Girls, Girls, Girls

The 2009 Moab girls trip was a rippin success. Smiling Szabo picked me up at the airport and provided pizza and a cushy bed before we headed down first to Fruita then to Moab. Famous roadie Lara K made her first appearance as well. We were dubbed "value added guests". We had our first ride in Fruita on the bookcliff side. It was fun and a good way to open the legs up and start the suntan. Then of course we went to the Hot Tomato Cafe for world class pizza and a cool scene. You gotta love when a restaurants motto is "Ride Bikes, Eat Pizza" And its for sale if you know anyone (else) who is looking for a career change.

Then down to Moab. We stayed at some great little condos right on 100th in town. We started the riding off with the practice loop and then Porcupine Rim. It really is one of my favorites in the world. Its just a ripper and there are some big drops. That is some of the fastest riding I've done in a long time for going downhill. And it was so fun riding with Lynn and Sharon because they like drops bigger than what I like to do. They would go back up and do them again!

It was car show weekend in Moab, so it was crowded with supped up american classics. One car spit fire out of its tail pipes. There were lots of freaks to watch, but actually didn't see too many mullets, but saw a black and tan. That is a hair do sported by an urban redneck woman that is platinum in the front and then purple in the back and the dividing line for the two colors is straight across the dome.

Porcupine was only a three hour ride, so since Heather is training for the Breck Epic we needed to ride longer the next day and we did. We had an awesome 5 hour ride on Poison Spider and Gold Bar Rim. It is just fun slick rock and sandy spots with lots of ups and downs. We got rained on for 10 minutes, but basically dodged a big bullet with the weather. Then we had the most amazing tailwind ever on the ride back to town. That felt like heaven. We topped the night off with stellar margs and enchiladas at Miguels and then watched all the cars go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.

Sunday we had another French toast breakfast and Michelle k. taught us to do Zumba. That woman can shake her hips. The favorite lines were "Attitude Ladies, Arms!" and " Latin Lover". I thought we did amazing for some seriously challenged cyclists.

It was so great to spend a weekend riding and laughing wit the girls. I have a new appreciation for the Colorado girls now that I don't have to race against them.

King of Stink

Beth and I went up to Canaan for a few days. We got to pick ramps just over the hill from my house. We cooked them up and couldn't smell them at all. But then when i got home Tim said that the ramps were really coming out of my pores. And that is why they call them the King of Stink! I love the story of Karl Waite taking 200lbs up to three or four fancy restaurants in NYC and selling them for $8 a pound.

I got to be a technical specialist for the intermediate mtb class of Garrett County. They were a good group of kids and really made a lot of progress riding the wet and muddy Plantation Trail. It looked like a war zone in some parts, but of course its all rideable. Roger is talking about getting Davis Trail upgraded with some serious trail maintenance and that would be brilliant.

I got to test ride Tim's EWR. That was fun. It does some things amazingly. It climbs steep hills and goes over big logs with so much ease. I love the geometry as well and that was the first time I have ever ridden steel. But riding a hard tail feels harsh to me now. But if you get a chance to ride an EWR...do it.

We have a big weekend of riding planned around Ft. Valley. We are going to do a two day of non stop rocks. I hope I can hang!

No Galaxing

I'm not sure that a noun can be turned into a verb like that, but it works in Northkackalacky. The Galax is a plant that grows in Appalachia and all around Pisgah. It gets a leathery leaf and flowers in the late Spring. It is used in floral arrangements. Sorry, I did pick one because Jake said it stinks, but I think it was him.

We had a short trip to Asheville. Tim went to another session of the Trek Fit school and I rode my mtb and checked out downtown. Pisgah has some really fun riding with super fun downhills and amazing views. Jake gave us a tour of the I-9 wheels HQ. I am lusting after a pair of their wheels. One of the company perks there is they have mini motos for the employees to ride to blow off steam. I haven't seen so many hippies in a long time and I can't believe we paid $6.50 for some herbal tonic that left us all weird, wired and wondering.

Whitney and Kyle were down vacationing also, so it was great to see this young couple exploring the mountains. They had matching bibs.

On a bad note, the Sprinter gave us hell on the way back to the burg with some kind of fuel flow problem. Nothing like having your new car crap up.

Good news, Harris-Roubaix and Easter Bunnies

High Country

I got my taxes done which always hangs over my head way more than it should. But what self employed person doesn't hate paying taxes? Even though I still had a couple of major things that I was procrastinating on (getting a job, canaan mtb festival) I decided it was more important to get out of the house and go out to the mountains.

I got on my madone with a small backpack and credit card and went on a little tour. I've always wanted to bike tour, but I'm not ready for the whole hauling all the stuff for camping and cooking. So I went light and it felt right. I did lots of mountains. It was wet two out of the four days, but I had the perfect clothes on and never got cold. It made it easy staying at hotels for drying the clothes and relaxing. I think its important to have some days alone, to myself. It simplifies so many things and makes things so clear.

But relationships are what feeds a life, so I met the crew up at Grassy Mt. Lodge for friendship and a night with babies. We cooked up a mess of ramps and had vension burgers. Anne Brie ate some ramps and it might of upset Lucas because he was up crying a lot in the night.

Ramps are a wild leek found in the Appalachians this time of year. They are very pungent and if someone is eating them you can smell them a mile away. They are so good sauteed up. But Joel like them so much he put them on his sandwich. He is a monster, though.

Joel, Trevor and I then rode home from Spruce Knob to Harrisonburg. That is one the the classic rides of all time.

County Line

We had an amazing ride north again near Strasburg. We started on the WV/Va state line with county line trail. We could see Corridor h on the horizon as a big scar on the beautiful landscape. The uphills were steep and the downhills rocky and wet. It was classic great up and down ridge riding. I was pretty terrified on the really rocky bits. This was my first wet ride in a long, long time. It was one of those days when there was a lot of leg stabbing to save a fall. I just couldn't get relaxed with the thought of sticky my leg leg out to a rock crevice and having it twist.
We mostly hiked up Pond Run, which is a magical little creek. The ride down Stony Run was hairball for me, but the boys rode it all. Very impressive.
I checked the results today of the US PROXCT. It looked like fast racing for sure. I missed being there and miss starting the season at a big race. I miss being that in shape! But looking at some of the pics, it still looks a little miserable and intense. I wonder where LLC is right now? Europe road racing? She would of crushed. JB did good in the top ten. There were 120 dudes and only 25 women. That is a huge difference from years past. I think I'll still follow all the races for a while like a fan. Thats fun, too.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Hope the luck of the Irish reaches y'all today! It reached Marteeni in Canaan Valley this weekend for his birthday party. His friends made him cake and had all these masks of him in different personality incarnations. It was freaky cool. We got an amazing ride in at the Dolly Sods. Hoping Mumbles will send some to me to post. Tim and I road our fixies and that was exciting. It was probably good because there was some special WV mud in some places. There is a strong possibility that this will become Wilderness, so that means no riding bikes. So If you have the chance to ride the Sods...Do it!

We also went on a nice hike to see the falls. We found some chaga out in the woods and made some tea. Then off to the White Grass Staff Party. What a cool group of people that make that place hum. Great food, music and stories! And there were ramps...more on that later.

Riding, Riding

This week was incredible for getting lots of riding in. Yes, that's right , still no working yet. But having great weather and good friends to ride with has filled a void for now. Don't know what else to write, except get out there and enjoy these last days of winter.

In like a lamb out like a lion

biking and skiing

Its so nice to be able to bike one day and then ski the next. Ruby, Katy and I went and rode Narrowback. It was fun and in sweet riding condition for the middle of winter. Ruby was a superstar mountain bike dog. Katy is no longer a true beginner because she cleared some steep uphills and some tricky logs. A sign that my leg is coming around is that I can hop medium logs again.

A trip up to White Grass yesterday was totally awesome. Mumbles and I went up and spontanteously met up with an all star crew. Chippy and Geo Bell were the headliners as well as the gun show members from athens. We skied in the Nordic National and up on Stone Coal Ridge. There was lots of snow up there. Winter is not over yet folks. Get it while you can.

Colin got a new bike this week, so watch out becuase he is very Cavendish like.

We are the Cyclists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAOHhV1EFe4


Check it out!

celebrity pro

It was one year ago that Spring and I did the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo and won the duo class on our Born Famous team. That was a good time. And now I'm having thoughts of doing the 24 Hours of Big Bear, WV in June. It just sounds really fun at this point. I'm starting to loosely form my schedule for this year. And on it is the Giro d'Ville and the Tour de Burg. Maybe this is the year for all the classics, including the Tour of Georgia. You won't find those three races on the UCi or USAC's calendar. They are way too fun for that. There are even some outrageous thoughts of doing singlespeed nats in Durango. But not if its really hard to get into. I'm not that committed or organized.

The rage has been replaced this week by extreme laziness. If I want to race, do I have to train? I wonder what kind of hard training and intervals LLC is doing right now?

According to bikerumor.com I am a celebrity pro. I couldn't help but to make it tongue in cheek. Of course, I didn't relalize that it was a real website!

This has been a fun week. Tim, Ruby and I rode Kennedy's Peak. I got to watch the Extreme daddies rip it up in the park and I took a wilderness first aid course. The sad thing was returning the VW GTI that was team issue. That was such a sweet car and a real gem of a sponsorship.

Skiing is fun!!

I really love cross country skiing. It just gives me such a good feeling. It takes away the rage that I have inside. The ground hog day's ski was a great adventure with about 15 of us exploring big stonecoal, dunkenbarger and stonecoal flats. Following Chipper around is never boring. And he continues to humble all of us with his rock steady turning in the woods in slippers and skinny skis and only seeing out of one eye!.

Congrats to Julie and Thomas Jenkins on the arrival of a beautiful baby boy, Ethan. He will be growing up in a great community.

The warm equatorial memories are fading with the recent 0 degree temps. I'm so glad its skiing and not biking right now. I'll be teaching xc lessons up at White Grass this weekend. And I'm getting a new pair of skis. I haven't lusted after a pair of skis in a while, but the 10th mountains are awesome. If you like turning these are the right skis.

I saw that Alison Dunlap is coming out of retirement! Gosh, before she was saying how awesome it is not to have to train and do all the mundane stuff it takes to be an elite racer. But, maybe she has some rage to get out like I'm experiencing right now.

All is good, just missing something....