Treasure Valley Cycling Club

Wow, another cool event hits the books. Maybe I'll just run this as a comparison:

2011:
Some cool family I don't know was kind enough to let me crash at their place in Cache Valley. Connie set to take care of us all day.
2012:
Some cool family I don't know was kind enough to let me crash at their place in Cache Valley. Connie set to take care of us all day.

2011:
We ate dinner at a pasta place and had a great meal.
2012:
We ate dinner at the same pasta place and had a great meal. We also watched USU in the early stages of giving some Cache Valley Smackdown on the U!

2011:

First few days - hot! Really fun. Great routes. Amazing food. Yesterday was a century with a lot of climbing. Tonight we are back to the coast, getting ready to ride Whidby Island. (I'll post more when I have a keyboard!) The ride has about 70 folks, including 10 Dennings and 4 others representing Team Reel!

Saturday was the 2012 edition. Jenny and Dan patrolled the 50, and Chris and I rode the century.

Unlike this year's LeBow, the weather was PERFECT! I left my house at 6:20 with almost no extra gear - only arm warmers. I'm not a morning person (surprise) so I wasn't really excited about a hard, fast day, but Chris was positive like always and got me into the groove.

Hey, where are everybody's LP200 reports? Here's my 2012 edition:

Start time - Dang it! Why can't we start with the other 2 Reel Theatre teams? But we crossed paths many times, so that was cool.

Driver - Joe drove for us and he's great. I hate to sound superior and all, but I'm sure I had the greatest group of guys to ride with!

Fast start - Rob promised that he was going to start easy, but of course he was charging from the start. Classic!

I wouldn't head out there every day, but China Wall was pretty cool. And check out the view from the canyon!

Wednesday I drove down to Logan for business, but I got there early enough to check out Green Canyon to skate ski. All of the north facing hills were bare! Kind of reminded me of how it looked at Lotoja! (Ok, not that bad.) At the parking area, an older gentleman rolls up in a Surley Moonlander (similar to a Pug). Cool! He gave me the info that the first mile of the trail was just ice, not a chance to ski.

Beautiful course. Harris had a need for speed, and it showed. I really liked burning down the hill into the sweeping right turn - genius!

My race was really fun and hard, much better than I'd expect given that I probably finished last in the A race. Here's how it unfolded:

What can I say? This is the best race of the year -- with the exception of being too warm for cross :)

Somebody went overboard with the whole 'wheel' thing. But on the other hand, if you're going to do something, why not go over the top? I personally thought it was fun to do something different and I liked being able to see people a minute ahead and behind you at various times.

Just so you don't all have to hold your breath very long in suspense -- I'm not the newest state champ. There, that's out of the way... :)

Interesting course today -- no run up (no hills at that park) and no barriers. Lots of tall, wet grass and tight corners. I rode as hard as I could but 1.5 laps in I overlapped wheels and went down and lost the group. I spent the rest of the day pretty much on my own, but having fun.

Yesterday the weather looked perfect, but then all the snow melted and it was a pretty spectacular day. Much too nice for cross, but I won't complain. Sunny and not too cold!