The weather today is much warmer than the sub-freezing weather earlier this week. The tradeoff for the warm temperature is that now we have a windstorm. Weather.com shows the following weather for Walla Walla:
The morning commute took a few minutes longer than usual. A 50 mph blast really slows the bike down.
Trust But Verify this week had excellent coverage of the Leadville 100 MTB race. The battle between Dave Wiens and Floyd Landis was exciting, but the most inspirational part of the coverage were the blogs of the average riders. The perserverence of some riders just to finish was incredible. It makes me want to participate the Leadville 100, or some equally challenging race someday.
I made a summary page of Leadville 100 links that can be found HERE.
I have finally installed Gallery 2.0 and uploaded the Tour of Walla Walla pictures. Two months later is better than never, I suppose.
4/20/07: I took Friday off work and rode my bike from Walla Walla to Waitsburg to watch the start of the Kellog Hollow road race. This race was required for the Men’s Pro-1-2 categories but was optional for Men’s Cat 3 and Women’s 1-2-3 categories.
The race was a loop, and I was considering riding to the finish line. However, I was a bit worn out riding the 21 miles there and decided it would not be wise to try since I still had to ride back. Maybe next year when I am in better shape!
More Kellog Hollow Road Race Pictures
4/21/07: My parents came to Walla Walla, so my parents, wife and kids all drove to Waitsburg to watch the ToWW. The Wilson Hollow Time Trial for the Juniors was happening at the same time as the Waitsburg Road Race for the adults, and vica versa. We decided to just watch the time trial.
More Wilson Hollow Time Trial Pictures
4/22/07: It rained early in the morning, and was pretty cold. We all headed over to watch the Walla Walla Criterium stage of the ToWW, except my wife who unfortunately was ill, and my son Nick who kept her company. After a few hours, Xander and my mom decided to go home because it was too cold, so it was just Dad and I watching the final stages.
A few pictures from my Easter ride:
On the way out of Walla Walla:
Entering Dixie:
Halfway up the hill, looking down:
Halfway up the hill, looking up:
The nice thing about riding a bike is you notice things you never would
have noticed by car.
Top of the hill between Dixie and Waitsburg, facing Walla Walla:
A nice view of the Blue Mountains:
The weather was very nice.
Me, after the ride:
Given that today was the last day that studded tires can legally be on cars in Washington State, I figured I better take my car to Les Schwab to have my tires swapped out for the unstudded variety. The Tire Guy told me that it was going to be two and a half hours, I decided to just walk the 3/4 of a mile home and go on a bike ride with my 13-year-old son Xander while I waited.
Xander’s bike needed more air in its tires, so he started filling them up. Unfortunately, he snapped the tip off the presta valve on one of the tires so he ended up having to replace the tube. Since this was his first time replacing a tube on his own, so it took about half an hour.
We decided to take the short 13.5 mile Valley Grove road route since our time was limited today. I told Xander that maybe we should take it easy on the way out, since we had a pretty good tailwind and we did not want to wear ourselves out before we had to fight the headwind on the way back. Well, “taking it easy” didn’t last five minutes, and soon we were both racing past each other.
Usually, I can hold my own downhill and on the flats, but Xander has the climber’s build whereas my build is closer to Santa Claus. I somehow managed to beat him up the last hill before we were about to turn on Valley Grove road.
There was a bunch of gravel at the intersection which I navigated through without any difficulty as I was riding my mountain bike. Xander threw caution to the wind as he took the corner a bit too fast (given the gravel and that he was riding a road bike) and he ended up taking a spill. Xander a few bruises and scrapes but nothing was broken. After his obligatory, “Ow! Ow! Ow!” commentary, Xander’s first question was, “Is my bike alright?” The bike also had a few minor scrapes but luckily it got through the ordeal intact.
We decided to ride back the way we came, since it was a little bit shorter. No racing ensued, but Xander remained in good spirits, as you can see in the picture below:
Overall, Xander had a few good biking firsts: First solo tube change and first significant road rash.