Denver is a snowy place. Paul had to dig the automobile out from under half a foot that had fallen during the day they were there so that they could venture to the airport. But even before that, Gene made his mark on Denver by becoming a local hero to one man.

Being the crazypants that he is, Gene wakes up daily at around 4:00 am and begins to do work. On this lovely Denver morning, he was sitting almost alone in the hotel lobby, kept company by only one other lonely soul who happened to be awake at such an hour. The two were talking casually as they worked, probably conducting smalltalk about the usual subjects: the weather, their professions, nuclear fission, Celtic mythology. Suddenly, the fellow blacked out and fell to the ground. Gene responded by quickly putting on his cape, calling 911 and saving the day. The man eventually awoke not knowing what day it was, where he was, or the combination to his middle school locker.

Needless to say, it was a strange way to start the day.

When they did finally get to Sacramento, they hit the club after a stop off at America’s finest subterranean sandwich distributor: Subway.

It is important to note that the club, El Dorado Hills Sports Club, is the first club the tour has visited that has computers on the bikes. No other club had any training tools on the bikes. When Gene first built Global Ride, he had toured all the other indoor cycling facilities in the Pittsburgh area to find that most of them did not have technology on the bikes. He made Global Ride unique in that respect, but this tour has proven that not only is Global Ride’s home facility unique on a local standpoint, it is unique nationally. Not enough facilities have these monitors. This only proves that facilities need to step up and get the technology, both to benefit the clients and benefit the training process.

El Dorado Hills Sports Club is a really pretty facility with a membership of around 4,000. The room where they performed the demonstration was very unique. It was a semicircle shape, and they projected the virtual ride onto a concave wall. You would think this would stretch or distort the picture, but it was surprisingly effective, creating an almost IMAX effect for the riders. They were only scheduled to do one demonstration, but ended up doing two as a result of demand - which gave Paul the opportunity to teach the second class. All this is captured in the above YouTube video filmed at the location.

This was another great ride where about 1/2 the attendees were outdoor cyclists - not terribly surprising considering the popularity of outdoor cycling in this part of the country. As usual, they were surprised by how much they enjoyed the experience and found the training effective.

The evening was capped by Sally Edwards inviting the fellas to spend the night at her house. She is the founder of Heart Zones and a contributing coach on Global Ride’s StrenDurance Hawaii DVD. They got to catch up, talk about the industry, and talk about the direction and mission of the Global Ride DVDs and Cycling Fusion. She has been very supportive of all that we’re doing and will continue to be involved with our future projects. In the morning she filled their tanks with breakfast and coffee, and sent them off down the California road.

Next up is Gene and Paul discovering just how long California really is.

A day and a half of rest over the weekend was much-needed, and the tour continued on week two with a stop at Denver’s Pura Vida Fitness & Spa.

This joint was so swanky it’d make Hilary Swank look like Hilary Clinton. To be honest, as an east coaster who has been to Colorado but not to Denver, I wasn’t even aware Denver had such a thing as a posh neighborhood. But after getting Gene’s report and seeing his YouTube video, I have been supremely enlightened. This place had the works, is a mere toddler of a studio at the ripe age of 8 months, and is already a shining beacon of fitness in the mile high city. Very modern, lots of metal and sharp edges that look sexy, a fireplace in the lobby, and just an attitude that constantly spews a cloud of success and awesomeness. Much of the club’s exterior is glass, which provides a brilliant overlook of the city streets below (the swanky streets, you’ll recall).

Upstairs was aerobic heaven, and enough technology to make Gene’s unbelievably low heart rate spike to levels of cardiac arrest. Why, you may wonder? What could possibly be so exciting and adventurous that it would rattle the roots of Gene Nacey’s rock solid foundation? Every piece of machinery in the facility comes equipped with an LCD screen for video viewing during exercise - that’s what. I must admit, it does look pretty rad. This was avidly captured in the video, so give it a peek.

The spin room was equally super, with screens already on the walls. They have yet to really use these screens for anything, so Gene and Paul came to the rescue with Global Ride DVDs, skipping and galloping with giant grins on their faces, heaving discs into the arms of the club owners like a plastic-faced pageant queen tossing Tootsie Rolls to children in the street from a 4th of July float.

The only unfortunate bit about the room was the podium command center that manages all the technology in the room. (If that sentence makes no sense, watch the video. Actually, watch the video anyway.) The sound wasn’t able to get very loud at all thanks to limitations put on the device, and they had to settle with a relatively quiet soundtrack playing behind them. A bit of a bummer - but as with all the setbacks they have faced, it worked out fine in the end.

The local media came to cover the event (I believe he said it was the Denver CBS station) and Paul briefly captured the interview (also in the above video) as it was beginning. I’m sure there is a written or video report available from the station, and I’ll post it as soon as I find out where to get it. This was great exposure for our cycling dvds and beneficial for Pura Vida as well, and we had been hoping for this sort of media coverage from the beginning. Mad props to the news station for checking us out.

The class itself was made of about 65% outdoor cyclists, a fantastic number, and about 1/3 of the attendees were other instructors. And about 3% of the class was extremely pregnant. What those first two figures mean to Gene is “YAY” - these outdoor cyclist and instructor groups are big factors related to our mission for the product and the Cycling Fusion site. Gene ran the class as a race, which worked out well with the majority being outdoor cyclists who enjoy that sort of thing, and the response was wonderful. The verdict remains that with proper instruction, a specific workout program, a knowledgeable coach and the interest of video, everyone can get proper training.

Here’s some cake. You can eat it, too.

After driving all night from Bethesda to Atlanta, then doing a 2 hour stint at Jeanne’s only to have to spend that much time on the road again was a bit grueling. Paul did most of the driving. In fact, poor paul drove for 20 hours separated by just the 2 hr stop in Atlanta. (Rumor has it he drives like a crazyface - Rumor also has it Gene tends to doze off at the wheel). The Olympia Fitness Center demonstration was another one in the morning, so rest was needed for an early rise. This demonstration was to be one of the most important - as it hosts one of the largest indoor cycling rooms in the country, so the champs made sure to eat their Wheaties before going.

The room inside Olympia was unfortunately just like JBT’s room - a multi purpose room with windows to the outside that brought in a lot of light that was hard to block from hitting the screen. This time, blocking the light was even more difficult than the last time, and at times Gene even got “lost” on the road, not knowing exactly where he was in his ride sequence. It was quite difficult, and there was more light than you would normally find entering a typical Spin room or home. The good news was that with almost 100 bikes full, there was so much energy in the room, it didn’t much matter - the room was filled with phenomenal energy taking them through every turn. This excited Gene to great heights.

I have been informed that Billy Garcia needs to get a special mention. He helped Johnny G (the creator of Spinning) in the early days of the company, and has been in the cycling business for a very long time, with a lot of students that never miss his classes. At Olympia he served as an avid supporter of our cause. Most importantly, he was incredibly impressed with the virtual ride DVDs. In fact, after he reviewed them, he couldn’t wait to call Gene and ask if he would return for a big charity event where we would show these DVDs back to back for the entire event - a sort of “Video Spin-A-Thon. I have no doubt that Gene accepted, because this is the sort of thing that powers Gene’s heart and keeps him going. Billy agrees that the DVDs could be the next big trend in indoor cycling, which is something we have been trying to stress since the inception of Global Ride Cycling DVDs and Cycling Fusion. See? We’re not a bunch of crazies.

Billy invited Paul and Gene to his house to look at one of the new RealRyder bikes (bikes that tilt and move while you ride, which sounds terrifying) that he has been consulting on, and they had a great conversation about how the two worlds of outdoor and indoor cycling need to come together - especially as it relates to teaching the indoor classes.

The fellows barely made their flght that night out of Miami, having to spend about an hour getting through security, but eventually did and enjoyed a much deserved day off in Denver - doing nothing but catching up on emails, reading and watching the Steelers beat up the Cowboys. Take that, Tony Romo.

Wednesday night, Paul and Gene hit the Boston area - Wellesley, to be exact. The area is home to Spynergy Cycling Studio, the location of the night’s demonstration. I just got off the phone with Gene and have all the info on the night’s presentation, the Boston facility, and exceptionally expensive haircuts.

I should probably explain that last one… it seems the fellows were feeling a bit Jeremiah Johnson and decided they’d better find a place to get their hair cut before the night’s show. From what I was told, Paul is a barber man, and Gene is a salon man. Unfortunately, the barber was a cash-only facility (and perhaps a money laundering racket), so Paul was forced to man up and hit the salon with Gene. It was a nice place. So nice, in fact, that they left freshly trimmed, with smiles on their faces, and $200 lighter. Hopefully for that price they were given hair treatment that will prevent their hair from ever growing again.

And then there was the show. (Yeah, I know, you almost view this as the insignificant part of the story, huh?) Another full house of about 30 bikes, riding away in another facility that really scored with being properly equipped and well advertised. The ride went really well and lots of people came up to talk and comment about how refreshing the experience was. Perhaps one of the highlights of the evening is that Spynergy doesn’t typically hold a wednesday night Spin class - so a special session was created in promotion of this event. In my eyes, that says something to their interest and belief in the virtual ride DVDs being an awesome project.

The other highlight of the evening was that around 50% or more of the attendees identified themselves as outdoor cyclists. This is an unusually high number of outdoor people to find in an indoor setting, and spoke to the mission of Global Ride DVDs and Cycling Fusion. The session attracted these people to the event, taught them about joining the two cycling worlds, took them on a unique ride, and left them thinking. And that, my friends, is our goal with Cycling Fusion and the DVD product.

Tonight is Bethesda, MD - outside of Washington DC.

Take a look at the other YouTube videos if you haven’t so far, and check out Gene’s interview with John MacGowan in the previous post. We’re looking forward to getting more responses and feedback about out development, so please don’t hesitate to post a comment as well!

Adieu.

Hello! This is Jeff writing to you on this glorious day. As Gene mentioned a few posts ago, I’ll be handling the bulk of the authoring while he and Paul are on tour. Every day Gene gives me a phone call with all the details of the night’s performance, and I’ll be happy to relay them to you. I’ll do my best to not fake a first-person narrative, but instead do my best to recreate the tales of Gulliver, I mean Gene, and his travels.

The best part about the Tuesday night show in Brooklyn is that no travel was required. Coming from Manhattan the night before, it was just a quick hop over the East River to the lovely Harbor Fitness facility. The day was able to be enjoyed without worry or travel. Starbucks got a visit, some work got done, a few new cables were purchased (as a safety net for the future - to avoid any repeated situations like the first night). With four hours to spare before showtime, desperately overcompensating for setup this time around, there was really hardly any setup that needed done.

Harbor Fitness has been doing some video cycling for about a year. Their studio was equipped with an awesome 20′ projection screen, projector, sound setup, and getting the demonstration ready was easy as could be. There were large posters advertising the event all over the club, there was a waiting list for signups, and in general very good promotion on the club’s end. We thank them very much for the dedicated support. It did pay off, because the full house crowd had a great ride. Very into the exercise, around a half dozen of the attendees came to compliment Paul and Gene on the uniqueness and quality of the experience.

Realistically, the event was everything that could be hoped for. The promotion was solid, the setup was easy, the room was filled, and the riders enjoyed the ride. A win win… win win. Of equal importance is how excited and impressed the other instructors at the facility were with the product. A number of them were in attendance and were psyched about the demonstration - and everyone at the facility is eager to get their hands on the DVDs so they can hold regular virtual ride classes.

So if you’re a member of Harbor Fitness who missed out on this opportunity or didn’t get a bike in time, you aren’t out of luck. Harbor will have them soon. And hey, you could always buy your own…

With New York under our belts, it’s off to the Boston area - Wellesley, Massachusetts to be exact. See you then.

Here is a video of our first stop at Club H Fitness in New York. We didn’t have the time to do the interview/publicity video we had planned, but this will give you a taste of the facility and personnel we worked with for the evening.

Our Brooklyn performance also went exceptionally well. More on it soon!