Team High Gear

Is representing! First off, look at this guy!



14th down at Lance's pad and this sweet photo on Cyclingnews. Big time I tell ya!

And in my first competition in the new kit I participated in a little triathlon. I joined a team and did the bike leg.



Tagging out to my good pal D-Hips. Maggie joined us for the swim and we were third out of the water, first off the bike, and first after the run. It was good fun.

Beauty

So yes, I do think Kansas is beautiful. But, dang, this is my weekly Thursday night ride.



Oh, and for a point of reference I live in the valley just on the other side of these little peaks. I've been going up to Woodstock on a pretty regular basis now and each time the route is different. But, inevitably we get a number of views of equal greatness. This past Thursday's ride was 50 miles of pure bliss. And to top if off, we finished at the bike shop with some waffles! Ah yes, the life indeed.

But wait, there's more! I once read in a magazine an article about an attempted corporate take over of some amazing trails in Northern Vermont known as the Kingdom Trails. Needless to say the trails won and are now 50+ miles of some amazing looking singletrack. (I will know for sure in about a week) So, let the jealousies continue and feast your eyes on what I will be riding in about a week's time. That's right, camping and riding, life is good.

And finally for some completely unrelated icing on the cake, watch this.

Enjoy

The Gravel Metric Invitation from OC Imageworks on Vimeo.

Volume

With the mtb races finally approaching for me (1 more month!) it was time to up the volume. Yes, even the traditionally shorter XC races will require more pedal time then these road races I've been doing. So, I set out with the task of riding 3-4 hours. I knew that unless I wanted to ride circles in front of camp I would have to ride off the mountain, which would be extremely fast and fun. But, also meant that I would be climbing my way back up the mountain to get home. So I opted for the easiest route possible, a stunningly beautiful ride down and around the Rondout reservoir. After reading the Monkey Man's latest post I see that it is quite possible to take some wonderful shots with my good ol' 'point and shoot.' However, I was all loaded up with food and water bottles and left the camera at home. I managed to ride 46 miles with 1800ft of climbing. That's 3x the amount of climbing you'd get in the same mileage on the Reading loop back home. I had one little scare on the ride when I flatted. I have been going back and forth on my bikes and had left my seat bag on the Superfly. Fortunately I flatted near my friend Tom's house and was able to get repaired and back on the road. Enjoyed the scenery around the reservoir and made the turn around. It would be all uphill now. I made it back to camp in 3 hrs 10 minutes, the longest I've been in the saddle all year. 

In the news

Okay, I know you are struggling to keep up with the high volume of posts in the past 24 hours, but this could not wait. Our beloved, and newly dubbed, "Prime Time" Matt Brown made himself a little tv appearance.

Watch it here. Go on, I'll wait.

I know, amazing right! Never mind they butchered most of the details. The fact is the DK 200 (and all the people involved with it) are worthy of such noteriety and I'm glad to see it happen.

Good timing

The beauty of the Delaware Water Gap area. (the river, not the state mind you)
Kate using the facilities in the ghost town.
Okay, so thank you Bobby for sending me my fancy new gear. You have no idea how much I needed this. For the first time in a long time I finally feel like I am still part of the group. I was having a mental block from training and this was just the right pick me up! 
Yes, I shamelessly modeled the new team uni using the timer on my camera. Don't judge me.

Recent Happenings

Eating french fries and gravy in Toronto. Umm.....I had much higher hopes. But still good of course.
The Maid of the Mist, getting soaked by lots of H2O.
Skull cookie. Enough said.

Also be sure to check out the two wonderful new links to the side. Matt and Steph have decided to join the blogosphere and are entertaining us with their life stories.