HOORAY!

Finally, after nearly four weeks of finger crossing, pleas for help, repeated formal requests with blogger, and a couple of voodoo ceremonies - the BLOG has returned!!! How long we stay up is a real question for debate, but for now I'll try to get back on track with postings and updates. Feel free to drop me a line if you've got a question, suggestion, or comment for Sterling Sports Group   Matt

Central Coast Classic - Day 2: Lunch on high

This was the view from our lunch roost at about mile 50 on the day. By this point we'd climbed almost 4000' feet and had about 100 miles left to go! Everyone said to eat whatever, and as much as you could, so I powered down a full cheeseburger and macaroni salad, jumped back on the bike and felt just fine. Of course this is in direct contrast to my feelings on Friday evening...during dinner my hamstrings locked up and the 2nd beer caught up with me AT THE SAME TIME! I felt pretty bad for about 15 mintues, but recovered, worried, and spent a large portion of Friday night's sleep time stressing about my hydration level and wether or not my legs were gonna be cramping all day on Saturday. It was not to be however - I rode cautiously for most of the day and focused on a nice pedal stroke and consistent efforts. Of course I threw caution to the wind a few times - like when the slacker 'supported riders' tagged onto the back of our fast moving group (there were 9 of us) and took the easy ride right to the base of the days biggest climb - then promptly sprinted by carrying only their superiority complexes and little else. AAARRRGGHHHH - I hate that...take a pull or at the very least say thanks for the free ride! Alan, Bill and I were so mad we chased them for probably 20 minutes up and down the hills of Hwy 1. We finally caught them, and their slacker sag-wagon at a rest-aurant...they looked 'tired' from the big effort, but we had miles to go and jumped right back onto the road and fired off a solid hour at 22-28mph+. Whatever, fully supported! Lame.

Coastal Classic - day 1

Rolling Into Monterrey
As we rolled through Los Gatos on our way to the Lexington resevoir dam it occured to me that it was hot. Damn hot! In fact it was actually 111-degrees damn hot according to Mike's super-sophisticated watch. Well that was the hottest recording of the day, but for sure it was over 100 most of the way up the dam. Then we cruised around the resevoir, up Old Santa Cruz Highway and over to Highland/Eureka Canyon. Descending Eureka Canyon is pretty fun...but oh so bumpy! For some reason this ride, at only ~80 miles, was the toughest of the weekend.

Training Ride Coolness

On the eve of the great Santa Barbara Coastal Classic (a 330 mile, 3 day soujourn south), I thought I'd post this shot of a pair of fully rigged man-o-war replicas doing battle in Half Moon Bay this past Novmber...way cool!

If It's May, It Must Be Italy

Though it's only May, and the Giro D'Italia just started it's never the wrong time to watch some art about cycling - specifically the Ghisallo climb in the Giro Di Lombardia, the last Classic of the season. This short film about the 'tour of the fallen leaves" is shot on actual film and is nearly art...

First Look - Team 'Cross Bikes

At this past weekends Cats Hill Classic, Dean Peters
from Leopard brought by the prototype of the 2008
Cyclocross Rig. Resplendent in white and black carbon
fiber the bike looks HOT! Looks alone do not define
this ride though...it's got some serious engineering
as well...from the semi-triangular profile of the
chain-stays to the beefy front fork and extra-wide
tire clearence, this bike has "CROSS KILLER" written
all over it! We should have final specs and build info
for the bike soon, so all of you out there considering
a winter of dereliction think about joining the
Sterling/Leopard Cyclocross Team!

____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Cats Hill Lounge

Less than 15 hours to the start of the 35th Annual
Cats Hill Classic, in lovely Los Gatos! This race is a
staple of the Nor Cal calendar and, with it's 20% +
climb, is one not to be missed by those who like
pain!Tomorrow's event will have the Sterling Sports
Group Race Support Service in full swing - we've got
the 10x10, the water, oranges, chairs, and recovery
beverages all set to go! We've teamed up with Champion
Nutrition to bring lots of goodies to those who stop
by and I'm working on a bumping sound system as well.
If you're going come on by and check out the
Cyclocross Proram we're setting up!

____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Todays Ride -

As usual I left late for my ride. The difference is
I'd decided to do the Noon ride so I had to haul a**
to the start. The first 25min were at 270W avg, then I
hit the ride, which went up Old La Honda today!
Thinking I should test my legs I lit it up for the
first few minutes averaging 422W for the first
3minutes and 356 for the first 5min (mind you my LT
power is about 315 right now!). The second five
minutes were 'recovery' at only 320W normalized
average. The third five clocked in at 330W normalized
(thats the avg power if I'd pedaled the same tension
throughout, roughly). All in all OLH was 19:54 at
332Wnorm. Not my best by far, in fact I did 19:21 @
334Wnorm just a week or so back. The difference was
trying to stay with the fast guys today. Of course Ted
Huang just dropped me..he may have even laughed as he
went by (lol...just kidding Ted is way to nice to do
that, he probably waited til he was around the
corner!). Anyway, from the top of OLH I went across to
Page Mill and down - I averaged 298Wnorm for that 1:23
from my house to the top of Page Mill. Now I'm a bit
lethargic and stiff, but it was a good ride. I'll try
to add the power file to the site later...

matt

____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Ahhh Mentos, er Mentors...

"MISSION STATEMENT
The purpose of the Men's CAT 5 Mentor Program is to
encourage men to race in a
safe manner. Mentors will focus on safe riding, pack
skills, racing
techniques, gear usage, bike fit, etc. in order to
support novice racers. Mentors will not impact the
outcome of the race, and will be available after the
race to discuss r ace techniques and offer suggestions
to improve. They
will wear orange vests and neutral clothing from
program sponsors..."

Shawn Mehaffey, sage of safe racing, has started up a
Cat 5 Mentoring program for the Nor Cal racing scene,
and of course I signed up to help. Love it all except
the "will not influence the outcome" part...geeze,
where's the glory in that? Oh well, I'm still on board
- it just sounds fun to corner with Cat 5's (which I
never was because I'm too old. why back in my day we
started as 4's already. And we liked it!). I secretly
hope to get to mentor some cat 5 road races - I need
the training, but am honestly scared I can't climb
that fast!

____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

Sterling Kits

Thought I'd send out a draft version of the Sterling
Race Team Kit. I'm currently working on a clothing vendor - Castelli is the early leader! We'll have jersey, shorts, vests, arm/leg warmers, and socks! If you like the look we should have the online order process set up in a week or so! Can't wait to see these bad
boys out on the road!

____________________________________________________________________________________
You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost.

http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com