A work trip gone wonderfully astray yesterday found me alongside the mighty Ken Tank for a 2 hour rally down by the river, pedaling my brains out to just hang on, wondering if he's gotten faster or if I've gotten slower. Could be a little of both. We rolled a fast, tacky loop from i-64 over to YRSP and back, hitting just about all of the goods along the way. The experience made me draw two conclusions:
1) Despite his claims to the contrary, Ken Tank is going to roll Douthat in under 2:20. I really hope I'm right about this. Because given our relative performances yesterday (him dropping me on the road climb back to the car), he's either rolling a 2:20 in the XC, or it's going to take me about 7 hours to finish the XXC. I guess that's the nature of training without a power meter. Although in a lot of ways, a Ken Tank is way better than a power meter (measuring ones own performances is apparently not one of those ways.) So I'll either see you around 2:00 on Sunday for some cake, or I'll make an effort roll in by dark. Save me a corner.
2) In terms of life-affirming, interstate 64 experiences, parking your car on exit 231 at Pierce's BBQ, saddling up, and hitting York River before digging into the chicken dinner platter is probably among the top 5.
One might also put a similar experience at Douthat on that list if one could find some BBQ.
Some bits and pieces from the mailbag:
1) The Tour De Moore (no relation to Erico Moortani) is way the hell down in North Carolina on Saturday. It's a road race, which if you're not familiar with the concept is a lot like a mountain bike race, but with skinny tires and better posture. If you're going, drop a line to BRC, because FOTP JoJo Cook wants to finagle a carpool.
2) The Giro De Ville route is out and about, or about as out as the Giro route can get.
Stage Sneak Preview:
Friday Night: Prologue Time Trial
Saturday: Sherando
Sunday: BRP Hugging
Monday: Whetstone, TTT, Vesuvius.
Be Prepared and a BadASS
3) Last but not least, no children were harmed in the making of this Video. And Danny survived. So I think this is technically legal.
Directionally, and as a piece of motivational paraphrasia, up, up, up.
But try to keep your wheels pointed down.
A grassroots racing team from Charlottesville, VA.
Looks like a great weekend at Douthat. See y'all there, especially you, Dave, for the afterparty.
ReplyDeleteFor the record to keep everything on the up-and-up! These trail conditions are NOT something you should ride or race in. It damages trails, and gives mountain bikers a bad rep! Please respect your trails and give us a good name!
ReplyDeleteThe trails in this video are on private land, where the land owner has given explicit permission for this even to occur in wet weather. I happen to know how many hours he personally puts in repairing the damage done at these events. Say thanks to your local landowner for letting you have access, especially if he's the kind of guy who will clean up your damage!