Bikebox 13 Feb. 2009
I am not a good blogger. I admit.I have come realize my shortcomings in this area. Now, I have always known the notion of the blog as something rough and unpolished, though I am certain there are folks out there who take their blogging very seriously. I've seen their blogs. Impressed or not, the care is obvious. I know the idea is to just get the thoughts out there, a form of public journal, laying your thoughts out in the open, or in the case of unread blogs like mine, to waste. I have gone weeks without an entry. No one likes a blog that doesn't get updated. Well, I am going to try to actually enter the world of appropriate blog behavior--frequent updates, careless proofreading, and generally pointless and random thinking So, really, the only difference will be the frequency of posting.
What better time to start than this, the beginning of my trip to California for the start of the Amgen Tour of California? We dragged our sickly carcasses out of bed at 4:45 a.m. to prepare for our journey, so I might as well share my suffering with the world.
Joan and I both have head colds. I've had mine longer, so I'm not as bad off as Joan is at this point, but we've both seen better days. Our ears are plugged and our heads nearing explosive pressures as we sit in our traveling tin can at cruising altitude (someone remind me to purchase the carbon offsets for this trip--I haven't done so yet). And, as we fly to sunny California the weather forecast has decided to defy the travel brochures and promises us five days of rain and temps in the low 50s. That should be good for us.
I went in search of decent rain ponchos yesterday. I didn't just want the disposable ones, for a variety of reasons For one, hello, disposable. Two, they have to last five days of standing in the rain watching bicycles whiz by spraying water and mud in every direction. I ended up at Dick's Sporting Goods. They had three different options: Disposable, $5 ponchos, and $25 dollar ponchos. I could find no discernible difference between the $5 and $25 dollar ponchos Not a $20 difference anyway, so I ended up with two $5 ponchos, one blue, one yellow. I like to give Joan choices.
Ponchos in hand, we have begun our intrepid journey to the capitol of California, Sacramento, by way of Oackland airport. Tomorrow is Valentine's day and Southwest Airlines is actually selling Hallmark cards on the flight. They offered cards before drinks. I suspect those who are that hard up for a VD card would be more likely to buy one after a drink or two, but I could be wrong. I actually saw people buying them, though. As much as Hallmark cards cost in the store, I can only imagine what they cost when they are hand delivered at 30,000 feet.
I'm looking forward to Sacramento. I have never been there. It's unfortunate that we are only there for one day and that it will be raining (the captain tells us it is 45 degrees in Oakland) and cold. Tomorrow is the first day of racing and we begin with the Prologue. The prologue makes a circuit around Capitol Park, one 2.4 mile lap per rider--about five minutes of riding. If we are ambitious and the crowds aren't too heavy, we will be able to watch a rider start and then make a two block cut across the park to catch the finish. I admit I'm excited to finally see Lance Armstrong race. The closest I've been to that scenario is seeing him whiz by in the Discovery car during the first Amgen TOC--post retirement. Although I'm looking forward to that, I'm not rooting for Astana, not during the TOC anyway; I will cheer them on in the Grand Tours, probably, but loyalties are seriously divided these days. Hincapie is on High Road, and you have to love Georgie. Zabriskie is on Garmin. Astana has a lot of favorites. But for domestic racing I'm pulling for Ouch! presented by Maxxis. Ouch! used to be Team Health Net and I followed them from the beginning, mainly because Joan works for Health Net and we often had VIP access to racing events. It doesn't hurt that they were the number one domestic team each year of their existence. Health Net was Gord Frasier's team. He's retired now, too, but he was always a great guy to hang with and talk to at the races and other events. I'm not going to pretend we were friends or anything, but he was friendly and remembered me when I saw him. That counts for something in my view.
I'm looking forward to the next few days, weather be damned. I'll at least try to do daily updates of the races and our adventures along the way. I might even post a photo or two from the doubtless hundreds I will take of blurry, rain-spotted bicycles and drenched skinny men in spandex. But right now the flight attendants are telling us to put our things away as we prepare for our descent into Oakland. I can already feel the pressure building in my head and sinuses and can only imagine what this is going to feel like in a few minutes. I just hope that if the pressure gets too bad and my eyeballs pop out of my head some kind soul will help me pick them up and pop them back in.
In the meantime, welcome to The Bikebox.
