We have been receiving race reports from Colorado and California. Now I do not intend to demean these stellar athletes in anyway, I mean climbing THOUSANDS of feet up Mount Diablo is a challenge, and racing up and down The Steamboat Springs Gondola repeatedly for 24 hours is definitely an athletic event, but for a true test of cyclists' mettle we have to travel further East to the Right Coast and our stalwart hard core bicyclists.

Now I am not saying that the folks out on the left coast are lite weights by any means, but how much dedication does it really take to ride on sunny days in 50 degree and better weather? I mean really, sun in your face, open roads/trails, beautiful scenery, gorgeous competitors, hell under those conditions everybody would ride!



Let's check our dedicated and highly motivated product test staff and see what they are up to. Torrential rains, blustery winds, massive flooding, speeding cars splashing a mixture of ethylene glycol, crankcase oil, tire rubber, and whatever else was deposited on the roadside through the winter into a nebulized, misting fog which saturates our already drenched clothes and bodies. This is dedication, this is a test of a true bicyclist.

It was 10:00 PM Saturday night and as the rest of the world sat tube bound munching popcorn and bon bons, our test crew of Cori, Dan, and Garuch headed out into the maelstrom to test our most recent lighting gear offerings from Planet Bike and Marwi. The forecast had warned of dire conditions and blinding driven rain, so naturally Dan and Gary exclaimed, "Test Ride, at night, Lighting Systems!" Cori our Women's Specific Product Coordinator immediately chimed in, "Me too!" so it was set!

We pedaled out in support of our Errands for the Environment program with a mission to make a deposit at a local ATM, since we were out anyway, so with that in mind we mounted our Trek and Cannondale Mountain Bikes and headed for our local Bank of America ATM, located in the Baldwin Shopping Plaza. Would our band of road warriors be equal to the challenge?



The first hazard was Sunrise Highway, a broad band of rain and oil slicked macadam sporting gas guzzling SUV's whipping by at 65 MPH merrily ignoring the 50 MPH speed limits and the 300' visibility in the rain, and the minimal traction of their hydro planing tires. Crossing the enemy lines, our patrol headed deeply into the enemy territory, hugging the curb and shoulder as we traveled along with the traffic, our headlights illuminating the shimmering water, and our tires feeling their way through the potholes camoflaged beneath its surface, our red blinking beacons flashing our presence into the eyes of the approaching cars. We made the oasis of the mall parking lot intact!