Walnut Creek Chimney Chase 2012 Results

Chimney Chase results are up: Thanks to everyone that came out and helped. Volunteers and racers are what makes events like this possible. We are estimating that all together we raised about $1,000 for CAMBC through the event.

Oxymorons, misnomers, and things yet to be defined

Pivot Hardtail

Derecho:  Spanish for "you'll be riding your singlespeed this month."


How about a Niner 26er?  Not likely.  But one way to find out, I guess. 

Wilderness.
 

Fun?

We live in an ambiguous world.  Whatever you do this weekend, make the most of it. 

Up, up, up. 

Why are my armpits burning?

Sitting on a trainer gives one time to think.  Sometimes its productive, sometimes its spent overanalyzing.  I think I can speak with some relevant expertise on trainer riding now.  I’ve been doing so for over a month since Summer of Toph 3.0 Spawn of Toph began.  Around 8:30am my son goes down for his first nap, and blam-o, I’ve got about an hour to ride.  I’m proud of myself; I push it pretty hard, usually five days a week.  I think a lot of people in this situation would just sit on the couch and get fat.  I hope it pays off down the road and it will; for I shall return to my reign, and crush thine enemies under wheel!!!  

With all this time to think, I still haven’t come up with the plan that allows me to restructure my financial portfolio so that I can purchase this. I don’t know if portfolio is the right word for a teacher’s salary…maybe envelope or sticky note would work better.  Anyway.  The second I got my paws on the handmade frame over at Oskar Blues HQ, done. 

That’s Dale, as in Dale’s Pale Ale (Yup, the fine people who create tasty beer also make beautiful bike frames.)

My mom still struggles to navigate a camera phone…and YES I always try to take my mom to the brewery!  On a side note, it’s not everyday you can pop into someone’s job and they are as hospitable as the fine folks over in Longmont, CO are.  Or willing to put up with my antics.

Duly noted, will do, bro.

Coooooooooool.

7 samples in 5mins.  Put that on your STRAVA site.

So it’s Monday, and I’ve gotta come up with a plan.  Paranormal is roughly three months away, I gotta get in better shape too.  Suggestions welcome.

Your cool hat of silence

And if that doesn't set you up for a hothazyhumid week of rallies and 90's, what will?
Something else probably could.
But Soul Coughing is a good start if you ask me, and most people do.

hearken

Big news of the week? As a sort of obscure, personal-social experiment, I've joined Strava. My reasons are a little complicated at this point and I won't bore you with that very strange part of my brain, but I can tell you that one strava-archived ride in, and I'm already in last place on every timed "segment" I've ridden thus far. It would seem that the thing is, if nothing else, accurate.

Theoretical Strava question #1:
Will Strava notify me via email if I cease to be in last place on any given timed segment? That's probably irrelevant; I don't suppose anyone will ever ride Ballards Mill slower than I did at 1 PM on Sunday in the 96 degree heat while pondering the death of Joey Ramone.


The race to the bottom is officially on. Bring it.

I'm seeking to bring a little local flavor to the Strava game, also. By local I mean I'd like to set up a few segments where segment-finding, like most trail riding in Earallysville, is well over half the battle. Timed Strava-segments with directions like "turn left at the old oak tree and then stay right where those three white chickens are sometimes, then start climbing straight up the hill where we saw that bear once, and the finish is, perhaps, halfway to the summit." - this is what Strava is missing. This is what I'm committed to deliver. Buck Mountain half-track here we come. It's rolly, you'll love it.

cold that day.  25F.  Theme solidified, like ice. 

On that note, theoretical Strava question #2: Could I be legally prosecuted for trespassing based only upon Strava archived data? Or would those pigs have to take me alive?

What else, what else. Well, trail riding since our good friend Derecho gave us the one night stand treatment has been, well, messy. Ride about 50 yards, jump/cut, repeat. This was not the week to bolt on your new, shiny, XO derailleur, it turns out. Things are improving, I'm told. Walnut has the all clear, I've heard, as well as Preddy and some of the GW - dowells, braleys, etc. Never underestimate the vengeance of an army of mountain bikers and our tiny, corona saws. But, like most things in Earallysville, change and improvement tends to come a little slow, and sometimes - even with Scotty, K29er, and CHam all swinging big chainsaws, and an army of highschool goons to assist, things are just never the same.

But perhaps that's a good thing. Those with substantial experience building wall rides out of gigantic, upturned rootballs, (you know who you are) please apply within. Bring some bar oil.

We should be riding.
Super bon bon, up, up, up.

Lakota Brap

"I am always hoping that there will be some twins in the marriages which I perform. That would make me happy. You see, love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It's that powerful. The nagi, the soul, it will roam and travel. If two people loved each other very much they come back again as twins. They had a great love, they're whirling around there, and the Great Spirit has pity and lets them come up again. Those little traveling souls come right back in again - twins, triplets, not only lovers but a brother and sister too who were especially fond of each other could come back like this. One reborn this way could carry a memory going way back. I used to know one, a man named Somebody, who remembered part of his former life over 200 years ago."
- Lame Deer of the Lakota Sioux

"Toph looks like Chris Horner. There I said it."

Those interested in how Betty White's farewell tour turned out will likely be disappointed to hear that, after a lot of talk about her toughness, Betty went to the bench early on Friday evening with a cut sidewall, among other age-related challenges, and she never bounced back. Sad, really; it felt a smidge like a bride getting shitfaced at her own rehearsal dinner, then failing to turn up for the rest of the weekend.

Is she dead? Did she just get cold feet? Hard to say. Maybe we'll see her again someday, maybe not.

Fortuitously, however, Betty's no-show left me a very brief moment on Friday eve aboard a Trek Scratch. Easy to ride, difficult to define. Think of it as an anti-depressant you can get over the counter, but you can also jump it over the counter. Convenient in all kinds of ways.

Speaking of going to the bench, Monday's stage at the Tour de Berg damn near killed me. The southern traverse, in particular, had something like 100 downed trees along its otherwise magnificent length. Braleys to road hollow to the breastworks and all the way down the southern traverse and back - 9 hours of riding and scrambling through the carnage left by our friend, derecho.

But I didn't get the worst of it - so I snapped a few photos to vouch for the necessary carnage when it's "the only race that matters".

100 degree temps and deadfall-gridlocked trails, seemed to me to be the perfect chance to sneak north.

This just in: New Hampshire kicks ass.

Up.
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