One wedding down, two to go
What happens when former bike racers get married? Other current and former bike racers show up. And when you get that many bikers together, not at a race, they party. Well we party at races as well, but at weddings we don't have to worry about races. The wedding was for my long time friend Ben Duke. He raced on the road in Belgium for a couple of summers, and more recently has done a bunch of mountain bike racing. His wife Nicole is a former pro downhiller. I first met a lot of my current racing friends through Ben originally. So it was no surprise that many racers and ex-racers were there. There was Mike West (Maverick teammate), Abby (Maverick teammate), but no Ariel, Chris Hopwood (Maverick teammate)... there's a theme here... Ashley Eyre (Maverick teammate), Botsy Phillips (former racer), and others. It was a beautiful ceremony. Ben and Nicole rode in and down the aisle on a tandem cruiser. The reception was in a beautiful building, and there was a crazy electrical storm going on outside. Abby and I left early, at about 10. Everyone else stayed and drank more. The next morning we met up and went and rode the Continental Divide trail from the top of Rabbit Ears Pass, to Long Lake and then down the Fish Creek Falls trail. The ride was sweet!! The trails were a bit wet, but not muddy. Eventually as people went other ways to make the ride shorter or longer, the group was down to West, Botsy, Ben, Nicole, Abby, Ashley, and myself. Everyone was on a Maverick. I haven't done the Fish Creek descent in probably 4 years, I was on a hardtail with a SID then, and I was walking a lot. This time, I rode almost the whole thing, and was railing through sections I used to slowly pick through. I made some impressive saves, and I think I have a new favorite descent. We got hammered by a thunderstorm towards the bottom, but it actually got more fun then. everything got slippery. It was a ton of fun. Botsy crashed twice... HARD! But came out of it ok, but with two bloody lips. Abby and I stuck around one more day for a meeting, and a sweet ride on Emerald Mountain. I grew up riding those trails, a couple times a week all summer long. I learned to ride a mountain bike on that mountian. Good memories.
Next up this weekend is a friend's wedding here. And then in October, West is getting married here. So another biker wedding is in the cards, and I have a feeling that this one will be a little crazier.
Hopefully pictures will be coming to me soon from last weekend, so I'll post them when I get them.
Congratulations!!!
I was waiting for Martini to post this great news that he had for us on his blog. I was thinking he got named to the Trek/VW national squad... I mean he did joke that he needed to get his press release ready. I mean, I knew that when we left Snowmass he was single, so it couldn't be about a girl right?
WRONG!!! 
Last time I saw him, he was very single. Now, less than 2 weeks later, he's engaged. It's crazy. I'm way psyched for those two. Knowing Martini, he's got a great girl. The future Mrs. Nick Martin's name is Tracy. When I think about it, it doesn't surprise me that much. He's totally the kind of guy that will jump in head first, but not without good reason. So good on ya man. I'm in the same boat, not that I'm suddenly engaged, but I like the live with no regrets, you never know if you don't do/say/try something, don't die wondering (stolen from the man himself) mentality on life. It's a much more fulfilling way to live. I know this is incredibly cliched, but I don't really care, people wouldn't keep saying it if it weren't true.
Dude I totally stole the picture of you two.
Mountain Bike? Nationals
Well, the Firecracker was going great, till I flatted out, and Deer Valley was going ok until that not recovered feeling started to creep into my legs at the beginning of lap two. I went as hard as I could, hoping that I would either come around or blow. And well, I blew. Needless to say, I dropped out on the third lap. But that's ok, I always have Snowmass this weekend to redeem myself. Snowmass will actually be fun compared to what everyone else is racing on out in Sonoma at Nationals.
This looks like a long cyclocroos course more than a mountain bike course. as Nick Martin said... LAME. Oh well, I'm going to be in Snowmass ripping it up on their sweet race course. It sounds like maybe we'll see Martini there. It should be a good time. that's all I have for now, more later.
And He's Back
A lot has hapenned since I've not been updating my blog. I got a job doing construction with Cale Redpath, fellow pro racer, racing for 3D bikes. My good friend Ian came down from Boulder with his girlfriend for a few days. It was a ton of fun. The Iron Horse Bicycle Classic came and went. I placed 14th in the Cat 3's, which is great for me if you don't know what I've been dealing with for the last year and a half. My very close Jo(anne) randomly came through town for a night. She had been working a
Wilderness Medicine Institute WFR course at the Grand Canyon. Last weekend I went to Crested Butte for the Wild Flower Rush XC race. It's one of the hardest and most fun races of the Colorado scene. Jay Henry won the event in 2:10. Ross Schnell was 2nd, and the old man on campus, Ned Overend was 3rd. I was 20th, which is great for me, all things considered. It was great getting all the love and support from everyone (you know who you are) from everyone who saw me struggle through last year. Thanks a ton!!!
Nat Ross was spotted, but I think we'll let the fact that he didn't race slide. He finished the
Race Across America with the winning four person team in 5 days and 16 hours. The other people on his team were fellow pro mountain bikers Mike Janelle, Jimi Mortensen, and Zach Bingham.
Yesterday, Alisha, her sister and I climbed Mount Sneffels, 14,150 feet:
The climb up was amazing. After waking up in the back of Alisha's XTerra which was very cozy with 3 people, we finally motivated and got moving. Toward the top, we were thwarted from the normal route by some very solid snow (seen toward the top of the couloir). We had to find an alternate route by busting left up to the top of the spine on the left of the picture. Things got steep quickly, the kind of steep where Mom would ask "did you have a rope?" Hi Mom!
Then we followed the spine to the summit ridge, and on to the top. The views were amazing from the top. It is definitely the steepest most dramatic peak 14er i've climbed. And My favorite thus far of the 10 i've climbed. We could see the Elk mountains way up by Aspen and Crested Butte, Grand Mesa to the north, the heart of the Needles near Durango, The La Sal's by Moab, and the Abajo Mountains north of Cedar Mesa with some of the best canyons the greater Southwest has to offer. Quite the dichotomy; being able to see the deep sandstone canyons where I succumb the the land and fall deeper into it, because there is no other way, the land forces you deeper. All of this where the land falls away from me as I climb to the hieghts that I seek to achieve.
Alisha and I on top of Sneffel!
The view down from the top to Blue Lakes, the next basin I want to explore!
Check back soon, I'm back on the ball with this Blogging thing that we all love!
Bike Carnage!
The morning started nice enough... my Uncle took
Noah and I down to Venice Beach, Lunch at El Terasco in Manhattan Beach. Then we came back to my Uncle's house and figured out where to ride.
The guys at
Helen's Cycles (awesome shop) in Santa Monica directed us to the Santa Monica mountains where there is awesome riding!!! This is a trail that we knew we had to come back down. It puts the dirt jumps in Test Tracks and anywhere else around Durango to shame!!! 1.5 miles of nothing but jumps!!!
This led us high above Los Angeles with amazing views down into L.A. and the ocean.
We linked onto some fire roads that just cruised up into the mountains. It's awesome riding. There's singletrack that follows the ridge up above the road, but climbing on the road was better for us today.
Then we started going down another ridge, and right where the trail met the road... I met the dirt. I definitely did not see the sharp turn in the trail to the right, and went straight, well straight put me off a 7 foot drop into a ditch!!!
The inventory goes a bit like this: Bent downtube, ovalized headtube, taco'd wheel, bent steertube, blown fork, and broken pedal cage. So far, that's what I've found. When I actually take it apart, i'll see what else is broken.
Here is a picture of where I took off from up to the left, I swear it looked like a nice roll into a steep, smooth drop onto the road, but it wasn't, the trail had gone to the right. I stuffed my front tire into the side of the ditch at the bottom. At least there was something between me and the ground when I hit. If I had slammed on the brakes, and tried to avert the impending disaster, I probably would have flown head first into the ground.
All in all, I'm fine... just very tight and sore. I'll just live on Ibuprofen for a little while. I'm have to try to find a bike to race on for the weekend, and otherwise I'll just hang out at the races, which isn't always a bad thing. I'll keep the reports coming. and just so you know how I feel about this... I was laughing so amazingly hard while I was looking at the scene and the bike carnage.
Race Day
Ah racing... it's hard!! especially crits for me. It was a short lap, only about a minute long, but it was fast, and fun. There were a lot of hitters out there today.
Todd and Troy Wells came out. Nick Gould, Miles Venzara, pretty boy from the north
Jason Sager. His blog is always worth a read and one of the funnier ones out ther. He'll have pictures also. Fabulous Frank Mapel made it out. Last time I saw Frank he looked like this:
That was at the Snowdown roller races. good times. But today he was out, hairy legs and all to throw down again. Todd won the thing hands down. He lapped the whole field in the first 10 minutes, and then Anthony Colby and Todd lapped the whole field again. Then Todd, Troy, and Anthony lapped the whole field together. Then Todd and Anthony lapped the whole field again. So Todd was a lap up on Anthony, 2 laps on Troy, and 3 on everyone else. It was a good time. My mountain bike is now clean and happy for the drive to Flagstaff tomorrow. It's a long drive and I'm not necessarily looking forward to it, but whatever, it's not like I'm not accustomed to long drives already. There's always random funny stuff that happens during long drives, so hopefully that'll keep me entertained. I'll keep posting throughout the trip hopefully, and maybe I'll actually post more pictures.
Fontucky
So I was reading in on
VeloNews.com the
Fred's Eye View article today, and it was referring to Fontana, CA as Fontucky. Apparently this is due to the proliferation of rednecks and hicks. Oh well, I guess I'll see soon enough. It's been a good few days here. I really don't think much could be better in my life right now. It looks like the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory guys have had a good time down in Bisbee. Cory Collier was 3rd in the TT yesterday, and
Joey Thompson, my former DEVO teammate was 8th on the day. Today, Joey won the road race, and there is another TT this evening that I haven't seen results from. So it looks like a good weekend so far for them. Then while I'm in California, the Tour of the Gila will be going down in Silver City, NM. That's always an awesome race. Tomorrow we have a training crit down at Rivergate. That's where Rivergate Lofts are, and the place that became my second home for 7 months, Animas Surgical Hospital , where I had surgery, and all my Physical Therapy. I think I have my final appointment next week, while I'm gone. I guess I need to reschedule that one. oops.
If you need to waste more time on the computer, go check out
UrbanDictionary.com, it's pretty funny stuff, type in Fontucky and see what you get. Enjoy!!!
