Stan’s Obligatory Blog

This week marks 30 years since the beginning of the 1977 bike racing season. This was my last year racing as a Junior, and I’d set a goal for the year of making Category 2. In those days, if you raced in Juniors, when you turned 18 you went into Category 3. But if you could place in enough Junior races, you could graduate directly into Category 2. Since Categories 1 and 2 generally race together, it meant that if you were a 2, you got to race with the Big Dogs. So I decided that that was what I wanted to do.

I’ve written before about my greatest ride ever, when I got in the breakaway in a big race in 1978. This is the beginning of how I got to race in Category 2.

The first race of the season was the Challenge Cup Road Race at Rockland Lake State Park in New York. It was a four-mile loop with some moderate rolling hills. I figured that I had a pretty good chance of getting into a breakaway there. Since I wasn’t a very good sprinter, I thought that this was my best chance to place in the top 10.

The race was six laps, for 24 miles. Right from the start, I stayed near the front and tried to start a breakaway. Sadly, the other guys who tried it with me weren’t strong enough, and we always got caught by the pack. But I kept at it.

Finally, on the last lap, I was hanging around at the front when I saw one kid take off like a bullet. His name was Frank Kaler, and I found out later that he was known for riding time trials and pursuit, and he was very good at going very fast for 2-3 miles at a time. He was hoping to solo to the finish. I immediately got on his wheel. The way he was going, I thought that we had a pretty good chance of making it to the finish.

We went about a mile before I took a look back. We had a good lead on the pack. I said something like, “Hey, I can pull. Let’s work together and make it to the finish.” He just looked back at me with a wild look in his eye, put his head down and went faster. So I just stayed on his wheel.

About 300 yards from the finish, he started to slow down. I put my head down and poured it on. I went around him and drove straight for the finish. I was sure he was going to tail me and come around at the last second. I just couldn’t even begin to believe that I could actually win the race. Even as I went across the finish line I was still expecting Frank or someone else to catch me and come around. In the picture, it’s apparent that I was in no danger of getting caught, but at the time I was afraid to look back and jinx it.

After I crossed the line, I sat up and looked around, dumbfounded. I’d won the race. Nobody there was more shocked by this than I was. It was a complete surprise, but it was also great fun. I always thought that soloing across the finish line was the absolute best way to win a bike race, and now I’d actually done it. It was the best feeling.

In my racing years, I only won three races. This was the first one, and in many ways, it was the best.

Route map

Today was my first lunchtime bike ride of the new year. I went with Vikki and Eric from the Seismo Lab, and we did the Lida Loop.

We rode through Old Town and down past the Rose Bowl. Then, up Lida into Glendale and down Chevy Chase into La Cañada. Then back into Pasadena, passing by JPL and back across on Mendocino St. Finally, we had the nice two-mile downhill back to the office.

It was a perfect day for riding.

18 miles at lunch, 26 for the day.
cycling

This is an odd sight on the Caltech campus. It’s 8:00 in the morning, and all these people are lined up to get tickets to hear Stephen Hawking speak tonight. Among scientists, he’s apparently something of a rock star.

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was a route that Gene made up that went all around, but never got very far from home. We’ve done this ride before.

We started out going east a bit, and then south into San Gabriel. Then we went west and back across San Marino and back into Pasadena. Then we rode past the Rose Bowl and up to Inverness to go up the hill. And that was a very nice hill. We even got to see the new road where they had to rebuild it after it washed out two winters ago.

At the top, we headed down the other side into La Cañada. That was where Jon caught up to us. He had been a few minutes late to the park in the morning, and he’d missed the start. So he rode for something like 20 miles before he caught us. Then we went up past Descanso Gardens and down Hospital Hill.

We stopped at the little bakery on Ocean View. I’ve mentioned before that their eclairs are quite good. Several of us ordered them, and they quickly ran out. But the one I got was good.

Leaving the bakery, we headed up the hill towards the mountains, and then back down through La Cañada to get back to Pasadena. Along the way, Gene remembered that Michael owed him a few bucks, so they stopped to settle up.

After that, we headed up Windsor Rd and up to Altadena Dr. That was where we saw the horse. There are stables near there, but still it’s not every day we see a horse walking down the street.

After that, we rode across Pasadena and back to the park.

42 miles.
cycling

Saturday afternoon, we all went down to Seal Beach. The occasion was the 21st anniversary of our first date. So we always go back to Walt’s Wharf to reminisce and marvel about how half the people working there now weren’t even born when we first went there.

They don’t take reservations for dinner, so we went down early. It was a nice day, so we figured we would put our name on the list and walk down to the beach for a while.

When we got to the beach, we saw the usual wildlife there. I got a nice shot of a wading bird in the surf. Lucinda wrote her name in the sand. Then we walked over to the concrete wall next to the pier. It was low tide, so we got to look at all the different shellfish clinging to the wall. That was interesting in a slightly geeky way.

On the way back to the restaurant, we stopped in a little shop that has lots of beach-theme stuff. Lucinda got a little fish fossil, and a fossil shark’s tooth. Her class has been doing a unit on fossils lately, so she wants to take them in to show.

When we went back to Walt’s, we were at the top of the list, and they gave us a table. We were upstairs, right next to the table where we sat on our first date.

After dinner, we walked back down the street to the little bakery we had passed earlier. We all got big desserts there. Yum.

And as always, we had a fun time.

I’ve been bemoaning that my pinball skills are kind of rusty. So this evening I went and played some more for practice. And for the first time in years, I rolled the machine over 1,000,000.

The machines from the late ’70s only registered up to 999,999 points, so it was always a goal to roll the machine over. For a while, I kept a little notebook log of every time I went over a million. That’s lost now, but I still have the little paper I taped to the machine back in 1989 when I set my personal best-ever score of 3,637,300.

Still, I was excited tonight. My final score was 1,912,210, which is not bad for being out of practice.

While I was at the Safety Fair in Beverly Hills, Cathy called me to say that they were looking at a new dog to adopt, and they wanted me to come and meet her. So on our way back, Erik dropped me off in Burbank.

Suzie Q was a stray found living on the streets. We think she’s part Corgi and part Spaniel. She’s a small dog to begin with, and she’s pretty emaciated. She’s been in foster care for a little while, but she still needs to be fed more to bulk up. But she has a very sweet personality. And she’s not a big barker. So we all liked her from the start.

Suzie came home with us on Sunday afternoon. She’s getting along fine with Ripley, and we’re teaching her to use the dog door. Overall, we’re pretty happy to have her in our family.

On Sunday Morning, I went out to Beverly Hills for their annual Safety Fair at the farmer’s market. I’ve been there before, and it’s usually a pretty fun time.

The people from Quake Cottage had their portable earthquake simulator there. Erik and I both rode it, and it was pretty realistic. Although I suppose when the Big One actually happens, what are the odds you’ll be sitting in a chair that’s bolted to the floor and has nice big handles to hang on to?

This year I didn’t see the gourmet tamales place there. But that was all right. I still had a nice carne asada sandwich for lunch, followed by a chocolate Nutella crepe. Yum.

And of course, we got to talk to lots of people, hand out earthquake information, and answer lots of questions. So overall it was a pretty good time.

Route map

Today’s bike ride was planned to go up Glendora Mountain Road, and then down to East Fork and back out by way of Highway 39. The route map above is from the last time I went there. Today’s route was almost the same, except that we didn’t make it all the way up the mountain.

We met at Arcadia Park and headed east to Glendora. It was cool and overcast, but we thought the sun was going to come out.

In Glendora, we turned and headed up the mountain. Right away, we met up with some other riders coming down who said that the road was closed for construction about halfway up. So we just continued on, planning on going as high as we could.

Going up the mountain was nice. Kept us nice and warm. Everyone was smiles at the start, but then the group broke up. When we got to the closure, we just stopped for a minute to look at the view, and then we headed back down. For some reason, it had gotten colder since we started, and we all got kind of chilled on the way down. I had to put my Hoover Blanket back in for the descent.

When we got to the bottom, we went to the little French bakery that Gene knows in downtown Glendora. We had some snacks and sat for a bit before heading back.

The route back was straight west into Azusa, and then up Azusa Ave to the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, where we got on the bike path and rode back down to the bridge into Duarte. Then we took the regular route home across Duarte, Monrovia, and Arcadia. When we got back to Pasadena, it was warming up a bit, and we even saw the beginnings of shadows. Of course, the sun came out right after I got home. Sheesh. Still, it was a fun ride.

50 miles.
cycling

Today the parts I’d ordered for my pinball machine came.

I replaced the last worn-out rubber pieces and the broken target. Then I cleaned and waxed the playing field, complete with its bikini-clad girls, for the first time in years. And then I ran through the full self-test and replaced the last burned-out lights.

So now Lucinda and I can play. She’s getting quite good. She’s even learning to bump the machine. It’s very cute. She’s not strong enough to push it with her hands, so when she wants to bounce the ball, she body-slams the machine to get it to move. She’s made some impressive saves that way. I’m so proud of her.