Friday, January 25, 2008

California Dreamin' Y2K










Back in 2000 I started the season in AZ for the second time. More big miles and before I knew it we were off to California again. This time we rented a little house in Pacific Grove, CA just outside of Monterey. It was time for another edition of the Sea Otter Classic. This time around the crew was a little differnt. Derek was still my wingman, but Skyler had moved to Boulder and was racing side by side with JHK on the Nantucket Nectar Team. Nigel "King Parky" Parkinson(a brittish lad), Daryl XX Saul, Jason Karew, and Chris Beardsley were the new motley crew we did some time with.













We spent a little time before the race hanging out at Lover's Point in the Grove and even went downtown to Cannery Row and the Monterey Canning CO. I'm a huge Steinbeck fan.


The race went good as I had some experience from the 99 race. Jerome Chiotti and Roland Green were staged 30 seconds and 1 minute behind me in the TT. You can guess the results. After the race we spent even more time in the area. Parky and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We hooked up with Skyler, Garrett Heitman and Co. from Seattle and did a 18 mile drive loop through Pebble beach.




Don't worry we did spend some time training. A few days were spent "On The Road" going down the PCH to Big Sur reliving the days of J.K.






After another week in Pacific Grove it was up to Napa for my first World Cup. Unfortunately I didn't have any UCI points and wasn't assured a starting spot in the race. Last minute I put together a team for the Friday Night Team Relay. Rules 3 males and 1 female. UCI points on the line. It was pretty lame, but every did the race just to get points. I needed the points so I could start Sundays XC race. During the warm up I watched Cadel Evans go over the bars and break his collarbone. Ooops. Guess he should have saved it for the XC. Our team finished 8th enough for 1 UCI point and I start spot for Sunday.






Yes I did race in that outfit. Yes it was back in the day when Napa was big into Disco and I was messing with the system saying it was ridiculous to race a Friday night crit in 70's Sport Coat just so I could do the XC race on Sunday.

Derek was waterboy for the race, but spent the majority of his time dancing with the Disco babes on the infamous Disco Flyover. I'm sure he had more fun than I did racing. I finished my first World Cup around 80th place. I didn't get lapped. They bombed the results and I remember they had Adam Craig ahead of me even though he was one lap down. I was mad at the time looking back I guess they don't really care who was 80th!

After Napa it was back to Tucson for the 2nd block of training. Stay tuned for Cali TNM part 2....big changes!

1 comment:

Mountaingoat said...

The Disco Fly Over...that was an awesome spot to watch the races.