I flew back to Boulder today from Tulsa. I never thought that I would list Tulsa as a cool place, but I sure was wrong. The Tulsa Tough race was outstanding. They had three days of amazingly well organized races, with awesome officials, who didn’t yell at anyone, once, which was so cool. The courses were really competitive, true to crit racing, and safe. On top of that, 300 kids got free bikes, and the bikes were actually really cool road models, single speed, and really high quality. It was a great weekend, I just wish I could spend more time there.

I went out to dinner with the entire Succsesful Living team the last night. It was just what I needed, after announcing 23 yours in a 60 hor period. Ryan Yee continues to impress me. The team is doing incredibly well (they dominated at TT) and Steve Hegg is now someone I consider a real friend, which is cool, as he is very well respected in the sport, and is going to be one of the best directors in the US. Of course the Mayor of Boulder, Chuck Coyle was there, so all we were missing was Dan Schmatz, of BMC, who crashed in the final corner, losing out on a good placing and an even better omnium result. He still did well, and was really gracious in his assesment of Tulsa and the race. The Einstien guys rode tough with Brad White, Whitey DeBroux and Ryan Hamity are all riders that will go pro, I’m sure.

Arliss vanished on Thursday night, and with her being 17 it was a really tough experience. I guess she was picked up by the animal cortrol people. I was paniced, and was really lucky my housmate and some great friends like Steve Isles and Amy Dombroski were willing to make sure she got home safely when we found I found out where she was Friday mornight, right before I left. It was really stressful, but it made me realized how blessed I am to have so many amazing friends here in Boulder.

I’m now doing Nez, and hopefully Nevada City, so with Nature Valley right behind it, I have two of my favorite races and promoters on tap this month. I am also going to Fort Collins for the New Belgium race this weekend. One of the nicest guys I see at the races in Colorado, and a huge supporter of the mighty Rio Grande team is Scott Glasscock and he asked me to come, so I was stoked. The first race is at 7am Sunday, which sounds rough, but I’m sure Scott will take me to the Rio after it’s all done, so I’m in.

Hope I see you at the races soon,

Dave

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 I’ve been needing to update for a while, so here goes. I just flew back from Collegiate Nats this afternoon. I had a blast at the races and really enjoyed myself. The after party last night was out of hand, I have about one of those in me each year. It was great watching Mara Abbott do what she does best, with such style and class. I’ve been really lucky to get to know the next generation of heavy hitters as the grew up. People like Danny Summerhill, Taylor Phinney, Peter Stetina, Timmy Duggan, Ian McGreagor, Robin and Yannick Eckmann as well as the for-mentioned Abbott are just some of the kids that I’ve had the pleasure of watching come of age. The Fort Lewis and Colorado riders are always a lot of fun to hang around with, and I appreciate they way they make me feel like a part of their teams, I never feel alone at a collegiate race, for sure. If you ever have a chance, you should check out collegiate racing, it’s as good as it gets.

I recieved some great news a couple weeks ago, and have been walking up each morning, not believing I am so lucky. I’m going to be flying to China a few times over the next year and a half, as the UCI has selected me as their choice for the English language announcer at the Beijing Olympics. I was stunned, and when I recieved the first news that they were interested, I couldn’t believe this could be possible. Well, it is, and I’m stoked!

 I did my first ever running race in Santa Monica last week. It was an amazing event, really well run and professional. The promoter, Peter Abraham treated me so well, it wasn’t even funny. Setting the alarm on my phone is always a bit dodgy. I sometimes forget to hit the “enable” option, it happens one out of ten times I set it. I’ve never been late for a race start in my life, until this one. It didn’t turn out to be a problem, I guess, but I still felt bad. I was able to get the PA running, and start the race at exactly 7am, which was cool. The race benifited Heal the Bay, and awesome group of people working to save the coast of Califonia.

 So that’s about it, I have a 6am flight tomorrow morning, after being home for almost 12 hours. I’m headed to Athens GA to work on a documentary on Jittery Joe’s. It’s going to be a lto of fun, and a cool challenge. I hope to get to hang with the team a bit, those guys rock! The Iron Horse, Tulsa Tough and Nature Valley are a few of the races I’ll be at this next month, sounds good to me!

See ya at the races,

Dave

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 I had one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. I spent Friday flying out to Atlanta. Being picked up by Jim Birrell, along with his son Chandler, was cool. We had a long drive up to Dalton. We had to go right through the middle of the ATL during the heart of rush hour, and it was brutal. I will say the company was excellent, and Jim is a super interesting and intelligent guy, who does so much for cycling that stays behind the scenes. The way he wants it. So, we arrived in Dalton and met up with the pre-ride dinner, and I sat with Saul and Aleeza Zabriskie. If you are looking for inspiration, look no further than Saul. He is such an uplifting person to be around, I was so happy that I decided to come. The ride was a huge success. There were over 520 riders, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Saul and I actioned off his jersey (twice) for $1000. That was just cool to be a part of. Steve McCauley of USA Cycling was really helpful, along with Amy Smith, who did a great job helping Jim and Yvonne (Sauls folks) organize the day. I then drove down to Atlanta with Kevin Livingston. He is such a cool guy, and he always keeps things light. We laughed pretty often on the way down, and then we stopped to get gas near the airport. He started working the pump, and I opened my car door, and put my feet out. At just that moment, this guy comes out of a barber shop, sets up a PA speaker way larger than the ones I use at races, and just blasts out some hip hop music. I mean, this was extremely loud. It, of course, made Kevin laugh, which made me laugh, and they weren’t stoked. Luckily, the music was so loud, it had stunned people, and no one did anything. As we got to the airport, we had time for lunch, so we both went to check in, and than meet up again. After a pretty good lunch, we headed to the gate via the train. As we went through security, there was a woman kind of getting spun monkey about something, but we got past that. On the train though, she came flying up, and got her arm and head into the closing door. She was trapped, her legs and one arm were hanging outside the car and everyone was horrified. I wasn’t. Aparently, Kevin wasn’t either, as he started laughing. Once again, that made me laugh, and once they opened the door and the lady was safely on, she was pissed. She took turns staring at us, which made Kevin laugh. He’s a great guy to travel with.

So, I flew to LAX that night. It was not fun. the kid sitting in front of me was slamming his body back and forth in his seat for the entire six hour duration of the flight. At least the people in my row were cool. I went to Baja Fresh at 9:45 stoked to have beef fafitas. the were 86′d, and I was crushed. I drove on to Ojia, where I met Steve Hegg and shared a cabin by Ryan Yee’s house. Ryan did one hell of a job with the Garrett Lemiere GP this year. The race was a blast, and I did some velonewstv stuff at the race with Mari Holden too. That should be up soon, and I have a feeling the producer Dorothy Wong (a racer who works for Mad TV) did the race right, with some inspired footage. The velonews tv crew worked so hard, and have so much talent, I expect big things. We all went to Ventura for the after party, and than it was back to stay at the Yee’s. Ryans parents Larry and Kathy are the best hosts ever. They along with the Lemiere’s make sure I always have a great time in Ojai. The weekend wrapped up with another really cool experience. I played golf at the Ojia Vally Club with Ryan and Steve Hegg. To say we had a blast is an understatement. The course is one of the best in the country. Our foursome would have easily spent $1000 there to do what we did. Hegg is good at everything, and basically shot scratch golf all day. He is the true natural born athelete. I won’t forget my drive on 18 either, which was way over 300 yards, and felt awesome.

 My next race is the Tour de Georgia, hope you can make it.

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 Wow, this has been a crazy week. I’m back in Boulder after spending last week in Visalia, for the NRC they call the Quad Knopf. It was a great race, I was really happy for Sherri Clark, the organizer. She worked so hard, always had a great attitude, and did womens racing right, by offering an equal prize list. I shit you not, the womens racing on the NRC circut these days is as exciting, if not more so, than the mens race. I’m not dissing the men, but it’s about time the bike race community recognizes how awesome the women have been racing. I’ll admit, I used to cringe at the thought of watching the negative racing against Saturn the last few years, but to be honest, Saturn was just too good. You can’t knock them for that, as Tom Schuler is one of the smartest guys in the sport, and he was given the recources to do what he did, which was dominate the sport. I have a ton of respect for Tom, but I bet he would agree the racing is a lot more wide open and fun to watch these days, now that we have so many evenly matched teams.

 I’ve been home in Boulder for the last week, and it’s been great. I’m really bummed that I don’t announce at Redlands, but I have to assume that they have better announcers than me, or I’d be there, right? I sure wish I could have been there though, as Andy Bajadali is such a cool guy, and that win was huge for him and his Jelly Belly team. I am really happy to be headed back to Georgia though, as the Tour in that state is for sure the race that I made my name at, and I great week, every year. I actually love that race, and state. The Medalist folks are by far the best people I have ever worked for. Well, AEG are unrateably good, as far as that goes, but they are smart, and hire Medalist to handle the “racing” part of the Amgen Tour of California. I know I’ll never work at the Tour de France, but the Tour of California is my TdF. I’ll always be proud that I had the chance to announce at the first 2 years of that race, and every Georgia. They can’t take that away….

I’m headed to Georgia to be a part of Saul Raisen’s ride on Friday. I am so stoked. I’ve always loved Saul. When he was on oFoto, he struck me as a really smart, funny kid, and I was right. After what he’s been through, making the trip to the East Coast before heading back across the country to do one of my favorite races, the Garrett Lemiere GP, was a no brainer. As I mentioned, I love Georgia, and the ride is in Sauls hometown, Dalton. This will be a tough, but rewarding weekend, for sure. It probably isn’t the smartest thing I’ve done, but I bet the karma rebate I get for it will be off the charts!

Life sure has it’s ups and downs. I came home from Fresno so stoked about racing. The weekend that will be now known as the 2007 CVC Classic was epic in every way. The winners like Ben Jaques-Maynes, Henk Vogels (his first since the crash at Fitchberg, even though he’d been close a few times) Tina Pic, and Christine Thorburn gave the event a huge amount of prestige. The womens racing was off the charts exciting and aggressive. For those lucky enough to have stayed around, what Michael Hernandez did in the Masters race (which is as competitive as any out there) was something I’ll never forget. He attacked with “old school fury” while down 69 seconds on GC. He ended up nearly lapping the field, and winning the GC battle. It was amazing. Larry Nolan won the stage, and he did what he could for his team, but at the end of the day, it was the courage that Mike showed that awed me.

So, after the best weekend of NRC racing I’ve been at in a long time, I flew home with no problems. Tina Pic was on my flight, we had, as usual, a great conversation.

So then I check my local racing forum this morning.

Rob Hicken is dead….He was such a nice guy, loved racing and bikes, and ran a website devoted to his passion, bicycle video’s. I heard what happened, but don’t feel it’s my place to post that. The Daily Camera reported that he died in Colorado Springs, on the 6th. I sure wish I’d gotten to know him better, and will miss his smiling face. That guy was always smiling when I saw him, and that was so cool. To Robs family, I’m so sorry, Rob was a sweet man.

The Fresno race doesn’t seem so great anymore.

Gabcast! Dave Towle Speaks. #27

Hey there race fans. I just got back from California, got to go by the AEG office , which is always cool, and than visited the good folks at Amgen. Bob Roll was there, and he gave a hilarious talk to the Amgen cycling club. All of the folks at Amgen are super into the race, and are behind it for all the right reasons. If you think they’re sponsoring the biggest race in the history of American cycling to sell more EPO, you are certifiably crazy. They sure do everything first class there, and it was a nice way to get ready for the race. I’m flying out on Thursday, to emcee along with my friend Dylan the “Meet da Pro’s” night at Clifs headquarters in Berkeley.

If you were planning on seeing me at McClane (now Merco) in Merced, you should still go, but I’m not. Todd Gogulski is their new man. I can’t say I’m that tore up about it.

I will however, be at the Central Valley Classic. The promoter Mike Shoemake is one of the best promoters in the sport. He makes Fresno seem like another stop on the Amgen Tour for me. Fresno should be awarded a AToC stage, actually, the CVC club is one of the strongest in the nation, and they have really strong cycling community. Mike treats all the racers extremely well, and at the end of the day, I hope to see huge fields and happy racers when I check back in with the NRC in early March.

I’m so stoked for the AToC it isn’t even funny. I have a lot of friends who make this race a big focus, so it’s going to be extra special this year. Jeff Roake was at the Amgen meetings as well, it was good to see him, and we seem to be right on track to pick up where we left of after a great last year.

Gabcast! Dave Towle Speaks. #26

I have had a request from 220 Towle to put this up…. here you go!

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