Death Ride 2010

I'm just going to say it... my boyfriend is a stud. Yup, that's right a certified grade-A stud. On Saturday, he and a couple of his buddies got up at the bright and early time of 3:45am to get ready for the 2010 Death Ride. For those of you who don't know what the Death Ride is, let me fill you in. It's known as the "Tour of the California Alps" - a 129 mile ride with 5 mountain pass climbs that total 15,000 feet of climbing.

Here's Mike and I at the top of Carson Pass (the last pass where we sat and cheered):

Note that he doesn't look like he's just been riding for the last 11 hours. I have no idea how all of these guys looked so good! There was a downside... about 2 hours into the ride, Mike had a pretty bad crash. His chain broke, which promptly tossed him off his bike and onto the ground. He ended up with some pretty crazy scrapes and bruises... I suspect that most of the soreness he's feeling now is not from the crash but rather from the fall. Here's a side picture that doesn't do the injuries justice:

He has some pretty good scrapes down his legs, too. Here's the part that just absolutely amazes me... this crash happened 2 hours in. He had to sit almost a full hour waiting for one of the course mechanics to come around with a new chain (his was completely broken in two). I'm pretty sure that most people would have stopped there, but not my dude! He hopped right back on that bike and rode for another 8 hours! I'm absolutely blown away!

We were also there with Sean and Erin:

Rich and Clarissa:

Of course, we set up a fantastic cheering section - Erin and Clarissa brought cowbells (who doesn't love a couple hours of cowbell ringing?!). We had a blast cheering for all of the people coming up the last pass! Here are the "cowbell girls" doing their thing:

My parents also came and brought Tucker... who woofed along with us when we cheered and rang the bells!

Tucker and Dad eventually got sick of the cowbells and walked over to the side of the road to look down on the beautiful lake below us:

Who doesn't love a good "boy and his dog" picture?

In other cycling news, it looks like Lance Armstrong is pretty much out of contention in the Tour de France. He had a couple of crashes yesterday that put him way too far back to make up the time before the end of the race. Sort of sad, since I would have loved to see him go out with a win (he's said that this is his last Tour). He's had a lot of crap thrown at him this time around... some crazy crashes and flat tires at times that were just very bad luck. I think I might have to start cheering for Andy Schleck!