Elena's doing.
See reverse
New Brick-and-Mortar Dealer
6 hours ago
10/31/2009
10/28/2009
Curbfinding mixtes
On the way to work, late on monday morning, made even later by the appearance of a pretty sweet 5 speed Gitane mixte. Surprisingly light, true twin laterals, white pedals and grips on a baby blue frame. Should polish up OK if I can get the shifty bits working ok.
Had to take it home, adding 20 minutes or so to my already tardy commute, a good morning to be riding the BD. The week before, I had the good luck to score a curbfind red metal tricycle for Aida. Looks to be working fine but for one missing pedal. An easy fix with some wood. It is Curbside pickup week (month as they have not come yet) where all of los alamos cleans their garages and the city eventually picks up the stuff at the curb. I also scored some tomato cages. I resisted various nordic tracks and a few odd garden carts that looked to have somewhat interesting wheels. I am trying to focus my hoarding to bikes only. So far, pretty good.
You may have noticed Snow. That was the second snow ride of the winter on monday. We had the first freeze in town in Los Alamos on 9/23 this year with a pretty good snow up on top of the ski hill, but none in town, but then a nice warm october until last week there was this mess:
and this week, well, this
I actually broke out the studded tired twenty last week. This week was a couple inches of rollable soft snow, compared to the icy snowy mess last week. Here is to a good winter.
Had to take it home, adding 20 minutes or so to my already tardy commute, a good morning to be riding the BD. The week before, I had the good luck to score a curbfind red metal tricycle for Aida. Looks to be working fine but for one missing pedal. An easy fix with some wood. It is Curbside pickup week (month as they have not come yet) where all of los alamos cleans their garages and the city eventually picks up the stuff at the curb. I also scored some tomato cages. I resisted various nordic tracks and a few odd garden carts that looked to have somewhat interesting wheels. I am trying to focus my hoarding to bikes only. So far, pretty good.
You may have noticed Snow. That was the second snow ride of the winter on monday. We had the first freeze in town in Los Alamos on 9/23 this year with a pretty good snow up on top of the ski hill, but none in town, but then a nice warm october until last week there was this mess:
and this week, well, this
I actually broke out the studded tired twenty last week. This week was a couple inches of rollable soft snow, compared to the icy snowy mess last week. Here is to a good winter.
10/27/2009
10/20/2009
10/18/2009
Another dead pro cyclist and football/ mountaineering = dumber than I thought
I thought about what, if anything, I wanted to say about Frank Vandenbroucke, but don't need to now, via the end of this boulder report postI found this article: this excellent article by Lionel Birnie. Go read it. Mostly what I wanted to say was this part:
While not for a moment suggesting that Tom Boonen is on the same path as Vandenbroucke, it is impossible to avoid the early-warning signs. Like Pantani, Vandenbroucke's descent seemed steady and unstoppable. Once on the downward spiral the brief rallies were only temporary.
It is pretty clear that VDB was on a path that was difficult to get off, ditto pantani. I think I had my say about boonen here. There is a riders union, there is a pretty strong governing organization in the UCI, get with it before it is too late, when your star riders are dying alone in hotel rooms, you have a problem that is bigger than Operation puerto and Astana's trash, especially if this continues.
In somewhat related news. There is a typical Malcom Gladwell article in last weeks new yorker on football and dogfighting. No, it does not talk about how pro football players engage in dogfighting, but in a typical Gladwellian overreach he says football and dogfighting are pretty much the same. Why? Because football players, especially ones that get hit hard often and get concussions, get permanent brain damage at extremely young ages and this leads to very early onset dementia. And dogfighting is a similarly cruel sport where the "athletes" die or kill on the game floor. See? Exactly the same. I think this would have been an excellent article without conflating dogfighting with football. He rightly takes the NFL and football in general to task for the whole "warrior/playin hurt" mentality. There are some disturbing stories of severe brain damage in teenagers and college football players as well as some impressively dismal instrumented helmet experiments showing magnitudes of head deceleration. The article is typical Gladwell in excellent research and writing, but I think he is stretching further and further with his conclusions of late. I pretty much hate football, don't watch it, don't even pay attention anymore, but if you like it go read the article, the medical evidence is pretty damning without the dogfighting equation. So there you go football fans, your sport is really frying the brains of your heroes.
Switching sports again, there was a remarkably similar article (minus the dogfighting BS) in Outside this month on brain damage in climbers, mountain climbers that is. Bottom line is that high altitude sickness seems to be a symptom of permanent brain damage, well maybe not quite a symptom, but perhaps they often occur at the same time. The article claims that seasoned pros climb slow and are well trained to avoid this. But people who blitz 14'ers in two days when they live at sea level, well, maybe they are doing some serious damage. Kind of a bummer. How bad is this brain damage? I have no idea, this article, unlike the football one, has no stories of 45 year old climbers dying from early onset dementia caused problems. But since I know lots of people who do this kind of thing (or similar like race Leadville with no high altitude training/acclimatization), uh, slow down guys, if it hurts your brain, it ain't good. There are some interviews with guides who seems to have pretty much fried their cognitive skills doing lots of fast high altitude ascents in short periods of times. I am a bit skeptical of Outsides claim that climber hero Conrad Anker does not have this problem because he is really careful and well trained. I would have liked to see some of the big name climbers get MRI's to show that they are so well trained that they have no brain damage, but my guess is that these guys were once dumb amateurs who fried their brains as well, before they knew better. Anyhow, the most striking point is that they had evidence of people who climbed too fast and had done some damage at a "mere" 14,000 feet. The author, in true outside magazine style, attempted to cause visible (to MRI) brain damage by summiting Mt. Rainier too fast (with his son no less) but alas, he was turned back by weather before making the costly point.
So there you go, cycling has problems, but really they pale in comparison to what is going on in football, that's what I am trying to say, they still have not even begun to look at the steroids/hgh problem in football. Remember if skinny cyclists and relatively tiny baseball players are pickling themselves in drugs to stay competitive, what makes you think your football player don't do the same. To tie it all together, I will say that the climbing and brain damage is a bit of a related downer, but I think it really applies more to weekend warriors blitzing climbs with no altitude prep, and idiots who climb Everest and the like sans supplemental oxygen, but they are dumb to begin with. In conclusion, if it hurts real bad, it probably is not good for you. So stop it. Unless it is fun. Then think about it for a bit...
Postcript: my secret theory is that racing hard in endurance sports kills brain cells too. No way that going that far into oxygen debt is good for you. I think it is probably the best/healthiest way to kill your brain cells though. Stupid football
While not for a moment suggesting that Tom Boonen is on the same path as Vandenbroucke, it is impossible to avoid the early-warning signs. Like Pantani, Vandenbroucke's descent seemed steady and unstoppable. Once on the downward spiral the brief rallies were only temporary.
It is pretty clear that VDB was on a path that was difficult to get off, ditto pantani. I think I had my say about boonen here. There is a riders union, there is a pretty strong governing organization in the UCI, get with it before it is too late, when your star riders are dying alone in hotel rooms, you have a problem that is bigger than Operation puerto and Astana's trash, especially if this continues.
In somewhat related news. There is a typical Malcom Gladwell article in last weeks new yorker on football and dogfighting. No, it does not talk about how pro football players engage in dogfighting, but in a typical Gladwellian overreach he says football and dogfighting are pretty much the same. Why? Because football players, especially ones that get hit hard often and get concussions, get permanent brain damage at extremely young ages and this leads to very early onset dementia. And dogfighting is a similarly cruel sport where the "athletes" die or kill on the game floor. See? Exactly the same. I think this would have been an excellent article without conflating dogfighting with football. He rightly takes the NFL and football in general to task for the whole "warrior/playin hurt" mentality. There are some disturbing stories of severe brain damage in teenagers and college football players as well as some impressively dismal instrumented helmet experiments showing magnitudes of head deceleration. The article is typical Gladwell in excellent research and writing, but I think he is stretching further and further with his conclusions of late. I pretty much hate football, don't watch it, don't even pay attention anymore, but if you like it go read the article, the medical evidence is pretty damning without the dogfighting equation. So there you go football fans, your sport is really frying the brains of your heroes.
Switching sports again, there was a remarkably similar article (minus the dogfighting BS) in Outside this month on brain damage in climbers, mountain climbers that is. Bottom line is that high altitude sickness seems to be a symptom of permanent brain damage, well maybe not quite a symptom, but perhaps they often occur at the same time. The article claims that seasoned pros climb slow and are well trained to avoid this. But people who blitz 14'ers in two days when they live at sea level, well, maybe they are doing some serious damage. Kind of a bummer. How bad is this brain damage? I have no idea, this article, unlike the football one, has no stories of 45 year old climbers dying from early onset dementia caused problems. But since I know lots of people who do this kind of thing (or similar like race Leadville with no high altitude training/acclimatization), uh, slow down guys, if it hurts your brain, it ain't good. There are some interviews with guides who seems to have pretty much fried their cognitive skills doing lots of fast high altitude ascents in short periods of times. I am a bit skeptical of Outsides claim that climber hero Conrad Anker does not have this problem because he is really careful and well trained. I would have liked to see some of the big name climbers get MRI's to show that they are so well trained that they have no brain damage, but my guess is that these guys were once dumb amateurs who fried their brains as well, before they knew better. Anyhow, the most striking point is that they had evidence of people who climbed too fast and had done some damage at a "mere" 14,000 feet. The author, in true outside magazine style, attempted to cause visible (to MRI) brain damage by summiting Mt. Rainier too fast (with his son no less) but alas, he was turned back by weather before making the costly point.
So there you go, cycling has problems, but really they pale in comparison to what is going on in football, that's what I am trying to say, they still have not even begun to look at the steroids/hgh problem in football. Remember if skinny cyclists and relatively tiny baseball players are pickling themselves in drugs to stay competitive, what makes you think your football player don't do the same. To tie it all together, I will say that the climbing and brain damage is a bit of a related downer, but I think it really applies more to weekend warriors blitzing climbs with no altitude prep, and idiots who climb Everest and the like sans supplemental oxygen, but they are dumb to begin with. In conclusion, if it hurts real bad, it probably is not good for you. So stop it. Unless it is fun. Then think about it for a bit...
Postcript: my secret theory is that racing hard in endurance sports kills brain cells too. No way that going that far into oxygen debt is good for you. I think it is probably the best/healthiest way to kill your brain cells though. Stupid football
10/13/2009
Sunday Hauling Profile
100+lbs of bullshit and coffeegrounds:
Pumpkins and pumpkins and both pumpkinandbaby:
New Cat beds:
Pumpkins and pumpkins and both pumpkinandbaby:
New Cat beds:
10/09/2009
The other bread cycle
Ah, my sister-in-law did infact catch the other type of bread cycle:
Thanks indi!
So there you have it. Genuine egyptian bread moving, via the bread messenger. Happy 10/9 buddy.
Thanks indi!
So there you have it. Genuine egyptian bread moving, via the bread messenger. Happy 10/9 buddy.
10/05/2009
Cairo Handcycle and Bread Bike
These are some pictures that I endeavored to take, but failed, but my bro successfully captured them. Thanks Pal.
Cairo Handcycle:
These are fairly common in Egypt, not sure whether there is an organization that provides them for double aputees/parapalegics, but they are there.
Bread Cycle:
Bread in Egypt is government subsidized to 5 piasters, which is less than a penny US. The loaves are oftened shuffled about from baker to dealer via bicycle. Often there is a guy on a standard bike riding along with one hand above his head supporting a giant tray of bread. I still have not been able to get a shot of that, despite seeing it many times. Anyhow, cargo bike seems like a better solution!
Cairo Handcycle:
These are fairly common in Egypt, not sure whether there is an organization that provides them for double aputees/parapalegics, but they are there.
Bread Cycle:
Bread in Egypt is government subsidized to 5 piasters, which is less than a penny US. The loaves are oftened shuffled about from baker to dealer via bicycle. Often there is a guy on a standard bike riding along with one hand above his head supporting a giant tray of bread. I still have not been able to get a shot of that, despite seeing it many times. Anyhow, cargo bike seems like a better solution!
10/02/2009
Mystery of the rusted tooth solved
This post sponsored by babyblue bicycle, reporting modest adventures
since 2007 with forthcoming features such as, 'Pending fatherhood
drives man to buy carbon bike' and 'Baby enjoys Burley ride when it's
20 degrees out???'
Chad won the opportunity to sponsor this post by winning the photo contest embeded deep in the SSWC09 report. Well done!
Last year on a nice ride with the babybluebike folks I found this excellent rusted tooth:
Then just this week I found its cousin:
It was found in a groove of freshly grooved pavement. I thus conclude it was from a pavement groover! And now I am two teeth on the way to assembling my own!
since 2007 with forthcoming features such as, 'Pending fatherhood
drives man to buy carbon bike' and 'Baby enjoys Burley ride when it's
20 degrees out???'
Chad won the opportunity to sponsor this post by winning the photo contest embeded deep in the SSWC09 report. Well done!
Last year on a nice ride with the babybluebike folks I found this excellent rusted tooth:
Then just this week I found its cousin:
It was found in a groove of freshly grooved pavement. I thus conclude it was from a pavement groover! And now I am two teeth on the way to assembling my own!
9/30/2009
Three years later
Then
Today
Crikey. Actually six years since I first rode by that heap. even crikier...
Today
Crikey. Actually six years since I first rode by that heap. even crikier...
9/24/2009
Single Speed World Championship 2009, Durango, Race Report
So I can get on with the writing about the weather and my mighty harvest, here is the race report from last weekend.
Elena, Aida and I left the house Friday morning at the scheduled hour of9:00am 10:30am to head up to the race. But first we got hella breakfast burritos to sustain us for the 4 hour trip up to Durango. After one hour of baby napping and much screeching we finally arrived around three. We checked in, I rode downtown and picked up my race packet, bought a t-shirt, ran into bike zoo Jay from Tennessee and his wife Jen and then I headed back to the Holiday Inn and collected Aida and Elena and we walked over to steamworks for an early dinner. It was early enough that they were pouring 1 dollar 10 oz draughts and I had three different ones with my burger. Yum. Aida was perturbed we did not let her throw the beer glasses upon the ground.
Then it was to bed for the ladies and I rode up the hill a bit for the big pre race party. It was cold and rainy, but there was beer food and peoples and after a while I was having a good time. I met new people and ran into old people I knew, such as Ned, alleged internet stalker "gas sucks":
Jay from TN again:
and my old pal Jeff Lockwood fresh in from belgium:
There were some good bands and a pretty silly karaoke contest for the first round of the SSWC10 hosting contest. Italy killed it though. Somehow more beers were consumed and I ended up riding a 36" black sheep mtb, not crashing it and ended up rolling to wendy's with what I presume was lockwood and some dirtrag homies.
Biggy fries please:
Most people got cheese burgers, I got some trailmix from a nearby convenience store and Karen Brooks (?) and I nearly got flying west nile avian pig flu from a death rattling convenience store worker who should be nominated for co-parents of the year with her baby daddy for leaving their sleeping children in a running car parked out front while they closed the shop. After that horror, I rolled back into town and sort of slept.
Thankfully the race did not start until 11 and thankfully Elena and Aida woke up early and went for a walk and brough me espresso and muffins for breakfast. I got ready for the race and rolled downtown, not feeling all that hot, but excited for the race.
I got to the start line with about 15 minuted to spare and was wowed by the mass of single speed humanity. I took a bunch of photos and videos to give you the feel.
After a bit of photo taking, I noticed Jacquie Phelan had coalesced next to me:
I introduced myself and explained that I was a big fan and we both are lapsed bloggers on veloquent. After that she was even more friendly. It was great to finally meet her for real. A big biking hero of mine wearing a beard sewn from her own dreads.
Also check out her excellent bike made by her husband Charlie Cunningham:
Anyhow, the race rolled out and I was solidly in the smack dab middle of a billion singlespeeders.
We rolled through town and up into the hills on progressively steeper streets leading to steep bikepaths and then to singletrack and double track and then to a conga line of walking cyclists and then to a steep hikabike. I went pretty fast up this, but was not feeling great still, but having fun just rolling along. We had a nice break in start and stop traffic which allowed me to take lots of photos and recover a bit, but it was pretty hot and my camelback contents were not sitting well with me.
The conga line up the slope with the stunning views across the valley:
Cycling legends were just behind me, here is Greg Herbold:
There is something special about the two photos above, first correct answer in the comments gets a sponsored blog post and a pile of crapped up single speed freewheels. Answer is not Greg Herbold, although he is pretty special.
Anyhow, as we passed from scrub oak to pine at the top of the ridge we began to ride.
Using my tiny 32-20 gear I spun around a whole bunch of people, got a nice beer feed from the crowd at the top, blew the log pile obstacle and continued onto the ridge.
The ridge! It was technical, exposed and had great views and severe consequences if you actually watched the view while riding. There was also a hug thunderstorm on the next ridge over that convinced me to be expedient on getting the hell off the ridge. I took no pictures here, but I was pretty pleased with how much I cleaned, and when I did not clean it, I was pretty smoothly crossing on and off and making good progress. Greg Herbold passed me easily and I passed a bunch of crashed and cramped racers, but I was pretty much riding on my own for most of the ridgeline. It was pretty sweet, especially after the long lines to get there. After what seemed like half an hour of technical descent we transitioned into an area of really really steep descents with tricky bits thrown in. I rode it all, but not that fast, lots of people were passing me at this point. I did see a bunch of good crashes which steeled my resolve to finish the race without hurting myself! I was feeling a little ill at this point, none of the liquid I had been drinking was processing, just sloshing around in my stomach. Stupid pre race party. I was also periodically eating gummy clish shot squares which usually are my go to racecandy energy food, but again they were just sitting there. Yet still I pressed on. After a bit more riding I could hear loud crowds screaming and music apumping.
It took me about 5 minutes from first audible evidence of the crowd to hit the start finish line. It was great. I was grinning like an idiot, the crowds were packed and screaming and it was really loud. They routed us through some fun loose chicanes and I got another extremely tasty beer handup and quickly quaffed it and took off for the second part of the course. I was very amped for the rest of the race for about 5 minutes and then I realized I was pretty much feeling like crap and probably would bonk soon. 9 miles or so to go.
The second half of the course was a blast, especially if you had not done the first half. Technical short descents mixed in with rolling smooth singletrack and steady climbs. It was almost all singletrack and it went by reasonably fast. I had pretty much drained my camelback but alas, I was still bonking hard. Lots of people were passing me, but still I pressed on. Actually I rode this pretty well and was having fun, but was dreading cramping up. There was a last demoralizing hike-a-bike and I got some fresh bacon and whisky feeds that were actually pretty welcome before heading on the last few miles of descending. The last bit was sandy twisty singletrack with no sight lines due to scrub oak tight around the trails. Almost immediately I started making pretty bad descisions on lines and speed and weight distribution so I shut down my already slow pace and survived my way to the finish, I think it took me somewhere around 3:15 of riding time for the 21 ish miles of the race, but I am not really sure how long I was out there.
When I got to the finish, I noticed piles of beer cans everywhere, lots of loud music, lots of partiers, lots of racers, yet no actual beer. Alas, I had ridden slower than the party. I was pretty cooked, so I sat in the shade, snapped some pictures and met a flickr/blog friend Lauren Haughey and her husband morgan, I would have loved to talk to them some more, but I was almost incoherent with the bonk. Next time.
Me with salt stained jersey, look closely, you can see the face of the jesus in it:
Gratuitous crowd shot:
I think I have made it clear that I was not feeling so hot, so I rolled on into town, found Elena and the baby, had a shower, failed at napping and headed to a nice dinner where Aida impressed with the mad spaghetti skillz.
I finally felt better and ate two dinners worth of food including a plate of olives, delicious salty salty olives, and drank about 2 gallons of water. We headed back to the hotel and I was feeling good and left Elena and Aida for the evening and hoped on the bike again and rolled a couple of miles up the nice Animas river trail system to the huge party at Ska Brewing company. There was quite a crowd there including pretty much everyone in durango who knew what a bicycle looked like. There was also lots of food and beer at reasonable prices. I got some hoppy beer and third dinner from an airstream based Zia taquaria and settled in for the festivities.
I watched the atrociously played but well uniformed Italy vs NZ match for SSWC10.
I ran into Curtis Inglis and spoke with him for a while:
I checked out the color contest/art show, which was actually pretty well done:
"I spend them all on the goats" no really, click through and read it:
And finally I watched the impressively sunburned Heather Irmiger get her SSWC09 winners tattoo for a bit. Go on, click through for the cheesecake. With that I was getting sleepy and was pretty much all partied out, so I rolled back on to the hotel and slept like a rock. Until 7 the next morning when Aida convinced me that it was time to go for a walk.
It was a pretty fun weekend indeed. I wish I had been able to digest on race day, but that was my own fault probably. Other than that, it was pretty much all good. This was the fourth SSWC I had attended, Rancho Cucamunga in 1999, Minneapolis in 2000 and Downieville in 2002, they were all pretty much different. I think I still enjoyed the one in Minnesota the best, but overall they were all really fun. I did 1999, 2000 and this year on the same Kelly Singlespeed Cruiser. I might actually get a new bike now, 10 years is long enough. I think I might be getting too old for the shenanigans part, but NZ would be a nice place to visit next year, we will see. Huzzah bicycles and silly races.
Elena, Aida and I left the house Friday morning at the scheduled hour of
Then it was to bed for the ladies and I rode up the hill a bit for the big pre race party. It was cold and rainy, but there was beer food and peoples and after a while I was having a good time. I met new people and ran into old people I knew, such as Ned, alleged internet stalker "gas sucks":
Jay from TN again:
and my old pal Jeff Lockwood fresh in from belgium:
There were some good bands and a pretty silly karaoke contest for the first round of the SSWC10 hosting contest. Italy killed it though. Somehow more beers were consumed and I ended up riding a 36" black sheep mtb, not crashing it and ended up rolling to wendy's with what I presume was lockwood and some dirtrag homies.
Biggy fries please:
Most people got cheese burgers, I got some trailmix from a nearby convenience store and Karen Brooks (?) and I nearly got flying west nile avian pig flu from a death rattling convenience store worker who should be nominated for co-parents of the year with her baby daddy for leaving their sleeping children in a running car parked out front while they closed the shop. After that horror, I rolled back into town and sort of slept.
Thankfully the race did not start until 11 and thankfully Elena and Aida woke up early and went for a walk and brough me espresso and muffins for breakfast. I got ready for the race and rolled downtown, not feeling all that hot, but excited for the race.
I got to the start line with about 15 minuted to spare and was wowed by the mass of single speed humanity. I took a bunch of photos and videos to give you the feel.
After a bit of photo taking, I noticed Jacquie Phelan had coalesced next to me:
I introduced myself and explained that I was a big fan and we both are lapsed bloggers on veloquent. After that she was even more friendly. It was great to finally meet her for real. A big biking hero of mine wearing a beard sewn from her own dreads.
Also check out her excellent bike made by her husband Charlie Cunningham:
Anyhow, the race rolled out and I was solidly in the smack dab middle of a billion singlespeeders.
We rolled through town and up into the hills on progressively steeper streets leading to steep bikepaths and then to singletrack and double track and then to a conga line of walking cyclists and then to a steep hikabike. I went pretty fast up this, but was not feeling great still, but having fun just rolling along. We had a nice break in start and stop traffic which allowed me to take lots of photos and recover a bit, but it was pretty hot and my camelback contents were not sitting well with me.
The conga line up the slope with the stunning views across the valley:
Cycling legends were just behind me, here is Greg Herbold:
There is something special about the two photos above, first correct answer in the comments gets a sponsored blog post and a pile of crapped up single speed freewheels. Answer is not Greg Herbold, although he is pretty special.
Anyhow, as we passed from scrub oak to pine at the top of the ridge we began to ride.
Using my tiny 32-20 gear I spun around a whole bunch of people, got a nice beer feed from the crowd at the top, blew the log pile obstacle and continued onto the ridge.
The ridge! It was technical, exposed and had great views and severe consequences if you actually watched the view while riding. There was also a hug thunderstorm on the next ridge over that convinced me to be expedient on getting the hell off the ridge. I took no pictures here, but I was pretty pleased with how much I cleaned, and when I did not clean it, I was pretty smoothly crossing on and off and making good progress. Greg Herbold passed me easily and I passed a bunch of crashed and cramped racers, but I was pretty much riding on my own for most of the ridgeline. It was pretty sweet, especially after the long lines to get there. After what seemed like half an hour of technical descent we transitioned into an area of really really steep descents with tricky bits thrown in. I rode it all, but not that fast, lots of people were passing me at this point. I did see a bunch of good crashes which steeled my resolve to finish the race without hurting myself! I was feeling a little ill at this point, none of the liquid I had been drinking was processing, just sloshing around in my stomach. Stupid pre race party. I was also periodically eating gummy clish shot squares which usually are my go to race
It took me about 5 minutes from first audible evidence of the crowd to hit the start finish line. It was great. I was grinning like an idiot, the crowds were packed and screaming and it was really loud. They routed us through some fun loose chicanes and I got another extremely tasty beer handup and quickly quaffed it and took off for the second part of the course. I was very amped for the rest of the race for about 5 minutes and then I realized I was pretty much feeling like crap and probably would bonk soon. 9 miles or so to go.
The second half of the course was a blast, especially if you had not done the first half. Technical short descents mixed in with rolling smooth singletrack and steady climbs. It was almost all singletrack and it went by reasonably fast. I had pretty much drained my camelback but alas, I was still bonking hard. Lots of people were passing me, but still I pressed on. Actually I rode this pretty well and was having fun, but was dreading cramping up. There was a last demoralizing hike-a-bike and I got some fresh bacon and whisky feeds that were actually pretty welcome before heading on the last few miles of descending. The last bit was sandy twisty singletrack with no sight lines due to scrub oak tight around the trails. Almost immediately I started making pretty bad descisions on lines and speed and weight distribution so I shut down my already slow pace and survived my way to the finish, I think it took me somewhere around 3:15 of riding time for the 21 ish miles of the race, but I am not really sure how long I was out there.
When I got to the finish, I noticed piles of beer cans everywhere, lots of loud music, lots of partiers, lots of racers, yet no actual beer. Alas, I had ridden slower than the party. I was pretty cooked, so I sat in the shade, snapped some pictures and met a flickr/blog friend Lauren Haughey and her husband morgan, I would have loved to talk to them some more, but I was almost incoherent with the bonk. Next time.
Me with salt stained jersey, look closely, you can see the face of the jesus in it:
Gratuitous crowd shot:
I think I have made it clear that I was not feeling so hot, so I rolled on into town, found Elena and the baby, had a shower, failed at napping and headed to a nice dinner where Aida impressed with the mad spaghetti skillz.
I finally felt better and ate two dinners worth of food including a plate of olives, delicious salty salty olives, and drank about 2 gallons of water. We headed back to the hotel and I was feeling good and left Elena and Aida for the evening and hoped on the bike again and rolled a couple of miles up the nice Animas river trail system to the huge party at Ska Brewing company. There was quite a crowd there including pretty much everyone in durango who knew what a bicycle looked like. There was also lots of food and beer at reasonable prices. I got some hoppy beer and third dinner from an airstream based Zia taquaria and settled in for the festivities.
I watched the atrociously played but well uniformed Italy vs NZ match for SSWC10.
I ran into Curtis Inglis and spoke with him for a while:
I checked out the color contest/art show, which was actually pretty well done:
"I spend them all on the goats" no really, click through and read it:
And finally I watched the impressively sunburned Heather Irmiger get her SSWC09 winners tattoo for a bit. Go on, click through for the cheesecake. With that I was getting sleepy and was pretty much all partied out, so I rolled back on to the hotel and slept like a rock. Until 7 the next morning when Aida convinced me that it was time to go for a walk.
It was a pretty fun weekend indeed. I wish I had been able to digest on race day, but that was my own fault probably. Other than that, it was pretty much all good. This was the fourth SSWC I had attended, Rancho Cucamunga in 1999, Minneapolis in 2000 and Downieville in 2002, they were all pretty much different. I think I still enjoyed the one in Minnesota the best, but overall they were all really fun. I did 1999, 2000 and this year on the same Kelly Singlespeed Cruiser. I might actually get a new bike now, 10 years is long enough. I think I might be getting too old for the shenanigans part, but NZ would be a nice place to visit next year, we will see. Huzzah bicycles and silly races.
9/20/2009
SSWC09 done!
It was silly. I am pooped. Lots of good riding, meeting new people, bicycle shenanigans, catching up with old friends and mid race bacon feeds.
Pre race
I will have a race report later this week, but in the meantime check all the SSWC09 pictures
Post Race
Pre race
I will have a race report later this week, but in the meantime check all the SSWC09 pictures
Post Race
9/17/2009
Propane and the nile
This feller was a daily visitor but eluded photo capture until this long range window shot bore fruit.
just like in china
9/16/2009
9/14/2009
"training"
After 15 days of travel, 13 at sea level, 10 sucking down some serious second hand cigarette smoke in Cairo and 0 days riding, I am back in training for SSWC, which is in 5 days. My plan consists of remembering how to ride my mountain bike without crashing and building up calluses on my hands. The goal is so I can finish the race somewhat quickly and have fun without unnecessary crashing and bleeding and blisters.
Hope to see some of you in Durango this weekend.
Pics from Salt Lake, NJ and Egypt may arrive at some point this week.
Hope to see some of you in Durango this weekend.
Pics from Salt Lake, NJ and Egypt may arrive at some point this week.
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