Friends, Epics and Epic Friends

What is it that keeps one coming back to a sport day after day, season after season, year after year? Personal gain, fitness, drive to excel at something? For me its the people, the riding buddies, the lifelong friendships forged during long days in the saddle, this makes cycling less of a sport and more of a lifestyle. Its hard to meet someone on bike that isn't awesome (especially one with knobby tires).

Its the week before spring semester, many friends are returning to Blacksburg to get a little extra riding in before school starts and road season comes rolling in like an out of control freight train of pain and awesome. Time for a "little" Sunday FUNday action!

What started as a nice ~30mile ride from the glorious white house that afternoon transformed into the most excellent ride in the past few months due to great people mixed with poor conditions, and a bad(stoke-worthy) idea.

We hit some gravel early on, the draft was worth it! 

After cruising though some simply breathtakingly beautiful valley roads of SW VA, Luke and I decided we wanted more! Mountain Lake was thrown out as an idea, and I was more than game for some new roads. So as the rest rolled back to the burg while the two of us pushed on into the mountains.

 Getting close to the top, drinking in the scenery

When a mountain biker and cross kid have a craving to mix it up on a road ride, they don't necessarily fully consider that this is going to be another 45miles to get home, its been raining for the past week, and its gets dark in just over 2 hours. Although it was looking iffy on making it back we were seeking dirt and we received it! So off the backside we went! 

  Did I mention that Luke was on is brand spanking new Brew, with matching stem and bars? 

Now this is the proper way to break in a new machine! 

Due to the rain and freeze-thaw road conditions we horrendous, and by that I mean even extra rad! Super sticky and slow going. As the sun was setting, temperature falling, mountains glowing, and miles ticking away (still on the dirt) we came to a conclusion. There is no way in the world we are making it back before dark and hard bonks. 

We made the call to our wiser shorter riding teammates, well really it was a text, next to no service out there.

With out hesitation Becca and Jacob dropped everything and drove 30miles out of town to come rescue our numb exhausted selves off the side of the road right at dark. Now that's some friendship and comradery! Needless to say I would do the same for almost any of my friends. Its acts like these that prove time and again that the cycling group is an alright bunch of excellent people! Selflessness is a disappearing trait but remains embedded in some.  

     Keep it dirty friends!