A funny thing happened on the march to summer...

Arrival at OVT for an early morning mid-week shred

I've finally decompressed from the school year and relaxed into the summer break. Those last weeks of school when end of course testing is the focus of all of your efforts and energy, when you spend half of each day walking around a silent room watching students take a test for two and a half hours is a kind of slow torture that bleeds the life out of you. Then it's over and BOOM!, you fly headlong into a dizzying bachanal of over the top summer stress release that is akin to rising from a dive to quickly and getting the Bends. But finally, you settle in to a a nice mode of relaxing and being productive with all of the things that you put off during the school year.

Jeff Welch giving an impromptu skills clinic

This has been the time when I have fallen in love with mountain biking again and I must share this new fervor with you. I must come completely clean that I will now be proselytizing for the Church of the One True Gear. I strayed from the fold for many years. My embracing of the single speed mountain bike was a dabble really. I never fully committed; never truly gave my heart over to what I knew to be right. I always held back, always had the geared bike to fall back on, but friends, I have embraced the single speed with all of my heart and there is no turning back!

I look down at my bars and see nothing but brake levers and a clean expanse of carbon fiber. I ride securely in the knowledge that I will miss no shift. I can concentrate on flowing with the trail and seeking a oneness with the ride. It is a beautiful thing.

This Saturday marks the beginning of another Tour de France, but the real drama will happen in the Luna Cycles p/b Whoever wants to give us money Fantasy Tour de France. All of the fantasy thrills and fantasy spills that you have come to expect each summer will once again drive home the fact that we may not be good at much, but we are some solid fantasy TdF Directeur Sportifs. Go to Velogames to register your free team and then join our mini league by using the mini league code 28111322. Prize list has not been finalized, but rest assured it will not be worth all of the fantasy training and fantasy stress that you have and will undergo over the next few grueling weeks.

Don't forget that the start of the Tour marks the end of our Giro cycling shoe sale. All of our Giro cycling shoes are 40% off while they last!