Months before race day Boggs IV registration is closed my friends. Now we’ve got a bit of planning ahead of us, but knowing how many of you there will be to feed is gonna be a big help! Tell you what, I’ve got that big camping weekend on my calendar in big bold letters.
See you racers at the end of March!!
If I didn’t learn anything today I should have stayed in bed.
I’ve officially promised to finalize all of your commented Q times before the week is over. Not too many of you have asked about it which means I’m still ahead of the curve–pretty good for this being the day that for many of us signifies the end of a nice long holiday hibernation. But now you’ve got a hill to climb. Los Alamos is waiting, and now you can self-post your results.
I spent the entire day learning, which is something that even out of school you should make time for every now and then. Lately I’ve been on a big mushroom kick, and Cheryce figured me out and presented me with a bad-ass mushroom hunter’s book that I buried my head in Christmas morning and didn’t look up for a solid week. Today’s lessons had nothing to do with fungi, but rather bikes… Read the rest of this entry »
Get the new year started right with a bit of Annadel trail time on your mountain bike! Mollie and/or Kim will lead this one–as long as the trails aren’t too muddy from Friday’s storm. (And rain cancels.)
Meet on Channel Drive, at the bottom of Cobblestone. As always, no one gets left behind and beginners welcome!
–kimdow
There is promise that the true necessities of life will remain necessities no matter what. I consider the bicycle to be one of those necessities–it will always be there to lift our spirits just the same as groceries and toilet paper.
The world would love to forget 2008, and tonight we can. If Bike Monkey survived on credit we’d have been long gone. But even so, one year ago I couldn’t have imagined us all (as in all of you reading this) accomplishing so many different things, and in spite of the low state of economics riding our bikes is something that people still continue to do. In 2008, riding was one of the biggest things that kept us up even when we were down, and it beat going to the bar to drown our sorrows. Some exciting, frustrating, and sad moments transpired in ‘08 that in spite of its shortcomings will leave this a year to be remembered. Here’s my take:
On November 4th, 2008 Senator Barack Hussein Obama was Elected President of the United States of America Senator Barack Obama is the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his acceptance speech he proclamed that “change has come to America”. The Obama/Biden campaign has pledged that “Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives.”, Barack Obama on Building More Livable and Sustainable Communities.
Citizens Privately Fund the Return of the Tour of California For the first time in the history of the Tour of California a city had the money in the bank to pay for bringing the event to their town before bids were even due. The bulk of the money was privately funded, and hometown professional racers participating in the tour stepped up to back the city’s efforts by participating in dinners and special fund-raising events to keep the Tour coming back. That city was Santa Rosa, California which is now labeled the most “thunderous” of all ATOC finishing destinations.
The Tolay Multi-use Stewardship Model (TMSM) Was Born Due in part to an unprecidented showing of interest and support from the cycling community towards shared use of Tolay Lake Regional Park the Tolay Multi-use Stewardship Model was born–a model that Regional Parks and the general public helped to build that Regional Parks is now committed to following as a guide for implementing access to the open space properties that our tax dollars have purchased. The model includes docent programs by which individuals can gain a pass to enter the park after learning about its natural resources and habitat. Through this manner we are not only making sure that all users have a say and access to our open spaces, but that they are also given an opportunity to learn about and appreciate the entirety of these places.
Cyclocross Comes to Santa Rosa (actually it was already here) For eons local cross racers would travel to destinations throughout the bay area to compete during the winter months. While cyclocross has always been a big deal in Sonoma County, and a great way to romp on the variety of the terrain we have in a single ride, there hasn’t been an organized series of cross events until now. In 2008 we saw an end to all that traveling when the City of Santa Rosa backed their own five-race series produced by Bike Monkey when they saw the positive benefit and festive atmosphere that it brought to our city parks.
Team Astana Banned From The 2008 Tour de France On February 13, 2008, Team Astana was banned from the 2008 Tour de France due to doping allegations of the 2007 Tour. In a response to the stiff penalty that was being imposed against a new team of individuals who had nothing to do with the allegations of 2007 fans showed their support by signing petitions at LetLeviRide.com to voice their frustration with the TDF planning committee for ousting the team. The ban was enforced, and Team Astana was not invited back to the Tour de France in 2008. LetLeviRide.com no longer exists.
Three New Bicycle Shops Open in Santa Rosa in 2008 In spite of the difficult times, three new shops have opened in downtown Santa Rosa: Echelon Cycle & Multisport, Aria Velo and the Sonoma Bicycle Company. As a sidenote, one of the most successful energy food manufacturers in the world, Clif, started its business in a strong economic downturn.
Paul Newman Died September 26, 2008 Paul Newman, American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian and auto racing enthusiast was a co-founder of Newman’s Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of October this year, those donations had exceeded $250 million. Paul Newman has been a long lasting source of inspiration, and he shared many noteworthy thoughts during his life. Here are a few of them:
“I’m a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being… by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
“Newman’s first law: It is useless to put on your brakes when you’re upside down.”
“Newman’s second law: Just when things look darkest, they go black.”
“The embarrassing thing is that the salad dressing is outgrossing my films.”
“If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.”
“People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked.”
“You only grow when you are alone.”
“For those of you who like to scarf your popcorn in the sack, the good news is that Newman’s Own contains an aphrodisiac.”
“Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.”
“I picture my epitaph: “Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown”.”
On September 25th, 2008 Paul Newman died of complications related to lung cancer.
But don’t let that get you down. We still have the bike, and we’ll always have Paul…
