Eighty-dollar haircut

Did the Bicycle John's M35+ crit in Glendale, today. Really frustrating race for me - watched what seemed like 20 dudes go up the road. I tried to bridge up to the group while the gap was at 20-ish seconds, and came up a tantalizingly 50 meters short.



Pretty stupid on my part, though, really...


I jumped across to a group that was between the break and the field, and, in a lapse of clear thought, waited for someone else to seal the deal and close that last little bit just after I took what I felt was a freakin' hard pull to get us into striking distance... One more really hard pull is all we needed - and it didn't happen. By the time I recovered a bit, the field was on us, and the race was over.

S0, then, what did I do (besides takin' the piss out of myself)? Well, I hung out a bit, went hard a couple times to get my money and driving time's worth in - then went for a prime.


Hit it hard for a $75 "value" prime and a D.A.R.E. rider was on my wheel (if I remember correctly, this was the same guy who couldn't come through when we were tantalizingly close to the break earlier) - I gave that dude a sweet 700W leadout! He sat up after taking the prime and I just kept going - simply because I wanted to get some goin' hard time in!


Next time through the S/F line, it was me by my lonesome and they rang the bell for, crap, I don't know what (all I knew was that the initial 700W+ surge was creating some pain that apparently effected my cognitive/auditory abilities!) - so I kept after it.



Well, I wound up holding off the field for a couple laps and took the prime. I soft pedaled for a lap, then the officials pulled me...


I didn't know exactly what I had won - my wife was watching, and she didn't know either - pretty busy chihuahua herdin':





that's Lucho (named after Cafe de Columbia rider Luis Herrera - you USA 1980's CBS Tour de France watchers will know this name!) on the left, Selene in the middle, and Lea (OK, we're mild Star Wars freaks - though, "princess Lea" is a spanish-english hybrid! :-) )

Anyway, two laps of goin' pretty frickin' hard:

and what did it net me? Yeah, an $80 haircut courtesy of Dave Alva at the studio city locaton of the Allen Edwards Salon! Thanks Dave!

For what it's worth (as a total aside), the last time I actually paid for a haircut was 1997 in Blacksburg, Virginia at the barber shop on N. Main St - just off Alumni mall. Ahhhhh, those were the days before I became familiar with the #2 guard and/or the "suckcut" - well, actually I own/have owned lots of clippers over the years - but never a "flowbee"...

Selene is going to try to give away the salon haircut at work tomorrow, but if there are no takers where she works, hey, I'll spread the love to someone who lives in the L.A./Studio City area and wants to give Dave Alva at Allen Edwards Salon a call. I'll keep you all informed - heck, that would be a sweet "surprise gift" to someone - regifting isn't such a bad thing, eh?

Well, not such a super bike racing result weekend for me, but, hey - an $80 haircut makes for a great story, eh?!