Did Ride Around the Bear on Saturday w/Fullford, Grant, Eric Riser, Trembly & a dude from England named Dominick. I wish we could do it more often, but you gamble w/your life riding up 330. On the Fawnskin side of the lake we passed Steve Gildea & I told him to jump on, but I guess he was out for a more “civilized” ride than we were. Good to see he’s riding. Because of the Irwin Lake fire that was still smoking, riding from the Sugarloaf area to Onyx Summit was like eating at a Waffle House. Our total rolling time was somewhere between 5.5 to 6 hours. I had to ride past my house to get in 100. If I have one observation about the ride, it’s how much difference a cassette with an 11 can make compared to a 12. Grant already has some pretty good top speed going down-hill, so I had a hard time even staying in his draft with my 12 (although the 25 sure was nice during the ascents).

After the ride I headed straight to the Hughes’ for Hailey’s birthday party. I finally got to swim with Ryder. He loves the water & has no reservations about dipping his head under water, which has its pros & cons. I’m thinking the kid should have a little fear in him. The rest of the party was fun and… interesting.

On Sunday Johnson pulled my ass around a portion of the Santa Ana River Trail. My legs were wobbly (at best) so we just middle-ringed it for a couple of hours. Then I finally finished the roof on the patio cover, pulled some weeds & did other yard work. Late in the evening I actually went back out, this time on the TT bike, trying to scout out a place to resume crit practice. No-such-luck. I found nothing.

Sunday was capped off with me BBQ’n chicken. Today, Denise & I both feel ill. The good news is that I’m not cooking this Wednesday at Denise’s Leukemia & Lymphoma Society/Team In Training fundraiser. Rubio’s is doing the cooking. If you buy dinner between 4-8 PM & give them Denise’s flyer – 20% of your dinner will go toward Denise’s cause & her next marathon. Or, if you despise Rubio’s because of their horrible advertising campaign, you can donate to the cause by clicking here. Anyway, at some point in the evening Denise & I will both be there passing out flyers. I think even the beer counts toward the 20%.

Any minute now I’m expecting a phone call or email, from my good friend Robert Hordossy because his country just shut-out the U.S. in World Cup play. Here Robert, I’ll even add some fuel to your patriotic fire. A Czech won the Pro Women Short Track race at the NORBA Nat’l on Sunday in North Carolina. I’m happy for you Robert. You guys are finally making up for decades of communist regime. Note: if you clicked on that link, expect a visit from the CIA in the next few days.

This about sums it up.

What else?

Last Thursday I retested with Mike McKovich on the CompuTrainer. After 6 weeks, I made some pretty good gains. It feels great to finally have some structure in all of this bicycle madness. If you’re already putting in the time, I highly recommend getting a coach.

The CA/NV State Road Race Championship is this weekend at Vandenberg. At some point on Friday, I’m heading up there because the 30+ race is at 9:30 AM on Saturday - 74 glorious miles. Sunday’s Pro1/2 is 109 glorious miles & I’m doing that one too. Let me know if you wanna come suffer.

Padgett won another crit this weekend.

Plane tickets are purchased for the Deer Valley NORBA Nat’l and I’m currently on the fence about flying up to B.C. for the Masters World Championships in early September. Maybe I can get Josh to go up there with me. No pressure.

I’m going to miss another Tossers show. It’s this weekend at the H.O.B. Anaheim & they’re even playing with Stiff Little Fingers. Sometimes it sucks to a bike racer, but not really.

I wonder what Ryder’s doing right now?