Life comes fast, and priorities change. It's funny how different I feel about cycling today than I did just a couple of years ago. I still love to ride my bike, maybe even more today than in the peak of my health. Disappointed that I have gained 10 pounds and discouraged that I nearly needed Enloes Life Flight to take me back to Chico after following an angry anesthesiologist 35 miles out of town, (Thanks for the tow back in Jeff) I still love the freedom of being on a bike. And even though I have ridden less in the last 5 months than any one month of the last 4 years, I still call myself a cyclist.

Of all the airports I have flown out of as a cyclist, Vancouver has got to be the worst. The terminal is clean and well organized, the people are polite and the flights are usually on time, but I always seem to run into a problem with security.

The first time I flew out of Vancouver was during a transfer to Amsterdam. I was stopped and searched because the x-ray machine operator thought I was carrying a bomb in my carry on. A security officer pulled me out of line and interrogated me while requesting a bomb squad over the radio.

Meetings: Our next club meeting will be at 6:00 PM, Friday, April 2nd at Woodstocks Pizza.

Race Results:
Race results are posted to the Chico Corsa Website in the race team section. (You will need a login and password to post your results)

Breaking News:
The Chico Stage Race has been rescheduled to June 12th and 13th. Volunteers are still needed and for volunteering you will get a tee shirt and we feed you! Please email me if you are interested in volunteering.

- Jennifer Gruber

R.A.C.E. Calendar:
Chico Cyclist

NCNCA Road Racing Calendar:
NCNCA Road Calendar

NORBA Calendar:
NORBA Racing
TBF Challenge MTB Races
MTB Calendar - California

Chico Velo Calendar:
Chico Velo

Western States Ride Calendar:
Ride Calendar

Rising Stars:
Mike Smith wins the Top Sport Circuit Race and Jesse Rushing gets 2nd at the Warnerville Road Race.

I was climbing Cohasset last weekend and ran into an old cycling friend, Bryce. He's well-known in the area for doing the really long, hard endurance rides all over California; the double centuries, Everest Challenges, eight-pass Death Rides-you know, the rides some (well, all) of us would call crazy. But what is "crazy", anyway? To put the cliché to work, it's a slippery slope.

Being a new father, I have had to become more creative with how to fit training into my daily routine. It used to be that if I wasn't at work, I'd pretty much ride whenever I wanted. I could arrange my day such that other obligations had little impact on cycling. That all changed ten months ago when our daughter Kalea was born. Kalea immediately took the top spot on my priority list and all other priorities had to move down one spot to make room.

Bye bye Fast 50, hello dirty diapers and Dr. Seuss.

I used to spend my evenings pouring over product catalogs, weighing parts on a gram scale (btw the average bike part is frequently 10%, or more, heavier than the brochure claims) and dreaming about how much different racing would be if I just had the right equipment.

I read an interesting article in the USA Cycling newsletter that would seem to support a theory I have long held about heat stress.

When I was seriously racing I realized that when I trained in hot temperatures (90-110 degrees) my 'aerobic fitness' tended to improve at a much faster rate then when I trained in cooler temperatures. I coined it my 'summer peaking' program and the effect was noticeable enough that I eventually focused all my workouts around the hottest part of the day.

During our second season in Europe Terry got a chance to race one of the classics as a member of the U.S. National Team. We had been racing classics with our Dutch team so we had a pretty good feel for what they were like, but racing for the National Team would be a whole new experience and Terry was understandably excited.

I was a little envious at first but the fact was he had done the training, the racing and the necessary preparation and he was really fit and deserved the opportunity, in fact he had truly earned it...