Where are you from? Part 2

Gavia is afraid of the universe imploding.

Born and raised in New York City, aand I currently live about an hour north of the city. But in the many years in between, I lived in Indiana, Dallas, Palo Alto and Pasadena, CA.

I just got back from vacation last week, and it took me all of this week to read the other “where are you from” thread. And all those 18 year olds made me feel positively ancient.

Where the -—

(Those of you that can’t finish that sentence should read the first thread first)

Ok… no chestnut commentary this time. I’m Dan (or El Danerino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing). Currently in Los Angeles but originally from San Francisco with interim stops in Napa, Germany, Las Vegas, Argentina, Silicon Valley and the OC. Los Angeles is the new Rome, everyone seems to have to pass through here to go anywhere else, so if you’re heading on out here, always feel free to drop me a line and let’s have a beer. Many cafe members have done so already; with the exception of Sui Juris who didn’t “pass through” but decided to stay.

Seriously Mark… I want my couch back.

Unlike Jimbo, I do not wear crocs.
Unlike Drew, I do not like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain.
Unlike Donny, I am not out of my element.

by this metric?

That is just ridiculously fast. Respect… How’s the implant working out, besides your new found ability to converse with your kitchen appliances?

About missing the Solvang meetup.
Was working a pit for Mavic on the descent and had to boogie afterward. If the meetup had been at Firestone Brewery, I could have met many of you fine PdC lurkers and posters.
I started racing in ‘72, went to Europe, bombed, bought a bike shop after college and have been spinning wrenches since then.
Have done the Tour three times, Roubaix and Vuelta Pais Vasco, and nearly every US pro race for a few decades. Seen Lance when he was humble and Levi when he had hair. Favorites include Tim Johnson because he’s so nice, Floyd because he is innocent and Horner for his tactical wisdom. Seen so many races they blend together but I still just love it.
You are a wonderfully funny group, and I especially appreciate the international-ness of the cycling fandom!

and commute to Minneapolis/St. Paul every Monday morning for my work. (I think we have a LOT of MN people here at the Cafe, don’t we? Even more than DC or SF, even… ) I’ve been commuting for 13 years, and love it.

I was born in Milwaukee almost 50 years ago (that sounds awful to my ears, I must say,) and was raised in Illinois and Maryland. I went to Vanderbilt University and then moved back Up North after graduating.

I was a fan of cycling starting with the LeMond years, but didn’t become an obsessed fan until the Lance years. I found this site in 2005, if I remember correctly, when it was the “Digital Peloton.” You are not going to believe this, but for several years there were only a few female posters here. It’s true! There was me, bethie, Sarah/CallmeCayce, and Tifosa and that’s about it. (Funny to think about that, huh Chris?)

I appreicate you all so much; it’s so wonderful to have someone to talk about pro bike racing. Even though I can’t keep up with the Lebowski chat. :-) I enjoy the live race threads very much, as you probably can tell. ;-) Cheers, fellow Cafe members, you are awesome!

I was laid-off in 2005, so I had plenty of free-time to watch ALL of the Versus TdF coverage. It started with, “What is this?” “I’ll just watch an hour or so…”
An obsession was born.

Now I have a job where I can’t watch the TdF or follow live text tickers. Life has taken a cruel turn, but I have Podium Cafe when I get home. Thanks folks!

So hard to remember that kind of thing…

Yep my name is Lyne, actually my full name is Marie Thérèse Lyne…. born and raised in the Montreal’s burbs (off the island for those in the know). Went to school in French until college when I went to McGill (scholarship available for frenchies). After graduation, stayed a few years there, then moved to Paris for 3 years – and yes I am still thoroughly ashamed of complaining about the traffic jams caused by le Tour. Came to San Francisco after taking a year+ sabbatical to travel around the world, and have been here for many many years now.

Migrated from being a fan to the media side of cycling about 3 years ago (I think) when I got the chance to actually ask the questions directly. And had a blast doing it and still at it.

I love to travel, and take long walks on the beach at sunset…. oops that’s for another site

picking this up from the other thread…

yes, the scenery tends to be more varied and interesting from a bike. i do miss that feeling of being totally in the zone in the water, though, when the glide kicks in and seems to happen on its own, when you’re swimming almost in front of the water in perfect rhythm… maybe you’ll have guessed that i was a distance freestyler…

I must say I lurk mostly because by the time I am up the races are over….I love the live posts when I drag my ass out of bed early enough to be watching live with you all. Self confessed fan of Levi and avid rec rider myself. As for the VDS … it my first year and think if I play my cards right I could grab the Lanterne Rouge because of bad choices in classic specialists. Glad to be here in this community.

… and lovers of libraries… I ran across this (admittedly a little old) story the other day…

Hello everyone, my name in not Albertina. That is the name of my toy albatross. I was born in the hideously tacky seaside town of Margate in Kent (UK), although I must hasten to add that my parents didn’t live there, but in rather more upmarket Broadstairs, some miles away. I moved to Storrington in West Sussex when I was six months old. My Dad is a vicar so we moved about a bit. In my childhood I was obsessed with horses. Moved to Worthing, due south until you hit the coast, when I was 10. My next sporting obsession was cricket and I spent many hours at the county ground at Hove surveying matches (and hottitude..ahem) while I should have been revising for my A-levels. Then I went off to study history at Cambridge, where I sang in chapel choirs, played in orchestras, played a little cricket and became obsessed with Wagner. Then went to University College London to do a masters…but spent more time singing. Now I work in a medical library, which is a little random. In addition to this, I am a part time professional singer, which provides my pocket money. I became obsessed with cycling in 2007. I was so excited about the Tour coming to London but then got flu. Never been so depressed. But made up for it by going to Alpe d’Huez in 2008. I’ve been riding for about a year and now possess the most beautiful Bianchi known to man, but I’m not worthy of it. I tend to be drawn to obscure things, which is why I am possibly the only English language writer in the world on Basque pelota.

My name’s Dan, born in Melbourne, Australia. Had the misfortune to be raised in a Queensland town that didn’t agree with me (honestly not trying to spark the state debate, it was the town…) and moved to Sydney as soon as I got my degree. Spent several years living and working in New Zealand and moved back to Sydney in 2004. First started watching cycling in 96 when I caught one of the mountain stages of the TdF. Have loved the spectacle of the sport ever since, but have only ever been a casual rider. These days I commute and ride for fun. If I ever win lotto, I’ll be spending my time (and money) catching as many races in person as possible and catching up with as many PdCers as I can along the way….

    Mark, currently living in central Florida. I grew up in central New York and am old enough to remember reading Eddy Merkx name in the local newspaper many times. Never knew what exactly what he was doing until many years later. I’m not sure what is more impressive, the number of races he won or the fact that there was coverage in the Syracuse newspaper.
    I have been amazed for three years now at what Chris has done with the PodiumCafe. Chris has earned everyones respect and in the process created an environment where people can learn something and laugh and not be afraid to participate if they desire to, in other words we’re all welcome here.
    Thanks Chris, and everyone else too.

Born and raised in southern California, went to college in central California (Cal Poly) where I studied Biology, moved to northern California where I do IT security stuff (long story). Now I live in Marin county, north of San Francisco, with my brilliant and gorgeous wife and two daughters (I am the luckiest guy I know). In the interim, I have lived on the east coast of the US in and around Boston, New York, and New Jersey, and even got to live in London for a few months during what surely was the darkest, coldest, and wettest winter on record (not a slam on London or Londoners, I love that town and the people there, but I swear the sun came up there at 11:00 AM and went down at 2:00 PM, and it rained all day, every day, yet it somehow managed to stay exactly 1 degree above freezing the entire time. It kept the beer cold, though). Never a racer, but I used to ride a lot back in the mid 80’s, took a ten year break, rode a lot in the mid 90’s took another long break, and now I spend as much time as I can riding the hills and back roads of Marin. I even get to commute by bike over the Golden Gate Bridge on occasion, which is pretty cool. If you ever get the chance to visit Northern California, drop me a note and I will show you around. And if any or you current Norte Californianos feel like riding the Tour De Cure century in Napa with my “team”, drop me a note. It is a gorgeous course with excellent support, and it is all for a good cause (Diabetes). And for the record I do not own Crocs, or a Snuggie, nor have I ever ritually shaved Crashdan’s, or anyone else’s, testicles. Just so we are clear on that. But we do have a few Coldplay CD’s in the house. They’re my wife’s, I swear.

Born and lived in New Zealand until I moved to Sydney 4 years ago to do a PhD. Spent every summer as a kid riding bikes around my family’s holiday house on the West Coast of the South Island, but haven’t been on a bike for a few years now! My dad has always been an avid cyclist, but I only started following the pros when I moved to Sydney in 2005, and realised you could actually watch it on TV. SBS made the masterful move of showing Hell On Wheels the day before the 2005 TdF started…and I was hooked. I found PdC some time in 2006, about the same time I started following other races over the intertubes, and have been lurking ever since.

I curse the Australian system of internet download limits. How am I supposed to watch every race in april with only 10GB avaliable to me for the month (that I have to share with flatmates!). I am taking ability to follow cycling into consideration when I decide where to go for a post-doc.

I grew up in NJ, and it’s a much prettier state than most people not from there realize. Not many trails, but the roads are very cycling friendly, at least in the area where I lived.

Spent my time in the AF at Offutt AFB in Nebraska, where the winters are ungodly cold, the summers are ungodly hot, your sense of smell is assualted every moment of your life by both the Purina dog food factory and the stockyards, there’s no such thing as free flowing water and not more than a dozen trees in the entire state. Heaven. Really.

Spent a long stretch in FL. GREAT place to vacation, not so great to live if you have to make a living. Not real cycling friendly. Only place I ever had trash thrown at me out of moving cars and trucks. Food wrappers (con food), irritating but no big deal. Glass bottles? Frightening.

Finally moved to IL and I’ve been here for about 12 years. The best thing about the state is the bike trails. Lots of them. Big “rails to trails” state. If I move again it’ll be to somewhere hilly where I can ride outside year round without having to wear every stitch of clothing in my closet.

Jimbo, Dan, Drew, Jens? I hope you all are proud of yourselves. Know what I’m seeing in the right ad box? The Jesus.

real name: sean

live in winston-salem nc and often ride with elvisgoat and tschatwy(sp?). race a little (80’s bmx); rarely successfully. road, mtb, & cross; its all good. i mostly enjoy small group rides that include gravel sections like the rides found in southwest va. where’s the best riding in nc? stokes county: rural/pastoral, long sight lines of the sauratown range, and farm-to-market roads going everywhere. goat you listenin?

Grew up south of Boulder, watched the Red Zinger as a pre-teen and was hooked. Saw Hinault and the Russians on the Morgul. Watched Argentin win Worlds at the AFA in 86. Julich was on my junior team at Wheat Ridge Cyclery, though I’m positive he’d never recall. Sheesh, that was a looong time ago. Moved to the PRB after college and worked at Excel for 8 years. Remember when the Cycle Logic ride started at Cycle Logic. Great place at the time. Been racing since I was 12 as a wannabe. Did the Crested Butte mtb race when there was so much coal dust that my tongue was black afterward. Biggest regret is spending a semester in Perpignan in the south of France and not being able to bring my bike. Love riding skinny tires on dirt, that’s just the way things should be. As such, my fave race is the Eroica, followed closely by Flanders, the Koppenberg Cross and the Ardennes. Have kinda given up on having the latest and greatest, what with an 8 yr old in the house, but I still drool over the carbon everything nowadays. I thought a merlin was the most money people would ever pay for a frame, and boooy was I wrong. Am tired of the doping meme and hope that the younger generation can get over the temptation. Love watching AC go uphill, SS go down and Freire sprint. Livin in Denver now. If you’re heading out this way and need local info, ring me up!

Born in LA but spent my formative years growing up on an Indian Reservation located in western North Dakota. Moved down to Irivine, Ca. my senior year and after finishing school moved north to San Francisco. Started getting into cycling pretty seriously while living there before packing the bike up and heading for Sydney, Australia. Spent five wonderful years living in the Eastern Suburbs and racking up many km’s going round and round Centinnial Park. Upon my return to the US, I relocated in Healdsburg, Ca. up in the Sonoma County wine country. Great cycling needless too say. Back to SF briefly and now living in a little village located in the Red River Valley out in eastern North Dakota.

This website is great! I really enjoy the race coverage and how everyone contributes to it.

Thanks

GKS

Holla.

with about 300 comments and found it too intimidating to join …. several hundred more posts and it is just frightening …. what a great community.

Me, I live on the edge of Geneva, but since recently, now on the French side.

PS – The Tour de Romandie in a couple of weeks ends here! woohoo

from Arlington, VA. Great map, btw. Fun to see where everyone hails from.

bikepig = i really don’t want to put my name….damn you google. ok, fine, Jon.

Grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho, a ski/mountain bike haven. mtn biked a lot and entered my first/last mtn bike race. i narrowly missed the last place rubber chicken prize by two riders…had i only known. moved to NYC and worked on a currently unpopular Street. road cycling was not a resident in my mind, except briefly when a road cyclist would buzz past me in Central Park and i nodded in disgust at anyone with the gaul to wear spandex. (ala Seinfeld to Costanza, “Do you know what you’re saying to the world when you wear sweatpants?”) moved to San Francisco for a few years. still no biking. in a weird life twist i returned to Idaho. goodbye 80 hour work weeks and hello life. i started mountain biking again. i really missed biking. but i suffered a serious identity crisis and inside i felt like someone else. for weeks i pondered the impossible: am i really a roadie? i was more than road-curious; i knew i was a roadie. so, i ordered some spandex, a jersey, got a bike fit and a road bike. pure happiness.

i love PdC. the international flavor, civility, knowledge, passion, and the lebowski fetish. to steal and modify Chris’s signature line, “PdC, you complete me.”

Palmares:
-wore Yellow Jersey in 2009 PdC VDS
-Ronde van Vlaanderen 140km sportive
-occasional wednesday night group ride