Hi All, I had a great time yesterday at Kitt Peak. (Not literally…my time up the mountain wasn’t really all that I had hoped for.) But I had a great time out there with Cheryl and Nancy, and all the other people who are close to the Desert Foxes. Yesterday was Cheryl’s birthday, so we celebrated in style at the event: Twinkies and Ding-Dongs for birthday cakes, a decorated helmet for Cheryl, and a “happy birthday” balloon tied to her bike (yes, she had to race with it)! Cheryl was a great sport for getting up early and doing a hill climb (her least favorite event) on her birthday. What was so fun about it though was the Desert Fox camaraderie. I realize that I always have a great time hanging out with fellow Foxes. This is one of the reasons I started the club. The other reason, of course, is to help women get into and enjoy the sport of cycling. It is not a secret that our ranks of riding Foxes have declined these last few years. We have had a lot of Foxes start families, move away, or move on to more ambitious race teams. Sometimes it feels like there is just a very small core of us left. Sometimes too it gets frustrating to think that we are the only ones out there still riding. We get frustrated when no one shows up to our posted rides. Then others get frustrated that there are no posted rides. Everyone assumes that no one else is riding anymore because no one is riding together. I know there are still a lot of you out there riding. I also know what makes our club so great: we enjoy riding our bikes, and enjoy sharing that passion with other women. At one of the summer time trials, I thought of what is going to be our new Desert Fox mantra: “We make a difference. We do not wait for other people to make a difference for us.” Think about what that means for a minute. It means you are going to get out of this club exactly what you put in to it. You can wait for someone else to call you up, someone else to post a ride, or for someone else to inspire you. Or, you can be the one calling others, posting rides, and inspiring others. I think the second choice, although a bit more work, is definitely the most rewarding. I think it is safe to say that we all got into riding our bikes because someone else either inspired us, or helped us along when we were first starting. Now it is time to return that favor. To kick off our renewed Desert Foxes spirit, I’m issuing the 2008 Desert Foxes El Tour de Tucson Challenge. I want every one of you who still considers herself a Desert Fox to find one other woman to buddy up with and inspire to ride El Tour with you. It can be any of the four distances. It can be your mom, your daughter, a friend, or even a Desert Fox who fell off the cycling bandwagon and we haven’t seen for a while. Bring her back in! If you need a bike for your new riding buddy, let me know. Is the entry fee a problem? Let me know. Sabino Cycles is participating in a Giant for Women/el Tour de Tucson training program I am putting together. If you register through them, for $150 you get your El Tour entry (a bargain in and of itself!), a special jersey (they look really nice!) and a dinner after the event so we can all exchange our stories. You also get training advice, training rides, and maintenance classes. Feel free to use this as a way to inspire you and your riding partner, and to make new friends also training for the event. I will be at nearly all, if not all, of those group rides, helping to lead them. Please think about all this, and start looking for someone to inspire and encourage. You ladies are all great ambassadors for this sport that we love so much. Let’s share that love with more women just like us! Thanks for reading, Cindy P.S. Just to throw out an extra challenge… Zoë and Leslie have already found seven women to ride the 66 mile event with them. You ladies are awesome!