Social ride with Kenda Five Hour Energy pro team

The Kenda team has been training in Tucson this week, and Carmichael Training Systems set up a community group ride with them this morning.

What a nice bunch of guys! They rode hard all week with their training, and today they took it easy with us, riding with us locals. It was really interesting talking with various members of the team, and everyone rode at a comfortable pace so we could chat. I met about 5 or 6 of them during the pre-ride chatting and along the way. At least one or two team members stayed with each of the community cyclist groups, no matter what their pace. It was recovery ride for them after racing up Mt. Lemmon yesterday- for me it was a little faster than usual, but being in a good paceline made it easy.

We went about 27 miles, in absolutely perfect weather, on Tucson's east side.

My DH, however, didn't listen to the route instructions, and rode ahead trying to find good spots to take pictures. Oops, he was somewhere else until the last 5 miles!

Two of their sponsors are Bonkbreakers and Five Hour Energy drinks, so we got free samples. I tried 1/2 a bottle of the energy drink and didn't really notice anything one way or the other. I also tried the Bonkbreakers- and really liked them, more than the Clif/Luna bars I sometimes take. I also won a raffle prize: a Carmichael dvd: Climbing for Power. I haven't opened the last dvd I won from Carmichael, Cycling for Cadence, because I don't really like riding on a trainer, but I guess I should look at them. They forgot to raffle off the jersey though...

They have been staying in a house along one of my regular routes, so I've seen the team car, and saw them pull out of one of their rides during the week.

You can check out their facebook page for pictures of their rides around Tucson.