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.

Yesterday I rode 80 miles in the canyons outside Malibu with a bunch of friends. Some I see pretty often, but more that I hardly ever see. I could go into minute detail about how it was a great ride and how much fun I had, but I think I’ll skip that.

What stuck with me the most was how strangely nice it is having these friends that you don’t ever see around and being able to pick up conversations just like you were riding together yesterday. I’ll use Mike Kloser as an example. I haven’t seen Mike for years. Probably over 5 and maybe closer to 10. I rode the last 2 hours of the ride with him and it was great. Of course, I’ve been following what Mike’s been doing since he retired from MTB racing, but we didn’t go into that much. (If you want to see a crazy impressive resume, just click on his name.) We just talked about normal stuff, the ride last year, his son’s MTB racing, etc.

I didn’t hang out with Mike too much when we raced together. The first year I raced MTB bikes, he showed me the ropes of how to change all your cables after every race and how to prepared your equipment properly. But, after that we just raced. But, since we shared so many of the same experiences, it seems like we are sort of “bonded” by that. Maybe that isn’t exactly the correct word, but it seems right now.

Anyway, this ride had a bunch of those guys on it. People that have been riding their bikes for most of their lives and still appreciate it nearly as much now as they did when they competed full time. Those are my people and I truly appreciate it more than I knew. Strange.

Here is the day in pictures-

Walking in downtown Camarillo at sunrise to get breakfast.

Running into Zap nearly first thing when I got to the ride. The ride was a benefit for him and his family.

I think there were close to 600 people riding.

Jimmy Mac following the ride on his motorcycle.

Trivia ? of the day. Name the five riders in this picture that have been my team mates on the Raleigh Team.

I rode the last 40 miles in a small group with Mike Kloser, left, and Don Sutton, right.

John Tomac, Zap and Ned afterwards.

Andy signing posters when the ride was over.