Hello Everyone,
First, my apologies for the infected e-mail sent to various listmemebers. It was out of my control at that point. The worm had infected my computer from the original infected message from John P. in NYC. I feel fairly confident that the virus has been removed. The cleansing was relatively painless and straightforward. If you haven't already done so, run the Symantec removal tool, then change all your passwords if you feel your computer may have been infected.
Now, on to bike-related stuff:
Peter and I just returned from the Six-Day races in Zurich, Switzerland. What an incredibile experience! If you have never been to a Six Day race, I urge you to get to one, sometime in your life. You won't believe your eyes. We were treated to watching two Americans, Marty Nothstein and Jame Carney, battle it out with some of the greatest Euro Pros, and the two Yanks did well. **(to keep this ON-TOPIC, several of the riders used the old style leather hairnet helmet from the 60's and 70's, and some were really flashy, with bright blue patent leather and white strips. Very cool! And it was also good to see Jame Carney, the American Pro, riding a STEEL EISENTRAUT FRAME!!! MOLTO BENE!)**
The Swiss crowd was decidedly in favor of Bruno Risi and Kurt Betschart, the two locals, who managed five "flyers" (breakaways) during the final race. The final night of racing got underway at 7:00pm with the final race ending at 5:00AM the next morning! Cow bells galore, air horns, beer, bratwurst, fondue, a whole lot schnapps....and some pretty damn good bike racing. That sums up the Zurich Six Days.
We also took the train to Milano, and found our way to the famed Vigorelli velodromo. It was late in the afternoon, and we weren't sure if there would be any activity in the little shop of Signore Alberto Masi, located under the south banking. We found the shop and there was life! Alberto was in there, hanging out and talking with a friend who appeared as if he spent his entire day there, just hanging out and watching Alberto work. Alberto welcomed us in and we spent the next 45 minutes communicating with him the best we could in really bad Italian. Alberto asked us if we had any children and Peter and I replied "Si si, quattro bambini. QUATTRO Masi bici!!!" With a few goodies in our satchel, we said "arrivederci" and "mille grazie" and skipped all the way back to the train station!
And lastly, taking the twisty narrow road from Bellagio, climbing up from
Lake Como, we arrived at the "Bikie Chapel" at Madonna del Ghisallo. Inside
the tiny shrine to cyclists, we saw Fausto's 1949 Bianchi and Eddy's Tour de
France Masi, among several other beautiful bicycles and dozens of jerseys.
It was impressive, and saddening, to see all the cyclists, young and old,
who've died and been memorialized by a small plaque mounted on the walls.
Nice little story here about the chapel and the bikes:
http://www.neci.nec.com/
Lastly, things are shaping up for an early spring vintage ride in Northern
California. We haven't picked a date, but March is looking good. We hope to
schedule the vintage ride to coincide with the Sea Otter Classic bike race
weekend, held in Monterey, CA the third weekend of March. It's a great
event. http://www.seaotterclassic.com/
ciao!
Jan Johnson
San Francisco, California USA