I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.

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UK based here! Canada! Germany! France! Spain! Italy!
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Catch me on Facebook
Ray Elsewhere
Did you know I write a weekly column over on Slowtwitch?
Check out my Product/Electronics posts in Ray’s Sports Electronics Mailbag - they are packed full of gadget goodness.
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
- What are your least favorite countries/places?
- What are you favorite countries/places?
Follow me on Twitter
- Hello San Francisco. Time for a quick swim in between flights... #, 2 hours ago
- Week in Review: From running in North Korea to 5,000 marathon finishers told to a 'do-over': http://t.co/LkMWI0ISrQ #, 7 hours ago
- @exeprod Cool! Unfortunately, I'm just boarding a plane headed away for a week. :( #, 15 hours ago
- RT @GordonRamsay: Kona I'm coming can't wait ! absolutely love Vermont some pretty steep hills 80K ride around Mt Stratton stunning thx htt… #, 21 hours ago
- @cthompson01 Awesome! Now, if you could only explain BT4.0 to Google and Android... #, 2013/05/18
- @mattheus91 Looks like a bad infomercial. Seen similar tech, but not much has actually made it to release. I'd stay away for now. #, 2013/05/17
- @speggio Giant rubbermaid containers. ;) Well, and Ikea containers. I have pretty much one of everything though, sometimes two. #, 2013/05/17
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5 Easy Steps To The Site
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
Read My GPS Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent gadget recommendations guide (2012) – covering almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day to day? I also just put together my complete 2012 ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
Understand technology and sport in the How-To Guides.
I enjoy explaining new things to folks – especially showing people how to get the most from their gadgets. Here’s an ongoing list of “How to” guides.
Read my Top 25 most useful posts.
It turns our I’ve written a fair bit of stuff over the past few years – and after it disappears from my front page, a lot of it never really sees the light of day again without Google’ing skillz. Or a photographic memory…which I don’t have. I’ve taken a look back and found stuff that…continues to find a trickle of readers via web searches or forum links.
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
Tag Archives: Tour de France
Cycling up (and down twice) the legendary Mount Ventoux
My journey started about 8:30AM from a small hotel in many miles below the peak of Mount Ventoux. The summit is well known in the Tour de France – and probably has an even more visible reputation than any other … Read More Here
A look at the Tour de France photo gallery in the gardens
A few days ago I saw a tweet on the official Tour de France Twitter feed announcing some sort of gallery opening featuring 80 images from years past. After a bit of poking around, I found out that this display … Read More Here
Watching the Tour de France live from 35,000 feet
It seems appropriate that as this post publishes, I’ll be on another airplane somewhere over the Atlantic, probably just north of Newfoundland. But, this post isn’t about tonight’s flight, but rather a short domestic flight I took last weekend on … Read More Here
2012 Tour de France–A look at the Caravan/Parade
(Note: This post is written by The Girl…aka…my wife.) While the first day of the Tour is exciting in and of itself from a cycling standpoint, we were also both pretty excited about the famed parade that tours a few … Read More Here
2012 Tour de France–Stage 1/Day 2
We left off yesterday in Liege, Belgium, where the prologue stage both started and ended. Today, (err…Sunday), we moved…well…just a few yards down the road. Stage 1 would also start in Liege, but would finish in a town just a … Read More Here
2012 Tour de France–Prologue/Day 1
Yesterday we woke up around 7AM to catch our 8AM train from Paris to Liege (in Belgium). That’s the beauty of high speed trains – quick and efficient transport while relaxing at roughly 200 MPH (or about 300MPH). Oh, and … Read More Here
Behind the scenes of Team HTC-Columbia and the Tour de France Live Tracker
Over the past week and a half of watching the Tour de France, you may have stumbled upon a site that allows you to track Team HTC-Columbia’s riders power, heart rate, cadence and speed data in real-time from your computer … Read More Here


















