With the Amgen Tour of California passing through the Santa Barbara area it has been a very exiting weekend of cycling: both riding and spectating
Friday Some team mates and friends of GaryAnne braved the weather and rode up to solvang to watch the time trial stage as Bammer's house which was conveniently situated right on the course. We got to see all the riders pass by and Jason provided an ample supply of hummus to and good vegan eats while we were cheering on the PROS. Oh yeah and Jason's wife has a pretty kickin front yard full of flowers and what looked to me like eatable grass.
Then Saturday I hitched up with the 8 am ROCO ride and we headed out to Ojai and then back to casitas pass to watch the back to back KOM sprints. It was fun hanging with team mates and riding but to completely honest It's a lot more interesting watching the action online or on Versus.
Both days I got in 4+ hours of good quality riding time and got to see some of cycling's greatest in person if only for a couple of seconds... Oh yeah, Tyler Hamilton waved at me. He must have gotten the memo- you know that one memo...
Well... all the PRO action got me really psyched up and I decided that I would ride sunday morning rain or shine. Well the rain was pouring when I woke up but I thought WWBD (What would Boonen DO). Being a Belgian, he would probably apply a Belgian knee warmer concoction and head out for a ride. So I attempted to have a go at creating an embrocation of my own to stave off the water and cold. I read online that tiger-balm and lotion makes a good solution. So I whipped out the tiger balm, then the lotion. The smell was nauseating so I knew I was off to a good start...
The thing is- Tiger balm is sort of like icy hot... Its hot and icy and unfortunately I realized as soon as I headed out the door that it is more icy then it is hot. Not only did the tiger balm-lotion embrocation NOT keep my knees warm it chilled them to the bone. I tried to pretend that I was hardcore but as the mud from the road was flung onto my legs from my tires it appeared that my concoction actually attracted the dirt and grim and captured the debris much like tape would lint... So now I found myself freezing, wet and covered in dirt, leaves, twigs, and I believe even the top of a gu wrapper somehow found itself trapped on my leg like a fly in a spiders web. And I guess Sunday worlds was called on account of rain (If you ask me cyclists in Santa Barbara are a bunch of fair weather sallies and need to h;harden up) so I put my head down and got in some solid solo sweet spot training. When I arrived home I realized how difficult it is to remove Tiger balm/vasaline/lotion from ones leg and spent 30 minutes scrubbing my legs in the shower then the rest of the day listening to people say "does it smell like Tiger Balm here?"
4 comments:
I had a good laugh at your expense... sorry. I would have joined you except I drove down to Santa Clarita with Kim to watch the start, and then cut over to Pasadena to watch the finish. Isn't "bammer" Ben though?
I thought ben was BAM BAM and Jason was BAMMER
Chester, the mud is supposed to insulate your legs. Don't wipe it off.
That was hilarious dude. My wife will be honored to have made your blog.
And from what I can tell, Ben is Bammer (cross between Bam Bam and Hammer) and I'm just plain old Hammer. As in "the tool".
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