BIKE TO WORK WEEK needs some Warriors!

Flagstaff Biking Organization would like to THANK YOU for volunteering to be a Worksite Coordinator in the past. Thanks to people like you, Bike to Work Week grows every year, showing our city leaders that the biking community is strong and united.

Bike to Work Week is coming up May 11th-16 th, and FBO could use some help to make it happen. We would like to invite you to a special Committee formation Meeting next week:

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008, 7:00 PM at
Bigfoot Barbeque, downtown, in the basement at 120 N. Leroux.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in helping a little or a lot, please join us to form teams to work on these events:
The Worksite Challenge: package delivery, prize & coordinator volunteering,
Sunday Bike Bizarre
Recycled bike wrenching mechanics, bike donations
Setup, takedown and cleanup of the bizarre
Wednesday Bike to Breakfast: Servers from 7-9 am, delivery help
Thursday Bike to School events, breakfast servers/delivery
Thursday Bike to Movie night: Movie contest judges, staffing
Friday Bike to Potluck Cyclobration: setup and cleanup

We could especially use people who are certified to handle food, or have strong backs, willing hearts and a bit'o free time.

THANKS.
Flagstaff Biking Organization

RSVP if possible. Questions?
Contact Melissa Dunstan, Melissa@flagstaffbiking.org
or Susan Hueftle, Susan@flagstaffbiking.org; 928-853-5542



Rob Hastings
Membership Coordinator

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." ~H.G. Wells

Saturday Ride Moves to 9:00 am!

Most Noble Teammates!


just heard the Word;

starting tomorrow (March 22) the Saturday Ride goes off at 9:00 am!

if the skiing wasn't still so dang good, i'd even be there!


see you all on the cobbles soon,

coach

RRR Helps In The Effort To Widen LMR

Dear Coach Ilg,
Your writing is poetic and lyrical and the letter looks great! Thanks
again so much for writing it. I think the support and enthusiasm of the
local cycling clubs will certainly strengthen our application.

Martin Ince
Multi-Modal Planner
Flagstaff Metropolitan Planning Organization/City of Flagstaff
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001

***

February 27, 2008



Mr. Kevin Burke, City Manager
City of Flagstaff
211 West Aspen Avenue
Flagstaff, Arizona 86001


Mr. Burke,
I am writing in support of the City of Flagstaff’s application for an Alternative Transportation on Parks and Public Lands grant to help fund the construction of shoulders on Lake Mary Road in Flagstaff.

Red Rock Racing is Flagstaff’s native and only remaining cycling team that is 100% local-sponsored. With nearly 40 devout racing and recreational cyclists on our Team, we remain devoted to promoting a positive image of cycling to all those who interact with us. We are focused on creating the conditions necessary for riders to improve their fitness and cycling skills in a positive environment.

We use Lake Mary Road (LMR) as a precious part of our Mission Statement. LMR is to us what a yoga studio is to yogis; that slice of heavenly road is our sacred gathering place. LMR is the site of our informal training rides, regular club rides, and is the esteemed venue of the Arizona State Road Racing Championships! Each Saturday morning, our training ride attracts 10-80 cyclists given the time of season. Many cyclists travel from out of town and spend a lot of money in Flagstaff each weekend in order to partake of our LMR rides.

Adding shoulders to Lake Mary Road would be a tremendous benefit to cyclists in Flagstaff. The shoulders would significantly improve safety for the cyclists who already use Lake Mary Road, and it would allow more cyclists of all levels to use the road safely and comfortably for fun, training, and commuting. Currently, scores of cyclists that are too afraid of the shoulder-less section of LMR waste gas and increase traffic load by driving out to “the mailboxes” in order to alleviate the likelihood of car vs. bicycle accidents; an all-too-frequent effect of the current condition of LMR.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Sincerely,



Steve Ilg, Chairperson
Red Rock Racing




***

Sedona - All the Cyclist Have Gone to Sedona

Hi Everybody,

Red Rock Racing Club Rides: Sedona: Proposed

Saturday A.M. Group Road Ride: Page Springs, Jerome, Mingus, Etc.
-Carpooling from central location in FLG-Cosmic Cycles or a coffee house
-Departure times TBA based on input

Sunday A.M. Group Dirt Ride (MTB): All the goodness Sedona has to Offer.
-Carpooling from central location in FLG-Cosmic Cycles or a coffee house
-Departure times TBA based on input
-Weather and Trail Condition Dependent

Also a few of us head down to Sedona a few times in the week, mainly the afternoon. Let me know if you are interested in carpooling.

E-mail gary at redrockracing dot org or gdp007 at yahoo dot com if interested.

Where Have All The Cyclists Gone?

Our dearly beloved "Schultzy"...host to dozens and dozens of mountain bikers on any given spring, summer, and autumn day wears - in my opinion - her most beautiful, her most seductive wardrobe of all right now; in the middle of a most graceful winter...
c'mon with me my Noble Teammates, as i break trail up to the Lincoln Logs and back...



...the section just before the Aspen Roller...even three days after the storm, no outdoor athlete had even broken trail! Schultzy was a mere wrinkle beneath a heaving mass of snow...


...betcha you cannot even tell what part of Schultzy this picture was taken!



...Lincoln Logs? what Lincoln Logs?



How do you know it's winter in Flag? when it takes you 2.5 hours round trip to get from the Schultz trail head to the Lincoln Logs and back!

Get off the bike and onto the skis or snowshoes! it's BEAUTIFUL and GREAT CROSS TRAINING RIGHT NOW!

Sick Ride

Namaste Noble Two-Wheelin' Warriors!

i trust your off season is 'cranking' right along and you all focused on restoring some deep fiber fitness and/or working on your 'weak links' before the pre-season. it has been GREAT to see a few of you in my
HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA
classes, yet sadly, this IDEAL training for your off season is still being ignored by most of you...just remember as i wrote in one of my first books, "you never get a second chance at your off season!"

on a different note;
though i ain't much of a 'gravity dude' on a MTB, as a former ski jumper i DO appreciate the art. a student of mine from Pasadena sent this along to me...
i figured you all might enjoy the 'ride'...

Makes Secret Trail Look Easy

head bowed,
coach ilg

***

Tap Water vs Bottled Water

Tap Water vs. Bottled Water
A reprint from yahoo.com news

Hi everyone, I get asked about this a lot, and just happened on a small article that touches on this briefly. I added in some notes to apply it specifically to Flagstaff.

"lug, glug, glug--that’s the sound a ginormous number of us make as we sip bottled water in our cars, at the gym, behind our desks.

The sound you DON’T hear is the thwack of 60 million bottles a day being tossed into U.S. landfills, where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

If that’s not enough to turn your conscience a brighter shade of green, add this: Producing those bottles burns through 1.5 million barrels of crude oil annually--enough fuel to keep 100,000 cars running for a year. Recycling helps but reusing is even better. Invest in a couple of portable, dishwasher-safe, stainless steel bottles like Klean Kanteens that won’t leach nasty chemicals into your water. (Don’t get into the habit of refilling the water bottle you just emptied; the polyethylene terephthalate it’s made of breaks down with multiple usings.)

4 REASONS TO TURN ON THE TAP

1. Tap water is tested daily
Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, water suppliers are required to provide an annual report on the quality of your local water and to test tap water daily. By comparison, the FDA examines bottled water only weekly, and consumers can’t get the agency’s results. You can easily get the lowdown on your state’s drinking water quality at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html

City of Flagstaff provides this quarterly in the publication "Cityscape" and also provides access to all testing results and a Consumer Confidence Report on demand.

2. Tap water is a bargain
Bottled water costs about 500 times more than tap. If you’re into really fancy labels, up to 1,000 times more.

3. Tap water is a tooth saver
It has more fluoride than bottled water, which helps prevent tooth decay. (Yes, you never outgrow your need for fluoride.)

City of Flagstaff's drinking water is not fluoridated. There is some controversy involved in fluoridation of drinking water.

4. Tap water is often tasty
Some places (New York City for one) have delicious water, but if you don’t love the flavor of yours, the solution is simple: Run your tap water through a Brita or Pur filter to remove most tastes and odors. The average home filter goes for $8.99 and produces the equivalent of 300 large (16.9 ounce) bottles of water. That’s about $0.03 cents a bottle, versus the $1.25 or so you’d pay in a market. "

Most commercially available water filters/purifiers actually only treat water for "aesthetic" qualities such as taste and odor, rather than actual contaminants. Remember, lead, arsenic, and radiochem's are colorless and tasteless. A quick way to remove the chlorine taste (residual chlorine from the disinfection process) is to fill a pitcher and leave it open at room temperature overnight. As tap water reaches room temperature, the dissolved chloride ions (molecules) will naturally dissipate into the air.

I hope that helps to shed some light on this issue. Stay tuned for further posts of scientific inquiry, as it applies to our lives as cyclists. -Gary

RRR 2008 AZ STATE SERIES MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM

To: All RED ROCK RACERS

From: Mark Wille (your RRR board appointed team captain for the Arizona state Mountain bike race series)

GREAT NEWS

Yes we will have a mountain bike team competing for the overall team point competition for the 2008 Arizona State Mountain Bike race series.

RRR needs to form a team. All you need to do is email me your MBAA membership # (please purchase a 2008 MBAA membership, its 20$)

Purchase your MBAA membership online at

http://www.mbaa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=28&Itemid=65

As soon as I receive everyone's MBAA membership #'s I will submit our RRR team to the board at the MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATION OF ARIZONA.

That's it......MORE LATER

Happy New Year!!!

Mark and Deb Wille

RACE DATES AND VENUE

RACE SERIES 1 - January 19, 2008 - McDowell Competitive Track

RACE SERIES 2 - February 9, 2008 - White Tank Competitive Track

RACE SERIES 3 - March 1, 2008 -- Estrella Competitive Track

RACE SERIES 4 - March 15, 2008 - Gardner Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Sonoita, AZ

RACE SERIES 5 - April 5-6, 2008 - in conjunction with the NOVA NORBA National; McDowell Competitive Track

RACE SERIES 6 -April 19, 2008 - Prescott

RACE SERIES 7 - May 17, 2008 - final TBA

Off Season Fun and Focus...oh, and WAAAY Better Fitness!

tired of leaving the high carbon footprint traveling to Sedona and even further south?

burning all that fossil fuel doesn't sit well with your spirit, does it?....i mean, really, just to train?

why not mix it up?

like Gary does! chances are, Gary is faster than you on a bike...and after an Off Season of doing my HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA CLASSES AND some nordic skiing with me?

what?

you think he is somehow gonna be SLOWER than ever before?!!?

i think not...

and, in this case...
i happen to know...




Gary BEFORE his Skate Ski Clinic with me, and...



...Gary about 30 minutes into his Skate Ski Clinic with me...look at that weight shift! look at that Hang Arm! he's already looking like Vegaard! yeah baby!


***

"Coach, I have to warn you, I am gonna give you a big hug after this session with you! Thank you!"
- Gary Phillips, Semi-Pro MTB Racer/Board Member;RED ROCK RACING

private Nordic Ski Clinic's available, not to mention, Online Training...just email me!

Let's share some yoga and Cold Sweat together this Off-Season!!!


NOW IS THE TIME!

Om So Ti,
coach ilg


(note; coach ilg is a former Nordic U.S. Jr. National Nordic Combined Team Member and a sponsored, Multi-Overall Champion in nordic ski racing.)

Coach's Student nabs a 5th Place at Nationals!

yet another National Podium for a WF Warrior! Sammy Morse, far left in Kansas City at the United States CycleCross National Championships!

El Coache,

Thought I’d pass along to you a couple pictures from my experience at Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City. The conditions were an absolute mud and ice fest! I managed a 5th place and the last place on the podium. By the way this was predicted by student Featherman*! I made a major mistake by only taking one bike to the race, with one to go I lost two places as my poor mud and ice covered bike only had two gears left! That said I’m thrilled with the result. I must tell you WF has been an amazing part of all my preparation for my cycling, especially yoga and morning practice.

However the best part of the weekend was watching my 12 year old son take 6th in a very deep field!

Happy Holidays to you Joy and Dewa,

Sammy

* here, Sammy is referring to my Online Student Mark Featherman who placed 2nd in the PA State CycleCross Championships!


***

The above two cyclists can only train with me via my DVD's,books, and Online Training...YOU can train directly with me two times per week at the:
Northern Arizona Yoga Center

what are you WAITING FOR? your OFF SEASON is running out! NOW IS THE TIME TO GET TO CLASS!

other students who you may recognize; Andy Hampsten, Penny Davidson, Sara Ballantyne, Ned Overend, Nelson Vails, Scott Berryman, Ron Jones, Michael Secrest, Brian Smallwood, and MANY MORE! let's SWEAT TOGETHER!

Winter Training Needs To Begin NOW!

Hey RRR Teammates! don't be hiding your face from me this off season! come once or twice per week to my HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA CLASS - the same class that has produced Olympic, National, and State Champions since 1985 - and find out for yourself what your RRR Teammate Chris found out last night;

Namaste coach - wow - that was an amazing yoga session - you are truly talented and thank you for encouraging me to take part - kym and i had a great time and look forward to continuing our new tuesday evening yoga time together. oh, is it normal not to be able to get out of bed the next day after your yoga sessions - j/k, but man my cells ar very open right now ;). chris and kym

Each Tuesday and Thursday at 5:30pm!

For a complete class schedule: visit
Northern Arizona Yoga Center

Train With Coach In The Winter Time and Kickass On The Bike Come SpringTime!

c'mon! other cyclists from other teams are being trained by me...where are YOU?!

head bowed and ready to Serve,
coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt

RRR wakes up for DAWN TO DUSK; Dec. 1

TO ALL RED ROCK RACER TEAM MEMBERS.
FROM MARK AND DEB WILLE.

I JUST RECEIVED A RETURN CALL FROM THE RACE PROMOTER DAVID BENJIES, AT DCB ADVENTURES AND HAVE AN INVITE FROM HIM.

WE HAVE SECURED A 40X30 TEAM AREA AT THE DAWN TO DUSK RACE VENUE ON SAT DEC 1ST. SEE

FOR INFO:
DAWN TO DUSK


DAVE INVITES RED ROCK RACERS TO PARTICIPATE. OR AT LEAST COME DOWN, RIDE, PARTY, AND CHEER ON OTHERS ON OUR TEAM.

DEB AND I ARE IN THE DUO COMPETITION. WE HOPE OTHER RRR WILL RACE. WE WILL SET UP OUR POP UP TRAILER ON FRIDAY AFTER NOON. THE RRR BANNER WILL BE FLYING.

OUR BEST TO ALL

MARK AND DEB WILLE.

OH, AND CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL RED ROCK RACERS WHO REPRESENTED AT THE EL TOUR DE TUCSON THIS PAST WEEKEND.

Camp Verde to Pine and Back!

Hey Teammates,

Jeremy Wilson just sent this in...
i'm outta town, so join Jeremy and spin the cranks a few times for me!
namaste,
coach ilg

***
"8 AM Sunday, 11/4 ride from the Starbuck's parking lot in Camp Verde to Pine. There is more parking in the McDonald's parking lot if that suits people. Expect close to 90 miles with around 8000 feet of climbing."

PINES TO THE MINES!

Hey Team!
it's coach and baby Dewa here!

wanted to let you know:
if you want to do Pines to Mines, the registration is available at PaynTake.

i hear that Brinkman's holding the entries down to 50, so scoot down there pronto and try to get in!

having said that:
no Pines again for ilg (i STILL haven't done that race!).
need to keep ramping up my running and besides, cycling keeps me too far
from Joy and Dewa these days. both, by the way, are doing just GREAT!
and THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR WELL WISHES!

ran with the Kachina Spirits up Humphreys today!
GORGEOUS SUMMIT! Lockett Meadow is AFLAME!!! GET UP TO THE IB QUICK! NOW IS THE TIME!

oh, and get your butt to yoga and may your Training be Blessed,

el coache

photo: yup, it finally happened - ilg at age 45 has finally traded water bottles for baby bottles! Dewachen Catherine Ilg born within the yogi's Hour of God (4:24am) on the auspicious date of 9/11! another Healer in the family!

Of Broken Nipples, Thirsty Ghost Realms, and Ever Heightening RRR Team CHI!

"DAD GUM IT ALL ANYWAY!!"

above photo; Saturday...apres suffering:
your Chairperson stares down the nipple-less feeder tube of my camelback that reduced me to a quivering quad-mire of dazed, dehydrated confusion. while attempting to drink during Lap One of Saturday's ABSOLUTE BIKE's MTB race, i tore the nipple off the feeder tube. More waterless than watercress, yet not willing to listen to Common Sense, i kept the throttle down and my heart rate up. surely, i thought, i could produce some yogic tricks to outwit the impending massive bonk which accompanies severe dehydration under duress. Hell, i figured, i used to climb the Big Walls of Yosemite with no more water than could fit on my swollen tongue!

Well, my Noble Friends, there is a reason why most Yoga Teachers limit their Practice to the inside of nicely incensed yoga studios and far, far away from the brutal Bardo of endurance racing! For alas, like the total nerd which is ilg, no magical yogic powers could be summoned and ilg thus suffered one hellacious bonk. not just one, but several of my inner realities combusted and collided straight into Lap Three (aka; Trail of Tears). it was on that technical traverse section, last lap, whereupon i shape shifted unwillingly into a ghostly apparition (perhaps you saw me?)...cross-eyed, blubbering, and infirm. Fed up with my invalid status and worried for my safety and coherency for my very pregnant Joy at home; i graced myself my first DNF in quite a number of years, and in the process felt very, well...grown up! oh good Lord Awlmighty, don't tell me i'm becoming more...gr..gr...GROWN UP!??!! aaaaaargh!

Oh well, there is comfort in knowing some things never change like the outdoor racing maxim: Expect the Unexpected!

coach ilg reminds the reader at this point:
do NOT - EVER - let me catch YOU trying to race 33 miles without water! i will personally kick your arse if you try such stupidity!

***
Namaste Most Noble RRR Teammates!
First of all, THANKS to Kristen for that wonderful Team Email today and great photos/results from all of you Two Wheeling Warriors that stepped up to the Start Line on Saturday! Start and Finish Lines come in ALL SORTS of forms for each of us; the important thing is not the outer podium (although, getting onto those ARE rather nice!), but rather our unique, inner podiums. Just toeing the Start Line - be it a Saturday morning club ride or a brutal MTB race - is where the real inner value begins! it was "Absolutely" GREAT to see all those RRR kits out there on Saturday! EACH WEEKEND CLUB RIDE can be the same way! the power of a club lies in its consistency to represent! all momentum for our future depends upon YOU getting out there in your RRR Kit and REPRESENTING!

Secondly, a deeeeeep wave of gratitude to Mark and Deb Wille for throwing open the doors of their beautiful home for our Team Party! How fun was that!?

Although i wanted more of you to be there as i announced the general 2008 Team Structure that your Board has been pouring over for the past several months, you will each have a chance to learn more in the near future.

Special thanks to Board Members; Chris "Check-My-New-Sweetass-S'Works-Frame-That-I-Got-For-$30-Damn-Bucks-Because-I-Toed-The-Start-Line" Bosselman, Rob "Getting-It-Done" Hastings, and the ever-crankin' couple of Gary and K (above) for all their work in producing the Party.

It is with deep honor that feeble ilg Serves this Board
and this great, fast, friendly Team
that remains
FLAG's ONLY NATIVE CYCLING RACE TEAM!

As the Board heads into our most time and effort intensive part of the year for doing Team stuff,
know that your sweat, spirit, and most of all your SUPPORT is what will fuel our work for RRR.

Promise Coach that you will watch for and OPEN your RRR Emails coming up, okay?
We need your active support to keep RRR growing into the Structure that i outlined at the Party...


Keep crankin' and i'll see you at the Start Line...


head bowed,

coach ilg

12hrs of the Peaks

Hey Team: Chris Wilkens here. Those of you who are frequent checkers (and readers) of the email realm may already be familiar with who I am. That’s me there at the very bottom of the last two R3 Team Updates (very cool to have team updates I might add) – the one duly noted as the team’s Single Speed expert. Please don’t let the title fool ya - I am by no means an expert (at anything really)! But enough about me! I wanted to pass along my report on this past weekends S.S.S.S.S.S. – O! (loosely translated to Super Sweet solo single speed shred-off) aka 12hrs of the Peaks. For you’s all scratching your head and wondering what is he talking about, here were the details:

The 12hr race course:
lap one: schultz creek trail, sunset trail, red onion, elden lookout road, sunset trail, little bear, little elden, schultz.
lap two: fort valley connector, 164B, western most fort valley, pipeline, lower motto, fort valley connector.
lap three: schultz creek trail, little gnarly, lower brookbank, rocky ridge.
Finish one set, do it again and so on…

What a great event all around: from the free beer/music at registration, to a 6am race start (which by the way was the first time in my six years living in Flg I have ever seen Schultz trailhead at that time of day – it’s cold, even in the summer), to cranking the pedals around and around and around for 12hrs – well 8hrs in my case, great people (cyclists as a species are good eggs, but something about reducing life down to one gear just elevates the good nature of said cyclists), and all this just out our back door – sweet flag livin’ for sure!

For me I have come to realize that I really enjoy the idea of riding my bike for long periods of time - just my body and mind seem to deviate from their original plans some where along 6.5+hrs into a ride; thus reducing me to spend the next hours debating the pros and cons of my life's current state of affairs. So, the race results: http://www.meandrosco.blogspot.com/ that's me in slot 15. I set out to do lap 4 (the climb-a-thon lap) and played leap frog with a guy biking up Elden in what looked to be parachute pants stolen from David Lee Roths gym locker back in the Jump days of Van Halen's mega success and realized the pain was just not worth the humiliation of watching my current lack of riding ability. So called it a day on lap 4 (3/4 up Elden) and enjoyed the smooth flow of some icy cold PBRs back at the p. lot. End result - sign me up for the next one - I'm in!

There are two more events in the SSSSSSS-O:
Race two: absolute bikes old fashion mountain bike race.

Race three: elden lookout road single speed hill climb Sunday, September 2 high noon. from where the dirt turns to pavement all the way to the towers near the sunset trailhead. mass start.

thanks for reading and hope to see you all at Fort Valley on Saturday (with a much more reasonable start time!), chris

Summit Center

Congratulations to everyone who raced in the Summit Center Classic this weekend! In today's paper four Red Rock Racers are named as local riders finishing in the top 3. Way to go Red Rock!

Official Red Rock Racing GC results:

Cat 3 men
Gabe Keck – 6th
Gary Phillips – 23rd

Cat 5 Men
Karl Granoth – 3rd
Jesse Rens – 13th
Rob Hastings – 16th

Cat 4 Men
Jeremy Wilson – 3rd
Todd Lang – 12th
Bob Verderame – 19th
Chris Wilkens – 22nd

Masters Men 45+
Mark Wille – 8th

Cat 4 Women
Sue Rawley – 13th

Cat 3 Women
Kristen Hayden – 2nd

Masters Women 45+
Deb Martin-Wille – 2nd

Great job!

Thank You!

Most Noble RRR Teammates and Sponsors...



thank you so much for your attendance and smiles at our Kit Pick Up last night.

thank you Dennis for keeping the shop open late!

thank you Board Members for putting in the long nights...

may the tailwinds be abundant in your riding and may all your miles be Blessed with Sacred Sweat
in your beautiful new RRR kit! ain't they great?!

stay tuned for more; the years ahead shine with a reborn RRR; Flags ONLY Native, Homegrown and STAYING That Way Racing Team!

proud of you all and see you soon out on the trails and 'cobbles'...


head bowed,

coach steve ilg
RRR Chair

From The Chair; Missive #1

RRR’s new Chairperson, Steve “Coach” Ilg, flying the RRR colors while cranking to a 3rd consecutive Title at this years Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon in Grants, New Mexico. Coach, who also won the Flagstaff Winter Triathlon, is committed to bringing a dynamic energy of communication and CHI to RRR this season!

Hola Teammates!
My name is Steve “Coach” Ilg, your new RRR Chairperson. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of you out on the ’cobbles’ and ponderosa singletrack over the last couple of seasons. I deeply look forward to meeting the rest of you!

I’ll say it up front; I am not a cycling-specific athlete. I’m a 45-year young warrior just doing my best to stay fit. Since the eighties, I’ve used competitive cycling as a training vehicle toward multisport events and more importantly as a wonderful form of spiritual growth in tune with my understanding and practice of yoga. My highest results in cycling comes from a coach, not athlete. I am devoted however, to being a "coach that does," and once managed to attain a Cat 2 license (for about thirty seconds) and still maintain a feeble grip on an Expert MTB license (thanks in large part to riding MTB's again under the svelte fitness of RRR teammate Bob Verderame...that cat dances on a MTB like few i've ever seen). My deepest memories have been as a Tour of the Gila Champion, New Mexico Road Race Series State Champion, a New Mexico State MTB Medalist, and course records in the Furnace Creek 508 Ultra. However, I have had the deep honor to be the strength and conditioning coach of Team 7-Eleven back in the Boulder, Colorado golden years when names like Grewal, Hampsten, and Phinney were tearing up the Euro peletons when tearing up the Euro peletons was NOT something that we Americans did!

It’s from that experience that I am delighted to function as your new Chairperson for RRR. I was attracted to the low-key nature and tawny enthusiasm of this team while suffering like a dog during the Saturday Morning Club Rides a few years ago. I wanted to be a part of a low-pressure Team that honestly loved to do one thing; ride bikes. All kinds of bikes at all kinds of intensities.

That perhaps, defines the hallmark nature of a RRR Racer; it ain’t so much about winning, it’s about cultivating the good qualities within ourselves that seem to spring forward whenever we pedal our bikes through this amazingly beautiful land.

WHY SO LONG WITHOUT CONTACT?
I wanted to wait to speak to you all after I had a few Board Meetings under my belt, since all this fancy-smancy Board Meeting stuff is utterly new to me.

Okay kids, I realize by now, many of you may think that the RRR Board is actually just a semi-fictitious bunch of curmudgeons that excels in Consciously Engaged Procrastination.

Let me set the record straight; each of you should be very, very proud of the current RRR Board. Sure, I know well enough all the gossiping and insipid morale that has been the state of things up until now.

However, I don’t give a you know what about all that.

Here is what matters; the furthest thing your Board is, is Bored. We’ve had a LOT to do since I accepted this “utterly thankless, time consuming, and painful” position a few short while ago. Like the other Members of your board, I have already lost several hundred dollars of my time during seemingly endlessly linked Friday Nights huddled about in various Flagstaff nests with the other Board Members doing our best to get this amazing and STILL THE ONLY LOCAL HOMEGROWN FLAGSTAFF CYCLING TEAM up toward where we started and where we belong:
The Podium.


MISSION CONTROL; WE HAVE LIFT OFF!
Let me proudly state that our Team is now CRANKING! We’ve got a super strong Tier System to focus our racers, we’ve got Team Meet-and-Greet events slated, our totally stylin’ new kits will be here soon, and we’ve got all our racing and event promotion dialed in. In a few short months, this new RRR Board has done a 180 in engaged stance; we are completely devoted to securing strength and endurance for this amazingly refreshing cycling team that NEVER TURNS ANY RACER AWAY!!! RRR all-ways has been,
And all-ways shall remain, “all inclusive.”

We have a TON of forward, upward energy to climb the mountains before us. Good thing everyone on the Board are altitude trained, cuz we are focused on nothing else than Going Higher with this Team.


HOMEWORK, ALREADY?!? OH GEEZ, COACH…

I am all about the “Practice”
And
I am all about Communication.

So, your new “El Presidente” has a couple of homework assignments for each of you;

1) go to the RedRockRacing.org website (GREAT JOB, KRISTEN!) and STUDY, yes, I said STUDY all the newly updated items such as our killer new Tier System, Race Reimbursement Formula, our Junior Development Program, etc.! Remember; Practiced Communication and responsibility! It is up to YOU to know by heart how to get reimbursed for your races, what qualifies as a “race”, and other particulars. With a USCF Coach sitting as your Chairperson, do not think for one second that I will tolerate lack of responsibility among our racers. If I would tolerate such lazy mindedness, I would be doing great disservice to your spirit, both as an athlete and as a human being. Also; Update your Bio! C'mon, we want to MEET and get to know you! Don't be shy!

2) Visit and contribute to the RRR Team Blog! This Blog is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a constant and needed source of Team news and exciting energy. As the new racing season begins to yawn wide open, let your RRR Brothers and Sisters read about your event, your training, what you’ve been doing. We need some spiritual glue for our Team right now, and the only way to create such bondage among each other is to live your Training and Racing out loud! Don’t just huddle in anonymity! Take a flier off the front, baby! Then tell us about it; training or racing! Let’s see you Represent!

3) Embrace the new Energies of Flag’s Native Cycling Team we ROCK among the Red Rocks! Ride happy, ride strong, and speak true.

Let’s do this thang!

May your training be strong and sincere and may all your headwinds be brief,

Om so ti,

Coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt

One more el Tour picture...

Here are Chris and Carolyn Latham on the tandem at el Tour. They look good on that set of wheels!