Sunday, December 23, 2007

FROM MY FAMILY TO YOURS

Kararating lang namin dito sa Pilipinas at napansin ko na nagsimula nang malagas ang mga dahon ng mga mangga at santol sa pagitan ng Pampanga at Olongapo. Ang kabundukan naman ay patuloy na kinukumutan ng kumakapal na snow kaya ang mga tao sa lansangan ay ganap ng nakakulob sa makakapal na kasuotan dahil sa lamig na hatid ng winter time. Sa dakong North Expressway naman ay kapasin-pansin ang mga Sarao drivers at mga konduktor ng mga Pantranco na abala na sa pagkakabit ng mga tire chains habang maingat na namamaybay ang mga karitela at tricycle sa dakong liwasan. Ang mga espresso stand sa paligid ay animo'y loterya dahil sa sobrang kapal ng nag-da -drive through, gayon din ang mga cafe "latte" na bukas na kahit "early" pa...ang kani-kanilang mga reserbang thermos ay walang tigil sa pag-igib ng kape na wari mo eh poso ng tubig upang ang sambayanan naman ay makamit ang konting init na minimithi........brrrrrrrrrrrrr...ang lamig …..MALIGAYANG PASKO AT MANIGONG BAGONG TAON sa inyong lahat!!!!!!

Merry Christmas


Maligayang
Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon mga Siclista

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Tour of the California Alps - Death Ride 2008

For those of you that are interested in participating in "The Death Ride" for 2008, registration started yesterday 12DEC07 and will end on 29FEB08. As you know this is a lottery system registration and the event is limited to 2800 riders and will take place on 12JUL08.

Last year when I registered for the ride, I registered my wife and myself. We got both entries. Since my wife did not want to do the ride, transferring or selling the ride entry to someone else was not an issue. There are lots of people just wanting to do this ride so if you need to give up an entry, it will not be an issue.

Also, the best place to stay for camping that is close to the start is Grover Hot Springs State Park. The campgrounds fill up fast especially on the days leading up to the ride date. The earliest date you can make reservations for a campsite is on January 2, 2008. If you are serious about participating and plan on camping, make your campsite reservations on January 2nd (THIS IS NO JOKE!) at Reserve America . State parks allow max 8 persons per site. What is nice about this campground is reservations can be site specific. (you choose your site vs having one assigned to you when you get there. Site designated as a type "1" are for tents and type "2"s accommodate trailers/RVs max length 24ft. I usually get a type 2 site in the lower section of the campground in the 50s, 40s or 60s. I plan to get there on July 6th and will bring my bike tools and stand for those who will need to do last minute repairs/adjustments.

If I do not max out on headcount at my site, I will offer other Siclistas a place to pitch a tent at my site, but right now, its too early to tell.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Happy Holidays!

Now that Thanksgiving is over... Happy Holidays!

Christmas Party

Today is the Day, Our Christmas Party

Dec 15 2007 Sat. 4:00-10:00PM at
Eden Shores Community Club House, 2723 Breaker Lane, Hayward CA 94545. We expect everyone to come.

More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/18919625@N07/B18Vef
from JohnM

Club House Address

Eden Shores Community
2723 Breaker Lane
Hayward, Ca. 94545

View Larger Map
TX
Ed

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Tour De Francis Post Ride report


Sorry jack (everyone)sa late na reply. nagkaflu kase ako dahil sa ginaw..

We (Ronald Magcauas, Julius De Jesus, Leian Cruz, Frank Gatdula, Maui Reynante, Jeff Lancero and me) left Stockton at around 9PM friday night and arrived at the hotel at around 2AM, got almost to hours sleep. when we dressing up for the ride i found out that i brought the wrong jersey (my wife's Siclista jersey), GRRRRR!!! i tried to put it on but it's too small for me. i wear a base layer and Frank G lend me his Wind Vest (Luzvimin) and frank also mistakenly bring two wind vest without bringing a jersey. it was cold outside around 38F, and we went to Caistaic Lake park. we got lost twice in the park and we saw a bunch of riders going down and we found that were late... no time for registration so we decided to ride with them. they do have a helmet number and bib number and i saw the other has a number on their bikes.

on the first mile of ride it's climbing right away. we started at the end of the group so i decided to crawl up to the front and pass riders one by one. until there's five of us leading the ride. when we got to the top i decided to eat my breakfast so i let them go within my sight. suddenly when saw the groupette ahead of me there's two riders going away, i found out that the first KOM points is almost a mile so idecided to chase them, but these two guys are strong like a goat. i ended up taking the third in KOM points but later i found out that i was disqualified coz i'm not registered. When we got to the first SAG Stop at lake elizabeth i didn't notice that the group left already, when i tried to follow them it was too late, with head wind and i'm to lazy to chase them. i saw leian and Ron and yelled them that i will wait for them, we rode together up to the next SAG Stop Mile 50, at the SAG STOP they do have hot Soup, Sport drink mix, bread, banana, water, cliff bar, powerbar, and it was cold there, i almost cut my ride and ride the SAG CAR but we decided to finish it, we rode together on the first climb again with maui, jeff, ron and me, Leian can't ride anymore, he's freezinnn, i tried to pull them but it's only Ron who can hang on, i was very cold that time so i decided to hammer it down, sorry guys.... i rode solo for a while and passing riders one by one. the good thing is we finish the ride, my computer log a total of 98.9 miles with 6h33min total ride time. Elevation,, i hear that it's more than 9000ft total accent from the other guy with GPS. at the finish line there's a lot of food and they present us a plaque of appreciation for participation, i will present it at our XMAS party. all i can say is tthey did a great job organizing such event. it's perfect. there's a lot of SAG Car, Volunteers, FOODs, WATER, Gatorade, BANANA, and Photographer.complete with cowhorn pa. BTW the winner of the KOM is the White Guy i think Kieth from SFVBC, and Overall took by RAffy of MIRA MISA CYCLING CLUB (this pinoy guy is like a goat!!!! sana nakita nyo kung paano sya mag accelerate sa accent parang si contador) i don't know what happen why he lost the KOM.

Thank you sa ADOBO. it's a great event, we love it!

here are the two links of pictures got from adobo:

photo link from adobo1