Saturday, January 27, 2018

Team Wheelsmith


 

As an 18 year old, I thought I won the lottery when I was asked to ride for Wheelsmith's Pro/Am team. It wasn't like Paul Willerton going to Team Z but it still had that magical moment for me. Andy just came off a 2nd place at the US Olympic Trails RR and Robert and Kristif both had a Polish national champion jersey in there duffle bag.  Here is a shot from the 1993 Redlands Bicycle Classic.

Top row: the original Shredlocks (mechanic), Brent Hansen (manager), Andy Lawsen, Esteban Fraga, Jimmy Robbinson, Robert Krysitaniak, Rob Parsons (coach)
Bottom row: Kristof Viart, Jake Hess, Mike Murray. 
Missing from photo: Andrea Peron, Trent Klasna, Dean Myer

For the record: we were sponsored by a small Ti frame manufacturer out of Mass called Merlin and we tested out the original electronic groupo via Mavic. At Tour of Willamette we had to basically dip our rear deraillers in silicone to ensure at least 3 cogs were accessible to us on the steep climbs.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

KOM training with Harry Gurnee


Craig and I figured it would be prudent to train as early as possible with the 2017 Yosemite Boogie KOM Harry Gurnee.  Based on how my legs feel after chasing him for 6.5 hours today, I'd say he is right on track to sneak off the front of Quimby this year and fend off the Texan Ian Moore. John C. Fremont Peak looming off in the distance...ouch.

For the record: I've only seen one other cyclist with femur's as long as Harry's (Talor Tolleson)

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Owen Marks

We just go our annual Christmas card from Brent Marks and family so we had to post some footage of Owen at the Post Office. Enjoy.


Sunday, November 12, 2017

"Hey Kevin, I think Johnny...

might be there." The last time I pedaled with McGillicuddy and Johnny I was stressing out over Mr. Tanimoto's algebra test. The three of us enjoyed a free Friday south county Boogie and reminisced the sweet days of pedaling as teenagers. We enjoyed the wonderful roads and compared all of our outdated equipment. According to Johnny, he has happily replaced the equivalent of 2 Tarmacs per year for his oldest college student and I have been more than happy sending a custom Caletti equivalent check to Vision Vball Club. Priorities...

Priority | Definition of Priority by Merriam-Webster: something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first. priorities : the things that someone cares about and thinks are important. : the condition of being more important than something or someone else and therefore coming or being dealt with first.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Paicines-New Idria-Paicines

With the first rain of the season on the horizon, we had to hastily schedule our Paicines-New Idria-Paicines Boogie to take advantage of the perfect road conditions and honor Jobst and his crew with an all day pedal through this desolate country of the Diablo Range. One of the first fires I responded to while stationed in San Benito County as a seasonal Firefighter with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was at the base of San Carlos Peak (4,845' elevation). The 8 mile climb always seems to surprise me. The Sierra Range was barely noticeable off in the distance and we saw one car near the Pinnacles and one more on Panoche Rd. Thank you Rep Jimmy Panneta, the BLM and Ranger Wilde for keeping Clear Creek open to the pubic (cyclists) and increasing the footprint of the recreation area. The roads were in fantastic shape and we locked both gates on our way out. See ya next year!


                                                           

                                   Top of R1 looking towards the central valley and beyond

                                                                Panoche Road

                                                         San Carlos Peak approach

                                                          below Hernandez reservoir

                                                         mercury mine- New Idria

                                                                 Frusetta Ranch

                                                       Coastal Range off in the distance

                                              Beaver Dam Forrest Fire Station District

                                                               San Benito Lateral



Friday, October 6, 2017

25 years & 2 weeks ago...

Bill Winsten, Jake Hess and Dan Perry were brought together by Josh Thomas (Cabrillo Athletic Director) to enter the Santa Cruz Sentinel Triathlon (aka The Tin-Man). Josh had the three of us meet at Hobees restaurant downtown to discuss how much of a lead DP would give us out of the water. We set a new coarse record only because Dan absolutely crushed the swim record and all we had to do was stay upright and keep the throttle wide open. Two years later Dan and I entered state service and the rest has been a total blur. DP - Thanks for the friendship and motivation and don't forget me when you are free to pedal California without having to take a day off work.




Photos: Kev McGillicuddy

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

EAP-DP to the rescue...

Dan - How much do I owe you for the last therapy session? Having a fellow brother of the bear to bounce work related ideas (problems) off of is quite the treat when rolling along south county on a calm and tranquil fall day. I got the yea I've experienced that before look from him a few times which is nice. This week he had us working on our fruit gathering skills and I know there must have been some sort of hidden lesson there for me...be the fruit - no, look to the tree - no, walk in your cleats - no, gather anything you can because you're living on a state salary - yes!




DP- "I know there's at least one more hidden in there, I can feel it"

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Santa Cruz thoughts with AC...



 AC has been living in Santa Cruz County since October 22, 1973 and has a good sense of what the people need. I had an opportunity to ask his opinion yesterday while on a short boogie. In ranking order, here is what he thinks we need:

1. 4 more hair salons
2. 3 more taquerias
3. 2 more coffee roasters
4. 1 more brewery (called 'farm to beer' or 'bohemia gastro beer')

Sunday, July 2, 2017

New Dating App...yellowpaperstickynote.com

Mama Wuleur and I have created an analogue dating app. The concept is simple, you message your significant other by leaving a sticky note (yellow paper sticky note) inviting them on a date. When they receive the note, they can reply to your message one of two ways; they can simply reply with a yes or no on the original note, or they can ask for more details on a separate note such as, do I need to pack a chamios and gloves or will there be a coffee shop involved or can I pack cute clothes?


                                             Mama Wuleur with chamios and gloves


                                                          cute clothes & coffee

Thursday, June 29, 2017

"Yea but, what about...

the teenager, the dog and the weight of the world" he said to his lovely bride of 16 years. With a half smile she simply replied, "then we'll pedal there". How is it that four little words can instantly change the amount of serotonin and dopamine splashing around in your brain? And with those wonderful shared words, I had us ready in 7 mins flat. Our journey will begin on the beloved Monterey Bay Regional Sanctuary Scenic Coastal Trail Access Steinbeck Fremont Network Historical Mission Camino Real Boogie and return via the Gabilan Range. The quick lesson here is to never overthink a half-baked idea when the spouse is in for a multi day pedal or was it to never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Either way, life is way too short to start over thinking now.




Sunday, June 25, 2017

"Amazon Alexi Grewal- get me a 3 day weekend"

With the news of Amazon purchasing Whole Foods and utilizing the brick and mortar platform to launch a new food delivery system and mind blowing data mining program, we decided to bug out of town off the radar for a few days and get back to our roots tucked high up on the Sierra crest. Last week I mentioned that I've never purchased anything from Amazon and some folks just about had a breakdown. I asked them if you could buy a day off or purchase more time with family. We jokingly decided our mini trip would be co-sponsored by Amazon considering folks buy just about everything from them. Enjoy your outside time with friends and family this summer, it's free on Amazon (for now).


 Olive relying on her vball legs traversing the Fallen Leaf Boogie

     double auntie ice cream run

         Mama Wuleur scrambling on a Scrambler in between some lake time.

            Nephew Wuleur Luke Grenier literally off the couch for a 75 mile boogie around the lake. Dude never gets out of the saddle! It must be nice being 17 and have the lung capacity of a Hungarian H20 Polo player.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Kucharik Wool - Made in California...

Kucharik has been making affordable long lasting wool jerseys for decades and they're made in California (not just "designed in California"). Mama Wuleur made me toss out my long sleeve last year and I was told I might want to think about replacing my short sleeve from the late 90's. I took possession of a beautiful royal blue top today and they fit and feel perfectly and they're only 59 bucks! I went with the full zip and will inevitably sew on a custom patch or two. For the record, the pockets are like a hobbit bag as they seem to magically expand to hold just about everything. Let's see if this one lasts almost 20 years and over 100,000 miles.


59 dollar wool happiness



this guy has kept me warm, cool, and happy for 20 years and counting

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Jobst approved...


With some motivation and done correctly, you can vulcanize patches on top of patches. I rescued these guys from a small group ride this winter. Olive helped me successfully patch these double punctures. 

                                                                  


Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Naturally, I'll say it's the wine...

If Peter Sichel could gracefully embrace the next generation of wine drinkers than I should be able to embrace millennial cyclists (I think). Thank you Peter for the lesson in generational acceptance. Baby steps...you still won't find me on social media and I'm not allowed to grow a beard until March of 2023.




For the record: Peter worked for the CIA as an operative in Europe and Honk Kong post WWII.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Cycling Instagramers: responsible for the...

..systematic shutdown of our "open" roads in our amazing county. I'm the first person to encourage folks to enjoy the questionable "roads" in our beautiful backyard, but day-lighting every last one of them to Instagram is something the Johnny-Come-Lately crowd is doing and it needs to be put in check.

I understand that this is now reality and there are probably positive (I think) things that come out of all the social media other than selling swag. But enough is enough. I guess I'm just that guy now...and I'm totally ok with that (and not alone).

I bit my tongue when I read the "how to poach" Big Basin via Mr. Isaacson's property above the Buddhist Center on a very popular cycling blog. Those knuckleheads don't know what they don't know and need to understand that he is donating a ton of land to the Land Trust and folks should give him his well deserved space while he is still on this planet (after all, it's freaking private). An article like that is innocent in nature and can unfortunately jeopardize deals that will ultimately benefit the public. It's easy, just enjoy it, don't post it.

I remained silent after I was verbally eviscerated after performing some serious damage control for a bunch of familiar faces when the Locatelli's reached out to me professionally asking who are all these cyclists (Instagram photo links) sitting in the Eagle Rock Lookout trespassing through their property. I apologized and came up with some stupid ass excuses for them. Needless to say, I was hot thinking the whole thing would have never happened if folks would have just tread lightly on the land and in the cloud.

You are here by empowered to not post an amazing ride. If you are under 40, you might call it going "old school".

                  I weathered 3 decades of riding this road and Instagram has finally killed it.
                     (I know..you can walk a bike through over the gate...that's not the point)

PS- sorry for the rant, everyone has their limit. Being an avid cyclist in Santa Cruz since 1986 has its advantages and disadvantages...I've turned into a grouchy ass (I'm working on that). For the record, social media would be a lot better if people actually posted real things we all experience every day like: couples arguing, boring jobs, mundane errands, moments of anxiety, happiness, frustration, love, hate. Wait a minuet, now that I write it out, it doesn't sound so great. Maybe that's why folks only post vacations, staged events, perpetual smiles and all the other social media vomitous that people don't give a shit about. I feel way better now.  If I had Instagram, I would snap a picture of myself smiling with a cup of artisanal coffee and a quote or tag that referenced killing it, winning it or crushing it and you would have had no idea that I was actually taking a break from a very boring 3 hour review of a fire department budget. Good night and be safe out there.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Chris Grenier Birthday Boogie...


Yosemite Ride - Day 2 from Caletti Cycles on Vimeo.

This year was a bit special due to the fact that we had the one and only Harry Gurnee with us who snagged the KOM from the jaws of California/Texan Legend-Ian Moore. Love ya Harry.

Top 5 post-retirement jobs...

On my nightly cruises with Olive in the silver bullet, we chat about school, travel, her life dreams, college, volleyball, big cities, friends, family, careers, money, Draymond Green, Salmon Lake, and my top 5 post retirement dream jobs. She thinks they are "weird" and I've been compared to a very nerdy character she references from The Gilmore Girls?

In rank order, here they are:

#5: Apprentice Baker - Aldo's Bakery
#4: Delivery Driver - Pacific Cookie Company
#3: Maintenance Worker - Holy Cross Cemetery
#2: Crossing Guard - Live Oak School Dist
#1: Greeter - La Madrona Athletic Club

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Band of Bros- Moore & Moore strength of 7 men

                3rd summit of the day for the Moore brothers on the 12 annual Yosemite Boogie