I'm stoked! I just added a "puddle-jumper" flight (from Naples to Barcelona) to an already amazing bicycling tour plan this coming fall. I have the best possible guide riding with me through the Cilento area of Italy. A local San Diego cycling friend is joining me for that part of my journey. But now that I'll be flying home via Barcelona (which I've been to quite a few times for business), I need to get my "Costa Brava" segment squared away. Girona has been on my bucket list, primarily because of how much I've heard about American pro cyclists using that area for their early season training. It would be cool to ride with one of those former pros.

Apparently ex-pro Marty Jemison knows a lot about Girona and offers bike tours, but I removed him from my list of pros that I want to ride with after I read this article in VeloNews about him sucker-punching someone who was calling him out for his doping history. I wish all pro cyclists had the fortitude to resist the doping temptation. Some great racers like Andy Hampsten and Phil Gaimon managed to do pretty darn well without resorting to blood transfusions and illegal drugs. Just the same, I'm pretty forgiving of a lot of pros who have doped...especially when they're super-nice guys like George Hincapie. But when a doper ruins other people's lives (like Lance Armstrong did) or randomly punches people (like Marty did) in defense of doping accusations, I back WAY away. Life's too short to spend any time—much less a whole bike tour—with those sort of people. 

I hope Girona will dazzle me the way Italy has time and again. The interesting thing about riding in the dry, coastal areas of Spain (I rode along the Costa Blanca during the 2016 Vuelta a España) is that they can seem so much like California. With a growing appreciation for our need to reduce our CO₂ emissions, I'm thinking harder about my far-off cycling destinations. I live in a great cycling destination. Check out the photo below from my ride earlier today. Why kill a bunch of coral just to see the same scenery elsewhere? For me—in future years—the answer is going to be to "get out of the cold," which means I'll be planning my rides in the Southern Hemisphere in during our local winter. I've had enough of this cold weather, even if it's "balmy" by my old Chicago standards.

I'll report back on what guides, hotels and equipment I find to help make my one, 4-day visit to Girona a  success. I know some people who have ridden there, too, so it's data-collection and hotel booking time. If you happen to read this and have suggestions, let me know. 

I didn't really have any cycling "goals" this year other than completing the Belgian Waffle Ride in northern San Diego County. That was achieved in the first half of the year. ➤ Then Strava took over, egging me on to show some "results" as often as I could for myself and my small audience on Strava. ➤ Then another local Strava user mentioned that he was going for 5,000 miles before the end of the year. That was late November. I looked at my YTD mileage and figured I could reach 5,000 too, despite upcoming family time and travel. ➤ Then—just yesterday, as I was checking to see exactly how many miles I needed to ride to ride today to hit my "goal" before the end of the year tonight—I also noticed I was within spitting distance (1,600 feet) of achieving another round number... 300,000 vertical feet of climbing. It's not quite outer space (which starts at about another 27,000 feet higher than that), but it's a nice new "goal" for this morning, which also had possible (50% chance) rain in the forecast. 

So yes, I got my butt out there and achieved both of these nice round numbers by 10:30 this morning. Not bad for the old fart Father Tortuga. 

This blog entry presents a taste of the Cycling Curmudgeon™ style of writing pervasive in my older blog at LaJollaVelo.com. I'm older and grumpier now, so I don't think I've lost my touch in that area. I'll briefly present guidelines for new and experienced fans of cycling, then share my experiences—related to these two guidelines—that make me yell out loud at my TV or computer...because, of course, the amount of spectator yelling is the ultimate measure of how exciting any sport really is. I know several experienced cyclists who have been bike racing fans for years who still break these rules, so I'm not too concerned that I'm sharing something you already know. 

Let's start with the spoiler. This is the act of sharing information about any show or event that others do NOT want to know yet. Some people are living real lives in real time that may require the recording and LATER viewing of a show or event. This is especially common in the cycling world because most of the events occur in Europe on European time. So when we Americans go out for a club ride in the morning, those of us who do not suffer from insomnia or extreme obsession with the sport have not yet seen that day's race.

​To make things worse, there are so many new ways for people to spoil the surprise for everyone else: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and for cyclists...Strava. Strava tracks our mileage for us and adds a "social" aspect to tracking and sharing runs and rides, allowing you to comment within your day's ride narrative about that "awesome victory by Peter Sagan" that morning, for example. In a face-to-face situation, I can politely tell the person who's about to share the day's race result to STFU. Unfortunately, on Strava or Twitter, I've read the result before I can stop. I can't unread it. That's when the "yelling out loud" starts....cursing at the phone/computer and my friend who just ruined the surprise "awesome sprint" finish to a race that I would have MUCH rather watched without already knowing who won.

Now you know rule #1: Don't talk about race results of the day on social media. And if you're "live"  with your friends on the road or at the coffee shop, start your exciting monologue about the day's race with the question, "Have you all seen today's race?" and LISTEN to the answers. If your buddies haven't seen the race, just stop at something like, "Check it out...it was great."

Moving on to rule #2... If you're lucky enough to be at a live bike race, give the athletes some room to do their jobs, even if the course marshals or Gendarmes aren't forcing you to step back. You're going to underestimate the riders' speed, and you don't necessarily know which part of the road they will want to ride on. Getting in the way or having your camera strap catch their handlebars can cause a terrible crash. So why not get off the road (Rule #2) and watch from the curb? The riders are sure to stay off the curb unless one of the witless members of the motorcade bumps them off the road. The photo above and this article from Richard Williams of the Guardian help illustrate this rule. As you can guess, my loudest yelling at the TV comes when there's an awesome sprint ("go! go! go!"), a horrible crash ("oh no!"), or a herd of selfish, idiotic fans that feel like they have to be part of the race by getting further and further into the road ("get out of the way!), sometimes rationalizing this stupid idea by claiming some other moron on the road was blocking their view. (Tip: Tell that other moron to get TF off the road.)

Two rules should be plenty for my rudimentary blog for people with short attention spans about being a good cycling spectator. But for sh*ts & giggles I'll also mention Rule #3 because—as we've seen from the results of the 2016 presidential election—people are stupid and selfish. Rule #3 reads as follows: "Do not bring smoke bombs to bike races." WTF? Do we really need to say that? Yes. Thankfully some of the race organizers are banning them, but just like the 3-foot law (aka the "Three Feet for Safety Act") in California, you might never actually see it enforced. Well here we go...I'm yelling at the idiots waving smoke bombs on my TV again  ("shove that god**m thing up your a**!"). Ah, what a great sport. ∎

🔥 Change of plans: I'm definitely NOT driving all the way up to the Crater Lake Century, which is still slated to take place on August 18, 2018. This was going to be my first big road trip since Katie and I took our underutilized (but awesome) Sprinter cargo van on a camping & cycling journey through Nevada and Utah in 2010. That's a long time to go between multi-state road trips, so my sadness and disappointment feel pretty profound at the moment. I shall limit my whining about this predicament because the reason for the cancellation of this trip—at least in its original form—is that California and Oregon are on fire. Firefighters are risking their lives, some people are losing their lives, and many people are losing their homes to these blazes. 

When the fires initially broke out, I thought I would shift my focus from cycling to relief efforts along the way. But the Red Cross refused my application to volunteer because my home address is too far from where they need help. I've also canceled my lame ($0 raised) goFundMe campaign intended to supplement my own contributions to help assist fire victims. Now, instead of hands-on volunteering and direct relief fund distribution, I'm reverting to our usual means of helping: making a donation, which I encourage everyone to do. The Red Cross will direct the funds exactly to where you want them to go.
✚ American Red Cross 

The smoke in Oregon at the site of the planned "century" ride is just the icing on the disaster-cake of a trip this was starting to look like. My northbound route to Oregon, mostly using coastal California Highway 101, has a couple fires near/around it (Mendocino Complex). And my southbound return path along Interstate 5 with a planned detour to Sequoia National Park has its own set of fires still burning, as shown on the fire incident map below. Maybe August 2018 is not the best time for a big road trip? Sometimes I have a hard time giving things up, and this is no exception. I'm looking for a compromise—finding new places to ride that aren't covered in smoke—but we'll still have to play this by ear.

Meanwhile, back home on the ranch, we're still in the thick of a Caribbean-style hot & humid weather pattern that is so unlike the California weather I once knew. The LOW barely got below 80°F last night, but as they say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." OK, no whining about this or the "running toilet issue" one of our tenants brought up yesterday. (I  do wish our tenants were at least as handy as I am.) 
Right. Repeat after me, "I'm all about gratitude." I'm alive and well. My family is alive and well. Our house is not burning, and I installed a mini-split air conditioner (yes, on my very own!) a couple years ago so Katie and I slept comfortably last night. I hope you did, too. 
​🍀

Earlier this year, a friend visiting from Colorado to enjoy the Belgian Waffle Ride with me mentioned that the Crater Lake Century is on his bucket list but he couldn't do it this year because of a schedule conflict. After seeing Crater Lake several times from commercial flights overhead, I've wanted to get there to see it up close, so I added that ride to my list. Now that I've retired and turning 60 this year, I don't delay my bucket list items. Whether or not you share lanes with distracted and irrational drivers, you never know when your number is up, so why wait?

Sometimes my timing isn't so good. Like when I asked my wife to marry me. Bad timing, wrong approach. But hey, we're still together, married, happy and in love almost 42 years after our first date on August 19, 1976. 

Well, it looks like my timing on "which year to ride the Crater Lake Century" could not be worse. I got an email a few days ago from Zach Gilmour (the ride organizer and owner of Zach's Bikes) explaining how the ride could potentially be canceled due to fire hazards and air quality. For me, it's not just the fires near Crater Lake that are a factor. You see, I'm DRIVING up there (leaving San Diego on the 13th) and planning to do some rides along the way. I plan to take a somewhat coastal route on the way there, then an inland path on the way back. And guess what...there are quite a few fires along the way, all in various stages of growth or containment. As I type this, the Mendocino Complex fire has just become the second-largest in California history. The Carr/Redding fire has destroyed so much and killed so many, but the air might be clear enough for me to stick to my camping plans in areas like Shasta Lake because it's already 45% contained and I'm not going to be in that area until August 19th.  

Suffice to say I'm rethinking my ride plans. I have limited time (need to be in Santa Barbara for a family wedding by the 24th), but I have resources. I have money, a big-ass Sprinter cargo van, and plans to go near some pretty devastated areas. My heart compels me to look into ways I might be able to directly help victims of the fires. Most people have insurance, but most people also have totally inadequate savings to help them through tough times, like when they're waiting for the insurance company to shell out some money. Maybe a stranger showing up in their burned-out neighborhood with food, drinks, and a little cash to help them through the day might be a sight for sore, smoke-singed eyes? I don't know. I like to leave a positive emotional footprint, and that's more important than how many miles I ride on this trip. We'll see how this unfolds. 

After a brief remodeling detour to Marina del Rey, I got back to San Diego in time for a remarkably unprofitable poker game last night. Penniless but free, I've finally posted photos I took of last weekend's SoCal bike racing scene. The weather was perfect. The photos are not, as I explain below.

San Diego Bicycle Club "SDBC" was well-represented at SDBC's Barrio Logan Grand Prix "BLGP" on Saturday. I was happy to donate $500 in cash prizes c/o CyclingSalvation.com to all the Junior race winners. Saturday was my first day using a new camera I bought a couple days prior. I stupidly assumed it could take good sports photos on the "auto" setting thanks to new, high-ISO sensor technology. That was a BAD NERD assumption. Lesson learned. I still need to use high shutter speeds (≤ 0.002 seconds) in the shutter-priority "Tv" mode. I was in the Barrio all day and missed only one podium.  It wasn't until I got home and saw the pictures on the computer that I learned the ugly camera mode lesson. I did my best to sharpen and enhance the photos, and I hope some of the racers will enjoy viewing and saving their favorites. 
Here (▼below▼​) is the link to the 2018 Barrio Logan Grand Prix photos on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmaSzJpm

Both the Barrio Logan and Dana Point races included a 60+ category, which means "I couldah been a contendah." But I know better. I'm old, and fortunately I'm slow for my age (palmarès: 0). Also, I've never had any interest in experiencing a fifth concussion. Even as a spectator without a speck of riding all day, I was tired after a long day of fresh air and cold beer down in the Barrio. (Uh, did I mention how old I am?) So I slept in on Sunday then drove up to Dana Point after breakfast to find a cappuccino and watch some bike racing.

​I was excited to see the Dana Point Grand Prix "DPGP" because I had never been to it before. I obviously arrived long after the racing had started. It wasn't my intention to be there the whole day like I do for SDBC's criterium in San Diego. I just wanted to see some of the racing and test my new camera (the amazing Canon EOS 80D) using a more appropriate setting. 

Sunday's photos did come out better than Saturday's did, but I'll never be good enough to take photography on as a "day job." The bright sun allowed me to use shutter speeds shorter than a thousandth of a second, which resulted in many "less blurry pictures" compared to those I took all day on Saturday. But—being the senile old fart I am—I screwed up all the finish line photos of the women's pro/1/2 race because I had temporarily set the shutter speed much slower (for lower ISO, greater depth of field on some comparatively "still" shots) and forgot to dial up the shutter speed again for the final lap. Argh! Sorry, ladies!

SDBC once again had great representation in the races at Dana Point, with our Dutch club member, 747 pilot, and YouTube Star Jasper Verkuijl taking 2nd place in his Cat-2 heat (just ahead of former SDBC racer Juan Cisneros). When SDBC's race team manager Wells Wang encouraged Jasper to try his legs in the pro/1/2 race before flying back to Europe, Jasper registered and took 9th place in that race! (Congrats, Jasper & team!)
Here (▼below▼) is the link to my Dana Point Grand Prix "limited set" of photos on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhkSkJZ
Here's a link to more DPGP race photos and podium results. 

​The field for the women's race was amazing. SDBC's women's team had the privilege of racing with Coryn Rivera, a local (but world-famous!) pro racer from Team Sunweb. The surprise victory went to 16-year-old Megan Jastrab, pulling off an upset on Junior gearing! (Ah, youth!)

You're welcomed to use and share any of my photos linked above. If you'd like a photo without the watermark to use in your own publication, contact me (Dan) here and I'll email it to you after doing a little "post-production" enhancement, which is hard to take time to do on all of these. 

There's always good fun, food & drink...and plenty of spectator room at these races, so if you haven't been to one already, look them up and mark your calendar for next year. In the meantime, happy riding! I hope to see you out on the road.

This coming weekend (April 28th & 29th) presents two of the finest road racing events in Southern California...the Barrio Logan Grand Prix (BLGP) in San Diego, then the Dana Point Grand Prix (DPGP) in—you guessed it—Dana Point. These criteriums "crits" bring the local racing scene back onto hard concrete and asphalt after the epic Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) dragged about a thousand racers on and off the road all over northern San Diego County two weeks ago. 
▶ BWR photos on Flickr here. ◀

I participated in the BWR wafer RIDE. Some people race it with all their might, but it is called a "ride" and I can't really say I raced it. My purpose was to finish it with no crashes and no cramping. I enjoyed the rest stops and scenery. I feared for my noggin during the sandy, rocky, off-road portions because this one day presented more dirt-riding than I've done in the nine years since I almost killed myself in a mountain biking accident in 2009. I wasn't on a mountain bike in the Belgian Waffle Ride, but my Specialized Diverge—with its stock, chubby 38 mm tires and subtle suspension in the seatpost and steerer—made the dirty journey possible without destroying my 60-year-old back. I was so glad to get back on solid pavement after every dirt section, and I'm relieved I survived the ride unscathed. It was quite an experience, but that's now checked off my bucket list. (Next: Crater Lake Century this summer!)

If I was a capable, strong bike racer unafraid of experiencing a fifth concussion, I would participate in the great races this coming weekend: BLGP on Saturday and DPGP on Sunday. They both have a 60+ category, which you cannot say about every amateur road racing event. Since I'm slow and crits are dangerous, I'll take photos and watch instead of race. As a big San Diego Bicycle Club (SDBC) supporter, I've been photographing the BLGP for years. I've also been providing prizes for winners of the Juniors racers. I'm a fan of road bike racing across the board, but I'm especially supportive of women and children who want to participate. As things are in the USA, support for their racing dreams is nominal at best. 

This will be my first time ever going to watch the DPGP and I'm excited to see it. Dana Point is a beautiful community, and our YouTube celebrity SDBC member from The Netherlands, Jasper Verkuijl (who also happens to be a Boeing 747 pilot for KLM) will be working with SDBC's amazing elite team to try to pull off a win. 

Look for photos posted here from both races by this time next week. I hope to see you out there!

Once upon a time I raised several thousand dollars for a charity in the name of my late, great friend Steven Flack who was suffering from leukemia. I was younger then. I was on Facebook then with hundreds of friends...some of them real friends and family. I was still working, so I had those business contacts, too. I had more energy for everything, including fundraising.  

Boy, have times changed. Now I can't stomach the idea of asking friends and family to donate. Since I'm officially retired (early, I guess, since I turn 60 this year), I don't feel right asking people —who are still working hard to make ends meet—to help me with a charity drive associated with a race I'm doing April 15th.

BUT, if you've found your way to this blog post (perhaps with my help?) and have some spare change for a tax-deductible donation to a charity called the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), please consider making a donation today. They can't accept donations related to this event after April 14, 2018. As of this writing I have raised $0.00! I'll match any and all donations made by April 10
LINK to Pledge Page:
https://www.PledgeReg.com/2559/cyclingsalvation
            T HANK YOU!
​ 

Bike Radar published an article today about another church of cycling. It's not the one I've visited and written about near Lake Como in Italy. In keeping with our "Spring Classics" location on the calendar, this one is in Belgium. Read more here:
https://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/roeselares-cycling-museum-51996/www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/roeselares-cycling-museum-51996/
​
​Meanwhile, back here in San Diego, spring weather is finally arriving. This will hopefully make my final attempt at fitness more enjoyable as we head for the Belgian Waffle Ride in North County San Diego on April 15th.