A Bikey Weekend with the Tour of California

"A convertible!" by Mike. Commentary by Dedrick. With myself, Jocelyn, C. Horner and my phone.

Currently, I am recovering from a sun filled day of cheering and bike riding while Mike is at the Team Radioshack wrap party celebrating with the likes of Team Radioshack's Tour of California winner, Chris Horner, Levi, Andy Schleck and a bunch of cycling enthusiast celebrities, I'm sure. So I'm taking the time to share.

All week long, I've been following the Amgen Tour of California. Yes, at my desk, but very briefly and discreetly. With much excitement, Mike and I planned to go up to watch the mountain stage (because the riders go much slower and it's "easier" to watch) in Glendora and Mt Baldy.

I haven't touched my bike in a long time and I haven't done a long climb in even longer. So Mike just gave me a 30 minute start at the bottom as well as a backpack full of sandwiches. Somehow I thought the climb would take maybe an hour. No. Longer than that. He eventually passes me with his teammates.  Luckily, friendly older gentlemen that looked well in their 70's were kind enough to push me until they passed me as well.

Finally at the top, we found perfect places to watch. I had one goal- to use my cowbell. So we ate sandwiches, drank beers, and waited for the pros to come by. Lots of fun!

"You guys are going real fast" by Mike. With Hime, the peloton and myself

Once we descend the mountain, which was much longer for me, we recover at Lucky Baldwins to watch the HD coverage of the race.

Today, Mike and I then not only watch the last stage of the Tour of Cali, but also the Giro d'Italia and the saddening interview with Tyler Hamilton on 60 Minutes that revealed eyewitness accounts of Lance Armstrong taking performance enhancing drugs. This is only saddening because well I like Lance as a hero type. Everyone loves Lance! And frankly, it's becoming more and more evident that most of the guys in the peloton are using something, but not all of them are Lance Armstrong. And unfortunately the only way to stop all the drug use is to make the contests more "realistic" and to not be bored with "realistic".  Because realistic is ugly like my sunburns and my crawl up and down Glendora Mountain Road. Nobody enjoys watching that.

Is Beer the new Wine?

I sense a pattern among people my age (late 20's, 30's): we are dropping words like IPA, Porter and Stouts versus the traditional Pinot or Cabernet. A growing case of beer snobbery. 
Previously, I've always associated beer with the Homer Simpson's of the world- beer bellied and drunk by the 6-packful. But thanks to the more sophisticated "tasting" instead of chugging, and the fine biological structure of "better beers", the caloric intake is still minimal. So it was a pleasant surprise to find that most of the people that crowd these popular microbrew/gastropubs are fairly young and in good shape. (Could be an LA thing or a deeper circle of yuppie-dom).


Collectively,  we rush to get the new exclusive beer that came from a very far remote microbrewery where the local beer buyer had to sacrifice a finger for or just a little dignity for a keg. Yup. No grocery beers for us- just the stuff worth research and traveling hundreds of miles to taste. And why not? I enjoy going over to the local gastropub/brewery to taste something entirely new and different. Granted, I had to work myself up to the IPA level, but I now appreciate a good beer. As I've always appreciated a well-crafted drink that people put some thought into (like coffee or tea) and doesn't empty my wallet.


Mike introduced this new interest. He and his friends began visiting local breweries near out of town bike races (which is often the case), and now find themselves deciphering flavor profiles and using words like "hoppy" and bold as adjectives. Now, we find ourselves tasting new premier beers nearly every week, but we're far from being the only ones.  PS.  Don't worry we won't judge your PBR, but we'll probably prefer not to drink it.


My favorite beers are Russian River's Supplication, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Russian River's Pliny the Elder and Mikkeler's Beer Geek Breakfast Weasel