Bicycles & me -

I've been riding bikes as long as I can remember. From the first time that I figured out you could move a lot faster on a tricycle by pushing it like a scooter, to these days when I'm wondering which bike to take out, they've remained a constant in my life.

They really shouldn't be, I'd guess. Two of my worst accidents came while riding bicycles. One was not too terribly long ago; two broken wrists on my Winter Solstice Ride in December of 2000 (the other came while I was in 7th grade; pretty extensive abrasions & lots of sewing for the doctors in emergency - they thought I'd been in a motorcycle accident, but that's another story).

I rang in the year 2001 with two fresh casts on my forearms. During the time they remained on, I realized it was the longest stint I went without riding in recent memory. Plus, Tashi was pretty upset that I kept clonking her when trying to pet her.

Bikes have been there at the best times in my life as well. Back in the winter of 1983, one of the things which formed the core of mental and physical recovery from addiction was a mountain bike. It was one of the things that kept me sober. Plus, discovering the trails was a heck of a lotta fun.

I even managed to work in the bike industry for a while, although I'm not directly attached to it right now. That was an enjoyable gig, surrounded by technology & equipment that deeply captivates me. Plus, looking up at a trade show and seeing Eddy Merkcx three feet away, sitting in on a dinner with Greg Lemond and other encounters with some pretty famous and accomplished riders during the past few years has been icing on the cake. It's humbling to meet the people who suffered deeply and went so fast, while the rest of us simply suffered deeply.

There have been a few races over the years. Maybe I'll dig back into the archives and find the photos from the "Reseda-To-The-Sea-and-Back" which was my first mountain bike race (and truth be told, my first ever official bike race - suffering badly and out of water for the whole 2nd half.) Off the top of my head, there was the "Coyote Derby" and "High Road to China Camp" with an amazing come-from-behind victory by Joe Murray. Plus there was a "Rockhopper" in there in '85, and its evil twin the "Rumpstomper" . . . My goodness, there were plenty of great races on good course and people moving bikes much, much faster than I could. Still, I had fun, and probably took a couple much too seriously, given where I ended up finishing.

Demands of work grew a bit, and there was a bit of a layoff from riding (all before I managed to work in the bike industry), and the attendant lack of fitness. Somehow spurred back into action one winter night when overweight and out of shape, I got fed up with my inactivity and went for a walk around the block. It helped that we were living out in the country and our block was probably 3 miles around. But, that winter, I got back on the bike, and have stayed pretty committed since. That spring, I managed to end up racing an obscure little event called the "Sea Otter Classic" (the spring showpiece was still the "Cactus Cup") , and have managed to keep racing each year since then. My favorite races have been the Napa Valley Dirt Classic and Boggs Mountain Bash.

This year may be a bit different, racewise. As of 3/21/01, I'd only really ridden for a good week. My wrists are still sore and my arms feel a bit weak. It hurts when I take a good shot from the trail, and I'm not really sure they'd be up for the pounding of a 2 hour plus race. After riding today, I'm trying to peer into the future a bit and see where my fitness and wrists will be in four weeks.

5/14/01 -
Rereading and rewriting some of this page, I must say that sadly, I missed my first Boggs Mtn Bash in a few years. Skipped the NVDC as well. I'm sure there will be a race in there I'll attend, but for some reason, I'm think toward the CX season this fall. We'll see how that goes.
It was only this past week of riding that the actions began to become innate once more. As Greg Lemond has said, " it never hurts any less, you just go faster" I'm not sure I'm going that much faster yet, but at least my wrists don't buckle on sharp hits.

2/15/03 -
Some minor updates to reflect the past year or so...

The wrists did heal, by the way.

Boggs Mtn Bash was cancelled for 2002, with promises to be restarted. So far, I haven't seen much about it.

Sea Otter Classic just keeps getting bigger each year, and I think (despite my gasping to the contrary while doing it) that the finishing bit makes a better course (of course, that was referring to the 2002 Otter Course - they went and changed it back in 2003...)

The Napa Valley Dirt Classic remains quite a challenge.

That was about it for summertime races.

Finally got my stuff together to do Cross, and the Lemond Poprad finally got the taste of mud in anger. Spent some time running, got sick, and then got shown that my prep wasn't nearly enough at the first race (EBCX#2). Ran some more, found harder things to run up while carrying my bike, and felt better as the racing progressed. EBCX#3, NCNCA Districts, CCCP all followed. The CX Nats were held in Napa, so I jumped into the "C" race and got pulled just as I was starting to feel good. But, about 2/3rds of the field did too...

After getting summarily dropped at the Cherry Pie Criterium in February of 2002, I decided to do the Early Bird Crit/Mentoring Series in Fremont. It's a series of 5 weeks, consisting of skills clinics and drills coached by experienced riders. It was extremely helpful, especially for someone like me who has never really had much specific guidance in road racing. I got dropped the first week, then got a little smarter and better each week. Had planned for an appearance at the Cherry Pie this February, but other events conspired to defeat that.

I seem to have come into a couple of interesting bikes, and finally am finishing up my first fixed-gear project.

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