Now in Post - Epic Tucson

We were thrilled to leave cold, rainy Vermont and travel to Tucson, Arizona to film two epicRIDES in early April - a climb up Mt. Lemmon and a spin around the Saguaro National Park - East loop road. We can summarize our impression of the Tucson area in two words: Cycling Mecca! The area has great rides in all directions, stunning and exotic Sonoran Desert scenery, a plethora of coffee houses and bike shops, and bicyclists from all over the world enjoying the beautiful weather. One of our favorite hangouts was Le Buzz Cafe on Tanque Verde Road. Le Buzz is a natural staging place for the two rides we filmed there and it was not in the least unusual to hear cyclists conversing in French or German over some Le Buzz's excellent coffees and pastries!

In addition to our two amazing groups of Epic Riders from the Summit Velo Cycling Team and the Cactus Cycling Club, we had the pleasure to get to know and work with Mac Graham, owner extraordinaire of Sabino Cycles, one of that area's top bike shops and Jacque Traweek and Allyson Lee-McAdams from our lodging host, The Lodge on the Desert. Everyone made us feel so welcome and at home!

Epic Tucson is now in active post-production with the final release due out in July, but for now, maybe you would like to check out some production stills from both Epic Tucson rides.

Go to Epic Tucson slideshow >

Coming Next - Epic Rouge Roubaix

We read about the Rouge Roubaix race in the new VeloNews Race & Ride Guide and since its St. Francisville, Louisiana location (30 miles north of Baton Rouge) was only a few hours from our Pensacola, Florida winter headquarters - and its century course, with 20 miles of twisty, hilly dirt roads in the mix, fit our definition of "Epic" - we couldn't resist including it in our 2009 schedule!

Race organizer and Delta Racing Team Captain Mitch Evans was gracious enough to serve as our location producer, and it was a pleasure to get to know Mitch and the riders from Delta Racing who participated in our filming, as well as Tom Townsend, the owner of The Bicycle Shop, one of Baton Rouge's primer cycleries; Susan Hayden, a local race director; and Anne Butler the seventh generation owner and innkeeper at the amazing Butler Greenwood Plantation, where we stayed.

This epic route consisted of 100 miles of twisty-turney, shady, Spanish moss-covered, very, very quiet back roads, with surfaces ranging from champaigne asphalt to chip and seal to some downright nasty, freshly graded dirt and gravel. And if you think "flat" when you think about Louisiana, think again about the West Feliciana Parish, because this area is called the Tunica Hills for a reason! Think one-mile gravel road climbs with steep bluffs, deep ravines and grades up tp 16%. This route didn't earn its "Roubaix" moniker for nothing!

The rushes look great and we've pulled a selection of stills from the HD video to wet everyone's whistle until the August release date is upon us. Enjoy ya'll!

Go to Epic Rouge Roubaix slideshow >

Epic BUZZ...

Although the indoor cycling season is behind us, the reviews keep coming in. We recently received a nice one from Lynn Smythe, the Bike Diva. Lynn blogs from a South Florida perspective where one can theoretically ride year-round - as long as you don't mind dodging  a lighting bolt or two, according to Lynn!

Here are some snippets of what the Bike Diva had to say:

"The Epic Ride DVDs are also perfect for anyone (who) is just coming off an injury, or just getting into cycling, and isn't strong enough or confident enough to go out on the road..."

"The DVDs are also perfect for cyclists with crazy work schedules, who don't like working out in the dark hours of the early morning before they go to work, or in the dark after they get home from work. You can use the DVDs even when the weather isn't cooperating."

Go to Bike Diva blog >

Epic Profile - Jerry Rosen

For every location epicPLANET.tv films, we need a location producer from that area to put together our Epic Ride cycling team, help plan and organize our routes, as well as tip us off to the best bike shops and other cycle-friendly businesses in that area.

For Epic Tucson, that "go to" guy was Jerry Rosen. Jerry is a former advertising executive and part-time author and photographer who has published "Desert Journeys" - the one and only definitive guide to Tucson-area cycling routes.

An active member of the Cactus Cycling Club, Jerry frequently leads club rides and although he has only embraced road cycling in the last few years, he is nonetheless a very strong rider!

With Jerry's help we got to know our way around Tucson pretty well and we can't say enough about how impressed we were with the extensiveness of cycling we found in the Tucson area. We would recommend a trip to Tucson for any avid cyclist who wants to get a break from indoor training over the bleak winter months. And if you do decide to go, we'd recommend picking up a copy of Jerry's book so you can see what you have to look forward to!

More about Jerry and his work >

Follow Us On Twitter (@epicplanet)!

People we know and respect (@thefredcast, @vivavelo, @actionwipes, @lancearmstrong, @RoadID to name a few) are active Twitterers, so we've decided to enter the Twitterverse as well.

Twitter is a great way to stay updated and interact with individuals and companies that interest you. You can get minute by minute commentary (with photos) of key cycling races and events, hear a range of opinion and commentary on everything from cycling to politics, or have Lance tell you who he is having dinner with - all in compact 140 or less character bites!

So if you want to follow Tweets about our epic comings and goings, get updates about our productions, learn about specials we run and hear an occasional personal observation, follow us at @epicplanet.

And we'd like to follow YOU as well, so be sure to Tweet us soon so we can connect!!!

Go to Twitter >