I was on a solo breakaway suicide mission and didn’t care. I was maybe 2 minutes off the front of a twelve man chase group on the final day of our 2010 Monster Climbs trip to the high Sierras. There was really no reason for me to be out front, I was having a terrible weekend fitness-wise.

Friday’s ride up Onion Valley Road was fun and uneventful. Climbing 5,000 feet up the 5th best road climb in the US was very enjoyable. I pootled up alongside my friend MickeyGow, saving myself for Saturday’s Queen Stage.

Atop Onion Valley with my DirtBro MickeyGow

The wheels came off the bus on Saturday’s ride to Pine Creek. I started out feeling average, but instead of getting better as I warmed up, things got steadily worse until I was struggling to produce power going less than 5mph at around 45rpm. It was clear that I had fallen off the Razors Edge.

The Razor’s Edge is that narrow range of fitness where you are working hard enough to keep improving, but not so hard that you get overtired. I was obviously overtired and the more I pedaled, the deeper I dug myself. I bailed on the big climb for the day up Rock Creek (20 miles and 7,000ft) for some quiet poolside rest.

And that’s how I found myself just a little fresher than everyone else at the start of the final day, climbing 19 miles to Lake Sabrina. I knew they’d catch me; it was just a matter of time. Looking at my power meter it was clear I wasn’t producing much more power than the day before, the Descenders peloton was simply taking their time to reel me back in.

Here I’m using my camera to check how far back the chasers are without giving them the satisfaction of turning around. They were still a long ways back…

Ahead I saw a rider, pootling even slower than me. From a distance he looked very fit with good form, just moving very slowly. As I got closer, I could see his kit was Italian – meaning he was either authentically Italian or just a Wanna-be Guido. Then he stopped in the middle of the road and took a piss. Not in the bushes, or even on the gravel in the shoulder, but right there on the tarmac in the middle of the road. This convinced me he was truly Italian and probably from the southern end of that amazing country.

Passing the rider, I said “Buon giorno” and received an undecipherable reply. Looking at his face for the first time I realized who the rider must be. It was none other than Ivan Basso himself, probably on a recovery ride after winning the Giro d’Italia last month! I had just passed (neh, dropped!) one of the most legendary cyclists of our time! The only man to ever challenge Lance Armstrong in the high mountains. Basso was going off the back, unable to maintain my relentless pace.

Signore Basso attacking The Boss…

Don’t you love it how cycling uphill at high elevation makes you a bit batty in the head?

I continued on enjoying the beautiful scenery, watching pine trees replace the chapparel as I steadily made my way upward. I was caught by my team at some point and summarily dropped. Ivan was in the group chatting amicably with a few of my teammates. I supposed they were congratulating him on his Giro win and speculating his chances for beating Contador at le Tour next month.

A little later, my friend MickeyGow caught me up and together we rode the last four miles to Lake Sabrina. It was truly a great afternoon cycling among some of the most beautiful country California has to offer.

I dig Twitter, but maybe not why you think.

First, I detest distractions, they are truly in opposition to doing anything well. Secondly, I’m not into “tweeting” about all my daily events like, “Writing a blog post!” or “Smearing a bagel!” or “Watching my cat chase a bird!” and am certainly not into reading anyone else’s random blatherings.

But I am a huge fan of pro cycling. I have been for years and I follow all my favorite riders. I devour VeloNews and have my TiVo set to auto-record Versus for anything remotely cycling related. These media are great, but only provide the “official view”. Except for a rare interview, you don’t get many glimpses into what it’s really like to be a pro cyclist.

As it turns out, many pro cyclists are on Twitter and regularly share directly with their fans. All of a sudden, I’ve got an insider’s view into what it’s like to be a pro cyclist – a view previously unavailable unless you happened to know these guys personally.

Here’s a sampling from today Twitter feed. Any of those names sound familiar?

mcewenrobbie just had a guy on the phone saying his dog has a headache. well my knee hurts! you do the math

mickrogers Hard day at Pais-Vasco today. Lost a little bit more than I would of liked on the finish climb. Oh well. I’ll have a go in the tt Saturday

CadelOfficial Another day of Vuelta Pais Vasco done, my third second place for the year (

lancearmstrong hear they arrested 2 guys 4 stealing my bike at the ToC. These guys musta been @ the back of the line when they were handing out the brains.

ghincapie 305 average Watts today for 5 hours. Epic day. Legs were good though. Very happy my roomate won.

johanbruyneel Happy to hear that Kurt Hovelynck (Quick Step rider) who crashed heavily on march 17 and has been in coma since, is doing better. Good news!

I’m arlynasch. I plan to post about specific workouts I do to prepare for Leadville and stuff that’s too short for a full article. Follow if you’re interested.

Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to watch the Stage 8 of the Tour of California as they raced over Palomar Mountain, here in San Diego.

Levi, on Jens Voigt’s wheel, being LeviSTRONG.

We rode up Palomar the morning of and reveled in the spectacle that is a bike race. There was the Pope, the Antler Guy, some dude in sparkly-green shorts and a whole bunch more fanatics amid thousands of excited fans. We were cheered as we ascended the 21 switchbacks of South Grade road at a paltry 8mph average.

Lance is back and I couldn’t be happier!

The Descenders were smart and resourceful enough to have a truck parked on the final turn, about 250 meters from the KOM marker. We tailgated in style while the peloton suffered its way to us. Beer, brats, comfy chairs and all that crazy energy on the top of Mount Palomar – it was awesome.

Cheering the Autobus. I’m stoked at seeing Mark Cavendish, the fastest man on two wheels.

Finally, the boys arrived and we screamed by the side of the road with thousands of other fans. I waved my cow bell frantically at Levi, Andy, Dave, Frank, Jens, Christian and all the others. I almost lost my mind when Lance went by with George, Chechu and the others in the second group. We even cheered like mad for the Autobus, with Cav’s bright green sprint leader’s jersey.

It was a spectacular day. Thank you Tour of California – see you again next year!

Update – check out these great photos of the scene atop Palomar from Velonews

Imagine for a moment that you’re a pro-cyclist racing in the Giro d’Italia. You’ve spent the entire day (100+ miles) in a 5-man breakaway. It’s the last kilometer of the race and it looks like you’ve got the best legs.

Then your chain breaks. Poor David Millar.

This Saturday begins the first of cycling’s three annual Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia or (la Corsa Rosa). 198 riders will start a 23-day epic loop around Italy that includes 4 time-trials (1 mountain, 1 team) and 4 mountain stages with 3 mountain top finishes.

Back this year is the Passo Gavia as the highest point in the Giro where American Andy Hampsten clinched his amazing victory of the 1988 Giro – the only American to have ever won a Giro.

I know I’ll be watching the Giro, even if Versus only wants to give us weekly highlights. I signed up for Cycling.tv‘s Giro coverage which includes daily live coverage and highlights.

If you’re not following what’s going on in the pro peloton, the organizers of the Tour de France (ASO) have decided to not allow Team Astana to participate in any of the events they organize (Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, etc).

I’m not going to get into any of the politics here, you can read about that at VeloNews yourself. The point I want to make is this – How can you claim to organize the world’s biggest, most competitive, highest-level bike race in the world and not invite last years winner (Alberto Contador) and third place finisher (Levi Leipheimer)? How about the sports director who has won 8 out of the last 9 Tours (Johan Bruneel)?

Your race becomes a farce. In the end, you know who loses? We do, because it’s really our Tour.

Go to http://www.letleviride.com and join the tens of thousands who are trying to save the 2008 Tour de France.

Are you watching the Amgen Tour of California? It’s been a great race so far. Tune in, it’s only getting better.

I’ve got some friends visiting the Tour as it rolls through SLO, Solvang, Santa Clarita and Pasadena. Why the heck am I staying home this weekend?