Where to begin? Back from the vacation up in the mountains. My brain is just returning from the happy mush that comes with long mountain bike rides followed by boating or horseback riding or hiking or tad poling or crawdad fishing or river rafting or thrashing in the pool or general lounging about. In short, we had a fantastic time and though I drank more beer than Adolph Coors ever intended on brewing, I managed to lose some weight from all the activity. Tough to pinpoint the best day of the vacation as all were primo, but the day spent on Stampede reservoir inner tubing with the kids was pretty darn good. The lake is perfect for this cat 5 boater (punctuated with the fact that I backed it through the closed garage door after one of our boating adventures) as there is no one on that lake and the boat ramp is huge. Not that reality stinks or anything, but I'd rather spend my time growing old with my kids than growing old here at the old rockpile. But what are you going to do without the old trust fund or lottery win? Anyway, hope you are well.

Don't forget to come out to the Lafayette crit this weekend. Big swag for racers and non racers alike. Some of the primes are pert near fancy and the raffle includes tickets to an A's game with a bottomless cup of beer included, Cal Football tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, Wente wine and much, much, more. Bicycling Magazine says, "if you can only make it to one crit this year...this is the one."

Johnny GoFast