SPRING ROAD RIDES, OMELETTES & WOW

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen.

Hope everyone is enjoying the winter conditions we've been having and taking full advantage of the benefits that sunblock has to offer... Yeah, we sure need it...

I woke up yesterday morning and checked my phone.  Oz emailed me a very inspirational black and white Flandrian photo of a solo rider on cobble stones with wind and rain.  Accompanying the photo was a message asking me to ride to Ridgway.  

These types of things have a very powerful effect on my impressionable mind and a little part of me always falls away when I have to turn down such perfect riding conditions as yesterday offered.  Too many excuses and I'm gonna find myself half the man I used to be.  

But as a grown-up and one who has fathered a couple of children, I had certain responsibilities that I had to attend to.  This specific responsibility was outlined in the shape of my 6 year old daughter.  She is awesome, and I love hanging with her.  Typically we go out to eat and chat, have ice cream and watch motorcycle movies.  A 6 year old's dream indeed, if I don't say so myself.

Well, yesterday it so happened that one of her friends asked her to have a play date;  to my dismay, my daughter's affirmative answer took no time at all and before long I found myself alone and looking west.   

Good thing because, John who I had ran into earlier asked me if I was interested in a short ride down valley.  The pieces to this puzzle were falling into place by themselves so all I could do was follow the signs.

I suited up and met John on Main Street and together we hurled ourselves head over heels as though in love towards that beautiful mistress by the name of Placerville.  It's been a while since I rode with Johno, and he is not only a hammer but has a great depth of cycling knowledge.  My era of expertise spans from about 1960-2000.  It stopped there because after the Festina Affair in the late 90's the UCI started serious drug testing and riders I looked up to went from hero to zero overnight. One can only handle so many broken dreams before losing all faith.  John's repertoire has a fair amount of depth and so we chatted about "the good 'ol days" of the one day classics peppered by characters like Andrei Tchmil, Romans Vainsteins, Oscar Freire and others of similar caliber.  We rode and laughed talking about the peculiarities these characters had in the way in which they raced, won and interviewed afterwards.

If you have not heard of these names it's probably because a while ago you chose to put all your eggs in a certain American Tour Winner's basket. The formidable dominance displayed by this Tour Rider smelled fishy from the beginning but most of us plugged our noses and continued to add sand to a castle we all knew was about to crumble. Years later, evidence of foul play and confessional interviews came down like a brown cowboy boot crushing our eggs and breaking our bowl leaving the whole damn country reeling in the aftermath with uncooked omelette on its face.  

Oh well, time heals all, even though shards of glass and egg shells still make us choke on that whole spectacle left behind by the said gentleman.

Back to our ride, John did ask when the regular weekly rides start, which brings me the long way around to one of the point of this message:

ROAD RIDE STARTING!!!- Tuesday May 12 - leaving at 5:30pm from BCB.  Bring your road bike and pump your tires.

BEGINNER ROAD RIDE - Wednesday May 13 - Same Bat Time, Same Bat Location

June 11-14, 2015 - TELLURIDE WOW Festival   

This year, there are a number of topics being addressed, many that have to do with athletic performance, injury prevention and so on.  Also, local high altitude specialist Dr. Peter Hackett will be presenting along side Orthopedics, Physical Therapists, Exercise Psychologists, Professional Coaches, Trainers and so on.  Let's be Progressive and get Educated by clicking on the link above and signing up!  

Feel free to email me with any questions.

Sweet Dreams!