CA to ID

Phew, lots going on.

A recap of my last week or so: I had a great rest of the trip to CA with my teammate and superstar traveling buddy, Kathy. She sure is fun to hang/ride/travel/navigate Trader Joe's/chat with. Last Sunday, I raced the Sagebrush Safari, hands down the best race course I've had the pleasure to ride. Yeah, there were a lot of pavement climbs, but the berm-filled twisty turney single track erased any and all memory of that. There were sooooo many people there, a great sight to see!

The Kenda team had a great showing: Andy was 2nd in the Pro Men, I was 3rd in the Pro Women and Kathy was 5th. I rode well, but still battled those darn leg cramps. I felt okay, not stellar, but began to feel better as the race went on. I was a smart cookie for once in my short cycling career, attacked at the proper times and won a sprint for 3rd. Check out the Kenda blog for a photo and cyclingdirt.com for a write up about the race, a video of the course and more photos. I can't say enough about this new website. Amazing, innovative coverage for sure.

Kathy and I rallied hard after the race, drove to Primm, NV to spend the night in our $5.33 hotel room at some random casino and drove 12 hours the next day to get back home. Well, she got to get out of the car in Heber City and I continued on solo to Victor. I came home to a kitchen still in shambles, a very happy husband, an ecstatic dog and a pile of graduate homework to get started on. I also had a class to teach at the rec center and lots of catching up, cleaning and organizing to do at home around the remodel. This explains the disappearance from bloggy-land.

Yesterday, I motivated to get over to Grand Teton National Park for a ride. This is one of the most magical things about living in this area. Every year, the Park service closes the road to traffic and plows the inner road for pedestrians, cyclists-pretty much any mode of travel without a motor. I went over to Jackson, got some shopping, recycling, etc. done-you know, big city stuff- then went for a sweet 45 mile road ride on my knobby-tires. It's the one place and time when it's okay to wear noise-canceling headphones and space out completely with Teton views the entire way.

I even got to pedal a bit with my old co-worker, the fabulous Tim Young of Friends of Pathways. He was riding his new hand-built Erickson titanium touring bike and I swear, that bike is so nice I'll bet anything he is contemplating riding another 40,000 miles around the world like he did back in the 80s just so he can ride it for 7 years straight.