Valentino Rossi vs. Whytecliff

I just got back from my first 100 km road ride of the season and it was amazing! The sun was shining on Vancouver, there were an indeterminable number of other cyclists out and to top it off we had an amazing group that was all keen for the same thing this morning: getting awesome!

The only missing ingrediant was my bro-in-law Kyle (heretoafter referred to as Sizzle). He had to get down to brass tacks and put in a half day of work so he wasn't able to join, but that brings me to the relevance of the title of this post.

Sizzle has an unbridled passion for anything on two wheels. That passion explodes tenfold when it comes to supersport bikes, and then eeks one notch even higher when racing is involved. About a week ago Kyle introduced me to Valentino Rossi, a young Italian motorcycle racing phenom who has won no less than 6 world titles at the tender age of 25; sick. So this morning to get psyched up for our ride and right before ringing up Bookie to determine our ETD, I called up Rossi's head-to-head duel with Sete Gibernau Jerez at the Spanish MotoGP on YouTube.



In my (very unknowledgable) opinion, this has got to be the most impressive display of mettle, determination and plain old grit I've ever seen in any kind of racing.

So anyways, back to our ride today...fueled by thoughts of Rossi's panache on the race track, our group of Ty "the up and comer" Berger, Mike "pitbull" Church, Simon "I don't ride often but still crush everyone", Steph "I can stomp all over the boys", Stu "the powerhouse" Bookbinder, Martin "try and stay on this wheel" VanEssen and the lovely and distinguished Carla "you can drop me but I'll come back stronger" Cupido hammered like hellions out to Whytecliff Park and back.

Honourable mention must go out to Stu's lovely wife Tammy, who was champing at the bit to come along for the hammerfest but had to stay home to take care of Fisher the Superdog.

Afterwards a few of us tacked on a few extra km's to cap a perfect day in beautiful Vancouver.

On another note, I think the crew from the Edge is up sending like madmen in Squamish right now so hopefully the rock is bone dry with top friction for them. I know I'll be joining them again when this shoulder heals up!

Tomorrow: Mountain biking with the usual suspects...potentially Bunsen Lake or Lower Syemour. I'll let y'all know how it was...