I'm proud to say that WebCyclery will be celebrating our 12th anniversary starting this Saturday. 12 years. Just think, the Scotch that I will be drinking tonight was made when WebCyclery was just a garage full of parts and a little internet site. I am starting to look for old pictures of our "warehouse" back in the garage. I am hoping to put together a little pictorial of the history of WebCyclery, from the garage and living room office to the first shop with the 300ft showroom, then to the 4 remodels/expansions that we've had at the new shop. Seems like every 2 years or so we need more room. I hope that isn't the case anymore. I'm hoping we'll be in our current diggs for a while, we're really liking it.

The first 12 years have been great. We've made a lot of friends and continue to grow. There are way too many people to name that I would like to thank that have contributed to our success. Family, friends, past and present employees, business advisors, colleagues, competitors, the list goes on for a while. But the most important thank you needs to go to you, our customers. Without you, we wouldn't be doing this. I wouldn't be doing this. I wouldn't get to work with my friends and family doing something I really love. I'm a lucky guy.

So starting Saturday, we're having a big sale all week long in the shop (sorry, in store sales only). If you get a chance, come on in and say 'hi'. We'd love to see you. And if you want to go sip some of the Macallan, Glenfiddich, or Glenlivet 12 year old, let me know. But it will have to be the 12 year old. (I can't wait until we hit 15 or 18 years old - woohoo!)

Kevin

Kudos to Gina and the crew at Fresh Air Sports. The Crossaflixion race that was held on Saturday was really great. A lot of people came out despite the FREEZING temps. The course was really cool. The slippery ice turned to slippery mud. The run up/walk up looked really painful. I know that the snow is here and a lot of people have started to make the switch to skis, but I would highly recommend going out to race #2 on the Saturday after Turkey Day. Then go for a ski!

I hope that Gina decides to bring it back for again next year. Not that I know a whole lot, but I think having that first race a month ago could have gotten even more people interested and invested in the series. So there is definitely potential for growth. it would be really nice if the locals could count on having 6-8 local cross races every year.

Congrats to Gina & her gang, as well as all those that raced.

The 2009 Cyclocross Nationals are happening right here in Bend, Oregon. The course is in the same location that we used for the Thrilla CX series a few years ago. The course is about 1 km away from our front door. It is coming up in just a few weeks, and we are trying to get ready for it as best we can. We will be hosting a little Q&A/discussion with the Clif Bar Junior development team coaches on that Thursday evening. This will be a good one for juniors and their families. It will give them an idea of what is available for juniors and what it takes to get to the national level.

We are also hosting a movie night during the Cyclocross Nationals on that Saturday night. Instead of our usual Mcmenamins movie, we will be hosting it at the Tower Theatre. Giro is sponsoring the event, along with sportsvisionbend.com. It should be pretty fun. The movie will be "The Cyclocross Meeting" featuring Oregon's Barry Wicks. Of course, we will have a bunch of Giro sponsored racers in the crowd - just in case you want to get an autograph.

WebCyclery has plenty of parking and a bike wash area (well, a hose) for racers, as well as an indoor changing room and bathroom, so racers can feel free to park in our lot during the races. It might be a lot easier than finding a spot in the small lot at the course, and we are just across the river and up a block from the course.

If racers want to ship their bikes to us, just give us a call and let us know when to expect it. We build up boxed bikes for $40. We box them for $60. Since we do a lot of mail order business, we are used to boxing bikes everyday. You can rest assured that we box bikes very well. We don't want them to get destroyed in shipping almost as much as you.

Labels: 2009 cyclocross nationals, bend, or

Angela and I went up to Astoria for the Halloween weekend. We stayed with a couple of friends/WebCyclery team members in a house in Cannon Beach (on the Oregon Coast, about 25 minutes from Astoria). We lucked out on the weather. It was stormy on Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday were awesome. Just as the women's field was about to line up on Saturday, the skies opened up and it poured for about 5 minutes. After that, it was Sunny and beautiful the rest of the time.
Saturday's course was real slick and technical, and Angela had a great race. She finished in 7th. The next day was costume day. Angela dressed up as a Twister board. I was Bret Michaels (not Dwight Yoakam or Axl Rose). Almost everyone wore a costume, and those who didn't got booed horrendously. My favorite costumes included the 'Running with the Bulls' crew, the human barriers, and the hockey players who would stop and get in fights.

I set up a Flickr Group for WebCyclery. I don't really know if I did it right, but hopefully anyone else can add pictures from bike events and whatnot. I think this is the link - http://www.flickr.com/groups/1251267@N20/
Feel free to share photos with us.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at WebCyclery. MeanTodd and I really like dressing up and trying to come up with good costume ideas. I thought I'd share a few pics of some of our previous costumes. One of our first elaborate costumes was the Flying Elvis(from Honeymoon in Vega$) with SuperDave from the Footzone.

The next year we had a group of friends join us and we were Willy Wonka and a bunch of Oompah Loopahs. We even had a little song and dance number that we did with a whole bunch of cartwheels and whatnot.


After that, MeanTodd and I went as the Three Amigos with our friend Byron. I thought that was a pretty good one.










After that we pulled off one of our most impressive costumes - we had a big group go as the Sopranos. I was Tony, MeanT was Paulie Walnuts, SuperD went as Silvio, Byron was a dead ringer for Christopher Moltasanti (sp?), Assbag pulled off Junior to a T, and his wife Sarah was a great Carmela, Kate was a perfect Dr Melfi, and we had a few more round out the cast. It was pretty fun going out to Guiseppi's for dinner that night.

A couple of years later we got a group together and went as a movie crew. We had a couple of lead actors and stunt doubles, the camera man, a gaffer, the director, and more. It was pretty fun cruising around and having Todd yell 'Action!' and then we would all start making some scene up.

I'll be heading up to Astoria this year for Halloween (Angela is racing in the Cross Crusade races) so we don't have a big group costume planned, but we have lots of ideas for the future. Hopefully I'll post some photos next week.

-Kevin

We left the mountains today. Hopped on the Autostrada and headed down to Montebelluna to meet up with my friend Luciano. Luciano runs Solda Wax, for which we (WebSkis) are the US importer. Luciano met us as soon as we got off the Autostrada and lead us to our hotel. As soon as we got settled, we hopped in his car and he took us on a great drive around the area where he grew up, telling us all sorts of great stories - my favorite being the one about him and his brother finding a machine gun from WWII when they were 10 or 11 years old and shooting the crap out of trees. Very funny stuff. Anyway, Luciano took us through the rolling hills and we stopped off for some wine and sandwiches at a cool little hillside restaurant. This was the first time that Angela and I really felt like we were in the heart of Italy. There were a bunch of older men sitting around drinking wine in the afternoon, on a patio covered with some type of viney plant, and chickens running around the countryside. It was great. After the glass of wine, we drove through the country and came upon this huge residence that is owned by the daughter of the Countess (or something like that). I guess when Luciano was younger, the Count owned 95% of the area, so let's just say he was pretty well off. Luciano was born in a house that was just over the fence from the Countess' farm lands. We drove down through the vineyards and Luciano stopped to steal some grapes (he told us to stay in the car so that we wouldn't get busted). The grapes were delicious. From there we drove to Asolo, where we checked out the big castle that was built for a queen (in exchange for Cypress). We had a spritzer of some sort, and then headed to Treviso for dinner. Treviso is a super cool, super old Italian town built by the romans thousands of years ago. We sat out in the main square and had dinner with Luciano, his wife Faina, and her brother. It felt very Italian. Tomorrow we will get to go to the Solda factory. Should be fun.

After yesterday's ass kicker, we decided to take it relatively easy today. We left town and headed up the Passo Giau. It was only 10 miles of climbing, at about 8-12%, so it was a grind, but not as bad as yesterday. We climbed about 3400 ft or so in that 10 miles. The weather was great, in the 60s and mostly sunny, but as we climbed the temp dropped a little bit. Every time I would stop and start again, I would freeze because of all of the sweat on my body (very humid, and very sweaty). We got to the top, had a coke, and put on the arms & legs & jacket & gloves for the fun descent back to town.

We had our last breakfast at Villa Tony. The owner's wife was nice enough to make me some eggs and extra hot chocolate (we were the lasts guests, as they are closing for the next month or two as of today). We hopped into the wagon and drove up the Valparola and down the other side of the Falzarego. We had much clearer skies today, and the temp was downright hot for our short journey into Cortina d'Ampezzo. We found a nice little hotel right in the middle of town - Hotel Montana. We have a nice little balcony overlooking the Falzarego.

We hopped on our bikes around 2PM. It was still sunny and warm, but we new that the clouds up top can make things cold. We climbed up the PassoTre Croci which started right out of our hotel, and climbed for the first 4 miles at a nice steady 8% or so, with a few kicks of 12% thrown in for good measure. The pass was only about 1800 ft above town, so it was pretty short. We dropped down a couple of miles and took a left towards Misurina which is a cool little town on a lake (I say town, I mean about 4 hotels and a few restaurants). Angela stopped and had to say 'ciao' to a few horses, unfortunately one of them was pretty grumpy and bit her stomach.

We continued past the lake and came to the turn off for the Tre Cime de Lavaredo climb. I had read good things about this climb, so we decided to take the right turn and climb. Hell, it was only 7km up the road to the top. We road up around the first turn, past a couple of restaurants, and then the climb punched us in the face. The road immediately turned skyward at 14% and hovered up to 16 or 17% for the first km or so. The we hit a flat spot (Thank God!) when we came to another little lake. We passed the lake, and went over a little roller and entered in what appeared to be a national park. They lets us ride in for free, but cars and motorcycles had to pay 10 or more Euros. We rode around a curve and then once again the road kicked up, but this time it didn't stop. The next 2+ miles were at about 14%+. It was unrelenting. We stopped a couple of times to check out the view (and so I could catch my breath). We kept on truckin' on until we hit the restaurant at the top.

When we got to the top the views were gorgeous. Again, I don't think my pictures are doing much justice to the scenery, but trust me, it is awesome. We went inside for a coke and piece of chocolate cake. We put on our arm and knee warmers and jackets and gloves for the descent. This descent was a little slower as the 14%+ grades made us stay on the brakes most of the time, and it was pretty cold on Angela's hands. Once we got back down to the lake though, things were back to normal. We climbed back up the Tre Croci climb and flew back down into Cortina. The ride was probably only 30 miles or so, if that, and climbed only about 5000 ft or so, but it was definitely the hardest ride we have done on this trip. That climb to Tre Cime was probably the hardest single climb I have done.

We woke up to partial sunshine once again, so after breakfast we hopped on our bikes and headed up the Passo Campolongo (which starts right outside our hotel). After climbing to the top (pretty short - only a couple of miles of climbing), we dropped down to Arabba and took a left turn towards the Falzarego. The Falzarego was a longer climb (maybe 12k or so), and really, wasn't even the top. Once we got to the top we took another left and rode to the top of the Passo di Valparola which was a km or 2 up the road. We stopped at the top of the Falzarego for a hot chocolate and to check out the view. Unfortunately our cameras aren't doing the views justice because of the clouds and overcast skies. There was a cool tram at the top of the Falzarego that went almost straight up - You'd have to pay me a lot to go up on that thing.

Once over the Valparola we headed on down again, and once again Angela kicked ass flying through all of the hairpins. We've decided that next time we come here, we are going to be on motorcycles - we've seen thousands of them riding these roads over the last week or so.

My GPS has been screwing up elevations a bit (I think the cloudy skies are the culprit), so I am not attaching the elevation graph - but it was a 31 mile ride, with about 4200ft of climbing.

Alright! The weather is changing for the better - so much for the poor forecasts. Today looks like it will be partly cloudy/partly sunny. The clouds seem to hang pretty low around these huge rock walls that surround us, but there are a lot of sucker holes in the sky and the clouds don't seem dark, so we decided to ride the Sella Ring or Sella Ronde. It is a pretty short ride, not very difficult, but super beautiful. We rode thru town and then immediately started climbing the Passo de Gardena which is about 2000 ft above Corvara. As we climbed, the road stayed dry and it looked like the valley behind us was filled with sunshine, so we figured that was a good sign, even though the top of the passes seemed a little cloudy. The top of the Gardena was at about 6900 ft. As we flew down the other side of the Gardena, we came across a little Ferrari club meeting. There were about 30 Ferrari parked along the road with all of the owners wearing their red Ferrari hats and sweaters. It was pretty cool. My brother Tim would have loved it.

We continued down the Gardena but only dropped about 800 ft before taking a left and immediately starting up the Passo Sella. This climb was a little quicker, in that it was only 1200ft or so, up to about 7400ft. The views from the top of the Sella were great. We could see the little town of Canazei down in the valley below, surrounded by huge mountains. This is also where Angela met some goats. They were tiny little goats - at least their legs were. But they were cute and Angela just had to say 'ciao!'

We put on some warm clothes and dropped about 1400ft in a matter of minutes, only to make another left turn and immediately started climbing the Passo Pordoi. I really like the Pordoi. The sun was out for most of it, and we could see over the valley and watch the paragliders flying above. We climber back up to about 7400ft or so and decided to get some lunch. We had our usual, Pizze Prociutto e Due Coca-colas. After lunch, we put the warm clothes on again for the descent of the Pordoi. Angela really started to rail the descents - now that her hands weren't frozen and she had some control of her brakes, we ripped down thru all of the hairpins. Unfortunately we got stuck behind a BMW that wasn't quite as aggressive as every other Italian driver, and Angela just couldn't find a safe place to pass, so we had to go a little slower than she would have liked. But it sure was fun! We dropped over 2000ft and made another left hand turn, up towards the Passo Campolongo.

The Campolongo was an easy one, just over 800ft of climbing and not more than 5km long. We got to the top in the sun, and suited up for one more quick descent back into Corvara. Angela was pushing it on the downhill again, catching up to a guy in his Porsche, but once again playing it smart and not trying to pass him since we were just a km or so from town. As we headed into town the sun was still shining and the clouds had partially lifted off of the strassenhoffer. We got into town, put the bikes in the car, and as we walked into our hotel it started to rain. Perfect timing! We did the whole Sella Ronde without a drop, and as soon as we finish, it starts to spit. We are very lucky and happy. Time to go get a beer and a pretzel! Hopefully we can do another great ride tomorrow. Today's ride - a mere 31+ miles, with about 5400+ ft of climbing.

We took the day off. The weather was looking shitty, and the jet lag caught up with Angela. So we napped in the morning, walked around in the afternoon, then did some laundry. By the way, Corvara does NOT have a laundromat. We walked a mile or so down the road to the place on the map that said 'laundry', and it was a dry cleaner. Rats! So we did the wash in the sink. That's not too big of a deal, but the thing that sucks is that this place is HUMID and our clothes aren't drying very fast. Here's a picture of the Sassehonger - or something like that. It's a huge rock that sits just outside of town.

Cavolo! Looking at the weather, we decided that today would be a good day to get in the car and drive. Bormio was nice, but the weather outlook was shitty. Marco at the Hotel Nevada was a great host, but we needed to get somewhere where we at least had a chance to ride. We drove over the Stelvio in the rain (so glad we rode it the day before - so I threw in a pic of Angela descending from yesterday). On the way up we saw about 2 women and 7 or 8 guys rollerskiing up the Stelvio - holy shit! This isn't like rollerskiing up Mt B - this is full on crazy. It looked like these guys were all from some team, we just couldn't tell which team - sorry Bert. We got to the top and it was pretty foggy and rainy so we went down the other side (slower coming down than we did on bikes). We hit the Autostrada (Autobahn) and headed thru Bolzano then up and over a pass down to Corvara. Angela spotted a few cool looking castles along the way and took a couple of photos. Corvara is a tiny little ski town located on the Sella Ring, which is a 50km loop over 4 passes - it looks awesome, but the weather looks like shit. We stopped at an Internet Cafe - and it looks like the weather all over Italy is shitty for the next few days. Tomorrow is supposed to be only partly rainy - so we might give it a go. We thought about driving south, but really, the rains are all over right now - so we may as well stay here, do some laundry, and have some beer! Go figure - it was 80 degrees and sunny up until last week! Argh!

We just got back from another delicious dinner. No complaints about the food so far - except for the orange scrambled eggs....

The weather report for Bormio looked questionable at best - off and on showers today and full on rain for Wednesday. We could either pack up and head out of Dodge, or give it a try. We woke up to partly sunny skies, which gave us the impetus to give it a try today. We knew that we had enough clothes to keep us warm if it started to rain or snow, and we could always turn around (I'm not afraid). We told the girl at the front desk that we would be staying another night and that we would be back before dark. We had breakfast here at the Hotel Nevada, and then got ready to go. It was 9:45 when we headed out of town (up). We climbed past the Bagni Vecchi spa that we went to yesterday, and then started to hit the hairpins and tunnels. The tunnels are pretty freaky, and it is Angela's first experience with them. We brought little knog lights, just in case we get in one that is pitch black, but they didn't really help us because there was just enough natural light to render them useless. But they were still pretty sketchy!

It was fairly cloudy, and pretty cold, but since we were climbing it didn't really affect us. We had our arm warmers and knees on, but just our standard jerseys up top, and I wasn't even wearing my gloves.

We got up to the turn off to the Umbrial Pass at about 8000 ft (Bormio was 4000 ft). The original plan was to turn left, drop down to Switzerland, take a right, and come back up the other side of the Stelvio. Well, the weather didn't really look that great. It was starting to look pretty shitty, so instead of turning left we continued up the Stelvio for the last 1000ft i. As we climbed it started to lightly snow on us - just barely. We got to the little town at the summit and went inside for a pizza and some coca-cola. We had climbed 5000 ft in 13 miles - about 2 hours.

After an hour to eat and get dressed for the descent, it was time to make another decision. Should we at least drop down 20 or so hairpins on the other side and see if the weather breaks? If not, we could easily climb back up and just shoot back to Bormio. We decided to give that a try. We dropped down 20 switchbacks in a matter of minutes, which turned out to be about 1800 ft. The weather was starting to break. We had sunshine i the valley below. Decision time again. Do we climb back up the hellacious 20 hairpins, or continue down the road, and just do our original route in the opposite direction. I was all for going back up. I didn't really want to risk Angela (or me) getting cold and really hating the ride. Well, Angela said "Let's keep going!" Wow - how awesome is my girlfriend? We dropped down and the weather held up. The skies cleared and the sun shined. It was still cool, but we were quite comfortable. everything on that side of the Stelvio is VERY Swiss. We weren't technically in Switzerland yet, but you could tell that the pass was really the assumed border.

We dropped down to about 3000ft or so and made a left back towards the road that would lead us back up the Umbrial pass. We knew that the whole ride was supposed to be about 63 miles or so, and we knew that the last 12 were going down from where we made decision #1 (which was at about 8000ft) - so we had a pretty damn good idea of how far we had to climb - both distance and elevation. About 45 miles in, Angela said "either you've got the numbers wrong or this thing is about to kick up real fast". Sure enough, a mile or so later it jumped from 5-7% up to 10-14%.

After a mile or so later we crossed the Swiss border. Everything still looked very Swiss, but no more so than the Italy on that side of the pass. We climbed and climbed and still felt pretty good, but it was starting to hurt. We kept hearing the ring of cowbells - yes, real cowbells, strapped to cows. You would here the ringing and it would get louder and louder until the next thing you knew they were right next to you. We even got caught in a little pseudo cattle drive at one point.

Unbeknownst to us, the road up the Umbrial pass turned to dirt. It only lasted for a couple of miles, but was a good 20-25 minutes. In retrospect, it was a good choice doing the loop counter clock-wise. We hit pavement again and kept on climbing past the cows and the big green pastures. It started to get pretty cloudy, and we were both starting to get pretty tired. I think Angela hit a wall with about 2 miles to climb, and I hit one with only a mile or so left - but we both knew we could finish and it wasn't that much farther. I could count the number of switchbacks left (I don't know if that helps Angela or hurts her - but I like knowing what I've got left. I think it sometimes irritates her, but since we were down to the final 5 or 6, I figured it was good information to pass on to her. We got within about 500 ft of the summit and stopped to put on all of our clothes again. I had my winter weight long sleeve, wind vest, and wind jacket on top of my SS jersey, craft top, and arm warmers. Time for the gloves as well. We crossed the summit and dropped passed the border patrol. Little did he know we were transporting 8 kilos of coke in our jersey pockets! Just kidding. It was only 4!

As soon as you cross the border you are back on the road that leads to the Stelvio/Bormio - about 10 hairpins from the top. We dropped down, but Angela's hands were starting to get cold, and anyone who know's Angela knows that that is a very bad thing. We dropped a few turns and had to stop, as Angela started shaking. But she was a trooper and kept on going, dropping a mile or so at a time before having to stop and try to warm up again. After we dropped a good 2000ft or so we could tell that the temp was a little warmer so we were able to go much longer without stopping. We hit the tunnels again, and they were almost scarier because we were going faster into the dark. Once we came to the Bagni Vecchi, we knew we were almost home. A warm shower awaited us, and then a delicious 4 course meal. Thank you Marco!

The ride took us all day - with stops for lots of pictures, lunch, food, etc. Ride time was about 6:30 and we climbed about 11000ft. Oh, by the way, we only saw about 5 other women (and I guarantee none of them climbed up twice). Angela heard a couple guys shockingly say "that was a woman!". Angela Rocks! Ciao!

Today was a travel day. We hoped to get out of Varenna early, and we did get out around 11:15 - not bad knowing that Bormio was about 2 hours away. Figured we'd have time to get a hotel and still climb the Gavia...but that didn't quite work out. We got here and it was raining a bit, and we saw a couple of cyclists coming back to town that were pretty wet and miserable looking. So we checked into our hotel - Hotel Nevada - and decided that today would be a good day to spend at the spa.

We drove a few km up the Stelvio pass (by the way - it was snowing up at the top of the Stelvio today) and went to this place called Bagni Vecchi - it was awesome. Built right into the side of the mountain, there is a huge hotel and then the spa. They gave us a towel, a robe, and a locker, and we spent a few hours relaxing. First, we jumped in the outdoor pool - which, along with just about everything else up there is fed by a natural hot spring. The pool was about 38 degrees celsius and had some jets in the side of the pool and had hot water pouring in from different pipes around the side. It was a little cloudy out, but the rain had mostly subsided. We had a great view over Bormio and the valley below. After the pool, we hopped into a smaller tub with powerful jets. The we went into another soaking pool that had 3 waterfalls of varying strengths that massaged our backs and arms. Next came another warm pool with a bunch of floaties in it. We laid back on those and submerged most of our heads, so we could hear tranquil underwater music and relax. Next we hit some relaxation room and then a little foot soaking/massage room, and then we moved over to a couple of the saunas. The first one was housed in a room dating back to the 13th century, and that one just got us warmed up for the second, much hotter sauna. We hit one or two other things that were like cold showers, then another relaxation room. We skipped a couple of saunas, and then headed back outside towards the Roman Bath. The 'Roman Bath' area consisted of an outdoor hottub (soaking pool) which once again overlooked the valley below. Then we went inside the 'bat caves' (their name, not ours) to soak in the hot pools some more. We found another area that included a mud bath, sauna, steam bath, and shower.

After that we headed in the 'Grotta' - which was a tunnel/cave where the spring actually came out of the mountain. We entered the cave and I felt like I was on a ride at Disney World - like Pirates of the Carribean - but much cooler, or should I say hotter. The cave was only as tall as I was (I had to duck a little) and the water was waist deep. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of an Indiana Jones movie - but with out the mice and gasoline and shit like that.

After the Grotta, we had one more dip in the outdoor pool, and then called in quits. It was a wonderful day off the bike. Hopefully tomorrow will bring us slightly nicer weather. We aren't afraid to ride in the rain, but we'd rather not descend the hairpins if they are really slick. I haven't had time to upload my photos from today - so I grabbed one off the internet. Time to go have dinner. Ciao!

We woke up to the sound of Omar screaming and yelling 'che cosa', Omar is the son of the owners of the Barchetta Hotel. It was about 9Am, and we got packed and ready to head over to Varenna. After a quick breakfast and a few more minutes at the internet cafe, we checked out, jumped in the car, and hopped on the ferry to Varenna. Varenna is a beautiful little town on the East coast of the Lake Como. Unfortunately it took us about a half hour to find a parking spot, but once we did, we really started to enjoy the town. We got on our bikes around 2:30, so it was going to be another easy/short ride. We rode up the coast for about 5km and then turned right and immediately started climbing. After an hour or so we came upon a bunch of donkeys to which Angela had to say 'ciao'. I had grabbed the ride off of MapMyRide - and it was great. We climbed about 3200 ft or so in about 13 miles (well, 10mi if you don't count the first 5km of flat). The views of lake Como were awesome - the slight haze in the air kept the pictures from showing the true beauty, but damn it was nice.
The climb wasn't crazy, but stayed around 7-10% for most of the climb, with some 11-13% thrown in just for fun. Again, the altitude here makes it feel soooooo easy to climb and not feel like you are hurting at all. We'll see if we feel like that tomorrow when we get to Bormio!

After getting in late last night, Angela and I quick got a room in Bellagio, hit a ristorante, and on the way back to the hotel had our first (and definitely not the last) gelato experience. Yummy! We headed back to the room and both passed out within minutes.

We slept in today. It had been a long journey getting here (air miles are great, but they don't get you a direct flight from Bend to Milan). Our room at the Hotel Barchetta (any Rush fans out there?) is quite nice - a comfortable bed, a balcony over the restaurant, a cute little kid named Omar running around (I think his parents run the place), and most importantly, it has a great shower. Not big, but tall, hot, and it has pressure. I know we shouldn't expect this the rest of the trip, but it is nice.

After waking up and getting ready, we went down for breakfast. Very orangish scrambled eggs were a little weird, but the bacon was good as was the bread and chocolate pastry were delicious. We found an internet cafe and downloaded our ride into my Garmin 705 GPS. I love this thing.

We climbed straight from our hotel, and I mean right away! We rode along the lake for about 500 ft to get around town then took a left and started the ascent to the Madonna del Ghisallo. It wasn't a hard climb, but was pretty steep at the beginning, with a lot of 12-14% grades and a shit load of hairpins. We got up to the little chapel that is filled with bike memorabilia and then checked out the museum as well. They had a lot of cool old bikes in there. After about an hour we jumped back on the bikes and headed down towards Asso. The sky spit on us for about 15-20 minutes, but it wasn't too bad and then we started climbing again which actually made it kind of nice. The elevation here is quite low - I think we started around 900ft or so - and the top of the highest climb was 3675 ft - just about the elevation of Bend. So this is a great place to start our riding in Italy because it is getting us warmed up for the bigger, higher climbs to come. We finished the ride with a great decent back down to lake Como, then rode along the lake for the last 13km. It was a great 35 mile ride (it shows 32, but I forgot to turn my GPS on after the museum for about 3 miles). Time to go get a coke and some food. Buon Serra!

Buon giorno! We finally arrived in Bellagio - on Lake Como - after a very long day of traveling. We flew from Redmond to Seattle to San Fran to Paris to Milan, then jumped in our super sweet rental wagon and drove up to Lake Como - which took a lot longer than we had expected. Actually - getting to Como was easy and fast - getting round the lake was crazy. It took us forever to drive the winding narrow street. At around 8PM we finally stopped and grabbed a hotel room. We have been traveling since 6AM on the 10th. Throw in the time change and we still travelled for over 28 hours. We will ride up the Madonna del Ghisallo tomorrow. And then decide to stay in Bellagio, or move over to Varenna. By the way. Pants with zippers are all the rage here in Italy. And they have no clue about not wearing white after labor day! Ciao!

I've got 6 weeks until I get to head over to Italy - woohoo! I had a great spring riding the MTB, and now I am pretty focused on riding the road bike - at least until flagline is open, then I might ride the mtb again for a day or two. But right now - I'm all about getting some climbing miles on the road bike. On Sunday I got to ride with my friend kevin. We rode up to Mt B, down to Sparks, back up to Mt B, down to the flat section of the Sunriver cutoff, and back up towards MtB. It wasn't very far, about 66 miles or so, but we got 5000 ft of climbing. I know I can just stay on Awbrey Butte and get a whole lot of climbing, but I prefer the longer climbs (not necessarily good at them, but I prefer them) where I can get into a rythm, and zone out a little bit.

The Cascade Classic seemed like a good event. Ed, Eric and Brian were kicking ass in the crit. I know Eric got third, but I guess they had issues with the timing and couldn't figure out how to score the masters races, so they just decided not to even bother trying to score the crit past the top 3. So I'll just pretend that Ed and Brian got 4th and 5th. Good job guys. I haven't seen the reults from any of the other races.

There are a bunch of National Championship races going on the week here in Bend - good luck to all of those riders. Seems like Bend is bustling with riders even moreso than usual.

Did I mention how #%@*ing hot it is? We got up to 92.5 here yesterday - IN THE SHOP! No AC sort of sucks. Pray for a cold spell!

The Bend cycling community is awesome. Last night we threw a little party/fundraiser for our friend and co-worker Andrey Yarbrough. He was hit by a truck 4 weeks ago and will be out of work for quite a while, so we figured he could use a little help getting through the next few months while he is rehabbing and not able to work.

Well, at least 150 people showed up and enjoyed great beers from Cascade Lakes Brewing Company (Thanks Chris) and great music by the Sweet Harlots (Thanks Laurel & Amy). Many who didn't even know Andrey, but just wanted to help a fellow cyclist. It's good to see the community come together like that. I saw owners and employees from Bend Bike 'n' Sport, Sunnyside Sports, and Sagebrush Cycles (and possibly other shops, I just don't know everyone from every shop).

We raffled off a bunch or door prizes from a whole lot of different companies-unfortunately I don't have a list of all of them because I was out getting more beer when we gave them away, but I know we had some stuff from Broken Top, Wade@Vulture Cycles, Edge Composites bars from Beverly @ BBNS, a helmet from Sunnyside, a cool handmade bowl from Andrey's friend Ryan, a massage from Cinda @ Recharge Massage Therapy, Cog Wild swag, race entries from Central Oregon Racing, and a weekend @ the Lara House from Lay It Out Promotions. Thanks to the Source & the Bulletin for helping us get the word out.

We also sold a butt load of raffle tickets for the big frame giveaway - we'll be raffling off a Niner EMD frame AND a custom hardtail from Warren Rice @ Realm Cycles. That raffle will take place @ the next WebCyclery Movie Night @ Mcmennamins. You DO NOT need to be present to win one of the frames.

So I'd like to thank everyone for coming out last night. The cycling community in Bend is a very special group of people and I am proud to be a part of it. It definitely makes me appreciate Bend even more than I already do.

Andrey has only been working here for about 7 or 8 months, but he has become a huge asset to our business. We miss his sense of humor and quality work that he does @ the shop. Hopefully he will be back soon.

Well, 8 days after getting struck by a car at 50mph, our boy Andrey is getting better and better. He is currently in Inpatient Rehab @ St Charles, where Kevin's girlfriend Angela works. He is in Room 703 in case you want to go visit and say 'hi'. He's in good spirits, and he is starting to walk a bit, although he said it was more like a 'six pack stumble'. Hopefully we will get him out of there before the weekend. His road rash is getting better, and he didn't seem to be in much pain. His short term memory is getting better every time I see him.

We have set up a fun @ the downtown Wells Fargo - the acct is under WebCyclery-Benefit Fund for Andrey Yarbrough. We are also accepting donations at the shop. He'll probably be out of work for a while, unfortunately. We miss him.

Crit series starts tonight. We've got a couple of heavy hitters in the 1-2 race - Go Brian & Eric! We probably have another 5-10 team guys doing the race, just not sure who. Go Team!

I went to the Memorial Service for Steve Larsen this weekend. It was a really nice event. It was amazing seeing all of the familiar faces from Bend. He had a really big impact on this community and will be missed.

On a happier note, MeanT and I finally finished our movie about the PPP - I think they are going to show it this weekend at the Tower Theater during the Bend Bicycle Film Festival. It's our first attempt at making a movie - so it's not as good as we wanted it to be, but we still think it is pretty good. You be the judge - come on in and get your tickets!

Speaking of movies - don't forget that tomorrow night is WebCyclery Movie Night @ McMenamins. We're showing a DH movie in 3-freakin'-D - wahwho! Should be fun, if for no other reason than to see everyone in those funny glasses.

I've been able to ride my bike with a little consistency for the last couple of weeks, which is nice. This weekend Angela and I rode up to Mt.B and MeanT and I rode GS and Storm King and COD and ELV and all that stuff. It was a fun weekend of riding for me.

Angela and I are still trying to figure out our plans for Italy - if anyone has good suggestions for places/rides in Northern Italy - let me know.

-Kevin

Last night Bend lost one of it's heroes.

the chainbreaker went off pretty well. We had a record number of entrants - i think 316 or so, plus another 30+ kids in the kid race...so close to 350 if you count them. The weeks of rain leading upto the race really kept the dust down, making for about perfect trail conditions. 

no - I won't be racing, but I think we might take the WebCyclery Bus up to the Bear Springs race this weekend if we can find enough teammates who want a ride. I know Angela is racing, and I think at least 4-5 more WebCyclery riders are going....so hopefully we can. 

Dammit! I've finally succumbed to all the pleas - I started to tweet - so follow my twitter - http://twitter.com/webcyclery - and I also set up a stupid facebook page. I've been postponing this because I think this is going to potentially be a huge time suck, and I already have too much crap that I need to do - but I'm told it is fun, and my sister-in-law is going to love it!

Spring Classic ride is this Sunday - we leave at 9AM - no charge - no frills - no bitching. If you don't like the gravel & dirt, just go a different way. That's the beauty of it!

Angela just called me from Sea Otter - she got 5th in her XC race today - woohoo!

Thank God It's April! The weather is finally starting to get nice. Yesterday, MeanT and I headed out for my first real ride of the year. Nothing hard or long, just a couple of hours on the road bike. Everything went pretty well and I made it home without having a heart attack, so I guess that is a good thing. 

Labels: Thank God It

We've been working pretty hard down at the shop these past few weeks and have changed things up a bit. We're still organizing things a little bit, but we hope you'll come in and check out the changes. We've increased the size of the showroom a bit so we can fit a lot more bikes on the floor. 

I've really gotten back into playing guitars in the last 6 months. I played a little bit as a kid, took a year of lessons, but never really got into it. The, during the next 20 some years or so I would pick it up for a week or two every few years. Never getting any good. Well, this time is definitely different. A few of my friends have also started getting into it, and we're having a great time. I'm trying to learn some theory and all that shit, which is tough, but I am getting better. I went out and bought myself a nice new Breedlove Atlas Stage D25/SR a few months ago and I am loving it.

Now it is time for me to start thinking about more guitars....(I have an addictive personality, and just like bikes, you can't have just one guitar). I think I want a nice Gretsch, maybe a Les Paul or a Strat, or possibly a Paul Reed Smith. And I'm going to need some amps....hmmm, starting to get expensive. But not that bad....For the price of 1 nice bike, I can get a few guitars and amps, and be set for a while (do you like how I can justify this?). So one of my thoughts is that I need to sell one of my extra bikes, or at least some stuff, and put that towards my guitar fund. Anyone looking for a 51cm (XL) Salsa Primero? Great shape. Or even better, are there any guitar shop owners out there that like to ride bikes and want to trade? If any of you have a friend that owns a music shop and rides bikes, please let me know, or let them know that I want to meet them!

I had a good ski on Sunday. Well, I didn't really ski well - but it was fun. I've taken too much time off in the last month with Inventory and being sick and then my back was sore and blah blah blah....Time to start skiing again - Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun - woohoo!

Later

Kevin

Well, if you haven't already read about it or heard about it, we are in the middle of our 11th Anniversary Sale. 11 whole years. 2 years in my garage, 3 years in the small shop, and now 6 years in our current digs. It has been a long time, and I like to think we keep on getting better. I really do love what I do, and I am pretty happy that I can honestly say that we have the best staff we have ever had. I feel really lucky.

We also have great customers, which are a huge part of why I like my job so much. Without our customers, we wouldn't be in business. Period. So if you are reading this, thank you. Thanks for coming in and giving us a chance to serve you. Thanks for checking out and reading through our website. Thanks for trusting us with your bikes and skis. If you are local, please come in and visit us during our sale. We are blowing a bunch of stuff out (good stuff, but for some reason we haven't been able to sell it), including all sorts of ski stuff, even though the ski season isn't even half over (since we started around Dec. 15 and will ski through April 15th or later....).

Come in this week and join us for a beer compliments of our friends over at Cascade Lakes Brewing Company

On a more personal note, MeanT and Bert and I went up for a great ski this morning. We (by we I am referring to nordic skiers in Bend) have it really good here. Some people bitch and moan about the grooming at Mt Bachelor, but it really is quite good. For those who bitch, they need to get out of town a little more often and see how most places groom. Sure, there are a few exceptions that might have better grooming, but not many. We pay $230 or so for a ski pass, and we get really good grooming on a whole lot of trails every day. Not every other day, or 3 days a week, but every day. I like to go early, and I ski on fresh corduroy all the time. Here's a hint - the earlier you go, the better it is (usually). If you go skiing at 4 o'clock every day, after hundreds of peoplee have skied, yes, the trails will be chopped up a bit. Go figure. But that's not Mt B's fault. They work their butts off to make sure that no matter how much or how little snow there is, we have good skiing, everyday.

Gotta run.

-Kevin

Thursday night we are going to be having a little party here at WebCyclery to celebrate the fact that Bend has been picked to host the Cyclocross Nationals for the next 2 years. Woohoo! If you are a local, stop on by between 5 and 8 and join us for some Deschutes beer and food from the Taco Stand. We'll also have a band playing as well. Should be fun.

acjNot much biking going on this last month. The snow finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, which is good for ski business. I think Mt Bachelor got another 4 ft in the last 3 days or so. The nordic skiing has been decent, but not great yet. I've been sticking to the classic skis so far. We've had so much snow that I figure it is going to be pretty soft each day I go. That, and the fact that I'm not in any kind of ski shape right now. I'll hopefully start skating this week and doing intervals and all that shit. At least that's the plan. 

Well, after my back went out a few weeks ago, I decided that I should just stay off the bike and wait for the snow to fall to get back into an exercise regiment - but I just couldn't do it. I had to get back on the bike last weekend and see if my back could hack it. MeanTodd and I rode with SuperDave (Footzone). He hadn't been riding for a few weeks too, so we were both pretty slow, which was good for me. We just did a basic loop around Phil's, 20 miles altogether, nice and sloooooow. It was great, and more importantly, I'm still walking 4 days later. So that means that tis weekend I can really go for a couple of rides (the dirt here in Bend is about perfect right now).

My girlfriend is doing a lot better as well. She's walking with just a cane now,and will probably get rid of that pretty soon. She's pretty fed up with sitting around my house, but it could have been a lot worse, and she's a lot happier now that she can get out and about a little bit. She won't be riding her bike for a couple more months, but she should be able to ski a little in January.

Time to go to Costco....

-Kevin

So a couple of weeks ago I got a call on from my girlfriend while I was at work. The connection sucked, but I could make out that she had crashed on Phil's Trail and needed me and needed help. Shit! I grabbed a demo bike and threw it in my car and flew out to Phil's Trail. I called 911 on the way and pedaled up the canyon. I found her laying on the ground with a couple of guys hanging out making sure she was okay. She had gotten thrown off her line and smacked a big tree - hard. After a few hours of waiting for the search and rescue, she finally got ATVed out of there. We spent the next few days in the hospital. Seems she had 3 transverse process fractures (vertebrae) and a few non-displaced fractures in her pelvis. Ouch. Her shoulder is pretty screwed up too. Overall, she's good. She can get around and finally left the house yesterday with the help of some friends.

In the process of caring for her (lifting her around the hospital, sleeping in chairs and on couches) I subsequently threw my back out again. It had been a year or so, which is pretty good for me. Had I stretched and slept better, I probably would have been okay. Oh well, lesson learned. A week later and I am almost back to normal. Still a little tight, but should be able to exercise by the weekend.

Angela is getting a lot better. She is very bummed out, and very sore, but in the big scheme of things, she got very lucky that she didn't need surgery and didn't have any spinal damage or head injuries.

She deeply appreciates all of the love and support that all of our friends and families have shown. You are all great.

Gotta run.

-Kevin

This weekend I finally had the chance to ride my bike in the Ochocos Mountains which are located about 15 miles outside of Prineville, OR. Bend's Big Fat Tour featured a ride up Round and Lookout Mountains on Friday. Unfortunately, Henry and Ed already had the day off so they could ride it. Instead, I went on Saturday with a couple of other Bendites who didn't make it on Saturday. The drive sucks - about an hour or so out to the ranger station. From there, you climb about 1200 ft on a 7 mile paved road, and then the real climb begins. The climb up to Round mountain is pretty steep and just keeps going and going and going. I think it tops out around 6500ft (2600+ft of climbing in the first 11 miles) after a couple of hours of climbing. There is a quick descent (just a few miles) and then the climb up to Lookout Mtn begins. This is another 2500ft or so, topping out close to 7000ft. The views from the top are awesome (I forgot my camera). Then, the fun begins. The descent rips for about 10 miles or so with just a few little climbs on the way. The ride ends up being around 29miles with about 5600+ ft of climbing. That's a whole lot of climbing.