Shine On

Holiday break.  Some pretty terrific riding, making merry, and family time over the last week has me in a reflective state, and with the news of Scud's passing on to the great trail in the sky, the New Years Resolutions have come gushing forth.  

walk on water

become famous enough to have your own sticker

wheelie like a Wittwer

 be worthy of your gear and your riding partner

inspire a kid

build something

all of the above, and so much more.

It's been a pretty intense week.  And I don't throw this term around lightly, but I can honestly say that I feel blessed just to have stood before Scud, like so many other people, and existed in that moment as the sole focus of his attention and care, which were both enormous.  It was like when you spoke with him, you were it.  He was with you.  

I hope I can carry that forward.  

Shine on, you amazing man.  Someday, I'll meet you at the very top.  

Up, up, up.  

The Christmas Spirit will be late to work today

Interesting night ride last night.  I took a lot of pictures.  Appropriately, most of them came out as a complete blur, which I guess is only natural when you combine barhopping, singletrack, and Christmas light-gazing into one, very surreal 25-person night ride.  

Emphasis on surreal.  

Clearest picture I took all night: Hackett bleeding from his face.  And I think that's saying something.  

What exactly it's saying, I haven't quite been able to process yet.  But if you were there, you probably know what I mean, which is that I don't know what I mean.  Might have to let this one sink in for a while.

And even if I can eventually process the significance of drinking a beer while sitting on Santa's lap in a stranger's yard at night where the only thing brighter than his Christmas lights display is the two dozen or so HID's that just crashed the party, I'm not sure I could put that feeling into words anyway.  So I'll just trail off here with a few pictures and a slight headache.  I should drink some water.

Suffice it to say that the Holidays are upon us, and the Christmas spirit is very much alive - even if it's a little late to work this morning.

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Tigger, and so forth.  

Up, up, up.  

Toys: Lifted.

When Shawn's time on this Earth is done, and he's waiting for the boatman to cross the River Styx, or standing at the Pearly Gates to speak with St. Peter, or whatever afterlife myth you might subscribe to that basically represents the moment that you have to justify all the shifty things you did during your life to gain access to the great beyond, at least he'll have this in his favor:

Toy Lift, 2013

Another year.  Another 500 bikes for 500 kids to open on Christmas morning as a part of the ToyLift.  So at least he'll have that to fall back on, because lord knows he's otherwise got some 'splainin' to do.  A man can only make so many deals with the devil at 3 AM on the back side of a race course, desperate, clinging to a 2 minute lead, with 9 hours of hell to go, and expect that stuff not to be brought up when it's time for his annual review.

And it's certainly not just Shawn. No indeed, a community of sinners-who-could-use-a-little-karma-at-the-finish-line came together to turn 500 cardboard boxes full of poorly engineered aluminum and mismatched bolts into answered prayers.  So, if you were a part of that, thank you.  And good luck talking your way in.

Also, as I sat there truing a wheel on Friday afternoon, amused by just how great I felt in the middle of all of this, I had an epiphany: I sort of hope these 500 bikes go to only 499 kids, in that one of those kids found a way to get himself two bikes, not just one.  That kid, more than any other, is on the right track.

Build a stable, kid.
Start early.

Up, up, up.

What if riding bikes were bad for you?

Much has been made of the news, in recent years, that riding bikes might not be as good for us as we like to think.  Traditionally, the health-based logic for riding bikes has been pretty much about the benefits of exercise:

1) low impact cardio
2) stress relief
3) increased metabolic rate
4) weight loss
5) etc.

For quite some time, the common sense health benefits of cycling were pretty much a given in the medical world, and if you weren't riding then that was your loss.

But the chinks in the armor have started to add up, and more media attention seems to be following things like:

1)  Potentially Adverse Cardiovascular Effects from Excessive Endurance Exercise
2)  How Safe is Cycling?  It's hard to say.
3)  Sudden Death During Exercise
4)  And a personal preponderance of mine, LiveLikeMike.org

Like it or not, there's some evidence that supports the hypothesis that biking - especially in the doses that many of us like to call "Fun" - is bad for you.  And, at the very least, I think we can all admit that Big Air on Cross bikes is probably not healthy for the common thirty-something office worker with a couple of hours to kill on his lunch break.

What the hell, might as well embed that one.  I'm not sure who to credit for this, but it's for the benefit of all mankind.

The questionable wisdom of jumping cross bikes nontwithstanding, I'd estimate that the miles and the scars add up at just about the same rate.  The cycling gods have sure dealt me a few along the way.  Internally, though? No idea.  But the data can make a grown man (and father, and husband, and under-insured financial breadwinner) wonder.

So it seems that there's a debate brewing in the popular media (which this blog has no part in whatsoever) about just how healthy or unhealthy cycling might be.  For the most part, you see guys in their cleats gnawing at a powerbar on their morning commute say things like, "I like my odds."  And they're probably right:  chances are, from a health perspective, they're at least breaking even when it comes to risk vs. reward.

But I'm here to profess the inverse, actually.  Not that riding bikes is actually bad for you, but the more reasonable conclusion: that even if it is, we'd still ride.

The sooner you can admit that riding is a vice, or an addiction, or a recreation that only runs congruent to your health by sheer circumstance, the sooner you can understand why you do things like buy $5,000 bikes that weigh less than the alternative, or take your bike on vacation to the beach, or rent a downhill bike at a ski resort, or go night riding in the snow.  We like to pass these things off as conduits to exercise, like somehow the health benefits outweigh the relative costs, but the reality is those experiences exist whether the exercise does or not.  Look within at the most critical point; where the two ideas diverge - your health and your bike - and think about which ride you're actually on.

Most of us, I reckon, would stay on the bike.

For that matter, and because I love the ethical hypothetical, what if riding were banned?  What if doctors and  lawyers and politicians and the world at large recognized just how truly awful it was for you, and how it was damaging our healthcare system, and how you really couldn't make that choice for yourself because you're an addict, and, like cigarettes, they taxed it out of existence, then banned it, and your only option for some singletrack on two wheels was illegal - and you had to show up at the 7-11 parking lot two towns over at 2:30 AM, and wait for an hour in the cold for your dealer to show up because he's late because he's half-high on his own product, just to get your sweaty, clammy, desperate mitts on that wonderful, illegal dual suspension drug to ride for only an hour, just so you could get your fix and give it right back, and already start scheming for the next time you might sneak away?

You could have what's left of it.  Behind me.  Behind most of us, I imagine.

No?  Technically, I bet you already do.  Ever skip work to ride?  Lie to your family to ride?  Can you distinguish between riding alone and riding with friends?  Are your friends really friends, or riding buddies?  How many times have you hit rock bottom, sworn you'd never let your ass touch that saddle again?  Substitute Meth, or Jack Daniels, or whatever illicit substance in just about any situation where your bike is today, and you start to get the idea.  Ours are the actions of addicts.

Then again, maybe this isn't you.  Maybe when Dr. Oz finally rolls out his expose about the negative consequences of cycling, you'll hang it up and become a gym rat.  There would be freedom in that, I imagine.  Just making the right decision based upon the medical facts before you.  Nothing wrong with that.

On the other hand, owning up to the addiction isn't so bad either.  Aside from just realizing where you stand, it's freeing to know that this debate over the safety and health benefits of riding bikes doesn't have much to do with you.

Just about everything is on the rise.  Heat waves.  Obesity.  Eating disorders.  Population density.  Porn addiction.  Crack cocaine.  Riding bikes.

So, too, it may be with you.
Up, up, up.

Rocktown to Foofville

I was out there on the edge of the Internet earlier this week, really deep, far out there, where things like public healthcare are debated, and total strangers call each other asshole, and elf porn happens.  And I bumped into this: a one-way road ride from Harrisonburg to Charlottesville.

http://www.mapmyride.com/us/harrisonburg-va/harrisonburg-to-charlottesville-route-61524282

And I thought to myself, hey, that's swell, I wonder if there's a similar ride on dirt?

...

....

Waiting, waiting.
...

Nothing.
I had crossed over into the nether-regions of the internet, where the maps aren't on paper yet, and the gas stations only have kerosene.  There's nothing out there.

And I thought to myself, hey, wait a minute.
I know those dudes in Rocktown ride to Massanutten and back, pretty much all on dirt.  And if you can get to Massanutten, you can cross 33 and then the Shenandoah River, and find yourself at the base of the West side of Simmons gap without too much trouble.  And if you can do that, and you've got panache, and you're an enterprising individual, you might very well make it to the top for the start of the Trans-County route, and be at BRC by dusk.

If I do recall, I tried to talk Kev29er into round 2 of that same transcounty ride not long ago via email:
Me to Kev29er:
BRS to Walnut - the trans-county point to point is back and slightly longer.  This ride was a hoot last summer, now giving it a try in the cold to see how it goes.  

Blue Ridge School start
Up brokenback
Down the super d
Up markwood to the Paranormal loop
quick paranormal rally
Aid station 1 (my house)
A new connector and fence hop to Buck Mtn rd 
Bleak house singletrack (Sunday only)
Up reas ford to earlysville
Aid station 2(the new and critically acclaimed cruise-in diner)
Poach a little Danny flow half track(Sunday only)
Advanced Mills to preddy creek (paved)
Preddy loop ( conditions permitting... It's been muddy there)
Aid 3 (Dunkin donuts)
Gravel to fo' lakes
Fo lakes singletrack (conditions and permission permitting)
Into town - perhaps via the Dunlora link
Rivanna trail 
Aid 4 (blue ridge Cyclery)
Rivanna to o hill to old lynchburg
Old lynch to walnut
Finish down the goat trail(conditions permitting)

Kev29er to Me: 
that email made me throw up a little

So we didn't do it.

But we could have.

It's like the Giro bus stopped at summers market, opened the doors, and said, "everybody out, let's party."

S.O.T.

So, I dunno, just spit-balling ideas here, because it's winter, and it's easy to assess what's do-able and what's not from your office chair as the workweek winds down, and you're not actually grinding your saddle into your taint on mile 140 or whatever it might be, in the rain, out of food, muttering something about trolls.  But, to compare the transcounty ride (which I've done) to a Rocktown-to-Foofville one-way (which I profess has not been done yet), I guess you'd have to more or less double it to account for whatever lives west of Simmons Gap, figure out exactly what that is, pull out whatever doesn't fit into daylight here on the East side of the mountain, and you'd have a dirt route from Rocktown to Foofville. It's a far cry from the sort of pioneering that Chris Scott did when he put together the Virginia Mountain Bike Trail, but for two towns with such filthy-great bike culture, I sort of thought this kind of thing had already been executed successfully and described with voracity on someone's strava widget.

Turns out, not so much.  Just goes to show: there's shit the internet hasn't done yet.
But, I'll go on record here with the following:

It will.

Any takers?
Up, up, up.

The Pantani Ride 2014, part of the VES

When it comes to free, epic, backcountry bike races, Robert Issem has been bringin' it to the people for about a year now.  Maybe more than that.  Generally speaking, I don't catch on to these things until they're on the downswing, or the feds have seized all the assets, or the band breaks up or whatever.  So it's a unique position for me to be able to half-promptly present you:

http://www.virginiaenduranceseries.com/

If you don't think that's pretty rad, then you wouldn't know rad if it jumped you on your ride home and beat you unconscious with a sack of dirty old cassettes, then left you a note that said something like "Hey, I'm rad."  Which, conveniently, is how I'm told you might feel after some of these events anyway.

For example:
The Star City Vicious Randonnee

I'll give that one 2 wows, and one long drawn out ooooooouuch.
Something about the word "Suiride" conjures images of Japanese fighter pilots flinging themselves at aircraft carriers over the South Pacific a century ago, so maybe that's a little overstated.  But there's something to be said for undertaking a ride that you probably won't be able to finish.

Ah, yes, winter.  The time for dreaming up big routes, drawing squiggly little lines on huge maps, microbrewing, and proclaiming to oneself, "yeah, I could do that in a day."

So here's where I come in, because despite my palpable lack of fitness and resolve, I have to come in somewhere.  Yes indeed, due to the freeness, the epicness, and the backcountryness of The Pantani Ride (all VES pre-requisites), and despite the fact that the route doesn't include a dime of singletrack, The Pantani Ride is in for 2014.  Rad.  Also, in a real display of anachronism, we were also in for 2013, I just didn't know about it because I don't know about much of anything on time.

Strangely enough, if you click the link on the VES blog, it'll send you back here for the 2013 Pantani Ride info, which will send you back there and so forth, and if you're not careful you'll end up in some weird time-space continuum like in 12 Monkeys, and you'll be fucked for all eternity.  So be patient, don't do that, and I'll try to get up an official 2014 Pantani Ride post in the coming weeks that VES can link to and thus prevent the failure of the public internet.

I'm a hero, I just don't have the pink socks to prove it.  Nor do I deserve them.

But the date is set:  February 9th, 2014.  I'd mention the obvious choice for a rainout date, but I know that you already know how that works, so I won't do that.

Aside from the VES inclusion, I'm not sure much else is new.  Indeed, in a year that Marco Pantani will be honored by the Giro D'Italia in commemoration of his death 10 years ago, we'll actually be in our 9th year of doing so.  So thanks for getting on board, Nation of Italy.

hey shorty, it's your birthday.    

Or at least, the 10th anniversary of your untimely demise.
We miss you enough to do you proud.
.
More details to come.
Up, up, up.

Fallrides, nightrides, and fatbikes.

Wooooooooosh.  A weekend in Richmond with Big John, and Monday all I can think is that sound.  Such is the ass end of fall.  Wooooooooooosh.

You know what to do.  Seize the day and all that.

Also, for those of you who now can't fit your rally into daylight hours (myself included), I've got a little standing night ride going in parts north of town for any takers with the desire, mettle and burn time requisite for that sort of thing.  This week:

The northside extreme will roll from Timberwood Grill via Flo Lakes at 8 PM on Thursday night for a fine smattering of gravel roads and local singletrack, both purpose built and not-so-much.  Post ride bevies (they've got OB's Ten Fidy on tap) and perhaps the final, inconsequential snaps of TH night football to warm the soul at, quite possibly, 10:30 PM or so.  So call it a 3 hour tour if you know what I know, which is that I don't actually know.  

Dig?  Charge your shit and so forth.  

The thing about this "standing group ride": usually it's just me and C-Ham.  Sometimes just one of us.  Sometimes it doesn't happen at all.  So it's worth noting that it's not really standing, nor is it that groupish.  Consequently, there's an email list to sound the alarm, pretty much once/week, about what we'll be riding, when and where to meet, and how much beer to bring.  It's not for everyone.  In fact, I gave up a long time ago even trying to explain to people why I do it.  But if you've got the legs and the soul for it, shoot me an email and I'll add you to the list of dudes who pretty much never show up - you'll be in great company.

Final thought for the day: Fatbikes are going to surprise, attack, and overrun the planet like a mash up of Terminator and Planet of the Apes.  It'll happen slowly at first, and then, bang, something big will happen, and they'll simply be what everyone rides, almost overnight.

And, like everything else with 4.8 inch tires, it will be awesome.

Up, up, up.