Monday, January 14, 2008

a long jaunt to fremont and back

yesterday was quite an adventure. i left my house at 7:30 to meet marian. we had plans to ride to fremont the long way through the pretty hills of redwood park and then over palomares into fremont early bird to do the women's 3/4 clinic.

i got a flat early while we were bombing down the hill in redwood park. i kinda sorta snapped the tip of the valve off on the frame pump. marian was going to give me her tube, but upon pulling it out, she had picked up a box of 650 tubes. oops. i felt okay, though, and figured i could make it, despite the slight malfunction. however, upon rolling out, she realized she too had a flat front tire. it seems we both hit something. now, we had no tubes. but, no fear, because we are girls and men will always come to save the day! (it only took a couple minutes and she bummed tube #1 off of a man with a neon yellow wind jacket.)

we rolled into castro valley and i realize i lost marian at a stop light. i turn back and long story short is marian is on the sidewalk with two very awesome people who gave her tube #2 cause she flatted in her rear. marian was perhaps smart and took karma's sign to go home. i however, am not so smart.

when i got to the early birds, i borrowed Laurie Fenech pump to inflate my weakass tire. right when i was finished getting air in it, it popped...and my valve had busted....or so i thought. laurie is pretty much the nicest person ever, and gave me a tube and i changed it. then i hear a pssssssssss again. and i was confused cause there was no glass for sure. i checked again; no glass. laurie gave me another tube. this time, i rolled around the block once, until i hear a pssssssss again. at this point, i am pretty frazzled as i was rushing to try to get to the clinic and i knew there wasn't glass in my tire, cause i had checked several times. anyway, upon some examining we see a big gash in my sidewall. laurie fenech again was like an angel from heaven and pulled out a spare tire out of car for me to use, so i could do the clinic! what a wonderful women. i was so lucky in so many respects-- that i actually made it to the clinic and didn't get stranded and that laurie let me borrow her tire so i could participate in the clinic.

i was very happy to do the clinic, cause taitt & laurel taught me some cool stuff. the hour went by really fast, but i think i learned somethings. i was so fortunate and lucky to have gotten that spare tire for sure!

i rolled over a couple blocks to the early birds to use to porter potty, but instead ended up hanging out with team oakland all afternoon and yelling at racers. my favorite part was overhearing the smack getting talked in the pro/1/2 peloton.... especially that guy who yelled: "hey. know your place!" that was a sweet line, and i am adding that to the repertoire.

this is laura, karla, me, carol, alice, and mel..aka team oakland and adoptees!

this is a very flattering picture of myself, yelling probably at the man off the back in the masters cat 5 race. i believe this photo suggests two future plans of actions: a) take it down a notch, and b) purchase some clearasil.

here is me talking to karla. my face does not look so ugly, because the picture is smaller and you cannot see my zits. also of note is the loose armwarmers. mel, my guru, told me the real secret of why i should lift arm weights: so my armwarmers stay on.

here is karla being funny. while some would say they are proud of karla for hangin' with the pro/1/2 big boys for so long, i was disappointed. i told her to go off the front near our turn so we could houl like banchies. however, she did not listen to me....because she didn't care about the fans, apparently. so instead, we had to watch some people with stars and stripes or some shit like that go off the front. it would've been way cooler if it was karla. but i'll forgive her because of her toyota echo.

other exciting news was i got to see the fresnoakland dudes. holla! if i were the rest of norcal, i'd be super scared of this team. cause i hear their freezer is full of ox blood.

with a new tire and all, i tagged along the team oakland train back to oakland. we took the scenic route-- down hesperian baby. the ride back to o-town was quite eye opening to me. little did i know, but east oakland has more cycling fans than you can imagine! i've never been to belgium, but i best east oakland could give those eurotrashites a run for their money. i've never had so many people cheering for me on a training ride ever. it was pretty awesome. i mean, some dude was so impressed with us, that he ran in the center of street ready to give us a bottle feed of something in a brown bag! anyway, props to east o-town for having so many cool passer-byers give shout outs. i especially liked the three lady friends who yelled: "hey there are women! yeah!!!"

well, all in all, a great day. i must say, i was extremely lucky today with my mechanical mishaps and feel very blessed to being lent a tire so i could do that clinic! if anyone actually reads this blog, and you are a woman 3/4, you should come to the clinic next week! taitt sato is going to teach us sneaky things.

angel award of the month goes to laurie fenech.

13 comments:

meh-wee-uhn said...

Neon yellow never looked as sexy as it did on Sunday!

Anonymous said...

oh my! what a great adventurous and fun day for you (and everyone else)! ha ha!

It turned out to be a really nice day at the EBC.

I am so bummed to miss the clinic next Sunday...it's so much fun BUT I know I will read the details here. :-)

WarrenG said...

Saggy arm warmers? Not for long. :-)

Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl said...

Laurie is one of my favorite women racers.

and you're still cracking me up! I'm envisioning the wino feed zone. no one says wino anymore, do they?

runjoelrun said...

Who are the fresnooakland dudes?

Itinerant Rick said...

At least it sounds like you avoided the EB crit crashfests .... I think you had enough of that action last year!

I am so bummed I missed the EB's so far; $%#@& cold has had me on the sidelines. Same reason I missed the fundraiser points race/BBQ action at Hellyer. Will you be at any of the other EB's this year?

place_holder said...

whew, finally a blog post! i started to worry that you might have had a boo-boo because of the mia on your blog.

i need to get my arm warmers tailored...I am realistic about my arms.

TreBone said...

I was wondering if that was you and your band of trouble-makers in turn one! Will we be seeing you at the Tue sprintervals this year?

TreBone said...

BTW- you are never allowed to take it down a notch!! = )

Carol G said...

As pissed as I was at the wino feed zone dude who decided to plant himself in the middle of the road, at least he didn't come at us with a bike like those punks did when we were heading home from a port ride. Hopefully, I won't have to use my muay thai moves on some future ride because some dumb ass decides to mess with me. :P

beth bikes! said...

mad dog 20/20 is the the chianti of the working class.

soon every hipster will throw aside their PBR tallboys to discover the joys of the flat glass bottle of the MD 20/20.

(please note that i predicted it here first)

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

MD 20/20 is more gangsta than hipster. or maybe that's old english?


yeah, bikers throwing down on OldE is more hipsta in style.

jAndy donka-donk said...

king cobra and oldE are gangsta...

20/20 and boones (og strawbery) are for those punk HS kids...


doood join that oakland team, add to the hotnessnessness.....