Bike Course Ride with Team USA Coach

Brooke and I were emailing status updates on our bikes!

A group of us with the late-arriving bikes met up with Team USA Coach Kris Swarthout for a late Saturday preview ride of the course. It was very helpful and we all agreed we would not have been comfortable amongst all the left-sided traffic, navigating the course without him. It was further complicated by race-related road closures. He did a great job talking us through this ride.

The road surface is quite smooth and clean, but there are a lot of turns, some pretty good hills including a 16% grade, but the most challenging of all - the steep and fast descents followed by sharp turns. We are hoping for dry roads.

I wish I had better pics, but it's hard to be in the moment, or on a ride, and taking photos too. The scenery was quite stunning along mission bay. 

USAT's Kris Swarthout (USA jersety), Tim Yount (red hat),
Jeff Dyrek (back to us)

Kris

Making a right from those left-hand lanes!

Auckland skyline and space needle in the background

The lost-and-found bike crew!

After the ride I joined up with the group for dinner at Wildfire
where you are offered every type of meat imaginable
(and they had awesome broccoli)