Aspen

Alisha says: Aspen is such a beautiful place, one should go there to relax, ride and hike, but only on your own terms because Aspen sits at some serious altitude. Racing at altitude is hard. Several comparisons that were mentioned during the week was that it was like racing through mud, Vaseline or in slow motion, you get the idea. Nonetheless, it still turned out to be a fun couple of days. Teammate wonder woman Kristin Armstrong won the overall. We got to stay with some excellent hosts, Jack and Suzy, whose energy and generosity were amazing. I also got to watch the finish of one of the men's stages of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and catch glimpses of many of my favorite pro tour guys. I'm looking forward to a little down time to recharge, reset, and get refocused.

The Big Summer Trip

Dave says: Alisha and I recently returned from our big summer trip. While Alisha was off racing the Tour de Toona, I traveled up to Cedar City to see Daniel get his Eagle Scout and to compete in the 100K Fire Road Race. It was fun to do a mtb race as it has been awhile and the course up in the mountains outside of Cedar City was epic. Quite a few people came from out of state and I imagine that this event will grow a lot in coming years. I took second overall which was one of my best finishes for the year.

I picked up Alisha in Las Vegas and we started our drive up through California en route to Bend, Oregon. We stayed a few days with some very nice friends of Alisha's in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa has some amazing rides through vineyards and beautiful forests on small roads. Yet even in July it was often cold and foggy.

However, Santa Rosa wasn't nearly as cold as Crater Lake where we camped next to a giant mound of snow in a campground that was only half open so far for the year due to record snow levels. This high-altitude lake in the crater of an old volcano is very beautiful and is only a short drive from Bend.

After a week on the road, we reached Bend in time for the Cascade Classic. Alisha was in a long breakaway on Stage 1 and helped her teammate take the yellow jersey. Unfortunately, the team couldn't hold it for the rest of the week.

I did the Cat 2 race with Andre and Michael. Though we couldn't pull out any amazing results we had a fun time and rode hard in a huge Cat 2 field. I also was the official babysitter for Alisha's team. Her director Giana's son Sawyer is two years old and has a lot of energy. I entertained him quite a bit while Giana was busy with the race.

The final week of our trip took us back through Utah to see family. We stayed with Richard, Brittney, & Arley in SLC, with Devin, Amber, Quinn, and Owen in Price, and with Wayne, Debbie, Shane, Mandy, Brody, and Elsie in Cedar City. There are a lot of cute little tots in the family right now. It was also our ten year high school reunion and we saw many of our high school friends (and kids) at a lunch at canyon park followed by a dinner later in the evening. We also helped my parents get ready for their upcoming move to Phoenix. After a busy month of July on the road, we finally repacked the Mazda5 to the roof with 3 bikes, camping gear, and all our other stuff and drove back to Tucson.

Where did July go?

Alisha says: I spent the whole month of July on the road racing and visiting family. Dave had a break from school and so we made a road trip vacation out of part of it. I should have blogged along the way because now I feel like writing about the whole trip is overwhelming so here is a quick day by day recap.

July 4th: Flew into New Jersey and drove to Connecticut
July 5th: Drove to Altoona, Pennsylvania
July 6th: Tour De Toona Stage Race: 3 mile Prologue
July 7th: Johnstown to Blue Knob Road Race - 73 miles. I had my best finish yet in a national race and took 2nd on this mountain top finish! http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-toona-ne/stage-1/results
July 9th: Blair County Road Race - 91 miles. Due to an unfortunate accident I crashed. Fortunately I was okay and able to finish the race, bad news was that I lost a lot of time in the general classification and broke my bike :(
July 10th: Downtown Crit
July 11th: Flew to Las Vegas where Dave picked me up :)
July 12th: Spent the day driving through California
July 13-16th: Riding in Santa Rosa, CA
July 17th: Visited Crater Lake in Oregon and camped that night by banks of snow
July 18th: Arrived in Bend, OR
July 19th: Cascade Classic Stage Race: 2 mile Prologue
July 20th: Stage 1, McKenzie Pass Road Race, 74 miles. Fun race, I spent most of the day in a break!
July 21st: Stage 2, Individual Time Trial
July 22nd: Stage 3, Cascade Lakes Road Race, 71 miles
July 23rd: Stage 4, Downtown Crit
July 24th: Stage 5, Aubrey Butte Circuit Race
July 25th: Drove to Salt Lake, UT to visit family
July 26th: Drove to Price to visit family, met my new 7 week old nephew, Owen.
July 27th: Drove to Cedar, met my new week old niece, Elsie
July 28th: Went on an ATV adventure, and played with Brody and Elsie
July 29th: Helped Dave's family pack for their big move
July 30th: Went to Dave and I's 10 year high school reunion and Brody's 3rd birthday party
July 31st: Drove home
Whew! Four weeks, 10 states, 4,000 miles of driving, lots of racing, family, teammates. I love my life!

Toona: Stage 1 Podium

Cascade: On race leader Clara Hughes wheel during the crit

Cascade: McKenzie Pass Road Race

Owen

Brody and Elsie

Brody's birthday party

The small group that attended the reunion