RAGBRAI, Leadville and Lance.

While Big Johny and Kat were riding gravel, racking up metric centuries - I quote, from July 24th:

Dave -
Kat, Mike Johnson, Chris Congdon, Paul Meyermann, Pete B. and myself went
over to Colesburg and did their epic gravel race course twice - 80 miles
of Leadville test - we all passed with colors.
I'm having trouble keeping track of the other guys rides, but Kat and I
should have 11 now.
Thanks,
John

And then this from July 27th:

Dave - Welcome back from the Ragu. Can't hardly beat it for a vacation
- riding your bike with 1000's of others in celebration of our sport. I
hope the weather was good and all went well for you and yours.
Kat and I have another - and last 100 - before our trip to the top of
the world. That makes 12 for each of us. Thanks for doing this.
See you at the coffee shop
John

To John and Kat I say - congratulations! I'll buy you a cup of coffee in Leadville! You should be VERY well prepared with all those miles! We'll see you next Thursday! - Dave

Meanwhile there was a little ride across the state - on pavement (alas) but a fun ride none-the-less. Fuller, not wanting to take the easy way out - or across - packed up the kitchen sink and rode fully loaded out to Mo Valley and then across the dang state - and picked up a little press on his way. While he did get plenty of miles in - they WERE on pavement - and he's still got to get out on dirt to maintain his membership in the ONE-A-MONTH club - Good luck Fuller! Click below for his article!


Fuller isn't the only one that crossed the state last week (ha) - the Mable's were at it too - hauling not gear, but kids. A nice wheel came by at just the right speed on Tuesday... as Lance passed buy our train. With just the right slope of road (in otherwords - none) and the right wind conditions - it allowed us to hop on his wheel. I wasn't quite sure it was him at first - he has hairy legs (gasp!) but the look from a guy riding with him told me that my intuition was correct - Never at a loss for words, I gave him a little smack talk - then was treated to "The Look". Know I know what Ulrich felt like. That being said - we went with him for another 6 miles or so. He was kind enough to make sure we hung to his wheel and even went back to chat with Dee and the kids.

Lance mentioned our rig at his speech at the Styx concert - and we appeared in a Duffy cartoon on Thursday - what fun! No doubt we'll all remember the day we rode with Lance!

Well - on to Leadville! We'll hope there are about 8 Cup entries after the little 100 mile race on the 9th - Stay tuned!