thats a good looking finish

Good old tom pitts limps across the finish at the granfondo prosecco after being dragged around for 6 hours on the wheel of the noshow. Good clean fun despite the fact i exhausted the all american lacross player - the same way a pony express rider would run his horse down to a foaming frothing mangle of sinew. So i sat - taking all the glory - sitting in +27 venetian sunshine - with dancing girls and booth babes open to canadian charms - and the noshow a quivering, spent lump of marblehead muscle.

YUMI

4 Ranchers decided to have a Pitts San tribute and decended upon Yumi for an informal Ranch dinner.
Cali and Noshow being the early birds arrived first at 7pm and assumed they'd be well into their meal by the time Crespo and Zinni arrived. Little did they remember that Yumi is not known for promptness and efficiency. Luckily they were hypnotized by the butchering of a giant tuna by our sushi chef Higashi which in broken english was explained as Easter. Zinni later named him Pasquale (Italian for easter) and that name stuck.

Crespo was second to the restaurant sporting mad max motorcycle boots with Skinni Zinni 10 minutes after.

Crespo's fluent japanese along with handsignals were one of 3 highlights of the night. The second being the young japanese girls drinking themselves into oblivion on cold sake. The one against the wall was seeing blurry eyed by the time we left at 10:30pm. The third highlight was the conference call with Tom Pitts at 4am HK time. A speakerphone conversation with the ranchers and a few words with Mrs. Yumi (the owner) and I believe Pitts was actually smiling.

Overall, a great evening spent amoung good people.

Saturday morning ride

Four Ranch riders met in the old village of Turville on saturday morning... Warm morning, for a change.... RiderCrespo, RiderCali, RiderNoshow and RiderZinni.... Beautiful 2hrs ride..
The effect of the recent Argentinean summer holiday were very evident on RiderCrespo body.... Too many alfajores (http://www.havanna.com.ar/) and too many Bife de Lomo... anyway he manage to climb la "subida de la muerte" strongly and that was important... RiderCali is still struggling with his knee injury but manage to ride for a fair bit.. RiderNoShow strong as ever... leading the peleton... Anyway it was good to see the ranch again and see Turville .... We ended up riding for two hrs, did the subida de la muerte 2.4times and rode strongly back to the car park... great way of spending saturday morning... If anyone is around this week we will meet up for dinner on Thursday night...

Giro di Lombardia - 19th October

I am thinking of doing the Giro di Lombardia this yearhttp://www.gazzetta.it/challenge/percorso_lombardia.shtml .
The race it's in October, so that leaves us with two months of training.
Logistics are very easy as the race starts/finish in Como so we can fly to Milano (Malpensa probably better) on Saturday and get back on Sunday night.

Zurich

A couple of the Ranchers decided rider EasyE needed a visit to his new home for a bit of support. With team captain rider Pitts

 soon to relocate to Hong Kong and EasyE recently moving to Zurich, there's currently a real sense of loss on the team. Riders noShow and Pitts thought a couple days in Zurich might be good for the soul.

It went like this:

NoShow arrives friday night at 10pm, exhausted from a long week of work and only had thoughts of a comfortable bed and counting sheep. EasyE had other thoughts. First stop - Flo

ss club on the lake.

Second stop - St Germain club.

EasyE showing his rhythmic latin side.

Anyway, a little bit of social never hurt anyone.

When all was quiet in Zurich and little swiss kids were dreaming about fondue 

and Zeke and NoShow were settling down to slumber, Team captain riderPitts (laying on top of his covers, clothes on (even flip flops)), bike prepared, was beginning to acknowledge the bzzz bzzz bzzz of his alarm so he could make the 4am Frankfurt train to Zurich. (nice effort) Arriving around 9:30am at chez Zeke.

After a muesli/ham&eggs/coffee breakfast for a mere 70CHF we made the call to other ZurichRanchResident RiderHowe and set off for the boat across the lake.

An 8 minute sprint to the boat, 15 minute crossing and another 10 minute spin down the strasse where riderHowe (canadian Indian) was awaiting our arrival "Where it goes up." And up it went. And went. And went. A good 25 minutes of going up and we were in farmland above the city and lake of Zurich.

In a word - stunning. Hot sun, sweat off noses, breathing hard. Buzz of insects. Views to die for and among friends. Could not have been better.

RiderHowe split off early for a birthday party (and had a nasty cold) while EasyE, Pitts and NoShow continued on to a watering spicket that said the water was potable. (Nevermind the floating debris) Then up a steep climb where NoShow tries to put the hammer down only to be passed and dropped by EasyE flexing his new Zurich legs; and arrive at lunch where riderPitts had the strangely delightful Pasta tubes in cream with onion rings and apple sauce. And Zeke let go the amoeba in his belly from the "potable" water. We seemed briefly threatened from an already top weekend but the strength of the team pulled through and continued on.

A descent into town, a return boat ride across the lake and we were soon back at chez Zeke frollicking in the lake. Pitts and Noshow in borat suits and Zeke with goggles. A sight to be seen. Locals were seen pointing with heads leaning together trying to decipher Pitts dancing on the floating dock. You see, Captain Pitts was so excited he swam in water (the only swimming the fella's ever done was when he was 13 years old he fell through the ice at Pigeon Lake in Edmonton.) that he did the less well known classic, self nipple pull butt slap boogie. Guy has rhythm. Canadian style.

A swim in, a quick round robin at the ping pong table, a drop off of wet clothes in the laundry room, a couple naked guys in the elevator and we were showered up and back to the boat to ease across the lake once again for dinner with Rider Howe. We arrive - send a smoke signal and Howe comes to accompany us back to his teepee. His squaw Natalie had prepared an unbelievable meal for the Ranch tribe and after a few Howe specialty rum and cokes, we dug in with gusto. Ribs, sausage, pasta salad, fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob with a yum spanish red. All washed down with a TdF time trial. Could not have been better. Thanks Rob and Natalie.

After all that (and a nap by some) we rode the midnight express downtown, picked up a few friends and were directed to Zurich eurospecial Valser bar (I believe Valser translates as Cougar)... A mojito, a dance and in a taxi back home exhausted and satisfied from a great day.

Sunday began with a peaceful view on the lake of a 2 person skull gliding past. Another brekky of analyze Zeke and we got on the bikes again to ride. A shocker of a climb out of town to more breathtaking views and pure enjoyment took over the small team of Ranch riders. The hills were alive outside of Zurich that day.

We finish the weekend with another dip in the lake. Noshow very excited does a one and a half flip off the diving board and loses his shorts upon entry. Pitts muttering..cold..cold...Noshow doing flips...I'm not a water guy...not a water guy.... He eases into the lake and dog paddles to the floating dock where 3 ranchers talk about life, love and money. All was peaceful until EasyE and Noshow try to launch the team Captain into the depths. Pitts locked himself onto some guy's girlfriend wailing, "Don't let them take me!" When he finally pulled himself together Zeke locked him in a man hug and with a small push by noShow, off they went. Splash. A dog paddle in to shore with Pitts muttering, "that wasn't cool. I'm not a water guy."

Some ping pong (where Pitts took his revenge on NoShow (2 handed backhand was a strong move)), a burger, a quick pack and there we were on the platform waiting for the train to Zurich Bahnhof and Flughafen. What a weekend.

postscript: Pitts boards the 4hr train to Frankfurt and is told to exit the train as no bicycles are allowed. He can take a 10 hour local. Shocker. Takes the local a few stops out and sneaks onto the express. This time the train leaves the station before they find him (hiding in a stall in the bathroom with his bike standing up inside with him.) But alas they get upset with him when he is discovered and escort him off at the next station. (Mind you there are only this stop and the next one is Frankfurt so he is making good time now.) So he makes like he is walking away down the platform a defeated man moping along with his bike and just before the doors close he launches himself and his bike through. The train officials are apoplectic but they can do nothing as he is on the train again and there is no stopping till ground Zero. Hey train guy - Take a report. This is a great example of a Ranch cycler and why he is team captain. When the chips are down and it seems everything is against him, he buckles down, grits his teeth and gets it done. He is the essence of what we aspire to be. A winner.

reflection of an old guy

I just received this shot of ridercali and riderpitts summitting at k120 at the black forest rad marathon in triberg. I can remember that part of the race as being mentally challenging as for me the 4hr mark is my hump - when i hit it in good form -bonus and i actually pump it up a notch or two - if i hit it hurting - i find it difficult to digest in my mind another 2-3hrs of pain. This particular summit is where we were caught by the two germans and we were hating life. I was cramping, calner was pedaling through knee discomfort - but the arrival of the two german teammates seemed to boost moral and we settled into the next 2 hours working well together - the 4 of us. It causes for reflection that the best moments for me in cycling are when guys push one another along - share the load - and ultimately the satisfaction of having your training and racing come together with the same people you actually give two hoots about. Those that dont buy into the sharing mind set i find that i have less and less time for. Funny that for such an individual sport. Not to be overly dramatic but to make the point - those that suffer together have a unique bond - kinda like a study group through its first set of finals at an overly competitive school - paperchase for those a bit older. I was thinking that there are less opportunites for me to share struggle as i age - less team stuff - working in an investment bank one could agrue even runs counter to stewardship. The average banker guy sits in his pod - making his dough - staring at his screens - and worries about issues of security when he already has way too much in the bank. Maybe thats why cycling and backcountry skiing for me are best experienced with a couple good pals - as without them - it really isnt a victory. Shoot me if my life is ever reduced to a couple of screens, a bank balance and vacant conversations about business travel. And remind me that building a history with people who seek out the struggle gives us lots to talk about when our knees start to give way and we spend more time in the garden talking about those moments of struggle, and then we can toast time well spent.

the expansion of crespo

This blog serves a number of purposes - it updates, it recounts, it forecasts, and motivates. Not sure in which box we put this post - however give the present state of play with onetime strong sprinter - ridercrespo's ever expanding girth - we felt it time to discuss such in a more public forum. Crespo we all know is a very successful investment banker at a large american bank, he enjoys snowboarding, kite surfing, collecting sneakers, and talking about stuff. Never a weakling on the bike - this blog recounted his defeat of both easy-e and the riderchichi in last years eton triathalon. However, as crespo's large guarantee rolled off at the end of this year - it seems to have rolled on somewhere between his knees and chest . As Andy Capp used to sneak away for pints - Crespo - has been caught sneaking around the tacoria - shoveling in their offerings the same way a 13 year year old used to smoke butts behind the shed. Given Crespo's warm and sensitive ways - we at the ranch feel we should create a help group - giving crespo all the support required. We have asked his beautiful and thin wife to begin by throwing out crepo's stash of alfajores and allow him moments like the one pictured with the riderzinni to be more than fleeting.