  Was almost a year ago when my daughter Matilda was born. Hard to believe she turns one on April 20th. The day she was born is hands down the most incredible thing I've ever experience. Witnessing the strength of my wife Melissa was heroic and inspiring. Matilda was born at 5AM and hasn't stopped moving since. She is a very energetic little girl and curious about everything. She's started walking in in the past month and I think we could have another cyclist in the family...
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  I present to you Mr. Tommy Lionelli, professional sag wagoneer.
–noun a support vehicle accompanying a bicycle touring group that carries spare parts, luggage, etc., and sometimes also transports bicycles and cyclists. Tommy is a good friend that will be assisting Brent and myself as we ride through the night. He's going to have a car full of food, fluids, and snappy wit that will meet us every few hours throughout the night. Tommy's the man and Brent and I appreciate the guy helping some brothers out. Two weeks and counting, until the big ride. Feeling pretty good in my head and legs, confident about my plan for food, fluids and energy conservation. I still get butterflies when I think about the ride, but what would an adventure be if it didn't make you feel a little flutter?
It has rained quite a bit this week, particularly today, which is a good reminder that I could be slogging it depending on the weather gods. I'll go with whatever hand is dealt on the day. Yesterday was my actual birthday, why wait until two weeks after my birthday to do the ride you may ask? Good question, logistical reasons mostly for BORP and myself, AKA that weekend worked best for all parties involved. Lots to do in the next two weeks. More details soon! I will be tweeting (still sounds so silly to say) every hour during the ride, here is a preview:         To healdsburg and back = 150 miles. I left this morning at 4:45am and rode in the dark for a solid 2 and a half hours, getting a good preview of what the night ride will bring. Pretty cold at the get go, but I was fairly warm with my skull cap and layers. I had a heavy bag of food and fluids on my back. I was determined today to keep extra close tabs on my food and fluid intake. I set a timer on my watch for every 15 minutes, where I had either a 1/3 a bottle of gatorade and every other 15 minute interval something to eat; PB and J's, cookies, bananas, an apple, bagels, jelly belly sport beans. Eating on the bike is a great distraction, but takes some serious coordination, I almost busted 3-4 times fumbling for food and drink. The attention paid today to my food and fluids paid off tremendously, I had great energy the whole ride and never once felt maxed out or exhausted, I could feel my body turn into a furnace that required constant fuel to avoid meltdown.
I biked right at 150 miles (actually had to ride around my neighborhood trails 5-7 more miles to get up to 150!), it was a beautiful ride up through petaluma, cotati, santa rosa and finally into healdsburg. I planned on waiting until the last second to put new tires on my bike specifically for 30for30th and I thought I could eek out one or two more rides before they blew out...I was wrong. About mile 90 in santa rosa I blew my back tire out all the way through! I patched it, but knew I needed new tires asap. I passed a trek store about two miles back, actually the timing of the blowout couldn't have been better. John from the trek store, super nice place by the way (i'm a big Trek/Gary Fisher fan, they are all I've ever ridden) set me up with some new gatorskins and I was back on the road in no time. Oh yea, the saddle, felt great (how about good, no saddle could ever feel "great" after 100+ miles.) I was really pleased with the Selle Anatomica and actually started to feel more accustomed to it on the higher miles. I think it will be perfect for the long ride. Overall the ride was excellent, I felt good, strong and never over the edge. My legs are tired now, but no more tired than when I bike an intense 30-40 miles. My triceratops and neck took the brunt of what little struggle there was today. I averaged about 14.5 mph which is faster than I plan on doing for the 30for30th ride. I'm shooting to do about 10 mph average, so I will have to be diligent and methodical about maintaining this pace. Further conclusions that the night will be challenging especially after a day or riding beforehand. The warmth of that sunrise felt so good this morning... Good training ride, one more closer to the big one.  BORP's Homepage! The secure online donate capability is up and running on 30for30th.com here and on BORP's website here. We have set to raise a very ambitious goal of $30,000 for BORP programs. All the money raised will go directly to BORP. We are suggesting the initial donation be $30 in reference to 30for30th, but any amount above and below $30 is greatly appreciated. We will be tracking the funds raised on this website in addition to BORP's. Check out BORP's landing page above detailing the event.
Please feel free to email me or look here for any FAQ's about BORP' donations.       Nobody can miss you with these babies on your bike. My buddy Brent (college roommate and dude I bike across the country with) invented these, they are patent pending and in the early phases of development but will soon be available at an online store near you! I've used them for late night/early morning rides and they are incredibly effective. The material is so reflective it looks like you literally have lightsabers for a bike frame. Best of luck to Brent getting them on the market, I'm a big fan and I think tons of other cyclists out there will find a substantial demand for the Bike Wrappers.
      They say this is it, this is the saddle, the one to use if you plan to ride silly long distances. Anatomical Seat: the seat moves with your body as you ride, it meshes to your movement and has a perfectly designed space right down the center of the saddle which is geared to relieve pressure. I bought a seat with a slit down the center at about mile 400 on my trip across the country. If you've never had a seat with a slit similar to this, it can make a world of difference. Selle Anatomica was created by Tom Milton and he was generous enough to donate a seat for the ride. Tom spent a career around cars, fixing up almost any car you can imagine and eventually invented the Selle Anatomica. In 2007 he did the Paris Brest Paris, a 750 mile ride over about 4 days. That is some serious bike riding.
The saddle gets rave reviews from everyone that uses it and I can tell you from just a quick ride down the street, it's going to be special. I look forward to taking it out on a long training ride here in the next couple days. I'll let you know how it is. Thanks again to Tom Milton and Selle Anatomica for their support! Check out their website here: www.selleanatomica.com  Its hard to beat the sunrise over SF from the Golden Gate Bridge. Now that we’ve finally had a streak of dry beautiful weather I’ve been riding my bike to and from work. It turns out to be about a 30 mile round trip from the north bay over the Golden Gate bridge into the presidio. It’s been refreshing to get on the bike and not the car to head into the office, not to mention actually saving about $25 a week on tolls, let’s face it that $$$ adds up! I took this picture with my iphone about 7:45 this morning. San Francisco is a stunning city especially with the magical golden hour light.. Riding in all this week just reminds me how spectacular this area really is.
   Here is the route we’ve roughly mapped out to be refined in the coming weeks. I plan on biking or driving the route before the 30for30th ride. Always feels better when you know where you’re going or at least have some idea of what you’re in store for. I would start in Corte Madera and head south to Santa Cruz/Wastonville and the east into the valley for the overnight and flat zones, then start heading west again around Tracy and finishing at the BORP headquarters in Berkeley. Mileage comes out to about 290 miles or so. More intense short rides this week to work and back, then the following weekend I’m biking from Corte Madera to Santa Cruz/Watsonville, which should be gorgeous along the pacific coast highway. I made this map with the awesome new bicycle directions on Google Maps. About time Google did this! Just another way Google is saving the world. Even though I trust this new feature on the interweb I still plan to see the route with my own eyes...
| DONE!$5,198!
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