so far behind...

sorry for the lack of posts, the hotel in Pheonix had no internet and....aw, nevermind. I'll post up more images from the Tour in the next few days. In the meantime, I've set up a link to all our tour pics over at flickr - just hit the link listed at the right.

enjoy!

the starting line

ok, some pics in dribs & drabs. Here's a few from the starting line. 8500 riders in the predawn cold. Somehow the team stayed together, and my 1-man cheering squad was in full-force...

done.

just a quick note before I go to bed (I really, REALLY need to go to bed). I finished the ride in one piece with a final official time of 8 hours, 9 minutes 18 seconds. Just about what I was hoping to hit. Pics to come, but here's the obligitory finish line shot in the meantime...

bike pick-up + swag

The trip down to Tucson went without any problems - about 1.5 hours door-to-door. After checking in at the hotel we ventured out to find the convention center where the bikes would be waiting. One large parking lot was taken up by a convoy of 18-wheelers off-loading TNT bikes from across the nation. Looks there will be several thousand here.

We located the truck with all the tri-state chapters bikes without any problem ( the driver is a bit of a character & easy to spot :) I beat the rest of the team here by a few hours, so after reassembling the bike (which arrived in one piece) we headed over to the convention center to check in, receive my rider's packet, and check out the exhibitors. I needed to buy some CO2 cartridges anyway, but we also scored some decent swag. A free tube, some drink packs, a light, & some other stuff as well.

mmmm, swag.

and they're off!

yep, Thursday morning and courtesy of JetBlue we're jetting cross-country to Arizona. (I wish they would wash these windows more often...) Since Allison & myself flew separate from the team, we'll be driving down to Tucson from Pheonix and retrieving the bike at the convention center later in the afternoon.

Guess this is for real now...

MUD!

I've been looking forward to today for a looong time. Training is completed, so that means that I get to hop on my mountain bike again! I did notice that I rode for much longer than I used to. Guess all that hard work is paying off...

say goodbye to the bike...

so, what did YOU do Friday night? Me? I hung out outside a bike shop for 3 hours, waiting for a truck. Bike's on truck - truck's on road. Next, it's my turn.

sendoff!

so, last night we attended the official sendoff meeting for the Tucson ride. The team gathered (I forgot there were so many of us still!) and received our travel info. Plane tickets, meal vouchers, schedules - exciting stuff like that.

The interesting part came in the form of some stats. Check this out:
- As a team, we have raised $190,000 (so far!) I had no idea.
- the top fund raiser on the team has brought in $41,000. Damn. She may well turn out to be the top fundraiser for all the U.S. at that rate.
- and finally, after all the agony we've gone through, only 11 people dropped out over the course of the season. nice.

So, it was an educational evening. Friday - bike sendoff! (maybe that will be pic-worthy...)

one step closer...

this weekend we hit a milestone - our final training ride. Going out with a bang we completed a double-loop of River Road in Jersey before tooling it up to Nyack one more time. A hot chocolate at the end helped dull the pain a bit, for shure.

What's next? Our official sendoff meeting happens Wednesday (dunno what we do there - stay tuned...), and then the bike dropoff is on Friday. Then - a quick week before we hop on the plane on the 16th.