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February 28th
Tour of California
A couple years ago I first heard talk that there would be a Tour of California, and frankly, I didn't see it happening. But it did, and two years later, it's turned out to be a really cool race and there is so much more potential for the race.
Truthfully, the race barely touches the possibilities of great stages in California. Imagine one day it has a mountain top finish on top of Hamilton or Diablo. Imagine expanding the race across the valley to the Sierra. Maybe not the highest peaks, since they are under snow this time of year, but there is a lot of the Sierra that is not under snow, the desert down south, the volcanic areas up north. There is just so much here to work with.
I was excited I got to watch 2 stages this year. I have a large file version of it here. (large file)
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Lots going on this weekend.
The Glory Hole Mountain Bike Race on Saturday.
The Merco Credit Union Cycling Classic, formerly the McLane Pacific, on Saturday and Sunday.
and
The North American Handbuilt Bike Show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
And don't forget the Pninsula Rally
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Jan Retires
Jan can't get on a team, on top of that, O'Grady slaps his view on Ullrich's career and retirement.
February 23rd
Tour of California
It's still going on and every is excited that such a big race is going through our big state. Stage 3 saw everyone show up on Patterson Pass Rd. John, Carlos and I climbed from Midway to the KOM point. The climb is rated as a Cat 4 cimb and it's a good stiff climb, but frankly the Bear Valley climb is harder and so is the County Line Climb. Not that I'm much of a climber in any sorts but I've ridden all three and those are harded. The Sierra Climb later on that stage is a Cat 1 climb.
There are a lot of great pictures floating around, some are posted on Del Puerto Canyon .org here, and here.
I took some video and pictures. I haven't gone through the video yet, but here are a couple pictures.
I mostly took videos, but after the climb John and I drove to the finish in San Jose and waited for the finish.
Then when I got home I wached the stage on TV and noticed that I got into the TV.
Gary are Carlos on the left as the first two cyclists came up the clinb.
And there I am on the right in blue.
And then again as the rest of the field came through.
Down at the finish area Floyd was making his way around to various booths and talking to the media.
I kind of had mixed emotions about seeing Floyd. Some days I think he's guilty and other days I'm not sure. Since I'm Floyd, there was an article out today that says his case looks promissing. Looks like more of a technicality issue not some much that he cleared his name.
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As soon as I have any video ready, I'll post it here.
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February 19th
Wow, 10 days since last update, that's bad on my part, especially with the Amgen ToC starting yesterday with it's prolog in San Francisco. I'm about to head out the door to watch the finish of Stage 1 so I'm just going to link the TV schedule.
If you have the VS channel (priviously OLN) set your TiVo to record.
Amgen Tour of California TV broadcast Schedule
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February 9th
What's going on now?
Last year for Team Discovery
The Discovery Channel is pulling it's sponsorship of the cycling team at the end of 2007. Frankly scandals aside, Discovery never had the same spot in my heart as US Postal.
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SRAM recalls road brake.
If you have a SRAM Force road brake, you may want to read about the recall.
Date Codes/Range Affected
* No date code
* Original date code range: 01JUNE06 to 15SEPT06 (date code indicated production day, month and year)
* Current date code range: 35T6XXXXXXX to 39T6XXXXXXX (first two digits indicate week of production, 2006)
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Columbia to Grant Ridge
A few guys went out to explore some fireroads out of Columbia out toward Itallian Bar Rd. They ended up diong a big 36 mile loop. Ogre went ultra geek with it and mapped it out on mtbguru.com
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And one last thing
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February 7th
Team in Training (Ride for Lukemia & Lymphoma)
Fred is getting ready to ride around Lake Tahoe again to raise money for the Lukemia & Lymphoma Society. Many of you know that this is a personal ride for Fred since his daughter Brittney was diagnosed with Lukemia. If you want to read the story, or if you feel like donating, go to Fred's Team in Training page.
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Fort Ord
Steve Wolf posted a lot of really nice pictures on www.mtbr.com of his ride at Fort Ord last weekend.
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Sheldon Brown
If you've been cycling and on the internet for any real lenght of time, then you probablly have used information from one of Sheldon Brown's many many pages of great cycling and bicycle info. His bicycle page alone is stuff of legend. Well, it looks like the man is having some bad times health wise. Check it out.
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SWD Racing
Looks like Steve has made a few changes to the site, nothing huge, but some small details. I like it. On thing I did notice is that he now has shirts for sale. I think I need to get me one.
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Links
Hamilton hopes for a Giro Spot
Unibet
February 4th
So out of shape, helped Carlos with is Senior Project of completeing a century, he's well on his way and I'm falling back. I figure he should easily be able to complete a century in early April. Maybe I'll just let him do it and I'll wait back at the start finish and drink some beers.
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Is your Cleat Position wrong?
The author of the Cyclist Training Bible, Joe Friel has an interesting article about cleat position. Maybe we're all doing it wrong.
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Downieville Rock Garden
Steve Wolf linked an interesting video from Downiville. A rock garden section that many people managed to crash beautifly on. Someone then found a video clip of Mark Weir riding the same section.
I'm not saying that eveyone has ever rode that section has crashed, but it's interesting comparisson.
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So, since I was on YouTube, I decided to see what other Mark Weir videos would pop up and I came across this interesting clip.
Of course, it's not the same Mark Weir, but this is Mark, in is own backyard.
That looks like a lot of fun.
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February 2nd
Ground Hog Day
Ol' Phil woke up this morning and didn't see his shadow, that good news for everyone. That and with the time change only a couple weeks away, let's hope we can get a lot of riding in.
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Mark Your Calendars
I'm pretty sure I'll be booked on Easter Sunday this year, but if you're free, and you're in the city, grab your old Big Wheel and head to Lombard St. for the 7th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel event. If you're really curious, there is even a movie.
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Last Weeks Patterson Practice Race
Results are posted and I don't know anyone on the list... hmmmm.
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Speaking of Racing
The CCCX dirt races series starts this month (schedule) and the Amgen Tour of California is this month also. Stage 3 of the ToC seems to be the one to watch. There are a few possible places that would be of interest, the KOM spot on Patterson Pass Rd, The Sprint point area in Livermore, or the Finish in San Jose. I'd like to hit at least 2 spots, either the KOM and finish or the Sprint and finish. Fun day either way.
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enough for now.
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