Good Grades = Skipping School + Riding Bikes

Ready. Set. Go(ne).Gone bike riding.We gathered a crew this morning for Asheville's first edition of the #TKAtoZ Tour. Waking up to a brisk 18 degrees in Asheville, I knew whoever was brave enough to arrive to Vortex Doughnuts at 9am would be pumped for a steamy coffee and still warm donut. Conveniently, I drive from east to west, from New Hampshire to California, from A to Z, I can now cross the Chocolate Graham Cracker yeast-raised doughnut* off the list of alphabet list. C, check. G, check. Another C, check!Once fueled up, we hit the road and climbed skyward to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway lived up to its namesake billing. Having lived here from 2007 to the tail end of 2008, it tugs on my nostalgic heartstrings to be back in the southern Appalachians. There is nary a flat road around here, which makes the riding as challenging as it is rewarding. And they are in fact blue. Today's VIP on our ride was a local youngin' named Ben. Ben is the man. He's 13 years old, so maybe "the kid", "the kiddo", the "manchild" are more appropriate monikers. Despite his age, he dropped the word serpentine on me regarding the roads around here. The use of that word at any age, let alone a 13 year old struck me that he's likely got something going on upstairs in that noggin of his. Look kids, here's words to the wise: Do well in school, impress your parents with good grades, and every now and again they might let you do cool stuff like skip school to ride bikes. I'm not saying Ben admitted to skipping school today, buuut I'm not saying he didn't either.Here's that winning formula:Good Grades = Skipping School + Riding Bikes.Pay specific attention; this formula does NOT read: Skipping School + Riding Bikes = Good Grades. That latter formula is a fast track to dropping out of school.#Math.Here's Ben riding the serpentine, gravel roads of the Biltmore estate as we approach the cross national championships course. And once we arrived at the venue, the revered folks of SRAM were there to make sure my Cannondale Slate was in happy working order. Jose here checks over the rear derailleur which is a ridiculously cool CX1 drivetrain. For the first time in my life, I have a one-by drivetrain. Meaning a single 44t front chainring is paired up to a 42-10t rear cassette. TEN teeth people! I was booking down the Parkway today at nearly 40mph before I finally spun out. This bike, this drivetrain, this entire set-up just makes me smile. Plus we saw Richard Fries making smooch-smooch with an UnTapped maple waffle. Can you blame him? So let's ride bikes tomorrow, shall we? In an effort to try all the fried, round, umm... "baked goods" of Asheville, I vote that we arrive to Hole Doughnuts in West Asheville at 9:45am and we will begin the roll at 10 tomorrow/Thursday. This gives you an extra few minutes of warmth in the morning followed by a sweet bike ride. Again, we'll end up at the Biltmore to watch bike races and have a rowdy fun time.Hole, West Asheville, 9:45am, Ride, #CXNats, Fun.  *I'm an ardent supporter of spelling donuts as such. Nothing puts an ugh in donuts quite like u-g-h. However, that's how they spell it down here in North Carolina. similarly, I don't like the gas station Kum & Go. That's just bizarre.