Bikes, Bikes and Beach

I'm sure you've picked up by now, Spencer and I love cycling. No, really love it. There is so much more to cycling then just peddling a bike. Did you know cycling is a team sport? Just drafting off a few guys you can conserve as much as 30% or your energy! That's why there are team captains and the whole team works to put their captain in the best place. Another thing you should know is within a professional race there are sub races. For example best sprinter, best young rider, best climber and overall leader. If your the current leader within a category you get to wear a special jersey for the day. In the Tour of France the overall leader gets to wear a yellow jersey, the best sprinter is in green, best young rider is in white and the best climber is in a red pok a dot jersey. It's exciting to watch teams work together and every now and again there is a spectacular crash. Crashes are crazy ... you should look away but you just can't. They're going as fast as 40 miles per hour and someone goes down and takes 10 riders with him, and all they have on is lycra and a helmet. It's crazy!

Anyway the excitement of professional cycling came to Utah in the Tour of Utah. We had professional teams who compete in the grand tours (such as the Tour of France or Italy) right here in our backyard. Riders like Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie were here! To give you some perspective Hincapie rode with Lance Armstrong for a number of years, Lance is the Jordon of cycling and Hincapie was his Scottie Pippen (if you'll excuse another sports metaphor). We were able to attend the circuit race (they went around a 7.5 mile circle 11 times). It was amazing, we rang our cow bells and cheered for our favorite riders. We collected disgarded water bottles and laughed with friends and family. It was an amazing day

The start of the ride was super cool, we got to see some the biggest names in the sport right at the front.It was just too much excitement for Audrey, she fell asleep during the most exciting lap.

Me loving the tour next to a sleeping Audrey.

Spencer and I also had the opportunity to ride in a Bear Lake ride for the Boy Scouts. It's a 50 mile ride around the lake. It's a favorite ride because it's so beautiful and we get to take the kids to the lake afterwards. We finished in 2 hrs and 43 mins. Candis and Joe came up with us to watch the kids while we rode and enjoyed raspberry shakes and the beach with us afterwards. The lake is so full this year the water nearly comes up to the road in some places. It too was an amazing day.

Us with our finishers medals and the boys.

Audrey was fearless, she couldn't get enough water or sand.

Kids playing on the beach

My sister Candis and my super amazing niece Alexis, so cute, on the beach.