Cycling is my original passion. Be it racing against cars by Lodi Lake during my teenage years, struggling up Salsberry Pass in Death Valley with my faithful Cannondale or recumbent, or riding in the historic Paris-Brest-Paris 1225-kilometer bicycle race, the memories are large and plentiful.
It’s time! I’m leaving to catch a Greyhound bus for Banff in 30 minutes, so this will likely be the last post until July 10th or so — when I hope to finish the 2,711-mile mountain bike race from Banff, Canada to Mexico border at Antelope Wells, NM.
The race actually starts at noon on Friday, June 13th. I will be wearing a tracking device courtesy of SPOT, so you can track my progress (in real time, I think) here:
http://tourdivide.org/leaderboard
Furthermore, I will be calling race headquarters every couple days or so to check in and leave a message on my status. The actual voice recordings and transcriptions will be here:
http://tourdivide.org/blog
http://mtbcast.com
When I return, I will post photos and a write-up on the race.
Until then, bonne courage!
I’m already 99% packed and ready to go for the Tour Divide mountain bike race, having managed to do some last-minute testing before heading out to Florida for a wedding. Here are some photos and my gear list (PDF, not entirely complete — there are additional things I packed that aren’t on the list like first aid, tools and toiletries). Continue reading »
Nine days have passed since the Sulphur Springs 100, but I can’t say I’ve been able to reflect too long on that crazy run due to preparing for another upcoming adventure: a 2711-mile mountain bike race from Canada to Mexico called the Tour Divide. A couple weeks ago I submitted a letter of intent: Continue reading »
Hmmm, it looks like yesterday was a big day for my alma mater. In addition to being featured in the new Knight Rider last night, Stanford was the venue of the prologue in America’s premier bicycle stage race, the Tour of California. Too bad I did not know this yesterday, otherwise I would have watched the live video feeds for that online instead of wasting 15 minutes of my life watching Fox’s NASCAR commentators try to put together coherent sentences while drivers went round ‘n’ round in left-hand ovals. Continue reading »
“Man, I’m going to need some help here,” I pleaded by my sixth beer of the day.
Now, fortunately all the beers I had were in small, sample-sized glasses so I wasn’t quite yet in a slurred-speech drunken stupor and falling out of my chair. Yet, I certainly could have used some help finishing the stuff. The problem was our group consisted solely of ultra-fit athletes who were as much as a “lightweight” when it came to beer-drinking as me. Continue reading »
&title=Tour of California "Kim Kirchen of the High Road team heads to the finish line. In the background is Hoover Tower on the Stanford campus. (Photo: Michael Maloney, SF Chronicle)")
