Dave Z: Goodbye Park City, Hello Beijing.
02 Aug 2008, written by 3 CommentsAbout a month ago, professional bike racer Dave Zabriskie called me to see if I knew of any nice places to stay in Park City or Deer Valley. His coach wanted him to train and sleep at an altitude above 8,000 feet. This was right after I started my new job as Director of Marketing for Deer Valley Lodging. Duh. This was a no-brainer. Thanks to a cycling-friendly General Manager at The Village at Empire Pass, one of our Deer Valley slopeside properties, we were able to set him up with some nice accommodations while he spent time motorpacing behind a scooter on the roads of Park City, and sleeping above 8,000 feet. Dave leaves for Beijing on Sunday, and will be representing the United States in the road race and individual time trial. A former silver medalist in the World Championships time trial, Z is no dark horse in this event. He beat Armstrong in the Tour de France to claim a yellow jersey, and I believe he still holds the record for the fastest ever average speed in a TDF time trial stage. And did I mention that he beat Armstrong, which was sweet. Unlike current time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara, who can’t help being Swiss but often refers to himself in the third person, which I find quite annoying, Dave is pretty down to earth despite being an international star. If you read this recent interview on cyclingnews.com, you have to think he’s got as good a shot as anyone for a medal. As you can see below, Z has shorn the Dirk Diggler moustache which he sported for much of the 2008 season, something we have never seen before in professional cycling.
Good luck Dave. I’ll give you ten bucks if you race with a face mask on.
Wanted: Baristas for gas powered smoothie bar
28 Jul 2008, written by 1 CommentsLeave it to Darth Nater to find things out in the world that have no other reason to exist but to amuse us. First there was the Hemi-powered snowblower. Some might say a practical item, given how much snow we had last winter. But this takes the cake: Honda-powered blenders. Now, it has been the subject of many rides that someday we are going to open an adventure motorcycle shop like the world has never seen. And in this shop will have to be an espresso bar, and now, a smoothie bar with gas powered blenders.
Tour of Utah Moto Support Needed
01 Jul 2008, written by 0 CommentsTour of Utah needs your help. I got a call from T-Mac (Terry McGinnis), Race Director of the 2008 Tour of Utah bicycle stage race. This is a multi-day pro-am cycling event on the prestigious NRC calendar, and will draw all the best U.S. domestic bike racers. Local icons like Burke Swindlehurst (T-Bird) and Jeff Louder will likely be gunning for glory, but there will be only one king crowned after the final ascent up Little Cottonwood Canyon, the same climb as the annual Snowbird Hillclimb. My best finish in the Snowbird Hillclimb was 3rd, behind Dave Z. and T-Bird, but that was just starting at the bottom and racing to the top. These poor bastards in the 2008 TOU will ride a hundred miles or so AND THEN duke it out up the final climb. With a $75,000 cash prize list and a grand prize of a new car to the winner, TOU is back after a hiatus, and from the looks of it, living large indeed. But putting on a multi-day pro bike race all over the state is a messy affair of tangled logistics, and T-Mac needs some motorcycle riders to volunteer for various support duties, such as assisting UHP in traffic marshaling, neutral support, and chauffeuring race officials from one spot to another. I will likely volunteer for a day or two, but T-Mac needs all the help he can get. If you are a Utah-based moto rider with any sort of scoot, email T-Mac and offer up some assistance. Now let me tell you a little bit about my friend T-Mac: we were former team mates in our younger days on the X-Men Cycling Team, and T-Mac helped me win a lot of races at the Rocky Mountain Raceway “Tuesday Night World Championships.” T-Mac was tenacious then, and is even more tenacious now as he continues to fight some nasty cancer. And, did I mention he is race director for the grandest bike race Utah has ever seen? This guy is tough, but needs a little help.
View of my old arse. Stage 1. 2006 Tour of Utah. Photo by T-Mac.