This weekend we went to a wedding in Tahoe, at a beautiful house in Cave Rock. We actually went to the beach at Zephyr Cove before the wedding and enjoyed the sunshine — and even got in the water,  which wasn’t too cold! Well, since I grew up in Argentina and I’m used to the cold water in the Patagonia lakes, I never find any water too cold!

Unfortunately we forgot the camera, so I’m going to share my pictures from the weekend before last. My hubby hurt his ankle playing tennis so we took a couple of easy — but georgeous — hikes on the Tahoe Rim Trail!

On Saturday we did the Tahoe Meadows Interpretive Trail and on Sunday we also started at the parking lot at the meadows but this time we followed the trail to Spooner Summit and enjoyed amazing views of Lake Tahoe. As we were sitting there, ready for some mate while we our baby was resting and playing with some rocks, I heard someone calling my name. My friend and co-worker Robert was there with his bike. How embarrasing, inteast of adrenaline I was just chilling by the trail!

So here’s a picture that I found on Robert’s post "Riding the Rim Trail":

And here’re the pictures of our hike:

Drinking mate

Enjoying the view

The Reno-Tahoe blog will occasionally feature entries from athletes sponsored by Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place. Bobby Julich, professional cyclist, trains in the Reno-Tahoe area and has been cycling since before he entered and won his first Race, the Red Zinger Mini Classic, at the age of 13. Highlights of his professional career include a third place podium finish in the 1998 Tour de France riding for Cofidis, a Bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a victory in the week long Paris-Nice race in 2005 with Team CSC.

Dear friends and fans in Reno/Tahoe:

I just finished the Tour of Italy, or Giro d’Italia, which is the first of two Grand Tours that I have on my racing schedule for this year. This was the first time that I have ever raced the Giro and it was a great experience. It was also the first time in my career that I raced without personal goals but rather as a loyal team support rider.

Cycling is a team sport, which not every observer may realize, and in a race that lasts 3 weeks the entire 9 man team works to have our star rider on the top step of the podium when the race finishes. For my team, CSC, our leader was Ivan Basso. Ivan has finished 2nd and 3rd in the last two Tour de France’s and we put all of our effort behind him. We had somewhat of a shaky start, but Ivan took the overall lead on the 9th stage and he kept it all the way to the end of the race in Milan. It was a milestone victory for Team CSC as this was the first Grand Tour victory in the history of our team.

Personally, my first Giro was challenging in many ways. Not only did I find it difficult to keep my focus and morale high for three weeks, but I also had to deal with a severe allergy problem that crippled my performance in the first half of the race. I usually don’t race in the month of May because I am normally back in Reno/Tahoe at that time training and resting after a difficult spring racing campaign in Europe. However, this year I decided to do the Giro to help Ivan as much as I could.

Unfortunately, Italy experienced one of it’s worst allergy seasons in recent history due to a cold spring and I happened to be right in the middle of it! The problem with allergies is that they hit you out of nowhere. One day you are feeling fine, and then the next day you feel your performance drop significantly. As an athlete, it takes longer to realize the problem because we take it as an “off day” or rationalize it in other ways. Many people with allergies don’t even know that they have them, so if you experience a sudden drop in performance during certain times of the year, it could be due to allergies.

There is little to no rest in the life of a professional cyclist, but I am now taking a short break to catch up with my family and recharge my batteries. Rest and recovery are important when you are competing as much as we do, especially when you are competing in more than one grand Tour per year. They can really take a toll on you both physically and emotionally. Before I know it, it will be time to get back on the bike and head off for Team CSC’s training camp in preparation for the Tour de France.

The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world and both myself and Team CSC have high ambitions for it. Since I had some problems in the Giro, I am even more motivated for the Tour. With our win in the Giro we are going into the race as favorites for the overall victory again with Ivan Basso. The competition will be harder in the Tour than it was in the Giro, but I think that the experience that we gained in our 3 weeks in Italy will pay off big time in July.

Till next time, enjoy the ride,
Bobby

The Reno-Tahoe blog will occasionally feature entries from athletes sponsored by Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place. Bobby Julich, professional cyclist, trains in the Reno-Tahoe area and has been cycling since before he entered and won his first Race, the Red Zinger Mini Classic, at the age of 13. Highlights of his professional career include a third place podium finish in the 1998 Tour de France riding for Cofidis, a Bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a victory in the week long Paris-Nice race in 2005 with Team CSC.

Dear friends and fans in Reno/Tahoe: I just finished the Tour of Italy, or Giro d’Italia, which is the first of two Grand Tours that I have on my racing schedule for this year. This was the first time that I have ever raced the Giro and it was a great experience. It was also the first time in my career that I raced without personal goals but rather as a loyal team support rider. Cycling is a team sport, which not every observer may realize, and in a race that lasts 3 weeks the entire 9 man team works to have our star rider on the top step of the podium when the race finishes. For my team, CSC, our leader was Ivan Basso. Ivan has finished 2nd and 3rd in the last two Tour de France’s and we put all of our effort behind him. We had somewhat of a shaky start, but Ivan took the overall lead on the 9th stage and he kept it all the way to the end of the race in Milan. It was a milestone victory for Team CSC as this was the first Grand Tour victory in the history of our team. Personally, my first Giro was challenging in many ways. Not only did I find it difficult to keep my focus and morale high for three weeks, but I also had to deal with a severe allergy problem that crippled my performance in the first half of the race. I usually don’t race in the month of May because I am normally back in Reno/Tahoe at that time training and resting after a difficult spring racing campaign in Europe. However, this year I decided to do the Giro to help Ivan as much as I could. Unfortunately, Italy experienced one of it’s worst allergy seasons in recent history due to a cold spring and I happened to be right in the middle of it! The problem with allergies is that they hit you out of nowhere. One day you are feeling fine, and then the next day you feel your performance drop significantly. As an athlete, it takes longer to realize the problem because we take it as an “off day” or rationalize it in other ways. Many people with allergies don’t even know that they have them, so if you experience a sudden drop in performance during certain times of the year, it could be due to allergies. There is little to no rest in the life of a professional cyclist, but I am now taking a short break to catch up with my family and recharge my batteries. Rest and recovery are important when you are competing as much as we do, especially when you are competing in more than one grand Tour per year. They can really take a toll on you both physically and emotionally. Before I know it, it will be time to get back on the bike and head off for Team CSC’s training camp in preparation for the Tour de France. The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world and both myself and Team CSC have high ambitions for it. Since I had some problems in the Giro, I am even more motivated for the Tour. With our win in the Giro we are going into the race as favorites for the overall victory again with Ivan Basso. The competition will be harder in the Tour than it was in the Giro, but I think that the experience that we gained in our 3 weeks in Italy will pay off big time in July. Till next time, enjoy the ride,Bobby

The Reno-Tahoe blog will occasionally feature entries from athletes sponsored by Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place. Bobby Julich, professional cyclist, trains in the Reno-Tahoe area and has been cycling since before he entered and won his first Race, the Red Zinger Mini Classic, at the age of 13. Highlights of his professional career include a third place podium finish in the 1998 Tour de France riding for Cofidis, a Bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a victory in the week long Paris-Nice race in 2005 with Team CSC.

In the last six weeks, I have been through quite the gamut of experiences and emotions. After a great Winter of training in the Reno/Tahoe area, I had a brief training camp in Italy, followed by more training back home.

My first race of the year was the Amgen Tour of California, where I placed 3rd overall. I had a great time racing back in the States especially in a race of this caliber. It really elevates racing in America to a new level and one which I hope other American races will emulate.

Directly after the race I headed back to Europe to begin my Spring campaign, where I started off with a win in the prologue of Paris-Nice. This was a terrific victory for myself and the team, but a little unexpected as it was not one of my objectives for this year.
Although at my age, I will take any victories wherever and whenever they come ! Unfortunately, during the second to last stage of the race I crashed hard and cracking three of my ribs and forcing me to retire from the race.

In the week immediately following Paris-Nice, I my goal has been to recover and get some physical therapy and heal my wounds. However, the rest days and a mild training schedule was not very good preparation for my next race, the Criterium International, where I was the defending champion from the previous year. Although defending the title was not a personal objective of mine, it was for my team. My teammate, Ivan Basso, ended up winning the race, which was great for our team morale. Unfortunately, because of the effort that I had to make to help the team, I ended up getting a head cold. Just another speed bump in the road on my return to racing in Europe.

So, the season has barely begun and my real racing hasn’t even started yet! Right now, my first priority is to get better and start firing on all cylinders to be ready for the Tour of Italy in May.

Until the next time, keep the rubber side down and the wind at your back.

This is Adventure Grrl, back to report about a truly insane event that happens on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe every year. On October 2, my brother, Greg, completed the Nissan Xterra USA Championship triathlon. The course, which is considered the toughest and most scenic in the Nissan Xterra Championship Series, combined a 1 mile swim in Lake Tahoe (which was 60 degrees and had white caps the day of the race), a 22 mile mountain bike ride that clumbed 2,500 feet in the Sierras, and a 6.2 mile run.

Greg said that something like 50 swimmers were pulled out of the water that day because the water was so rough. It was a windy, cloudy, and rainy day up at the lake. Luckily, my brother didn’t have to be pulled out of the water. Instead, he went on to a strong finish, despite having a cold and a touch of the stomach flu (hence, he didn’t eat anything the morning of the race).

Wow. Pure insanity, but the man is a machine. Any person that can complete this race is a machine! I mean, regular triathlons are tough, but this one adds in extreme mountain biking and trail running. I’m amazed.

Pics of my bro below… What’s next, Greg? The Ironman?!

This portion of the bike was so steep that it was mandatory to walk your bike.

And here he is running across the finish line, with his 4 year old son cheering him on!

This past weekend, the hubby and I headed to Bullard’s Bar, which is an alpine lake Northwest of Reno, where we camped with my family and enjoyed excellent mountain biking and boating.

Bullard’s Bar is an excellent example of the numerous alpine lakes in the Sierras. The water was turquoise and extremely pure (I swallowed some accidentally), and the temperatures of both the air and the water were perfect - not too hot and not too cold.

The nicest thing about alpine lakes is that many of them have great mountain biking or hiking in the same vicinity. I took advantage of the extensive trail system around Bullard’s Bar, and biked on the single track that gives some breathtaking views of the lake.

Here is a pic of my hubby, as he prepares to cool off in the lake.

This is a guest entry from a bike and dirt bike rider..

What an absolutely beautiful weekend in the Truckee Meadows! The weather was perfect for my Saturday morning ride - not too hot, not too cool. I got on my road bike near Arlington & California and rode down past the Truckee Whitewater park which was already alive with kayakers. I rode out Mayberry up to 4th street and on towards Mogul. Once I got up the hill in Mogul, I hopped on the new installation of the Tahoe-Pyramid bikeway that goes from Mogul to Verdi. The path is beautiful and makes that stretch so easy, I didn’t have to ride on I-80 at all, which made my ride much more pleasant and enjoyable! After my ride, I got out my town bike and cruised down to the Farmer’s Market on California Avenue. The selection this Saturday was amazing - there were fresh zucchini, yellow squash, corn, cherries, nectarines, strawberries, basil, and flowers. And the best part - almost all of it was picked the day before, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Sunday was another gorgeous day. We loaded up the dirt bikes and headed out to Peavine for some trail riding. We were all geared up and ready to get going, I was adjusting my Camelbak when my knees buckled and the trailer rattled - it was the craziest feeling! We knew right away that we had just felt an earthquake and sure enough, we heard on the news later about the 4.3 earthquake centered in the Tahoe Basin. With our adrenaline going, we took off and rode all over the mountain, to the top of Peavine where the radio towers are and back down the other side into a beautiful meadow with an outer space type rock formation. It’s amazing that we can ride so much great terrain right outside of Reno - the forests on the way up and the views from the top of the mountains are breath taking.

That was the quesion I asked my husband Saturday morning. Only in Reno! Well, the fact is there is still lot’s of snow, and the weather was also biking weather. We figured we’d take advantage of the warm sun, since it wasn’t supposed to last, and because March wouldn’t normally be the best time to bike.

So where to go? We decided we’d try a new ride, so we headed down to Washoe Valley and climbed up into the Jumbo Grade area. To get there, you just take East Lake Blvd into New Washoe City, and when the houses start to thin out (about 4 miles) you look for Jumbo Grade Rd on the left.

Beside the historical value, it is a great place to ride. And this year was extra fun–seemingly because of the snowmelt there was lots of water everywhere. The ride is generally a climb up to the old mining town of Jumbo, and you could continue on to Virginia City if you wanted to. The views were fabulous as soon as we climbed enough to be able to see a bit. It offered a whole new perspective of Mt Rose, Slide Mountain and the Sierra’s along Washoe Valley. The vegetation was great, and it was apparent that there had been lots of water in the season.

This ride presents lot’s of great views and lots of creek crossings. Actually, there are a few places where you have the choice to either go up the road which has over time been relocated farther up the side of the hill, or just ride up the creek itself. We went up the creek–and were amazed that neither one of us ended up falling/stepping in the water! The roads were generally in good condition. In fact, there was still snow all over the place, except for the road–that is, until we had climbed about 4 miles from the start and reached a point where there were two options: 1) Either put tracks on our bikes so that we could make it up the snow covered road with muddy ruts where the motorcycles had already gone, or 2) Decide to have lunch. We chose the later. To our great delight we also were able to find a single pinon pine nut to eat, ashamed that after so many years in Nevada we really didn’t know the season for the nuts, but happy that one was still preserved somehow by the winter weather.

We eventually did the downhill back to the car–and all day with shorts and a t-shirt. What a day!