Monthly Archives: June 2008

Expedition Argentina is the code word for the present developmental process for the ride to Argentina happening in 2010.  Eventually, when the specifics are outlined, an official name will be adopted.

Expedition Argentina is gathering support quickly – from interested riders, from logistical inputs outlining possible routes, and boosts to my own confidence that it can all be pulled off in the given time frame.  I’ve been researching similar journeys, cycling through South America; thanks to the internet, and this little blog phenomenon, detailed trip journals are plentiful.  Not only are these really interesting reads, but they also contain some really helpful information with regards to the logistical choices Expedition Argentina will be soon be making.  The coolest blog I’ve stumbled on so far has been Ride for Climate: Americas; definitely check it out if you get a chance.

So, I’ve been thinking and brainstorming a little bit about all of this stuff, which gets me excited.  What else…  I’ve been riding a lot recently – usually 15 to 16 hours a week; it’s difficult with the very warm temperatures the summer months have ushered in, but I’m dealing with it.  My adventures take me out west of the city most often; the hills and the scenery are a little better than what’s available on my side of town.  The bike I built is holding up really, really well.  I’ve adapted to the compact geometry quite well, and overall the bike fits me like a glove.  The disgusting Mavic advertisements on the wheels have been removed, giving the bike a much cleaner and sleeker look, but besides that, not much has changed.

I still haven’t jumped back into the racing scene just yet, but I did climb past a fat guy on a Cervelo Soloist SLC-SL with Zipps on my ride this morning.  The speed differential was so great between us that he almost appeared to be standing still – me in the big ring out of the saddle, and him grinding the 39/25…  Poor guy.

I’m anticipating a job offer at REI late next week.  Awesome.  REI takes really good care of their employees, and I could definitely take advantage of a few in-store discounts.  The location is good too, but I hope I don’t get fat being right next door to Whole Foods.

From Peter Bouck, Rockies 2008:

“The sweepers take turns making sure no one is alone or left behind; Trent and Rob rode the bike caboose today. To pass the time between cows and hay bails, they taught us ‘shuffle board.’ The rules? Peddle hard for a few strokes, then see who can get the closest to Kasaundra’s back tire without peddling or braking. And, like the Price Is Right, you can’t overshoot.“

Yeah, I invented this one last year…  Good to know the games are still going strong, and that everyone seems to be having an awesome time.  I won’t hold my breath waiting for someone to beat me in the roadkill bunny-hop contest though, as my full-sized antelope will be tough to top.

The “new idea” from the previous post was conceptualized, for the most part, during a really awesome last weekend, packed full of cycling, uncomfortable camping, and quality time spent with old friends.  As you might have known from previous posts, last weekend was the ATLAS ride – day 1 of the Texas 4000 kids’ journey to Alaska – and we ’07 alumni took advantage of this opportunity to get together again.

The Friday evening before the ride, just like old times I guess, four of us were at the Crown and Anchor having a few beers; as expected, it kind of turned into a late night.  This was strike two for me.  I would say strike one was our collective lack of training, since very few of us have been on the bike at all since August.  I managed around 4 hours of sleep before the 5:00am wake-up call the following morning.  I definitely don’t miss those early mornings.

I met up with my ride out to Cedar Park, TX around 6:30am, and we headed out to the start line.  This year’s ATLAS ride saw a substantial jump in participation numbers, with around 250 riders joining in on the festivities.  Having organized a few rides like this, I know behind the scenes they were scrambling to maintain their externally calm composure.  We got off to a late start – attributed to the boost in registration numbers – but everyone seemed happy none-the-less.  My good friend Bill Edwards came out to send us off, and I can’t say enough how excited I was to see him again; his doctors are fearful he doesn’t have too much longer.  Like last year, ATLAS was dedicated to him once again, in addition to our recently passed inspiration Dylan Mikolajczyk.

The ride was great.  I rode the 72 mile route with Amy and Allison; coincidentally we were traveling at a decent Sense Corp pace for most of the day, and got to hang out with Keat, Jimmy and the always entertaining SC gang for most of the day.  Amy did the ride on like two hours of sleep with no prior training – cycling is definitely a mind over body affair.  In Lampasas we were greeted by BBQ, beer and good wine.  From my perspective, things were very well run…  I did hear that half of the short route riders got lost and added 10 miles due to poorly marked turns – those mistakes are really, really hard to avoid on windy sign blowing days though, hence the maps distributed at check-in.

After the ride, most of the alumni stayed in Lampasas, camping at the winery/finish line.  We stayed up late drinking beer, and trading stories amongst ourselves and the new team, retiring to our tents and hard ground around 1:00am.  We were up after three hours of sleep to cook breakfast the next morning for our departing friends – like 15 dozen eggs worth of breakfast for our departing friends.  Ryan Hill whipped up some wicked good scrambled eggs, Vanessa kicked out some awesome french toast, Shelley was on the pancakes, Miguel was on hashbrown duty, and twice as many other alumni were around to take care of whatever else was needed.  It was epic.

And then they pedaled away to start the best summer of their collective lives, we drove back to Austin, and I promptly went to sleep for a few hours…