San Francisco Twilight

Yesterday was a nice break from the all day/no riding business school. I woke up somewhat late and went to the season opening Cal Cycling Love-In. I wasnt really excited about the name of this event, but it turned out to be pretty fun. There were probably 60 cyclists there riding 2-4 hours. There were groups of roadies and dirt searchers. I rode with the mtn bikers and had a lot of fun. I am really looking forward to the season of collegiate mtn bike racing. I dont know if I will be training at all, but I will race a couple times and hopefully qualify for nationals.

Interesting story. On the road ride, one of our guys stopped to help this old duffer with a flat tire in marin country just north of San Fran. Turns out the old guy was robin williams on his fully custom sycip with super campy record. The guy didnt even know how to change his own tire! Of course like a good poor college student should, our cal cyclist asked robin williams to donate to the cal cycling team. We'll see how that one pans out.



This is the start line at the SF Twilight crit. You can easily see Richmond Pro Cycling's Craig Dotson in the front row. Further to the right is the Time contingent with Mike Stoops and Eric Barlevav. It was really cool to see these east coast local pros do a great job and represent in the race.


Jeff Buckles of RPC talking to Ryan Mele about 4 rows deep at the start. The course was set up pretty awesome in that there was a long drag slight uphill before a 90 degree turn to the start/finish. The downhill corner was super fast (at least 40mph) and a rock racing guy hurled himself into the hay bails in the middle of the race. The entire crowd (couple thousand) all made the "ooooohhhhhh" crowd noise on queue. He checked his body for blood, jumped up, and got back in the race. It was a ton of fun.




I went over to the city with eric (a classmate) and enjoyed my time. He and I walked around the city after the race waiting for RPC to wash themselves. What a great town. For the 1st time in my life, I am not surrounded by the navy and its disproportionate male/female ratio. Went out with buckles, craig, ryan, and their friend chad. I went to get every a drink and jbuck brushed me off. Buckles is a crazy bitch and I love him for it. He is tatooed from head to toe, has the most intense stare I have ever seen, and has never had a drink in his life! He's comitted to riding and I respect that! Let this be a lesson to all you young ones! You'll be faster if you dont drink. End of story.

Oh, I finally got my 2nd fork back from Pacific Bikes and cervelo. It took 4 weeks. And I am happy I scored my slc-sl before they added a bunch of weight and called the bike the S3.

3 mid-terms this week, a paper due, and 2 problem sets. Love it.