Cycling – Cartwheels and Cake

UnboundXL: 2024

I’m slowly coming off the high that was Unbound Gravel. I love hearing everyone’s stories, and knowing behind every person that lined up at the start there were a myriad of experiences and events that eventually brought them back to the finish one way or another. Here’s a little bit of mine:

Start line on Commercial St. felt way more ‘official’ than in ’22, and I manage to start near the front this time. So many friends are there to see us all off. A hug from Betsy, who I rode through the night with in … Continue reading

Tour Divide

Let it be known that this is the day I started seriously considering racing the Tour Divide in 2023. Will it happen? No idea. But I’m seriously thinking about it.

That’s all. That’s the post. Let’s see what happens in 7 months 😏

Falling, sliding, crashing, and winning

Before the Cyclo X series started I headed out for another Wednesday afternoon race in the Back 2 Basics series. This time I entered in the Women’s B field, and found myself starting with about 17 women. It had been windy and rainy during the pre-ride but by the race conditions were pretty great.

Awkwardly trying to hop a barrier at B2B

I managed to finish 6th out of 17 women which I was really happy with! The course had a lot of single track and tight turns which equaled much needed practice for me. The barriers went okay too, … Continue reading

Slip sliding into cross with both feet!

For the past couple years I’ve heard of this sub-sport of cycling called cyclocross. People always describe it as a cross between mountain biking, road biking, and steeplechase, so that’s how I described it too. That is, until recently when someone finally asked me exactly what is steeplechase… to which I mumbled something about horses and barriers and then admitted I wasn’t exactly sure and stopped using that reference.

So what is cyclocross (usually just called “cross” or “CX”)? I’d say it’s a totally ridiculous, fun, and exhausting 25-60min race where you ride your bike as fast as you can … Continue reading

RPI 2022: Year 2!

Last December Paul convinced us to return to Rebecca’s Private Idaho: Queen’s Stage Race. It was our first big gravel race in 2021, and we learned a ton. The hope was that we could apply some of what we learned to do better this year!

While we both fully recovered from COVID, thankfully, we had lost out on a LOT of training in July. That left us just 4 weeks to really train (which was not enough time). So we headed out to Idaho as better racers, but less fit than in 2021, to see what would happen.

Unbound XL, let’s go!

Well, I had dreams of adding some blog updates before this but things have been busy. But I didn’t want to ride off on my biggest ride without putting down a few thoughts ahead of it.

It’s currently 11AM, 4 hours until we roll out. The bike is packed and prepped, the last few lights are charging, and I have just a couple final things to cross off the to-do list before go time.

The energy in Emporia has been incredible – the whole town seems to be welcoming riders, from the used car dealership to the churches to the … Continue reading