next chapter

My four months in Omaha have come to an end. It was a great experience; a great store and an even better group of people. Now I'm ready for the next step. Monday a small group of us will start at the new store. For the first couple of months we'll be receiving freight, assembling displays, and generally doing "whatever it takes" to get the store ready for our June grand opening.

 Omaha Scheels


The tech outdoor department in Omaha had shrunk to a fraction of its peak size before I left, and we were able to set almost all of the expanded bike shop. It was fun to see some great displays of road, mountain, comfort and fat-tire bikes, as well as clothing and accessories. I'm glad that I got to be part of writing the next chapter before I left.

I would also like to announce another new chapter. I'm going to continue to use this blog to write about my cycling adventures, those accomplished and those being planned. And I also want to share the news of my new bike shop and beautiful new store as it comes to fruition. But I don't know if everyone who may read this blog about cycling wants to hear about my veganism. So I'm starting another blog devoted specifically to that. I would encourage everyone to follow me at Vegan For Life but if you only want to check in on the bike biz, this blog will be for that.

go big or go home?

Let me start by saying that I won't be able to do this in 2015. Maybe not even in 2016. But I've been thinking about a new challenge in cycling. Some things are a little too daunting. I'm too old, too slow, and too overweight, um, under height. But if I put my mind to it I can accomplish some things. With that in mind, I thought that I needed a new goal towards which to work.

My love of cycling in Colorado gave me the idea of something I've heard about for years, The Triple Bypass. It's a one day, 120 mile ride, with 10K+ feet of climbing, from Evergreen to Avon. It goes over Juniper Pass, Loveland Pass, and Vail Pass. I've climbed all of these passes, (Juniper in both directions), but not all in the same day. It would be tough, but I know I could do it. That's not optimal for a goal, is it? If you know you can do it? So, how could I take it up a notch? I'm glad you asked.

The slogan for the Triple Bypass is "For those who dare". For those who dare even more there is the Double Triple Bypass. After riding 120 miles over 3 mountain passes with over 10K feet of climbing on a Saturday in July, Double Triple Bypass riders get up and ride back! That sounds so hard, but so awesome! I could add this to my "bucket list", but that contains lots of things that I want to do, some of which I doubt I'll ever get to. So I'm making it a goal. I would like to do it next year, but if it takes a little longer, that's OK too.  But, I'm going to work towards successfully completing the "Double Triple".