Monday, January 26, 2009

Long Beach Crit

Photos

Thanks for the pics Carson. Good to see you out there representin’ in the 4’s field.

Dano, Mitch and I did what we came to do – get our feet wet for next weekend. I had nearly forgotten what it was like to go hard for 45 minutes straight. The 30+ 3/4 race was 100 strong. There was a pile-up on lap 5, but after that everyone stayed upright. We all moved around the pack, sometimes on the front, and got the blood lactate elevated. The bell lap was a typical Nascar hustle, especially with a backstretch headwind slowing things up. I opted to finish with all of my skin and race on the home course next weekend.

Hope everyone got some good training on this clear day. Next weekend should be fun.

Ken

Monday, January 19, 2009

Chicken Ranch Goes Exploring (The Helmet Cam Lives!)

Last Sunday's mountain bike ride took the group on a frontside trail adventure. Most of these trails nobody in the group had ever been on. Complete with the first visit to a grave site. Matt suspects some wealthy lady buried her cat there. Enjoy the audio visuals.





Saturday, January 17, 2009

Happy Birthday Esquire!

Where was the cake? I showed up rode up the freeway and turned around and obviously missed a bit of action. Good seeing everyone today for a short while, I'll get in better shape and try and keep up soon. Those of you healing up, heal quickly!

Hello Everyone,
This ride certainly lived up to it's billing. It was an Epic!

We had more mishaps than expected but that just adds to the "epic-ness" of the ride. I'm happy to report that Rick Martz is OK with no broken bones. Just major bumps and bruises. Robert Ramirez is in the market for a new 2009 kit since he left most of his old one on the Jalama Beach Rd. pavement. There's more to the Ramirez drama but I'll get to that later. David Jurist was able to saddle back up and finish strong after his little meeting with the street.

I'll bet we could do that ride fifty more times and never get weather that nice again. Perfect temperatures, no wind, courteous drivers... that was awesome!

Without Randy in the Chicken Rig, today could've been a disaster. We might still be out there! Randy you have officially fulfilled your team community service requirements for the rest of your life. You were absolutely phenomenal! Thank you so much!



We have to thank the Pros who came out and throttled us today. Reminding us all why they are Pros and we're.....not Pros. Tim Johnson, Jesse Anthony, Kim Anderson, Ken Hansen, Phil Southerland, and Joe ? (I can't remember your last name). You guys we're great. Thanks for putting up with a bunch of amateurs for the day. You pushed us all to the limit, and pulled us all the way home.

We covered 111 miles in 6 hours with 6500ft of climbing. Not too shabby for a days work! Dave Lettieri thought he was the official "Winner" of today's ride after his crafty late ride attack on Cathedral Oaks got him through the Fairview traffic light just as it was turning yellow. But there was a protest and video review shows that he left Jalama Beach 30 minutes ahead of the group so he was unceremoniously DQ'd and the victory was given to.....Kim McDaniel. Even though he did technically "cheat" by having his wife pick him up at the intersection of the 101 and hwy 1. and drive him to the Chicken Ranch. But since today was his birthday that small discrepancy was overlooked and the victory is his. Congrats Kim!

Great to see Jose Murillo, Ray Turon, and Gabe Garcia all of the "Ventura Chapter" make the drive to ride with us. You guys did great! Except for Gabe he just did OK.

So as Kate Meehan is riding back along the 101 she happens upon a CHP on the side of the road with a mangled road bike with blood on it and a confused look on his face. He said, "We can't find the body to go with this bike?" Kate made a quick call to Randy in the truck and was able to confirm that it was indeed Robert Ramirez's bike that had fallen off the roof rack! It had blood on it from Robert's earlier crash. The officer was relieved at having solved the mystery with relatively little investigative effort and proceeded on his way. Randy and Robert on the other hand had to turn around and drive back to pick up Robert's bike.



I had a blast today riding and suffering with all of you. I can't wait 'till we do it again! I'll send all the pictures to Knowles so he can post them on the blog. I didn't get that many so if you have a few please send them to Greg or I when you get a chance.
More adventures tomorrow! See all you MTB'rs bright and early at 7:00am at ROCO.

Thanks for a great day!

Matt

Congratulations Super Susie & The Rest of The Gibralter Chickens

Hey Chickens,


I have to say that this was the best best first race to start to the season

yet. The scenery was unbelievable (the ocean that is), the CR team did a

fabulous job representin" the local race scene and the roads were smoothe.

I had a good race and was pleased with the results and want give kudos to

Luke and Randy for getting' all my various layers of shtuff to the top! :)



Thanks also to Carson for hangin' out at the finish and bringin' swag for us

girls back to the shop. It's nice that he's willing to hang with and shoot

the amateurs every once in a while!



Also, for those of you who left to go home, the highlight of the race was

when a rider from the SLO Wheelmen team finished on his single speed. His

chain broke on his road bike within 100 yards of the start wherein he ran 1

mile to his car to get his single speed and running shoes on to finish the

next 5 miles in. Now that's effort! He said he only had to run around a

couple of the switchbacks, but otherwise it was good for him.

Congrats to all who raced, congrats to Kim who won her age group (we know

how much she loves the hills) and let's not forget to welcome the new kid,

Scott Hicks!



Susie

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Support Mountain Biking In The National Parks

Below is a copy of an email that is going around. I thought it important to post so it gets maximum exposure. I hope you join in on the cause.

Call for support of National Park Service Proposal

Please support this proposal..

Today, you have the opportunity to change the world!!! Yes You!!!! The National Parks are an absolute gem and yet in most National Parks you cannot ride your bicycle. Please take 4 minutes and read the following on how you can send a note to the National Park Service to support this rule change.

The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has proposed an important rule change that will make it easier for parks to open trails to mountain biking. IMBA has been asking the NPS to make this change since the 1990s We now enter a 60-day commentary period to make the change official.

I ask that you register comments in support of the new rule. IMBA has made it easy for you to lend support by filling out an online letter.

http://go.imba.com/site/R?i=ALR4eHw-Dr6IIAPDVrED6A


We know that several groups are working hard to defeat this proposal. It will take thousands of comments supporting the NPS to ensure the rule is approved. Please lend your voice to the discussion today. For a more detailed outline and a white paper analysis of the proposed change go to IMBA.com or

http://www.imba.com/news/action_alerts/12_08/12_18_nps.html

Why am I asking this of you?
1 . This proposal achieves a more manageable and efficient system for adopting mountain bike trails in National Parks.
2. Cycling in National Parks is a way to connect people with the natural world. Something you cannot do from the seat of your car.
3. Shared-use trails have proven successful in thousands of locations, including many federally managed parks.
4. This proposal will make history. Your children and grandchildren will read about it and enjoy the benefits for years to come.

So many people have helped get this proposal this far in the process. Now it's your opportunity to lend a hand and make a historic difference. Please ask your family members and friends to sign the proposal as well. The more support we give, the better our change of passing the new proposal.

Let's make history.

Monday, January 5, 2009

More Catch Up

OMS had this report from his New Years Day exploits. Pretty cool!

New Year’s Day Ride at Long Beach Marina.

By tradition, hundreds of riders meet at Long Beach Marina for 800 AM start of an unsanctioned ride from LB to Dana Point and return. Ride and course description: http://www.veloallegro.org/content/rides-races/rides/ride-nyd.html

Weather was calm, chilly and foggy. Pace was fast from the start; 25+MPH the norm. Most stop lights were blown by the 1.5 lane wide, quarter mile long peleton. Car traffic was light. Course on 101 is fairly flat and fast with the exception of a few small hills in Laguna. Distance from start to Dana Point about 34 miles. Approximate time to DP 1:20 = 25 MPH average. It was not especially difficult to maintain high rate of speed among this large bulk of riders. Though eventually, over 90 miles, along with many surges, the effort was substantial. Due to the high number of riders of widely varying abilities and fast pace, this ride is chancier than most. That said, I only saw one rider take a minor fall. I was also bumped slightly by an overtaking rider when I moved over a few inches to position myself behind the rider ahead. No harm done, but a reminder how quickly it can go wrong. Most riders seemed relatively capable. In summary, the ride to DP was very fast. At Dana Point some riders, including me, rode an additional approximately 20 mile loop. The loop was somewhat slower and there were quite a few stop lights which our now smaller group (100 or so) obeyed. However, once we hit 101 in Newport Beach, approximately 17 miles to home, it was “on”. I hung on about ten miles to Bolsa Chica when my legs finally blew. About 10 other riders were also dropped and we regrouped for the final 6 miles. Total miles 91.5; average speed 21.5 (including many stops; slow ride to and from start). Off at 800, home just after 1200. Similar rides: Ride For Roses with Fastrack in 2005.

Side note: my Long Beach, 1970’s era, Handball player friend, Bruce, showed me a turn of the century Columbia Model One Chainless bicycle he acquired by chance through a real estate transaction. Pix attached.



Columbia History: http://www.columbiamfginc.com/columbia_history.html

Columbia Ad and picture: http://www.jimlangley.net/brake/columbia02.html

Likely forgotten for decades in storage, it was in excellent rideable condition.


Steve

I'm Catching Up!

I have some catching up to do. The holidays and this job thing have been keeping me from what should be my biggest priority, The B Team Blog. I apologize to the 1 faithful reader I have, whoever you are.

So here is a ride report from before Christmas!

Hello,

If you were sleepin' in you missed a good one! We started out with about 18 riders. 8 of us did the Solvang Loop and the rest did the Paradise road loop. The climb up Old SM was actually enjoyable and Dano and Larsen did a good job of setting a nice steady pace and we were able to keep almost the entire group together. The ride down Stage Coach was a little on the chilly side and I heard from Dave that Paradise Rd. was even colder. Those of us on the Solvang loop were pleasantly surprised with nice temperatures and lots of sunshine. The ride ended up being 90 miles with 5,700ft of climbing and took us 5 hours and 30 minutes to complete with one flat tire. It's so nice to ride on some different roads and mix-up the scenery now and then. The riding in the Valley is hard to beat. We did run in to a pretty substantial side wind on the section from Gaviota to Refugio. I wish I could've taken a picture of how far we had to lean over to keep our bikes upright but I needed both hands on the bars to wrestle with my deep-dish wheels. Other than that little section it was smooth sailing. Check out the blog for the rest of the photos. Hopefully seeing pictures of your friends out there doing epic rides is gonna motivate you to get out there next weekend! The more the merrier!

See ya,

Matt