Reno-Tahoe

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!