NEIGHBORS : Pedal Mettle : Some top cyclists will go in circles this weekend in a Camarillo bicycle race.

Camarillo’s Mission Oaks area will be transformed into a bicycle racecourse on Saturday, when the second annual Peter Jensen Memorial Road Race gets under way.

Some top-notch cyclists, including Ventura native Roy Knickman, a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, will do 25 laps around the 2.2-mile course.

“It’s a closed course. It goes around and around and around,” said Don Carey of the Central Coast Velo Cycling Club, a race sponsor. “They always turn right.”

Carey said the racers reach speeds of up to 50 m.p.h. and things can get pretty hairy.

“Included in the course is a pretty long hill followed by an immediate right turn and then they go down really steep. At the bottom they’ve got to turn right and that’s where they put the bales of hay in case they don’t make the turn. You really have to know how to handle a bike to do it,” he said. “I rode it one time, but I’m 62 years old, so I rode daintily around it.”

The race begins at 1 p.m. Carey said the best spots to watch from are at the top of Mission Oaks Boulevard or on Santa Rosa Road.

Anyone who has searched the Yellow Pages for a supplier of a certain product or service knows it’s tough to judge one person from another by name alone.

Then again, there are certain names that somehow stand out among all others in their profession. Take, for instance, the names of these three local individuals:

R. V. Cocain--chiropractor

William Thrift--accountant

Paul Toomer--physician

Speaking of names, how about this one for a local vegetarian singles organization?: TWO-FU.

According to the newsletter of the Thousand Oaks-based California Vegetarian Society, Ventura County resident Charles Miles will be the translator for the LYNX organization of England.

LYNX, as described by the newsletter, is “an international anti-fun, anti-trapping organization.” We believe they meant to write anti-fur. Whatever the case, Miles will be translating in Spanish and Russian.

The girls Bobby Sox softball league in Thousand Oaks began play last week on a touching note, when registered nurse Maurice Costello of Simi Valley threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Costello, a member of the Air National Guard, served in the 146th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron in the Persian Gulf.

“He’s a friend of one of the families in the league,” said Paul DeArman, the league president. “We tried to figure out something we could do to say thanks for going over there and defending our tush.”

So it’s baseball season. And that means sports memorabilia collectors are flocking to hobby shops to stock up on baseball cards, right?

Well, yes and no.

It seems that hockey cards are putting up a strong challenge to baseball cards, thanks to the newfound success of the Los Angeles Kings. And that’s even affected sports fans in Ventura.

“Hockey has really just exploded,” said Mike Lynch, co-owner of Premier Sports Cards and Collectibles in Ventura. “You could have doubled your money in two weeks.”

But that doesn’t mean baseball cards are passe. On the contrary, they are as popular as usual. “Darryl Strawberry is the hottest right now,” Lynch said. “And I’ve sold a lot of Jose Offermans,” he said of the Dodgers shortstop’s card. “I had some guys come in in suits and one of them asked if I had any Jose Offermans. He bought 20 of them.”