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SPECIAL HAPPENINGS Another Point of View from Mike “Two-Minute” Northrup Since a good number of us were out on the road this weekend, I thought I'd share some lessons learned. #1 After your second glass of wine the previous evening---never, never, NEVER offer to add "just a little 30 mile Palomares out and up Laurel and back on Palomares" death ride to the tail end of your weekly dull, boring regularly scheduled flat 40 mile ride. Your legs, your lungs, your heart and your GI track will not be amused. #2 Always draft a tandem where the captain can scream louder and longer than you. This comes in very handy on highly trafficked roads like Paseo when a driver tries to share the same physical few feet of roadway as 10 cyclists. It let's you divert your righteous indignation at the !##$%^* driver to a more constructive outpouring of moral support for the tandem crew who can REALLY scream. The bottom line--you feel good about yourself, you save your voice, and the driver aims his car at the tandem, not at you. #3 Despite years of "Share the Road" education, most automobile drivers still don't like us. Some of the more "challenged" humans behind the wheel like to lay on their horns to let us know we need to move over into the ditch on the side of the road to let them pass. These same folks, alien probees all, believe that right hand side view mirrors become "soft like butter" when attached to vehicles traveling at 35 mph, so a "Close Encounter of the Mirror Kind" with the cyclist ahead of them is no big deal at all. #4 Always elect a club president who's whistles loud enough to scare 15 or so family members who decide to lay all of there bikes down in the middle of Alameda Creek trail. And, once elected, make sure he always rides in the front of your pack on holiday rides. Oh, and buy him a beer once in a while to keep that whistle wet! #5 Four dollar a gallon gas means that many Fremont residents are breaking out their beater bikes that served them well when they were in high school twenty or thirty years ago and attempting to relearn their riding skills all over Alameda Creek trail. And by all over I mean all over. As we more seasoned riders tend to wear brightly colored garb, we are easy to see so they will be aiming for us. They almost got some of us today, several times in several locations. #6 Any Club member who is either big and strong or who rides a tandem--buy them a beer or a froufrou coffee beverage of their choice at every opportunity. Even ten minutes of drafting behind those folks are worth it! James Li’s Amgen Tour of California Photos It is now over three months since the Tour of California. With all eyes now on France, the TOC is but a distant memory. However, I found these shots from James captured moments of that tour when it came to town quite well. For more pictures, please visit http://picasaweb. google.com/ li81jam.
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