Over the past month I have made 3 trips to Arizona. All different parts of AZ, for different reasons all revolving around riding my bike, which is the reason for just about every place I go.
The first trip was to Sedona & Prescott to take photo's with Richie, Wade, & Hans. Jim from the Bike N Bean took care of us and put us up in the Red Agave Inn, the most bike friendly and coolest place to stay if you ever want to go to Sedona. We had a great time riding and shooting some of the most amazing backdrops ever. Too bad we didn't have another day or two there, but Hans was keen to head to Prescott, so the team headed that way. We got about a day and half of shooting there and we were over it. The riding was so so, but we just weren't finding anything super cool to shoot, especially after being in Sedona which is unbelievable. All and all we some good times and hopefully got some good shots which will make their way to print in the near future.
The second trip I made to AZ was to Phoenix for some testing of the 2011 Oakley line. Again, Wade made the trip out and this time we had the honor to have Cedric fly out from Andorra for 2 days of riding with us. Cedric is always so much fun to have around and he didn't disappoint any of us. Rich Weis from Oakley, an AZ rep, also joined us and showed us all the best trails. Our Oakley team was made up of designers, sales, marketing, production, and racers. It was one of the most professional testing trips I have ever been on to say the least. Wouldn't expect anything less from Oakley, they know how to do it right and we are making a big push to have the 2011 stuff be top notch.
The 3rd trip to AZ was to Tucson to visit team Radio Shack and do some training rides with the big boys. Levi gave me the invite to come out as they were going to do a MTB ride one day, so Paula and I packed up the Sportsmobile and Anni and made the trek. We stayed in the Loew hotel where the team was, which was a super nice resort, so it was a cool little vacation for Paula and Anni as well. The 1st day I joined the team for road ride, which went up Mt. Lemmon, a 24 mile climb up to almost 10k feet. Luckily most of the team, me included, turned around at the 14mile mark which was at about 7500ft. I was feeling OK until about the 12 mile mark. The pace was picking and I had no idea how much further we had to go, so Ekimov let me get a tow from the vehicle he was driving for a couple min to recover, then I jumped back in the group for the last little bit. All in all I was happy with how I did and enjoyed the long DH back to the resort. Levi and a couple other guys decided they wanted to do the entire climb, but most of the team is just getting back on the bikes after some time off.
Day two in Tucson was spent in the dirt. Levi was excited to get in the dirt, I think Lance was stoked as were a few others, but there were a handful of guys that most likely were not so happy with the choice as they didn't have much experience off road. Again, Rich (az Oakley rep) had a ride all mapped out which was super fun. Everyone did pretty good, but the cactus got the best of most of them. We must have had 20 flat tires and at least half of those guys got punished by hitting cactus. Levi and Popovich won the dare devil award by doing a small step down gap. I was impressed on Levi's skills in the dirt and can't wait to see him do a mtb race or two toward the end of the 2010 race season.
So I would say I have had my fix of AZ for a while. The weather was great, the company amazing, trails were fun, and my knowledge of what AZ has to offer is definitely broadened. Definitely a great place to put in some winter training.
Levi on the right, Rich, then me.
Levi, Lance & Johan...
Anni living it up...a pampered dogs life
Me and the girls out on a hike