"Yes, and..."
In the coast to coast, musical chairs game of “where is the correct set of bikes and wheels, the pack-and-play, and lifejackets”, I’m pleased to have started packing two weeks ago, which is two weeks prior to our departure. Our two month stint in California came to a close yesterday morning a few minutes after 6am when we jammed the very last bits of our sometimes nomadic life into our van and hit the road. Next up is Gravel Locos in Texas, we’ll then drive straight to Kansas for Unbound, I’ll then make a slightly circuitous route to Banff, Canada in order to take place in the grand depart of the Tour Divide while Laura and the kids get some RnR home.
On more than one occasion I’ve been asked if I’m racing Tour Divide or chasing a record. It seems foolish to set lofty goals for an event of this magnitude, all the more so having never ridden more than about a dozen miles of it. Take an expert like Lael who rides the course as an “opener” and knows the course inside and out. That’s the experience that it takes to chase a record with confidence. My response leans more towards “this will be the longest time I’ve been away from my family, so I’ll be eager to finish as quickly as possible to get home to spend time with them.” That’s as wholesome as it is true.
So what’s been the point of this whole west coast swing? During my time living in California in 2016 and 2017, I struck up a relationship with the Mill District in Healdsburg. The following year we moved to Vermont and it worked out that Mill District work would be a combination of remote plus periodic trips to the sunshine state. (Kind of like working from home with periodic trips to the office, the office is just the entire country away.) Soon after that, Laura left her job and started working with Mill District as well, with the shared task of building a cycling community in this corner of the world. People come to Healdsburg from all over to ride; the roads, climbs, and route options are seemingly endless, but there wasn’t a common thread to pull it all together. That’s been our job for the better part of five years and that’s been the main impetus to coming to Healdsburg. That it allows us to avoid mud season in Vermont this spring is just a fringe benefit.
Other perks to being in California this spring were the combination of attending, camping, and racing Sea Otter. The Grasshopper races are celebrating their 26th year of existence and have been a blast to ride and race sporadically since 2008, so taking part in two of those was terrific. Celebrating Easter camping by the beach with friends, the chance to podcast and shoot videos, set out on birthday rides, massive rides, all with the ability to chalk them up as training is a perk of the current climate of endurance riding. Namely, big rides seem to be the name of the game.
To cap it all off, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Giro d’Panera two days prior to departure. I could explain the meaning of this ride, but my dear friend Anthony hits it on the head here. It’s an odd feeling to get to the end of an enormous ride like that and recognize that it’s less than half of what I’ll take on at Unbound XL. Or, doesn’t hold a candle to what’s looming ahead during Tour Divide. In the spirit of a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll make myself verbose and send along some lovely shots courtesy of my friend Jim.
It sometimes feels like the hamster wheel of life is has us spinning from one place to the next to the next with no concrete end in sight. It’s almost like the improv game, “yes, and…” where the scene continues infinitely. The places this hamster wheel is taking our family in this game of life are exciting and extraordinary, so at least for the time being I say let the wheel keep spinning.