Rollin with the Ark

This week has been great here at TCH. I'm so grateful to be down here and to be riding with some great folk from the Ark Intervals multisport team outta Philly. We've been going on big rides and runs everyday. Today saw an epic battle of nations on the slopes of Mt. Lemmon. Ed from Toronto challenged Noah and the Americans. I didn't want to see a lone wolf go up against a superpower, and seeing as how I live 60 miles from Canada, I wore the red and white Hammer kit. The big day started with a 20 mile roll out to the base of mt. lemmon. From there things really started to heat up. I was pacing Ed up the early slopes and we had  Noah from USA! in a spot of trouble. Then Halp flew past us at a high rate of speed. I couldn't let the dreams of Canada slip away, I had to leave Ed as this could be the deciding break. Luckily, Brendan's coach had told him to ride at 150-160 beats up the grade, about all my early season legs were good for. After some meaningless chit chat for an hour, we made it to mile 14 where global warming had caused the road to be snowed in. We didn't stay there long, we wanted to see the real action between Canada and the USA! back down the hill.  Fist ones up were of course the girls team, Jen and Sharon were shredding lemmon on their tri bikes! A little further down the hill at mile 11.5, we found that Ed, the crafty kanuck, had employed two domestiques and was pulling away from Noah. Once Ed's henchman had done their work, he made his final push, taking back 30 seconds at the top. He may have won the stage, but as always, USA! took GC at the end of the day. We all had a great time and then enjoyed a lovely dinner of Red Snapper.