annual Fausto Coppi ride 1.15.11

a few bianchis in attendance at the annual coppi ride, more info to come...

more pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157625841171196/

'til next time, "Have a Nice Ride"...

santa cruz ride 1.9.11

this was an "out and back" 20 mile ride - we started at natural bridges park in santa cruz and rode along the water, mostly on cliff drive, to capitola. very nice but cold ride! there is a monarch butterfly migration to natural bridges that we didn't check out but i guess it's better to see them in october. fun seeing woods and schwan lagoons in the twin lakes area - water on both sides of the bike is so cool when it isn't "sky juice". had a bite at my thai beach to warm up - great coconut soup and salmon pad thai - and then headed back to santa cruz.

more pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157625671840715/

'til next time, "Have a Nice Ride"...

LA area folks: Please help find Christine's stolen Batavus!

STOLEN!! Batavus Breukelen 56cm Step-Through Bike By josef | December 15, 2010

We have some sad news that we’re hoping someone out there in internet land can help us make into happy news: one of our customers had her bike stolen from the porch of her house on Manzanita Street in Silver Lake between 6pm on December 14th and 11am on December 15th. If you have any info, see anyone riding it, etc. please contact the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop at 213-909-8986 or info@flyingpigeon-la.com The owner, Christine Louise Berry, had a very deep and personal relationship to her bike (as do we all, I find), but it was also her primary means of transportation. She was profiled by Velo Vogue on June 22, 2010, describing the bike: “[I] chose a bike that replaces a car: it’s sturdy, visible, beautiful. The line of it is sweeping. It’s got this long stride. And the way the top bar slopes down — it’s so f-ing elegant. It has a skirt guard and a hub-generated light that never needs batteries – everything is made to last. Ultimately, it’s just springy, really fun, and I never have to think twice about riding.” We know the bike is floating around somewhere in LA right now. If you see someone riding it – snap a photo and post it online. We’ve got the serial number for the bike on file and have some more detailed information about the bike to identify it. In the meantime, we’ve loaned Christine a Flying Pigeon 3-speed, a lock, and a set of lights. We’re hoping that in the next few days someone will help us find this beautiful machine and get it returned to its rightful owner! Send any information to the Flying Pigeon LA bike shop at 213-909-8986 or info@flyingpigeon-la.com

http://flyingpigeon-la.com/2010/12/stolen-batavus-breukelen-56cm-step-through-bike/

double b-day weekend rides 12.11,12.10

Dave M. called a fixed gear ride in Woodside on Saturday. We met him and Brad S. at the school and rolled out on our usual route. Zeus, Bianchi, Torpado and Frejus were the chosen machines for this refreshing ride in the trees. It was the usual route: Woodside, Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Woodside. Dave told fun stories of riding the Sunol back roads with an older gentleman that had a cycling history of the golden age in the early 50's in England. We lost track of Brad and Dave near the end of the ride but had lunch behind the school and connected by phone later to make sure we were all OK. Thanks for the great ride Dave & Brad!

Sunday saw me riding alone on a route that I've been itching to try: the Big Basin Loop. Left Boulder Creek late morning and rode up Hwy 236 (Big Basin Way). Nice to see some holiday decorative cheer out in the woods. Never noticed it before in a car but Taungpulu Monastery is on the left a few miles out of town. Pretty cool seeing the pagoda & shrine poking up through the Redwood forest while climbing on the bike. I stopped to check it out, the driveway up is very steep! After a few pics I rode down, Italian brakes squealing, disturbing the peaceful atmosphere - sorry Taungpulu Tawya Kaba-Aye Sayadaw of Upper Burma. Back on the road I continued to climb and after the BC country club it became a bit steeper, not too bad but kinda long to the top and Sempervirens school. From the school into the park was a nice downhill, cool, in the trees cruise. Stopped for some sun and my 2nd sandwich at the snack bar/store but it was closed today. After a little break it was time for the big climb of the day. The one lane road out of the park back to Hwy 9 is truly beautiful with amazingly huge redwood trees. A great percentage of the road surface was still wet from rain and kept the temps down. A few miles into the climb the landscape abruptly changed from wet Redwood forest and green lichen to dry scrub oak and Spanish moss then a couple miles later back again! When the climbing part of this section is over there is a nice loooong downhill (mostly) to Hwy 9 but the road surface is less than ideal here - since I rode the Masi 3V stopping at least once to relieve numb hands was necessary. I really wished I'd ridden a more touring oriented frame at that point. After thinking this part would never end the stop sign at Hwy 9 suddenly appeared. It seemed like the 8 miles back to Boulder Creek took about 10 - 15 mins! The road was so smooth with banked sweeper turns and mostly downhill through more redwoods and hardly any cars - what a pleasure! To sum it up I think this was a great training ride: some long medium climbing in the beginning, a sweet stop in a great park, more climbing then a super fun smooth cruise - all in beautiful Redwoods and almost all shade. Hard to beat! I'll be doing this again soon and hoping you can join me...

more pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157625417431075/with/5258128269/

'til next time, "Have a Nice Ride"...

11.14.10 CR "refinery ride"

3 hardy souls in attendance: Jason Stone, Bob Freitas and myself. dubbed the 1st CR "refinery ride" by Bob the title didn't disappoint. we started out at the orinda bart station around 10am and admired the cioccs, coopers and masis for a bit then headed north on camino pablo riding alongside san pablo reservoir - this was the traditional scenic part of the ride and was quite nice in the late morning sun. just warming up then we would marvel later at the summer-like temps and lack of water on the route. we hit the bay around rodeo and went through the conoco refinery property - seems like a better use of this land nowadays would be upscale mcmansions with an incredible bay view. after a decent climb down the hill we went trying to pay attention to the road surface but mostly checking out the interesting scenery along the way. we stopped at the vista point overlooking the carquinez straight and learned about the native carquin indians and the 1st bridge built there in 1927. just before rolling into crockett i spied a restaurant named "the dead fish" - gotta keep that in mind for the next time out that way - love a place with a sense of humor... we had a bite at a deli in the thriving metropolis of downtown crockett then were on our way toward the more interesting scenic part of the route: Carquinez Scenic Dr. - this was very different but seemed a lot like the paradise loop ride without the pretense. we found port costa not intentionally, a tiny town with a few closed shops and what looked like the post office and a bar in one hosting several harley riders taking it easy on a sunday afternoon. backtracking a bit we found the closed to car traffic part of the road which was beautiful in it's own way. The section through martinez was pretty nice and i would've liked to check out the downtown area but we were way behind schedule so kept up a brisk pace back to orinda through lafayette partially on the lamorinda trail.

this was the route we took (as far as i could tell):

my pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericm/sets/72157625395838290/

Bob's pics here:

http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/v/NITROBOBs-GARAGE/Crockett-Martinez/?g2_page=1

Jason's pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21306332@N07/sets/72157625396750798/

'til next time, "Have a Nice Ride"...

L'Eroica 2010

finish of L'Eroica 2010
Originally uploaded by ericm

this is the finish of L'Eroica 2010. I rode the 38km route and experienced all weather types, muddy strada bianca, nice paved roads, nothing much that was flat, a beautiful country and many wonderful people. the ride was amazing in so many ways it is hard to know where to start. my 1972 torpado gt8000 was held in new york's jfk airport for an extra day and delivered to varenna the next evening - thanks american airlines. after assembly it was time for a ride to madonna del ghisallo from bellagio - this was a great all uphill steep and twisty ride with a sense of accomplishment at the end. make sure you have a beer & potato chips at la panorama on your way back down, it has an incredible view of the "crotch" of lago di como. after doing a few short rides around lake como coupled with ferry rides and headset bearing cage repair i rode in verona for a day and covered much ground and discovered you can have any gin you want in italy as long as it's gordons - sometimes you don't need vermouth or a martini glass but lemon rind IS essential... fast forward to gaiole in chianti and checking in at the fantastic cavarchino b&b just a few minutes walk to the center of town but removed enough to be quiet and peaceful in the countryside - the rooms are only 3 yrs. old and look brand new & ultra clean, the breakfast is way more elaborate than any b&b in italy i've ever seen. andrea is the consumate jolly host and extremely helpful in suggesting places of interest and making dinner reservations if you like. he even let me store the bikes in his garage and used his power washer to clean the mud from my bike after the race. i cannot say enough good things about the cavarchino and also vanessa ballerio of bike italia rando - she made all the arrangements for accommodations, race entry and logistics, race support on the course - you name it she did it, with some help from enrico to teach us a little of the italian language. met a few new people: john and sally pergolizzi now living in turin, steve and alan bernstein from ny, mark winikoff from santa barbara and rode the 38km course with dave and linda martinez.

the ride started with a small, cool downhill from the cavarchino into town to sign in around 9am - there was a small queue then off to bormio castle in the cool gray morning. flat for a few km then a slight uphill grade twisty for several km. at madonna di brolio we head up the gray pavement past a wonderful restaurant to the castle where the strada bianca begins. i rode a test of this section to get used to the white roads the day before for about 22 km so confidence was decent if not high. a few kms on the white roads it started to rain and kept up for about 8 km turning the strada bianca to mud - hey, at least it wasn't dusty! the rain stopped and my jacket dried out a few km later actually warming up to short sleeve wool jersey weather. rain, sun or clouds, the scenery and riders were amazing on the 38km course as historic character and utility bikes were only allowed on this short ride. we broke off the main all distance course for a short twisty downhill on pavement to the 38k ristoro where prosciutto, salame, french bread, olive oil, water, melon, pastries, grapes, etc. were being served by folks in historic dress... (to be continued...)

R.I.P. Laurent Fignon

It has been announced that Laurent Fignon, winner of the Tour de France in 1983 and 1984, but perhaps best remembered for finishing second by eight seconds to Greg LeMond in 1989 in the closest ever edition in the race, has lost his battle with cancer. The 50-year-old, nicknamed the Professeur for his studious looks and glasses, who died at 1230 local time today, revealed he was suffering from cancer in his 2009 book, We Were Young and Carefree.