Just to bring this every so slightly back on topic , while we were away in bend after the Death Ride, we received our big Power bar shipment with some new products we're testing for our team for next year (and yes, we got a couple of big boxes of the Gel blasts, because Pine Sol and all I like them! And isn't that what reallly counts? ).

So..... for pre-ride/lunch, I am eating a PB Energize Fruit Smoothie bar, which in addition to a bunch of vitamins and minerals also has a lot of fruit in it and is pretty tasty. I have some PB Hydration in the bottle and will be using the standby PB Endurance drink for the ride I am about to go on. When I come back, I'll try the new PB Recovery bar which looks pretty good. (And then I'll have a lovely recovery drink from the Deschutes brewery stash.)

I've also got a pretty snazzy new kit! This is the first year ever their clothing has been at all appealing. So I'll wear that on my ride....

In the interest of full disclosure, we are sponsored by PB as TNT coaches and receive a large allotment of product every year - but the only reason I put the Gel Blast recommendation up was because I actually liked the product and it's new. I don't recommend stuff I don't like - and I certainly don't recommend stuff just because we're sponsored. We get a lot of product from them, for which I am very very grateful because it offsets the costs of providing SAG food to our Death Ride team every year.