Hi I am back...sorry about that....

Flat Tires...I hate them.....

Well first let me say that the absence was not my fault. You see Blogger took it upon themselves to take this blog down for being SPAM.  They eventually believed me that I do not sell processed meat on the internet and blamed it on some robot. That was a week ago and when it finally came online I was very busy with work for the Observer/Guardian and the British Heart Foundation. So while I had time to ride during this busy time I did not have time to Blog until now.

So enough of that..Let's re-cap January.

229 Miles of riding.

47 Miles, 5 Hours on my Trainer.

18,548 ft. of climbing. (5653 Meters)

2 Pounds lost...Oh Dear.....

The highlight of January was the weekend I climbed 2 mountains I have always wanted to climb. Mt. Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo, the highest peaks in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I HAD a love/hate relationship with Tamalpais, which by the way I call Tamale. Last year I along with my brother in law Alyosha, tried to climb Mt. Tamale but we ran out of time before we reached the summit. By out of time, I mean our wives and mother in law kept calling us when we were coming home. So we gave up. On January 2, 2009 we tried again. 

But it was a rainy day and I broke one of my rules, which is never have a wet start to a ride. "It'll stop" said Alyosha but it didn't...it just kept on raining and after reaching 1592 ft we finally gave up the fight against the wet and turned around. We were so cold.

So on January 10th I climbed Mt. Diablo. It was such a wonderful climb with very little traffic. A very steady 6-7% grade most of the way with a few nasties along the way. It was a beautiful day and I made just one stop at the Junction Ranger  Station .

The only real surprise came at the end when the last bit suddenly turned into a 16% grade and after being exhausted from the climb it was a huge effort not to topple over before finally getting to the top.

The next day I set off with Alyosha and his friend Kurt Gartnet. Kurt is about 30 years younger than us. He is a natural athlete that excels in everything he does. The week before he had been skiing, snow shoe-ing, Cross Country skiing in the nude, running a half marathon and boxing Kangaroos. He is so strong that he showed up with the oldest road bike I have ever seen not behind museum glass. Its a misnomer to say he rode with us, What he really did was scout the road ahead for us. He would have reached the summit before us on a tricycle. The photos below are his..he had plenty of time for photography waiting for us.

Anyway It's a great ride to the top of Mt Tamale from San Francisco which begans with crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, which is always nice, give or take the tourist who can't see you coming even though you are whistling, waving your arms, shouting and finally nudging his big ass with your front tire. After that you go through Sausalito, home to a great bike shop called "A Bicycle Odyssey", supposedly where Robin Williams buys his bikes and the reason for his latest divorce. After Sausalito we started climbing . Its a tougher climb than Diablo but shorter.
Like Diablo, its a beautiful ride and as it was my third attempt I was really determined to enjoy it and reach the top. We stopped a few times, mostly it was Kurt waiting for Alyosha and me.The rise is great in that it gives stunning views of both the San Francisco bay and the Pacific Ocean. Like Diablo, it has a very short & steep ending which I seemed better prepared for. Tamale was a tougher climb in that I was still a little tired from Diablo and Kurt and Alyosha kept a much higher pace. Both climbs were about half of what Ventoux is and I was well aware that both rides had nowhere near the 100 miles I will do before climbing the Provence Beast.

On the descent down we said our goodbyes to Kurt. he took a nice snap of me and Alyosha before he headed back to San Francisco while we continued to to Point Reyes.

I think Alyosha is pointing at my ass but I am not sure...

San Gregorio Loop.

Change of plan. We didn't do Kings Mountain but San Gregorio Loop!

What a fantastic day. It was cold but it was a bright blue sky day with some of the most stunning scenery I have ever cycled in California. I rode with Gary and Alyosha who I mentioned in the previous post. First the good news. Gary is not imaginary but a real live human being. The bad news is that he is the Mozart of Cycling and I mostly saw his ass and watched him disappear into the horizon. He did do a very good deed today by pushing me for about 50 meters up a steep hill. We did manage to ride together in close proximity in some of the flat sections and he was full of great advice and good humour. Alyosha told old jokes and was always somewhere between us.



I was doing good after a long absence from long rides. The last one I took was in on October 25th, London to Brighton with my Photographic colleague, Simon Norfolk. (you will read more about him in future blogs) That was a 42 mile ride. Anyway the toughest part was an 800 ft/2 mile climb up to what is mile point 40 in the map above. It was 8-11% gradient. so it was a killer for me to climb 800ft after 38 miles. In 7 months I expect to do 100 miles before ascending 5000 ft. I have a steep mountain to climb in ability.

Highlights of the ride. Being chased by a white wolf. The wolf was 90 years old in dog years and it still almost caught me as I huffed and puffed. Gary and Alyosha watched after they managed to avoid being eaten by the wolf.

Next highlight was our first feed stop. We stopped at a Rural General Store where Mexicans like myself are rarely seen and men with guns wander aimlessly nearby. Gary ate 3 danish wrapped in Plastic, 3 Fig Newtons, a bag of potatoe chips, a Cliff Bar and a bottle of Yellow Gatorade.

Alyosha ate 2 bags of corn chips, a danish, fig newtons and a bottle of yellow Gatorade. I had 6, count them, 6 mini chocolate donuts, 2 bags of corn chips, fig newtons and a Red Gatorade.

We left with Gary still hungry and me with an upset stomach. 2o miles later we finished our ride in San Gregorio. We decided to eat some more, bought some sandwiches and listened to a band sing songs about dogs named Fred. I dont like songs about dogs.

No Riding Today....

But I hear Lance Armstrong is pregnant. Maybe his partner will give him hell for cycling so damn much like the rest of us get from our partners.

I am on my way to Berkeley tomorrow where I hope to get in some serious hill climbing. Sunday I am hopefully, weather permitting,  climbing Kings Mountain in San Mateo. I will be riding with my brother in law Alyosha, the Russian Architect, and his Imaginary Friend, Gary, who supposedly makes handbags if he actually existed. I owe a lot to Alyosha, he got me up Ventoux the first time I climbed it, in fact he did such a good job that I actually beat him to the summit. One hell of a motivator I think. I think Alyosha owes a lot to Gary, who he calls the Mozart of Cycling. I should benefit a lot from their wisdom and hopefully they will share it with me after waiting 46 minutes at the summit.

Check out this great site for all you ETAPE nuts wondering if you can get a refund after realizing what you have signed up for. Cyclefilm its called and its got lots of cool stuff to convince you you have made a mistake in participating. They have cool links to YouTube Videos about Ventoux stages of the Tour of France.

First Steps....

Well I am finally on my bike. I did a ride of 15.57 miles a couple of days ago. It was a flat ride, no hills but it felt really nice. Here is a link to my MotionBased site which has all my ride info. I will post the links to all my ride info after every ride. All my rides are public and can be analyzed and if someone wants to be my Chris Carmichael type coach and give me pointers, I would greatly appreciated.

Anyway, back to the ride. Flat. A country road ride past fields of Grapevine fields which will produce raisins leading to a small town called Sanger, east of Fresno California. I ride this road every winter when I visit my mother. It was uneventful except I was chased by two dogs who got my speed going to 24 miles an hour and they gave me a good chase. I havent been chased by dogs in years. I dont know why but in my own personal experience dogs don't chase you in Europe. They may piss on your bike while parked, but not try to eat a leg. They chase in Latin America too. I have always thought Europeans where a little more civilized and I guess that extends to the dogs as well....

Christmas Eve and today were spent on the trainer, 30 minute sessions. My brother in law Fernando, a cyclist and now Marathon Runner lent me his trainer the few days I am in town. I have a new one waiting for me, an Elite with a computer. I only used it once since my lovely wife bought it for me for my birthday way back in October when I was contemplating entering the Etape. My ass really hurt after the one hour session. Cant wait to use it again....

On Saturday I head for the hills of Berkeley. Tomorrow, another sesion on the Trainer.

Ouch This is Gonna Hurt !!!

7 months.

7 Months from today I am going to do the biggest physical challenge of my life. I am so excited and filled with dread. Excited because I love cycling so much and the training to do this ride is going to get me on my bike for the maximum amount of time. Dreading it because I am not in shape to do it at the moment. And this is what the blog is all about. Recording my training to get to a fitness level which will allow me to complete this ride without killing myself.

My goals are simple but challenging.

I need to lose weight. I currently weigh 200 Pounds (90.6 Kilos) This is too much. My minimum goal is to weigh 180 Pounds or 81 Kilos. But I really am going to aim for 170 pounds or 77 Kilos. My power to weight ratio is bad.

I am going to ride at 400 miles a month. That will be my target But hopefully I will do more as I start doing centuries around March.

This I hope will lead to wisdom, strong legs and a smaller waist. And an excellent Power to Weight ratio

I will expand on all this as I blog.

One more thing. I have climbed Ventoux twice. Once from Sault and once from Bedoin having started at Gordes 24 miles away. I also did the London to Canterbury Cyclosportive in 2007. But the Etape 2009 will be unlike anything I have ever done. Wish me luck.