Bear Claws & Burritos
David Richter
My last week of training at home, in Seattle nearly cracked me. I have trained nearly four months and have not seen direct sunlight.
Everything is rusted and worn-out. I started to get excited one day when I thought I saw the sun starting to shine…then I realized that it was the moon. Damn, I’m losing it.
Then, the next day, my coffee maker broke. The first thing I did was panic. Then I tried to fix it…no go.
Then I really started to freak-out. I should have just made coffee in the French press, which was in my cupboard. Or I could have walked one block to the coffee shop…but I had turned into dumb Dave.
I, instead, tried to force the broken coffee machine to work. It was like smokin’ crack out of a pop can. Dumb.

I decided to spend the last few weeks with my wife in Washington state wine country, visiting family and checking out some world-class wineries. It was the final days together for us for a few months (‘till I hit the Gaggioli Express.) We brought our new pup, Ollie with us to see the fam.
Ollie is a Jack Russell Terrier. I figured I’d get my wife a smart dog as a companion while her dumb husband was away. I had some great rides (I saw the sun!) and we had a blast (got drunk) at the wineries.

Off to Santa Rosa. It was a nice boring solo shot. I usually see something spectacular on a drive that long, but nothing this time. A twenty-minute power nap is all I needed to keep me going.
Once I cut-off from the interstate I was only a couple hours out. Like all long drives for me, I feel a magnetic force forcing me to drive faster and faster as I get closer. I ripped through the tight curves into Sonoma County. It was a great end to a long drive.
The next morning Gagg, G (Omer Kem) and I met up with my new teammate, Glen. We then rode over to Levi’s pad and later hooked-up with a couple of Cannucks. There wasn’t a whole lot of talking going on. Levi seemed to take it personal when he heard talking. The throttle was down most of the day.
I especially think he didn’t like it when one of the Canadians started to half-wheel him up one of his favorite climbs. I saw it coming and just shook my head and held on…that’s when we lost Gagg.

We stopped for water around hour five and one of the Cannucks was so smoked, I don’t think he knew where he was. I gave him a standing-8 and he stumbled into the 7-11. He went straight to the plexi-glass case where they keep the doughnuts. He grabbed two of the biggest bear-claws I’ve ever seen and shoved one into what looked like his ear, but it somehow made it into his mouth. No chewing needed, I’m not even sure that thing made it pass his throat. He pounded the other one before he made it outside and washed it all down with a super-sized Coke. That dude was TKOed. I bet he had a hang-over the next day.

After the six-hour pummeling and after eating my own liver, G and I thought it was time to eat. We asked the dudes at NorCal Bike Sport where the best local Chinese, or Italian place would be. They all gave us a blank look and started to stammer. Then we asked ‘em where we would find the best burrito and it started a heated debate. That was a good sign…a burrito it was. G said that we should take the fat dude’s recommendation. How could you argue that? Fat dude steered us well.
Santa Rosa has world-class burritos…and bike riding!
-Richter