corinne's blog

It's recently come to my attention that many of you out in the cycling community would like more news about what's going on at SVBC, and what SVBC staff are working on. We've always leaned more towards the "get things done" side of things than the "talk about what we've accomplished" side of things--after all, there's only so much time in the day--but at this point we've decided to renew our efforts to share the inside scoop with those of you who wish to listen. Call it transparency, call it the sharing of relevant and occasionally interesting information...

San Jose will be a host city on Wed., May 19, 2010 for the record-setting Amgen Tour of California professional cycling road race. The announcement was made this morning via a Twitter exchange that took place shortly before 9 a.m. PT between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of America’s most accomplished cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie and George Hincapie. This marked the first time an event of this stature has ever been announced via Twitter.

(info from City of San Jose)

So maybe the Death Ride was a bit of a stretch for my first organized ride. Let me admit from the start that I REALLY wanted to get out of it, and I almost didn’t go. My plan of riding a century every month completely failed—I was completely under trained by the time the Death Ride rolled around, only having ridden about 100 miles in a good week and maybe I’d done 2 or 3 60-70 mile rides all year. A million things seemed like a better idea—right up to the morning of when I woke up at 4 am and groaned, “Am I really doing this?”

It's simply amazing to me how much we've been accomplishing the last couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone, it seems like we are on a fast track towards complete mission fulfillment!

Our staff especially have simply amazed me... they've been working together very well gearing up for Bike to Work Day as well as the Tour of California and all sorts of other interesting opportunities.

My buddy Steven Brewster in the SJ Office of Economic Development just sent me an interesting piece about the different cycling cultures in NYC:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/09/fashion/20081009_BIKES_index...

I have always prided myself on being able to hang out with pretty much any type of cyclist and fit in fairly well--obviously a good quality to cultivate in my position. The racers have been the final frontier, really, and thanks to the Webcor cycling folks for inspiring me to cross that line.

Today on my way down through Saratoga village after riding down hwy 9, a guy tried to hit me in the head with his side mirror. I was feeling unusually zen, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I simply rode up to his left window at the stoplight, smiled, and said:

"Hello, you're probably not aware how far your right mirror sticks out. Next time you pass a cyclist please be careful not to hit them with it."

He looked at me with contempt and said, "you shouldn't be on the road."

Well I returned to town from Spain all full of energy and I got a little over-zealous on all the projects I wanted to do this week. I've been working 12 hours today so far, and still have things on my list.