Monthly Archives: March 2012

Is this YOUR year for a trip to the Tour de France?

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Lourdes, center of Pyrenees Cycling. The brave will buy a map and go on their own. Smart people go TREKTravel!

TREKTravel presentation April 25th in Redwood City! The most-fun and no-hassle way to see the Tour de France.

I’ve been to the Tour de France… 10 times? 11? I’ve lost track. I started the 2nd time Lance won and have missed just one since (in 2008). The first two trips, I was a beta-tester for what would become TREKTravel, and the experience got me hooked.

In the years since, my brother Steve and his wife Teri have done a number of trips with TREKTravel, both domestic and overseas, and look forward to a trip with TREKTravel to Spain this coming June. But since I know the Tour de France like few others, that’s what I’m going to talk about in this post.

“Being there” takes on new meaning on a moutain top at the ‘Tour!

If you haven’t traveled outside the US before, particularly to a place where English isn’t the normal language, I’d highly recommend the TREKTravel option. It’s a “no worries” experience, with every detail covered including choice hotels, transportation, meals… there’s not much you have to think about. They even supply bikes! And not just any bikes, but high-quality TREK Madone road bikes (or a hybrid if you prefer, and on some trips, you can even arrange for an electric-assist model).

Time trials are great opportunities to get photos of your favorites, one at a time

TREK is going to offer a variety of trips to the 2012 Tour de France, and it’s not too late to book one. Yes, they do have a lot more offerings that just Tour de France trips, but since I’m kinda obsessed with France and the ‘Tour, that’s what I’m going to cover here. Leave your navigational and translation skills at home and leave everything to them.

If you want the ultimate French col (mountain) experience, you can’t do better than this. 10 days riding the most-famous climbs in France. The Galibier, Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux, Tourmalet, Peyresourde and one of my favorites, the Port de Bales. In addition you’ll have some beautiful rides through the lavender fields of Provence and rolling farmlands surrounding Lourdes. July 12th-21st, with several opportunities to view the Tour de France (which won’t be visiting Alpe d’Huez or Ventoux this year; you get those as bonus climbs!).

Kevin's getting a "Climber's" jersey signed by Richard Virenque, famous French cyclist, at the depart Village in Pau.

Want something more special? TREKTravel offers a VIP tour that includes access to the Village (the fenced-in pre-race departure area where you’ll be able to get autographs from the racers and mingle with celebrities) and the opportunity to ride the final 50k of a stage a few hours before the race and be photographed atop the podium! I’ve spoken with Chain Reaction customers who have done TREKTravel VIP tours in the past and heard stories of once-in-a-lifetime behind-the-scenes experiences.

TREKTravel has a full array of options for the 2012 Tour de France. And again, they take care of everything, including amazing food & depending upon the trip, even wine tastings! You’ll be getting a wonderful, no-hassle vacation of a lifetime. And if a taste of France isn’t your fancy this year, TREKTravel offers Napa Valley Wine Coutry, Moab, Vermont and a variety of other dream cycling vacations a bit closer to home.

We’ll have an informative evening with TREKTravel people April 25th in our Redwood City location. Click on the image in the upper-left of this piece for the details. Most important things to know are that it’s free and it will be fun!

 Thanks-  –Mike & Steve Jacoubowsky

 

Every day on a bike is great, but today was better

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Tuesday’s ride was was useful after all; you need to define the lowpoint of your season, and that ride delivered! Today was, thankfully, a huge improvement. I felt like my old self again (maybe I should say former self again, as it was Tuesday’s ride I felt seriously old), taking longer to get dropped on Kings, being able to contest a few sprints, and feeling later in the day like my legs actually did something. I even rode up through the park (the tougher way of getting up Kings) without having the honor of watching the fast folk ride off into the distance.

Much of the credit does in fact go to my bike. This morning I was on my Madone 6.9 with its carbon wheels and a frame that says “give me more and we’ll fly up this hill together” instead of that riding-through-sand feel I get on my rain bike. And it’s not as if my rain bike isn’t a nice ride; that 2002 Trek 5900 has taken me to some amazing places and represented state-of-the-art back in the day, but two things are undeniable. First, the current Madone 6-series bike is so good it leaves you wondering what they could possibly come up with to replace it. Second, the 5900 is set up for the elements, with heavy tires designed for traction in the wet (which they deliver) but at the expense of liveliness. OK, there is a third item. I’m getting older and need all the help I can get!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a roll call, but I’m going to try and get back in the habit. We had Kevin (son, not the pilot), Nigel, Karen, Karl, Todd & Eric. Not as many as Tuesday’s ride, when George, Jon, Kevin (pilot) and Marcus were witnesses to my season’s low-point.

I really did feel good this morning. Compared to the others, nothing to write home about, but just being able to get that feeling that my legs hurt because they were doing something more than just turning the pedals because they had to… they were turning the pedals because they wanted to. I live for that feeling.

Who is this “Don Draper” guy anyway?

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My reference to Don Draper in yesterday’s post may not make sense to people. Who is Don Draper? What is Mad Men? Short answer: The TV show I most look forward to watching. Why? Because you’ve never understood the Don Drapers of the world, but it all comes together in the show. Because it showcases the era your parents were the age you are now; you see glimpses of your father. You understand why he bought Chevy Impalas, where the expression “3 Martini lunch” comes from. And you get to ponder whether you’re watching it because Don Draper is a total train wreck or a mastermind.

Here’s a brilliant flow-chart someone did tht sums up the entire series, so you can break in at any time and feel like you know what’s going on.

Don Draper in Mad Men has it right

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A big group this morning, probably waiting about 5 minutes for my arrival at the top of Kings. I've got work to do!

If this is what 56 feels like, I can’t wait to be 57! I’d like to say it was fun this morning, but that’s not quite the right adjective. “Fun” lost out as a description in so many ways, beginning with a mistaken weather report that said rain from 7am-on (it’s 1:30pm presently and rain has yet to make an appearance) so we rode our heavier, slower, less “fun” rain bikes… in my case, my 5900, which is a pretty nice machine, except that I’ve got tires on it that are suited for uber-nasty conditions but feel like you’re riding through sand. It also wasn’t much “fun” when you round the corner to view the first big hairpin going up Kings (at the halfway point), looking forward to seeing how far ahead the rest of the riders are… but there are none in sight. Hate that! It means that I’m already over a minute down from the next-slowest rider on the climb.

It’s at moments like these that you start searching for an appropriate tune in your head, something that matches both your pace and your predicament. Sadly, I could not recall enough of the lyrics from Procol Harum’s “About to Die” to carry the tune. Maybe I should have gone for ELP’s “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” Or, if things were really dire, Procol Harum’s “Still There’ll Be More” (warning: the lyrics are a bit, er, harsh).

It’s funny too when you’re looking at the elapsed time and thinking, well, I’m still at this point on the climb and they just finished. Actually, even though there remained 4 or 5 minutes to go when that thought hit me, it was encouraging. Not that much further to go! I started thinking about how you feel better as you get into the ride, and if I could survive to west-side Old LaHonda I’d be feeling pretty good! And to the extent that simply surviving that far was an accomplishment, I was feeling better. And at the end of the ride, I felt a lot better than I would have had I not ridden.

But note to self: I’m not going to let myself get so out of shape and gain so much weight next time I’m off the bike for 10 days!

Oh, the Don Draper remark? In the recent season opening episode, a surprise birthday party is thrown for Don, whom we discover doesn’t do birthdays. I can relate to that. But a surprise birthday party at only 40 years old, as if that’s a big thing? I had one at 50, and got to admit my wife did a pretty impressive job with it, but it didn’t change my mind about birthdays in general. Judge me by what I can do, not how old I am. That thinking might change as I get older and even slower.  –Mike–

10 days off the bike, ouch!

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A very wet scene at the Pescadero bakery/market

It was with no small amount of fear & trepidation that I approached today’s ride, one that could not be avoided no matter what the weather brought. Why? 10 days off the bike, that’s why! I hadn’t ridden since a week ago Thursday, due to my trip to the DC Bicycle Summit. And while there, I ate too much, excercised too little, and came back to see a number on the scale I haven’t seen in a couple years, and it’s not even “winter” anymore.

Tell that to the weatherman. The winter part. I held off a bit, since the forecast was for the rain to stop by 10am and stay away until 3. I can live with that; just enough time for a quick run out to Pescadero and return via Tunitas Creek. And since it wasn’t raining when I left, I brought out the nice bike (Madone) instead of the rain bike. And it stayed dry… until I approached the top of Old LaHonda, and descending the other side it went from a drizzle to light rain. And that beautiful view of the coast from west-side Old LaHonda? Just gray clouds and rain.

How did it feel climbing Old LaHonda? Not as bad as I thought it would. No, that’s not true, it felt every bit as bad as I thought it would, it just went a bit faster than I thought it might. I was expecting 25 minutes and it was about 23, probably because I had spotted someone climbing up the hill behind me and didn’t want to get caught. According to Strava I paid for that, with an average heart rate a bit higher than normal (143 instead of 135).

Descending 84 towards LaHonda I hit the first of two cloudbursts. Really heavy rain that made it tough to see where I was going, and made me wish I’d brought a cycling hat to keep the rain out of my eyes. I was seriously considering shortening the ride by either turning up West Alpine or heading straight out to San Gregorio instead of Pesadero. I even thought of simply turning around at LaHonda and heading back up 84! But the plan is the plan, follow the plan. How close did I come to cutting it short? So close that I skipped the “shortcut” through LaHonda to Pescadero Road, thinking at that point that I’d do the straight shot out to San Gregorio instead. I came to my senses only when I got to the regular instersection.

Always nice to ride Tunitas after a good rain; the creek becomes alive!

One more brief downpour just prior to Pescadero, after which things cleared up nicely! Thank goodness, since I needed to dry out. But of course the rain wasn’t through with me yet; the final 3 miles of Tunitas Creek were essentially riding into a cloud, complete with rain, fog and even hail. This continued all the way to the bottom of Kings Mtn, at which point I finally saw the promised weather… for the last 5 miles of my ride. :-)

The stats? They got a bit messed up. I know the mileage (about 57), but the combination of heavy cloud cover and changing barometric pressure did a number on my Garmin, such that it significantly under-reported elevation gain and the profile showed a couple of cliffs that I apparently scaled. But it’s not as if this isn’t a ride I haven’t done a hundred times before.

Friends in high places

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A visit to Congress on behalf of cyclists has the potential to feel like an exercise in futility; for whatever reason, leadership in the House of Representatives decided to specifically target all-things-cycling for elimination from federal funding on the grounds that it’s frivolous. Frivolous?

Representative Jackie Speier with Gary Fisher at the DC Bicycle Summit lobbying event. Jackie has been a supporter of cycling from Day 1.

Tell that to car-bound commuter stuck in traffic because it’s not possible to build enough roads and parking lots in a city and still have a place to live.

Tell that to downtown stores and restaurants that can’t stay in business because the lack of space has driven rents through the roof.

Tell that to a new generation that may become fat & lazy because it’s not safe for kids to ride or walk to school, so they’re driven everywhere.

Tell that to anyone paying nearly $5/gallon for gas because our need for fuel has driven up the cost.

Tell that to a cyclist who’s been injured by a car because the roads aren’t built to accomodate all users.

Fortunately, the two Representatives local to Chain Reaction, Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo, get it. And fortunately, when the House leadership (Representatives Boehner and Mica) decided that cycling infrastructure and Safe Routes to Schools programs were frivilous, thousands of people responded. We heard that the kickback from cyclists was far beyond anything Boehner and Mica were prepared for and, as a result, there will likely be a 3-month extension of the current highway funding bill, keeping our programs intact. During that 3 months, the House and Senate will be getting together to hammer out a bill acceptable to both, and it is hopeful that, while we’ll share our burden of the current financial situation, we won’t be completely gutted as things originally appeared.

To all of our customers who responded to an earlier email request for help (by calling or emailing your representative), all 800 cycling advocates who worked “The Hill” in DC on March 22nd, thank you. We have proved ourselves capable of a good fight, and that alone is worth a lot of value when fighting for our rights to the road and our desire to make our communities friendlier to all who live there. The battle is not over, but with the help of the cycling community, we will prevail. –Mike–

Will I see the cherry blossoms in DC?

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Two very long days down (and that’s not counting a travel day getting here), two more to go! The first two were spent in board meetings for the National Bicycle Dealer Association, our industry’s attempt to improve the quality of bicycle retailers to ensure our survival in a world that gets tougher for business every day.

The next two are designed to improve conditions for our customers, although with the current climate here in DC, status quo will be considered a victory.


It is Washington DC though, and what would a trip to DC be without a sighting of the President? I’ll let you know when that happens because for now all I’ve got are shots of two cars with darkened windows and no idea which he was in. –Mike–

Location:W Virginia Ave,Bethesda,United States

I’ve been here before…

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You don’t want to fly with me if you’re not into long hikes through airports. I’m on my way to DC for the annual bike summit, where this year we get to beg and plead for congress to not eliminate all bike & pedestrian funding, which means a week off the bike. Yuck. But it also means Gate 89. The last gate at the end of SFOs long United pier. My flight was originally scheduled out of Gate 73, adjacent to security. Somehow, United keeps track of me and makes sure I get my exercise at the airport.

Flying first to Newark, aboard a “real” United plane not-yet-painted with the “deathstar” logo of the recent merger with Continental. Then a puddle jumper to DC and metro ride to my hotel in Bethesda. Why Bethesda and not DC? About 150 dollar bills per night difference, that’s why! For that I can handle a 16 minute Metro ride into downtown DC. Save that money for bike stuff. :-)

Meantime watching a steady stream of passengers from first class using our bathroom in coach. Why is it a “security issue” for coach passengers to use their bathroom but they can use ours?

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Yelp strikes again- Now it’s fake businesses

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Yelp reviews a biz just down the street from us... only it's not there

I’ve had a hate/hate relationship with Yelp for some time, starting with their extortion attempts a few years ago to get better listings (by paying $300/month per location to put your best reviews up top) and continuing with at least one local shop that essentially pays people for positive reviews. Well today we have something new. Click on the thumbnail for the larger picture of a Yelp review (the original can be found here if it’s still up) for a Singaporean restaurant at 1 Maple Street. 1 Maple Street is the leasing office for the large apartment complex next door to us; there is not, nor has there ever been, a restaurant at that corner.

Friday night (March 16th) I flagged the reviews and added one of my own. It will be interesting to see how long it stays in place.

Yes, we rode Thursday

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Hate it when the diary entries are a day or two behind! You’d think the rain would slow business down enough that I’d have plenty of time to keep up, but we’ve actually been pretty busy with Trek Project One special orders (higher-end road bikes) and trying to make sure everything’s set before heading to DC for the annual bike lobbying event.

Kevin and I were met by Karen and Eric at the start of the ride; typical of many rides lately, we had a bit of drizzle, but thankfully not as cold as it’s been lately. We made it up Kings to the park entrance when Kevin tells me he’d forgotten to take his epilepsy meds, which is not a good thing (and, thankfully, very rare). Rather than risk anything happening, we sent Karen and Eric on their way (OK, Kevin sent them on their way; I didn’t have enough in my legs to catch up to them to let them know) and headed back to the house, where Kevin took his meds and then we went off again, this time heading out Alameda to Sand Hill, back up through Woodside, Canada Road and home. Only 26 miles (instead of 31) and a whole lot less climbing. Much better than just cancelling the ride though!

After a very strong December, January and February, it’s looking like March is just not going to be much of a month for me. Rain putting a dent in longer rides, cold doing a number on my breathing, and now a week off the bike as I head for DC Sunday morning. By the end of this month I may be fat but I’m not going to be happy.