TBRA weekend wrapup
TBRA knows how to end a season in style don't they? The TBRA Celebration of Champions was a big success on Saturday beginning with a morning ride, an afternoon veloswap, and evening banquet starring Bob Roll.
I was able to count over 120 riders at the ride starting from Cool Springs Subaru, but there were a good 20+ still behind us playing catch up. I'm usually better at getting a count early into the ride, but I was too busy taking pictures.
The ride went along well with only one mishap that I'm aware of, and as fate would have it I was directly behind the guy who went down first. I'm not sure what led him to get wobbly and go down, but he just missed a van coming towards us in the other lane. For the first time ever my bike went down while I was able to land on my feet. A few others behind us got tangled up, but fortunately we weren't going too fast at the time.
Bob Roll was strolling along in a 7-Eleven jersey, which is his former team during the glory days of the 1980s. If you're interested in learning more about this ground breaking squad check out their history on Wikipedia.
After the ride everyone tore into sandwiches and cookies provided by local favorite Bread & Company. I admit taking down two cookies to my one sandwich, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one. Next year we must order more cookies! The veloswap followed the ride and saw local bicycle shops and individuals wheel and deal away items taking up needed space. I was surprised to see the veloswap wasn't as big a hit with shoppers as we hoped. You would think Tennesseans would be huge veloswap fans considering we live in the yard sale capitol of the world!
Bike Pedlar, Gran Fondo, Harpeth Bicycles and MOAB all had a lot to sell. Add a few entrepreneurial people looking to make a buck and you had a lot of cool stuff to choose from. There was one cyclocross bike I wanted for myself, but it was too small of a frame. Then there was a sweet red painted Lynskey bike that looked like a TBRA special with tri-star logos all over the frame.
The dinner banquet attended by over 400 people was by far the most fun event of the day. Drinks started off (yes, I hit the wine!) the evening as everyone mingled about before sitting down to dinner. It wasn't long before Bob Roll hit the stage and began answering questions from the audience for over an hour, and I'm sure he could have kept it up for hours on end. They had people write out questions on paper and pass them up front to Bob, and as you can imagine he used that material to tell one story after another.
Simple yes/no answers or one sentence explanations do not exist in Bob's DNA. Instead he can take a simple question and turn it into this incredible 10 minute story that'll have you dying with laughter. His impromptu style was a big hit and jives well with his personality, which is different than our past speakers who had it all planned out. No knock on them, but Bob's delivery is one of a kind. It's no wonder he's a hit on television, sells books, and has a cult like following amongst cycling fans.
I have all of the pictures ready to be uploaded from the ride, but I have run into some technical difficulties with my site's server. Once that's fixed it'll take just a few minutes to update my site, so be on the lookout on Monday to see yourself through my lens! Maybe there's something in the water because I have tried for two days to include photos with this blog post, but that's getting shot down for some reason too. Blogger can be a pain sometimes, so again, be patient and you'll have more to enjoy soon.
I was able to count over 120 riders at the ride starting from Cool Springs Subaru, but there were a good 20+ still behind us playing catch up. I'm usually better at getting a count early into the ride, but I was too busy taking pictures.
The ride went along well with only one mishap that I'm aware of, and as fate would have it I was directly behind the guy who went down first. I'm not sure what led him to get wobbly and go down, but he just missed a van coming towards us in the other lane. For the first time ever my bike went down while I was able to land on my feet. A few others behind us got tangled up, but fortunately we weren't going too fast at the time.
Bob Roll was strolling along in a 7-Eleven jersey, which is his former team during the glory days of the 1980s. If you're interested in learning more about this ground breaking squad check out their history on Wikipedia.
After the ride everyone tore into sandwiches and cookies provided by local favorite Bread & Company. I admit taking down two cookies to my one sandwich, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one. Next year we must order more cookies! The veloswap followed the ride and saw local bicycle shops and individuals wheel and deal away items taking up needed space. I was surprised to see the veloswap wasn't as big a hit with shoppers as we hoped. You would think Tennesseans would be huge veloswap fans considering we live in the yard sale capitol of the world!
Bike Pedlar, Gran Fondo, Harpeth Bicycles and MOAB all had a lot to sell. Add a few entrepreneurial people looking to make a buck and you had a lot of cool stuff to choose from. There was one cyclocross bike I wanted for myself, but it was too small of a frame. Then there was a sweet red painted Lynskey bike that looked like a TBRA special with tri-star logos all over the frame.
The dinner banquet attended by over 400 people was by far the most fun event of the day. Drinks started off (yes, I hit the wine!) the evening as everyone mingled about before sitting down to dinner. It wasn't long before Bob Roll hit the stage and began answering questions from the audience for over an hour, and I'm sure he could have kept it up for hours on end. They had people write out questions on paper and pass them up front to Bob, and as you can imagine he used that material to tell one story after another.
Simple yes/no answers or one sentence explanations do not exist in Bob's DNA. Instead he can take a simple question and turn it into this incredible 10 minute story that'll have you dying with laughter. His impromptu style was a big hit and jives well with his personality, which is different than our past speakers who had it all planned out. No knock on them, but Bob's delivery is one of a kind. It's no wonder he's a hit on television, sells books, and has a cult like following amongst cycling fans.
I have all of the pictures ready to be uploaded from the ride, but I have run into some technical difficulties with my site's server. Once that's fixed it'll take just a few minutes to update my site, so be on the lookout on Monday to see yourself through my lens! Maybe there's something in the water because I have tried for two days to include photos with this blog post, but that's getting shot down for some reason too. Blogger can be a pain sometimes, so again, be patient and you'll have more to enjoy soon.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 10/29/2006 08:00:00 PM
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