Good morning and happy Monday! This will be a short blog entry today, because we are into the dog days of summer, and there really isn't a lot of team news to impart.
...Well, it was a wet weekend with very little cycling (for me at least). Chuck called me at 6:30 am Saturday morning and said he was calling off the training ride at 07:30 am because of the rain. I spent the afternoon babysitting my 8 month old niece and watching some very good movies recommended by a friend and fellow film buff ("Secondhand Lions" with Micheal Caine and Robert Duval, and the John Wayne safari film, "Hatari"). I got up early Sunday, and did my 25 mile Hill Country Village solo ride, which was pleasant as always. Because of the wet spring, the deer are fat and active, and many of them chased me for short distances as I rode. Sunday afternoon was Dadstock, the annual gathering of Dads from across the family that I invite to my home on Father's Day for a barbeque and pool party. It was fun as always to spend the day with all my nieces and nephews, and to hear the incessant chant of "Uncle Peter! Uncle Peter!" I'll confess I didn't participate in the Spurs river parade and dome celebration, because it was just too nice to sit in the hot tub and have food and drink delivered to me for hours on end...
NOTE: Chuck did tell me Monday that he and PJ rode the Bullis County route on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Here's his report:
PJ and I were the only ones who showed yesterday. We did the full Kendalia ride (about 53 miles). We stopped at the falls on Edge Falls Road and they were beautiful; flowing really fast because of the rains. This alone made the ride worthwhile. We also herded some goats that were on the road.
Otherwise, the ride was pretty brutal for some reason. I had a slow leak in my back tire which I continued to pump up with PJ's pump. PJ suffered some cramping in her legs. Add to that the hills of Spring Branch Road, a healthy headwind plus the heat and humidity which made for a very difficult ride. Both of us were glad to finish.
I promised I'd never do this again...but they extended the deadline for the early bird registration on the
Valero MS 150 Bike to the Beach until
Friday, June 22nd. You'll save $15 bucks if you register before then. To register on-line,
click here. Make sure you register with team
Velo Valero!
Finally, we had our monthly Board of Directors meeting on Friday. We discussed all sorts of topics; to see the minutes from the meeting, click here. I'm really fortunate to have such a great group of folks helping me run this team! At this meeting, long time team member, Board Member, and all round great guy Ken Mayfield announced he is stepping down from the Velo board because of his new role as Captain of the NuStar team. We will miss Ken, and want to let him know we appreciate his many contributions to Velo Valero over the years. He'll continue to join us for training rides every now and then, which he and the NuStar folks are always welcome to do.
- Peter