Cycling in a Toque: October 2010

Hello? Anyone still there? I know its been a while but some time away from the bike also meant some time away from the blog. I'm happy to report that I've been able to sell a lot of the stuff I listed, I jumped on the Hammer Nutrition website today and a few weeks ago I signed on with a pro ride for 2011.

That's right! I'm on a Pro Team! And I got sweet teammates too! Joining me at the Exergy Professional Cycling Team will be fellow Whitman College alumni Sam Johnson '06 and fellow Rubicon-Orbea 2010 teammate Quinn Keogh! The entire roster hasn't been released yet so I can't tell you everything I know but its a stacked team with a great mix of climbers, sprinters and all-round tough dudes. The plan is to race most of the National Racing Calendar events here in the United States with a couple races in eastern Europe and South America for good measure. The Exergy program has grown over the past few years, based out of Boise with the support of the Exergy Development Group (who specializes on wind power technologies) and made the jump to Division 3 UCI Continental status for 2011.

This is so rad!

Norrene and Dave Godfrey's support made this possible so of course a big thank you goes out to them. Picking me up after just 1 result at the 2010 Tour of Walla Walla, they saw potential and provided an opportunity for me to focus purely on my cycling. Thank you so much. Another big thank you goes to Keith Seed, the Orbea, Rolf and Hammer rep for the Northwest. Since the Whitman team and Rubicon shared all three sponsors, I had the chance to build a relationship with Keith over the past few years. He was the first one introduce Norrene and I, so thanks for the introduction Keith!

Also a big shout out goes to the management staff at Exergy Pro Cycling. Tad Hamilton (Director Sportif) and Remi McManus (Head of Sponsorship/Marketing) have been working very hard over the past few months to get everything going so I'm definitely looking forward to working with them throughout 2011. We will be riding Felt bicycles in Castelli kit. Both are extremely high quality companies so its all very exciting.

After a nice break after Cross Vegas (a whole ten days without kitting up), then a cautionary dip into riding each Sunday at Portland's extremely well attended Cross Crusade series, I jumped back on the bike over Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend. It has been great weather here in Portland, not at all what I had expected, which means I have been out exploring a bunch of new roads.

Highlights include: 1) don't always trust mapmyride for that one road that looks like a road but is obviously gravel and maybe doesn't exist anymore but if it does it will get you home on time and not make you go up that 17% descent you just went down and said "ha, good thing I don't have to go up this to get home". 2) Larch mountain is a big mountain, but if I get tired I can sneak into the lunch room at my work office on the way home to grab a coke. 3) any road along a river in anational watershed is going to be extremely hilly, I mean wicked steep, so steep that I missed my turn and ended up in Sandy, fortunately that ended up to be a good thing. 4) check in next week!

More info will be coming up soon about Exergy but for now its time for some more sunny base miles, and some more research for my 'other' job that pays for my food!

Also, don't forget to check out the first Alpine Skiing World Cup of the Season in Soelden, Austria this weekend. The Canucks have been pretty amped for 2011 for a while so hopefully they are ripping it right out of the gate. Go Go!

This is pretty cool too! Bicycle Skills

Introducing.........Dagoba