Sales meeting life

The sales meeting is done and was an overwhelming success! I got a new territory and outside rep (lower midwest) in addition to all the east coast I've been rocking for the last few months. I worked several 12+ hour days and I am super sore. Our 2009 product lines look nothing short of fabulous so those of you into high end mountain and road bikes will be very excited, stayed tuned to your favorite cycling publications as our press camp starts a week from today.

Monday morning was perhaps the most fun I've ever had as an employee. We got to have our dirt demo at Blackhawk which is kind of my home course. Since I was the only one who knew the trail system I got to design a 15 minute course (for sales reps) so I was there bright and early checking out trails and flagging what I thought would work. I did a nice top loop with an option to go down the gully and an option to hit the log ride. I hit it twice more on two different bikes just for fun! Once the course was marked I thought I should scope out some more of the terrain for the more experienced riders. I rode the switchbacks down (for the first time ever I made it.) Then I went down and rode "Jerry's Trail" and then the Deer Run downhill run. All were in primo condition except Jerry's Trail was flooded at the very bottom. Once the reps got here I hosted some tours showing people what Blackhawk offered while riding a Mongoose Khyber. Then I made it to the top and decided to try out the GT Carbon Marathon Pro. That's when more and more people began showing up. Finally I took some people out on a tour of Blackhawk. I led a train that included the product manager at Mongoose (Darren), Adam (an east coast rep and downhiller), Ray (owner of Ray's MTB park) and Hans Rey (mountain bike legend.) I tried not to slow them down too much and they all rode the log ride. It was pretty much a mountain biker's dream ride, all on a carbon mountian bike. My next ride included Nick Reistad from Team Jelly Belly. That's right I am name dropping! :) After that we did run after run of the switchbacks, the deer trail and Jerry's run. I believe I had to ride up either the switchbacks or the ski hill 8-10 times (and another 4-5 times up the gravel road or ski trail) so needless to say I was totally tired. Of course then some people taught me how to do some jumps so I took to the air a bit. I still need to fine tune my technique but I had a great time trying and I only mis-hit twice. Finally it was 12:30 and I had to head back to work...and actually work, what a bummer! Sorry I didn't take more photos but here's one of Ray and Hans Rey at the bottom of the hill where you can't see unreleased product that I can't post.

The rest of the meetings were less exciting. We finally finished up about 6:30 last night and this morning I am sore from tons of manual labor. Of course in true name-dropping tradition today I get to ride with Eric Carter and Steve Rominuk so that will be cool. Tonight is the MTB time trial at Blackhawk and Steve will be there trying to see if he can get more air than me and then I head to volleyball at 9. Tomorrow is the movie premier for Cranked 7 which will be sweet and Friday I get to have some more physical therapy and then Friday night I'll probably fall asleep as soon as I get home from work...what a long couple of weeks!