Life of a Critic at Tour of the Dead End Canyons

My blog is intended for prospective members who think they cannot join.  I’m intending to show them here my experience with updates.  To introduce myself on the first blog, you can think of me as the youngest member in the group yet born before many of them.  I joined the team on October 19th, 2014 as a prospective member and road with the team since then.  I was nothing but a fresh rider who just got his bike.  While I did biking before and I was commuting to work, my whole experience in biking boils to nothing and if there is a lesson that I have learned in my life, it is, “join people who know and are willing to teach you, listen, learn and practice.”

I have to say, I did that literally and Fremont Race Team members with no doubt stand behind their motto in promoting the sport and shepherding new members to be competitive racing.  Thanks to Gary, Bryan, Wynn, Francis and West on spending time to bring new members up to speed.  In fact, I have to list the whole team but I can’t do it though I’m thankful to all.

So back to my progress, I’m almost one month old and I have done almost all team rides and all week trainings since then.  My last team ride was okay for 62 miles, 1800 ft elevation, but today I was surprised to see myself finishing almost 68 miles ride 3200 elevation.  If there is a snail on the road, it is me.  Going up hill is torture to me and keeping up with the elite racers is a suicide. Surprisingly, I was able to finish today in good conditions even after I suffered a crash and went down resulting in several wounds and bruises.

I’m proud of myself, and I’m proud I was able to keep up with the pack today and in fact I felt fine to bike more except that I was afraid I might injure my knee, so I decided to get a ride back home.

To all none races who think about joining, it is all about commitment and mindset and “YES! YOU CAN DO IT.”  Just make sure that while you are by yourself, emotions will get to you and won’t take you that far, but when you are in a group, the group will get you there, far and strong.