The fam and I are chilling in Fairfax CA. If you've never been here, think iof it as an even more condensed Boulder. Tons of good food, people, and mountian bike lifestyle at the core.

Ran the Deer Creek Trail system. Insanely beautiful. I could not believe the views. The tightest singletrack I've ever been on...and no bikes allowed! D'oh! I saw the secret MTB tread marks though so it's poached at night fo' sure. Shame, 'cause the views are the most insane at day I'd suspect.

If'n you're ever here, I'd duggest scoping this out.

The Sunshine Hill Climb is this Saturday folks. The Fam and I will not be there as we are in Marin with family and friends but this is a special event. When you are suffering up that slog, just remember that you can. Your heart is pounding, your eyes will probably see black. But at the end of it all, you'll smile, probably bitch that you're not "in form", too heavy, need more trianing...whatever. You're alive. Note the photo above. I took this on mountian bike trip in Sedona in 05. That is the face of an angel. Literally and figuratively. It is Noah and every time you see "Prime Time" on the sleeves of our RM Kits, now you will know what it means. Part of your race entry is being transferred by Ira to the Noah Rubright Foundation in his memory. Race hard folks and have a beer afterwards with a huge smile.

Our sport is art. As much as it is getting on a bike, pedaling, getting off occasionally and finding yourself in the pain cave every Sunday morning, the sport is art. And art is life.

We sold our business today. Private Equity. Many many months of work to prepare, push and close. Ironically, there's tons more work to do as while you sell, you still work and push on. Remember, it's an investment now.

Read backwards in this blog and you'll see themes of stress, grief....OK, I give in: lots of cry-babying on my part. Lots rooted in the woe-is-me patheticness trying to figure it all out. The dad part, the husband part, the athlete part. But mo-fos, I punched a hole in life these last 2 months. Threw the three part tee-totter at it and am making it work. It is so easy to let it spiral and get venomous.

Today, I dipped into the art to help the head. I went to the silent park. Man it's been too long. Meditative. A mental laxative to let the stress drain out of my ears. Perfect. Overcast. No heat. Cool in fact. And just practiced the art. Unclick. Wrap the foot around and through. Glide. Hands in place. One on the hood, one on top tube. Un click. Dance. Wrap back on the bike. On. Clip in, go again. And again. No difference in speed. Blurry to the spectator if done right. No spectators today. Just the art and the cool and the laxative.

Three months until cross and my blood is already boiling for it.

Local cycling legend and even more prolific photog Steve Z has done a fairly good side by side shoot out of two single speeds...similar in appointments but one on 26" and the other on 9'ers. It's Curtlo versus On One (anyone know the URL for them?) folks.

Read the entire shoot out here by visiting Steve's blog. I give the review props even though he caught me here at the USGP's last year whimpering like a worked over dog with my cracked wrist bone.

I will get to scope out my Revolver 29'er next week! Mike is going to bring it up to San Anselmo for me to scope out. Stoked. Going to dismantle the YBB and migrate the parts.

I began some dialog with the ACA on the subject of the Best All Around Cyclocross Rider or "BCR". Basically, in a very abstract fashion it boils down to this (and I am absolutely soliciting feedback here local ACA riders!).

Call ups are a common practice for race series’ around the US namely CCCX, Pilarcitos and their sister race series’ on the West Coast in Portland and Seattle. What would be required in general is this:

a) The first race of the BCR series is raced. No call ups on this date as there have been no points awarded. We could consider taking last year's Top 10 and line them up but this is negotiable.

b) At the 2nd BCR race, and all subsequent BCR races of the series, the Top 10 series leaders will be announced by the appointed race official before each BCR-enabled category.

c) Per b) above, this will require that each official and/or race promoter will have either the list prepared and distributed to them by ACA weekly or as part of their acceptance of taking on a BCR race, the promoter will manually do this in advance for all categories to prepare for the upcoming race. (this needs to be socialized with the race promoters signed up for BCR)

d) With respect to ‘game day’ rules, only the Top 10 will be allowed to represent the front line when called up on race day. In other words, if 3 of the Top 10 are not present on race day, only the 7 present BCR leaders will be allowed to formulate the front row of the race. The ACA official or race promoter will not be responsible to go past the Top 10 (This is debatable. Some series do allow for this to fill out the top 10 with ‘next on the list….although this becomes a management problem.)

e) BCT (team) has no concept here and will remain the same…e.g. as an aggregate points collection collected by ACA and will not be factored into the call up).

So with this initial stub of an idea known, would you want to see this implemented? Vote:

Finished up another solid block of climbing mixed with some intensity stuff (e.g. the Short Tracks) and had a helluva lot of fun this week. Za plan is amazing in that it keeps EVERYTHING in balance. Family, work and riding have become a veritable 3 sided sea-saw and all 3 kids are perfectly weighted the same. Nothing is clawing at the other and the stress is way reduced. It's good. It wasn't always like this. Trying to flail at training, life, family, work is bunk and is a recipe for disaster. Predictability to your family and communication of it all is at the core of the success I've found. My lady is way happier and that makes the walls of the home smile.

Yesterday was rad. Went hard with T on this ride. ALL this (below) is within 3 to 3.5 minutes from my house by bike. Sick. T is studying the physiology, pedal stroke, everything as I am doing it so it is amazing to have a friend/coach/supporter in my corner...literally as I am engaged in these workouts. I attacked him on the top of Lee Hill before Deer Trail and threw out 1106 watts for 15 seconds to get the gap which was quite fun if not stupid before he reminded me that I just shot my wad before Deer Trail's slog. Had to be done though. Ride we did is on MapMyRide:Week of slow stuff coming up and I may not be mad about the M & C updates as I have a bunch going on this week. I'll see what I can do at night.

Mad style points:

• Rare 26" Dugast and Custom Ritchey Carbon Rims: Check.
• White Radars, Helmet, Gloves and White Sex: Check

A mini-Frischi protege' indeed.

Some very very good photography from the Boulder Short Track Series and other cycling events in the area can be found here at Lori Photography.

Tuba Brown and I warming up in the dust bowl.