guys
Originally uploaded by bikedrumtao.

Part of my team at the Vuelta Zamora. Some look like convicts.

racing
Originally uploaded by bikedrumtao.

At the Vuelta Zamora, what a champ.

Copa Espana #1, Galicia

The Galician coast. All of the towns along the sea remind me of Maine. They have that small kind of dumpy but quaint almost subdued character about them, all fishing towns at heart. Even when it's sunny you have the impression that it has just finished raining or another rain is coming, but this is not depressing; it was a nice change from the land of sun down here in La Comunidad Valenciana. The presence of the Atlantic is different from the Mediterranean, or at least I imagined it as so. Like we were on the edge of something vast and powerful, not stagnant and tame and brakish. All of the roads are twisted and on a bike you are either descending or climbing, never at level. During the race we passed through a section of road which took to the side of a steep hill leading down to the ocean, down to a sandy beach. There was sun but also fog hanging in the highest tier of the hillside trees. The view was beautiful but was made more beautiful by our movement; a sight leaking of such vivid colors and so grounded in its depth and perspective ( I saw a dew drop on a blade of grass shimmer, and then looked out to the ocean until it met the sky) would otherwise seem impossible to really grasp from a static perspective. It's frustrating to see a landscape so rare and breathtaking that its full impact is dulled by a nagging sensation of surrealism, as if what meets the eye is too fantastic to really BE there. But on a bicycle, one of a hundred bicycles, I am a single foot of the great colored millipede that is the peloton, a social organism entirley out of my control but deeply in control of me. It is a mechanism heeding to a higher natural law greater than each one of its individual parts, thrusting us in patterned relays over great expanses of the ground in seconds where perpsective is made tangible to me. The view is no longer a flat two-dimensional experience, but something I am carving through. The inertial resitance of this crest, and its equal reimbursement of energy once passed over- I am part of this dynamic justice of forces. I can suck in the whole horizon and all the ocean and all of the earth which pushes me up and then lets me fall and I imagine I am chewing on it, yes! To chew on this big soft juicy landscape, as playdough begs to chewed on. A strange hunger is satisfied in this way, speeding through the twists and turns like I am gathering all of the sights in handfuls and mouthfuls to process and taste and I'm wondering now if this makes the landscape real in my world or if this makes me surreal in the world of the landscape. Don't stop drinking water, 164 beats per mintue 45 kmh 70 k from the finish, keep that cadence up...

Galician Cornfields.

This is a foggy morning view of the town across the bay from where we stayed.

Typical Galician homes nestled in the eucalyptus and pine covered hills.

Here is the hotel where we stayed.

Quick Update... I just got back from a spanish cup race in Galicia which went well and the scenery was outstanding. On Thursday I go to the northwest again for a 5-day tour, which should be really fun because i am feeling strong. Today I slidout descending at about 30 mph and went into a rocky ditch, no serious injuries for me or my sugar. When I return from the tour on thursday I will scramble to get ready to get the hell out fo here as soon as possible, hopefully arriving home before the 1st of August.

Cesar and Stats

This fine young man here is the amazing Cesar Correa, from Chicago. He arrived June 7th from racing in Belgium with an American team there, and ever since it's been pure bliss. The truth is that all the fun here is magnified by having another Gringo here with me to enjoy these precious moments. What's that book in his hands? More on that shortly....first, we need to address the incredible life resume of Cesar and all of the crazy things he has done in 25 years of Cesarship. Skydiving-Bike Messenger in Chicago-Racing Belgium & Spain-Underground Street Racer w/ VW Corrado 2.8 Turbo-VW Tuning Mechanic-Ducati Monster 900cc motorcycle owner-Illustrator and Storyboard Artist for Ad Agency-Toy Designer-Magic Shows-Professional Agressive In-line Skater (X Games Participant)-Club Valet Man-Carwash Worker person-Bikeshop employee-College Graduate with Bachelors in Illustration-Visitor of 8 United States, 7 Foreign Countries-The list goes on...

Ok, now for that book. Well you're up for a treat because that book is where I record all of my daily riding data, and although I have VERY little freetime on my hands here, I have done some calculating to provide you with these fun little stats, starting from the 21st of February.

Total Hours: 323.4
Avg. Weekly Hours: 17
Avg. Daily Hours: 2.87
Total Mileage: 5754 (Yearly Mileage: 8938)
Avg Weekly Mileage: 302
Avg Daily Mileage: 50.5
Highest Weekly Volume: 24:49 (hours)
Lowest Weekly Volume: 4:25 (hours)
Highest Weekly Mileage: 477
Lowest Weekly Mileage: 64
Longest Day: 6:45 (hours)
Most Miles in One Day: 121.4
Most Vertical Feet Climbed in one day: 8120
Weight Change: -14.6 lbs

A Proud Fine Day for America

I was amused to find this article on the front page of the New York Times online:

"For the First Time, Spacecraft Impacts With a Comet...."

"The purpose of the $333 million mission was to make the most detailed study of a comet to date, striking the mountain-sized hunk of ice and rock, and creating a crater from which would spew some of the primal material that makes up its core. Dr. A'Hearn told an early morning news conference that the blast was so bright that initial images did not reveal the size and depth of the impact crater. This hopefully will be revealed in later images recorded by the flyby spacecraft when they are received and processed on Earth, he said."Obviously, it was a very big impact," he said. "Presumably, we have a large crater in one of those images that hasn't played back yet."A quick look at data streaming down to Earth indicates the best is yet to come, said Dr. A'Hearn. "There are many more spectacular images yet to be revealed," he said. It is particularly gratifying, he added, to have such success on July 4th, the nation's birthday. "I actually hope it's made America proud," he said."

Yes, Dr. Hearn, I AM proud that America was so great as to blow the holy living hell out of a 300 million dollar spacecraft, colliding it into the side of a big ass comet, on our fine nation's birthday. What a fine pursuit, what a compelling accomplishment. We now may know just how big-ass of a hole our little space scout was capable of creating in said comet. "Obviously, it was a very big impact..." Thanks Einstein. Are these the type of assessments they pay you for? "The best is yet to come....there are more SPECTACULAR images yet to be revealed..." Oh yes! I'm peeing on myself with excitement! I think the most astounding part of this front page article is how the last question the reader will be inclined to ask himself is, "Yes, you boys really gave that comet a showing for it's money, but what was achieved here?" The most obvious, important question is slyly evaded with a typically rhetorical line: "The purpose of the $333 million mission was to make the most detailed study of a comet to date, striking the mountain-sized hunk of ice and rock, and creating a crater from which would spew some of the primal material that makes up its core." Sweeping over it, I just feel dandy. You know, this is the kinda news that gets me through my morning bowel movement without a hitch, because dammit, whatever's wrong with the world, I know our boys at NASA are still are investing in America's future; "As explorers, pioneers, and innovators, [NASA continues to] boldly expand frontiers in air and space to inspire and serve America and to benefit the quality of life on Earth." But then you pause, and are struck with the sad truth of the matter. These types of fruitless experiments at the end of the day are childsplay, the manifestations of little Texas Johnnie's boyhood inclination towards pyromania and high-speed projectiles, perversly cultivated and mutated by notions of Buck Rogers Grandeur and celebration of the nationalistic spirit. They rammed, at 23,000 miles per hour, a little thing into a big thing far away and took pictures of a big fantastic explosion. I can understand the Nasa people's satisfaction; sometimes I enjoy delicately arcing a rotton item of fruitly nature out the window of a car, 80 mph, where it elegantly, violently, meets the unmoving sheet-metal facade of a highway sign and ceases to exist in the solid form, letting out an exquisite SMACK. Ahhh, the sound of sweet successful trajectory. Only the difference is my fun comes at the expense of a $0.30 rotten bannana, not a $300,000,000.00 spacecraft. But by god, bless those United States of America all the same.