kendall card 2.0

Le Tour kicked off today and Valverde took the Yellow Jersey after basically stepping to the plate and signaling to the fence before the race began. Good to see a guy deliver in such fashion.

One of the things I hope for on this years tour is a “clean” tour. Although disappointed that Levi or Contador won’t be in the race, I don’t really care who wins but that it is a clean tour. It’s time for cycling to regain it’s place in the eyes of sport.

Check out this interesting perspective from Jens Voigt as he talks about the degree of testing that has, hopefully, cleaned up the tour.

It may be cliche but I am so proud to be American.  That is all.

Going Fast, I love it. Cynthia says that my driving is too fast. I know this.

Here are two examples of going very fast (three if you count the picture):

1. I’ve never owned a bike computer. I do now and last Saturday’s ride on Wolf Creek Pass was a fun testing ride for it. On the descent I was letting it run and looked down to see I was going 48.4 MPH! I admit that I pedaled a few times to see if I could push it to 50 but alas, thoughts of an out of control fall kept me still and poised for the downhill, tapping on the brakes a bit.

In case my mom is reading this, yes, I know what would happen if I went down at 48 MPH and yes, I wear a helmet (although at 48 MPH I’m not sure what good it’d do)

2. I’ve wanted to climb and ski the Grand Teton for a few years now but I guess I’ve not wanted it bad enough as it’s still a vision, an idea. I figure I could do it in a day. Then there’s Jimmy Chin. The guy is FAST. He flashed the Grand, Middle and South Teton this past month climbing and skiing all 3 of those peaks and did it car-to-car in just under 11 hours!

Oh yea, he did it solo. Mad props Jimmy!

Ride: Wolf Creek Pass
Number: 1st time this season - 2008
Conditions: Sunny, great cycling weather, slight tail wind with climb.
General Feeling: Knee felt good, lungs and legs were hurting. Granny gear the entire time, too much standing.

Note: Permit me to use this blog as a bit of a cycling journal. After this my first Wolf Creek Pass ride of the season I wanted to keep track of my season progress on this my favorite mountain ride.

After missing the chance for a ride around the valley with my friend Jim Kane, I set out around 10am on Saturday to head up Wolf Creek figuring to stop at the base of the climbs and then circle back through the valley to Weber Canyon in order to get around 50 miles of generally flat to mild climbing. After reaching the Mill Hollow turn off where at mile marker 15 Wolf Creek Pass road pitches up I turned and headed back down. Just before getting to the Provo River in upper Woodland I saw Bill and Gordon heading up so I circled back and after some pleasantries I agreed that I’d ride with them part way up Wolf Creek as I didn’t want to do too much climbing yet. Yea, right.

Although they dropped me I managed to keep them in sight until just before the “S” curve about a mile from the summit. So much for no climbing. I felt tired and winded, but the familiarity of the climb and the enjoyment of making this my first Wolf Creek Pass summit of the season was rewarding. While at the summit Dave Peck came up from the Hanna side and the four of us kept a pretty solid pace line all the way back to Kamas.

Since my “no climb day” was shot, I joined them on 248 until the top at the Two-hey gate where I bid them farewell and headed back for home, making it 61 miles and 4000′ of vertical.

It’s a good start for my annual solo ride of the Kamas-Wolf Creek-Tabiona-Fruitland-Strawberry-Heber-Francis-Kamas loop. It’s about 125 miles and 8000′ of climbing. I think this year I’ll go counter-clockwise as the headwind that I suffered last year for 90% of the ride nearly did me in! Anyone out there want to give this loop a go with me?

click the image to see the map much larger

Google Map link of this loop

Kudos to Keith at Base Camp Communications for a cool PR hit for the very worthy Africa Bike project (click that link)

I remember 3 years ago when my father and I were (re)building my home and we’d often find ourselves near the end of the day amazed, pointing to the sky at the amazing sunsets that were seen here in the Kamas Valley.

One hot summer night I recall us up there roofing or putting siding on the upper reaches of the house, taking in yet another whopper of a sunset and my dad quietly turned to me and said, “I’m really going to miss the sunsets when I go home. Almost enough to get me to move here.” Coming from an Oregonian that’s saying something.

The new header image of this blog is 4 images stitched together that I took from my “tower”. Just another day in K-town.

So it was last night while biking down from Wolf Creek Pass that I rounded the final corner before dropping into the river bottoms of Woodland and spotted another beauty. What roadie wouldn’t love this view?

Oh yea, I saw 4 cars the entire way home. I love this valley.

I was out for a short bike ride last night on the Mirror Lake Myway where I was passed by a total of 5 cars in one hour. I love riding on that road before the Mirror Lake and other campsites open up.

As the sun was setting a fiery red I turned around at the 10 mile mark, slipped on my new Pearl Izumi vest, upped the volume on my iPod and rocketed back down toward Kamas with 1100′ of advantage to help me along.

As I rode steady in the big chain ring and looked down at how well my legs seemed to be working for me, my thoughts went back to just over 2 years ago when I was bald and recovering from surgery on my brain. This happens from time to time, usually when I’m out in the backcountry or doing something solo. It also happens when I see something of beauty or share a priceless moment, often with my children or wife.

So it was while racing down the road, my mind thinking of my fortunate extension of life, that I remembered this video. And I wasn’t even wearing my Team Discovery kit!

Video. It’s a medium that has so much potential for marketers but still requires the story telling mastery of print with captivating imagery of the movies. Just because it’s video doesn’t mean you’ve got limitless amounts of time. It still needs to be done quickly because I, Joe Consumer, still have the power to click away if not immediately intrigued. This is especially true when video used as a marketing medium.

But video does something that is beyond print. It can reach the senses in an unique way. Walking the fine line between marketing and captivating takes mastery, or luck.

The following video walks the line and does it well.

It engages, it pulls you in, it makes you feel like you’re on the front row. And when done right, like this video, you feel like it speaks to you. This one speaks to me, makes me smile, and made me want to spread the message…and (news flash) I don’t drink!

This is video well done. I’m Kendall Card and I approve of this marketing.

Nice work NBB.

That’s not me in the yellow. That’s me back there in the distance making my point this past weekend near the summit of Mount Nebo.

It’s a TGR maggot thing.

(click the image and you’ll see it better) 

I love firsts. First kiss, first climb, first summit, first 100 mile bike ride…first are fun.

We had a few firsts this weekend, particularly the planting of our first garden. It’s small and while we don’t have big ambitions for it just yet I hope more than anything that the kids realize the joy of planting, caring and then harvesting from a garden.

Even if just one item grows, I’m sure their excitement will be uncontainable. Just looking at the tiny lettuce seeds they were blown away that something so small could produce food. Definitely some life lesson applications to share once it does produce food (fingers crossed).

I also hope it doesn’t yield as many weeds as my parent’s garden did when I was growing up. Ah the angst of “pulling weeds” in that behemoth of a garden. I’m sure my sisters (the two older ones) will recall the joy that was pulling weeds.

We’ve got corn, two kinds of lettuce and watermelon. We’d hoped for more stuff but the space was limited. Perhaps that’s best for this first go around.

First drink from a garden hose on a hot summer day:

First time planting a garden (a small one):