Pump up your tires and loob your chain!

El Tour Platinum Coach Nelson Recap

This is the story of the “platinum” El Grupo riders (Kramer, Logan, Dillon, Max, with coaches Alex, Nippy, and Nelson) in El Tour. We lined up early – 5 AM – getting reasonably good position in the front half of the “gold” group, rolling across the start line a few minutes after 7 AM. For the first 55 miles or so, the strategy was to keep the boys out of the wind as much as possible, and to avoid potential crashes. Both goals were achieved, and as we reeled in literally hundreds of riders the main challenges were safely threading our way between groups of riders and making sure that everyone was eating and drinking as we cruised along at an average speed of 24 mph. Kramer took on the responsibility of reminding everyone to eat and drink every 20 minutes, and closing gaps in the pace line, and Kramer’s leadership was a key part of the group’s success in the first half of the race. We were on track to finish in under five hours.

As we turned on to Oracle we were towing a large pack of riders, some of which were trying to edge into the middle of our pace line. A gap opened up in the middle of the pack and Dillon was dropped; Nippy stayed back to help him bridge back up. We slowed our pace off and on for the next 25 miles, hoping that they could get back on quickly, but ended up riding that distance without Dillon and Nippy.

At our second sag stop we waited, waited…and waited some more; after more than 10 minutes Dillon and Nippy were back with us. We chased on to a group being pulled by a tandem, and things were looking good again when I took a pull and missed the turn up Avra Valley. Ten minutes later, after a couple of long, hard pulls, we were back with the tandem group, at the base of Rattlesnake pass, looking at a finish time under 5:20 - and then Logan was off the back. We slowed nearly to a stop at the top of Rattlesnake, took it easy on the way down, regrouped, then realized we were loosing Logan – his legs were shot, with severe cramps that forced him off the bike. We all stopped for a few minutes, then got Logan back on his bike, still cramping, and Alex and I pushed Logan while Nippy and Kramer took turns at the front, pushing the pace as much as possible. Kramer looked like a sled dog straining in a harness, strong enough to pull the group all the way to Hermosillo. I think Kramer could have pulled us in at 25 mph, but we had to hold him back because there was no way that the entire group could match his strength. In the last few miles, Logan’s legs started feeling moderately better and we crossed the finish line, looking strong, as a team.

The point of this tale is not shortcomings, but strengths. Dillon and Logan faced challenges that would make even the most experienced riders quit, but these guys did not quit. They did not consider quitting, even though that would have been both easier, in the short-run, and understandable. The team loyalty that was displayed by the rest of the group waiting for dropped riders was something seldom seen among athletes of any age or ability. It would have been easy for the guys that were riding the strongest that day – Kramer, Alex, and Max – to break the pact they had made the night before and continue on without their teammates. They very likely would have made platinum. They would have caught some flack for the decision, but anyone would understand why young, competitive riders, in the excitement of a big event, would take off and leave their teammates in their quest for a faster time (believe me, older, more experienced riders do this all the time in El Tour). But they did not break their agreement to finish together, and it was never seriously discussed. Equally impressive, there was no bitterness about having stuck with the decision to finish together – these guys were justifiably proud of their achievement as a team.

Kudos and huge thanks to Kathleen, Carol, and Megan, for starting line assistance and support stops that were so professional and organized that they would have looked at home in the Tour de France, and to Nippy and Alex their excellent on-bike coaching.

BigWheel backflip

I didn't know we were sprinting

Start of the 66-mile El Tour

El Tour video

El Tour 09

This event is a culmination of so much work, patience, pain, anguish, sweat, heart, and worry that there is no way a blog post can capture the months of training and preperation that each person involved put in to make this happen. This event is as much about the amazing young men and women that put their bodies to the limit to achieve a goal with their friends as it is about the parents that wake up every weekend to get their kids to practice on time, worry about them every ride and make sure they are fueled for the next one. These events are absolutely team efforts in every sense of the word it takes every parent, coach, rider, and supporter to make it happen. I very much want to thank everyone that has put effort and heart into this team and has made this happen. What we acheived was only because of the great support network that this team is amazingly fortunate to have.


THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So really how did it go?


Well again so hard to know where to start. Every rider can tell their own story of trial with adversity and their triumph over it. From Nathans crash, to Logans cramps, to Donovan pushing harder that ever, Ricardo and Pablo pulling to the end, Connor killing the Oracle hill, every rider can tell you of there battle and triumph and this is why I love these events. Not one of the young men and woment that started the race yesterday are the same today. They all know something about themselves that only comes out in true tribulation and effort. They will always have this acheivement to keep for themselves, no one can ever take it away. And this is so much of why I coach, I want every kid to learn that they are so much more than they know. Our minds too often limit our potential, but when asked for, more, it will most often amaze how much more we have. I can't begin to explain how proud I am of every rider on this team that participated. Really I can't wait for the next event and I promise you there is more to come from every rider. Don't think you have reached your limits because you have only begun. Let the beauty begin.

Here is a look at "my team". Ricardo, Pablo, Connor, Donovan, Milo, Julia, Dean and Coach Christian. We rode the 109 and finished in 5:57. Just in time to get the boys a gold medal and for Julia PLATINUM. That means really cool. I had an absolute blast leading the team for 109 miles and would do it again any time. We rode the perfect dream ride. I cannot think of anything we could have done to make it better. THANK YOU TEAM!!!!!!!!!
Nelson, Alex Strickland and Nippy coached the Platinum team made up of Max, Logan, Kramer, and Dillon. These guys put so much heart into the ride each ones face was completely covered in salt when I found them at the end. I was told by many that they were absolute animals and I know each rider is telling there story over and over today. Next year if they can start with their cycling pears they will easily go Platinum. This year they started too far back and just never had a chance to catch up. Well done Gentleman!!!

The mighty Travis coached the 67 mile team made up of Ashley, Nathan, Marcos, Lizzy, Matthew and Jannette helped him coach.

I should say he had the hardest job of all as he had the newest group of riders, however he got them together in no time and had them put together one heck of a ride. They averaged over 15 miles an hour and loved every minute of it. Most exciting for me to hear was Ashley pulled the team in over the last 20 miles. I can't wait to have these guys move up to the 109 and riding together with the other teams.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR A PERFECT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!


Hanging out at the dinner party before the ride, getting our jerseys. Lizzy's first.

Julia realizes platinum dreams.

You got to look good to ride good, Yeah that's right!!

You earned it Nathan.

But my wife and son are still better looking.
My favorite part.

The calm before the storm.

I love the look on the boys faces here. That is anticipation with the known fact, that they are ready. It's called confidence, something that can never be given only earned. That is why I coach.

Can we wear tight jeans?

El Tour 2009

El Tour Preparations & Pasta Dinner

So it is here at last, what you all have been working so hard for over the past months: El Tour de Tucson. It is next Saturday, November 21st in case you needed that. There is a lot that needs to happen this week including getting the bikes ready, picking up packets, and eating lots of good nutritious food (how many times have you peed today is the question of the week...drink water!)

For Wednesday's practice, meet at the clubhouse at the usual time in your regular clothes so we can all ride over to the TCC to pick up our packets and mingle/schmooze at the El Tour Expo. If you will not be at practice on Wednesday, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to pick up your packet at the Expo, which goes from mid-day Wednesday through Friday evening. If you have questions, ask us please, don't forget!

If your bike needs work, you need to get in touch with Ignacio ASAP. He has made time for just this this week, but again, it is your responsibility to let him know that your bike needs help before the big ride.

Finally, on to the fun part: EATING! As per tradition, we will have an all family-rider pasta potluck dinner on Friday evening. If you will be riding, you can meet at the clubhouse at 4:30pm to ride over together. If you are going with your family (who are all invited, please share this with them!), you can meet us there at 5pm.

Where is there? We will have the dinner at Stone Curves co-housing on the southwest corner of Stone and Limberlost in the community kitchen/commons area. Parking is a bit limited, so talk with others to carpool if possible.

How can you help? Judith will be making a pasta sauce and enough pasta for the masses. We need everyone else to contribute to the potluck by bringing appetizers, vegetable side dishes, garlic bread, dessert and drinks. Here is who I have signed up so far, so PLEASE comment or call to let me know what you will be bringing to make sure we are covered.

Max/Judith: pasta and sauce
Logan/Kathleen: big salad
Milo/Kandus: appetizer
Donovan/Lizzie/Mary Beth: desserts
Pablo/la famosa tia: cake

Again, if your parents are not accustomed to reading this, show this to them. You are all invited and it is always lots of fun to share food, get to know one another, and celebrate the hard work that has gone into this big event. Ignacio gives some pretty funny speech usually, and those new riders receive something they have well-earned.

Call Daniela 777-8629 if you have questions or to let me know what you will contribute.

Bike Swap Pics

Thanks again to everyone for making this a very successful event. I had a great time saving fun with the baked goods sale and I never once had to help with the bike valet. So I am very thankful to the riders and parents that made the valet run so smoothely. We made a bit of money and I sold a ton of baked good, a few bikes, and probably annoyed more people than not. So yeah to Success.



Saving fun in the process.


Ricardo was out filming for his Voices project, that Greg he is talking to. The organizer of the event and an El Grupo board member. THANKS GREG!!!!

Duh, read the chain stay, duffess.

Hard work in pictoral form.

The one the only great Grey Wolf.

Can you believe he actually told me that he knows baked goods better than most and he said our muffins were no good because of lack of frosting.

I say next time I see him and I have a muffin around I might stuff it in his cookie eating face and then tell him to use his super powers harnessed in his belt to do something about it.

A living legend, yes, questionable dresser, yes, Avery abort mission move man move!!!!

Pie Party @ Rachel's house- TONIGHT!!

Host:	Lisa Kiser & Rachel Kiser
Location:	Our home View Map
When:	Sunday, November 15, 6:30PM Add to my Outlook Calendar
Phone:	881-9427 Please CALL RACHEL if you can go and need directions. Or call Ignacio if you need a ride.
Hello, everyone! You are invited to our Family Pie Party--bring a pie to share or just come and enjoy the pie! All are welcome--bring a friend! There will be lots of pie, a pie walk for the kids, big pumpkins to climb on, a pie-throwing contest, and a mystery pie contest. There is also a Pie Prose and Poetry contest--write something about pie and win a prize, or try your hand at the prose and poetry contest at the party. Food will be served outside unless weather doesn't permit, so be sure to bring something warm to wear (as needed!). We hope to see you there!

Sunday November 15th Practice

STARTS AT 8AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday - Bike Valet Hours

Reminder: the bike valet will be in the "park" on the east side of 4th Ave between 7th and 8th streets...just look for Ignacio's VW vanagon.

Here is the line-up:

7am-8am: Donovan, Ashley, Julia

8am-9am: Rachel, Connor

9am-10am: Max, Logan, Connor

10am-11am: Kramer, Ashley, Julia

11am-12pm: Lizzy, Marcos, Meema

12pm-1pm: Kramer, Fernand

PLEASE be on time, and know that you are truly needed during that hour at the bike valet, not simply at the bike swap. We are there to watch over folks' bikes and to let them know how awesome El Grupo is.

If your name does not appear above, it should. Please be prepared to fill in where there are only two people listed, or wherever needed. The only exception is if you must complete all your El Tour work trade hours that day, and cannot be to the bike swap before 1pm. We could always use help with breakdown at that time, though, too.

Kathleen has offered to help (thanks!) and will be helping in the 9am -12pm window, as will Daniela during the morning hours, but this is truly about you the youth riders providing a service to the community so we are all counting on you. In addition, we will as El Grupo be selling bikes, baked-goods (thanks Julia & Ashley), and water trying to raise money to do what we do and will want your help in doing that.

It is a great day for El Grupo to really let folks know who we are, what we do, and rally support. Be prepared to do that, in addition to geeking out on bikes and such. Si se puede! Just put on a happy face like these guys...

El Tour Work Trade Status

The fine folks over at the PBAA, the people who put on El Tour, have been very kind to let us "work trade" for our right to ride in the event. We have been logging all of our hours at Bens Bells and really having a good time of it. Most of the riders are very close to finishing their 10 hours which is great. I am going to list now the current totals of each rider and what they have left:

Ricardo>3.5 hours in-------6.5 left
Pablo >5.5 hours in -------- 4.5 left
Connor> 7.45 in------------ 2.15 left
Donovan> 7.55 in ---------- 2.05 left
Julia > 10 in---------------- DONE
Milo > 4.10 in ------------- 5.50 left
Max >10 in ------------------- DONE
logan >10 in------------------ DONE
Kramer > 7.15 in --------------- 2.45 left
Dillon >6.30 in--------------- 3.30 left
Marcos > 7.45 in ------------- 2.15 left
Ettiene> 4.15 in---------------- 5.45 left
Fernande> 4.15---------------- 5.45 left
Lizzy> 8.55 in------------------ 1.05 left
Ashley> 9.05 in ---------------- .55 left
nathan> 5.45 in ----------------- 4.15 left
Matea> 4.15 in ------------------ 5.45 left
Rachel> 7.05 in----------------- 2.55 left

I know I told you all this about 8 times today however I really want to make sure we are on the same page. HOURS HAVE TO BE DONE BY THE END OF SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!

MORE HOURS ARE AVAILABLE AGAIN AT BEN'S BELLS THIS SATURDAY FROM 6AM TO 4PM, SO YOU ALL HAVE ENOUGH TIME THIS SATURDAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

NO EXCUSES!!!

THANKS EVERYONE FOR THE HELP ON THIS AND MAKING IT HAPPEN!!!

ignacio

Bike Swap Meet - Saturday!

Yep, it's that super fun day for bike lovers when they close down 4th Ave from 6th St to the underpass for us all to geek out on bikes, parts, clothes, you name it-if-it-is-bike-related. Saturday, November 14th, from the crack of dawn to high noon or so.

El Grupo always has a presence, and like we did last year, we will be providing bike valet parking for all those who choose to ride their bikes to the event, and don't plan on selling it. We will watch your bike for you between 6am and 1pm so you can shop, haggle, what-have-you with no worries. We will be located in the fenced-in park on the EAST SIDE of 4th Ave BETWEEN 7TH & 8TH ST. Just look for the VW vanagon and the El Grupo banner!

So, for all EG riders, friends and parents, we are asking for your HELP to staff the bike valet parking in between 6am and 1pm. ALL RIDERS MUST WORK MINIMUM ONE HOUR!! We will have a sign up sheet starting Wednesday at the clubhouse when we will all be patching tubes for PBAA all day, yeah :) The earlier you sign up for the hour you want, the more likely you will get it!

Looking forward to seeing you all out at the Bike Swap on 4th this Saturday!


OH YEAH AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT OUR WORKTRADE DAY TOMORROW. YOU MUST BE AT THE CLUBHOUSE TOMORROW AT 10AM TO NOT HAVE TO PAY TO GET IN. DON'T BE LATE. ETIENE AND FERNANDE YOU GUYS NEED TO SHOW UP. YOU TOO RICARDO

SilverBell Century Success

The food table shivers when we approach.

I can't image that we help GABA's overall food budget at all. I have to imagine at some point we might get a talking to . I mean Ricardo ate 3 pieces of sandwich by himself and left with the 4th in his mouth.

Getting ready for the day, making Daniela proud.

Look Mom were stretching!!

THANKS GABA!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet again the Greater Arizona Bicycle Association came through and offered El Grupo another amazing day.

I rode 95 miles with Julia, Donovan, Amy, Ricardo, Connor and Milo. So just 10 more and it would have been El Tour. I think we all know we are ready now and as long as nothing crazy happens we should be just fine.
Which way do we go?

Travis and his team had a land mark day. Most of his team has been cycling for less than 6 months on the team, and don't you know they rode 90 miles!!!!!!!!! That's pretty amazing and to top it off they did it not too much slower than my team. So 67 mile El Tour riders, heads up there will be some fast youth out there.
Travis showing us where the food goes.


Alex Strickland, Nippy and Nelson rode with the super fast team and realized that if they can stick together and work as a team they have a real shot at going Platinum.

Rachel rode her longest ride ever and I think even wore down Dave Bohm. Thanks for all the help Dave!!!

THANKS GABA FOR A GREAT RIDE!!!!!!

El Tour is in less than 2 weeks.

Start getting ready for it today. Drink water, sleep well, eat good food, and get pumped!!

Ignacio

Kathleen's Request

All right team this is a must. Kathleen has sent me this message and I want everyone to act on it.
Hi Guys,I entered 20 images in the photo contest...all but a couple focused on El Grupo.Look under the categories of Youth, Biking and Walking, Advocates in Action, Biking and Inspirational.Maybe you could do a blog post and encourage folks to go and vote.I'll share any winnings....how about a bike trip to Italy!!!


Hi once again....Would you please let all the BICAS folks know to go to the site to vote on the images....they are my/our identified non-profit to get the goods if any of the photos are selected. The 10 photos with the most votes "by the people" are put before the judges for the final vote. All of the info is below with the link.Tag words to look for will be mostly "youth bike racing".They have me listed as "Kathleen D. (Tucson, AZ)Most of the images are in the Youth and Inspirational categories with some in each of the other ones listed below.There are multiple ones of Max, Logan, Avery, Igancio......and a few from Show Low.Thanks.....it would be soooo great to win one for the gipper!We ARE SO going to get that bus!!!!K

http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/photo-contest/


SO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GABA Silverbell Centruy

This Sunday the 8th we are going to ride with GABA again on a ride they call the Silverbell Century. The starting location is at River and Craycroft and they are saying the the event starts at 7am. So I should think that if we meet at the clubhouse at 6:30 am we can get there in a reasonable time.

MEET AT CLUBHOUSE 6:30AM SUNDAY.

Remember when we are on GABA rides we are guests and need to be on best behavior. There will be great food stops along the way, so no worries there.

Just please be ready for a long hard day. This is an attempt to simulate the intensity of El Tour so put your shorts on knowing that a hard day awaits.

Lets have fun with it and I will be excited to hear about everyones adventure.

More info can be found here: http://www.bikegaba.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=376&year=2009&month=11&day=08&Itemid=34&catids=37