Sunday I rode with a good friend and someone who helped get me hooked on the sport of cycling. Dave Gabrys was the super-fast high school role model for the middle school total-newbie that I was. He taught me that it was fun to hang the number plate on the bars. This is a shot of him and my dad enjoying some post-race watermelon at the Sayner Ridge Rider back in ‘98. Dave and I later worked together at Riverbrook and have been friends since. It’s been sometime since we last met up for a ride or even have hung out much so it was great to have him visit Tucson. A ride up to Windy Point on Lemmon was a must as were the burritos to follow. It was great to catch up and talk about how cycling has remained a staple of each of our daily lives. His work has taken him to the team dinner tables of ProTour teams in France, so obviously he equally enjoys his opportunities within cycling.
Two flats during yesterday’s ride due to glass and another horribly-timed flat on Saturday’s Shootout has spelled the end my rear Hutchinson Top Speed OEM tire. The thing was rolling great for nearly a month, but now it punctures far too easily and I’m quickly running out of tubes. Saturday was my fastest ever non-CO2 flat tire repair. Paul’s SRM clocked it under 4 minutes and the final 30+ seconds of that was for a quick pee break before we chased like mad men, never to actually catch anybody else to ride with. I was grateful to have Paul wait up and I honestly thought the two of us would catch back on, but we weren’t so lucky. At least we both got some quality miles even if it didn’t have all those big spikes and dips in intensity. There is always next week…
As I knew she was prepared to do, Chloe went ahead and won the Pan American Continental MTB Championship in the U23 women’s field. Doing so by four and a half minutes is a dominant performance and a huge display of her hard work and discipline. The best part is that her intense preparations are “fun” and she just ‘’likestobike‘’. A modest champion who absolutely loves what she does – amazing every time.
The week is about to really kick off here in Arizona. We essentially lost an hour to the entire country since we don’t change the clocks, so there is no time to slack now that it’s Monday morning. Enjoy the Day! -TJ
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