NorCal Cycling News

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen @ Testarossa Winery - May 18th

This event is a cool fundraiser for the Hellyer Junior’s track program and the 2010 AVC (June 11-12).   The cheap seats are damn good seats and if you want to go all VIPy, than you can get a chance to check out Phil’s sunburn up close.  It’s a fun way to hear Phil, Paul, and Bruce Hildebrand babble on about the day’s Tour of California stage and anything else that can bubble out of some intoxicated euro-bike nerds.

Bring the noise.

Tickets can be found at: www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=10877

Give it a look-see, and if you need more info email .
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Speaking of the Tour of California…

Keith Williams and I spent a morning doing the uber-geek bike chat … busting balls and spouting nonsense about the climbs of the 2010 Tour of California.  There’s interviews and impressions about the hilltops from Norcal die-hards like Jesse Moore, Andres Gil, Damian Gonzalez and a few other guests.

Theirs a lot of gabbing going on - but, every few minutes we spice it up by making fun of somebody in spandex.
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… and speaking of climbing in California

John Summerson researched and compiled a very cool, very complete book of the climbs in California - specially tuned to those of us who want to tackle them by bike.

Summerson has piled together all the stats and talking points about climbs from San Diego to the Sierras … and even tossed in a few fiendish secrets to get you educated enough to talk big if you’ve done the climb yourself, or only seen it raced up and over via Versus coverage of the ToC.

This book is a gem to casually toss out on your coffee table as a sly conversation starter for when your non-cycling friends come over to break bread or spill wine.

“Why yes, Bob … it’s really 7.4 miles long … and yup, all uphill.  No really, you could do it, too. It’s not like I’m super-human or anything …”

Summerson’s also included some cool training tips for climbing and descending … and even provided handy directions to the climbs.

Not a bad gift to that cyclo-nerd in all of us.  You can at good prices.
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And  still mo’ climbing …

This weekend is the continuation of our NorCal sachay into summer … the Berkeley Hills RR.  This is a raucous event that swarms in on some unsuspecting boat launch facility up in the hills northeast of Oakland.  I’ve done the race too many times to count now and never really had that pleasant of an experience.

The course’s climbs are like sprinting intervals stretched on the torture rack.  But it’s also a great course to break away and pound on the pedals for some intensely beautiful training.  Beth and I won’t be there because it’s on Sunday, and Sunday’s are for the velodrome workouts nowadays … but, I have heard tell that Webcor’s Rand Miller might be racing with his team ~ and I’m predicting that this is the race where Miller finally realizes that he actually is a climber and not just a testosterone-junky crit racer.

Now, it’s true that Yahoo will have their big guns, Mooney and Huffman, out there crushing lungs and destroying dreams.  And the ever-climbing Nate English will be drilling every up-gradient he can sink his pedals into … but, I think Rand’s going to play this one smart and adjust his sizable suffermeter to get himself a solid finish.

… ah, to get a chance to train the crit out of that beast.
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But speaking of Crits!

Livermore has another criterium for Saturday … centrally located for all the kids of Norcal to come and play ~ the PG&E criterium is a first year event that looks to be turning out a good amount of style and should be fun runnings.

Check out the event … but, just in case you can’t get enough of the climbing ~ there is a hillclimb over in Nevada that will burn your chamois black … the Kingsbury Hillclimb.

But that’d be crazy.
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