MOAB

STOP! Before you go further, go to the ToG entry below to read everything in chronological order from the last few weeks.


After dropping off riders at the airport in Tucson my plan was to head back to Wisconsin. I decided to head North.


Heading North from Tucson you get to Flagstaff. I stopped in for a coffee at Late For Train coffee shop and behind the counter was an old college friend, Pete Meirs. Pete and I were in the same major in school and did our NOLS semester together. He is one funny guy. I remember non-stop laughter when in his tent group. In addition to guiding for Western Spirit Cycling Adventures, Pete is living in "Flag" to attend nursing school. Pete showed me around town that night and gave me the scoop on the town. Flagstaff is a pretty cool place. Every one I met with Pete rides a bike. I've never seen as much bike flavor anywhere else. He is also a member of the local band the Shindaggers (they have a myspace thing. funny stuff).


A mistake picture that worked out pretty good. Which way is the gun show!


Moab, Utah is one of my favorite places. I love the Canyonland country and didn't realize how much I get a special feeling when I'm there. There is a loop ride that goes through Castle Valley. I didn't know much about it. Two years ago I did some of the loop but had to turn around when a freak snow storm blew in. This time I did the whole loop. One of the best rides I've ever done. Partly because I knew nothing about it. The whole loop is about 70 miles and is a beautiful ride through desert and climbs into the La Sal mountains. I came upon a sign that warned of a "bridge out ahead- local traffic only." I interpreted this as, "go ahead, bikes can probably get through." If not, I would have to ride 45 miles out and turn around. The ride took about 5 hours and a good 3 hours was probably climbing. I'm not sure. I only know it climbed forever. If you are ever there you have to do this ride. There is plenty of downhill too and I saw about 5 cars the whole day. Quite the memorable ride.


Nine miles left and I'd know if the bridge is out or not. This sign was all wrong. I never saw the bridge until two hours later. I'd already been climbing for about 1 1/2 hours at this point. EPIC!


THe view from somewhere on the climb. Still not done climbing. I started way down there where the road is disappearing into the horizon.



Snowball


I made it over the top and the bridge was okay for bikes to cross.


Lot's of downhill to get back to Moab.


Goofing around.


I once spent two weeks in the Canyonlands Backcountry. This is what I saw every evening. How can scenery like this not affect you?

Thanks for visiting the blog again,

DOUG

Gila

Last week was the Tour of Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. The race went great for the team. Lot's of tough stages and Colavita let the other teams know they are the ones to watch. I've never been to Silver City. To be honest I didn't get a great vibe from the town. I'm sorry I just don't know how to describe it.


My view of the race.


Our rental car for the week was a Lincoln Town car. My mom has this car I think. We used a similar car two years ago at Altoona and I was carsick almost everyday. We had a lot of sarcastic "nice car" comments from the other teams. All in good fun.


Dotsie on her way to 2nd place in the time trail. FAST!


One of the best days of racing I've seen. Although you enter the day's race with a plan it may not be the plan at the end of the day. That's what makes racing so exciting. Plan A went to Plan B which morphed into Plan C etc. By the end of the race, Dotsie went for plan E which was to take on the sprinters for the win. Look at the gap she had.


Andrea had a great race too. Here she is in a 5 up breakaway sprint.


Sarah riding with the climbers like it was no big thing.


PHEW! I feel like a soggy potatoe chip. I'd rather have a cup of coffee.


RAINBOW

Tucson

Before and after the Tour of Georgia I spent time in Tucson, AZ staying with Dave and Candice. Thanks for your hospitality Dave and Candice. Hope to come back again.

Here are the images!


Dave and Candice are opening a new bike shop in Tucson. It should be opening any day now. While I was there boxes were being opened and stuff being merchandized. I was able to lend a hand and assemble a few bike racks and bicycles. It was fun to be part of that scene for a bit.


Candice doing her pregnant lady exercises though the store. She also thought it was important to eat a few Girl Scout cookies in the process to keep her energy up.


This is a Trek Portland. Cool bike. Kind of an all purpose bike. Something to commute on. Disc brakes. Rack mounts and really cool fenders. The fenders have a nice quick release lever.


Candice snapped a picture of me: 1. picking up my garbage that was blowing away or 2. practicing my double poling for next year's ski season.


Candice was laughing at this kid in the neighborhood and snapped a picture of him. Kids!

Once again move on to the next entry above. You can take a break if you want and come back later. Perhaps go get a snack.

DOUG

ToG

Okay as I said above, this is where the journey in pictures begins. Welcome!

Seems like Tour of Georgia was a long time ago. By gosh it was!. Here is a few more images from the race I came away with.


One of the bikes ready to ride!


Early morning with the bikes. In it's own way there is beauty to found in the sport. Beauty is found in many things in life if you look for it.


Speaking of beauty. Look at this guy! What do you think. Seriously, washing bikes has it's beauty. I actually find it relaxing sometimes to wash them all up. They are all shiny and such.

Okay, move on to the next entry above.

Burnt Skin

Another day at the Tour. Three more days to go. I definetly got a bit tired of the routine tonight. I couldn't face the chance of another disappointing dinner so I headed to a Chili's that is by our hotel for some dinner and time by myself. I haven't felt quite right since feeling sick so I thought a steak to replace some iron might be the ticket.

Yesterday, Eric and I switched roles and I went in the team car for the race. Had to do some adjustments on the fly which means leaning out of the rear window of the car. This never happens in women's racing for some reason. The adrenaline was pumping because I never noticed the raspberry on my inner arm until later. I must have brushed against the bike tire as I reached around to adjust Gustavo's rear derailleur. Try spinning a wheel at 30 miles per hour and then graze the fleshy part of your inner arm against it. Ouch! It's a cross between a burn and a cut.

Well, I wish I could tell you the end was in sight. Not yet. We still have some racing to go. Enjoy the photos!


I forgot to post this photo of me sitting on the plane. (Keith, I took this from the camera that's in my MAC)

Mr. Dickie himself, Chris Davidson, is working with Navigators this race. Check out his updated diary entries on cyclingnews.com about the Tour of Georgia. Good behind the scenes stuff.


Nice looking gold campy wheels on the spare race bikes. Reminds me of the Rolf wheels that were gold from awhile back.


Tim and Rachel in a rare moment of nothing to do. They take care of the rider's needs. From food and drink to massage and perhaps a joke or two.


This isn't a great picture from the car but it's the only one I took. I was feeling a bit car sick trying to take a picture and ended up only trying once.

Tour of Georgia

I'm in Georgia folks for the Tour of Georgia. Real quick this is what I've been up to.

1. After Timex camp took some personal time to visit Arizona.

2. Ran into Joe Conn (Lake Placid) resident in Flagstaff. Small world!

3. Left the van and trailer in Tucson.

4. Flew to Atlanta on Saturday to meet up with the men's team for the ToG.

5. Got food poisoning so Sunday I was not doing so good. Food is almost appetizing again. Almost.

6. Today was the first stage. Not much room at the hotel for all the team trucks/trailers but it all worked out somehow.

7. Looking forward to bed. Being sick wiped me out.


Riding in Arizona.


Remembering the days of Oakley Factory Pilots. These were the hot thing back in... oh let's see... 1986ish. I had the black ones that I got for Christmas one year. I didn't even ask for such a thing so I don't know how mom and dad even decided to buy them.

On a serious note. Today was the shooting at Virginia Tech. The largest mass shooting in U.S. campus history. This stuff gets me mad. What kind of world is this? Students should be able to live without such worries. We all should be able to live without such worries. Who is to blame? The shooter? Parents? Video games? Media?

Life is valuable and there is more to it than the Tour of Georgia.

Say hello to people tomorrow, do a good deed, and smile.

Cheers,
DJB

The Ocean

Carlsbad, CA - At the beach as promised.




I would love to be able to surf. It's one of those things on my list of things to try. It really intrigues me how the force of nature is acting upon you. Rachel from the Timex Team has promised that on Sunday morning after Hawaii she will take me out.

Later,
DJB

Timex Camp

Carlsbad, CA - Man oh man! What day is it? It feels like Monday morning but it's actually...let me see...Wednesday. That's what happens when I'm so busy. everyday becomes like the one previous. Camp is over for these tri folks. A lot was accomplished. Although once again most of what I saw was from the back of the truck. This year at least I had some help from, "the new guy", Tristan. Tristan was awesome and a HUGE help getting everyone's bike requests done. We had a bunch of this and that work to do. Besides the long hours of standing in the parking lot we did have some time to interact with the athletes. It was great to see the returning athletes from the last couple of years and to meet the new ones. All in all the camp seemed to be a huge success. Everyone left with some great product and product knowledge. I really feel that Timex has some great sponsors and folks associated with the team. Everyone from the athletes to staff to sponsor contacts are happy with the TIMEX vibe. Way to go everyone!

Here are few pictures from camp that I remembered to take. Enjoy!


Yes, I swear I was very busy most of the time. But that doesn't mean you should ignore the tennis ball launcher. This is Chris T. pumping up the gun to the ideal psi.


"Fire in the hole!" Moments before shooting. Don't try this at home and don't let the athletes see you playing around because they will want to try it too. HA! Notice another excellent use for a Park bike stand. I wonder if Park would put that in their catalog?


The day started every morning with a 6am gathering at the truck. From here athletes had a few hours to bike or run or swim.
There was always the last minute bike adjustments too. I heard many times "Can I borrow an alen wrench". I often cringe when I'm asked that. I don't like lending out my tools. Sometimes they don't get put back so then I have to hunt around for it wasting time. I don't want to seem mean but it can make a 2 minute adjustment a ten minute job when I can't find the right tool. My tip of the day when working with team mechanics is to ask politely, return promptly, never reach into their tool box, and expect a no response sometimes. By the way it doesn't hurt to butter us up with cold drinks, coffee, chocolate chip cookies, lunch, shoulder massage..........


This particular morning was a few days into camp. People were familiar with one another now. This impromptu circle started to form. "oh boy" I thought to myself, "something is going to happen." Alas, noone started break dancing or anything. Just some talk about socks vs. no socks. A brief exclamation by Carol announcing that "THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY RUN THAT GOES AS FAR AS THE STARBUCKS", and a few stretches thrown in before the pitter patter of sneaker rubber hit the streets.


John the photographer catching all the goings on. His camera is bigger than mine.


The bike. Happy to be working the Trek bikes. The athletes have been giving great reviews. Dean Gore and Scott Daubert from Bontrager and Trek were here to check things out and answer everyone's questions. They both gave some informative presentations and I had some good one on one with these guys about the machines. Glad they came out and that Trek is happy to be supporting the Team.


A mechanics lunch sometimes. Ah, that picture says a lot. Mostly, it says I'm too busy to eat so put my sandwich on the cleanest place possible for later.

"So Tristan! The waves were awesome this morning dude! I've never been surfing before but it's like I was born to do it. I was riding the wave like this when..."

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Today my plan is to head to Tucson, AZ to visit some friends for a much needed break for about a week before flying to Georgia for the Tour of Georgia. Before I leave though I'm going to go down to the ocean. I'm right on the ocean and haven't even stuck my toes in the sand. That is my plan this morning to say I've been there. I tried the other night but the parking areas were closed.

Later,
DJB

Ojai then Oceanside

{I posted two blog entries today so look below this one first to go in order}

After Redlands I was scheduled to hook up with the Timex team for a triathlon in Oceanside, CA and then a 4 day camp. But before that, I had to drive to Ojai with the Colavita Team. Ojai is probably one of my favorite stops on the circuit. Although I wouldn't be there for the race at least I had 2 days there to get some bikes built and play. We have a great host family there. Cool people. Good coffee. Good food. Good ping pong table. Good riding.


Ojai host house. In a rare occurance, Eric from the men's team was staying with us too. It's nice to have a few more guys around. Love those ladies but still need some guy talk around. You know, talking about tools and stuff. Eric and I do talk about moisturizing though. "You got to moisturize!" Our hands get dryed out from the chemicals and such. Talking about moisturizer may not be the most manly topic but nonetheless it's a topic in relation to "manly" work.


Another good ride with the team. Guys and gals on this day. The best time to ride with pros is after they just did 4 days of racing at Redlands or 10 days in Chile. Then normal riders like me get to feel like I'm just as good as them. Yeah right! This ride was lead by our host Roy. I remember this ride from two years ago. It heads through the hills to ride along the coast to Ventura and them back to Ojai.


Riding along the coast. Kept looking for dolphins but didn't see anything.

I've been in Oceanside CA now for a few days. I arrived to a pile of bikes and wheels. Fortunately Tristan, another Timex mechanic we hired, did a great job assembling many of the bikes. We still have a bunch of work to do but with two people it will be manageable. A lot to do but at least it's not just me this year.

Oceanside is as it's name suggests by the ocean. I'm literally working on the beach. Well on the pavement next to the beach. People surfing and doing beach stuff.


Oceanside Ride

So I stopped to drink my coffee (found a good coffee shop in Oceanside. I asked some fireman who were outside cleaning their truck) and watch these surfers. All of a sudden at the exact same moment they came running out of the water. Intrigued I figured out they all had to get to school. Most of them were high schoolers. That is awesome. Surfing before school. When I was in High School (oh I sound like a old guy telling a story) I would accumulate enough credits to opt of of gym class. Then I'd schedule gym for my first period of the day. As long as my mom would call in I could miss homeroom and go in late about 9:00am. On those days I'd do a morning training ride. The office lady knew me by name after awhile and asked how the ride went. Looking back from an adult perspective, I think that shows good time management skills and planning. Definetly no slacking there.

Good Bye for now from the Pier View Coffee Roasters in Oceanside, CA.