May 2004

TROGS roll call; JP, Impy, Aosty, Pimpbot and me. Perfect sunny 75
maybe 80 degree weather.Had around 24 riders, split up into "A"(30
miles) and "B"(15 miles) groups. So many new names, I'm sure I would
mess up trying to recall. It was fun meeting and putting faces to the
screen names from mtbr.com. It was my first outing the new single speed
with seasoned single speeders. I was really nervous. But everything
worked out fine and had an outstanding day. Everyone was very friendly.
Really enjoyed Finch Platte, kept me laughng all day. It had been 4 yrs
or so since I had ridden here, and it was just as sweet as I remembered.
Lotsa single track and rockier than I recalled. It shook JP's
bling-bling computer off and was never found. Total bummer. Annadel is
300 round trip miles. Sure wish it was closer. Most of the group went to
Lepe's for Mexican food and cervesas after the ride and then on to Boggs
for the remainder of May by the Bay. Sorry to hear not too many showed
for Fri. at Rockville.
Met up with Scott one the ride leaders from the 1st Bear Valley Bike
Fest last fall and he says another one is in the works for mid-Sept.
Mark your calenders. Last year TROGS did our own Cape Horn downhill the
day before,Fri, and was a nice warm up and acclamation for the climbing
on Sat and Sun. I think we should do that again this year.

I had a blast , rode about 25 miles ,but is unknown now that the squirrels
or jack rabbits have my cool computer. I hope they like it.
Nobody fell hard, one hugged a tree real good and another ate a little dirt.
one mechical so he had to bail. Great day for 23 riders or so. The b group
became
a real social event and fun to ride with if a hammer fest is not your style.

john p

I was trying to hang with the 'A' group, but for some odd reason I stop
and give an offering of my breakfast back to the spirits of the forrest
about 15 minutes into the ride. It was weird, that has never happened
to me before. I wasn't hammering that hard, but on the first two quarry
climb, where it starts getting steep, my heart rate shot up to 195
(which is the highest I have ever seen), I pulled off the trail to
catch my breath, and boom, as it were. I think I may have pushed too
hard too soon without a proper warm up, but like I said, I wasn't
pushing that hard. So much for the 'A' group, so I joined the 'B'
group. Fast Eddy was nice enough to hang back with me until I
recovered.

So I felt like krapp for about the first 20 minutes, and seriously
considered a trip back to the car, but I stuck with it. By the time I
got to Ridge, I was feeling pretty good.

So we did Ridge, upper Steve's (I may have the names wrong here, so
please correct me if I get them messed up), over to the beer bench, and
down to the lake for (some of us) a swim. then we dropped down some
trail I can't remember down to the fire road, where we met up with the
'A' group, did a little technical loop, and went up Rough Go. Dang,
that was a brutal climb, mostly because I couldn't go 5 feet without
negotiating some rock hop or loose stuff. It was granny all the way.
Then it was on to Cobblestone and back to the car.

Total for the 'B ride:

20.6 miles
8.6 MPH average speed (for me)
2:24 of actual riding time (for me)
4:15 total time on the trail

Friday's section of MBTB was kind of a bust. Three of us showed up. That's it. Well, we rode around anyway, Joseph and I did the single speed thing and as always, we found some new trails in Rockville. Maybe it was the traffic, maybe it was too early on a Friday, but Saturday and Sunday should provide a larger crew.

As for Rockville, the Manzanita Loop area had a closed sign across the gate to that section of the park. Looks like there is a goat grazing program going on to clear up some of the vegetation. I'm not sure what they'll do to the trails but if they eat up a bunch of poison oak, it can be a very good thing.

What Cyclists Say and What They Mean

This trail is a blast
(I hope you have good medical insurance)

I think I might have a flat tire
(Slow down, will ya?)

I definitely have a flat tire
(Help me change it)

I don't have a low enough gear
(I've gained 5 pounds)

I've decided to buy a lighter bike
(I've gained 10 pounds)

I'm taking up clog dancing
(I've gained 25 pounds)

I'm carbo loading
(Pass the ice cream)

I'm tapering
(I haven't ridden in 2 months)

The rebound was off, so I modified the damping. But then the elastomers were too dense, so I changed the oil and got rid of the stiction
(I have a new suspension fork and you don't!)

If you're a good bike handler, you don't need to wear a helmet
(I'm so stupid a brain injury wouldn't affect me)

Nobody needs a dual-suspension mountain bike
(I can't afford a dual-suspension mountain bike)

Dual suspension is the only way to go
(I just dropped 3 months' salary on a dual-suspension mountain bike)

She's a hammer
(She's faster than me)

He's a geek
(I'm faster than him)

I bonked
(All I took for a 4-hour ride was a half-empty bottle of month-old OJ and a moldy Twinkie)

If you don't crash, you're not going fast enough, dude!
(I crash a lot)

I don't own a car
(I'm a better person than you)

Why doesn't somebody do something about all these potholes ?
(Why doesn't somebody else do something about all these potholes?)

I do all my own bike maintenance
(When I squeeze the front brake lever, the bike shifts gears)

Thanks for waiting
(Wipe that smug grin off your ugly face)

Hey, did you guys hear about those new 1.8 gram carbon-fiber quick-release skewers with titanium springs?
(I am a very lonely person)

This section of trail looks doable
(You first, sucker)

I want to ride my bike to work, but...
(I don't want to ride my bike to work)

He's such a wheelsucker.
(I can't drop him)

She's always half-wheeling me.
(I can't keep up with her)

The town-line sprint is 100 yards beyond the next bend
(The town-line sprint is 200 yards beyond the next bend)

Been riding much?
(How fit are you ?)

Not much. You?
(My anaerobic threshold is 250 and my resting pulse is 14)

Nah, I've been really busy.
(My body fat is 2%)

Well, let's take it easy today.
(Ready, set go!)

Hold on, there's something wrong with my bike.
(Let's stop so I can rest)

My tires suck!
(This climb is killing me!)

Can you clear that drop-off?
(I can, but I bet you can't)

It's getting dark.
(I wanna go home)

This bike is a piece of ****!
(I can't ride worth ****)

I think I broke my arm.
(There's a little bruise on my arm and I don't want to ride anymore)

I'd jump that but I don't want to tweak my new rims.
(I'm too chicken to try)

This hill is easy.
(This trail's pretty tough but I'm gonna try and lose you on it)
That trail is boring.
(I know I can't make it)

Last one down is buying.
(I'll make you feel like a loser and get a free beer too!)

My bike was acting funny.
(Otherwise I would have whooped your butt!)

He's pretty good.
(I know I'm better than him)

He sucks!
(He's better than me)

That thing's a piece of ****.
(I wish I had one...)

Pro bicycle racers get a lot of stuff, sometimes they don't need it all and they end up with extra. This site has some pro stuff you can buy. You never know where you can get a deal.

So, some Trogs are off to May by the Bay, we'll be back Monday with pics and reports.

Download pdf of the April issue of il caschetto giallo (the yellow helmet), AV's newsletter.

I didn't see it, but it looks like there was ANOTHER crash on the Turlock Wednesday Night Race. Heading out Keys Rd, a passing car kicked up a rock that caused a pile up. Bob Walsh and Dominic took a spill and had to get a ride in. That's two weeks in a row, let's hope that's it for this season. It's not good when people get hurt.

Pavel Tonkov takes today's stage in the Giro. He had an interesting little gesture for everyone as he crossed the line.

I missed today's episode, but rumor has it, that you can see local boy Jason Klikna during the footage of the Tour of Georgia. I'll be watching for the repeat broadcast later this week.

We're off to the first day of May by the Bay. Rockville is a small park near Fairfield. It's only about a hour twenty from Patterson but with holiday traffic, tomorrow maybe a hellish drive. Let's home not. I hope to see many Trogs there.

It's getting close. Ogre, Joseph, Colette, Fred, Alex, and me (george) are getting ready. Some of us are camping various nights, some of us are just going for a day, but the Trogs will be making a showing at May by the Bay.

An www.mtbr.com discussion on mountain bike magazines led me to Litter Magazine. It's online, a little edgy and has some cool pictures and interviews. Check out the latest issue's interview with Marla Streb.

The infamous Braille Trial had some trail work done to it on May 16th. I'm sure the Trogs will be there soon to check out the handy work. A new teeter tooter, and log piles always make Braille a new ride each time you ride it.

First off, I'd like to send off a get well soon to Steve from SWD Racing. He and his race team went down to big bear to do some racing and Steve caught a bad case of pneumonia so he's still stuck down there in the hospital. Cyclemasters Gary is down there hanging out with him so he's not stuck alone.

Matt, from Cyclemasters, raced his Ventana in the Beginners 19 - 25 age group. It was his first race and he placed 6th, just off the podium. Good job Matt.

Alex, Max and Todd to an epic ride to the top of Shuteye Peak. It's a 17 mile climb and then 17 miles down with some technical trails and an ending on 007.

It's been a long time since I've been so worked on a ride that all I wanted to do afterwards is take a nap. Joseph and I decided to give the Dodge Ridge Loop as listed on Milo's Singletrack page. Neither of us have tried the trial but I've backpacked on the section from Crabtree Trailhead to Pine Valley.

It started out with a climb from near Dodge Ridge parking area. It was a 4 mile fire road climb that was pretty easy until we hit the snow. First it was a little bit of snow, then the patched got bigger and bigger, and bigger. Lot's of pushing near the top.

After the first 4 miles of climbing, it's ALLLLLLLL singletrack except for the last 2 miles on paved road getting back to the car. It's mostly typical Sierra singletrack, rocky in spots, loose in spots, loamy in spots. It's a few miles of downhill singletrack until you hit Crabtree campground. It's not a heavily used trail, lot's of downed branches and the trail kind of faded away in a couple of spots but we picked it up quickly.

From Crabtree campground, we continued on well used singletrack. It's mostly used by backpackers heading into the Emigrant wilderness. Joseph really liked the rocky stairs all along the trail. The trail rolls then with a quick left, you get to the only sustained climb since the original uphill. You top out onto the ridge and follow the sign to Pine Valley.

This is a cool loose Sierra downhill that is all ridable. At the bottom, we headed toward Bell Meadow. This starts off with a hike-a-bike for about a 1/4 mile but then it's all riding.... for miles.

At the V we headed right along the contour trail. A really beautiful piece of singletrack that followed the contour of the mountain. It never really went uphill or downhill for any great length of time so you had to keep pedaling.... and pedaling. There was one major creek crossing and then miles of more singletrack. We were really getting worked and at one point Joseph even said, "I never thought I'd get tired of seeing more singletrack.", but we didn't know how much further we had to go and we had already been riding for over 4 hours.

It eventually did end near Aspen Meadows horse camp. From there it was just 2 miles back to the car. Most of it was a fast paved downhill run with a short 1/2 mile mellow climb.

I'm telling you. It was a ride to remember. Really long with great views and killer singletrack.

Andrew Juskaitis had a few words to say about single speed racing last week and he recieved a lot of flak for it. He stood his ground this week and called the single speeders out.

Looks like W is a mountain biker. He took a spill on a 17 mile ride on his ranch, got scraped up a little bit, and finished the ride. Now what we REALLY want to know is, what kind of mtb does he ride?

Mark is the Adventure racer amongst the Trogs. His latest race report really does sound like an adventure.

If you haven't seen this thread from www.mtbr.com, you should take a look. It's good for a laugh.

I was recently introduced to Milo's singletrack page. It has a few good maps of the trails around the Pinecrest Lake area, east of Sonora on Hwy 108. I'm eager to go check out a few of the trails. One of the only problems with the page is that you need a special viewer to look at the maps. What I've done is taken all the maps and created .pdf files for them. PDF files are a more common format and you probably already have the viewer installed. I haven't tried, but they should print up just fine. I tried to email Milo to see what he thought about it, but there is no email link on his pages. Either way, the maps come with a disclaimer, and instructions. So read those if you're going to use these maps.

Milo's page has trail descriptions available. Be aware, these aren't bay area park trails, these are remote Sierra trails, you can get lost and you can get hurt and killed. Don't ride alone.

Roberto Gaggioli is known by a few local valley people, or at least his antics are. I've heard a few stories around the bike shop, but I've never seen the guy in person. Well, looks like he's gotten himself into some trouble back east and it kind of backs up the things I've heard in the past.

Here's to the weekend. I hope you get a good ride it. Some Trogs are riding Shuteye Peak Saturday AM.

Some more Trogs are going to meet Sunday 8 am in Oakdale (at the AM/PM) for some Sierra riding. Just show up with bike and plenty of gear.

Last night was the first shot at the longer Cox Ferry loop for the regular Wed night practice race. Somewhere along Turlock road, on the way back a local farm dog thought it would be a good idea to run out into the road and boom, a pile of bikes and riders. Kyle C seemed to get the worst of it with a some loss of skin and painful scrapes. Josh K. ended up with a bent wheel and some people had to call for a ride back in.

I look forward to Wednesday nights, it's a fast ride and even though I get dropped, I get faster for it. I actually had both legs cramp up after I pulled through and then tried to hold onto Dave L. wheel. I gave out a womanly scream and then pulled out of the line up drifting back hoping to recover enough to catch onto the tail end and not get dropped. Couldn't do it, I let them go, but just wait until next week.

Bob Roll is a really fun read when it comes to cycling books. He has a new book The Tour de France Companion, which will give us an insiders guide to all the juicy tour need to know info.

For those of you on the Trogs Email list, you've sat through a few of the more heated No Tubes discussions and probably have opinions of your own. Here is some discussion from the Velonews Tech section about tubeless systems. This was a follow up to this discussion from a previous Tech Talk Q&A. You decide.

Don't forget to come by and watch or race the crit in beautiful downtown Modesto on Saturday.

The Snowsumit NORBA National will be broadcast on Fox Sport Net on May 29th at 9:30 a.m. PST. If you get fox sport you may want to check it out. I've given up on watching mountain biking on TV and stick to watching road races.

What is more interesting, is that you can watch a live webcam broadcast from Missy Giove's pit area. The webcast will run on May 22, 2:00-5:00p.m. PST, and May 23, 2:00-5:00p.m. PST.

TRANSSEXUALS ELIGIBLE FOR OLYMPICS
Under a proposal approved by the IOC executive board on Monday, athletes who have undergone sex-change surgery will be eligible for the Olympics if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy, according to an Associated Press report.

This ruling falls in line with one already handed down by the UCI stemming from protests over the participation of Canadian downhiller Michelle Dumaresq. Dumaresq, who won the 2003 Canadian national downhill title, had sexual reassignment surgery seven years ago and has been racing pro the last three years.

The IOC decision, which covers both male-to-female and female-to-male cases, goes into effect starting with the Athens Olympics in August. Some members had been concerned whether male-to-female transsexuals would have physical advantages competing against women. Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However, doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery.

Until 1999, the IOC conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but the screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games.

From Cyclingnews.com; word is that even though US Postal will not be a sponsor for next year, the team will stay together with a new sponsor. No word on who it is yet.

Check for updates for the June 12 Cannel epic. If you haven't noticed, there is a new link on the top left column to 'splain it all.

Did you see Fast Freddy in today's stage of the Giro. I missed the finish, I would have loved to see him win a sprint against Petacchi.

24 Hour Pictures - I didn't have time to add the explanations to all the pics so just use your imagination.

Well, we're back. It was fun, it was windy, and it was cold. Joseph, Impy, Pimbot, JRM, Joe Steel, Kyle, Moschica, Fast Eddy, Karen and yours truly wet up against fifteen other teams.

We went in just for kicks but after 2 or 3 laps, we realized we were in 4th place. You know what that means? That means it's a real race now. It's all fun and games until you have a shot at the podium. We bounced between 4th and 5th most of the day and someone said we popped up to 3rd in the middle of the night (I was asleep so I can't confirm) but by morning time we had settled into chasing the 4th place team. There were just a 4 or 5 minutes ahead of us for the rest of the day and on the last lap, they were only 1 1/2 minutes ahead. There was a chance to move up a spot if we could get a good hot lap and it was Joseph's turn to finish off the race.

Joseph had already completed 2 sub hour laps so we hoped, at at first glance, it looked like our rivals had decided not to go for the last lap. We were wrong, they had thrown in their ringer who pulled a 48 min lap. So we ended up 5th of 15 and we were happy with that.

I don't think we even came close to drinking all the beer. Something like 20 gallon, 4 flavors, with a potent whamber that I sampled Friday night that tore stomach up Saturday morning.

Racing a corporate team is quite fun, but you don't get the full mental and physical drain of a 5 man team. It's too easy to sleep with 9 people between laps. Maybe the Trogs can scrounge up a team for the 24 @ Northstar in Aug.

george

Plenty of pictures will be posted tomorrow. Results are up today, including individual lap times.

Looks like while we've been gone, Petacchi has been winning more, Cipo has gone home, and Simone's teammate Cunego has take over the pink jersey.

On the local road scene, the classic Wednesday Night Race is changing to the intermediate course. So instead of the Hawkins loop we're going all the way out Keys road to Cox Ferry and coming back on Turlock Rd. If you get dropped you can always make the cut off on Bledsoe to Looney to Turlock Rd. As always, the ride starts at Cyclemasters in Turlock at 5:30.

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Cc: "Lee MacEachern" ; "Kirk Wallace"
; "Valley Spokesmean Racingt Team"
;
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 2:46 PM
Subject: [VSRT} Regretfully Yours

Hello Erin,

I just left you a voice message and wanted to follow up via an email as well
so you can forward this to upper management at Cal. Outdoor Sports
Championships. I'm also putting this out our Valley Spokesmen Racing Team
email circuit to share my thoughts and feelings with other racers in the Bay
Area. These comments are solely my own and I don't speak on behalf of the
VSRT.

A fellow racer, Lee McEachern, and I pre-road the mtb XC course this
morning. In some 13 years of NORBA Sports-class racing (racing age 58) I've
never encountered such a poor excuse for a mountain-bike race course.
Moreover, from our experience with registration and driving into the
Infineon site, it's clear you folks have done a poor job of organizing this
event.

Basically, what COSC has done is bulldozed some 9 miles of rolling hills
above the Infineon raceway and called it a "mtb XC course." There isn't one
pleasurable section, technical or otherwise, that's worth riding, let alone
racing. What you have is a 9-mile, 20-30 ft-wide patch of unstable, loose
top soil and mowed grass that's ready for crop planting, not a mountain bike
race. Then you have the audacity to charge people $45 plus $10 additional
for parking. In my book this is called a RIP-OFF.

It's hard to believe you are the same people who organize the Sea Otter
Classic, an event I have raced and participated for eight years. When we
drove to the Infineon Raceway, there wasn't even one sign on the road or in
the race area that directed cars or participants to where they needed to go.
Upon entering the main entrance, a security guard made us go back on the
freeway and enter via Gate 7---from which the road took us back to exactly
where we started, wasting some 20 mins. of wandering around the area. Why
wasn't there an official COSC representative greeting people at the main
entrance, rather than a rent-a-cop who obviously didn't have a clue of what
was going on.

After finally finding the rider registration area, we find that COSC had
somehow misplaced the pre-registration packet for my friend Lee McEachern.
After some 30 minutes, the registrars decided to give him a new number.

After more than an hour of dealing with COSC incompetence, we finally got on
the XC course to preride what we hoped would be a new and challenging
experience to enjoy. I'm sure glad we live only 30 minutes away. I pity
those who have to drive hours to get to your "sports event." Judging by the
comments shared by others we met this morning, you folks are going to have a
lot of unhappy participants to deal with.

I hope you have your act together on Sat and Sun when the crowds come,
because right now your event is a major disappointment and a waste of time
and money (we both took off work today). As a result, both Lee McEachern and
have opted not to race this Saturday and Sunday and are requesting a total
refund for our registration fees.

I trust you have the professionalism and responsibility to do what's right.

Regretfully,

Charles Versaggi
President
Versaggi Biocommunications

I'm glad I'll be racing the 24 Hours of Adrenaline with some other Trogs (Colette, Erich, Joseph) and the www.mtbr.com team.

Cipo crashed yesterday, 14 stitches but he's still in the race. I'm still hoping he can get a win this year but with Petacchi tearing it up it's going to be hard to do.

This just in, the new hit soon to climb the charts around the world. Ok, maybe not. But it's funny none the less.

From: David Jensen

Me and friends do a great ride every year from our cabin in Strawberry, following the Tuolumne north fork river to Twain Harte, it follows a old mining rail road track and is very nice, it is about 27 miles total and most of the time downhill, with the last 4 miles on a paved road into Twain Harte all down hill and very fast ( we have had three bad crashes here in the past ). I would say the ride is a intermediate ride. At the end the wife's pick us up in trucks and bring us back to Strawberry for hot tub and beers. I have had up to about 20 people do this ride with me before, with wife's and the youngest being, Oh, maybe 10 years old. I would like to invite as many people from the TROGS who would like to do this ride. The date would be August 14, 2004 and starting time would be about 10 am, from my cabin which is located just a few miles past the exit to Dodge Ridge ski resort. I could make a map to get to the cabin and I could make a map of the ride for those who would like that. Thank You, David Jensen.