Local Saturday Ride Gone Speedy

The Saturday Hailstone Ride was so full of attacks this morning (HA! Last time these farts think that flat = easy!)-- I hardly had time to take photos.

Until the Whitman Women turned off for an extra helping..

What's in your iPhoto?

When I scroll through my iPhoto I see,

bikes bikes bikes, and people on bikes bikes bikes, and photos taken from bikes bikes bikes!

:)

Another Ride With the Boys

Coaching the Community Center for Youth Junior Cycling Team is the best job EVER.

I love riding with my juniors.

And soon-- we hope to be expanding into middle school!! (We're currently a high school team.)

For the full post, including a video of our most recent "Slow Races" and more, visit the TEAM BLOG!

Loading the Xtracycle

This is an Xtracycle.

And this is how it works:

An Xtracycle can attach to just about any bike. It's wonderful for carrying loads because the Xtracycle lengthens your wheel base which makes your bike a LOT more stable! As a result, you can load it lopsided (25 pound bag of onions on one side? No problem!) or just load it UP (130 lb buddy? No problem!). Plus, the long bag with cinching straps and large surface area of the wood "snap deck" are GREAT at accommodating awkward loads that couldn't even dream of fitting into panniers!

Just Another Pleasant Commute

Dressed for work,

dressed to ride.

Dressed for ride,

Dressed to work.

No Gatorade here, just french press coffee and low pulp OJ.

The shoes that I feel like wearing today are bike shoes.

The shoes that I feel like wearing tomorrow are bike shoes.

All my shoes are bike shoes.

Purse, lunch and a lawn chair.

Brownie in the lunch. Book in the purse. Butt in the lawn chair.

My bike has a loud mouth.

Can we turn right?

Michael: Can we take this right turn up here?

RJ: Why?

Michael: Well, because we haven't been out for very long and I want to ride longer.

:) I raised 'em good.

Full post, including a short video, is available at: bikeryracing.blogspot.com

Spring Slapped Me

Spring slapped me in the face.

All measuring devices read 70 degrees;

it may as well been 85 for the way my body felt.


I have found a spot that I like for laying.


Having taught my body to shrug at freezing temperatures,

I now teach my body to

cool off.

Home grown air conditioning.

Sweat pores.

Chit chat dissolves on the climb.

From my entry over on the CCY Junior Cycling Team blog:

Orchards, grapes in rows. Pruned neat.
Lower Dry Creek Road rolling up.
Caution over old rail tracks.
Shed extraneous layers, heat.
Hello, miniature ponies!
Tunnel: aWOOO!!
Chit chat dissolves on the climb.
Water break in Weston, Snickers bar sublime.
Chug up old Tollgate highway.
Inhale the view.
Blast back down banked corners.
Sprint for play.
Detour onto Blue Mtn. Sta. Rd.
Crackle gravel.
Butt behind the saddle.
Coast home.










To see the full entry, including the video, clickHERE.

Now I HAVE to do this race!

Okay, take all the things I like about racing bikes--

racing day after day; challenging, beautiful and brutal terrain; teamwork-- more specifically, team time trialling; the grind; burning a bottomless hole in your stomach; making your poo turn to mush; oh, and zebras.

and voila, the Absa Cape Epic off-road stage race!



So I check out this year's results, right? Three hundred eleven men's teams and..

ELEVEN women's teams??!!! Zero American women teams. Okay, to be fair-- there were 58 "mixed" (co-ed) teams. But still, 311 vs. ELEVEN??!!! Geez, now I HAVE to do this race!!

Here's the team time trial prologue!!:

Hey, Valaas-- this would be good summer training, right? And you haven't been to South Africa yet! (I don't think..)

M-- I KNOW this race appeals to you! And it's only a week, so you can still get a job!

Take a seat! : a tandem tour

Check this out!

While completing any long distance bicycle tour is worthy of raising a glass to, it is becoming harder and harder to be unique. Yes, everyone's tour, no matter how small or grand, will be unique to that person! But I mean unique in the sense of being different and more interesting than previous endeavors in order to grab headlines. People have ridden up, down, across, around the U.S., both Americas, the snows of Alaska and even politically unstable regions of Africa. To be clear, no, mom, I have no interest in riding through the Congo! 

Anyhow, that leaves us to the question: if you want to be unique, what's left to do? Well, check out THIS GUY, Dominic Gill, who rode from Alaska to the southern tip of South America, on a tandem. Oh, and the passengers on his tandem are random people he met along the way. HOW AWESOME IS THAT??! His effort is raising money for Hope and Homes for Children and now at the conclusion of his journey, he is editing footage together for a terrific documentary, Dommy No Mates. You can see a trailer of the documentary on the Take a Seat homepage; just wait for it to load.

A bit of fun on April Fool's Day!

DONATE a bike!

Do you have a bike that's just collecting dust?

DONATE IT to an eager pair of legs!

Drop off your bicycle at Allegro Cyclery on the corner of Spokane St. and Main St. in downtown Walla Walla!

Depending on the condition of the bicycle, we may use it to:

1. Teach bike repair at our Bikery Repair program.
   
2. Fix it up for a middle schooler to ride in our new middle school bike club!
   
3. Or a high schooler may use it to race for the CCY Junior Cycling Team!
   

So get that bicycle out of the garage and put it to good use!