Okay,
I know I've been letting this blog sit idle for a bit, but its not my fault. I'm doing it for you. You see, I've titled this blog Ryan on the Road and in all fairness, I'm not really on the road anymore, I'm just homeless. I even returned the Williams Cycling Van, m-m-m-my Sedona, yesterday in a symbolic gesture that signifies the end of my grand trip. I've been couch surfing back on the peninsula and although I've been having an awesome time bumming around and doing some of my favorite old rides this stuff doesn't make for the best reading. Its pretty much just: sleep in, go for an incredible ride, hang out with some friends, eat tasty meals, lather, rinse, repeat. Well, I feel like I just caught you up on two weeks of no posts. So that's good.
I'm finally breaking radio silence now in order to pass on a bit of good news: I'm the new NorCal/Nevada State Criterium Champion. Boom. I think I threw down one of the best attacks of my life the last time up the climb and it was good enough to separate from the field, sneak past Fabrice Dubost and Aaron Olson and nab what might be maybe my favorite win ever. Huge thanks are due to Fabrice who rode like a crazed animal in the break for almost the whole race which allowed me to sit in and save something for the finish. Ronnie Lenzi managed to snap a few great shots, but until I have her okay to post them here on the blog you can take peak at them on her site. Huge thanks also to Keith Williams who was manning the radio in his inimitable fashion. His solid advice with 1.5 laps to go, "YOU'VE GOTTA GET UP THERE! YOU'VE GOTTA GO!", by the last lap had devolved, as it always does, into some maniacal Keith-speak that is somehow exactly what I need to hear, "OH YEAH! YOU'RE ON THAT TRAIN, BABY! RIDE THAT TRAIN! RIDE IT!" He was kind enough to take a little video and post it to his blog.
As this long season draws to a close I've been feeling a little burned out and I'm absolutely overjoyed to grab one last, great win before I call it a year.
This blog documents my travails as an amateur a professional cyclist racing around the US world.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Ricketsauce!
My boy Rand Miller, AKA Rickets, AKA Ricketsauce, AKA Don Rickles, just crushed the Suisun Crit. Good old fashioned Massacre. I'll give you all the gory details later, but for now just marvel at these illustrations of domination. The first is him owning the soul of his breakmate. The second is a picture of him with a podium hooker. No, not from this race, but it's too good not to post.
Photo by Mark Nakamura
Photo by Mark Nakamura
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Feelin' the Birthday Love
I had an awesome birthday. Nothing epic or amazing, just a really solid day. I got up and walked the dog to a coffee shop and back and then went out and did one of my favorite rides in the area. Its a nice climb up into the foothills called Montebello, but at the top the road turns to dirt and runs along a ridge giving 360 degree views of the bay area. Awesome. Just awesome. Plus someone had written a marriage proposal on the climb. "Woman's name...will...you...marry me?" with a few hundred yards in between each. I guess writing your proposal on a steep-ass climb is one way to make sure you leave her breathless. I did forget to bring water and food and had to make a pit stop at a friends in Palo Alto, but that turned into a great little visit.
Then my darling mother, who fears no road, drove all the way down here to California from Idaho. We finally met up in the evening and went to check out some Friday night racing at Hellyer Velodrome, the local track. I've done some low key racing once, but I've never seen solid fields battle it out and its really something to behold. Local Legend Mike Hernandez was announcing the races and that guy is clearly out of his mind, but in the most entertaining way. I'm really glad we got down there to see some of that racing.
But beyond all that what really made it such a special day was all the love I got from friends and family. I know I'm a hard guy to get ahold of and I'm certainly not the best at keeping in touch, but you all took the time to send me some kind words on my b-day and it means the world to me. I can't thank you enough.
Then my darling mother, who fears no road, drove all the way down here to California from Idaho. We finally met up in the evening and went to check out some Friday night racing at Hellyer Velodrome, the local track. I've done some low key racing once, but I've never seen solid fields battle it out and its really something to behold. Local Legend Mike Hernandez was announcing the races and that guy is clearly out of his mind, but in the most entertaining way. I'm really glad we got down there to see some of that racing.
But beyond all that what really made it such a special day was all the love I got from friends and family. I know I'm a hard guy to get ahold of and I'm certainly not the best at keeping in touch, but you all took the time to send me some kind words on my b-day and it means the world to me. I can't thank you enough.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Back to Bikes
Okay,
I wrote this post about a week ago now, but I've been away from the internet and kinda busy and stuff so I haven't been able to post it. I feel like a jerk. Here you people are taking time out of your busy lives to check my senseless ramblings and I've been keeping it all to myself. Part of the problem was that the house I was staying at didn't have internet, but thats not much of an excuse when every cafe, restaurant and taco stand has wifi these days.
Well heres that old post. I promise I'll get something else up here in the near future.
Whoooooeee.
I've been down in the bay for about a week now and I've been splitting my time between pondering my future and cleaning up wreckage left in the wake of the puppy I'm dogsitting. She's about the cutest thing you've ever seen, but turn your back for one second and she'll be gnawing through anything (and I mean anything) she can get her teeth on. I think my personal favorite was when she started taking books off the shelf and tearing through them. A voracious reader, perhaps? Don't hate me for that.
I also made my glorious return to NorCal racing by dragging my sorry self out of bed at 4:30 am on two consecutive days to hit the CalCup races in the delightful central valley. Saturday was a 22.5m time trial. I hitched a ride with my boy Mr. Pickles and we screamed out towards Knights Ferry, CA. We got there late. This is a leitmotif that you may see repeated throughout the CalCup. We had little time for warmup or any of that, but its hard to get fired up for a Velo Promo TT in the middle of nowhere on no sleep anyway. This is only the second TT of this length that I've ever done, so I'm still figuring it all out, but I was pretty happy with my ride. I got third, which sounds awesome until admit that I was 1:48 off the winning time and the two other people I was looking to beat flatted or soft-pedaled. Oh well. I'm happy to lose to Phil Mooney in a TT any day. The guy is a machine.
The next day was the dreaded Patterson Pass Road Race. I'd never done this race either and didn't really know what to expect. Turns out the course is one of the most challenging on the NCNCA calendar. I slept through my alarm and actually would not have gone except that I got suckered into giving a friend Alex a ride. He called me and woke me up to ask if I was having trouble finding his house. I jumped out of bed, threw my stuff in a bag and ran out the door. I had no time for breakfast or any other pre-race stuff you normally do. I had just enough time to get into my kit and pin a number on before the race started. The course climbs steeply almost from the gun and I was hurting immediately. I somehow managed to hang on over the climb and then had a rollicking good time on the descent. I knew I'd never make it over the climb with the group again, and honestly I didn't think I could ride 94 miles on that course with no breakfast and no fitness anyway, so I attacked like an animal at the bottom of the descent. I had heard the climb was nasty, but the rest of the course was rolling so I figured if I could get and hold a gap I might be able to hang in there. Well, turns out theres a second climb. I slammed myself into it and pretty much exploded, leaving pieces of myself all over the road. The last thing I remember is my teammate Greg looking over his shoulder at me with pity in his eyes as I was dropped like a sack of rocks.
Alex actually had a pretty impressive ride. He's a cat 4, but they did almost the same distance as the p/1/2s and he dragged himself around the course through the heat and suffering and managed a solid top 20. He could teach me a thing or two about toughing it out. Oh well. Some days you just don't have it.
Next weekend is a flat nasty road race and fast crit so I'm looking forward to that. I'm feeling a bit burnt out from the 3 months of travel and racing, but with a bit of luck I might be able to put together some decent rides.
I wrote this post about a week ago now, but I've been away from the internet and kinda busy and stuff so I haven't been able to post it. I feel like a jerk. Here you people are taking time out of your busy lives to check my senseless ramblings and I've been keeping it all to myself. Part of the problem was that the house I was staying at didn't have internet, but thats not much of an excuse when every cafe, restaurant and taco stand has wifi these days.
Well heres that old post. I promise I'll get something else up here in the near future.
Whoooooeee.
I've been down in the bay for about a week now and I've been splitting my time between pondering my future and cleaning up wreckage left in the wake of the puppy I'm dogsitting. She's about the cutest thing you've ever seen, but turn your back for one second and she'll be gnawing through anything (and I mean anything) she can get her teeth on. I think my personal favorite was when she started taking books off the shelf and tearing through them. A voracious reader, perhaps? Don't hate me for that.
I also made my glorious return to NorCal racing by dragging my sorry self out of bed at 4:30 am on two consecutive days to hit the CalCup races in the delightful central valley. Saturday was a 22.5m time trial. I hitched a ride with my boy Mr. Pickles and we screamed out towards Knights Ferry, CA. We got there late. This is a leitmotif that you may see repeated throughout the CalCup. We had little time for warmup or any of that, but its hard to get fired up for a Velo Promo TT in the middle of nowhere on no sleep anyway. This is only the second TT of this length that I've ever done, so I'm still figuring it all out, but I was pretty happy with my ride. I got third, which sounds awesome until admit that I was 1:48 off the winning time and the two other people I was looking to beat flatted or soft-pedaled. Oh well. I'm happy to lose to Phil Mooney in a TT any day. The guy is a machine.
The next day was the dreaded Patterson Pass Road Race. I'd never done this race either and didn't really know what to expect. Turns out the course is one of the most challenging on the NCNCA calendar. I slept through my alarm and actually would not have gone except that I got suckered into giving a friend Alex a ride. He called me and woke me up to ask if I was having trouble finding his house. I jumped out of bed, threw my stuff in a bag and ran out the door. I had no time for breakfast or any other pre-race stuff you normally do. I had just enough time to get into my kit and pin a number on before the race started. The course climbs steeply almost from the gun and I was hurting immediately. I somehow managed to hang on over the climb and then had a rollicking good time on the descent. I knew I'd never make it over the climb with the group again, and honestly I didn't think I could ride 94 miles on that course with no breakfast and no fitness anyway, so I attacked like an animal at the bottom of the descent. I had heard the climb was nasty, but the rest of the course was rolling so I figured if I could get and hold a gap I might be able to hang in there. Well, turns out theres a second climb. I slammed myself into it and pretty much exploded, leaving pieces of myself all over the road. The last thing I remember is my teammate Greg looking over his shoulder at me with pity in his eyes as I was dropped like a sack of rocks.
Alex actually had a pretty impressive ride. He's a cat 4, but they did almost the same distance as the p/1/2s and he dragged himself around the course through the heat and suffering and managed a solid top 20. He could teach me a thing or two about toughing it out. Oh well. Some days you just don't have it.
Next weekend is a flat nasty road race and fast crit so I'm looking forward to that. I'm feeling a bit burnt out from the 3 months of travel and racing, but with a bit of luck I might be able to put together some decent rides.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Thats the principle I was sticking to when I neglected to post to this thing for the past few days. Did it work? Have you missed me? Is your heart fond? Is that proper English? Fond sounds like frond and I'm struggling a bit as I picture your heart as a big palm frond. Its kind of romantic.
So I haven't been sleeping a ton. Is that a bit obvious?
Anyway, Nationals happened, but it didn't quite unfold like I had dreamed. I don't know how I expected to kill it in a hilly 100 mile race when I've spent the whole summer doing 90 minute flat crits, but I still feel a bit let down. I did not do nearly as well as I would have liked (and almost twice as bad as last year), but todays a brand new day and there's still a bunch of racing to do. I'm going to hold off on an official race report b/c I'm on a borrowed computer in a friends house and I need to help her pack for Europe (YAY!!!!), but I'll get some real reports down soon enough.
For the time being, I'm just going to relay a little anecdote about my triumphant return to California. After leaving Bend I was planning on kicking it in Hood River for a day or two of R&R, but someone (you know who you are) decided to screen my phone calls. I ended up driving a big 6 hour loop out of my way through Oregon. There were two good things that came of it: I got to see more of Oregon, which is beautiful, and I got to have a drink with an old friend of mine in Portland. She's figured out that she wants to work in the field of public health and she's taking classes, doing volunteer work and basically kicking butt and making it happen. Its really nice to see someone driven and dedicated and proactively chasing down their dream. Plus, she's awesome so it was great to just sit and chat.
I stayed at a friend of a friends place in Eugene that night and I can only describe the status of the apartment as utter squalor. It was like a crack-house without the crack, but hey, its better than sleeping upright in the van and worrying about the bikes getting stolen off the top while I half dozed. A brief, fitful night of sleep and I was back on the road. I cruised all the way back to the bay area, but apparently the bay was not as happy to see me as I was to see it. It was cloudy and cold (well, cold compared to the boiling heat of every other destination on the trip) and as I rolled down the window to pay the Dumbarton toll the putrid stench of the bay soured an otherwise scenic vista. I wrote it off and rolled up the window. Then, while navigating the streets of Menlo Park I was nearly rear ended...twice. But thats nothing. As I was taking the bikes off of the van an elderly woman starts screaming for help in a thick German accent. "Pleeez! Pleez! You muhst call ze Poliz!!!!" She kept screaming so naturally I called 911. I was trying to explain where I was and what was happening, but the lady pretty much grabbed the phone out of my hands. She was yelling that there were "crazy people" inside. I looked inside the building of what looked like a retirement living center and all I could see were some people singing karaoke in the lounge. Then a woman came out with a whistle or something official looking and I asked what was going on. She asked me and I told her the woman was calling the police and she got really angry. "NO NO!" and grabbed the phone back, hung up and returned it to me.
Turns out there were crazy people inside, but they belonged there. Yep, it was some manner of mental institution and the woman had somehow wandered outside and I was the first poor sucker she could yell to. The elderly German became very angry when the staff lady took the phone and actually started shoving her around. Luckily I didn't have to intervene as I was busy explaining to the 911 operator what the hell was going on. I was more than a little embarrassed to tell the lady that I had called 911 for a deranged lady because there were crazy people in a mental institution. Hopefully she had a good laugh about that. I for one was a bit shaken up. Its not everyday that a lady on the street screams for help and it sure does kick up the adrenalin. Plus, that was more or less the first contact with people after hours alone in the car so... yep, it was a bit jarring. Welcome back to California, Ryan.
I had a wonderful dinner with my dear friends and now I'm going to put my life in order and then take a little ride through my old stomping grounds. I'm really excited to be back here with my friends and my team and my favorite rides and I can't wait to get crazy in some local norcal races. Plus, the idea that I can stay in one place for more than a few days is actually sounding really nice right about now.
Pics and reports to come. Thats a promise.
So I haven't been sleeping a ton. Is that a bit obvious?
Anyway, Nationals happened, but it didn't quite unfold like I had dreamed. I don't know how I expected to kill it in a hilly 100 mile race when I've spent the whole summer doing 90 minute flat crits, but I still feel a bit let down. I did not do nearly as well as I would have liked (and almost twice as bad as last year), but todays a brand new day and there's still a bunch of racing to do. I'm going to hold off on an official race report b/c I'm on a borrowed computer in a friends house and I need to help her pack for Europe (YAY!!!!), but I'll get some real reports down soon enough.
For the time being, I'm just going to relay a little anecdote about my triumphant return to California. After leaving Bend I was planning on kicking it in Hood River for a day or two of R&R, but someone (you know who you are) decided to screen my phone calls. I ended up driving a big 6 hour loop out of my way through Oregon. There were two good things that came of it: I got to see more of Oregon, which is beautiful, and I got to have a drink with an old friend of mine in Portland. She's figured out that she wants to work in the field of public health and she's taking classes, doing volunteer work and basically kicking butt and making it happen. Its really nice to see someone driven and dedicated and proactively chasing down their dream. Plus, she's awesome so it was great to just sit and chat.
I stayed at a friend of a friends place in Eugene that night and I can only describe the status of the apartment as utter squalor. It was like a crack-house without the crack, but hey, its better than sleeping upright in the van and worrying about the bikes getting stolen off the top while I half dozed. A brief, fitful night of sleep and I was back on the road. I cruised all the way back to the bay area, but apparently the bay was not as happy to see me as I was to see it. It was cloudy and cold (well, cold compared to the boiling heat of every other destination on the trip) and as I rolled down the window to pay the Dumbarton toll the putrid stench of the bay soured an otherwise scenic vista. I wrote it off and rolled up the window. Then, while navigating the streets of Menlo Park I was nearly rear ended...twice. But thats nothing. As I was taking the bikes off of the van an elderly woman starts screaming for help in a thick German accent. "Pleeez! Pleez! You muhst call ze Poliz!!!!" She kept screaming so naturally I called 911. I was trying to explain where I was and what was happening, but the lady pretty much grabbed the phone out of my hands. She was yelling that there were "crazy people" inside. I looked inside the building of what looked like a retirement living center and all I could see were some people singing karaoke in the lounge. Then a woman came out with a whistle or something official looking and I asked what was going on. She asked me and I told her the woman was calling the police and she got really angry. "NO NO!" and grabbed the phone back, hung up and returned it to me.
Turns out there were crazy people inside, but they belonged there. Yep, it was some manner of mental institution and the woman had somehow wandered outside and I was the first poor sucker she could yell to. The elderly German became very angry when the staff lady took the phone and actually started shoving her around. Luckily I didn't have to intervene as I was busy explaining to the 911 operator what the hell was going on. I was more than a little embarrassed to tell the lady that I had called 911 for a deranged lady because there were crazy people in a mental institution. Hopefully she had a good laugh about that. I for one was a bit shaken up. Its not everyday that a lady on the street screams for help and it sure does kick up the adrenalin. Plus, that was more or less the first contact with people after hours alone in the car so... yep, it was a bit jarring. Welcome back to California, Ryan.
I had a wonderful dinner with my dear friends and now I'm going to put my life in order and then take a little ride through my old stomping grounds. I'm really excited to be back here with my friends and my team and my favorite rides and I can't wait to get crazy in some local norcal races. Plus, the idea that I can stay in one place for more than a few days is actually sounding really nice right about now.
Pics and reports to come. Thats a promise.
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