Treasure Valley Cycling Club

For those who are interested, here's a run down of what I can remember of an awesome week...

First off, this was a great route. The volunteers did a great job. The addition of a shower truck was awesome (8 stalls for men, 8 for women, and all the hot water you could want.) And a HUGE THANKS to the Reel Theatre for sponsoring it!!!

1. If you missed it -- you missed out!
2. Thanks Bob & Margo for a fun dinner and place to stay the night before!
3. Those hills were STEEP.
4. Lunch was great, especially the fresh baked cookies
5. The roads were smooth.
6. The weather was perfect, including some cloud cover at the end to keep us cool.
7. The views were beautiful.
8. The volunteers were all so nice, and Cascade seemed to really be behind the event.
9. The last descent was way fun, perfect for a fast smooth run.
10. Definitely coming back next year!

Windy! Saw the Denning clan and others, we had at least 10 folks start off for the 62 mile course. Fun ride, but the wind took it's toll. This seemed a log longer than a metric usually does, but cool all the same. My only complaint, at the 2nd rest stop, they had watery Gatorade, peanuts, and graham crackers. Nothing that's really "quick" energy. No bananas or oranges. No fig bars. So Jenny was pretty tired by this point and about 1 mile afterwards was asking when the next rest stop was! :) The lunch was great because there was NO LINE.

Another beautiful year. Due to some family constraints, Jenny and I didn't think we had time for the metric, but we brought along Elsie for her longest ride to date - 26 miles! It was cold at the start and we had to improvise some extra layers to keep Elsie's hands warm, but otherwise we had a great ride. She kept her spirits up and had a great time, and she even found a school mate at the finish to have lunch with.

We caught up with the full Denning crew at lunchtime. I'll try to pull a picture from my video to show that good looking crew!

First XC race at the velopark today. I was the 25th sport to sign up, I'm not sure what the final count was.

Fun day today at Barking Spider. The course is new this year. They moved the shorter climb to the mesa and removed "Terry's Tumble" or "Death Drop" or whatever you want to call it. Now there's a longer, harder climb with a fairly long hike, and then a bunch of riding around the big hill.

Dan and I were at Harbor Freight this week, and he spotted this sweet number for only $3.99! Of course I bought one, it's perfect for cross...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97659
I need MORE COWBELL!

I slept in and didn't get out as early as I had planned, but I was on the road after 8:30. Caught some of the snow and cold on the way to my sisters. Had a wonderful visit, and then was greeted with blue skies and dry roads for the ride home! (The wind had kicked up, but that was expected.)

Looking forward to riding in MOAB!

Rob, Harris, Matt, and I had a nice holiday ride. It was plenty for me, I don't think I'm ready for Matt's hardcore Saturdays!

But as fun as that was, I'm still in ski mode. Why won't anybody come up skiing? Haven't you guys ever heard of cross training? I'm checking my schedule now, but I should be putting out message for Feb 18th -- come join the fun!

Jenny and I headed up at 9:00 to ski. We punched through the clouds and were greeted with a perfect, gorgeous day! I'm sure I'll be itching to ride sometime, but for now I just love to head out to ski!