I got a press release that Specialized is sponsoring a pro-am crit the weekend before Sea Otter - The Morgan Hill Grand Prix on April 10th. They are hoping to pick up a lot of ranked riders who are coming for the SO. Pretty sure that Webcor will be there, ‘cause they are re-surfacing the 3rd Street Webcor bridge as a courtesy to the race. Nice! There’s gonna be an Expo and kid’s stuff. Should be a great event for MH and Specialized, and let’s all support this new cycling event. We’re losing a lot of local cycling events around the country, so let’s turn out for both the Sea Otter and the MHGP.

And I know that SO is looking for host housing for teams, so maybe you can open your doors to some team members for both races. The good people of Redlands and of Bend, Oregon are famous for their generous host housing. Last year at Redlands, Trent Klasna was staying with the same hosts that he had stayed with for years - he was just like family to them. Bet they will miss him now that he has retired. I will - he is a great guy and was always smiling, friendly and ready for a hug. I sent him a poster-size copy of the cool shot I took of him at the Oak Glen finish in Redlands last year.

The 2004 Redlands Race Committee had posters made from three of my race photos and hung them in the VIP tent for race weekend. Close-up, tight shots of Trent, Chris Horner and Damon Kluck - the guys really liked them, and I liked them, too... You can find them in my smugmug gallery.

I notice that Fumiyuki Beppu is having the same media problem that Benoit Joachim had when he was new. It’s called Name Reversal Syndrome. The photo captions on cyclingnews.com from the Tour of Langkawai list him as Beppu Fumiyuki. Latest photo shows Geoff Brown working on Fumy’s bike. It’s OK, Fumy, we know who you are... And I know what your favorite American candy is... Langkawai got a lot of press, but we sure didn’t hear much about the D-Men from Qatar. Too bad, I know they were racing hard and giving 100% in the desert heat.

Next up on the D-Schedule is Vuelta Andalucia in Spain Feb 13-17, Volta Algarve in Portugal Feb 16-20, Trofeo Luis Puig in Spain on Feb 20th, Omloop Het Volk in Belgium on the 26th, and Kurne Brussels Kurne in Belgium on the 27th. Maybe the Cycling Gods will send me a win - in the Lottery- and I can pack my laptop, cameras and jeans and head over. I guess my odds are about the same for finding a Cycling Sugar Daddy... Oh well...