Well, it had to happen some time. Paradise needed to remind itself that it does in fact situate itself in the mountains. The pow pow came down last night after a final couple of days of absolute beautiful days in the sun.

The boys and girls will likely cross today...somewhere. 29'ers replacing cross bikes through the snow. Maybe Poormans, maybe long dirt road rides in place of parks and barriers.

Mr. KP sent me the latest on Master's Worlds (yes, I am STILL going!):

U.C.I WORLD MASTERS

CYCLO-CROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008

SATURDAY 19th JANUARY 2008

ZILVERMEER MOL - BELGIUM

PROGRAMME

CATEGORIE DISTANCE START

Men (1943 and older) 30’ 10.03hr

Women (1958 and older) 20’ 10.02hr

Women (1959-1968) 25’ 10.01hr

Women (1969-1978) 30’ 10.00hr

Men (1944-1948) 30’ 11.02hr

Men (1949-1953) 30’ 11.01hr

Men (1954-1958) 30’ 11.00hr

Men (1959-1963) 40’ 12.00hr

Men (1964-1968) 40’ 13.00hr

Men (1969-1973) 40’ 14.00hr

Men (1974-1978) 40’ 15.00hr

Sleep has never been better.

Ripped from Rocco. This is from the SM 3's. Opp, check you out, boy!

Best thing about this vid is Chris Cross.

I am a slacker as of late thus the lack of posts! Plus, I do not want to be a continual whiny bitch in my posts which I am unfortunately turning into a little bit these days...but I'm always trying to find the silver linings to the crappola and write about that, whilst the smelly and hay encrusted bullshit howitzer shells are being salvoed at me, over me and around me. I'm tired of writin' it, you're tired of readin' it! So, let's move on, shall we?

Looks like Co Springs was a dirt crit yesterday. Good on ya guys who got out there. Super small fields. I want to hear some reports!

While the dirt crit was going on, WB, Weber and I communed with John G, Freeride Zach Greg P and Rocco up in Nederland. Dave Hix and Rob S showed up JUST after we had left. Sorry guys!! Oh God. It was dee-lish. We got lots of the braap braap in on all the old favorites. We were trading paint, pulling epic wheelies. table-ing and snaking through monumentally gorgeous single track like little boys. No start whistles, embrocations, tension, goat heads, rolled tires. Just smiles.

Did I bring my camera? Yes. Did I leave it in the car? Yes again. Beat.

The Moots performed like a bag of bolts. I literally hung it up on the wall after the last short track over the summer and have bene riding my 1 x 1 ever since. I think I had 3 maybe 4 operative gears. Probably enough! But, was annoying as shit. On this steep rise coming out of a river gully, I stepped on it and...PING!...chain blows right off and throws my knee cap into the Thomson stem. Son of a BEEATCH! Standing right there is this older, totally mellow core MTB'er. He asks if I am OK, I grunt a somtehinsomethin and like he knows something I don't, reaches out and hands me his chain tool. I reach in to my bag and as I am doing this, realize exactly where I left it mine...on my work bench in my car hole.

Serendipity. I think it was Jesus himself intervening to me. Or maybe just a smart old hippy looking at a dumb ass Boulder-ite with limited tools.

So it was just epic with the RM Mafia up there at 9K. The snows will be coming....some day....and it was good to do the silent stuff with my homies. It was a re-set button for sure.

Re-calculate. Re-calibrate. Re-set wheels on tracks. Re-set. Re-charge.

To the anonymous commenter who sent me this link, you made my year. This is what made me lose it:

"Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs, in 1993."

Re-cast here:
Man who had sex with bike in court
By Richard Alleyne

A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.

Bryony Gordon: How do you have sex with a bicycle? Goat survived by kid and human husband Doctors battle to save 'human pin-cushion' Robert Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year. Robert Stewart admitted sexual breach of the peace On Wednesday Mr Stewart admitted to sexual breach of the peace in Ayr Sheriff Court, where depute fiscal Gail Davidson described how he had been found by the hostel workers. She said: "They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply. "They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down. "The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex." Both witnesses, who were extremely shocked, notified the hotel manager, who in turn alerted the police. Mr Stewart was placed on the sex offenders’ register but his sentence was deferred until next month. He is not the first man to be convicted of a sexual offence involving an inanimate object, however. Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs, in 1993.

Well, I've gotta tell you that the week...maybe month....nah year, has caught up with me. My well spoken-about 3 part teeter totter finally done broke, with work dropping a 2-ton boulder on it's side, ejecting me into a stratosphere of insanity. So, I've got to reel in racing for now and will skip Colorado Springs and likely next weekend as well wherever that is taking place. Oh well. I'll try like hell to grab points where I can but c'est la vie.

The week past was stressful but I am tunneling through. I got nearly to the other side of a chasm that I probably needed to finally cross, but didn't have the balls to do it. what is wrong with me???? I still believe there are no accidents and what will happen will happen but it's been a test for sure.

Regardless, I'm going to continue to rail it and train as if I am still trying to claw north. Nothing's optimal these days but I'll still try and focus. I almost pulled the plug on Belgium in my insanity this week but 5 minutes at home and a talk with my wife remedied that. I've got to see that through.

Oh, and I'm willing Wellens on. I love Sven's style...always have...but Bart is pulling out the heroics. Trying to take a page from that.

What an inexplicable release. My dear friends, some new souls met, my single speed and deliciously epic, tight and twisty technical single track...at night...in a tunnel of light.

At work today, my head came close to exploding no less than 4 times. I literally was calculating what the anuyerysm woudl feel like when it happens. I was sort of hoping it woudl be quick and not hurt a lot. By 4:30 I am watching my watch. I'm in an executive meeting. We are announcing major changes and I all I am thinking of is that that I need to get going 'cause I am going to be late for hooking up with my boys! Joe is flying in from Spokane and Brian has a huge crew assembled including the awesome duo from Yeti, Ariel and Abby, former Boulderites now calling Santa Cruz their home and working for the Tribe.

We assembled at the Java Hut in downtown Fairfax CA....the Boulder of the West. I got there a 1/2 hour late and then Joe rips into the parking lot, family in tow, moments later, fresh out of Oakland Airport. Bri and the crew patiently waited for us for 45 minuets and Joe and I got ready and we jammed before 7PM. Team Yeti has bikes prepared for everyone, but I am going to roll the 1 x 1. I just love my own bike as tempting as those ASR's and 575's were....

We climbed and ripped Tamarancho and then traversed up and over into terrain I've never been on. Let's just say this was 'unmarked'.

My

God

Epic, cherry, technical single track. The tight and obscenely twisty stuff that you dream about....at night in a tunnel of light. An utter release after a week of mental torture. My dearest friends....my family in the Bay Area communing on the tight and twisty.

I miss you.

Bri and Ariel on the ascent.

Joe advertising

Brian selling the shit out of the Yeti experience

Abby loading the Yeti rig

ASR

Speed Buggy healing up after Achilles surgery

Ball as he is seen in his high powered biz dev role

Brandon and Taro got last minute entries to the La Ruta de los Conquistadores. Good luck with your remaining 'cross season Brandon for when you come back witha water borne parasite. Ha! kidding... but, ahhh, I'm not kidding.

If you are interested, Jason Sager is showing how much of a blogger he really is with truly excellent nightly coverage from his suffer fest down there in Costa Rica land. To quote Jason: "Pictures are the new text...". Spoken like a true Web 2.0 kind of guy. (Note to Sager: I've got to give you my copy of Wikinomics boy. You're on to something here....).

Follow Sager and crew's adventures through the mud here.

Well, the report in from the Reepoobleek was that 30 people showed up for the Worlds in 32 degree weather with an inch of the white stuff on the ground. Belgian-esque. Nice.

I got out on another morning mini-epic here in Marin. No lights and complete darkness. Awesome. Hit parts of Tamarancho but was too dark to see within the tunnel of trees in the singletrack so flipped and rolled along the hills in Marin.

Things are settling down a bit where there was chaos 48 hours ago. I need to continue pushing and finding truth. The cool morning air on the 1 x 1 is making that easier for me.

...or so said Bush the Elder some time ago. Hilarious. And that is where I am: In Marin staying in a hotel as the entire City is sold out due to Horacle Open World.

I've got the 1 x 1 with me to do me some fun riding in between the meetings and craziness. I want to commune with Tamarancho and other places I carved with the best of friends. I'll hook up what I can, when I can to continue to give back as it were.

Things are changing. I have to accept that. The constant is the faith my family has in me and that all will be OK. I've got to believe that as I've lobbed much to the universe and plowed ahead in good faith, doing my best. Harming no one but instead trying to inspire. This will all be understood soon. By me, by you, by those close.