Surprise!

Wow! This month has been an interesting one. The Tour de France was fun to keep an eye on and I was glad that Bradley Wiggins won. The time trials sure put him out in front and kept him there. I should be rooting for one of the US racers in the Olympic Men's Time Trial tomorrow morning but I sure hope that Wiggo will  do it. I am rooting for Kristin Armstrong to bring home the gold in the Women's Time Trial.

The MS Ride is getting closer everyday and I am so pumped up for it to start. I changed my goal to $1200 a couple of days ago. I want to help so much by raising money so that those with MS have a chance for a better life. This years ride will be quite interesting in several different ways. The ride will be done on a new road bike that my sisters and brother-in-law got for me when I was down in Boise for several days. I was so surprised that this happened. I am still giddy about the whole thing. Joe will be riding again this year and he will report on the ride in future postings. Since Wiggo won the Tour de France and everyone is now sporting sideburns like him I will be growing out my sideburns in honor of him when I ride for MS. I am still going to write the names of those that I know on my legs again but I would like more names. If anyone knows of family or friends that have MS please let me know their first name and I put them on there. This makes it more personal for me. There is still time to donate at my MS page.

The first ride I did on the new bike was a time trial. I ended up riding 9.7 miles in 26'05". I couldn't believe that I rode it that fast. I was thinking that I would probably get a time in the 29 minute range. Total miles for the month of July ended up being over 750. I am hoping that I can break the 800 mile mark for August.

Here is a pretty cool quote I found today:
Work to Eat
Eat to Live
Live to Bike
Bike to Work


Keep the shiny side up.

Halfway July and the MS Ride

July is halfway done. Summer is flying by and so are the miles on the bikes. I entered a challenge at the beginning of the Tour de France to ride a total of 544 miles during the 23 days of the tour. It has been a pretty fun time so far with several days of kick my behind riding. I am currently over 400 miles on the challenge with 7 more days to go. All of this riding is hopefully going to pay off when I do the MS Ride in August.

One of the killer rides was with the group of college racers that do a Wednesday night ride. We did an over 40 mile ride that included about 6 or 7 miles of gravel road. The road had been watered down during the day for some construction and it made some nice mud patches to ride through. The Vandal Bike needed a good cleaning and some oil and grease that next day.

On this last Saturday I rode to Troy to meet my sister (Deb) and brother-in-law (Steve) to ride to Moscow and then back to Troy. It was a very nice time and I was glad to have them to ride with. They are going to be participating in the MS Ride this year and I am really glad for that. I have missed their presence in the ride.

This coming week I am also going to do a Time Trial. Basically it will be me against the clock in a 9.7 mile ride in Boise. My goal is to do the coarse in less then 30 minutes and not throw up at the end. We will see if that works out. The morning before that Time Trial will be spent doing the Dump Loop with Steve. This is going to be a nice little workout. Hopefully it does not end up like last years ride where I really bonked at the  one climb they call the Wall.

The MS Ride will be here in a little over a month and I am really getting excited to go meet everyone and ride for a great cause. This will be my 5th year doing this and every year has been more of an eye opener for me. If you would still like to donate then you can go to my MS Page. I would like to thank of those that have donated this year and for all that have donated in the past.