as keren and i couldn't go out on the roads just yet, (british fricking airways, mind you...) i found the time to do some office work...
keren's bike is still making its way from israel, through british fricking airways, so i managed to find her a replacement. full XTR, top of the line intense 5.5 trail bike. i wish i had one of those. i mean, look at it!!
my friend and fellow rider, keren, joined me yesterday for a month on the roads. we will race the sea otter classic, and then head out for a great trip through america's most wanted list of biking detinations.
keren arrived last night, but her bike was forgotten in israel (!?!) by the british fricking airways. so we've arranged for a trail bike which she'll ride 'till her bike's here. meanwhile i showed her some classic L.A scenery...
yet another CCC with a different thing in mind.
it's been a month since i left israel. man, time flies when you do nothing, but ride bikes. a few people come to mind when i think of israel. this is the first to pop into mind... my best friend, yair. here's to good friends.
in the past three months i have been using this tool, called "quick tool". it was invented by an israeli guy, named, well, guy. its a quick release which is a tool kit. its genius. every rider should have one of those, it is just the perfect gadget\upgrade for your bike. never again will you need to take a tool with you for a ride... it is just always there. the trek team has ordered 15 of those already. look it up in israel. genius.
today i did some more shopping. this time i wanted some israeli products, and where will i go if not to "super sal". you read it right, סופר סל, as you know it from israel. i wanted some טחינה and some חמוצים, as the american ones are crappy. you can find every main israeli product in there. במבה, ביסלי, קפה עלית ועוד ועוד.
getting back to L.A was a breeze. the drive was nice, and the road was clear of traffic.
today i rode up to the hills again, and boy, do i feel my legs... the three racing days were a big effort. at least i had time to enjoy the land of great cars.
even in L.A this car is very special. alot of american money, for a very small italian car.
well, CCC means alot of different things to alot of different people... this is what it means here.
yesterday i was out of milk, and had to eat my granola with a spoon full of thin air.
speaking hebrew in the middle of the arizona desert? you bet! rotem ishai and his girlfriend paz are here, and they stayed with me over the weekend. i discovered how anal i am when it comes to cleaning my R.V, and keeping it tidy. its hard for me to live with other people after being alone.
every once in a while i will put a post that shows the view i get out of my r.v window. this is the place in which i spend a few hours every day, eating, reading and on the computer. its a glimpse into my regular window view. hopefully the views will change all the time.
anyone who knows me, will tell you i am not the greatest cook around, to say the least... its not that i lack the skills, its the fact that i am not big on flavour. i just do not care.
well, life on the roads changes a person. i have decided to start caring. i even add salt and pepper to my food. but best of all- i cook.
when was the last time you made rice and schnitzel- in your car?? huh? now, you can't say it doesn't look good, right?
job well done... well, medium for me...
okay, this course is crazy. it is all singletrack, with no double tracks at all!! every lap is around 35 minutes, and there is almost no climbing at all. the longest climb is maybe 30 seconds. so actually, the way the race starts, is the way it ends... sort of... there is only 200 meters before entering the singletrack, so it will be hard to pass.
other than that, it is so much fun. alot of turns, and it feels alot like beeri, just with a different scenery around. this scenery is much better than the gaza strip, though...
this is gorgia gould, the top american rider, after jumping into the pool at the trek guys house. we all had a BBQ, and stayed up way too late...
there are alot of kinds of motorhomes. this is an off-roader with a pop up bed. it looks great, and the people who live in it invited me to come over to their house in moab. sweet!
and this is todd's and krista's motor-home, from the inside. yes, this is an inside of a car!!
it looks like a humen bone, but thats the way cactus looks when they die. nice huh?
and this tree looks sad. my bike looks happy though...
your average all american fridge...
the desert is amazing. its alot different than israeli desert. it has more plants, and its greener. anyway, i got to the venue of my next race, here in arizona. what a place...
i parked my big ass RV in this beautiful park. opened my shed, and listened to the silence. its all clean air, and birds... at night, it was so quiet... the skies were littered with stars. today i spent the whole day talking to no one. silence....
some more cactus, for your enjoyment. man, it is so nice in here. wish you were here with me.
but then again, that would ruin the silence...
this is karius, my new cactus friend...
and for him not to be alone, i brought baktus. one is spikey and rugged, the other soft and gentle.
i woke up after the weekend of racing, feeling a little slow...
last night the trek team and myself went to eat sushi. alot of sushi. we also drank alot of sakki, if thats the right way to write it. gorgia gould, the top american rider, and dusty's wife, also had dinner with us. it was a great ending for the weekend.
on the way to phoenix, just outside of palm-springs, the desert seems to grow a nice kind of trees!! they make clean electricity... hundreds of these are all over. its amazing what you can do, harnessing earth's power. i cannot imagine how its like to live in a place dominated by the wind, as much as this place is.
you know me... can't stop smiling.
even though the bugs don't seem to like my car\home very much... they keep on crashing into it! well, they're all dead now. ha ha ha!
well, we started out about 100 strong. the lap took around 2:35 minutes, and people were getting pulled out after the third lap. i held on for five laps. only 15 riders or so finished the the whole 23 minute race.
this is me, somwhere in the back of the field, before the start. it was so dusty, i have been pulling chunks of dirt out of my nose and ears for the last two hours.
again, some people are here for different reasons...
