Happy Birthday Rydie!

I can’t believe it. Ryder will be a year old on Friday & to celebrate Denise & I are having a birthday bash on Saturday. Food catered by Cuca’s, & cake from Stater’s. The lawn is mowed, the new entertainment center is ready to entertain, the new dining room table is up & ready to dine on, and since I decided I’m skipping Bonelli on Sunday, I may even have a few spirits. I can’t wait to see how he does with his cake. The kid is hilarious just sitting around so I can’t imagine what he’ll be like with a piece of cake sitting in front of him.

What Else Is New?
Other than getting shelled at the Los Angeles County Cycling Classic, nothing. Actually, another cold, brought on by 4 days of sitting around in wet clothing up at Sea Otter, prevented me from doing much of anything. Thus, I skipped Friday’s TT (since it was an Omnuim) & showed up for Saturday’s RR, held on the Devil’s Punch Bowl race course. As a 3, I’d done well there, several times, but racing Pro1/2, we were scheduled to do 5 laps (2 more than the 3s). 4-time New Zealand National RR & TT champ, Gordon McCauley won Friday’s TT, so the entire Monex team was on-hand to protect his lead from some Successful Living & Labor Power dudes. Mission accomplished. Chris Walker tried hard early on to cut the fat. The problem was that some of the fat he cut was me. I ended up riding in a bickering chase group all day. Hopefully I’ll be more on form in a couple of weeks when the real Punch Bowl race takes place. McCauley won, with Ryan Yee just seconds behind.

There were a grip of local guys there racing other categories, like Jeff Padgett, who killed the 40+ III/IV field in Omnuim points. For his effort, Padgett was granted his Cat 3 upgrade. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Hoyt won the 3 race at Ontario.

Max Performance Bike Fit
Mike McKovich recently spent two afternoons working with Christie & me up on the CompuTrainer to figure out our current wattage output & then set our bikes up so our wattage would increase. My set-up called for custom soles, a shim underneath my left cleat, a raised & forward-shifted saddle and a new handlebar height. He also got me set up on my TT bike, so I can finally start riding it. On the mountain bike, my wattage output increased by 12-percent. I can’t remember Christie’s numbers, but they were also significant. I strongly suggest working with Mike because the CompuTrainer & the computer program can help to correct all kinds of stuff like uneven pedal strokes & pronating feet. He showed me how my inflexible body & hunched over riding position was binding up & preventing any kind of power output at the top in certain spots of my pedal stroke. I feel like I’ve been wasting my time for the last few years without his help. Thanks Mike!

Mike sizes up Christie's bike.

Random…

Johnson showed me a section of singletrack off of Crafton that I didn't know about. It was pretty sweet. Of course he railed it & left me in his wake, but it was fun enough stuff that I plan on doing it a lot so maybe next time I'll be able to keep up with Gecko.

Loren should be a 2 by the end of the weekend.

On Saturday at the RR, I heard that Roberto Gaggioli threw a bag of water bottles at another rider, from behind the wheel of the Monex team van, because said rider got in the way of a Monex feed. Go figure.

The Mesa Design House leaves for the Tour of Georgia today. When they get back we’ll have new photos on the home page & rider sections of www.inlandvalleyelite.com

Apparently I got off easy on the poison oak from Sea Otter. I talked to James on Easter & everyone up in Bend has it. Josh has a few spots on his legs. They got it pretty bad over at Sager’s and Nick Martin’s too.