that’s right – Paris! Staying in a beautiful B&B in district 3, only a few blocks away from the Louvre. Wonderful cafe’s, bakery’s and bistro’s surround our home base.

the plan – to walk everywhere. 1 day of architecture, 1 day of art, 1 day of shopping and the last days to do whatever we feel like.

the flight from Montreal is wide open, flights coming home…. not so wide open, but there are options. can’t wait!!!

stay tuned for updates and with any luck, some great pictures of my adventure.

d.

she found the most amazing piece of art there, and brought it home for me.

please support the relief effort in Haiti. there are wonderful people there that need your help.

this amazing artist, standing proudly beside his work is just one example.

d.

I snuck in under the radar and managed to surprised the living daylights out of CG, then did my first 10k snow shoe race ever (thanks James!) and hung out with some awesome people for the rest of the day.

Good to be home?

Hell YES.

Now I’m off to the annual Cyclery After Dark Xmas Party 2009….. it’s sure to be siiiiick!

d.

I couldn’t drag Matteo’s ass out of bed.

So after a trip to Starbucks, and watching some SIIIIIIICK waves being surfed, it warmed up a little bit. We took some downtime to sit on our deck and soak up the sun. After 30 minutes of that, it was time for a bike ride. Teo threatened to go with bibs only, so he could work on his tan. I discouraged that.

He then said he’d put his vest on too. I discouraged that too.

So he got kitted up, and wore normal gear – and we were barely warm

Rolling along the PCH. Awesome day… not too windy. Pressure is high though, so going really fast feels like you are cutting through the air with a brick.

We got to Del Mar – *POW*

Fbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt. Teo got a rear flat.

So I sat in the sun and supervised the repair. Then we rode a little more (with emphasis on the “little”). Turned around and headed back to the beach. In La Jolla – *Ka-f00kin-b00m*

Another rear flat, but this time the tire was sliced nearly in two. We booted it, put a new tube in and gently rolled back to Verona. Scratch one Michelin Pro Race3 in the dumpster this trip. (and both of my crappy podiums’ too for that matter)

Today, for whatever reason… I had one of those days where I couldn’t hurt the legs. It was awesome. Every pull, Every Attack, Every Sprint and Every Climb was pretty much aggro today. I responded to it all. My lungs (and ribs for that matter) hurt… but the legs would keep going. This only happens a few times a year for me, so I was enjoying ever pedal stroke today.

Back at the beach… we walked to Trader Joe’s… where they finally had the baby greens I’ve been craving ever since the last time I was here.  As geeky as it is to get excited over salad…. this stuff exploded with organic awesomeness. Add some pomegranate seeds, balsamic vinegar and almonds with feta and you have tree huggin’ ecstasy.

Three pictures of salad, might just be a little overkill… but I liked the two last ones so much, I couldn’t choose which one I liked more – so you get em both!

Tonight we chilled out. Had some awesome Mexican food ((((again))). Matteo’s hooked on the stuff. I do love it too tho!

Cleaned up the pad a little… Tomorrow is calling for thunder showers…. hopefully they will be wrong, like they were today!

That’s it for now…. hopefully something blog worthy happens tomorrow… because if we’re stuck in the beach house due to rain… .it’s not going to make for much of a creative day

Peace OUT!!!

d. & Teo

The sun!

No kidding, it reared it’s foreign head today for a few hours. Wow, did it feel great.

As mentioned in the day 9 update… things here are very s-l-o-w-l-y starting to come back to life. The extent of the damage of fallen trees is massive. Everywhere we rode today, inland and south has been heavily beaten from the storm….. AND, there’s more rain in the forecast for the next 4 days.

Excessively cold temperatures, and rainfall are in the forecast. They had a warmer than usual November…. but so much for Global “warming” in San Diego… there’s nothing warm about it at all! We have no heat source at the house. It’s the beach! Why on earth would you need a heater. Well, let me tell you… 10 degrees at night/morning is quite chilly to deal with when you have no real warm clothing with you, and no heat source. Thank goodness the water for showers is hot!

Today, Ed called and wanted to get a ride in with us. Excellent! We rolled to his place and headed for Point Loma/Cabrillio. Beautiful sand stone cliffs and crazy hills (we went up one of 22% grade!). Aaaah, memories of Charlevoix!

Took some neat pics:

a
USCG Helicopter about to go on Patrol.

aaah, memories of my Dad working on Heilo’s…. awesome!

and then there’s these two handsome fellows…

at the top of Point Loma:

observation area at the bottom of the big hill at Point Loma:

a smaller aircraft carrier entering the bay:

and of course, the three of us with Coronado Island in the backdrop across the bay:

I’m going to miss Ed when we leave. He’s such a good person. Awesome to have in your company. You can’t help but be in a great mood when he’s around. I wish more people could be as positive!

To close up… we played some more smashball today. Matteo has gotten much better, thankfully!!! I’m still running all over the place, but not nearly as much as a week ago!

Came back to Verona, had some late lunch and went for a walk to get some things at Trader Joe’s before it got too late. I managed to snap a few shots of the sun going down. The waves are 10′ and higher right now – massive surf warning. It’s awesome. So powerful, but these pictures don’t capture how large the waves were.

Rain is in the forecast for the next few days or so…. I hope we can figure out what to do with ourselves at the beach….

Riding is likely not an option. We just don’t have the gear to keep from hypothermia.

outie.

d. & Teo

bike lanes are filled with wreckage, sand, debris from palm trees and branches, along with bits of broken glass and mud.

it’s cold and gross.

more for day 10…

d. & Teo

no pics, too wet. took the bus into Pista Palace… oh man, what an experience that was….

more deets tomorrow after the sun comes up. the pictures will be shocking. this place hasn’t seen a storm like this for years.

everything is closed up or flooded out.

d. & Teo

Let’s recap yesterday’s failfest for me….. I rode. A LOT. I suffered. A LOT.   I got home and ate. A LOT. I woke up this morning and felt amazing, well rested and on top of the world!

We got up this morning, and it was a little sunny… but chilly at the beach. Regular morning routine…. eat, chill, wipe down the bike. By the time we got out the door, it was looking mighty dark and cloudy….. 2km down the road, we started to get sprinkled on. *craptastic*

Back we go. I pick up my wallet and we head to Blockbuster.

FAIL.

Nothing worthwhile in there to rent. The only movie I thought would be good enough to pass the time was already rented.

*screw it*

we ride.

Off we go to the last cross race in Southern California. Got there as the 3/4 race was finishing up. Stuck around and saw a few friends. One girl screamed at me “OMG, Where did you get that jersey!!!!!” (referring to last years team kit) Who knew Canadians would be so popular way down here.

Back to race highlights…. The elite field was a whopping 7 guys. The race paid down to 8th place. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. Matteo and I agreed that by the guys who were racing in the S1 field…. I should have had no worse than 3rd place. Poop. I could have used the cashola, and the experience! What a fast course. Man, if these conditions were all we had at home…. things would be ugly. HARD packed, sand… power power power course. Right up my alley.

Alas, we only watched.

^

elite field.

^ this single speed guy owned his race. He hopped this first barrier and made his gap….. and just opened it up all the way through most of the Elite field who started 1 minute ahead of him! Good rider. Awesome technical skills.

We started our way back to the beach. It was only 12 degrees out. Stopped for a quick ultra hot Starbucks and hit the road again. Our anti-rain dance worked!

Along the beach, on the way home from one of our walks we saw this:

elle oh elle.    Can you imagine driving that monstrosity? OMG. And yes, that says… “Do or do not, there is no try” on the rear doors. BWAAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAH!!!!

Followed up the day with more Smashball. Good Thai food and another 30 youtube’s of TopGear.

Some bike pr0n:

It’s profile is so knife edged, it cuts without drawing any blood. Loves it.

That’s it for today. Rain tomorrow…. no clue what to do with ourselves…. we’ll play it by ear.

d. & Teo

In the mean time, Teo and I went to Starbucks after dinner and had a cup of happiness to get the blood pumping again. On the way to Starbucks, the sun was setting – offering us come cool pics. This was the only one that turned out decent:

While we discussed the day… the cool factors and the suck, the data was being downloaded from Teo’s Garmin. So here’s a screen cap of that:

Basically, nearly 7000 calories over 200km’s and 5700 feet of climbing over 6hrs and 30 minutes of riding.

O*U*C*H

I got a few pics of us after coming back to life…. slightly

and my $3 cup of happiness. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Not nearly as awesome as the Mocha at Ed’s favorite coffee shop… but at least this was within walking distance:

I surely did get some joy out of my frappalappa. Oh man.

Time to tackle my glue removal from the lightweights. A very messy task. Thanks to everyone for the emails. I’m fine! Was crushed temporarily. Tomorrow is another day. And any day on the bike is enough to make me smile

d. & Teo

6:45am out of here. 11 degrees out, 2 degrees warmer than yesterday thankfully! We rolled up the coast to Nytro in Encinitas for the Swaumi’s Saturday Big Loop Sufferfest. The big loops is 80 miles. The ride up to Encinitas is 1:15hrs at a fairly decent pace. Add all those miles up and you’ll figure out that it was a long day in the saddle.

Failboat factor 1 – Stupid me, forgot my water bottles on the counter at our house. *EGAD!*

Coolness factor 1 – as we decended Torrey Pines, a BMW Motorcycle tucked in along side of us. Egging us on to roll in behind him. So we did! Matteo said we were ripping along at 69km/hr at the fastest point. We covered 2-3 km’s VERY quickly. Thankfully common sense got the best of us and we shut it down. The last thing we wanted to do was gas ourselves before we even got to the ride.

Failboat factor 2 – FLAT TIRE. *ugh* Teo got a flat in Solana Beach. Not far from where the ride was to begin (1 town over). Pull over, quickly swap the tube and use Co2 to get back in the road quickly. Then TT (read – hammer) our faces off so we can get to Nytro before everyone rolls out.

Coolness factor 2 – The guy at Nytro was kind enough to give me 2 of his shop bottles! How awesome. He’s a Canadian fan too!

So with 30 seconds to spare, Matteo stuffed his supplies into his jersey and I slammed my bottles in the cages and we were off.

BIG Group.

The roll out was slow, which was nice. We stayed at the front, keeping an eye on the pace. Matteo was riding like a champ. We started into the hills and within no time, the hurtlocker door was blasted open. I dangled a little, caught the lead group…. let them go again…. caught them… let them go. Frustrating. Matteo was flying!

They finally got away and then it started to shred apart. I eased up, because at this point I was in never-never land and wanted to save some gas. Settled into the second pack, and the taps were opened.

Failboat factor 3 – *POW* I hit something in the road. Then rode for a few minutes, only to have my rear tire go flat. *craptastic*  I have a tube, however Matteo has the Co2 and the pump. D’oh! So Justin passes me and says “it’s only 2 miles before it eases up”. I rip the wheel out and start replacing the tube, despite not having a pump.

Many many groups of riders pass me and ask “you ok?” to which I reply – “NEED PUMP!”

Nobody hears anything. *sigh*

Thankfully by the time one very nice Australian guy rolled along by himself, he did stop, and did have a really good pump. I was back on the road within 60 seconds. Justin called my phone to say for me to book it, because they stopped at that 2 mile point to regroup and were just starting to head out. I punched it, and managed to catch them as they caught a red light before heading back into the mountains! YES.

… and then it went up. Up and UP and UUUUP. Teo had kept with the lead group by the time we reached the summit at 3.5miles. We rode into the shadow of Palomar on narrow roads you would swear were in Europe. At the top, the lead group eased up a little. Teo, took the opportunity to pull out a cliff bar, but the group hit it again, and he was left dangling in never-never land. He saw that I wasn’t far behind, so he eased up and I rolled through when I caught him so he could finish his food.

Then, we started this CRAZY decent. I saw sign after sign after sign that looked like this:

not 74 miles, but we saw a few that were 11 miles and 17 miles! :O

Nothing I have ever encountered before. We were riding so fast, everything was a blur. Thankfully I descend well, so I tried to rest the legs as much as I could, but with every roller…. came discomfort. Discomfort really was starting to get the best of me. I was starting to hit the wall. Water only on board (as opposed to any electrolyte type replenishing drink) wasn’t cutting it. And this pace was outrageous. It felt like the cyclelogik carp loop on steroids with a side of methamphetamine – except we were in the mountains as opposed to the relatively flat environment carp offers.

Matteo and I joined a UCCyclery guy and ramped it up even more. Some crazy fast pulls along these winding roads were taking their toll on my legs. I just started to drop off the back and we came to another re-group spot, with a corner store!!!

Wow, was I a happy camper. I plowed down a big redbull, a cliff bar, and 2 ice tea with ginseng filled up the bottles. As we rolled out again, I asked some guy… “how long is it to Oceanside from this point?” He said…. “wow, uh….. 40 miles.”

FOURTY MILES?!?!?!?!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! f00kin f00k, we’re FAR!!!

I should explain – Oceanside is the point where we meet the ocean again and head back down the PCH to Encinitas, and eventually where we stay in PB. That meant, 40 miles before civilization – then another 65km’s home – and I’ve been hurting already for more than an hour.

Sweet merciful crap.

So off we go. Hammering our faces off. Descending fast, climbing fast, hurting hard. I’m swallowing it all, until I started drifting off the back. Crapola. Then a highway crossing… they had to stop, and I managed to roll through it so I made some excellent ground on the pack and eventually caught them again on one of the super windy descents.

We make it back to civilization, and then *pow* – one of the really strong guys in the group got a flat.

EVERYONE stopped for him. THANK fOOk. I pulled into a 7Eleven and bought everything I could find in 30 seconds. Bottle of regular coke (yes, I said regular coke! I needed the calories!) , more ginseng tea, vitamin water and 3 peanut butter cookies. NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

The second I walk out of the sev, guys are rolling out again. *jeebus, can I ever catch a break???*

BAM. It goes off like a gun again. I’m beyond broken. I manage to stick with these guys until we hit a bike path. Then the pace got even uglier. I’m thinking ….. how the hell can they go faster than we’ve been ripping along until now… yet, someone still has gas and starts punching it (((AGAIN)))

After 3-4km’s of this ungodly pace, I started cramping badly. My hamstrings are shot. Any attempt of pushing on the pedals while seated results in catastrophic pain. “I’m out”

As I watch them ride away, I can’t even begin to describe how demoralizing this is to go through. Not only do I have no idea where I am, but I’m cramping badly, I have no spare tube, no pump, and no dignity

I keep rolling along as fast as my legs will allow, which was still a fairly decent pace – but crawling compared to the group’s pace. Every person I see, I ask if the group passed them. So I knew I was on the right path. Eventually, I made it to Oceanside. At least I’ve been here before, so after confirming with a motorcycle rider at a stop light that I was on the PCH now, I started to pick the pace up a bit because I knew I was on the road home.

In Encinitas, Justin and Matteo were waiting for me. Demoralized, physically and mentally. I accepted a ride from Justin back into town. There wasn’t enough room in the car for Matteo. This killed me. I knew he was fine to ride, I knew he knew the way home as we’ve ridden that way 3x now… I just didn’t want to send him off after he killed such a difficult ride. He assured me he was fine and rode off, heading for home with my cel phone in his pocket. I would have gone with him, but it would have only slowed him down. So I stuck with my shuttle back to Mission Beach, and rode the rest of the way back to the house.

End result for the day – Matteo, 195km’s – David 165km’s.

I got home at 3, Matteo an hour 40 later. His spirits were awesome. I’m a little wrung out, but will be better once dinner digests

I can’t believe it, but at some point (nowhere to my recollection)  managed to snap a few pics.

These were taken somewhere in the hills.

and this guy with the black jersey… he’s the one who ripped the pace apart all day long. *sheesh*

At no point was it remotely warm today. hovering around 54 degrees F. We kept the vests/arms/legs on the entire 6+ hour journey.

Thankfully, we are both just tired. No smashball today

Tomorrow, I suspect we’ll ride into town and watch the last cyclocross race of the season here. What a day it’s been!!!

I should have gone with Ed. In no way, do I think riding that hard, that long at this time of the year will be of much benefit, because we’ll be on trainers at home in a few weeks. Still, it was friggin cool

d. & Teo