Sidetracked

Good grief, where has time gone? The last post was about the upcoming King Challenge, rolling out October 15, which does take up a lot of my time planning, but far from all of it. This might be the final plea for support, so if you can find it in your heart, your wallet, or your checking account to make even the smallest donation, I would be incredibly appreciative. Better yet, it makes the world a better place at the Krempels Center.You can donate here.You can register here.You are supporting these folks.And YOU are a good person for checking out any of those. Thanks.Preface, complete. Commence bloggage:In the meantime since the last post, I got to ride with my childhood hero Glen Plake. Once upon a time, I thought I would be a professional skier. I could do jumps, I could touch my skis and feet in the air and call it a "grab" when in fact it was much more of a light tap. I could spin, onetime turning 2.5 times around for a solid 900, but going inverted is counterintuitive, so my fledgling ski career came to a close. Glen is a professional skier and a pioneer in freestyle big mountain skiing. His hair is amazing and he was in Blizzard of Aaahhhs for goodness sake! Legend.I met Glen while riding the Mammoth Gran Fondo. I've never been to the eastern Sierras, but it's akin to riding a bike on the moon. More oxygen and a lot hotter, but starkly barren and stunning. Plus the fondo is awesome since there are no cars, so you have a ton of wide open roads as far as the eye can see. I rode with my buddies Chris, Billy, and new pal Jon Hornbeck. Good kid.This crew usually rides from Mammoth to Las Vegas the day after the Mammoth fondo, which isn't quite a million miles, but it may as well be. Timing wasn't right this year, with an entire week between the fondo and Interbike, so we instead opted for the 131 mile, ahem, recovery ride. Again, barren, wide open, and stunning.Also a biblical storm hailed down on us and we were nearly blown into the ravine a few times as we neared the end of the ride and after our beginning group of 15 was shelled by one-third. But everyone survived and it was once again... stunning.I don't know where this photo was shot, but I've been eating a lot of guacamole lately. This kind of looks like any number of pre-dinners I've consumed in the past three months, so I thought it was worth sharing.I think the greatest joy in life is riding a bike with kids. So I met up with my very good friend Joao and rode his kiddo Liam to school. "Hey Ted, you're nearly in the lane of car traffic!" Simmer down folks, I just dodged a pothole the size of Rhode Island and had to veer left. Yup, as the photo was snapped. Gripe less, ride more -- the world will be a better place.I went mountain biking at some frighteningly early hour. This, however, is a sunset. And with the days growing ever shorter, this is probably at 6:47pm.Next up was the Blackberry Pro-Am. You won't find a place with better hospitality, more stunning scenery, the chance to ride with some stellar pros,...and the humidity of the southeastern United States, until you've stumbled upon Blackberry Farm. I can't thank them enough for what's a growing and tremendous organization.Some early morning mist sitting heavy in the Smokey Mountains.We've just completed the team time trial for the mighty green team. Hence I'm sweating out of every pore and look haggard and Laura just looks her natural beautiful self.So hot. Want to go swimming.Blackberry is building a strong benevolence to the Pro-Am. Each pro has their team of 10 riders and over the course of two days, all riders compete as a team and individually to gain points. The winning team takes home a large check for a large sum of money for the charity of the corresponding pro's choosing. Here, Miguel takes home a large check for a slightly smaller sum of money for the Krempels Center.Good people doing good things on bikes. I love it.From some of the finest hospitality to the world to Las Vegas, also some of the finest hospitality in the world. But I'm not into gambling, so it's just a different shade of that. I spent lots of time visiting my incredible sponsors throughout my stay at Interbike. Here, SRAM tech mogul Mike Spilker teaches me the simplicity of the new SRAM HRD bleed. Even a mechanical dumb-dumb like me can figure this one out.The Jensie Fondo is in my backyard of Marin, so that's a no brainer. Plus POC and Velocio sponsors it, my local shop Studio Velo hosts it and they're literally a 5 minute walk from my house, and I get to ride with my New England pals like Gavin Mannion and this guy. He's from Maine. Ergo, he loved my hat.Rolling out with 1200 of my besties.Rest stop number one was a whetting of the palate. Laurens Ten Dam, the Dutch transplant to Santa Cruz, CA knows a thing or two about stroopwafels, and he knows that maple syrup is a much more delicious and nutritious alternative to glucose syrup or maltodextrine or "natural flavors". Ignore the terrible photo editing, because LTD is in heaven with his UnTapped :)I raced and won Dirty Kanza back in June. I booted my tire after my second flat with an UnTapped maple packet wrapper. It's still holding strong a few hundred miles later on my handsome Cannondale Slate. Delicious, nutritious... and durable.Soon following that fondo, it was onto another. Levi's fondo is of course a longtime member of the North American fondo scene and this was the first time I could make it out. Helpful, given that it's now just an hour from where I'm living in the Bay area. The day before the ride, we had a small'ish group of 40 do a special VIP ride. It was an easy pace and just 30 minutes, so someone asked if we could do a little extra. I mentioned the greatest cinnamon buns were located west of Santa Rosa and figured maybe four or five people would join us. Well, apparently cinnamon buns are a beacon for bike riding, so 25 of us navigated some gnarly climbs and heinous traffic to get here. Here you go.One bun usually satisfies four hungry people. Lucas, here, is clearly satisfied with his sugary, spicy, and buttery meal.I always heard that the first 30 minutes of the Levi's fondo is zesty pace because you have 6,000 people racing to the front to snap a selfie with themselves and Levi. Turns out, there's truth to that, so with the help of local superpro Andrew Talansky's fresh legs from a near podium at the Vuelta, and some other WorldTour horsepower, we quickly assembled a group of eight. It was around then that Levi told me there's a very special bottle of Patron on the line for the win. We eight widdled down to six, then four, then two. Just Laurens Ten Dam and I, both fueled by UnTapped of course, were duking it out for the win. Nearly all the highlights are seen here.I say "nearly" because then in the final hotly contested 200 meters, LTD took his phone out to snap a video, at which point I pumped him for the win. Thankfully I still shared my tequila'y riches with him.Directly from there, well, upon processing a few sips of tequila, I drove to the East Bay for the first day of Pablove Across America. This is a ride benefitting pediatric cancer research and they're reaching incredible heights, especially in rare pediatric cancers. Cannondale and SRAM, both sponsors of mine, are big sponsors for this event, so I was more than pleased to help this crew ride the 85 mile day one. My hats off to what they're doing, both as an organization, and this peloton of 40 riding clear across the state of California. I've raced a lot of these roads in the Tour of California, and know how brutal -- and stunning -- they can be.Next up, a quick SRAM Open The Road event. That's a really cool series of rides that introduces people to SRAM's sweet new lineup of components. This one was about eTap which is the smartest, most intuitive, and simplest electronic shifting on the market. It performs flawlessly and looks great.And to all, a good night. Or weekend or whatever you've got on tap.