Team member Dwight Roth spent a week riding in Asheville, South Carolina.

Still piecing together Dwight’s report on this trip. Looks like he had great weather and a great time.

Update from Dwight:

These are 4 of the 6 climbs we did.

Garren Creek     http://app.strava.com/rides/343624
Craggy Gardens      http://app.strava.com/rides/345985
Caesar’s Head       http://app.strava.com/rides/348584
Elk Mountain Scenic Highway      http://app.strava.com/rides/350486

Mt Mitchell is missing but as you all know that is a big 25 miles up.  Once you open these if you click on the name of it it will give you the profile. The number means the category it is. The cat 1 climb was a bitch at 8+% for 5 miles. Click on the name and it gives you people that have climbed it. I think Ted King is on One of them…

My goal is to get longer rides in during the weekend and since I work most Saturdays my only big chance is on a Sunday. Last night we received a lot of snow and I was debating on whether or not I was going to head out to meet up with the Park Ave group ride. I started off shoveling the driveway and noticed that it was quite warm out so how bad could it be with wet roads. I’m glad that I decided to get a great ride in with the Park Ave group but not so glad when I came home to see my new kit. It was full of filth and grime!!! It’s currently soaking in some Oxyclean hoping to get most of the road stains out.

I started out riding around 8:45 having to be at Park Ave by 10:00am. Of course I was really early so I had enough time to have a nice cup of coffee at Starbucks. This also gave me time to thaw out my feet and glasses. They were again foggy for the majority of the ride. The group started off at 10:05 sharp!!! They do not wait for anyone!!! I felt really good throughout the whole ride and again met some really nice people. They are helpful as usual giving tips and advice. The worst part of the whole ride was the road spray. Between the road spray and fog there were times I had a hard time seeing what’s around. I’m not really sure where we rode and if I was dropped I’d definitely be lost. I made it the whole way with the group and headed on home for a total of 57 miles or almost 4hrs of riding. It took me almost as long to clean my bike as it did to complete my ride today. There’s a lot of junk on the roads. Here’s some pics from riding out and riding in from today. Again thanks to our sponsors for keeping me warm. I’m trying my hardest to get my kit cleaned again

In Upstate New York the weather was as good as it was going to get, so I decided to venture out on a ride with some other cyclists. I started out around 8 am and had to get to Highland and Winton by 8:30 sharp – Luckily I got there around 8:25 so I made the cut.. so far. The cyclists that I were meeting are some of the best in the area so I was quite intimidated. Luckily, those guys had single speeds and I had my trusty Cannondale, which is geared. This boosted my confidence just a little… not much, but just a little. Today was also the first day that I rode with my Quality Care Pharmacies team kit. A great kit that was designed by Minerva Design. It was quite warm but I felt bad because it ended up getting quite dirty. My feet ended up freezing up on the way home and my glasses were foggy the whole time. When I hit my area, the snow was coming down quite hard and could have used some sort of windshield wipers. I ended up riding around 4.5 hours and 65 miles. This ride felt really good and I am glad that I ventured out with them. Their knowledge is priceless and the training is great. Here are the sites of the guys I rode with – Mt. Borah Cycling and Mac5Bikes . Thanks to those guys for the invite and next week I’ll be a little more confident. Here’s a pic of the mess I made of my kit – notice the foggy glasses