the tao of cycling: the bad ass crew

Monday, June 27, 2011

the bad ass crew

last weekend was the MS fundraiser Best Dam Bike Ride in cache county, utah and various small idaho locales.
weather was perfect, the roads were as good as can be expected (yep, about a mile of smooth asphalt and 174 miles of chip seal in various states of repair), and the company, absolutely fabulous.
and because I'm tired and it's been one of those intense days of re-entry into motherhood/entrepreneurship/homeownership/etc. I am simply going to say that the team I ride with is a collection of incredibly terrific people. we are a social team who focus on fundraising for two local events (the Tour de Cure for diabetes, and the above-mentioned ride for multiple sclerosis), and we comprise males and females of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, and vocations. the common threads seem to be a love of cycling, and--at least to my mind--a sense of humor. we seem to enjoy each other, the gathering, the riding, the events . . . and quite a few of my teammates are Dam Good Cyclists as well. we have licensed riders, and sunday riders, and everything in between.
I'm lucky enough to be able to hold on with the faster group on this kind of event, and it makes for one wild ride. the very best hold back so that those who are down a level or two can still hang in there, and we often form a double pace line of 20 or so that just powers down the road.

I didn't mean to ramble on.

I just wanted to say that these people are awesome.
organized by ann hoffman and steve dwyer, this is a team of compassionate, giving, welcoming people who are held together by pieces of rubber, a bit of carbon/aluminum/steel, some huge hearts, and the best looking team kits around.

thanks to all my bad ass friends for an awesome weekend.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.