Congratulations Cadel Evans & the schleck brothers!

My first viewing of the Tour DE France was pure beauty, To see men get pushed to there limits day after day was amazing. Just like every tour there was blood sweat & tears but i could have never excepted to see all the heart and glory i witnessed. I am very happy for cadel evans he road amazing and his win was well deserved. To have two brothers on the podium is very heart warming & I'm sure there time is to come when they will be wearing the yellow at the end. Also let me give some love to alberto contador for putting up a fight even when he was down on his luck. Beautiful experience, i will never forget.

Rapha Rising final day... 15,683m completed out of 21,125m

The feelings i hold as of right now are mixed i feel rather disappointed in myself ,not much for being unable to reach the goal since i realized that was out of reach a week back but mostly  for not going out with a bang on the last day. Besides that i am very grateful & thankful for participating in this, it was a great experience & i must thank Rapha for being so cool & also give respect to all the riders who were able to finish since this was no easy task. Rapha Rising required allot of dedication & mental toughness. I also came out of this a much better rider, i feel much stronger & in better shape. I developed my morning ritual before my rides, i learned how to properly hydrate myself, & how to eat & when to eat. So although i wasn't close to winning i still know i came out a winner in different ways. My first challenge was unsuccessful but I'm already looking forward to the next one. All i could say now is that i can't wait to ride some flat roads.

   Challenge number 1 the Rapha Rising

                                          Still young & improving, ill be there for the next one :)

You never know what ride will be your last. 806 m

Well that's kind of a over execrated title since I'm still alive & healthy but this turned out to be my last ride for the rapha challenge which is really disappointing since it wasn't nearly as big of a test as i wanted it to be. This is because i wasn't planing for this, the plan was to get some meters in on Saturday day 22 & Finish it off today Sunday with a big ride. Turned out that i couldn't fit my ride in my schedule today, this hurt me bad i was really looking forward to one adding up my total of climbing meters to 17,000, & two having this as my final test to show my improvement.

rapha rising day 22 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Almost to the top. 1,237 m

With just a few days left , i choose mt. baldy road once again. this time i had a finish on my mind, not with the rapha challenge but with going to the end of the climb were the road eventually stops. I was doing very good , the best I've ever done on this course. I started through the switchbacks but with only 1 mile left i realized i miss manged my time schedule with my girlfriend who i told to meet me up at the bottom at a certain time for dinner. Now I'm more that confident i could finish this course something i could have never done before.

Rapha rising day 21 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

The Galibier! 1,212 m

stage 18 of the tour de France was the most beautiful display of heart i have ever witnessed so beautiful that it made my eyes tear up. To see a man push pass his limits with pure heart & will was just so amazing to me. I read old stories and see old clips of past legends, & historical moments but i never really witnessed on e in real life & today was one of those moments that should go down in the books. Andy schleck solo break was very heroic and an amazing display of heart & courage but the true moment that did it for me was to see thomas voeckler push up the final hill to cross the finish line to hold on to his yellow jersey, By far my favorite moment ever in sports. I will never forget this stage & that moment. As for my ride still trying to do something a little extra but still no big help. Today was a real kick in the butt to see so many people reach the goal but i have noting to blame but myself for missing out on the days i skipped, But i will continue to ride since 14,000 isn't a good enough mark for me.

                                                   Thomas voeckler galibier finish

Rapha Rising day 20 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Bear on the road. 852 M

Today was just another day for me into about 4 miles in my usual ride a fallow cyclist told me that there was a bear on the road just ahead so not wanting to take the risk on how hungry he was i decided to turn around. I was only able to rake up about 468 M, knowing this was not enough i relocated to another road of mine to try and get a few more meters in, but it didn't have much to offer me with elevation gain. So not as much climbing done as i expected but i did get to spend some time taking pictures.

Rapha rising day 19 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details
Rapha rising day 19 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details-ride 2

Different strategy, 1,477 m

Coming off a rest day i felt fresh so i choose to push a bigger gear than usual. I was really impressed with this style of ridding since i been pushing small gears at higher cadence this whole time. I noticed that my cadence was much lower but so was my heart rate and lactic acid build up so this allowed me to ride more casual. This style proved to benefit me as i climbed the most meters so far. I also enjoyed this style of riding since it was such a beautiful day and i was able to soak it all in.

Rapha Rising day 18 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details