Good morning and Happy Monday!

In Texas, we had another wacky weekend of weather for cycling.  Saturday was cold and blustery, with winds in the Hill Country out of the North and up to 40 mph.  Unfortunately, this was the direction we had to go to reach the Fall Creek Vineyards during our Board Retreat ride.   It was a brutal journey, and the whole time I'm thinking to myself, "I brought these guys up here to have a good time, and this is what they get?? I'm going to have a mutiny on my hands!"   But it was all worth it when we got to the winery.  After a tasting or two, everyone warmed up and was ready for the ride back.  We even got some tailwind in a few places to give us a boost.    Thanks to Tony Ralph from the MS Society for providing SAG support to us on a day when we really needed it!

Group shot during Retreat with new team mascot.

In San Antonio, no one braved the weather to join Andrea Shull and Jeanine Maldonado as they did their final training ride to prepare for the BP 150 next weekend.   Every Monday I ask the ride leaders to give me a summary of the weekend rides.  Andrea's report was short and straight to the point: "It was just the two of us. We ended up riding 75 agonizing miles. Cold, windy, and miserable."   Hats off to the two of them for training so hard, and let's wish them success during the BP event!

On Sunday, it was a different story.  No wind, clear skies, and temps in the 70s.  Carl Crawford, John Tenison, and Jeff Ritcherson rode 45 miles around Helotes, including the hills of 211, Scenic Loop, and Babcock.   Jeff is a new rider this year, and this is the longest ride he's ever done.  Add in the elevation they did, and it's quite an accomplishment that he finished!

Next week we resume our formal training schedule.   It's also Fiesta in San Antonio, my favorite time of year.  Fiesta is a two week celebration of everything that is wonderful about South Texas, complete with parades, festivals on every street corner, music of every variety throughout the day, and lots of random smashing of confetti-filled eggs on people's heads.   It's a great time to be alive, to be outdoors, and to spend some time on your bike.  We'll have a training ride Saturday morning as always, but we'll also try and get team members to do the Fiesta Wildflower Ride on Sunday.   If you do decide to do this ride, please wear your team jersey if you have one.  I'll be sending out more details later in the week, including who the deputized Team Captain will be for the event.

 Finally, the Tour events are rapidly approaching - the Napa event is 19 days away, and the Texas, So Cal, and Philly tours are 33 days away.  If you want to ride with Velo Valero in any of these events, you need to register and be actively training and fundraising - time is running out!  As of 08:00 am this morning, I'm proud to announce that we cracked the $60,000 mark in National Team fundraising - click here to see the latest totals.  Hitting this milestone is the good news.  The bad news is our target is $100,000, so we all need to crank it up a notch to reach this goal by June, when the last Tour event is held.   I know we can do this!

As always, please contact David Sloan, our fundraising Board Member, if you need some assitance or encouragement on your fundraising efforts.

See ya' on the road!