Wednesday, July 2, 2008

He's my Dad....

He's 65, he wears whitey tighties under his chamois, and he adores his handlebar rear-view mirror, but the guy can ride farther than you: he's my dad. It was exactly this guy who invited me to join him in riding the Tour of Colorado this summer,which boasts over 30,000 feet of overall elevation gain in some of the most spectacular country in America. So, I bought the largest rear cluster I could find and slapped it on my pink Soulcraft road bike, lubed the chain and hoped for the best. The Tour of Colorado turned out to provide some of the most epic high altitude road riding I have ever done, and of course, the time with my dad one of the highlights of my life. In the sea of generic, mass-produced, overly gadgetized titanium and carbon fiber bikes, my steel bike was quite the anomaly. In fact, maybe it was the moment when I crested the top of my third 10,000 foot summit of the day and was greeted by a random cyclist with, "I love you woman of steel" that I realized how lucky I am to ride such a unique and beautifully crafted bike in a world where most bikes are stamped out in a factory overseas.

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