Share the road and please don't kill

Dr. Thompson slammed on his brakes and seriously injured two bicyclists. We have all heard the story. He was thought of as such a menace, the judge ordered him to stay in jail until he is sentenced on Jan. 8th. He faces ten years in jail, but is not expected to get the maximum sentence. There was even a post on the internet about how to contact the judge to request he get the maximum penalty.

The other side of this story is the one nobody is discussing. And that is how can a successful doctor, living in a nice house in an amazing neighborhood be filled with so much hatred? He had to move because of this mess, lost his job and is now in jail, wondering how long he will have to be there. All because of an unimaginable sense of entitlement. Me first, get out of my way, I'm so much more important than you. His life is pretty well ruined, and he has become a poster boy for cyclists to point at and hate.

And rightly so.

Slower?!

I did the Piru time trial this weekend again. A 20km (12mile) relatively flat course.

This time I had a new bike & plenty of rest. I felt much stronger and faster during the race and expected to knock minutes off my time. I was surprised to learn I was 15/100s of a second slower than when I did the same race last month.

There is another race in November, I may enter it.

A scenic bike ride through the countryside

Last night the family & I went to the Encino Velodrome for a bbq & outdoor bigscreen showing of the movie, Bicycle Dreams. It is a documentary about the Race Across America (RAAM), which runs from San Diego to Atlantic City. Everyone follows the same route and ride on open, public roads.

Cyclists go for days on end with little or no sleep, pushing themselves into total physical and mental exhaustion. There was an incredibly sad scene where one rider was killed by a car. Another dropped out due to pnumonia, another had foam pieces taped around his neck to ease pain and one rider hallucinated to the extent of having to pull off the road to rest after being chased by dolphins. Typically 48% of cyclists finish the race, and those who do turn themselves inside out to do it.

Lance Armstrong commented that endurance athletes are trying to run away from themselves. I agree with this. All the riders interviewed did not come off as nut cases, but rather as athletes in top form. But there must be something that would make somebody want to spend that much time on a bike. I can tell you that, for me, 100 miles is plenty. Although I can appreciate what the mind & body must go through in this race. It is mind blowing and intense.

If you get a chance, do see this film. It is well made and has a lot of interviews with the riders and race coverage.

I did my first century in 20 years Saturday, the cool breeze century in Ventura. One of the easier rides with 3500 feet of climbing. I was happy to do it in 6 hours. The ride starts along the coast, then the hills start 20 miles in as the route heads inland to a series of hairpin turns. At the top of the hill the ride becomes surreal as many homes were destroyed by the fires a few months back. The major hills end after about 40 miles, then it returns along the coast.

They posted a few photos on the website. And one thing I noticed was a few riders, men & women, had jerseys with cut off sleeves (I hate those) with arm warmers, so that the tops of the arms were exposed. It just seems silly and looks rediculous. Like this gentleman in the blue:

Out of the many cyclists on this ride, I was surprised to find a photo of me. I'm third from the right in the red, white & black jersey.

Back to the regularly scheduled program

I haven't updated the blog in quite some time. July has been a hectic month. Plus the Tour de France took up lots of time, as usual.

I'm getting ready to start some new paintings and find my way back into some kind of groove. And I have 2 more weeks before a 100 mile bike ride in Ventura. I should be ok on that, because it's mostly flat and shouldn't be too hot.

And I have a guesthouse to design for some friends. Should be a fun project that I plan on documenting here as we go.

Tour de Corruption

A 50 minute video talk given by Greg LeMond is quite depressing. He says he would not want his son to race bikes professionally, that Lance Armstrong has doped and will never admit it because he has no conscience and the officials in the sport are all corrupt. Lance's response via twitter was that Greg has been drinking the haterade.

I didn't find the speech to be that hateful, although if you are Lance it certainly is considered as such. He brought up some valid points, such as how to go about cleaning up the sport by giving a break to riders who come forward and admit to doping and punishing the coaches, doctors and pharmacists who give riders the illegal meds.

Personally, I think a clean race is much more exciting than a bunch of steroid freaks of nature climbing mountains without seeming winded. Like all the cheats in the world, someday the truth will come out and damage will be done. Just look at wall street, the Catholic church and the economy for proof.

Saturday's bike ride

I went on a nice bike ride yesterday w/ the club. We rode 63 miles up to Magic Mountain area, then towards Vasquez. Here's the route. Only difference was we rode Sand Canyon to Plascerita Cyn., rather than stay on Sierra Hwy. Added a few miles and some steep climbs, but we rode through nice scenery and avoided traffic. We climbed over 3,000 ft.

Not bad for somebody who has been off the bike for 16 years and started again less than 4 months ago, and had to use the granny gears to get up a hill no steeper than a freeway overpass. I'm also happy to be able to make it over the hills, because that means more scenic rides with fewer cars and traffic lights.

I also joined a team and plan to race again next year.