THE JERSEY has arrived

I became a fan of Slipstream Chipotle last year when I saw them in the 2007 Tour of California. I'm even more of a fan now. They are doing great things for cycling's reputation and they have some very talented riders. You can see Steven Cozza (mustache man) sporting the kit below in the 2008 Tour of California.

I decided to wait on getting their unusual (orange and blue argyle) kit until the new version came out this year. It turned out to be a slightly painful and comical wait. I received an email notification from Teamcyclist.com in early March that said the Slipstream kits would be available to ship on March 11th.

I didn't place my order and I'm glad I didn't. Upon each successive trip back to the website the expected ship date had moved a couple of days to the right. March 11 became March 16 then 19, 23, 31, then April 4, 5....26! You've got to be kidding me! The expected ship date went from March 11 to April 26 in 2 and 3 day increments for about a month and a half. Isn't there a better way to do this? I thought this was insanity.

Pearl Izumi, the Slipstream clothing outfitter wasn't much better. I couldn't find one mention of their sponsorship of Slipstream anywhere on their website, not one word. You would think they would be proud to represent one of the top U.S. teams and a transparently clean team at that. Now the only thing Pearl Izumi has on their website is a little tab with the title "shop Slipstream." I'm not a web designer, but with today's technology, it seems their website needs some improvement.

Enough complaining...on to the good stuff. The bib shorts aren't available yet, but the jersey and socks are...

UPS came yesterday and it felt like Christmas! I thought it was fitting that the jersey came yesterday since at the end of yesterday's stage at the Tour of Georgia Slipstream was position 1, 2 and 3 in the GC overall. 1. Trent Lowe (there little 135 lb Australian climber), 2. Dave Zabriskie (TT specialist, U.S. TT champ and all arounder) and 3. Christian Van de Velde (all arounder as well as a great TT rider). Tom Danielson, their other pure climber is coming back in to form and is 17 seconds off the GC coming into today's decisive stage that finishes on Brasstown Bald! Levi will be really tough to beat and he's only 4 seconds off of GC.


This first glimpse of the orange and blue.


The jersey and socks.


The socks in the longer style that is popular now. I'm just looking forward to an awesome tan line. Cezanne loves quirky socks and she honestly wants a pair of these.


And the jersey is on! This is a medium and it's actually a good fit. Standing up it is a little tight, but in the bike position, it's actually not as form fitting and there is extra material in the chest and stomach area. It's tough to get something to be absolutely perfect. I don't own any Assos cycling clothing, but apparently they've mastered the "it doesn't fit correctly standing up" but "it perfectly melds to you when in the riding position."

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Unfortunately I don't have my road bike, it is with Trek and they are working on my "crash replacement" issue since I've got a nice score in my top tube. I can guarantee I'm not wearing this jersey on my townie. I'll have to think about getting my mountain bike back operational. They only problem is that I'll need a new seat post, new rear tire and tube, new pedals, and new mountain biking shoes. That can easily be upwards of $500. We'll see.

Trip to Monterey

I have to try to "one up" JW with that pic he posted of the cute puppy. Puppy always trumps full grown dogs in cuteness, but I love these 2.

Cezanne and I made our way up to Monterey a couple of weeks ago. I had to go up there for a 5 day Human Resources Officer course at the Naval Postgraduate School. We went up early and spent Saturday and Sunday enjoying Monterey. It was a little warmer than usual, so it was absolutely beautiful. As usual, we had some great food and did a little bike riding and hiking.

We chose a little less extreme hike and walked around Point Lobos Park, just south of Carmel. It was beautiful.




We caught a glimpse of a lot of seals and a few sea otters. This guy was rolling up to shore.



There were a lot of "neat" little areas along the trail that I tried to capture with a photo, but it just doesn't seem to do it justice.



Another one of those neat areas...


Looks like spring in Pacific Grove! We had a really nice ride. We didn't go as far as we did when we were on our honeymoon, but it was fun. We got some great views of the coast, the pink coast. Cezanne won the King of the Mountains and the Sprinters jersey. She's a wizard on the bike! :)

Ahhh...the good stuff. We had a great little picnic on the grass overlooking the coast. We picked up some prepared foods from Whole Foods since it was easy and we brought a 1/2 bottle of one of our favorite wines. From left to right: Our reading materials, Oprah's Magazine for me and Velonews (cycling magazine) for Cezanne. Mango, ciabatta bread and cheese, mixed olives, mixed berries, water bottles (tried to keep our wine in the shade), and our wine in their perfect cup holders, my shoes.

It was a great trip as usual. Cezanne and I are working towards retiring in Carmel. I heard property is dirt cheap there.

An interesting week

My highschool buddy Mike came down from Los Angeles a few weekends ago to do some hiking. We decided to pick out something rigorous, so we decided on an 11-mile round trip hike to the peak of El Cajon (pronounced kahon for you non-Californians) Mountain. The weather was perfect, in the mid to high 60s. You can see the peak in the background to the left in the below pic.

There were big boulders all along the hike and the last 1/2 mile of the hike was on a pseudo trail that entailed a lot of bouldering.

A pic on the way down.

The hike was tough. I would have gladly done a 50-mile bike ride than do that hike. What made the hike extra special was what we found when we got back down to my 4Runner: a busted window and missing power tools!

What are you going to do? Note to self: Don't leave a "Ryobi" bag visible in your back seat. The jerks didn't take anything else, just the bag with my circular saw and drill in it. Now I can't do as much manly stuff, like sawing and drilling stuff just for the fun of it. They didn't even steal my REI gift card which was in plain sight. They also didn't take the pots and pans I had in there. Are you getting the picture that the 4Runner is (was) being used as a little storage unit? Well, all that stuff was "on it's way" to my real storage unit given the 450sq feet of condo space and the 2 adults and 2 > 60 lb. dogs that make it their home. Good thing is we didn't leave anything else (iPod, wallet, phone, etc.) in the car when we went on the hike.

The lot that we parked in was specifically for the Open Space Preserve and it was right near a busy road. The thieves probably know that people park there and then don't come back for 5-7 hours. The window was fixed 2 days later. The glass company comes out to your house! It took less than 20 minutes.

And the icing on the cake for the week was a little snafu I had with my bike. At my typical turn-around point in my "during the week" ride I was off using the public restroom when behind me I heard my bike come crashing down. Nice... Funny thing is that I've placed the bike in that exact position over 100 times before in the past 2 years. There's some missing paint and I nice scratch/gouge through the "M" in the "Madone. Thanks to JW for the suggestion on the crash replacement program through Trek. I'll probably get the chance to bring it in this Thursday.

Why I'll never be a professional cyclist

Besides the whole not blessed with top tier endurance sport genes, lack of tunnel-visioned drive and focus on being a professional cyclist, lack of time to dedicate 4-7 hours a day to riding...

These are the other, more important & pertinent reasons why I'll never be a professional cyclist:

1. 4cm of handlebar spacers. I'm working on getting it down because this is decidedly not pro.

Cancellara is slightly more "pro" in this respect: http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/tech/probike.php?id=/photos/2007/tech/probikes/tour_cancellara_csc_cervelo/Fabian_Cancellaras_Team_CSC_Cervelo_SLC-SL_anatomic_bar


2. Once you wear #594 in a charity ride, you're not allowed to go pro. A weird rule, but a rule nonetheless.


3. Who ever heard of a Greek professional cyclist?


4. These little bird legs can hardly walk me to my car let alone power me up a hill or a sprint to the town limit sign.


Yikes, this last shot is probably one of the most unflattering shots I've seen, but hey, that's what you get for being a recreational cyclist, and not a pro. Pay no attention to the 1.5 lb weights under the dresser, that's the limit of what I can press and curl.