What better time than summer to head out on the road with the Garmin-Transitions pro cycling team?

Being one of the hardest endurance sports in the world, nutrition is incredibly important to cycling – burgers and fries just don’t cut it! So Garmin has nutrition down to a science, which includes a traveling chef that prepares healthy, organic meals, and CLIF SHOT BLOKS and SHOT Energy Gel.

Want to see what it’s like to go Garmin? Check out a special series of behind-the-scenes videos with the Garmin-Transitions team on the Clif Bar & Company YouTube channel. Or you can check out Part 1 right here!

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Wow, it’s July already.

Here in the magical (and rather busy) land known as Team Clif Bar, it can be tough to keep track of all that’s going on this time of year.

In the ongoing madness there is, however, one thing I’m certain of – over the holiday weekend, here at TCB we will be grilling way more meat and drinking far more sangria than a number of the TCB athletes who will be hard at work busting their butts at some bigtime races.

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Have you ever considered doing something really crazy? Like running the length of Connecticut? But, instead of doing it at sea level, you throw in a few thousand feet of elevation and also do it in the middle a hot California summer? Oh, yeah, and you have to do it in under 16 hours. Piece of cake, right?

Well, that’s what it’s like when the contenders run the Western States 100, the United States’ oldest ultra marathon. 

This year proved to be one of the most exciting editions in the race’s history. Remarkably, after completing over 85 miles of the grueling course that runs from Squaw Valley’s base all the way to Auburn, California, the three men’s leaders were still within eyeshot of each other. Montrail’s Geoff Roes, who looked to be out of the race after losing significant time on the climb to Devil’s Thumb at mile 50, had somehow managed to claw his way back up to Kilian Burgada and Anton Krupicka and the race was on. Roes reportedly was able to efficiently consume 400 calories per hour in the second half of the race, but was also feeding off the encouragement of his pacer, Dave Mackey, to great effect. By mile 89, Roes had passed both his rivals for good and was on his way to victory. His winning time of 15:07:04 was the fastest in race history, besting ultra legend Scott Jurek’s old course record by close to a half hour. Unreal.

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A few weeks back Team Clif Bar triathlete Meredith Kessler sent an email asking for some bars and BLOKS to help her prep for Ironman Coeur d’Alene. Knowing that both she and fellow TCB pro Linsey Corbin would be racing in Idaho, I issued a challenge: “You guys will have to finish 1-2 or we will be forced cut you both from the program.” We play hardball here in the TCB pod.

I was joking. Sort of. But, I also knew that Linsey and Meredith had been racing extremely well, and if both had good days they could end up standing on the podium together. Well, Meredith crushed the swim and had an overall terrific race, while Linsey swam conservatively and then ran like Steve Austin to pass about 4,000 people in the marathon. Linsey ended up taking her first Ironman win, and in the process set a new course record at 9:17:54! Meredith continued her stellar rookie pro season finishing in second, a mere five minutes off Linsey’s insanely quick time. Apparently Matt over at Purple Patch Fitness knows what he’s doing, because these girls are absolutely killing it in 2010. 

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Many of you may have been introduced to Southern California’s Conejo Valley by way of the Tour of California. As you may recall, the area provided the hilly landscape that produced the most epic and action-packed stage of the race.

Well, the fellas from the Agoura Hills-based racing team Fast Friday have been riding that same loop on Friday afternoons for years – it’s where the team got its name. Well following last Friday’s ride, Gary, the team’s notorious leader, was invited by some friends to eat at Leila’s http://www.leilasrestaurant.com/ , one of the region’s most popular and well-regarded restaurants. The establishment is one of the Valley’s true insider’s secrets, known for its creative menu, extensive wine list and regular one-off dishes created by experienced, open-minded cooks. The kitchen folks are so open to new ideas that they didn’t even balk when Gary presented them with a request inspired, no doubt, by at least a couple glasses of vintage central coast Pinot: “Would you guys mind deep-frying this CLIF BAR and serving it up à la mode?”

To the casual observer, this might sound like a strange request. But Gary was simply making use of the ancient Cyclist Code of Conduct, tenet #14: ‘Always carry at least one CLIF BAR on your person whenever hitting the town on someone else’s terms.’ It’s a safety net of sorts.

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