Tim and Dan's Excellent Adventure

Dan kind of looks like Keanu.

I moved to Harrisonburg, VA last August hoping to prepare myself to land a pro contract for road racing this year.  Dan Wolf moved here just this month with the motivation to make it pro as a mountain biker.  We come from two backgrounds of racing and we both decided that this little town in the Shenandoah Valley was the best place for us to train and where we would call home.  In ten days we're leaving for a month and a half.  We're headed West and doing what we both know we need to do if we're ever going to call our profession, "Bike Racer".

The idea was brought up spontaneously out of nowhere one night when discussing our goals for this year.  We laughed about it for about a minute and then decided it was the only option we had.  We had planned out a trip that would take us all the way out to San Dimas, CA, hence the Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure reference, for what will be known henceforth as Tim and Dan's Excellent Adventure.  We'll pack up my car and hit the road February 27th with our first race three days later. 

The schedule so far looks like this:

• March 1st/2nd - Austin, TX for the Mellow Johnny's Classic ProXCT #1. 
• March 3rd-13th - Tucson, AZ for some solid training and we'll find a race!
• March 15th/16th - San Dimas, CA for the Bonelli Park ProXCT #2.
• March 22nd/23rd - Fontana, CA for the Fontana City National ProXCT #3.
• March 28th-30th - San Dimas, CA for the San Dimas Stage Race.
• April 3rd-6th - Redlands, CA for the Redlands Bicycle Classic NRC.

We have an ambitious schedule of mountain bike and road racing.  With our respective experience in each discipline we'll be able to help each other succeed in both.  At least I hope so.  I've never been in a mountain bike race, but hopefully with the experience riding Massanutten Mountain with Jeremiah Bishop (2nd overall in ProXCT standing for 2013), and the Monster Cross race this weekend close to home, I'll adapt quickly.

Yesterday we blasted the idea out on social media and within 24 hours we had enough support to cover about half the cost of the trip!  This is mostly through connections made through the community here in Harrisonburg, which is a bit humbling.  The bike shops and local businesses, Pro Tested Gear, Rocktown Bicycles, and SBC (Shenandoah Bicycle Company) have been so welcoming and supportive since I've come here.  The community of friends I've made here have been encouraging and it'll be bitter sweet not seeing them for the time we're on the road.  If you want to donate Dan and I a virtual tank of gas, bag of rice, trail mix via PayPal, we'd be incredibly thankful.  Shoot it over to my account - timothyrugg@gmail.com.  You can also use that email to stay in touch while I'm on the road if you aren't already deeply connected in the social swarm of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or this blog... which I promise to keep regularly updated like my trip to Oregon and back last year.

Tomorrow we're putting together a short video with Tom Inskeep (This guys on IMDb) and Scott Wooten of Adventure Seen.  This trip is going to be awesome and we hope you'll share in Tim and Dan's Excellent Adventure!

A final connection to make the connection of Keanu Reaves and Cycling.  This was one of his first acting gigs.  We all have to start somewhere.  Enjoy.