Fashionably Late Sweatin' Burnt Orange Wrap-Up! Oh, and Happy New Year!

We hope the end of 2008 and the first taste of 2009 has treated you as well as it has us! We held our very successful fourth annual edition of our Sweatin' Burnt Orange Bike Tour on November 2 of 2008, despite a lower-than-expected turnout. After many long months of planning and promotion, it all began to come together with packet pick-up at Bicycle Sport Shop's South Lamar location on Halloween and the following Saturday. That Saturday night, we headed out to Blanco to get the course set up for the following day. We had nearly the whole team out, working hard to put out signs, set up registration tables, sort food for rest stops, fill water coolers, and of course have a little fun in the process. We camped at Blanco High School, where the staging took place and while it is traditionally quite frigid that night, we were treated to a much temperate weather!

After a long night of marking the course with signs, we were excited to go into Fredricksburg for some dinner!

The morning of the ride, we had nearly ideal weather. Any jackets were shed soon after the sun made its appearance and I heard from most riders that the same went for any warm-weather gear they were wearing when the ride began. The weather remained beautiful for the entire ride with temperatures in the 70s, clear skies, and very little wind. Not bad for the first weekend in November!

The ride itself went very smoothly, with everyone enjoying themselves out in the scenic Texas Hill Country, not to mention the perfect weather. We owe a HUGE thank you to the San Antonio chapter of the Tour de Cure who came out in force to run our first and largest rest stop, as well as having some of their riders ride the tour! Their rest stop was fantastic with fun music and smiling faces to greet all the riders! In addition, we had our own team members providing support at the remaining 7 rest stops and various corners throughout the course, and they all did a wonderful job! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to donate their time!

Happy volunteers with a happy rider after finishing the tour!

Another post-ride shot. This one a bit more... festive.

Following the ride, in the Blanco town square, we had a wonderful BBQ lunch provided by Riley's BBQ, a local BBQ joint in Blanco, right on the square. There was plenty of food for everyone to enjoy while sharing stories from the ride and relaxing after a long morning.

Hungry volunteers awaiting delicious BBQ.

Senor Petz, last year's Sweatin' Burnt Orange director, happy to have food.

Another happy volunteer, food in hand.

All in all, the ride was a great success, and we can only hope next year will be even better. The tour brought in just under $5,000 for the team to help us pay for transportation to races, lodging at weekend races, team equipment, and other team activities. Now it is time to look forward to this year's ride and see how we can improve on our success and continue to grow as a team. We hope you will join us for the 2009 Sweatin' Burnt Orange Bike Tour!

Ride safely, and if you're driving, please be kind to cyclists!