Trip To Interbike, 2015!  

Alarm is ringing @ 5AM, time to catch the 7AM flight to Vegas. Checked my bags with 20 minutes to spare, sweated my way through the security line, jumped on the plane as they closed the doors behind me and off we went.

Flight was perfect and arrived 15 minutes early. It was a cool and breezy morning in Vegas. After getting my rental car, finding a parking spot, hiking to the registration tables and getting my admission badge it was 10AM (Vegas time). If you’ve ever been to Vegas, or “The Show”, you can understand how overwhelming it is. The Vegas properties are 5 minute walks just to get out of the parking lot. Everything is HUGE!

I had an hour to kill before my first appointment so I decided to take a lap and check it out. Absolutely incredible! We’re talking 577,000 square feet covered with one bike product after another. From clothing, to bikes, to accessories, to energy drinks. You name it, they’ve got it.

First stop was with Thule/Camelback. They have a great product line with some nice enhancements for the upcoming year. Looking forward to continuing carrying their products. Immediately following was Bianchi. Their bikes are beautiful! And although I certainly got wrapped up in the Kool-Aid, Dirk and I are anxious to get our preseason order completed and get some of that sexy Celeste color on the floor.

After visiting a few other booths and a long day of walking, talking and filling my back-pack with brochures I was anxious to go see Cross-Vegas. Just in time to see the women’s start I want to congratulate local racer Sunny Gilbert. She was magnificent! She pursued, lap after lap, the chase group that contained Katie Compton. Every lap Sunny was the same 7 – 10 seconds behind a super elite group of riders. A most impressive ride. Congrats!

The men’s elite race did not disappoint. Sven Nys, my favorite rider who also happen to have one cool name, did not disappoint with a solid 2nd place finish losing out to young buck and next super-star Wout Van Aert. In the end Wout was just too much for Sven to handle. Also an impressive show from Jeremy Powers who was throwing punches all day long at the EuroStars and ended up 6th.

2nd day at “The Show” I spent some time at the SRAM booth, thanks Brad for the tour, and checked out the new SRAM eTap. It is Cool! It may be a little scarce when it first comes available but if you’re looking for an alternative to Di2 I think these guys have a found a solid alternative.

My flight was leaving @ 8PM Vegas time so after a 2nd long day of walking, talking and brochure collecting it was time to go home and I was beat. I did have the pleasure of flying home with Sunny Gilbert and Doug Nishamura who kept me company. At 2:30AM my head hit the pillow thinking about all the cool new opportunities we can incorporate into The Goat.