Ranch Victory - Xterra Renegade

Victory.

The word rings sweet, its realization elusive.

But the time has come. The Ranch has evolved.

On April 2, 2011, RiderTurbo won first place in the Xterra Renegade Off-Road Triathlon in Bonelli Park, San Dimas, Los Angeles, California. Competition in the recreation division could not be characterized as strong or deep. But a win is a win. The analog of a Sprint distance triathlon conducted alongside a competitive Olympic distance race, the Xterra recreation division consisted of a 1/2 mile open water lake swim, 7.5 mile mountain bike and 3 mile trail run. Turbo swam smooth in the lake, clobbered the mountain bike and harkened Rocky Mountain training days of old to run the rugged trails and cross the line ahead of all-comers. RiderMama, RiderZoe and Rider Sasha cheered at transitions and near the finish line as Turbo flew team colors during the award ceremony, getting called up on stage with a Ranch sleeveless jersey. Even got a Victory mug to prove it. New score. Ranch: 1. Competition: Zero.

Results and event website below.

Xterra Renegade Triathlon, Los Angeles, California, USA
Xterra Recreation Division Results

Pro Corner -- Ranch Fanbase Grows by One

Substituted the wheels for touring bindings, skins and hefty mountain backpack and completed the final segments of the Haute Route from Arolla to Zermatt over Easter. (Made it from Chamonix to Arolla last year, then had to abort due to tough weather...so this year me and my pals picked up where we left off to finish the trip.) No photos of that (yet), but...

Today, was taking a chill day and hanging out near Sion. Doing pointless relaxation stuff. Like buying superflous outdoor gear, buying "distinctive" local wine, lunch outside in the 25C sunshine, horking down superb locally made gelato etc etc. Drive back to Verbier about 5.30pm and, as we pass Martigny, Susie comes out with the magic words (that you don't really believe you are hearing) "hey, there is some kind of bike race going on over there".

Bing...180 degree turn is executed at the next roundabout. Bang...car is parked up. And boom...we are out to explore. Run right into the Garmin Cervelo team truck and they tell me it's the prologue for the Tour of Romandie. Sure enough, at 2 minute intervals, the pro boys are coming by, one by one, on the techno-wonder time trial bikes. Out comes the blackberry..."gotta get some shots for the blog".

It was about a 4km time trial prologue. Times in about the 3mins 50 range from what I could see.

Here we see some AG2R La Mondial guy cranking it for the finish line.

Pretty sure this is Ivan Basso, bringing it home.

Props to the local band, blasting out (I kid you not) The Pogues "Fairytale of New York". (Further proof, as if any was needed, that no one will ever, ever, ever figure out what makes Swiss people tick.) (Nice unintended pun there, btw.)

A lot of people would have used some two foot long telephoto lens wing-dinger on a ridiculously expensive pro level digital camera to get a shot like this. The SharkBite way, however, is easier: use your blackberry, take 11 crap photos because of the time delay on the dumb photo snapper thing, miss a bunch more while fiddling with the little zoom thingy that only seems to randomly work when it wants to...then finally get one right.

Bike porn, Cervelo style. This one belongs to...

David Millar, Team Garmin Cervelo. And what is his favourite thing to do after placing 5th in the opening prologue of a key pro tour?

That's right, you know it: pose for a primo photo for the Ranch, with the 'Bite!!!

Quality cannot be bought, baby. It must be lived.

And you never know when quality is going to come your way. Viva La Ranch!