California

I have a theory that every song with California in the title is good. See the examples below and decide for yourself:

Tupac Shakur - California Love

Eagles - Hotel California

Joni Mitchell - California

Phantom Planet - California*

Tom Petty - California

Rufus Wainwright - California

Wax - Southern Califonia (I mean c’om on the video is a guy on fire. Fire!)

*yes I like this one too

From the 8th until the 13th I’ll be visiting Jenn & Aleem in Los Angeles which means I will be missing stage #2 of the TdC. Luckily they drop one stage so as long as I don’t wuss out, get sick, hurt or die I should still do okay. I hope.

Late last night I ordered the last of the parts I need to finish up my road/touring bike for the trip. I also splurged and got myself a hardcase for my bike. So I guess that’s my present to myself out of the new job signing bonus (don’t worry the case is less than 4% of the bonus). If everything shows up by Friday or Saturday I should be good to go. If not then I guess I’ll just need to schedule another trip!

Saturday, February 11th

- Took a four hour nap yesterday and woke up this morning feeling refreshed and awake before my alarm.

- Bought 4 large “Moral Fiber” muffins at Trader Joe’s and have decided that they are horrible. Any one who wants the last 3 speak now. Please.

- New ID Badge! Yay! Now that I can go to the bathroom at work with no hindrance I immediately went and got a giant cup of coffee.

- At Starbucks someone ordered a Venti Latte Vanilla Mocha something or other and didn’t pick it up. Hello free coffee. This coffee is weird though.

- my all black bike shoes are salty from yesterday’s race.

- Donny Quixote won yesterday’s stage and his race report is terrific.

Tour Da Chicago ‘07 - Stage 1

Thursday night’s preride of the route had light rain, and while cold was pretty good for riding. Too bad Sunday was significantly worse. Almost immediately my feet where completely frozen and wouldn’t feel right until a couple hours post-race.

When I woke up and saw snow falling and a nice layer of the white stuff on the streets I predicted maybe 30 or 40 riders would show up at Peets Coffee for the race. Instead I found the place completely packed.

We did a Lemans start* in the parking lot of Blick’s Art Supplies (formally The Art Store) while a snow plow circuled the group. On go I booked for my bike and could already hear the tangle of bikes and once I got going on Kingsbury the chaos got even more intense. Kingsbury is an angled street which has an old set of train tracks that criss cross throughout. Sometimes they cross perpendicular which just makes for a bumpy ride, other times it crossed almost parrallel which is recipe for a jammed front wheel and disaster. During the preride I scoped out lines where the city had patched over the tracks with concrete so no real problems, but I counted at least 4 crashes within the first 10 minutes including where I saw someone get run over by another biker.

The title of Stage 1 is Chicago-Roubaix modeled after the infamous Paris-Roubaix in France. Paris-Roubaix (or The Hell of the North) is a one day classics race that starts outside of Paris and winds 260 km to the town of Roubaix. The race is famed for brutal conditions and the notorious cobblestones (or pave) that are punishing both to riders & their bicycles.** American cyclist Chris Horner said this about P-R: “they plowed a dirt road, flew over it with a helicopter, and then just dropped a bunch of rocks out of the helicopter!”

Funny how in our context Roubiax isn’t a reference to the French town, but having a race on the worst most horrible streets. So besides the dangers of Kingsbury’s tracks, we also had the steel grated bridges that are so amazingly trecherous when icy and have claimed many Chicago rider, and Kinzie street which is really just a giant pothole that’s been patched not to make it better but to make it worse. I imagine the streets in Bosinia to be about as bad as Kinzie.

On top of my frozen toes, my water froze within 20 minutes, and my bathing suit area was officially soaked (but still warm) in 30. For most of the race I had riders ahead of me including Mike who designed the course and described the course to me Thursday as all the streets ou would normally avoid. On Kinzie street I made some gains and found myself in a gap and was glad I had taped a cue sheet to my top tube. A misstep happened when I missed Taylor st, but was able to turn back and get on track.

Throughout the race I saw several racers on the side of the road fixing flats or walking through the more sketchy parts of the course. Flats are pretty common on winter days. Something about the wet making it easier to cut rubber. Overall I felt pretty good about not taking too many risks and biking smart. I definitely held my breath on the 18th street bridge when I missed riding up the sidewalk and was relieved when I rolled into Ogilve train station for the finish.

* A Lemans start is a reference to the 24 hours of Lemans car race where the drivers line up on the side of the track opposite of their cars. On the whistle the drivers run to their cars and go. Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hours_of_Le_Mans#Le_Mans_start

**Last year George Hincapie crashed twice in Paris-Roubaix. The first time was early in the race and he was able to get back in the pack no problem. However, the impact of the crash damaged his bike and riding on the pave caused his steerer tube to break the result seen left.

Watch the video on you tube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBzeQQs97YA

You’ll get ‘em this year Georgie.

Tour Da Chicago ‘07 - Prelude Stage 1

Thursday night: Met at the Hideout to Pre Ride Sunday’s tour route.

Saturday:  Went mountain biking w/Dan, Ben & Julie in Portage, IN at Imagination Glen and despite it being the worst possible conditions had a blast.  Oh and it is indeed called Imagination Glen and no we didn’t have to battle any trolls or answer any riddles.  When we got to the trailhead we found a 1/4 inch layer of ice coating the entire start of the trail.  Riding on top of the ice was impossible and when the ice broke you didn’t know if was solid ground, a puddle, or a ditch below you.  Once we got to higher ground though it was a lot of fun and not too terrible even on my ‘cross bike.  Afterwards we hit up Three Flloyds’ brew pub in nearby Munster, IN where we destroyed some food, watched Strange Brew, and bought growlers to take home.

Tour Da Chicago ‘07 - Prologue

Yesterday was the prologue of the Tour Da Chicago and the start of my 4th year racing the Chicago alleycat series. The format was a 2 checkpoint time trial. 86 racers started in 30 second increments starting in the Logan Square neighborhood (2835 N. Christiana), next stopping at the Metropolis Cafe in Rogers Park, then a stop at Swim Cafe near my old place (1039 W. Chicago) and ending back in Logan Square.

This year as in past years my race goals are 1. Not dying or getting seriously injured and 2. Not getting too lost. This year I am adding 3. Finishing every stage. This is actually a tough goal for me since inevitably I either get sick or am away for work or fun and miss a stage.

The prologue was successful on all counts. Out of 86 I finished 57th in an about an hour and four minutes. I did get a tad lost on my way south, but don’t think I lost too much time. The weather was absolutely perfect for an alleycat except for a nasty northerly wind that cost me my sub hour goal. Good times.

Someone took photos and posted them on their flickr account. Whoever you are thanks.

This was the route I took.

jeffkao.net update

I’ve been slacking off on updating the site due to the following:
- moving
- holidays
- new job

Good news is that you can now visit this site by simply typing jeffkao.net in your browser. Huzzah