Approximately 25 members of the NOW-MS team converged upon the Rolling Thunder Ranch on Friday night. It was hard to count the exact number, because everyone was running around the amazing property like excited kids on Redbull.Julie has secured an incredible Montana Ranch style house, with two large outdoor stone fireplaces, roasting pits, tiki huts nestled in the trees with a bar and stools, burning torches that lined the paths, a pool, two Jacuzzis, a guest house and a "love shack".
In order to afford the above, we camped out on every available space -- five people to one room in some cases. There were blow up beds everywhere, a tent on the lawn, and sleeping bags on the grass under the stars. It was priceless.
Kit and Antony gave up their weekends to come and coach the teams, which got underway after a team talk on the living room floor at 7:30, and eggs and oatmeal organized by Angela and her kitchen crew. We established a good route for a 3 hour jaunt, which retraced some of the MS ride, and set off through the hills of Ojai at 8:00am.
Doing what you love doing, with a bunch of people you love doing it with, is a pretty hard act to follow. Add to that, clear blue skies, the perfect temperature, and a bunch of riders who are told to "ride how they feel", you have utopia. Under the leadership of Kit we rotated, and attacked our way down the coast for several blissful/sometime painful hours, until we hit the dude ranch once again.
Team talk, scheduling for 09, goal setting and a lot of Sage advice from Kit and Antony, took up some of the afternoon, followed by separate skills clinics for the women's and men's team. The women left the men on the lawn and went off in search of the Garret Lemire Course. The last words we heard were "Okay let's doing some bumping". We didn't ask, but we knew Kit had it under control.
Antony led the charge, which involved less bumping, but loads of diving into corners. It was great to be "racing" again, especially with our new and brilliant U25 team mates. Lauren, Jen-Jo, Kendall Ryan and PC make up the fabulous four, and they certainly lived up to their reputation.
With the promise of good food back at base, we dived the last corner at record speed and rejoined the group of guys, who were recounting stories of wheelies on the lawn and who won the slowest race.
Fuelled by a desire to win at all costs on and off the bike, the fine men and women of NOW-MS continued to do what we do best -- COMPETE. A series of arms wrestles, games of SLIDE (PC and Kit reigning champs), Pictionary and anything else that requires mental and physical strength, the evening was pretty much full of blood, sweat and tears/ice packs.
Cut to the next morning. Rinse and repeat. More drills, more attacks, more of everything we love!!! Clean up, big hugs, glam photos, roll out. End of story -- and what a great story it was.
Photos Available under "2008 Gallery"
