Interbike. WOW.

Warning: my Interbike / Vegas trip post is long. With 2 hours in the airport, I have a lot of time to write. I tried to add as many pics as possible to make it somewhat interesting. :) I also realize that my writing is lacking... that may be the result of an average of 4 hours of sleep per night. Sorry about that!

ANYWAY... I had no idea what I was in for when the Grease Monkey Wipes team decided to attend Interbike. Honestly, I had no idea what Interbike was. I can sum it up in one word. WOW.

First, let me give the most huge thanks to Jack Murray & the rest of the J&A team (Stacy, Zane, Drew & Rich.) They were the sole reason we we were able to attend this show, since it is closed to the general public. I can't even begin to explain how valuable these guys were to us... not to mention how cool it was to hang out with them and see the industry through their eyes.
Monday & Tuesday was Outdoor Demo. Jack picked me up at the airport, and took us right to Boulder City. Most of the bike companies had all of their bikes available to test - and there were road and mountain bike routes set up. I didn't bring any gear, so I mainly wandered around and checked things out. We handed out samples to the bike mechanics, but generally just ogled the bikes. Richard & I hit it off right away and started competing to see who could get the best shwag for the day- that was awesome... and now I will never look at Nuun the same again. I also have to add that killing one of Austin's best triathletes on a hill climb was pretty cool, even if I was demoing an electric hybrid bike. :)

One of the coolest things for me was standing around with Jim Felt (yes- MR. FELT, who CREATED MY BIKE) and hearing him pitch the AR2. I had no idea who he was until midway through our conversation - he was just one of the guys - and that was very very cool.

I felt that one day at the Outdoor Demo was enough, so I took Tuesday off from Interbike and read a book/slept/recovered from Monday night. (Yeah, um, that's all I'm going to mention about that.) It was nice to take an honest vacation day/night. By the way, the water shows at the Bellagio are amazing, no matter how many times I watched them.

Wednesday - Friday was the Indoor Trade Show. I'm somewhat at a loss of how to describe this. (Sorry, Mark!) Take every bike shop in Austin and put them on the strongest steroids out there - that is Interbike. Just off the top of my head, I saw Felt, Gatorade, Cervelo, Oakley, Polar, Garmin, Hammer, Rocket Science, Pedros, Paceline, Fuelbelt, Michelin, Nuun, Hammer, Clif, Powerbar, Keen, Shimano, Shram, QR, Kuatro, Pearl Izumi, Champ Sys, Cytomax, ERS, etc... etc... Road bikes, tri bikes, mountain bikes, cruiser bikes, bike parts, bike clothes, bike components, nutrition, accessories, distributors, and on and on and on...
Again, all I can say is WOW. It was like being a kid in a candy store. Honestly, it took me a day before I could even think of promoting Grease Monkey!

Which leads me to my change in plans. Tim & Kerry left on Wednesday, but I wanted to stay... I'd come all the way to Vegas to grow our business, and I wasn't missing out. Luckily I changed my flight (free!), booked a cheap room at the I.P. and had 2 more amazing days of opportunities. I am so glad that I stayed, and here's why:

Wednesday night was the National Cyclocross Championships. I'd never been to a cyclocross race, so I had no idea what to expect... but HOLY COW. These races (which are like crits, but on crazy courses) are intense! Watching Lance Armstrong whiz by over and over was pretty freaking cool... and mind you, he wasn't even in the lead pack. For a sport that I had no clue about, I had a blast.

I spent the day Thursday at the Expo. Throughout the day, Jack was awesome at taking me around and introducing me to key players. It was pretty incredible how differently people responded to me with Jack by my side than when I was alone. That man has some serious pull. I also owe a huge thanks to Richard, who did the whole expo with me. Getting the industry view from both the bike shop angle and the pro triathlete angle was pretty incredible. I can't measure my new found appreciation and insight. Here he is wowing the Polar reps while doing a 1 minute power test.

So, you know those times when you are so tired that all you want to do is go home and sleep? That was me times ten on Thursday night... but before I could resist I was at the National Crit Championships at the Mandalay Bay. I've obviously seen crits before, but this was absolutely insane. It was incredible to watch the world's best zoom by for 60 laps, but adding to that was the fact that we were located in the prime crash zone. We honestly served as crash pads as no less than 10 cyclists ran straight into the barricades we were standing behind. Everyone got pretty close as we grabbed each other as if we were riding a rollercoaster. I coined a new workout - spectator intervals - which were the 30 seconds of heart racing we had every lap as the cyclists approached. I met amazing people out there, too. I walked away from that race thinking "that was probably one of the coolest nights of my entire life." And to think that I almost slept through it.
Friday - you guessed it - more Expo!! Everyone was pretty tired by this point, so it was a lot of just hanging out. I had a good time talking to many of the vendors - but the highlight was talking to the marketing director at Cervelo. It was a privilege to meet him and hear his advice.

To sum it up, I'm not going to talk about Grease Monkey (that's for Tim & Kerry.) I will say that personally, I learned more this week than I could have possibly dreamed of - not just in the cycling industry, but in business and life. For a trip that I was nearly dreading, it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life.

That being said, if I don't hear Frank Sinatra again for a year, that would be just fine. :) So long, Las Vegas.