Solvang & Castillo Ranch
I had a great last couple days doing the things I love, riding my bike, riding my moto, eating good food, and spending time with friends.
Wed morning I picked up Blick and with Cory Leclarc in tail in his truck, we headed north. The first stop was Solvang. Team Discovery was having their training camp and since Oakley pretty much sponsors the entire team, Blick had lots of work to do. Especially with some new products that Oakley has coming out, which you will hear about soon.
As soon as we pulled in the team was just getting back from a 3 hour ride. Lance was one of the first riders I saw, so it was good to say hi and have some small talk with him right away. Cory and I didn't spend too much time there, as we still had 15 minutes of driving to get ot Castillo Ranch for some moto riding.
We pulled into the ranch and up to the outdoor track and before I had my door opened Cory was on his 110 with flip flops riding around to check out the track. He was like a little kid at Disneyland. Dave Castillo had the track watered for us and Cory couldn't believe it. "I told you it would be dialed dude."
Anyways, we got dressed and moto'd until dark on one of the best tracks in the world, all to ourselves.
From the ranch I headed back to Solvang to meet up with Blick to have dinner.
After a great dinner, some wine, and good conversation with some of the Discovery crew, Blick and I decided to get some rest for our big ride the next morning with the team.
After breakfast and a coffee, we got dressed and headed out on our bikes with the team by 10:30am. There were two different groups depending on if the riders were tour riders or classic riders. I think we went with the classic guys. George Hincapi and Ekimov were both in our group, which is an honor in itself. I have known George for probably 5 years or so and it was good to catch up with him while riding. Ekimov I had never met, but I guess his boy Slavik rides mountain bikes and knows of me from his son. Needless to say, it was cool to meet Ekimov and get to talk with him on the ride. He even had me sign a poster for his son.
After an hour out, Blick and I decided to turn around for a couple reasons, the most important being that the pace was picking up and there was no way we were going to ride the entire 5 hours. So we said goodbye and turned around to head back.
What more could you ask for? Great times and memories that will last a life time.
Brian Lopes
Posted by Brian on January 26, 2007 03:43 PM