Monday, May 07, 2007

Quickie San Diego Weekend

San Diego would be a really nice place to live if only it weren't so... so... Republican.

We end up visiting there a couple of times a year, and usually have a really fun time. We toured the Midway aircraft carrier on Saturday afternoon. Pretty impressive boat!


The Navy is big in San Diego, and so are the sailors!!


Barrio Logan Crit, 45+, usual O.C. and San Diego suspects. I raced with two video cameras, one mounted on my bars pointed forward; the other on my helmet pointing rearward. I hid in the back at the start because I was worried that the officials wouldn't like the cameras, and as a result I missed the Strickler break that went from the gun (with an initial boost from Thurlow). No biggie, as I didn't really care about this race. Besides, the video from a four-man break would be much less interesting than from the field! I have a lot of film of Thurlow's butt... maybe we can analyze his pedaling in slow-motion and uncover how he puts out so dang much power!

The rear-facing camera worked ok, but it turns out as the race progressed I put my head down more often so I have a lot of film of the San Diego skyline beyond the barrio.

Oh yeah, race results... 45+ national-crit-champ Strickie won; 50+ rr champ Malcolm got 2nd; Thurlow got 5th; Stetina got 6th; your humble videographer got 15th.

When I get some time, I'll edit the movies along with the clips Gina and Brian took from the sideline, and publish a little movie on YouTube. BTW, I was right about the officials... they hunted me down after the race and said the cameras are a no-no. They had a big pow-wow during the race and found a rule against modifying helmets and equipment. At least they were kind enough not to pull me!


The main bike race focus of the weekend was the San Luis Rey RR p/1/2 featuring most of the SoCal all-stars (minus a few at the Gila). This race deserves a report for posterity, but I'm too tired/busy/scattered to do it now so I'll just leave you with a picture of the front group's sprint and a snap-shot of the results page...

Rigo "amazing" Meza wins!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahem...you didn't "modify" your helmet. You attached something to it that's removable. How is that different than putting a "rain cover" over the helmet on a rainy day? Would they DQ someone for that?

Which rule is it? We'll find a loophole!

Anonymous said...

I think that the Navy prefers to call them "ships"...

Anonymous said...

...I took a look through the USCF rule book and couldn't find anything that specifically applied...or that even generally applied. Did they tell you which rule it was?

Of course, usually if the chief referee doesn't like it, it's gonna be hard to argue since they can always pull out the "I don't think it's safe" card.

Marco Fanelli said...

TnA,

Although they mentioned a rule number, I don't remember what it was. ...something about not modifying equpment (and yes, I agree this is a semantics issue--what is "modifying"?) But I find that it doesn't usually help to argue once it is clear a person with a badge or striped uniform has made up his/her mind.

Reminds me of the time I got caught running a stop sign in I.V. and I argued that I see bike cops running the signs all the time. That sealed the deal apparently, and I got a ticket!

Re the helmet cam... the official "suggested" off the record that if it were attached to the bike (securely) and not-too-obvious, then they might not see it (wink, wink).

Bottom line is, it's up to the officials...

Anonymous said...

So, judging by that comment and the fact that it didn't seem like they had a problem with the one attached to your bars (did they even notice that one?), it sounds like we need to come up with an under-the-seat mount...kinda like a seatbag? (wink, wink...nudge, nudge).

Anonymous said...

The video looks rad!

And yes, San Diego is pretty damn Republican, painfully so at times.

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

btw, nice result in that there san luis race. used to ride that loop all the time as a (gulp) tri-geek down there.

always have wanted to head back down there and race it.

thanks for the vid ... rulebreaker!