Friday was one of those days you don't want to have. It was a day where I needed to play manager and to a larger extent, overseer of our business. Issues arose and they needed to be solved to ensure continuity and at the core, a copacetic group of team members who can communicate and proceed to do the right thing for the business.

Drama must end. I needed to let someone go.

Terminating someone's employment is never easy. But each time I am forced to do this, or an old friend leaves this business, it is interesting in "modern times" how the right of passage (at least for me) in acknowledging the departure of a coworker is when I move them from the ''Work Folks" bucket to the "Friends" bucket in my IM's. Sad but true. The simple click/drag/drop from one simple IM bucket to another helps me with closure. At least I think it does. It sucks regardless.

What also helps me with tough weeks is turning the brain to channel zero as I write about constantly. I do this with rides....especially rides with those I consider close friends and team mates which always helps focus on them, and not 'real life' for a while. Today, il squadra's ride was super fun and fast and woodsy and windy....and epic. Today, we railed Hall Ranch with the Rocky Mounts boys (and girl!). More on this below by way of pictures.

Some other things that helped me fight through the toughness of the week: White Sex Arriveth. I laughed to myself when the box arrived from our team deal with Boulder Cycle Sport when I normally would have been a surly beeatch due to the work drama. I literally said to myself, "Ah, the white." And I laughed a laugh to myself.

My wife saw me holding the new white goodness while maniacally smiling, and made HUGE fun of me. "Ah, nice, Greg. More white shoes. You are a little bitch." And then I walked out to my workshop and laid the new set of Sidis by his brothers. And I realized, I am Imelda Frigging Marcos.....

And the realization was understood. And it was momentary. I am a bitch, yes. But I am a sexy bitch. I will deal with my Marcosian issues at some point in the future. Maybe next year. Maybe after I quit sniffing Testers Model Airplane Glue.

I shall not apologize.

The new Dragon SRS are carbon this year. Some small style changes but fit like a glove again. 10 year sin Sidis. There is no finer shoe. Should you want to debate me on this point, save it.

We got to Hall Ranch and I pulled up with my new 9'er on my grocery getter.
And then the WB pulls up in his grocery getter. This is how the boy rolls. He, like it, is like buttah.

RM was in effect. None of us had on our new Verge kits...none of which fit the entire team after a $25K order. But that is another story...

The WB needs to eat. But for those of you out for a spot on the podium of the MSC, you will need to beat him. You ave been warned.

We almost all got blown over like dominoes at the top of Hall.

Holy crap on a stick. She climbs well. She rails like a BMX bike with 29 inch wheels. She is balanced. The Revolver is so un-f-ing-believably sick, I do not know what to say. Miguel built me the perfect bike. Note the tightness of this bike. I;d say maybe another 1/2 to 1" on the chain stay but it is so dialed as is, I am not sire if it would be a detriment to handling characteristics. More in an upcoming review....

Gregoire and Wals. RM elder statesmen railing it today.

Encore of Za crew

And again....

The Couchinator smiles....and did Hall on his 'cross bike. Good boy.

Voila. Za Ahrens Revolver 29'er. She is finished. Well, almost. I have a few parts to swap out while I try stem lengths etc. Mike D at BCS built 'er up for me in like 2 hours. He's PRO. Thanks Mike! I'll have extensive reports on the ride soon once she is completely dialed but the net is that it feels GREAT. Super balanced to say the least and spot on in terms of sizing. The pictures below will give you an idea of the parts selection, but have a look at the frame details in particular. All the bits you see like the yokes are all CAD designed by my bro Mike Ahrens who then has them CNC'd out of a block of aluminum, and welded together with Easton 7K series (in my case...Scandium is an option).

Some notes on the bike build:

• The 08 XTR is as you expect: sick.
  
• Reba fork: sick. Out of box feel is so spot on, I am not quite sure how I would modify it to get a better feel.
  
• I ordered a Chris King tall base plate to ensure enough clearance between the frame's downtube and the top caps of the Reba. Perfect.
  
• I have a SRAM front der. I ordered the wrong XTR one. D'oh!
• Thanks Tim Faia and Bontrager for the tubeless tires!!
• I swapped out the XTR rotors for Hayes as the Mavic wheels are a 6 bolt pattern, and not the XTR lock ring design.
  
• Ritchey WCS post, stem and bars will be swapped.
  
• You love the white grips and seat you sluts.
  

She's showing her face, that Spring she is. Signs abound. 53 degrees at 10 PM. Bulbs bulging their way to leafdom. The signs are there.

Maybe the signs will indicate when I'll be fast again. Oh, wait, I suppose I've got to apply some pressure to the pedals and watch those funny little numbers on that PowerTap go up and stay up. For months.

I'm riding, less training these days. That all begins May 1 provided the other things swirling around my personal ecosystem work their way towards resolution. And even with that, could affect my May 1 kickoff. But I swear to you that I still ache in a bad way when I am getting in my efforts now. True, deep bone and muscle ache...and not that sweet ache you get from cracking/tearing the muscles during the first few workouts, but the type that is like someone banging a garbage can with an Easton bat to get my attention...telling me that 'your shit's not right.' Couple of muscle sessions with the WB's guy should straighten me out.

The 29er parts are in! All shiney new 2008 XTR and Ritchey bits for the Ahrens. More mountain biking will make me a less surly man. The Signs indicate that less surly are needed and are soon to be had.

Ah, we're here. Spring. Sweetness. I celebrated the transition by adding motivation to my cockpit: Fresh white bar tape. Yum. It makes you feel faster....even when you are as pathetically behind the 8 Ball as I am these days.

I wonder what the equivalent of fresh white bar tape is for the working world. I need to spend some time thinking on that....

In at midnight last night again and awoke with a start literally thinking the hotel's alarm did not wake me up and I was late for a meeting. And there I was, in my own bed with the sweet sound of my children downstairs playing and the rustling of the newspaper in my wife's hands and the pitter patter of the puppies feet on the wood floor. That was a remedy in itself. I will be changing things soon so I can shut up about that side of my 3 part teeter totter which has been anchored on the ground...imbalancing everything.

With kids off to school, I suited up and grooved with the new white tape, thoughts about what to do and grooving amongst the trees spurting buds that are doing their damnedest to turn into full fledged flowers. So close. It's so close. What a time if I can execute on this escape. Spring is here.

On the road again. I just can't wait to... (insert sound of baseball bat smashing the radio wailing Willy Nelson's tribute to truck drivers). Yes race fans, I am yet again on the road, tired and under-exercised but daddy gots to gets paid and this is his jobby job.

This week is 'trade show' week. I am traveling up the CA coast from San Diego for DAMA to San Jose to EclipseCon. My job at these software industry trade shows mission is to meet with industry analysts and customers while our company has marketing booths there to show our wares.

The EclipseCon conference was interesting. The 1 sentence intro for you my bike brethren and sisteren is that the conference is a celebration of a fairly new technology, Eclipse, and its power to help software developers build new applications faster. We leverage the Eclipse technology in the development of our own software we sell to customers and while exploring the community, my co-worker who knows I am a bike geek pointed this award winning product out to me. It's called MyTourBook and I will download and look at this thing in the coming weeks.

For those of you that use CycingPeaks or the software that may come with your PowerTap, this is like that but on steroids in terms of the types of features I am seeing advertised *AND* is multi-user. Sick. I haven't dived in yet to look at TSS or other calibrations of training/racing efforts, but is still a very unique and what seems like understandable application. When you look at the application's look and feel...e.g. the gray shell and stuff you can't see, the platform behind the scenes he built this on top of...is what Eclipse 'gave' him for free to get the app standing up and looking pretty. All the the graphing, grids and general content is what the guy coded inside of all that all of the rich Eclipse functionality. Extremely impressive both from a cyclist's perspective...and a technologists.

Anyways, have a look at the guy's demo of his product. You will LOVE this guys German accent and it is intoxicating as he drives you through the interface and general feature set.

I got in a run today to pretend I am athletic. 5:30 AM in the dark railing the path on the harbor in San Diego. I thought I'd find Landis on a park bench with a beard and a shopping cart. No joy. Oh, and I am riding Typhoons next year. 34's. I made up my mind. Already thinking 'cross. Who isn't?

*********
Update since writing this post: The author of this amazing open source/free product, Wolfgang Schramm, unbelievably did so while recovering from a a near fatal bike accident....which without his helmet, would have been the end of him. Read a small excerpt here.

Race fans: What do you get when you add...

The total sum is extraordinary. I am talking about a sum that will leave you in shock to the extent that you'll want....no NEED...to have one. And if one is scored, likely you'll want to rub and get all freaky with yourself. You will be....

ROLLING SEX.

The sum, you see is the 2008 Limited Edition, full up Bling Daddy kits. No, these are not the 'official' racing kits we'll be rocking normally, you see. Just a special kit for the not-afraid set for just the right occasions....like a velvet smoking jacket or your speedos. Will we have skinsuits: Likely, beeatches, likely. This shit's gonna get me into Cross Vegas, you see just because of how sexy I'll be. I'll be irresistibly brown and gold. Likely with a matching Louis Vuitton saddle if I can beg my boy Corey...oh and if I can score it, some gold bar tape. Mmmm.

Behold:
Start your jealously now.

The argyle boys have had some bad luck mixed with some shining moments at P-N. I would still LOVE to see them get the golden ticket to Le Grande Boucle...with Friedman and his license plate dangling from his saddle and all 9 of them sporting Catfish Hunter 'staches (not sure if Farrar can grow facial hair yet though.

Anywhoo, as reported below, our main man Jonny Coln is doing his duties with Splistream and cranking out mad BlackBerry shots during the races. From the cars, the buses, hotels, etc. HE's gonna have to blog this sheeit! Check out his shot taken for me due to my shoe obsession. Ka-BLING! You go Millar. I'm gonna have to help you dial in that sock thing though. You've got the 'tall boy ++' thing goin' on strong Dave, but I'd say you need about 2 cm cut off the top. 6 out of 10 for you.

Doing my blog surf this AM, a video Molly (get well Mol! I'm in the same boat...) linked to brought shivers up my spine. And this is an ad for a NEWSPAPER! Honestly, this is how in-grained cycling is for the Flandrians.

Given the tragedies that occurred less than a week ago in CA, I thought it applicable to pass this test on to you. Click here to take the test.

Stupid me. Oh, stupid me. I thought I was free and clear but Montezuma is smiling from wherever he is these days at me, the dumb-ass traveler. The Mexico vaca was fantastic, but tiny little secret agents embedded themselves in my intestines for the trip across the border and have initiated their assault this AM.

Geyser. That's all I can say. The wife and I woke up with rumbling intestines and a low grade fever this AM. After getting the kids settled with some b-fast and got our coffee brewing, we both at precisely the same moment tore after the bathroom in an Olympic level sprint. Hilarious. My wife won. I needed to keep it together for the trip back up stairs to another bathroom to ensure I didn't have another episode.

I think I'll have to take a day off the bike. I value my chamois too much for them to take this kind of abuse.