Saturday, May 20, 2006

Good Ol' Arsenal - A tribute

You guys know I love biking. There is also another love in my life. Well , alot of love but also worship of an identity. And they are the Gunners !

Arsenal Football Club from North London , England. Established in 1886 by the soldiers of the Royal Army in London. Nicknamed the Gunners and the fans as Gooners.

My father is a huge Manchester United fan. He always told me stories of historic games when he would watch as a little boy in Iran. He tried really hard to brainwash me into being a Red Devil supporter but I just loved the cannon on the logo for Arsenal. Being a bitter rival to Manchester United and my father ... it turned out to be some kind of Star Wars episode.

In the shadows of Liverpool in the eighties and the dominance of Manchester in the nineties , it was tough to be an Arsenal supporter. With the likes of Ian Wright and Paul Merson not being able to compete on the same level , something had to happen. And it happened in the name of Arsene Wenger. A french coach with a stern look on his face. He had the eye for talent. Buying players for dirt cheap prices and evolving them into great players.

1995 - Signing of Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan. My favorite player of all-time.

He assembled a team that I will never forget. With the classy dutchman in forward... Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Ray Parlour , the young rising star Patrick Vieira in the middle...and of course the old-english guards in the back : Tony Adams, Martin Kewan, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon . David Seaman inbetween the poles.

Players retired and some left to join other teams. But got one player that was all worth it. Down and out in the Italian League was a young great player, Thierry Henry. Arsene Wenger saw something special in him and signed him for nothing. Now Henry has the most goals in Arsenal history and one of the elite players in the world.

The undefeated season of 2004. 26 wins 0 losses and 12 ties. the undefeated streak reached a record 56 .

Us Gooners know about the European heartbreak. The farthest they have gone in the European Cup (Champions League) was the quarterfinals. Reached the finals of the UEFA Cup in 2000, but lost in penalties to a Turkish team.

But this year the Arsenal made it to the finals of the Champions League. Only allowing 2 goals in 12 matches , 995 minutes of clean sheets , beating Real Madrid - Juventus - and Villareal in the knockout stages. Meeting a sister club Barcelona in the final .

This game was going to be the greatest. Main word is WAS. The game started off quickly with Henry missing a fantastic chance to go on top . With the whole world watching this epic battle of David and Goliath, David being Arsenal and Goliath the Catalans. With a smooth pass up the middle from Ronaldinho to Eto'o , Jens Lehman brought down the stiker out of the box. I knew what the rule was but didnt think the referee would give such a rash red card in such a big game. The Red Card came out and the German goalkeeper who hadnt allowed a goal for 12 straight games was off . Leaving Arsenal with 10 men and a very nervous backup goalie infront of the world .

From then on I knew Arsenal couldnt play their fluid like progression to the goal. It was Barcelona with one man up attacking constantly.

GOAL!!! Selling a foul outside of the box, Thierry Henry found Sol Campbells trusty skull for a goal in the 39th minutes. What a turn of event!

Second half started like it ended in the first with Barcelona controlling the play and attacking. The young defenders of Arsenal were amazing. Until again , Ronaldinho made another great pass that flicked off of Henrik Larssons foot right to Eto'o again. With the unexperienced Arsenal goalie in the wrong position to block it was tied with 14 minutes to go .

Again , Barcelona attacked and attacked. A rogue kick from the substitute Belletti...striking the goalie on the inside foot ricocheting into the goal . Just like that Arsenal had lost it .

It was the game that never really happened . The great shoot-out between such classy teams washed away with a referee that later stated he had made a mistake with his call. All in all, its part of the game and thats it . Barcelona are champions , but I know Arsenal would have beaten them with fair advantages.

Sad part of it all was Dennis Bergkamp, my favorite player. This was his last game for Arsenal before he retires. If the game was still 11 on 11 , he would have been subed in the 75th minute. That never happened. With his student Van Persie on the sidelines , the future looks bright after him.

Also with rumors of Henry leaving for Barcelona all season ...today , Thierry Henry has signed a 4 year extension the the Gunners. He says its the fans that made him stay. It is true because Barcelona was offering double the money Arsenal was.

With the youngsters ... Fabregas 19 yrs old ... Senderos 20 years old ... Antonio Reyes 21 ... Flamini 19 ... Eboeue 20 ... the future looks strong and promising.

We will miss Dennis Bergkamp and the Highbury Stadium ...but I will never forget.

Good Ol' Arsenal , we're proud to say that name.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Nationals @ Fontana

The first national race came around right before my ass had healed from the previous weeks debacle at Firestone. Rode a couple of times to work just to see how I felt and it wasnt pretty. Going into the marathon race on Friday I knew it was going to be a long day, but was it ?

Chris Sharp ( Backbone manager of death) picked me up at the ass-crack of dawn (I dont mean Dawn Lyons crack, literally!) I was praying we wouldnt be able to make it to registration because the race itself started at 7:30am. Driving like a maniac and sweet talking like Barry White, he got me registered with 15 minutes to spare. The rookie I am, thought I didnt need to warm-up ... my first lap will be the warm-up. Big mistake! With Chris Eatough and Jay Henry on the line and Veeze Price giving me the horns of doom, I was ready to race.

Bang ! We were off in a flash. Luckily the hosts made us amateurs do 6 laps while the pros had to do 7. Fine with me at this juncture. My back started to cramp trying to keep up with the Pros, did I mention they are fast. I will be mentioning that couple of times throughout this blog. Luckily I got a flat 4 miles into the first lap. Racers passing me one at a time as i franticly change my flat. My back loosened up a bit jumping on the bike and started to see the riders that passed me . The last downhill section before the flat backstretch . POP ! Another one ! Its gonna be a long day. For your own information I have really bad achilles tendons because of xc running in high school . That 2 mile run to the tech area sucked royaly. But hey remember my goals ? no DNF no matter what.

Thanks to Chris meeting me at the tech area and dropping off some goodies to feed on. I dont need an actual person at the feed zone, I can manage myself. But those cheers and high fives are so wonderful. Also the random guy who helped also is cool in my books . Kenda Tubes kick ass, didnt have a flat after that. After all that chaos I felt good and charged the next couple of laps. Passed a few more racers and generally took time off of each lap. Everytime a pro lapped me I tried my best to hold on to his wheel but to no avail. Those guys are mutants. Did I mention very nice and supportive ? Yes, they are .

Highlight of the race came when I came passing through the start/finish line. The announcers were told of my nickname ; given by the Infamous Jim Roff. "Legend in the making ...Fuzzy comes through with high spirits after his miserable first lap". Now that was cool. The team waxing my body and all was also funny.

All in all I was happy with the performance. It was great to see other riders finishing behind me unlike Firestone when I sweeped the course. Gives me confidence and motivation to work harder for the upcoming nationals and championships. Like I always say ... I'm just a kid on a bike having fun. The smile on my face should be proof of that.

Thanks to Chris for driving me out there and cheering. Jim Wannamakebabies from Kenda. Those semi-slick Small Block 8's are so sweet now. Veeze Price for being so damn amped up all the time, you kick ass!

Special shout-outs :
Bert the Hurt for getting 17th out of 54 in semi-pro. Hes 87 years old.
Bert the Hurt for getting 1st in Super-D . He's 92 years old.
All the Pros that showed up and ripped it ! That includes Christie and Teri !
The Singlespeeders on Sunday! Milkman and Veeze for consuming more beers than they rode laps.
Jay for his 15th place DH finish , Kick ass !!!

Check out Jimbo's site . The Roff Report . Amazing stuff in Colorado!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

My Wake-Up Call

It has been some time now since my last blog entry. Of course there is an excellent reason why I haven't. My brother finally moved out of the house! He bought his own condo in the rich region of Glendale. Movin' On Up ! Which means for the first time in my life I have my own room. Sadly he took the laptop with him and I'm too broke to fix the PC in the room. I am currently at work typing this. (Looks over shoulder to make sure no boss walks in)

As many of you know , this year I'm shifting gears...probably into the granny... and doing endurance/marathon events. Lets just say I got my cherry popped at the first event. Going into my first official event this year , which was the Firestone Walker race. I didnt know what to expect, but pain was in my mind. I had been training pretttty well but nothing can prepare you for race day competition. I wanted to start off slow and work my way into it. Total opposite happened. 7:50 am we started, with the Beginner class regular xc at 8am right on our heals. Plus the weather was awesome ; foggy and not too chilly. The course was hard-packed and very narrow singletrack which gave me the biggest grin. With this equation I went out in a brisk pace for the first 2 laps. Then the Sport class started at the same time as my 3rd lap started. Again got caught in the rush of the singletrack, occassionally pulling over to let over-eager amateurs that had way too much steroids that morning to pass me. 4th lap started off great because Teri joined me as she warmed up for her race. Also I chugged a beer at the start/finish line which hit me really quickly. On the first climb apparently I started to sing "Only the Lonely" by Chris Isaac. I dont remember this happening until I saw nutsack ! Riding on the singletrack along a wire fence and a steep drop on the other side , a bull was charging towards me and another rider behind me. He was pissed! Funny how quickly we could get sober when our lives are in danger. With just one way to go we jumped down the side and went around. I wasnt that horny anyway. HAHA. Last 2 laps were a blur do to delirium. The fog burned off and the heat took its toll. Occassionally getting passed by friends and fellow racers. The finish line was bare and deserted by the time I came through. But the peeps were there to greet me with props. I dont want your props , I want your beer ! HAHA. Hey, I finished the bastard. What didnt kill me will make me stronger, what almost killed me will make me walk with my legs spread apart.

The Highlight of the race was getting to ride with everybody. By that I mean the 8 hours I was out there Teri , Christie, Meggan, Bert, Papo, Vegas Bob, and other peeps passed me on their races. It was great to cheer them on a remote part of the course. I basicly had the front row seat to the races. Damn , that seat gave me the biggest sore ass ! Also Ryan Trebon, him and his 7 foot long legs came blasting by. But the amazing thing is how nice he was about it. Letting me know nicely that he was going to pass me when I had the chance , he passed by with words of encouragements. This guy gets paid to ride his bike, his job is riding a bike, he gets paid for good results. He has more mutual respect for the common rider than those jackass' in the amateur classes being idiots when they cant get around another rider.If you cant be courtious and remember what your doing, then you better smoke some weed to chill out and enjoy the riding or find your own way around us slower riders. Elbow ! Sorry , just had to vent that out a bit.

Thank you for the peeps for support out there. I heard all of your cheers and its hundred times better than any energy drink. I mean it.

Shout outs:
Christie for her 4th place finish in the pro race. Looked so strong.
Bert for qualifying for the National Chamionships with a top 10 finish in semi-pro.
Teri for having fun out there and a smile all the way through.
Glynn, the crazy Magpie from the UK on his first downhill race. And Margarette!
The bull with the biggest nads I have ever seen.

Special Shout-Out :
Rhoda for her good luck phone call before the race. I needed it and I used it.
Also the husband, Jim, for the passed 3 years of telling me to eat and drink during rides.