Our team was nominated by USA Cycling as the Collegiate Team of the Month for March. It sure is nice to see the hard work paying off, now if I can just have the weather hold out for our race on March 26-27, we'll be in good shape! See below for the USA Cycling Write-up, the original can be found here
Notice GB's photo credit at the bottom :-) Good work G!

Team of the Month

University of Utah

Essay by Joel Hsia, Team President

The University of Utah Cycling Club is the classic story of a developing group that has overcome long odds to firmly establish itself in collegiate cycling. Founded in late 2004, Utah Cycling started out as a group of students who paid out of their own pockets to travel, race, and ride. Fond stories are still told about the early years of racing in jerseys with a block “U” duct-taped on, and even resorting to wearing jerseys belonging to campus parking enforcement. -- Utah Cycling is now self-supported and is able to assist riders in the costs of racing.

Like any club-level organization, Utah Cycling owes its survival to the dedication of its members and officers. It is labor and love from committed individuals that allows Utah Cycling to continue. One particular 2006-2007 school year marks a time of great struggle, when the team nearly fell apart from lack of a governing body. Utah Cycling's advice to other small clubs or teams is that above all else, a solid group of leaders is the most important thing to have.

Beyond racing, Utah Cycling places value in supporting local community and organizations. Throughout 2009, on top of participating in charity rides, the club spent time promoting bicycle safety with young children of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Utah Cycling is also an active supporter for Bikes for Kids Utah, an organization that provides children with free bicycles to help them play, exercise, get to school, and develop hobbies. One of Utah Cycling's top highlights is currently laying claim to being faster than rival-school BYU at the annual Red vs Blue charity hill climb. Proceeds from this community-involved event benefit the Bikes for Kids Utah group.

Utah Cycling's major race accomplishments include consistent qualification for road and mountain nationals. The club is home to and has turned out globally ranked riders such as Mitchell Peterson, Rob Squire, and former MTB national champion Heather Holmes. Utah Cycling had spectacular results at 2009 RMCCC road conference finals, with multiple podium wins in all categories and disciplines. With a great group of riders, and transition into the new Inter-Mountain conference, Utah Cycling looks forward to 2010 and beyond.

Utah would like to recognize and thank the following organizations for their continued support throughout many years: Mass Mutual, Blackbottoms Cyclewear, CycleSmith SLC, and Ritchey Design.

Utah Cycling
www.utahcycling.org

Photo credits, top to bottom: Gina Duncan, Katie Gasser, and SOAR Communications

I couldn't resist

This has to be one of the best movie scenes of all time.

Portfolio Pics - Part 6

"Fresh Air"EXIF Data
Location: Virgin Islands
ISO: 200
Exposure Time: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f/13
Focal Length: 17 mm
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority

To go with that last post...

Here's a close-up of what it looked like looking towards downtown. The panorama from the previous post doesn't show the blue-ish hue as well as this one does. I think this photo is truer to what our eyes saw last night.

We've been having the coolest weather patterns here lately (well, except for the smog), and it's been making for some great panorama photos from our balcony.

Enjoy (click for larger image, bigger is better, eh?)

Floating Mountains

Gina posted this over on her blog but I thought it merited posting here too since I took it :-)

Enjoy (click for larger image)

It's Alive!

Well, it's been a long time coming but at least I know the engine starts now! That's one big step I don't have to worry about anymore. I can't believe it started up so easily after 5 1/2 years of sitting!

Next up on the work order is painting the front fenders, installing them, finishing up the steering links, building the exhaust system, and finally getting the custom rear driveshaft built :-)

Last long ride of '09

A few weeks ago my friend suggested doing one more long ride for the season. We planned it for the 16th and with the weather being as good as it was on Friday and me being on Fall Break from school, I couldn't resist. I rode down to American Fork Canyon and we rode the Alpine Loop and Cascade Springs before heading home. It couldn't have been a better day, temps were in the high 60's for most of the ride and I was taking my birthday present out for their maiden voyage. Boy were they good! Thanks G

Stats:
Distance: 191.77 km (119.2 mi)
Elevation Gain: 2,136 m (7,008 ft)
Link to interactive map

Taylor - welcome to the joys of road riding :-) You sure know how to fly on those downhills!

Birthday Surprise

Gina surprised me good for my birthday this year. I had really been wanting a set of carbon wheels for some time but I'd written them off thinking that I would just get a pair of nice all-around wheels instead. Gina totally faked me out and, with a bit of help from my family, surprised me with these! I took them out for their first ride on Friday and boy were they good. Thanks for a great birthday Gina and fam, you guys are the best.

Mmm, tubulars

Just a few shots

I haven't been taking too many pictures lately but Gina has been a bit busy.


Red vs. Blue Hill Climb (might have some pics at some point, results here)

Lotoja 2009 (results)

Harvest Moon Criterium (results aren't published yet but I got 8th in that too)

Guess 8th place is my lucky number this year no matter the race.

PS, I do not like how Google handles pictures on blogs and I don't want to take the time to fix it, sorry for the graininess.