I'm Going Back to Cali

Hi all,

Just got back from an amazing trip out to California to train with my Boulder team, Horizon Organic. Four of us made the trip out to NorCal to ride bikes, hang out and check out a couple stages of the Tour of California.

I'll post some pictures very soon, but here are the stats: 8 days, 40 hours ride time, 505 miles of riding, 40,000 feet of climbing.

One of my teammates, Dave, is an employee at Google and sort of hosted the trip out in Mountain View, which is where he spends quite a bit of time for his job. If you've never made the trip to that part of the country, I STRONGLY recommend it.

The riding is incredible. The roads and terrain are wildly overgrown. Most of the time you feel like you're riding through a rainforest, with huge mossy trees, banana slugs, salamander looking things, lush tree canopies and some of the best bike riding I've ever come across. Many times we would climb and climb and soon (after 15 miles of climbing), we'd be above the cloudline.

The Bay area is sweet, with great restaurants and an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. For the first few days of our trip the weather held pretty well but then the rain set in for the remaining 5 days or so. We stayed determined to fight on our bikes, despite the weather, and so we put in some very, very difficult days in the saddle (think wind, rain, cold, hail and assorted other conditions). It was often times "warm" enough (50's) to sweat up to the top of a climb, only to get frozen on the descent. This sort of freeze thaw cycle is bad for asphalt and bad for our bones. Towards the end of the week we were hopeful that the weather would turn in our favor, but alas, no such luck.

We got to see a couple of Tour de California stages and we had fun picking out the local Boulder riders from the peloton, including several former riders from my team, Fred Rodriguez and Scott Tietzel. Following the first individual time trial stage we stopped by Palo Alto Bike Shop. I was looking at some wool socks, turned around and saw that Mario Cipollini was standing behind me. Pretty soon there was a crowd gathered around watching him shop at the shop.

Watching those guys climb up Mt. Hamilton and Sierra Grade made really appreciate the speed and finesse that top level professionals can carry, even 90 miles into a road race. They whisked past us and were smooth as silk, despite the road gradient (20-23% in some areas) and the pace that the leaders were setting. Besides seeing the racers, hanging out on the slopes of Sierra with our bikes, wine and sandwiches made me long for a stage or three of the Vuelta Espana. The rolling caravan, half a dozen helicopters and ravenous fans screaming the names of their favorites had a decidedly European feel to the day.

After a dedicated training camp I'm feeling back on the ball, I mean bike and I've even begun working on my cycling tan lines that drive the groupies crazy. ;)

So...back to the grind we go. The race season starts out here in a few weeks, the
weather is starting to change for the better (and hopefully for the permanent) and we're all getting tuned in for the next chapter of riding, training and racing.

Stay tuned for the pics and video coming very soon...