The tour is well in the mountains and I am excited. I’ve been sneaking a look at the live coverage in the mornings to see if the Schleck brothers are able to shake off Cadel the muppet.

I have no shame in admitting my love for the spandex and carbon. It doesn’t mean I have to use them myself. Play safe boys.

After a relatively short life, my (left) Crank Brothers Quattro pedal kicked the bucket this weekend. I found myself on an un-ridable pedal while on my way to our local bike shop. The shop didn’t have a whole lot in stock, but I opted for a pair of Speedplay Frog pedals. They look a little goofy, and have a LOT of float, but first impressions are pretty good so far.

This brings up a problem with my other pair of Eggbeaters though. I was able to ride both bikes off the same set of cleats previously. Now I’m finding myself looking for a pedal alternative for the (currently fixed) IF bike. I am running platform pedals on it right now, but I feel my foot slip around while spinning downhill. I’ve lots contact with the pedals on a regular downhill bump that I have to hit every day, so I am pretty uncomfortable without foot retention. I kicked around getting toe clips/straps so I can just ride my “regular” shoes. I have very limited experience with them and am afraid that they will make my bike a rolling death trap (especially with the fixed wheel). I am probably overstating the learning curve, but it makes me nervous to drop any money on something that I can’t test out before hand.

Option number two is buying a second set of Frogs. I haven’t put enough miles on the first set to know if I am going to be happy with them. I’d hate to have 2 sets of pedals that I don’t like. This is a viable option if the pedals hold up to my 200k this weekend though.

The third (and possibly most expensive) choice is to buy a new pair of shoes. Sure, I could buy some cheaper shoes… but I am probably too vain to do that. There are a lot of ugly bike shoes out there. Besides, I am sure that I’ll need another pair of SIDI’s some day.

I suppose if this is the worst of my problems right now, I have it pretty good.

Thanks for wasting your time with me.

p.s. Le Tour is getting good. Doping be damned.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend.

Friday morning Jane and I stood in line for iPhones. I told her last year that we wouldn’t get any until they came out with a new version. It turns out, she remembered what I said. We got downtown to the AT&T store around 6 for the 8am opening. There were probably 50 or so people in line already. The staff was pretty friendly and helpful throughout the process, but the iTunes servers were down, so nobody left with an activated phone. I spent most of the morning trying to get the thing registered via the internet. Once it was though, pure gold. The phone is pretty amazing.

Apparently other people wanted them too. The phone sold out in 21 states and still has lines around the block in major cities that have them available.

The rest of the day was apparently spent avoiding really getting ready for Seattle to Portland. We went to get Jane and haircut and saw Les Thugs play Neumos after having a few drinks with friends. We managed to get to bed somewhere around 1am after cobbling some stuff together for the ride.

Then I missed the 4am alarm.

We woke up about 5:15am after pretty clearly stating that we would try to be at the starting line around 5:30. We stumbled and tripped our way out the door, surprisingly not forgetting anything important. Norman was our ride to the start and back from Portland. He was nice enough to calm us down and get us there at a relatively decent time. Still, we started with no real breakfast and I was pretty worried that I wasn’t taking the ride seriously enough.

Day one of Seattle to Portland starts off pleasant with a ride along Lake Washington. It is an area I’ve covered too many times to count, but it is always beautiful, especially at sunrise. The rest of the day is kind of a snooze though. It is a painfully flat ride that skirts a lot of semi-busy roads throughout Washington. I’d hate to think that people get their only impression of our state from that particular ride. I was actually really looking forward to the “hill” in Puyallup this year. It was a welcome change on my legs.

We left Seattle at 7am and arrived in Centrailia to set up camp at 2pm. Getting in to town made a big difference on my outlook of the ride. The ladies came in a few hours later and had to stand in a massive line to get to the showers. Chris, Gus and I sat in the beer garden and watched Le Tour. I probably drank a bit too much for someone that wasn’t totally hydrated. The temperature was in the low 90s.

We had brought Tent City again knowing that the space would be needed for the extra people this year. Boo brought her friend Josh. He was planning on crashing with us and had brought an air mattress. We decided that we didn’t need to pay for bike lock up this year because there was room in Tent City. To recap, this tent held an air mattress with 2 people on it, 2 people in sleeping bags, 5 bicycles and all of our gear.

Tent City dwarfed the tiny REI tents around it. People only make fun of it because they are jealous that a 6 foot person can stand inside of it without crouching. Also, they are angry that I am stealing their precious land space. I love Tent City.

Even though the tent is large, there are still people within ear shot of your tent at an event of this size. In fact, there are hundreds of people in earshot. Most are nice enough to use hushed tones, but we were lucky enough to sleep right next to several who weren’t so nice.

There was a family with a dog inches from us. Interestingly, the dog was the quietest member of the family. The senior father kept farting all night. It went down like this…
Father (60+): *frrrrap*
Daughter (in her 40s): “Daddy! Quit it”
Father: “Sorry baby.” …. *frrrap*
Daughter: “Dad!”

We all got up around 5, but weren’t able to eat and pack our gear up to leave until around 7am. I felt very good out of the gate, but never really got to 100%. Still, Chris, Gus and I were clipping along most of each day at around 18mph average. We were rubbing elbows with a lot of jock type roadie guys that I am generally not too fond of. A good number of them like to yell “On the LEFT!” at you as they dart out in front of traffic so they don’t have to slow their tempo. We tried to keep a small group, but were always keeping a big train of people that didn’t want to help pull.

To tell the truth, I had more fun last year at the back of the pack. It was still a neat experience, but not quite the same as before.

Once you cross the Lewis and Clark bridge in to Oregon, the day takes a turn for the boring. Highway 30 passes by strip malled towns with little to no shade. By this point the sun was high and painful. I didn’t feel like keeping the 20+mph tempo we had started the day with. I just really wanted to slow the heck down. Thankfully, the guys didn’t seem to mind much. We tried to keep hydrated and moving.

We got in to Portland at around 3pm on Sunday. Pizza and beer were in my mouth shortly. The rest of the crew rolled in around 5pm. Despite the soul crushing high temperatures, all of us set personal records on the ride (for what that is worth).

Norman met us for dinner and drove us home in our car. I passed out easily on the way home. Thank you, Norman.

Monday and Tuesday were vacation days set aside for three things. Resting, eating, Le Tour de France. All three were accomplished.

Behold: The Elvis Waffle (with peanut butter and banana)

Jane and I drove down to Portland on Thursday morning for a much needed mini vacation. We brought the bikes down with a final pre-STP training ride in mind.

We arrived in town around 1pm and found the hotel quickly. I spun around the block a few times surprised at the lack of parking options I had at the time. We were able to snag a 90 minute spot, and we had to hold it until 7pm that night. Needless to say, we stuck around the Pearl District for the night.

The hotel was beautiful and felt like home right away. The rooms were a bit small, especially with our bikes taking up a wall, but we were very comfortable. They had claw foot tubs reminiscent of our first apartment in Seattle that brought back warm memories. The TV with cable was a special bonus since I was able to watch a bit of the Tour between rides and eats.

One of the first spots we hit was the food trucks between 4th and 9th. The food is amazing and cheap. Interestingly, most of the trucks are only open during the week… so I’m guessing there are a portion of people in the city that aren’t able to ever enjoy them. It is a shame too, because I had a wonderful burrito for 4 dollars that made my eyes roll back.

We ran in to Jane’s old girlfriend on day one and ended up going out for drinks with her later that night. It was the first of many random meetings with old friends that weekend. We got a taste of the nightlife in Portland and I did my best to take it easy.

Day two was definitely food oriented. We drove out to my mom’s new place with her boyfriend Tom in HIllsboro. It was a dual purpose party for the 4th and Tom’s 80 year old mother. They made 8 racks of ribs, stupid amounts of bratwurst, a massive pot of beans and all of the potato fixins’ a boy could wish for. None of it was left by day’s end.

We were able to dump the car off with my mom in HIllsboro, so I felt a bit better about getting around Portland without worrying about it. Jane and I went down to the water front amongst the riff raff and watched the fireworks that night. The people were the true show though. There was a little bit of each kind on display… hippies, jocks, junkies, suburbanites, yuppies, burn outs, gangsters, bikers, and lots and lots of sandals on all of them. The sandal to person ratio is quite high during an Oregon summer. I managed to snag a video of a lady who was very excited to watch the fireworks. She was fist pumping her tall boy can as if she were watching a(nother) Sabbath reunion tour (note: I don’t seem to have access to software to show you said video… maybe some day). Nothing is more magical.

Speaking of magical, we set out Saturday morning with one thing in mind. Bicycling.


We spent a good chunk of the day climbing the hills outside of Portland for some pretty epic views of the Oregon countryside. The first climb was a monster 1,000ft climb from sea level up a “road” that was best described as a fire trail. None of it was paved but the gravel wasn’t extremely loose. Jane did awesome up it. We stopped a few times to clean the mud out of our brakes as it stuck loose stick in our fenders. Almost the whole climb had a “snake hissing” sound emitting from our rear wheels. The few hikers that were on the trail were surprised to see people on it with road bikes.

There were 3 climbs in total, the last dishing out the most pain. Jane was cursing and cramping by the end up the final climb. She probably wanted to punch me by that point, but it would be wasted energy. She did amazing.
The descent down the last hill was mind blowing. It was a series of switch backs followed by some tunnels and a tight drop in to the city through traffic. Beyond fun. I love riding my damn bike. Jane described it as “the best descent I’ve ever ridden”… and that girl loves going down hills.

After a shower and some rest, we hit the town again with food and beer in mind. I knew that I wanted to go to the new Hopworks Urban Brewery. I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t a bit of a disappointment. I guessing it expected it to be a bit more “bike themed” than it ended up being, and it was quite a bit out of our way to find that out. I foolishy thought they might be playing the Tour and we basically planned the night around it. Still, the beer was fabulous and there was nothing to complain about. My expectations were just too high.

Gelato, coffee, and the Tour completed the day. Vacations are great.

On our final day, we met Mom and Tom again for breakfast at Cup and Saucer. We ate, said our goodbyes and checked out of the hotel before our cut off. Jane let me stop by River City Bicycles before we left town and (graciously) let me buy a couple of things tax free.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and pretty much exactly what I needed to get out of this slump.

I’ve been working on this logo with Paul Johnson (of Dr. Codfish fame) for a little while now. I am pretty excited to see the final product. It is so ridiculous in a beautiful way. Seriously, if I could pre-order a bidon (water bottle - for the non geeks), I would do it right now.

Honestly though, he has been a pretty strong supportive figure in my first year or randonneuring, so I am glad I could support him back. He has a lot of knowledge in that head of his. Scan his blog to soak a bit of that in.