Cycling in the South Bay

There may be better places to ride and race your bike, but after living across the U.S., in Japan, and in Germany, I've yet to find it. The riding here is great, but the people are better, and the South Bay of Los Angeles, for all its obvious shortcomings, is the epicenter of all that's good about being part of a local cycling community. Part of the fun is the camaraderie, but it's also never knowing who might show up. Whether it's Nelson Vails, Barry Bonds, or an entire UCI pro team, LA's cycling scene is as celebrity-studded as its movie scene. When Brooke Shields showed up to check out the 2013 edition of the Brentwood Grand Prix, it was just part of racing and riding in Los Angeles. After more than thirty years of riding and racing, I decided to compile this book from the hundreds of posts I'd accumulated on my cycling blog, which is dedicated to the lives, the stories, and the histories of the riders in the South Bay. Everything I've written is true except for the parts I made up, which is all of it.