Thai food so I think I am as ready as I am going to be. I looks like I should bring my rain jacket though. I checked the ten day forcast for Taipei and it called for ten days of rain!
later,
g.

Feb 21

From Tahoe to Davis

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Driving up to check out Lake Tahoe on Saturday.
First stop of the day and testing out the timer function on the camera.
Not happy……..my ears and hands were froze but I still managed to smile. An awsome view of Lake Tahoe in the background though.
Standing on Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe looks like the lake that the Loch Ness monster lives in.
A castle that would very expensive to heat in the winter. Sota like the Tosa’ tear down I lived in this fall.

This past Sunday Ashley and I went and checked out Lake Tahoe. I had never actually seen the lake before and I was even more excited to go and check it out since they got a bunch of fresh new snow up there the day before. It was fun to play around in the snow for a bit and bust out the winter jacket but I was happy to come back down the mountain to where it was warm.

It is pretty amazing how much snow the Lake Tahoe area gets and that it never snows in Sacramento! It makes me feel sorta bad for the Donner people. If my history is correct………..they were making a trip across the country and got stranded in the Sierra’s, around the lake Tahoe area, during winter and ate each other to survive. They were soo close to the warmth…………that is all they had to do was roll or sled down the mountain and they would not have had to eat each other. Crazy……….but I guess they did not know.

Anyway, Karl and I made our second attempt to ride our bikes to Davis today. If you remember last time Karl was the ride leader and we were suppose to go to Davis but ended up in a field getting sprayed by pesticides.

I was the ride leader this time around and guess what? We made it to Davis! It ended up being a pretty stressful ride though becuase we could not find a coffee shop in Davis that had outdoor seating in the sun. It was frustrating to have to sit inside but we managed.

I also wanted to mention that I in my “Sausalito” post I made a mistake. Adam Switters brought to my attention that Health Net did not win all of the primes at the Sausalito Crit but in fact he had won a fifty dollar prime. Seriously, I am sorry about that and I appreciate it when people catch my mistakes. Thanks Adam…………do you live in Folsom by the way?

Time to watch the Tour of California on tv……………….

later,

g.

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