TAHOE RIDE REPORT, DAY 3

Friday @ this Ride is the "Thursday" of all the other ones. In other words - everything is moved back a day 'cuz we ride on Sunday........travel day is Friday, tune up ride is Saturday, etc.

So - anyway - I wanted to tell ya 'bout yesterday.........

'Twas a good day -your trusty Bike Room Crew / West Mi reps were breaking fast @ 7:00-ish and in the shop soon thereafter. Around lunchtime or thereabouts small groups of riders started trickling in. This is always one of my (many!) favorite parts of a Ride weekend......greeting familiar faces, meeting the new ones, hugs, laughs, high fives, fist bumps & handshakes.........yeah, sign me up!

We kept crankin' bikes together - they kept showing up - we snuck out for a quick burrito in there somewhere and by 5:00-ish we looked around and all the bikes were done. There was the typical flurry of "Here are my pedals, can you put 'em on?" and "If I go buy a computer can you install it?' and "Are my tires okay?' and such but hey........that's what we're here for!

All in all 'twere a dang fine day - even if we found ourselves havin' dinner @ 10:30! (Don't tell my mom that I went in the hot tub afterwards w/out waiting 30 minutes!)

The vibe @ the reception was great. There are LOTS of new riders here. (That's the official # by the way - I asked Aly the % of new riders & she said...quoting here... "Lots". So - there you go!) Fellow Head Coach Tim and I talked a lot about how we're just not gonna accept having this Ride be ANYTHING less than awesome+........we'd like to see this Ride grow! It's unique, the area is fabulous - Jeez...even Katie "Death Valley or Bust!" Clark sez she might wanna come here in 2012 so you gotta assume there's joy n' wonder to be had!

So - with Death Valley coming at us like a freight train we're gonna hunker down and make sure the 85 riders here w/ us this weekend have a "big time" as TSC might say. The weather has co-operated thus far despite a mixed forecast (the moon had a big ring around it's stunning self last night) and hopefully that trend will continue. In an hour we'll be @ breakfast, then we'll open the bike room for the morning rush. Rider's meeting @ 9:00, tune up ride @ 9:45 then there will be the typical post ride flurry of gear adjustments and other bike work. We're gonna have lunch w/ teammate Roy (who's been rockin' a sweet bikeface since he arrived) then I have the fit seminar, the Cycling 101 seminar and I wanna sit in on the Riding w/ Type 1 discussion as well. ( I always learn something and there's SO MUCH to learn!!!!!)

Tonight we'll hand out the Green & Yellow jerseys, enjoy each other's company and get ready for an early start in the morning. Given the massive significance of the day there are all sorts of 9/11-related aspects to the roll out. I guess we're being led out by the local Fire and First Responder units. I expect it to be a powerful morning!

And then we'll ride........for loved ones, for friends and family, for a cause we believe in, for as many individual reasons as there are riders in the JDRF jersey and more.

But....if you're reading this odds are you get that - probably better'n this old fool!

So - I might not be able to get back to this novel 'til late tomorrow......after the Ride I switch back into Full On Bike Room Mode 'cuz we have 'til about noon Tuesday to get all these bikes packed back up.....but rest assured that you guys will be in our thoughts as we rock the next 40 hours or so!

Talk to you soon.......keep being the rock stars you are!