New NorCal Juniors Cycling Blog

Another parent has started a juniors cycling blog that features a nice picture of Joey gritting his teeth at the start of the Dunlap Time Trial. I'm not sure how many other blogs feature juniors race reports and photos. I know the AMD blog does, occasionally. There should be more.

Junior Regional Championships

Joey just finished doing all three Northern California Junior Regional Championships--one a week for the last three weekends.

The first one was the Panoche Pass road race, a 24-mile out and back course. It was supposed to be fairly hilly, so we thought it might be a good one for him, but we rode the course the day before and discovered that the 12-miles after the turnaround was pretty much all downhill into a headwind. Since Joey is anywhere from 40-70 pounds lighter than some of the big 13-14s he decided his goal was just to stay with the group until the turnaround (at the top of the only real climb). This he managed to do, and was fourth over the top, but then he got dropped on the descent and rode mostly alone to the finish. Nonetheless, his 6th place was none too shabby, especially considering he beat James LaBerge, who would win the criterium championship a week later.

Speaking of the crit championship, a flat course against big thighs--not Joey's forte. But the race split immediately with a group of the big 4 going off the front. Joey stayed with the second group, got boxed out in the final sprint, and finished 9th.

Yesterday was the Dunlap Time Trial in Winters, one of Joey's favorites. His goal was to beat Marcus Smith's time, since he knew that with a flat time trial he wouldn't be able to match the bigger older kids. He rode well and finished just 5 seconds behind Marcus in 6th place. I figured that Marcus's rear disc wheel gave him at least a 5-second advantage, so in my book it was a dead heat. Joey however wasn't buying it. While looking at the results he said, "Not sixth again. It's always sixth. It started at Nationals." Some kid he'd beaten overheard him and said "You got sixth at Nationals? Wow!" Good to be reminded that there ain't nothin' wrong with sixth place.

Here's a nice photo of Joey in his full TT gear. And here's a cool video of the Crit championships. Notice Joey going hard on the inside right from the gun.

Revised Tune

Way back in December I posted a tune I'd written. Well, it's gone through a number of revisions, and here it is now. Hopefully this is the final version (although I'm still not sure about the chords), and it has yet another stupid title (but not as bad as the first).

Thought for Food

Two great quotes from David Foster Wallace's Everything and More, A Compact History of Infinity.

"The dreads and dangers of abstract thinking are a big reason why we now all like to stay so busy and bombarded with stimuli all the time."

"Never before have there been so many gaping chasms between what the world seems to be and what science tells us it is."

New Swedes

Well, I haven't been blogging for awhile. A local community tragedy has been consuming mind and body for the last two weeks, and, well, blogging just seemed a bit silly.

At any rate, I had a great time hanging out with the tall men in the Swedish band Vasen at the StringNation festival and have been listening nonstop to their new CD, Linnaeus Vasen, as well as the new CD by Olov Johannson (Vasen's nyckelharpist), I Lust Och Glod, and three Swedish CDs that arrived in the mail while I was gone: Lena Willemark's Alvdalens Elektriska, the Ale Moller Band's brilliant new CD Djef Djel and Sofia Karlsson's Visor Fran Vinden, all of which are highly recommended (available at CDRoots). More on the wonders of each of them soon.

Meanwhile, here's the first tune on Linnaeus Vasen.

String Nation

The String Nation festival starts tomorrow, in Camden, New Jersey. This is Darol's brainchild, the first festival of contemporary world string band music. And while some festivals start small, Darol and festival director Joseph Milano decided to go all out in their first venture and get some of the best Irish, Swedish, Brazilian, and American string musicians in the world. Vasen, Tim O'Brien, Seamus Egan, Mike Marshall, Hamilton de Holanda, and of course Darol and me and the Republic of Strings, which will expand to twice or thrice its size for this gig. And from what I hear, every hot young string player on the East Coast (and beyond) who doesn't have a gig this weekend is going to be there. It should be too much fun.

More Cat's Hill Photos

Anne put up a gallery of her Cat's Hill photos. They take a little while to load, but they're worth it. Wish I'd been there.

Cat's Hill

Well, I missed Cat's Hill again this year, but Anne just sent me this photo. I assume this is not the reason Joey finished off the Cat's Hill podium for the first time since he started racing. Just kidding, Joe. He said he felt good, but had trouble getting clipped in and by the time he did the group was gone and he was weaving between 10-12 kids to get going. At only three short (but brutal) laps, it's pretty much a sprint from the gun. Joey did end up riding most of the race with Katrina Howard, two-time National Champion at only age 11, which is who he rode with the first time he rode Cat's Hill two years ago.

Joey's teammate Brentley won the 13-14s, his second Junior Points Series win in a row. He's getting to be a pretty formidable rider (he also almost won a Cat 5 crit in Santa Rosa a couple weeks ago), and has got to be a good bet for a podium spot at Nationals for Team Swift. It apparently was a good day all around. Our friend Courtenay Brown was third in the Women's Pro race and another Swiftie, Ryan, was fourth in the 15-16s (I haven't seen results of the 17-18 race but I heard Ethan and Tyler were both very active at the front.

Indie Coffee

While Googling to doublecheck the name of the coffee shop I went to in downtown Charlottesville, VA, last weekend, Mudhouse, I came upon this great resource: Indiecoffeeshops.com

As I battle the increasingly milky Starbucks latte (you'd think a Triple Tall Latte would do the trick, but no) and discover that non-Bay Area Peets' drinks are weaker than the originals, Indie Coffeshops are about the only places left for real coffee.

Tony Rice

My Tony Rice interview is now on the stands (and online) in the current issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine, with great photos by the miraculous Anne Hamersky.