March | 2014 | Steve Tilford

I started off West on Monday afternoon. I headed over to Denver, which is around 500 miles and stayed with Vincent in Arvada. Vincent had downloaded all Trudi’s information off the cloud and set up a new computer for her. I shipped it off to Mike Sayers, USAC U-23 Team Director, to get transported over to Belgium. She should have it by this weekend. I was hoping to ride, but it was snowing in Arvada, so I just headed out.

I’m not sure that was such a great move. It was really snowing up in the mountains. I can’t believe how little they had done plowing the passes. There were a lot of people skiing in Copper and Vail. It is almost easy to forget that it is really still the dead of winter there.

After getting down from Vail, the drive became less stressful. The roads dried out and the scenery just improved and improved.

If you’ve never driven from Vail into Utah, you’re missing something great. The drive is unforgettable. Utah is so scenic, barren, beautiful, that if you haven’t driven through it, you need to sometime.

Vincent works in St. George, Utah some, and has a friend that has a hotel there, so he got me set up with a room. Bromont needed a run and I needed to get out for just a bit and spin. We both felt better.

Today I’m heading to Southern California. I have a long list of stuff I need to get done there. First, I’d like to get a few hours on my bike and get feeling back to normal. I love the drive, but it is a long haul. But, having both my bikes, plus Bromont along, it is worth it.

Bromont and Vincent’s dog, Jack, are best buddies.

Driving up towards Vail was ugly.

The Interstate highway before Glenwood Springs is one of the most amazing roads in the world.

I assume this are for the deer and other animals trying to get over the fence by the highway.

Utah is dramatic.

Bromont couldn’t believe how big the canyons are.

I ate this bag of chocolate nut things on the drive. I’m not sure what they were trying to sell with the packaging. Probiotic? I doubt they were very healthy.

Bromont ended up on the floor sleeping between the seats. He had the whole back seat and front seat too.

One byproduct of me doing this everyday, I seem to be on some list that gets all books on cycling sent to me. A few I have really been meaning to read, but haven’t had enough time yet. I received the book, Cycle of Lies a couple weeks ago, I guess. It sat on my dresser until I packed up to head West. I grabbed it at the last minute.

I’d read an article in the New York Times about the book and there were some quotes in the article from John Hendershot, a soigneur that Trudi helped hired for Motorola, back in the 90’s. Trudi quit the year Lance came to the team. So, when the book came, I flipped through it and read a couple passages from it. From my 5 minute thorough perusing, I’m interested enough to read the whole thing. I can’t say that I agree with all I read, but it is close enough not to be wrong.

Today an article over at Velonews taking excerpts of the book and then having Steve Johnson, CEO of USAC, categorically deny them. I guess he is calling Dave Zabriski a liar, since Dave says that Steve Johnson was cognizant of the doping usage by the US Postal Team back in 2006 and Steve Johnson says that he never had that conversation with Dave. This is probably going to get good down the road.

Anyway, I plan to read the book. It isn’t going to take long, big print, 400+ pages. I’ll let you know what I think.

Steve Tilford

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Monthly Archives: March 2014

Wonderful Driving

Cycle of Lies