As of October 31st, the official count of humans on the planet is over 7 billion. That is a lot of people, no matter how you cut it. If you click the previous link, you can see what the population was during the year you were born. There were less than 3 billion the year I was born. 2 billion in 1922. It is pretty incredible thinking that the planets population has over doubled during my lifetime.

I ride bikes pretty quickly sometimes. But, I’m not under any illusion that I’m that special/unique of a person. I’ve often said, that if every human on this planet trained to ride/race bicycles, I wouldn’t be in the top 100 million. That is a fact for sure.

So next time you think you’re so special, remember that there are 6,999,999,999 more people on the planet and a bunch of them out there possess some pretty unbelievable talents, but they just don’t have the opportunities, that we have, to expand upon them.

We won the lottery being born into a First World country, with opportunities galore. Let’s remember that when we make decisions that affect the less fortunate.

I’m heading up to LA for the Nike Nosco benefit ride for Ronette Espinoza on Thursday. Click here if you’re interesting in donating.

Last night I drove up to Camarillo CA with Don and Sue to meet up with Jimmy Mac (editor MTB Action), Andy Hampsten (Andy Hampsten) and Scott Nichol, (Ibis) to eat dinner before the Ride for Ronette today.

Yesterday I did more of a tourist ride around La Jolla, trying to get everything in my mind organized for the next few days. I had been trying to get a hold of Wayne Stetina from Shimano, but hadn’t heard back. Then I get this text from Wayne saying that he is in a hospital in Florida after a crazy bad crash. He has a collapsed lung, broken ribs, collarbone and a few other problems. I never remember Wayne getting too hurt while he raced. I guess if you spend enough time riding, eventually it catches up with you. Anyway, I hope he gets better quickly.

So, today we’re all doing a 80 mile ride through the canyons around here. I did it last year and it was great. I haven’t seen Roy Knickman since the Coor’s reunion and am looking forward to riding with him some tomorrow. Along with a ton of others.

Okay. The weather is crazy all over the country. Snowing on the East coast, now snowing in Kansas, and a Santa Ana here in Southern California. The wind was blowing over 60 mph around here some yesterday. Today it’s supposed to be calmer. Last year it was over 100 degrees in the canyons. Today not even 70. I guess it’s that time of the year. Okay. Better get going.

I have to mention Todd Wells result down in Costa Rica yesterday. Winning stage one by over 10 minutes. Should be an interesting few days for him I’d think.

I've seen this guy for the past few days parked at the top of La Jolla Shores. I don't have any idea the make of this.

There is no place in the world that has automobiles like Southern California. This photo is from La Jolla this morning. A Porsche, then Mercedes, then Land Rover and finally a Lexus. This was nothing special. I could have taken this photo at about any place down there.

Photo from riding up Mt. Soladad yesterday morning.

In Jimmy Mac's office. Sue, foreground, Scott Nicol right and Andy in the background.