oh, what a beauty

[sorry about the quality of the picture]

ohhh, a new beautiful pearl white gran crit MASI being built up [at iMartin in los angeles]. this little bella is owned by our latest team / club transfer, josephine... oh the joy of riding a new MASI will be all hers come saturday....

easy ride with greg

so yesterday morning greg and i start of on our ride and greg says why don' t we take it easy today, i'm thinking, hmmm ok [what does he have up his sleeve???], he than suggests to take it easy by doing a stoller ride, so we did just about every 'stoller ride we could find in one day... from HQ we headed up nichols canyon to mulholland, up sepulveda, down to ventura to burbank [greg's flatland pace 'take no prisoners' line at +26mph] to garbage hill, back down garbage hill to glendale to franklin to HQ. it was good to have an easy day for once....

giv'em props

[photo borrowed from garhamwatson.com, check out his website and buy something]

i'm not a huge gibo fan, but i have to give him props for being the only one to hang with ivan the terrible today. most of the so called contenders are no longer contenders and rujano wussed out like a punk. i was hoping for more from rujano, what a hugh let down [he may still have a great tour, but whatever]. i'm a huge basso fan, but come july, don't be surprised to see my underdog pick [cadel evans] for the tour, in basso's rearview mirror, sticking to him like glue to a tubular.

[UPDATE] gibo is a punk ass whining lying wuss....

hammy da man

after the ride on sunday i some how found the energy to go see 'over the hedge' with the most beautiful dutch girl in the world [josephine, aka my super model girlfriend] and found that they used me as the inspiration for one of the characters, hammy the squirrel. i am honored to be used as the muse for one of the characters, but a little cash would also be nice......... maybe dreamworks found out that i prefer disney / pixar... opps

sunday ride 2

greg at the top of topanga over looking the valley [getting ready for the descent down to ventura]

sunday 'original hard man' ride

greg and i heading up the east side of topanga canyon


sunday was as chance for greg and i to reconnect with our original hard man ride. we started out from HQ thru l.a. to san vicente to PCH to up topanga canyon to ventura blvd. to HQ. greg 'hard man' jarrett was up to his usual psych-ops and after playing weak all morning, decided that it was a good idea to set a strong tempo and pull me along at 25mph plus during the last 10 miles of a 60 mile [did i mention the climbs] through the valley to HQ. his lead out was so i could practice attacking the last climb before HQ. needless to say i was cooked when i finished. thanks greg 'hard man' for kicking me in the arse and making me actually put in some serious work in the saddle [it did feel good after it was over].


greg heading up topanga [faking that he can't climb....]

saturday ride 2

noah heading up verdugo at speed

weekend rides

noah and i up verdugo

saturday was a great ride, the sun came out and the temperature went up, way up. greg and i finally tricked more people into riding our weekend 'hard man' rides with us. noah was strong and steady, once we point him in the right direction training wise, he will definitely be a force to be reckoned with, who knows, maybe i will be leading him out or setting tempo for him. also tagging along for some pain was isaac and peter, they hung tough on our ride out from team becher+ headquarters in hollywood hills to up verdugo [glendale] then up the backside of la tuna canyon and back via glen oaks to up garbage hill [mt. hollywood] back to HQ. i think i only heard a few faint expletives during the ride, of course i was hoping for some outright f-u becher.... than i know i have done my job well.

san luis rey classic

san luis rey classic was two weekends ago and it went well, even though i didn't get to finish in the lead pack. the race started out fast, at least for me, as i went straight to setting the normal 40+ race start pace, only to look back and see that i had already put 50 meters on the cat 5 pack [the cat 5 started at 10:30am and not 7:30am for the 40+, and the joy of starting over in cat 5, is a welcome change of pace, since all my previous category points were lost after not racing for over 20 years]. so since this was a [3] lap race with some good climbs and i didn't want to TT the whole thing by myself, i slowed up on the first little wall and started to fly down the descent with the pack. the pace was fast, put than again i was with a bunch of 20 somethings, doing 27mph avg on the lower roller section. i hit the start of the first real climb up to the start finish line in the middle of the pack. half way up the climb we caught the 50+ group that started before us and that is when my chances of a top 10 finish vanished, as i was pinched out [yellow line rule in effect] and spent the rest of race motivating the left over pack to take turns setting a good tempo. i found myself doing most of the work for [2] laps, to no avail. the plus to the race was that the sensations in my legs were good, probably the best since racing again and each lap at the top of the long climb i would turn around to see that once again i had left everyone that was riding with me behind. so i spent the upper part of the course on my own climbing, no complaints, as it felt good finally to tempo away from the pack [unfortunately not the fastest guys] on the climb[s]. i give props to the 50+ riders that had the respect to take a pull at the front, even though they couldn't hang at the front for long. the 20 somethings could learn some race ethics from them... and much love and thanks for josephine for showing up to see me race on a sunday in the middle of nowhere.

pack riding

well a few things have happened since my last entry, as you can see from the image. greg and i practiced 'pack riding' by riding each other into steel poles, unlike some teams that practice in a grassy park.....

thanks masiguy

i special shout out to my one of my best friends, teammate, fat [fast] ugly sprinter, confidante, bike sponsor, and blogger extraordinare, masiguy for the inspiration and for helping me get back into the sport of cycling, it has truely saved my life. which might sound a bit dramatic but it has changed my lifestyle, albiet that i have been hit by a car twice since my return to the saddle. [it was a car that ended my U23 potential and any dream of racing in europe]

let the crying begin, oops, i mean fun begin

well this blog has been a long time in the making, i have been talking about it on training rides now for i don't know how long. i had an excepcetial training ride today, it was i believe a stepping stone to the next level of fitness. i powercranked in the big ring the entire route from team becher+ world headquarters in hollywood out to and up la tuna canyon backside to sunland, than up foothill and back via verdugo. it was a great feeling in the legs to get such a strong pull from them and for my mental attitude to stick with it. i have to admit that i have been off my training lately and it has been depressing me. my training partner has had to take a break [greg 'no nick name'] from training and it has been lonely out there yelling at cars by myself and not having him set tempo up sunland like a climbing mad man that he dosen't know he is. his potential for a fast man is unbelievable, i can't wait to see him finally rip it up and smoke the 45+ crowd. i would have to say that my training bank account just got paid some high interest on the investment and thus i felt that this was a perfect time to actually start the blog. one regular feature will have to be a quote of the day from the rantings of greg 'no nick name'.