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2009 California cycling schedule

Sunday,  01/18/09  10:08 PM

I just received an email from Chuck Bramwell, the über-meister of the California Triple Crown, and the 2009 schedule of events has been posted.  Those are all Double Centuries, there is also a smattering of Centuries and Ultra-Centuries.  So in the public interest, here is...  (the yellow divider is "now"; I actually rode the events in green above this line, and I intend to ride the events in green below the line.)

The 2009 California cycling calendar
updated 10/18/09

dateeventdistanceelevationlocation

01/10/09

PCH Randos 200K Brevet

124

3,000

Ventura

01/17/09

Stagecoach Century

100

4,700

Ocotillo

01/24/08

Janus Century day 1+2

2 x 100

Thousand Oaks

02/07/08

PCH Randos 300K Brevet

185

7,200

Ventura

02/08/09

Breakaway from cancer

50

Thousand Oaks

02/21/09

Camino Real Double*+

200

8,800

Irvine

02/28/09

Death Valley Spring Double*

200

9,000

Death Valley

03/14/09

Solvang Spring Century

100

5,000

Solvang

03/28/09

Solvang Spring Double*+

200

7,200

Solvang

04/04/09

Spring Stagecoach Century

100

4,700

Ocotillo

04/11/09

Mulholland Double*+

200

16,470

Calabasas

04/11/09

Mulholland Challenge**

109

12,000

Calabasas

04/11/09

Midnight Express

50

7,000

Acton

04/18/09

Devil Mountain Double*

200

18,600

San Ramon

04/25/08

SLOBC Wildflower Ride

100

6,500

San Luis Obispo

05/02/09

Breathless Agony**

114

12,000

Redlands

05/09/09

Cruising the Conejo

100

6,000

Thousand Oaks

05/09/09

Central Coast Double*

200

14,000

Paso Robles

05/16/09

Encinitas Bicycle Tour

103

 

Encinitas

05/16/09

Davis Double*

200

8,400

Davis

05/23/09

Heartbreak Double*+

202

15,500

Palmdale

05/23/09

Heartbreak Hundred**

100

8,500

Palmdale (part of Double)

05/30/09

Ojai Valley Century

100

5,000

Ojai

06/06/09

Eastern Sierra Double*+

200

12,000

Bishop

06/13/09

Alta Alpina Challenge*

200

20,300

Markleeville

06/20/09

Terrible Two Double*

200

16,480

Sebastopol

06/27/09

Grand Tour Double*

200

8,500

Malibu

07/11/09

Death Ride

129

15,000

Markleeville

08/01/09

Mount Tam Double*

200

14,500

San Rafael

08/15/09

Cool Breeze Double Metric

128

8,500

Ventura

09/05/09

Son of Death Ride

132

19,000

Ridgecrest

09/12/09

High Sierra Century

100

5,500

Mammoth

09/12/09

Everest Challenge

2 - 206

29,000

Bishop

09/19/09

Knoxville Double*

200

12,600

Vacaville

09/26/09

White Mountain Double*

200

10,700

Bishop

09/27/09

Lighthouse Century

100

4,700

San Luis Obispo

10/03/09

Furnace Creek 508

2 - 508

35,000

Valencia - Twentynine Palms

10/03/09

Angeles Crest Century

100

11,000

La Canada

10/03/09

Hemet Double*

200

7,800

Hemet

10/10/09

Bass Lass Powerhouse Double*

200

11,700

Clovis

10/17/09

Solvang Autumn Double*+

200

10,300

Solvang

10/18/09

New Moon Century

100

6,500

Oak Park

10/24/09

Death Valley Fall Double*

200

9,100

Death Valley

 

11/07/09

Borrego Ordeal Double*

200

14,900

Anza Borrego

11/14/09

Solvang Fall Century

100

4,900

Solvang

* - part of California Triple Crown series (need three or five) - currently have five - did it!...
** - part of King of the Mountains series (need all three) - and got all of them!
*+ - part of Grand Slam series (need four) - currently have five- did it!...

You're welcome!  I will try to keep this up-to-date, if you have additions or corrections, please let me know...

 

changes in banking

Sunday,  01/18/09  11:08 PM

Want to see something pretty incredible?  Check out this infographic from Wachovia Securities, comparing the banking industry in January 2007 to January 2009.  The size of each bubble is proportional to the market cap of each bank.

I wonder how much of the difference is due to decreases in the value of their lending portfolios, particularly mortgages, versus a decrease in consumer confidence and market values in general?

 

Sunday,  01/18/09  11:19 PM

Had a nice quiet day, my girls are all gone (shopping in Santa Barbara!) and had some friends over to watch football.  We were rooting for the Cardinals, who won (yay), and for the Ravens, who didn't (boo).  Both good games.  The Super Bowl will be pretty interesting, a study in contrasts.  The key will be whether Arizona's offense can move the ball against Pittsburgh's defense.  My heart says yes, but my head says no :)

One of the important issues we discussed today while consuming vast quantities of chips, dip, and beer, was whether the Pro Bowl shouldn't be played right after the conference championships, the week before the Super Bowl.  We decided yes (please tell the league office).  Of course that means nobody playing the Super Bowl would play in the Pro Bowl, but that's okay; having a game to watch in that "dead" weekend would be good.  Right now everyone cares about who is selected for the Pro Bowl, but nobody cares about the game or watches it.

The rehabilitation of George Bush is well under way, as people realize 1) Obama is going to have to do many of the same things Bush did, for many of the same reasons, and 2) people realize that blaming everything on Bush didn't work.  Sisu nails it: To trash Bush was to belong.  I'm not a huge fan of Bush but I thought he wasn't nearly as bad nor nearly as guilty as many people did, particularly in the mainstream media. 

Sully Sullenberger is [justifiably] a hero (he was the captain of flight 1549 who piloted the plane into the Hudson River after it encountered a flock of birds just after takeoff), but FuturePundit points out he's also a genius.  "Innate intellectual ability matters a great deal. A dumber society will be a more accident-prone and less safe society."  Exactly why I'm so worried about Unnatural Selection... 

Incidentally, since deciding that this year I have to focus myself on my book, I've told a number of people about it, and have condensed "what is it about" to this: the world is getting dumber.  When people ask why, I answer because dumb people have more kids than smart ones.  That isn't the whole story but it resonates; people "get it" right away. 

I saw a billboard yesterday with the caption "do you leak urine?"  Now c'mon, do we have to see that?  Eew.  How do you explain that to a kid?  There are like five people who care about that problem, and zero of them are going to call an 800 number because of some billboard.  [ ...here it is... ] 

So I wired my blog posts into Twitter, and that was good, and I wired Twitter into Facebook, and that was better; and now I've wired Twitter into Plaxo.  Can't hurt, right?  I'm beginning to realize just how non-universal use of RSS really is.  A lot of people like being notified about new posts this way... 

You all know how I think Floyd Landis was innocent, right?  (He won the 2007 Tour de France, then was found guilty of "doping" on stage 17 because the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in his bloodstream was too high.)  Well you can take my word for it, or not, but you also might like to read Floyd Landis and the Magic Water Bottle, Part I, Part II, and Part III, posted by Oliver Starr, a former professional bike racer.  Dead on, IMHO. 

The other day I rediscovered the utility of "hard links" in NTFS.  You do know about hard links, right?  No?  Well then you can read Jameser's Tech Tips and learn all about it, like I did... 

Finally, want to know how to build a great UI?  Avoid annoying the user.  That's it.  Easier said than done, unfortunately, users annoy easily...

 

 
 

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