Entries from June 17, 2007 - June 23, 2007
My new favorite time-watser
Tuba Brown told me I have to scope out Ride with Nick Martin. It's awesome. Local Boulder MTB Pro with a lot of good thoughts, pics and things to say. Not sure if I met this guy before but I think I saw him hit the deck at our Short Track the other night. We also share nice MTB-inspired bloody mess knee wounds. Nick, just what precisely is this body part you snapped a photo of? If it's what I think it is, you should really wipe better. (kidding). Mine was not unlike this mess after Ned took a piece out of me one day.Anyhoo, Nick's got a rad blog for Class-A time wasting.
Climb climb climb
That is precisely what za plan prescribed today and za plan wasn't joking. NCAR, Flag/Amphitheater, Lee Hill/Deer Trail finish up with the humiliator of Olde Stage. Then home. I literally ran out of liquids. 90 degrees by the time I was rolling into my garage. The sensations were good. 2 minutes and 46 seconds faster than I've ever done Flag/Amp. All by watching the Tap. Finished up the day 3 pounds down from what I woke up at and am already 10 + pounds total body weight lost since initiating za plan. Amazing. Who'd've thunk it: eat more, ride 'less' yielding weight loss and becoming demonstrably faster. I likee.
It's fun again.
Found
My team mate and Slipstream soigneur Jonny C in full cowbell mode at last years GP's. Priceless:I think we're going to have to hunt down this guy's shiner one:
T-minus 3 months 'til cross.
Weak
That is exactly what I'm calling Piti's weak-ass sock selection. What sport is this? Tennis? Shit even tennis players are wearing real socks these days and not the ankle panties Valverde is sporting. I CAN'T STAND IT! And now I'm seeing all these euro-fools go low on the sock. It reminds me of that scene in Good Morning Vietnam when the bartender is telling Robin Williams how he loves the curve of the soldiers ankles in their combat boots. But I digress on that tip. Weak. I thin
k hey should all just go back to wearing the pom-pom ankle socks my sister wore in '82.
So let's inspect some style. Who else to go to but our main anti-doping advocate and style maven, Geoff Kabush. OK, so he's Canadian, but I won't hold that against him (D'oh! Kidding Kabush!). But seriously, this is 2007 and there is style to be applied to your ride.
Let's study this pic for a bit shall we? Here we have Geoff killing it in some race. Anywhoo, Geoff has embraced 2007. Note the white saddle. I guaran-frickin-tee you he's got white grips under those hands. Any self respecting bike style junkie's got to match the saddle and the grips (mtb)/tape (road). C'mon! You're squirming in your chair right now wasting time reading this blog 'cause you agree. Shoes: White. C'mon! You know you want white shoes. You need white shoes you bitches.
And the piece de resistance? You know it: Brandon's Limited Edition, 6" Tall boy PINK Doper's Suck socks with stylish T-Mobile Magenta embroidery . Made just in time for Bjarne's confession AND the Giro! What timing! They're just high enough to be uncool, just low enough to be rad. Balance. Don't be weak. Say no to ankle panties.

Waltworks Walt...
...has the only known pic of me in the dust bowl at STXC last night:Walt has himself a good blog and even better frames. Cult status here in The Republic.
The Dugast is back in the house!
Nice! I got my beautifully repaired Dugast Rhino back from Ron at Tire Alert. I will let you know how it all works once I get them all glued on but the inspection of his work is nearly flawless. Hard to tell the difference between the original Dugast and his repaired version. All said and done it was like $20 bucks and about 2 weeks. Super fast!
Who is het denken over veldrijden??
24-7 x 365. That is when you should be thinking 'cross. ST last night got my intensity juices flowing. For my peeps in the Boulder area, I'll be getting the annual 'cross clinics going on again. Again, my goal is to ensure you look as good a s you feel during your racing and avoid the nonsense you see in the pic which for me is as enjoyable to watch as it is for me to chew on tinfoil.
More info in the coming weeks on times/places.
Photo by AbbiOrca
ST Pics from last night
Just a couple of random shots from our home girl Cynthia to show people what the course was like. For out-of-towners having a look-see, you can see our beautiful Flat Iron mountains in the back ground.
Short trackin'
So, the RM squadra had a good showing out there at the Short Track tonight. All categories represented from beginner to pro. Me, Longman, Bobby Mounts and The WB rocked the pro mens race at 7 bells. It had cooled off considerably by then. The course was rad and is used for 'cross as well. It's total jungle 'cross but fun. Fast and technical but SUPER DUSTY. As I type this, I am hacking. The whole course was a huge dusty haze.
There was a super big field tonight. Probably lined up 5 rows deep. Not sure how many though. I had a great start from the 2nd row and made it into the top 5 or 6 for 1 to 1.5 laps. The WB came by with Colby P on lap 2 and Colby punched it and I just could not cover that. Lap 2 or 3 Jon Baker on his cross bike (of course!) had a wash outright in front of me and I got jumped by a few more dudes in the mele. I put together all I have at this stage of my training and can feel the progress. I held my own and all said and done probably finished in top 20. I faded at the end but I am satisfied given the competition. I am making progress. The WB had a strong top 10 ride and he's primed for the MSC in Crested Butte this weekend. Good luck The WB!!
Some post race pics.
A Death Star-like Tractor beam...
...is luring me into the world of the two-niner. And one of my bros Mike Ahrens of Ahrens Bikes is interested in dialin-in one for me. Mike is one of the first people I met when I moved to the Bay Area. In fact, he had just
completed a design for a senior year engineering project at Santa Clara when I met him literally the month I moved there in the mid 90's. It was a full suspension rig which Paul welded up for him. I just had to have it. Totally unique design. And so, it was done. Big and heavy...it was free ride before free ride. I had a White Bros DC110 triple crown and a tuned Risse Racing rea shock on that thing. Steel frame. Boing!! We proceeded to ride a zillion miles together in the rolling hills of CA from Napa's World Cup courses to epics weekend after weekend in Santa Cruz bombing
the super secret stuff. Memories...
Well, Mike's all grows-dup now and so have his designs. D-E-L-E-C-T-A-B-L-E . He's applying is deep engineering and CAD piloting skills to manufacture lots of core bits such as lugs, stays, slider drop outs, etc that are almost too pretty to ride:
So I've posted the Moots to Craigs if any'n is interested. I love the Moots but I need to move on. The 29-er is calling.