Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 8:34PMThe Mud and Cowbells Online Store..NOW OPEN!
OK peeps, I've gone ahead an done it. Opened me up an on-line store! Honestly, the powers of the good 'ol inter-web made it super easy. I enabled a variety of things to be purchased from T's to mugs to hats to baby bibs. What I am attempting to do here is clearly not get rich...but provide another vehicle to go and push percentages of the proceeds of the products to the great causes going on around here...namely the Valmont Bike Park!
So PLEASE, feel good about yourself and buy a T or a hat or sweat shirt. know for once that you will be doing what you can from know matter where you live to help out some great programs. I'd like to eventually move this ball further by pouring proceeds to junior 'cross programs which I thought about ages ago.
So go ahead and click on the image below and surf on over to the store! Buy yourself an uber-sweet M & C product. Note that this could not have been possible without the combined efforts of Anthem Branding and Zach Lee of Commarts who contributed to helping me make this happen.
Looking ahead
Cyclocross....my GOD it is almost here. The core of me is happy but it is still a distant friend to me these days who's come into town recently and made me so happy like in the old days, yet I know will vanish and cause me to long for the bond again.
This is going to be an interesting year. So, I've got to chart out my goals. I can not pretend to have the runway I made for myself last year. I've got to focus on priorities which are
- Keep my family stoked.
- Keep my employer stoked.
- Keep my friends stoked.
- Keep me stoked.
So, where to pour the attention? It has to be laser focused and tight in scope. I am just not going to have the time this season. So, it's got to be: education. In other words pouring my love into teaching others about this sport of ours as mentioned. To this end, I'll be working with mi hombre Brandon Dwight this season on clinics and other evangelisms of the sport. More to come on this news in a week or so but the fact I can start looking newbies in the eye and get them so stoked on how they will improve week in and out is what will keep me sane. That is the juice. I want to trace the progress of a few folks and promote their accomplishments week in and out.
Time's a ticken peeps! Start your running and remounts! I'll be ruining the bell soon when class is in session.
Wisecracker
Mike CONTINUES to get more press. This time on Cyclingnews for his trusty on-the-bike CNC machined beer opener, the WiseCracker. 
You know you want one. Buy it, fool.
Beaver Crick....
10,000 feet. Yup, it hurts when you're trying to male yourself hurt. And I tried to make myself hurt. And so....I hurt.
The fam and I were invited by our dear friends and neighbors up to their place in Edwards which is a small village near Beaver Creek. They basically hijacked us to take us away from the grind here these days and to get our minds off the blah. Awesome times were had. Kids all over the place playing and lots of solid beers sunk (side note: the Tommyknocker Imperial Nut Brown Ale is one of the finest Browns I've ever imbibed...Thanks Gord!).
Being up there, I decided to take advantage of the thin air so I rolled hard up through and in-between the epicness of Beaver Creek and Eagle Vail. It was delicious singletrack of the rooty-twisty-shit-eating-grin kind. While rolling, I had some nice moments of clarity thinking about this coming cross season. I'm as excited as ever for yet another season of the changing leaves. But I need to really think about what I want this year and temper it all with some serious reality. It's already SO different than last. But maybe there's some magic still left. We'll see be the time now is so limited but it is what it is. The thoughts kept coming into focus on needing to dedicate myself to educating this sport of ours. Teaching it as often and as widely as possible....and let my personal season come in its own form the way it will. At the end of the day, I'm tired of starving myself and waking up at 5:30! Ha! The goals will be outlined soon for what they will be, as will some announcements of other changes which I'm working on and I am excited about. A focus on ed-u-muh-ka-shun of 'cross and the whole lifestyle in and around it we live here. Teaching the sport to those falling in love with it and falling hard.
More soon. Maybe less now will be more. Bring it.
Manipulations....
My logo, created for me by Ted's crew at Anthem Branding, has gone into the viral digi-sphere it seems. I saw this guys 'interpretation' on the CX Mag blog. Ha!
Funny to see, but semi-insulted that a sub-par beer would be in the shot.....
New Valmont Bike Park Bloggy blog!
We've got a gaggle of authors on this so you don't always need to hear my rants! Click on over to the VBP Blog! (click image below....)
Immortalize yourself in stone! Buy a brick for Valmont Bike Park!
In fact, work has already begun! BMA and Parks and Rec staff are working with landscape architects to select a team of world class trail designers. Solicitations have literally come in from around the globe by well known trail architects to get involved in this project. As previously reported the park will offer SO MUCH to the off road cycling community such as...
• A UCI World Championship Cyclocross Race Course
• A BMX Jump Course
• A Pump Track
• Mountain Bike Skills Course
• Four Cross Track
• Singletrack Trails
• Progressive Challenge - For the Entire Family!
All this said, we want to make this park WORLD CLASS and build all the special features you desire for the ultimate experience. While we have funding coming in from the City of Boulder, the Valmont Bike Park Committe is also working with Go Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) for a grant of $200,000! This will get us further in completing the whole vision but your donations will make ALL THE DIFFERENCE!
For the indiviual contributor, the Valmont Bike Park Committee is going Northern European:
Click on the Buy A Brick image above and it will take you to the page to quickly learn about all the options you have to help financially support this cause. Out of the gate today, donations are rapidly approaching $10,000! Amazing support already from the community.
Donations can start as low as $25!! But to make it fun, there are all types of sponsorship opportunities you as an individual or your organization/company can get involved with:
Contribution Options:
• $25 Valmont Supporter- Keep me in the loop!
• $50 Fat Tire Society- Single track in Boulder? Sign me up!
• $100 SwitchBack Member- Engraved Individual Brick* (includes 1 year BMA individual membership)
• $250 CycloCross Founder– Engraved Medium Brick* (includes 1 year BMA individual membership)
• $500 Big Ring Society– Engraved Large Brick* (includes 1 year BMA individual membership)
• $1,000 Top of the Podium– Engraved XL Brick* (with your company logo or a personalized message and 1 year BMA individual membership)
• Other - Fill in a random amount you would like to contribute.
We have lofty goals for permanent structures to enhance the park experience. If you or your company wants to be more involved, we are looking for donations to construct the following.
• Podium $2,500
• Belgian Run-Up $5,000
• Pump Track $25,000
• Event Registration Shelter $25,000
• Tot Lot Play Ground $50,000
We really appreciate any financial or volunteer support you can contribute.
Click HERE to learn more about ways to get involved.
It's happening!!!
'Cross on.
What will you say?
I can't get it out of my head. As I spun it out today after my ride with Dubba getting our cross juices flowing it came across my iPod....
Mother dear, the world's gone cold
No one cares about love anymore
Jeff Buckley WAILING away on this rarely heard song. All about hard core realizations about place on earth; place in and around your loved ones. Heavy duty stuff. But alas...
I'm thinking the Tour. My love for the sport....
Does anyone care about the Tour any more? I love it with everything I've got, but this year will have to be it for me. It was this mental line in the sand I've drawn.
I resisted....but got caught up at the end. Only when I heard Carlos may be close did I jump back in and listen. All due props and respect to Christian and the Slipstream...er, ah Garmin...boys mind you, but there's something about Carlos that I feel is transparent and at the core good.
Make it so. Don't let me hear of a Floyd-like post podium debacle, Carlos. Allow my lady and I to go and see it next year as I become SUPER FAN on the slopes of some God-forsaken hill in France or Italy or Spain (wherever the sickness is to go down). I did get a vibe that the peloton is now self regulating. Identifying the p.o.s.'s out there and throwing upon them the due cross hairs. That boy and girl of yours, Carlos, on the podium: never let them doubt you. Never let them tilt their heads sideways and say 'huh?' What is doping, daddy? I think that the last time trial was real. Absolutely exhausted athletes who have not been able to myst-raculously recover in a night's time to drop the hammer upon the skulls of your nemeses.
My heart can't take this anymore...
What will you say?
Carlos, my friend. Ensure it is real.
Backwards
Wow. Pain. It was felt in droves last night to the extent that I thought I was gonna keel over and be seriously sick. Last night was short track and I went out with big eyes but the stomach couldn't handle it. Not enough bike time these last few weeks...let alone cross eyed intervals.
The course as put on by the CU'sters was again, excellent. They know exactly how to work the most out of that dirt pile. The earlier races were in a dust bowl but by the time we raced, the light rains had started which actually cooled things down and the dust was gone but made it hard to ride wheels as the mud was collecting and spraying. I guess that's incentive to stay out front.
I got in 5th after the gun and trie dto follow Brady, Matt P and Brian F's wheel but 1 lap of that game and it was curtains. Sitting in never allowed my heart rate to come down either as I cranked out roughly 177bpm average and still started creeping backwards. So, all said and don
e, I recorded a big fat goose egg last night with a DNF. I felt absolutely horrible and while my motto has always been: 'you finish no matter what', I broke my promise in literal fear that I was going to be sick. I love the early season....
Good training none the less and I thank you Nick for yelling that to me, mate. More means more right now until I need less to mean more. Got me?
Photo credit to John 'I Love Beer' Bevans.
