Niice! How long are you in SF for?
I'm going to be there next week.

ah!

bonerz!

the wind will be blowing at 50 mph tomorrow.

while you guys are soaking up the rays, i will be in the basement fondling canned food.

kcc california crew(s),
nice glimpse of those pallid northeastern skins vaccume wrapped in bk/nyc kcc blue/white&orange 'representing' in the valley of LA and heights of SF, classic s!
enjoy.
-h;>

So many pictures! Need to get my hands on an extra hard drive to do proper upload. This one of Alyosha rocking it old school will have to do for now.

Good day yesterday. Short but hard. Attached is the profile for those interested.

Hammered the climbs with Jules and Aly. I've done these climbs dozens of times, especially when I was living out here last winter, but I still set power records on both of them.

(Credit the Ragot-presribed 20 min+ sufferfests on the trainer.)

First climb: 276w for 33:30

Second climb: 278w for 28:57

So great to have all these guys here, we're having a blast.

Glorious day today; 70's sunny and plenty of good company. Met up with "Other Johnston" who is (if such a thing is possible) even stronger than Ryan, but I think it's up for debate. Having done my best to crack "the Rocket" for 2 days straight, I would *like* to think it took the edge off him today.

AWESOMEST descent ever on the way home (I took the short route) video will be coming soon.

We have a confirmed sighting of Peta Takai (former Kissena) who despite claiming to be "way out of shape" had me doing 350 watts on the BACK of her little paceline.

Khan. Hating this thread bc of it's warm weather. Keep up the nice work and great pics guys!

can you resize your pictures before posting them?

local dude has trouble scrolling right

I still fail at that. It seems pics need to be under 100k to not be gigantic or sideways, no? Maybe that would be a good advisory post. Like the lack of privacy in "whispering", which was never communicated although assumed.

OMG...i'm so done. R. achilles tendon is starting to become inflamed as well. last climb today was a beast! having such a great time!

ICE your tendon. 15 min at a time.
Tomorrow we will rendevous with Robertson in hiz bungalo in Venice

Posted By: WilliamDCcan you resize your pictures before posting them?

local dude has trouble scrolling right

I'm posting off my phone, I'll resize when I'm back in ny.

it was a big day.

75 miles, over 9k feet of climbing.

Jules is right, my younger brother and some of his Ritte mates showed up and a brother war ensued on all the climbs. We've raced each other up these climbs dozens of times but with the two previous days in my legs he was really torturing me but I managed to hit him back a few times.

On the last climb there was actually a sequence where he attacked me hard twice in a row - I barely stayed on, and after the second one I countered him as hard as I could, which he endured, and after the three attacks we both slumped over our bars and could barely pedal.

I'd say he wins the day by decision but we basically just rode each other into the ground.

After he told me that his coach had put "drop your brother" on his calendar.

One more day, tomorrow. It's been fun to say the least.

bad assj

Quick shot from yesterday

I missed the "bloodbath" on Decker today, but it was *worth* it...

^^that's fantastic^^

insanely cute kid, for those who haven't met him

The Rock Store

Oh, for lack of a better ride report; let me tell you about how I tried to put some pain into the Johnston Brothers. At 320 watts they were chattering away behind me like a couple of kids on a school trip. Bike reg this, what do you wanna do for thanksgiving next year that, how about those eagles, etc. If it weren't so impressive I'd be infuriated. When I finally blew sky high they just sauntered off, Alyosha and Whitey in tow...

Speaking of Mr Cool; Alyosha continued to play Voeckler of the trip - riding ahead with the Johnston Brothers and leaving me for dead, then letting me claw him back slowly before dancing away again...

Whitey is climbing out of his skin; he's dropped me numerous times going uphill, and I take it for granted he's always one of the first to the bottom of any descent.

Dave apparently is so at ease on the descents he's reading topology to anticipate the next turn and if you aren't following Ross on Twitter it's your loss; he has a wicked eye and is looking very lean and very mean heading into this Cat 5 season.

Woj apparently only needs one day of getting dropped before he's attacking every hill, flat and descent like a angry man with a hammer. "Who is getting dropped NOW bitches?!?" He grinned at me as he rode away yesterday. Woe unto his competitors when he gets back East.

Nosson is hanging tough throughout and everyone has commented on his improvement since last season; Strong & Smooth are the two words I hear over and over again. I guess between the rollers and the wed night computrainer classes something clicked

Last ride of 2012 tomorrow, but I suspect the Orange & Blue train will be out this way again before long... stay tuned for pictures and video once I get to a spot where the uplink isn't a shoelace.

One more shot before bed

Wait, I lied! Here I am Photo Bombing the NYVelocity camp!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justindavanzo/6781602236/in/photostream/lightbox/

Another massively beautiful day on the bike is done. What a great week.
Nosson "Big Mac" was riding "Like a Maccabee" crushing the climbs and had everyone shaking their head in surprise. I guess that day of rest was just what he needed. Ryan and "OJ" (Other Johnston) continued to school us all on the climbs, but I kept them within 30 seconds on the final 8 1/2 minute grinder. Big thanks to Eric who came out of nowhere to encourage me and then drop me like an empty gel wrapper 30 seconds from the finish. Whitey, Alyosha, Dave & Woj rounded out the gang today.

I'm pretty happy with my numbers for the ride, considering the number of miles/watts in my legs thus far:

5 seconds at 900
20 seconds at 781
1 minute at 532
5 minutes at 345
8 1/2 minutes at 323
Close to 25 minutes (accumulated here & there) over 320

HUGE round of thanks to Ryan for organizing this whole affair. Work & regular life are gonna be a letdown after all this sun, riding & limited responsibility...

Rough weather out here...

It was truly a pleasure leading these rides.

I believe we pedaled about 260 miles in the 4 days. Many of us will be racing together in the coming weeks and this was a valuable experience in terms of getting to know one another as riders and as people. I genuinely enjoyed riding every day with every one of ya!

I didn't want the weekend to be over! I think we should do it again next winter, for sure.

Some shots from Hellyer in San Jose.

my favorite quote of the week: we are making the final.descent onto the beach drag with sand, sun and palm
Trees stretched out in front of us to forever. Nosson shouts out,
"It's so.BEAUTIFUL. I never want to leave here!!"
It was obvious, but it neededto be said.

Ryan and family were great. I'm glad to know them.

So beautiful...

I'm back in NYC and want to close my eyes and have it be Thursday all over again! Such a great time!

Thanks again to ALL you guys for a great experience! Great bunch of humans! Aside from the obvious training aspect of it all, it was one exciting adventure that allowed me to mentally disconnect from the grind of work/life in NYC. The few days we were out there felt like so much more.

Especially thanks to Ryan for helping to organize the trip & showing us his old stomping ground, Jules for his amazing hospitality & never ending cache of ammino-rice-treats, and Jeff for keeping me company on every bruising climb, even when we both knew he could have just danced ahead alone and left me to the mountain lions

We definitely need to do this again! Now, back to reality...