Blue Ridge Cyclery Racing: Two Man Time Trial. Hashtags not permitted.

As a new policy, I hereby refuse to race any event that appears hashtagged in any public media outlet. Not that I don't dig technology, or that I don't love surfing the twitters late into the evening when I should be riding the trainer, but for the purposes of getting away from it all a bit, I'm going to prefer my racing be done with a little less public gusto. I'm thinking the public will probably be fine with this decision.

Appropriately in that same spirit, The TwoManTimeTrial is Sunday, 10 AM, leaving from BRC, and entirely free of hashtags at this moment. So count me in. From Shawn at the Shop:

The training ride is Sunday 1/22 from the shop.
The course may be amended for weather and trail conditions though to remove the section along the RTF.
10am from BRC, 2 man/woman teams will go at 2 minute intervals from the shop front doors.
totally not for real race, this is a hard training ride only, plan on stopping for lights, signs, traffic, etc. There will be no on course road closures or traffic control, so ride is totally at your own risk.

Naked, hashtagless racing. No Map. Raw, much in the same way professional wrestling was back in the 70's.

What to ride, what to ride? I'm told that this is a gravel (non)race that includes the RT, which, of course, isn't very gravelly at all. Any race that "may" have a segment that rails the Rivanna from the shop to Ivy rd probably deserves fat tires. But a long gravel route out into the "freeness" of Free Union seems to say Cross bike. It also says, "we could use a map", but that's neither here nor there. A safe bet - generally speaking, it's hard to go wrong with those Nevegal 2.5's. What the hell, run what you brung and Betty White and I will see you at the start line on Sunday.

Still cracked, still rolling. I just can't bring myself to put the old girl down. That's the thing about euthanasia - a word that I thought, as a child, referred to kids in Tibet and what not - she's really got to be in pain or a significant danger to the people around her to warrant Dr. K getting involved, were he available, which he is not. And from what I can tell, Betty White isn't hurting anybody right now. So Catlett will have to tolerate her creaks and her aches and pains on Sunday. And try to keep his frat-fro on my wheel. We've got a (non)race to win, Booger, and all these Belgians and Italians aren't hanging around for a warmup. Hydrate with something besides miller lite.

And on the subject of iconic women in Hollywood and bikes that I ride, I was gifted a little piece of history a short while back. And, while she's not quite as tired as Betty White, she is nearly as beat up, and quite possibly with many, many more miles on her hubs.

I present to you, Madonna.

The Dragonlady has risen.

8 speed. Steel. Rigid. While Madonna is not necessarily as talented as Betty White was in her day, she is resourceful in ways that Betty was not. I like her. The rear wheel, appropriately, is an old race disc bontrager that I've hucked the living bejseus out of, ridden through epic mud, and generally mistreated like you might mistreat a musician whom, though you adore her, you are a little ashamed that she authored a photographic sex book so close to her 50th birthday. I'm getting off track. Anyway, one new freewheel, courtesty of Ian at the shop (and by courtesy, I mean I still need to pay for this item, otherwise that's called "stealing") and it's rolling freakishly well for such an old creation - much like Madonna herself.