Meeting Heather (sometimes affectionately referred to as “hg” on this blog) was an important moment in my cycling history – she was the first chick that I actually connected with in an exclusively “bike” setting.  In fact, when I went to go meet her for the first time off the bike, I had to sit [...]

In 1999 I was living in Calcutta, India working for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.  By day I cleaned bed sores and pulled maggots out of open wounds.  I carried skeletal women in my arms and bathed them with my hands. I held the women who came to be my friends and washed their smocks. [...]

Photo: Kenji Sugahara Hey – is Thanksgiving tomorrow?  How the hell did that happen? Sunday’s race report went up yesterday afternoon over at Ye Olde Wend Magazine. This week is the classic 5 days of work stuffed into 3 days time but how can I not take a moment to post this picture of the Dead Rat (my [...]

I didn’t kill it.  I swear. But it was there. Big, squishy rat.  Cyclocross roadkill.  On the course.  Just after a jaunt through a pile of rotten pumpkins (rideable). It reminded me of the sacrificial bird and I rode faster. Something about riding over dead things brings back the primal viking urge of my ancestors that lies dormant most [...]

The online version of this Sunday’s column is already up over at Oregon Live. If you get the paper and want to check out the print version, it will run in tomorrow’s edition in the Outdoors section, which is in Travel. Regular readers with long memories will notice that this is a blog entry that I [...]

My approach is all backwards, but my standard M.O. is to party all ‘cross season and then suddenly dig my heels in and bring the whole overindulgence thing to a screeching halt. I tend to be all-in or all-out.  It’s one or the other.  People say, “Just have one beer.” and I think to myself, “Who [...]