penny for a thought | Patrick on every & anything » Cycling

Roadtrip in review

Patrick — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:05:34 +0000

Mind-taxing drives, epic bike rides, Bobcat encounter, copious amounts of Mexican food, and Lance Armstrong… All words which define my eleven-day road trip to SoCal and back. The adventure kicked off with a 14-hour drive from Portland to Los Angeles, which began at 2:30AM several Thursdays ago. It then progressed with a week’s worth of music, catching up with friends, and incredible bike rides up, over, and through the mountains and canyons of Southern California. The chaos continued in Sacramento and Santa Rosa with a weekend of spectating the Amgen Tour of California where many of the world’s top professional cyclists (including Lance Armstrong) battled to be crowned king in CA.

Now, in pictures – though, unfortunately, the Bobcat which stalked me for 50 meters wasn’t interested in posing for a photo.

Piuma Canyon_Malibu

Lance Armstrong_Tour of California

Francisco Mancebo_Wins Stage 1

Portland Veloswap

Patrick — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:26:28 +0000

One of a handful of reasons for my blogging hiatus is the Portland Veloswap. What’s a Portland Veloswap? You ask. Put simply it’s an idea I had to bring individuals and businesses together to buy, sell, and trade new and used cycling equipment & apparel. It might not sound like a big feat, but given Portland, OR is literally “Bike City U.S.A,” it’s a pretty big deal! So, after months of planning, the idea finally came to fruition (thanks in most to my event promotion partner, Jim) and took place in epic fashion last weekend. It was successful in several ways – first, all the event space sold out and more than 1,500 people paid $3 to browse the showroom. Second, the event completely owns the first few pages of Google for the words “Portland Veloswap.” Don’t believe me, well let me Google it for you.

Okay, I understand “Portland Veloswap” isn’t exactly an overly competitive term to own on Google. However, the shear quality of each search result is what excites me. Without effort (aside from what went into the event planning) a plethora of highly credible local and national blogs and newspaper & radio station websites covered the Velopswap’s success, thus making it that much more successful. In the end, I could not have asked for the event to go any smoother and am looking forward to making the next one even bigger and better. Another plus is the amount of money the event raised for local, bicycle related organizations.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Patrick — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:48:19 +0000

My two favorite things in the world are 1.) bicycles, and 2.) coffee. There are ton of close seconds, but when it comes down to it bikes and coffee reign supreme. Apparently, there’s at least one guy in Portland who shares the same passions. In fact, he so passionate of bikes and coffes that he made a career out of it.

I’m talking about the angels who pedal down from heaven each week to deliver a few lbs of Portland’s finest java to my office, Courier Coffee Roasters. Founded, owned and run by a man named Joel, Courier Coffee is roasted in Portland and delivered to on bicycle to vendors and bussinesses around Portland. Mmmm…

Brrrrrr!!!

Patrick — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:30:49 +0000

Today was unarguably Portland’s most beautiful day of 2008… Freezing cold? Definitely! But absolutely gorgeous to say the least.

Being an Ohio transplant by way of Montana made today’s freezing temperature pretty easy on me. Though not-so-much true for native Portlanders. Today I learned that ice sneaks up on you; especially when descending steep, rural roads on a bicycle. There’s a lot of water run-off in Portland and water freezes. Surprised? I was…

For those complaining about the cold, just remember, it could always be worse. Take Newfoundland for example, where oceanic waves freeze at mid-crest.

For the love of it

Patrick — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:45:40 +0000

Another thing I’ve learned during my (almost) 24 short years is that people are lucky to have at least one passion–something which forces us to go beyond our comfort zones, pain thresholds, laws of science, etc., just for the love of it. For some it’s children, others it’s nothing, for me it’s sport, cycling to be more precise. It’s what drives me, inspires and influences every piece of my life–from family and friends, to work and the pursuit of success…

The aforementioned was demonstrated earlier today while struggling for another hour of riding to complete our (David, Garren and I’s) 5-hour training goal. Riding up was the most convenient route to accomplish our goal, so up we went. Aside from a few scattered showers and temperatures near the high-30s, we were lucky to be dry at hour 4. Then, like the weather, our luck changed. The sky turned gray and everything around us became white. Snow was flying and the temperature was falling, it was chaos, so much that all we could do was smile and keep moving. Oh! And pray no drivers were dumb enough to be on our snow-dusted road, just cyclist.