Like most blog updates when I've got a lot of ground to cover with no obvious unifying theme or start and end point, I'll just jump in here like I always do and give you the most important thing first: Danny Flow and the great out West
Kid's learning a lot at college:
These pictures keep rolling in while I'm at work, driving a level of workplace dissatisfaction one could only remedy by moving the office to, say, Telluride.
But that Colorado, Danny, She's a fickle mistress. Hot for you one day, ice cold the next.
Fortunately, Danny Flow knows how to ride the ups and downs, the mountain bikes and the snowboards, or a mercurial Colorado relationship. This too shall pass, homie.
 |
| Wolf Creek Steepness |
With that out of the way, I can now proceed into the thick of things with no sense of order, and yet starting with the thing I lack the most: Paranormal Results. Look, I was just barely there. I have no idea how you did, but unless you're Ben King, you probably did just so-so. Learn to be OK with that, friend. That's the nature of racing twisty shit in the dark: something probably went wrong and you didn't finish at the front. One result I'm sure of: Jude Monoco Ortiz and I got worked, start to almost finish (we didn't actually finish.) I accept this fact as the new normal in a racing career that was of very little consequence to anyone except the guy who maintains my wheels - and even he never really cared. It's probably ok to stop shaving my triceps now. And I can still go out and have fun. Or at least I can still go out and destroy wheels.
Denial of your own racing mortality, however, is sort of the point of racing in a lot of ways. So if you're not ready to throw in the towell yet, I commend you. And I advise you to load up your fast stuff, pack some snacks, and head down to Goochland for the weekend for another singletrack infused beatdown, this one on a slightly larger scale. By that point, if you're still not sufficiently mashochisted, the Paranormal results should be a go around here. Or, just check the VORS scoreboard at the end of the year, and you'll have some idea of where you ended up. Or maybe not.
But on that subject, that subject being VORS, it stands to reason that our local trailwork Jedi, Mr. Hiser himself, has stolen the Paydirt show with a breakaway move, putting in 6 hours in the valley with a rogue hoe, and won himself a sleep or two at the Acorn Inn. Bravo, my callous-handed friend. And, on a side note, "6 hours in the valley with a rogue hoe" is the title track off his new release.
Bonus sidenote, it would appear that 2010 Microsoft word will autocapitalize the word "jedi" to "Jedi." So congratulations are probably also in order for George Lucas, the real winner in all of this. But that's something else. Back to the matter at hand, Mr. Hiser, you may have won this time. But I'm coming back next year, and I'm bringing an army of trailwork goons to take you down.
Some other stuff that you might dig:
Blue Ridge Cyclery's got Treks. Lots of em. You might think that a shop like BRC with limited floor space can't feasibly sell Trek, Jamis, Felt, Blue, Niner, Pivot, AND still have room for Catlett to wheel around on a strider bike and sell stuff. You might be right. So BRC is taking over the whole block. Or at least the bumtanning space next door. Free bumtans* for one year, by the way, to the first person that buys a strider and gets the thing down the Blue Ridge School downhill in one piece.
*Bumtanning is a logo, trademark, and brand element property of blue ridge cyclery only, with no guarantees or product description of any matter, really, offer not valid in any year divisible by 3, keep arms and feet inside the strider bike at all times, don't eat the yellow snow. Etc.
While I don't get to spend too much time in the shop these days, I do pretty much oversee the overall creative design of the place. That is to say, I monkey with stuff when Shawn's out doing philanthropic bike service in the community.
 |
| creative modifications. |
Lots of folks checking in and lolling about with ride pictures in the snow this week. October is officially out of here - ouch. But our man in Pisgah, Nolanpalooza, checked in with the good news from the land of the pines - and it doesn't include fluffy white stuff unless you're talking about trailside peanut butter-marshmallow sandwiches.
From: NolanPalooza
to: BRC
The seasonal trails in the Ranger District are a pretty amazing thing. Trails that are open only half of the year: Oct 15 - April 15. The main reason for the closure is to reduce user conflict and it seems to work,. The other great thing is its mtn biker Christmas every October and like most small children who sneek out of their rooms to catch a glimpse of Santa handing out presents a bunch of bearded mtn people come of the hollers of WNC at midnight on the 14th to be the first ones on the trail! This year I had the good pleasure of riding with about 20 people from Sycamore Cycles in Brevard. We rode: Hatchery > Davidson > 475 > 471 > 471D > Butter Gap > Long Branch > Cat Gap. It was awesome. The next weekend a student and I hit another classic set of seasonals and rode from the Horsestables>Clawhammer Rd>Club Gap>Buckwheat>Bennett>Clawhammer. The trails are classic Pisgah and pretty great way to ring in the fall!
 |
| Rumblepalooza |
Up, up, up.
No comments:
Post a Comment