Category Archives: Web General

Posts to display as general interest on website

France is a great place to ride, but we might be a close 2nd

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride, Web General

A mild summer in Northern California… it doesn’t get much better than this. Sure, when it’s in the mid-50s at the start of the ride, you should be wearing leg warmers, but that’s not much of a complaint really. No jacket required, dry roads, spectacular views and good people to ride with. That’s what makes every Tuesday & Thursday-morning so nice.

Kevin entering the final part of the Kings Climb, just under 1k to go

Today was (obviously) no exception, which was why it was a bit curious that, at the start, it was just myself, Kevin (my son, not the pilot), Karl & Karen. We were soon joined by Chris, Jim & Marcus, although we didn’t see much of them as we were experimenting with Kevin, keeping his heart rate as steady as possible in an attempt to see if we could avoid him having his now-usual seizure on Kings Mtn. It worked!

As we rode across Skyline it became a ride of attrition, not from the pace but pre-planned early departures. That work & school thing I guess. We’re not sure when Jim disappeared, but on previous rides he just climbed Kings and went back down. Marcus likely dropped off at his house near Skeggs, and Karen, Kevin & Chris all headed down 84, skipping the west-side Old LaHonda loop. Which left… just me and Karl.

Karl on west-side Old LaHonda, with a fog-shrouded coast in the distance

Karl was kind to me today as we rode across west-side Old LaHonda and back up to Skyline, seeing a pretty large rabbit along the way and the usual beautiful views of the coast.

We’re going to do 4 more rides keeping Kevin’s heart rate steady and below 180, and if there are no seizures, the next step will be to go back to full-speed mode and see what happens. If they come back, then we can be pretty sure that adrenalin is a significant trigger for his episodes.

But what about France? It was only a few short weeks ago that I was thinking I’d take a year or two off from visiting France and the ‘Tour, but now I’m already thinking about getting in shape to do even-tougher rides than we did this year. We’d be in the Pyrenees in 2012 and now that we know we can knock off a 100+ mile ride with over 13,000ft of climbing, I can look at France in a whole new way. Previously, I’ve done rides centered around watching the ‘Tour come through, but now we can really see France at the same time. For so many years I was mostly self-limited to rides of maybe 100k, but no more. It’s time to step things up a notch. Just 11 months to go!

Riding with a few close friends (named Andy & Jens)

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Web General
My close buddies Jens & Andy

It was so cool, like I was a pro myself! Trek sets up some of their dealers on a 25 mile ride with Jens Voight and Andy Schleck, with a van in front taking pictures of us as we spend some face time with the guys, and then about 10 miles in I flatted and the group goes on but they send Jens back to pace me back up, and the two of us time-trialed our way back to the group despite Andy’s instincts taking over and driving the speed up to an insane pace, taking advantage of my misfortune in an attempt to keep me out of the final sprint.Well, it could have happened. 🙂 Yes, they set us up on a fun ride with the guys, as you can see in the photo, and yes, I got a flat, but no, they didn’t send one of the best cyclists in the world (possibly the best cyclist in the world to call upon if you need help getting paced back to the front) to help out. Instead, I watched as they faded into the distance as I quickly work to repair the tube (dang, wish I had a frame pump ‘cuz C02 doesn’t cut it for getting just a small amount of air in at first to aid in proper installation) and chase. Fortunately, a Trek rep, Dustin, dropped back to help get me going, and fortunately for Dustin, a support guy in a van dropped back to help Justin figure out how to make it back to Trek’s facility in Waterloo, where the ride started.

Never did catch back up, which was surprising to me because we were pushing fairly hard, vs a large number of people not all of whom were in the best of shape but did have the benefit of drafting behind Jens, Andy, and a car. I’m not convinced they didn’t take a shorter route back than we did though. All in all, a nice ride, beautiful day (by Wisconsin standards; probably low 80s and high humidity by bay area standards but pretty moderate out here) and best of all, they were serving Brats at the end!

I was hoping to have Jens or Andy sign my brother Steve’s jersey as we were riding though, something they wouldn’t buy into, thinking it might be a bit too risky. Even had a wide felt tip pen with me! Would have made for a great photo, but maybe some other time.

One interesting memory from the ride- shortly before my flat, Andy drops back for a “natural break” (taking a leak). When he returns, instead of riding up the left side of the group, he’s out there in the gravel on the right shoulder. Yikes. No big deal to him. I’m thinking shredded tires, crashing in gravel, nothing good comes from riding off the side of the road. But these are the same guys you see putting on jackets while flying downhill through corners at 50mph. –Mike–