No photos this time, next time I promise.

We've been getting out climbing a fair bit the last month or so.

Dylan and I are both a little sick right now, cough and sinus pressure, but we are doing OK.
I just got back from Arizona, did a 300km brevet out there that went from Casa Grande (just south of Phoenix) to Tuscon and back in a loop that wen through some very pretty land, Saguaro's are truly bizzar looking and huge.

Even though I'm sick and have not ridden more than 70 miles in a day since July of last year this was probably my best 200 mile ride. My total time was under 12 hours and the ride time was just around 10. The key to this was after getting frustrated with the lead group of riders and stopping to take off a bunch of clothing about 1.5 hrs in, I found the tandem that was in the lead group still at the first checkpoint. I left the checkpoint with them and rode with them the rest of the way. Found out that the captain of the tandem is this guy (http://www.pauldanhaus.org/) so it was no issue for me to just tag along for the ride, he was barely working. The hardest part about staying with a tandem is keeping up with the butt breaks for the stoker (person on the back) which is when both riders stand and almost sprint, if you let the tandem get away even a little it is a lot of work to bring it back. So a big THANK YOU to Paul and his stoker Jennifer (who had never ridden further than 115 miles before). It was also a nice flat course, under 4000 feet of total climbing.

On another note I met some folks randomly out in Tuscon who were riding some bikes that I recognized, they were are on Waltworks (http://waltworks.com/dev/index.php) frames. Walt is a good guy that I went to college with and now builds custom steel frames out of Boulder CO. What are the chances that on a 200 mile road ride I run into a couple of mountain bikers on a short section of road that they have to peddle to or from a trail? So Walt I met Eric and Natalie, you gotta get Eric a painted fork...

Walt, you and Fuentes must be big pimpin' because when I was chatting with Eric and Natalie a Fuentes Designs racer in full kit went by, you must be rolling in it to send your riders off to Tuscon for winter training camps.