My First Cycling Trophy

I finally have my first cycling trophy!!!  It took a while since I don’t race.  It’s amazing how not racing really limits your ability to get trophies.  Oh well, obviously there’s a story behind all of this but first we need a little historical perspective.

Last year, Coach Tim introduced his Wine Country Cols & Pavé rides.  These rides were meant to be a nod to the European spring classics and follow the mantra “it doesn’t have to be paved to be a road”  Here’s his recap of the three rides that completed the series in 2010.  (You can read my blog about the first ride here.)

Ride #1 - River Snake:  48 miles with 9 climbs and 8,000 feet of elevation gain. Oh, did I mention the 10 miles of dirt and trails. 

Ride #2 - Calistoga Delight: 58 miles with 2 Cat 1 climbs and 7,200 feet of elevation gain and 3 miles of jeep road in 95+ degree heat.

Ride #3 - Ocean View "the hard way": 41 miles with 2 Cat 1 climbs and 6,200 feet of elevation gain.  We also threw in 5 miles of dirt and single track and a river crossing.

All three of these rides were a blast.  Even the hot one.  I choose to participate for lots of reasons.  The rides were by invitation and the group that was invited were some of my best friends and people I thoroughly enjoy hanging around.  There was also the challenge of the actual rides, especially considering I was the only rider who does not mountain bike.  But mostly, it was for the t-shirt.

That’s right a t-shirt.  Tim has promised that everyone who completed (not started) all three rides would get a t-shirt.  I almost wrote a blog titled The Stupid Things We Will Do for a T-shirt.   Well, the rest of 2010 came and went and still no t-shirt.  Since I also work with Tim, and see him every day, I was relentless in my harassment and threatened to boycott all future Cols & Pavé rides.

Now, flash forward to 2011 and Coach Tim is ready to start the series again.  As the date approached for the first ride, I held firm with my boycott.  I told Tim flat out that I would not participate until I got my 2010 t-shirt.  (Ok, the real reason I didn’t ride was due to my half-marathon training but I still called it a boycott.) 

Then he asked if could at least meet for coffee before the ride to receive my hardware.  WTF???  Hardware?  Intrigued, I agreed and after my morning run I met him and the 2011 Cols & Pavé riders for coffee.  Then, just before the ride was ready roll, Coach Tim handed out our trophies.  That’s right!  We each got a trophy and not a silly t-shirt.

The trophy was friggin’ awesome.  It is actually modeled after the trophy presented to the winner of that classic of classics, Paris-Roubaix, which is one of the cobbles the race goes over.  I don’t know how much work Tim put into these but I can tell how much we all really appreciated his effort.

So there you have it.  My first ever (and probably last) cycling trophy.  And, I didn’t even have to race to get it.  I just had to go over the hills, through the river, through the woods, climb through fallen trees, go over more hills, and have my body bounced all over hell and creation as I rode along on what used to be a road. 

You can bet that if Tim does these rides again next year I will be there.  After all, I finally got my reward even if it wasn’t a t-shirt.

Ciao!