Confucious Says - avoid inactivity unless you like tan oaks

Fitz and I pedaled the canyon the other day and we were both feeling it in the old gams and then we saw this unique display and thought well.....at least we're not stuck in an 80' tan oak watching the world go by - so we pedaled on and on enjoying the freedom of life's tan oaks with tired legs and all.

Steel WÜl you find it- among the vinyards

Jedi found this local Monastery tucked back in the vineyards of Corralitos...someone get this man a ball cap!

3 hour mini boogie - Narnia style

 Caletti and company enjoying the many views of a mini boogie and never more than an hour from home.

a raccoon a lifeguard and a German walk into a bar..

Once again I passed a couple of German cycle tourist pedaling (hauling ass) south bound Highway 1 in the number 2 lane. I met up with them near Dear Park and I jokingly asked them if they were traveling without a map and they admitted to only having an I-Pad (dead battery). They were en-route to the tip of Baja from Anchorage.They were in need of some oatmeal as the local raccoons snagged all there calories at New Brighton camp ground. I told them that I had a buddy (state lifeguard) who could talk to the local shot-caller raccoon at New Brighton and maybe get some of there tasty morsels back but they were just as happy to check out what Delux Foods was all about. I pulled out another trusty (free) AAA map and sent them on their way. I asked them what they thought of Ullrich and they said that he is no longer "silly" referring to his mental status. As soon as we started chatting about Ullrich they immediately commented on Lance and gave me the international sign for doping (needle in the arm). Someone remind me that I need a couple more Monterey Bay and Central Coast maps for the give-a-way stash.

Flamingo Grande - September 29th

click the link below if you are interested in doing an epic Boogie with the ballmauler crew, they have an incredible route planned for Saturday, September 29th.

  http://theballmauler.com/fall-flamingo-grande/

give me the LeMond & she'll take the Dorothy Hamill

I remember as a teenager going to the barber and trying to describe my desired hair cut - short on the sides and fade the top please. You know - give me the Greg LeMond man! The one that looks like I am suffering up some European mountain top yet relaxed enough to appear stylish.  My sisters had it easy, all they had to do was mention the house hold name Dorthy Hamill and their cut was on. My buddies and I all sported the LeMond after all it was the only cut you could possibly get a way with while wearing a colnago head band for your freshman yearbook photo.

the original "LeMond cut"

aka the "Mottet"

aka the "JF Bernard"

aka the "Alcala"

aka the "Kelly"

aka the "Delgado"

aka the "freshman roadie"

The Dorothy Hamill

Steel WÜl Trivia - diesel engine vs lung on a stick...

photo by Jake Hess

I found this little gem at Grandma WÜleurs house the other day and I remember that ride like it was yesterday. That blue Serrota Colorado SL with 8sp STI was the sickest machine in the county. When these guys went to the front you would look behind you to find a battle buddy.


Question: Who are these fellows?

Answer: LeMond and Shapleigh

Highlander with the correct answer and a custom SW ball cap!

Hint: They both raced against a clean Armstrong, one of them had a thing for Swiss made childrens clothes and the other one worked his way up to the top of a major cycling company from the ground floor.

Steel WÜl Trivia - Santa Cruz Legend

Question: Who is this Santa Cruz Cycling Legend leading the Santa Cruz Crit circa 1991?

Answer: Hal Worthington 

Kev McGill was issued a SW cap for the correct answer.

A clean test means you beat the system...?

Vaughters confirms past doping by Danielson, others at Garmin

Jonathan Vaughters (Garmin-Sharp)

   

Addresses why he didn't hire Jaksche

Jonathan Vaughters of Garmin-Sharp has hired a number of ex-dopers to his team – and is one himself. He did not sign Jörg Jaksche when the German had served out his doping ban, but it had nothing to do with "omerta" or black-listing in the peloton – it was simply due to a personality conflict.

Writing openly in the Cyclingnews forum, Vaughters further said that Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie had doped in the past, bluntly discussed personalities on the team and discussed his standards for hiring riders, all the while relating virtually all of it to doping.

"CVV, Zabriskie, Danielson, while all clearly have a past, and from an ethical standpoint are no different from JJ, there is a very pragmatic difference," wrote Vaughters. "That difference is performance based. Basically, I knew from what my time at USPS, how "inside" or not those riders were. Based on this, I knew their transgressions, while ethically the same as JJ's, were much less in terms of enhancing performance. Therefore, I knew they could perform close to their enhanced level, clean."

He was specific about Danielson, and how he looked to solve the rider's problem. "So, Tommy D... Here's a guy that has used o2 vector doping, and with some success [Oxygen vector doping refers to increasing oxygen delivery to the muscles via increased hemoglobin, ed.]. But when you test him, without o2 vector doping, you quickly see this guy has massive aerobic ability. O2 transport isn't the limiting factor with his body/mind. However, he is not a mentally strong athlete. He succumbs to nerves and pressure very easily.

"So, in looking at his physiology and psychology, the rate limiting factor is the latter, not the former. So, working on that makes huge strides. Giving him o2 vector doping is akin to putting a bigger engine in a car with a flat tire, because you want it to go faster. yes, it will make the car with the flat tire go faster, but you could just go ahead and fix the flat tire instead?"

What are his requirements for hiring someone? Ex-doper or clean rider, "I treat them the same. With one condition: That they will ride clean on my team.

"How do I pick? Talent, work ethic, and personality. the above things aren't part of my consideration, because quite frankly taking the Sky/new suisse team stance on "we're hiring no one with a known history in doping" is just stupid in cycling today. It's just glorifying those who managed to slip by and damning those who got caught, even though the crime is exactly the same. It's ethically untenable for me.

"So, I do it in a way that i get some **** for hiring Millar and Dekker, and I get some **** for not hiring Jackshe [sic, ed.], but I can sleep knowing that I'm not choosing based on public perception or some BS PR strategy. Just on how they will ride, clean."

And when accused of writing specifically about some of his own riders while being vague about his own past, he wrote:

"I didn't go into any details about anyone. No names. Nothing. Same as me. All that will be public, eventually. That's been an inevitability for almost 3 yrs now. Just wait."

Why Jaksche didn't ride for Vaughters

Jaksche told Cyclingnews this week that he was unable to get a new contract after his ban expired due to hypocrisy within the sport. Vaughters, however, strongly denied that.

"Have any of you ever met Jackshe [sic, ed.]? Sorry, but his confession, level of transparency has nothing to do with my decision on him. Good for him to come clean!" he wrote. "I still would not hire the guy! I had my original $10M investor telling me I should hire hire him. And? Still I said NO! Why? Because he won't fit in and he won't perform well. That's my subjective judgement. Period."

Going into more detail, he said, "Jorge loved to gossip gossip gossip during his time in the peloton. He loved calling anyone and everyone else a doper. He was always intent on figuring out the new, next best method. He's a very smart guy.

"So, quite simply, I don't want that personality on my team.

"As for non-performance, Jorge didn't think of himself as a worker, he wanted to be a leader. I didn't think he had the physiological or social qualities to be a leader. Nor did I think he'd accept being a worker."

Vaughters also explained his reasons for signing David Millar and Thomas Dekker after they had returned from their doping bans. Millar had "physiological qualities to perform clean. Not as good as before, but damn good."

Dekker had the those same possibilities, but it "remains to be seen if he can handle the role shift now that he isn't quite as fast."

In fact, he was quite blunt in his assessment of the Dutch rider. "Thomas is an arrogant prick. Or was. hugely insecure guy. It's been a lot of work with him. A lot...."

Live Oak Living...

 While selling apples and pears on the street corner we snapped a few pics of the local cycle commuters.

 Mama & Olive pushing the fruit

  Barefoot Bandit

 No Lid Sid

 One Hander Zander

The Rivendell Reader

Cruiser King

 Wrong Way Jay

 Down Tube Jude

Crank Crusher Chris

Got-To-Go Moe

Ex-Pro Joe

D. Price look a like

Guitar Gus

Pecaboo Puch

Lugged Lennon

Surfing Sally

Big B, Little B - that's where I want to Be...

 Sir Silky

T-Bone

Knibbs Knob - easy on the eyes, hard on the hands

In the spirit of heroes and scenery...

I would like to shake the hand of the individual who does this for a living. When they first started this operation what was that conversation like? So you want me to do what with my passenger DC-10 Jet? Oh...we would like you to fly it 50' off the deck of a vegetation fire and drop thousands of gallons of retardant subsequently changing the handling characteristics of your plane. Ok, what the hell!