After settling into town on Sunday evening, rekindling hellos with some very good friends from my time living in Asheville, I made plans to ride with Brent Bookwalter on Monday. Brent and I have a history dating back to 2005 when we were on the national team together. We then were teammates in 2006 on Priority Health and housemates in Girona in 2010. We've been neighbors in Spain since then and are good friends.Less good is waking up to snow flurries and howling winds. Ahh yes, this isn't just North Carolina in the winter -- this is North Carolina's rugged Appalachian Mountains in the winter. It's cold. It was merely my fireside optimism the night before that made me think otherwise. Oye!So we bundled up, me in my awesome new Velocio attire, and braved the elements. Truth be told, it was mere flurries and when you're riding the sinuous roads and valleys of Asheville, you're often protected from wind, which is extremely helpful when trying to stave off hypothermia. We banged out a pretty standard 3 hour loop with the requisite stop at Zuma in Marshall for a cuppa. I also introduced Brent to the art of pouring an UnTapped packet over a cappuccino. Instant maple cappuccino, or as you'll call it, "my new favorite drink ever!"  Okay friends, what do you think about when you think of cyclocross? Sure bikes is a good start, then there's mud, loud fans, frites, cowbells, sudsy or steamy hot beverages, and a painful 60 minutes. All great answers. Well somewhere in that hodgepodge mix is doughnuts. I blame the pacific northwest for their fondness of all things artisinal and their muddy gravitation to cyclocross. Although blame is a less opportune word as, "thank". I thank the PNW for their contribution to 'cross.And for that, I've created the #TKAtoZ Cross and Doughnut Ride! Any and all are welcome and it will go something like this: Here are the not very complicated details:--Beginning tomorrow/Wednesday, show up at Vortex Doughnuts at 9am. Buy a doughnut and/or coffee, fuel up, warm up, then get ready to ride.--We ride at 9:30am and do the above route. Let it be known: it does involve a little bit of downtown riding, and then it goes up a gradual climb to the Blue Ridge Parkway.--We finish at the cross nationals venue at Biltmore, then roll in and see our friends from SRAM and Zipp and Cannondale.--Mildly more info here. All are invited.Let's start with Wednesday, then Thursday do the same. We'll see how it goes and then maybe Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we'll do it all again!This isn't a ridiculous ride, it's a nice 40km, 25 mile loop, good for opening the legs for your race ahead or earning your time in the beer garden. We're going to have fun, that's priority numero uno.