The Yan - reflecting on the history of the ranch

Some of you might not be completely aware of the genisis of the ranch. As much rumour abounds - i thought it time to put facts straight. The ranch was the brainchild of Roy the Yan in the living room of 151 drayton gardens - a south kensington home to 5 young bankers - which became known amongst those in the know as "the ranch". Not sure why "the ranch" perhaps two of the fellows - mark begert (texas) and tom pitts (alberta) hailed from those places associated with pick up trucks and middle teeth.

Roy Yan (critirider) was a competitive cyclist as a junior living in philadelphia. Later he rode for the westpoint millitary academy (ARMY) and is still found racing in assorted criteriums across the east coast. Maintaining a strict cycling regimen in London he introduced the sport to the good men of the ranch in the late 90's - as an off season leg strengthening exercise. Off season as the men of the ranch were found skiing each and every weekend and were looking to optimise their ski season free from the ritual month of aches and pains.

To the casual observer - the ranch was soon mistaken for a soho bathhouse - as men were seen semi clothed with a full lather of sweat - pounding away at compu- trainers and bikes on rollers all in full view from the passers by on old brompton road. Not suprsingly with a bunch of AA personalities everything was a competition weather it be wattage, heart rate, or weight and progress was made. The mantra of cycling soon was accepted and endorsed as:

"To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks."

It comes with little suprise that while 151 drayton gardens survived for 6 years - eventually girlfriends ultimatums, job transfers, and the realization that one should start living more adult like - the fellows moved out. But the cycling continued and new recruits were swept up with no real thesis beyond finding a few more willing guys to ride saturday mornings. An Argentine contingent led by Easy-E was exploring cycling and stumbled into the fray and suddenly with ridercrespo and riderchichi a group was re-emerging. Staple on a couple of colorado transplants (riderturbo) and the lone wolf - add some veteran leadership (riderhowe) some boston old money (ridernoshow), boston new money (ridercali) and a hersute terrone (riderzinni) - and the ranch cycling team was born.

Fellowship amongst like minded men in the midst of all the nonsense that bigger money and temptations can bring - sets one on a steady path. The acceptance of suffering is best done with some support from your pals - so the ranch started to take itself a bit more seriously - and results started to show. Everybody kinda had their own goals - whether it be a sub 20 loop of richmond park, losing a few pounds, or dropping one of your pals who was needling you all week on the subida de la muerte in turville. Remembering at base the ranch was a bunch of adult men trying hold off middle aged expansion - and looking to find the discipline to just be plain healthier. The 4 or 5 races in europe each year were a bonus and served to pause - a pause to see wonderful parts of the continent - a pause at the starting line to reflect on ones training and state of being - and a pause to be aware enough that these memories are going to be stored away and reflected on and replayed over the years to come. The catch all phrase for 2009 is make it yours - a somewhat selfish "only child" line - but i think the point is to maintain a balance in all things - which is stressed and applauded each day with each rancher holding the other to task.

So the ranch has shaped up into a core bunch of guys that have developed into pretty good weekend cyclists. They maintain enough perspective that they can laugh at themselves when they drop a chain, or get passed by a bunch of girls on pink pinarellos. A number of ranchers have dispatched to different countries - but still maintain daily contact over bloomberg chat and post the odd blog to reaffirm their membership. They became virtual friends with a tri-athelete in colorado, a stem cell researcher in frankfurt, and were cited in the cyclopassion bike calander. The site meter shows 6,000 visits with 12,000 page views. All of this - its fun to think - is the result of a hedge fund manager from philadelphia - who found himself in London - living with a few numbnuts - and said - lets see if some of these muppets can learn to ride.

Le glamour de la RANCH

Ranchers in Paris. Normal.

Friday night, RiderCali arrives in Saint Germain. Confidence is high, the Ranch is getting ready for a big night out surrounded by glamour and years of history in the city of lights.

First stop, Bodega de la Soif. Representing old school fashion, Noshow sporting the classic tweed jacket and Caiipirinhas all around. A young Hemingway wannabe, rider Cali is all fired up at the second Caiipirinha. The ranch wanders out to dinner and...

..RiderEasyE, never afraid of the approach, meets 3 young parisiens and invites them to a local resto for our first Parisien meal of the weekend. Big laughs, too much wine and home to bed with the promise of an early start cycling in the Bois de Boulogne.

A fine example of the sensitivity of the Ranch. Noshow and petite Charlotte cruising Paris on a touristy ride. Ranch winning.

A picture tells a thousand words.... Ranch bon vivants in Paris. Normal.

What's this? EasyE with a navy blue blazer and pocket square? Normal? Europe is certainly adding culture and style to EasyE. Not sure if they would recognize him in BA. Would captain Pitts approve? I suspect one would hear, "That's a grown up purchase."

The post wouldn't be complete without a mention of Guillaume, our Parisien saturday night host where he filled the Ranch bellies with lovely Bourgogne wine, escargots and Vielle Prune to finish the evening in style. The Ranch says, "Merci beaucoup and A bientot."

Training weekend Mallorca

3 sections of Team Ranch came to Palma de Mallorca.  2 from Zurich, 2 from London and one from Paris.  Marion, our polish friend who takes care of the property was kind enough to be transport guy all of friday finishing up by picking up Noshow at 12:30 am and proceeding to speed across the island as fast as the giant Hyundai van could go and arriving home at 1:15 am to find the house........empty.  Odd.  Oh wait, there were argentines with us.  A quick phone call and we find they are at a bar in Alcudia.  Marion, happy to help, drives Noshow into town and decides to have a few beers as well while explaining in broken english, "don't tell my girl..."  Although it seemed the pressure got to him and he split after 2 beers and a Jaeger shot.  

After a late night, bed around 2:30 am and a few Jaegermeister and tequila shots (no idea why), the ranch slept until 11am Saturday when Noshow awoke and banged on bedroom doors to wake everyone.  Brekky, a peruse at the map and into the van and with Crespo the chauffeur, we were off to Pollenca to ride the mountains.

A nice start to a 3 hour ride, we roll as a team for the first 10 minutes until the rode turns up.  First off the back, Pablo the chauffeur.  Noshow drops back to give him the keys in case he loses morale (more to this later) and works for the next 15 minutes on trying to catch riderCali.  On his way, he sees Zeke, looking ok but frustrated, then riderHowe looking very comfortable, then finally reaches riderCali looking relaxed spinning up the mountain.  NoShow, about to his limit is relieved to sit on Cali's wheel for a spell to catch his breath.

RiderHowe closes the gap to Cali and Noshow, and the 3 of them climb and climb worrying about the impending thunderstorms.  Dark and threatening on the left, blue sky to the right, the 3 ride until they go through the darkest tunnel in the universe only to come out on the other side to a cold, windy, dark, rainy world where they look at each other and agree to make the turn.  Back through the tunnel 

and into a good decent.  Pollo is only a kilometer or so below them and then Crespo not far below him.  We zip past Crespo who doesn't turn.  Noshow decides to turn to get him, chases back up the mtn to where Crespo says,"I will not turn back until I go two hours.     I have 4 minutes left."   I find this a great example of a man versus himself.  He had nothing to prove to anyone except himself.  Fantastic effort.  I wanted to hug the man. 

A 30 minute decent back to the van with speeds approaching 65kph on the winding road, a hard headwind at the flat and Cali, Noshow and Howe rest in the sun while awaiting their Argentine teammates.  Within a half hour, everyone arrives feeling fantastic with a deep hunger and the Tapas bar is calling....Cali, having returned from a training weekend in Tenerife is dark skinned and looking like he went native.  Pollo showing off the colors and RiderHowe being as strong as the Team has ever seen him sits there with confidence and doesn't have to say or do anything.

A stop off for something to replace the calories lost along with a team photo:

Then a 15 minute drive back to the Mallorcan Ranch base of operations and the team decides to shower up (Pollo and Noshow detour for a chilly dip in the pool) and a discovery of a ping pong table leads to a good hour of friendly round robin competition.  Weak link was clearly Cali's hand eye coordination.  Strongest on the table were the argies.

After a team tasting of riderHowe's outstanding Mount Gay and cokes, the team was lubed and ready to have dinner.  Crespo driving as per usual, into Port de Pollenca for some local flavors and we are snoozing by midnight, dreaming of carbon, the clunk of gears shifting and the hiss of tires on asphalt, looking forward to another day of cycling.

A much earlier start on Sunday vs Saturday and the team decides to repeat the ride from Saturday due to time constraints.   

Overall a beautiful day with plenty of friendly competition on the hill.  Noshow tries to huddle the team up at the top but Cali was having none of it (grumpy for being dropped) and Pollo was still in his own world although rumour has it that Crespo caught and passed so perhaps was feeling like he needed a bit more punishment.

After everything we all met back at the van then to the house again.  It was a fantastic weekend with lots of laughs, plenty of good work put in in the mountains of the northwest corner of Mallorca.  All in all, Team Ranch London is winning so far this season.  The first race in Bergamo, Italy is upon us in 3 weeks.  Felice Gimondi.  I sense victory.  This weekend certainly was.

Training attempt - Hope Cali is having better luck in Tenerife...

Weekend in Paris while training for upcoming Gimondi, I went in search of any sort of hills I could find.  I could only think of Montmarte so across the city I pedaled at 6am in the cold rain and up the one hill I could find.  Figured I better record it with a photo.

lone wolf - enough said

end of the road - verbier to fionnay - approach to the mauvoisin dam

where there's black top - you can find the lone wolf.

Sometimes i mutter "take me back"

Once in a while - but only once in a while - i wake up and meander along the 7 minute hilly walk way up on the peak of hong kong - I work my way through the thick air and drenching humidity to my designated spot for my ride to the office - and along those stumblings I sometimes find I miss my old pre-work morning laps in regents park in London. I miss the white jersey guy who sprints by me and throws a couple fist pumps as he edges out the commuter kid at the stop sign. I miss the one legged black guy who bangs out laps in the mid 30's. I miss the douches of the london dynamos who leer disapprovingly at my 10 year old aluminum de-rosa. I miss ridercali offering me his other glove as my knuckles turn blue. I miss getting hassled by the park security guard as i coast through a red light on a car-less road. But then, like a good breakfast - the feeling is digested and passes. And i reflect on the fact that its not regents I miss - its the routine. So with a few extra kilos that have snuck into my mid section - i make my way to the gym at the american club and sit on the stationary bike for 20 minutes - here I sweat alongside the blackberry tappers faking another workout wondering if that jackass in the white jersey is missing me.

Ranch Riders Go Global

With Eazy-E posting in Zurich, riderpitts landing HK, and riderturbo, ridermama and riderzoe surfacing in L.A., the Ranch has officially gone global. Represented on three continents -- Europe, Asia and North America -- Ranch jerseys are creeping their way into local riding groups, pelotons and races around the globe, and have been seen along favored cycling routes and trails worldwide by virtue of a powerful but silent viral marketing campaign.

Ridermama has recently been seen ripping up trails on a full-suspension Yeti along the backbone single track trails and fire roads high above Santa Monica and Malibu, while riderturbo has been hard at work cleaning chains, tweaking derailleurs and changing tires on the repositioned road and mountain bike fleet.

Riderzoe (seated on left) has contributed her energies recruiting future ranch riders through a youth indoctrination program whereby vulnerable young toddlers are recruited to ride in the cycling chariot while sharing bottles of milk and contemplating the wonderful possibilities of participation in the ranch cycling program.

To that end, Riderturbo and Ridermama have signed up for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon and would like to invite \Ranch Riders near and far to join us in sunny California for this most delightful and heart-pounding race consisting of a 1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike and 4 mile run, or Olympic Distance 1500m/40k/10k, to be held the weekend of Sept 13 & 14. Contact riderturbo for more info if you are interested. http://www.nauticamalibutri.com/

Other events currently contemplated in the area appear on the following website.

http://www.socalcycling.com/funrides/index.asp

Anyone traveling in the area, please let us know. We have extra road bikes in the fleet available and at your disposal if you prefer to travel light prior to embarking on some serious climbs in the Sierra Nevadas.