My view

This was my view during the Tour of Utah. With a race radio in hand I watched all the riders fall off the back of the group on the climb. We would pass them as we went up. It was great.

Back to school, escape on the bike

Unfortunately climbing has sunk from my focus this summer. I had high hopes leading into the summer, but my schedule seemed to gain a mind of its own. From now on I will be the captain of my schedule... most of the time.

Today I sat in class.... not being the captain.... yeah... School started again. What is this? I started in 2003... so this is year number seven? Shouldn't I be a doctor or something? I did take a two year break, so I guess it has been five years. Master's degree? nope. Not that I am ungrateful for my opportunity to pursue higher education, but I do find it funny that I have been excelling at taking my time to do just about everything so far in my life. I admit, I am in no hurry.

As I sat listening to my professors making their well thought out speeches of how we can change the world and how much we were going to learn this semester I sat in a complete state of shock. I have never ever been so bored. I honestly had the desire at times to beat my head against my desk until I was unconscious. My post-summer attention span, I learned today, is about 10 minutes.

Thank goodness for the mountains. Thank goodness they are so close. I got home and just wanted to get away from the thoughts of another semester in classes that I swear I have already taken a few times.... I guess this is what it is like to be in my final year of school. Really, I bet I learn a lot of great things, but today I wasn't having it.

Shelby came for the ride. We took it really easy and just talked most of the time.

Alone with my thoughts

I went to grab my ipod and it was dead. With at least three or four hours in the saddle alone ahead of me I was hoping for the company of some of my favorite musicians. I pulled on my shoes, filled my water bottles, and grabbed some grub. The ride is one of my favorites, the Alpine Loop plus a few little detours.

As I rode, I rolled things around in my head for the first little while. As the ride became more difficult my thoughts turned from all life's little worries to the task at hand. Why is cycling so great? because you can leave everything behind and just go. My heart rate set the beat, my loud huffing and puffing kept in rhythm, my thoughts made for some interesting lyrics.... It is nice sometimes to not have any outside distractions. Today I didn't miss the company of my ipod there was plenty to listen to.

Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah

During the weeks leading up to the tour I found myself extremely occupied. Between bike racing, Lake Powell, working the outdoor retailer show, and working at Milo, updating my blog sunk to the back of my list of "to-do's".

In an effort to fill in some of the massive blanks of the past few weeks here is the final products of my internship. I had the opportunity to intern for the Tour of Utah this summer. It turned into one of the most amazing experiences for me and it ended up being much greater than I could have even wished for.

I love cycling. I love bikes. I love racing and I love following what is going on in the world of professional cycling. So, when they offered me the opportunity to be in the race caravan and write the post race press releases I jumped at the chance. Here are the press releases I wrote. They were edited by my friend Chip Smith of Soar Communications. It was a great experience working with all the Tour of Utah staff and getting to know some of the people in the Miller organization.

I also was able to spend most of the days with Tony Parks of 1320 Kfan, a local radio station. Tony was great to work with and he was a class act. He wasn't able to make the last two days of the race, but he called me when the race was over and thanked me for helping him out while we rode together in the media car.

To see my releases go to http://www.tourofutah.com/index.php?p_resource=media_press#a_343