Thursday, April 22, 2010

The 4th Last Snowy Ride


Delayed ride report...Don't know what happened yesterday, but somehow I didn't manage to get the report out. As NoHandle pointed out, with the new iPhone, there really are no excuses.

Councilman, B, Bambi, Cap'n, NoCar, NoHandle, Xterric, and yours truly gathered up in the wintry mix to see what the trails had to offer. As the winter mix turned to snow and NoHandle verbally abused his rear wheel, we headed off on a surprisingly good ride. Snow and cold were the constants for the night, however the trails stayed in really good condition! We hit a early section of the horse trail that proved to be a poor choice on a wet ride, then headed up the sub qualifier before dropping B is for Barf, and then looping back to the picnic table graveyard and down to the lake loop. Did a classic tour of the lake and then headed up Rufus' rage and down Fleming, Palin's, Blairs, and then home. C-man was crushin it!

Taco's were ruined by Keagles! Maybe not ruined still a fine post ride experience, just left a lasting image that has haunted me! Sketchy...no other way to put it!

Rock God is back from Sea Otter and has some news to report!
Until we ride:
LOtB

5 comments:

  1. Ever since councilman got his full set of gears in place he is untouchable. Snow or no snow, he was flying.

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  2. Did I ever get off the front? How many tacos did I consume? Damn, I must have been going so fast that I missed everything...

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  3. I thought that was Councilman's ghost bike in the photo above, and he was riding with us in spectral form.

    What's the word from the other Ghostrider?

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  4. No "gho" on the Ghost as a 4th. I am pressing on a friend to join. He too was considering the 8 hr, but may be swayed. I still need info from the rest of team 2.

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  5. Well, I have to admit I'm glad I missed wintery mix run #12.

    On the Reports, there are two:

    The Kits are in! I will be riding around Placerville doing a test run this afternoon. Note, the price goes up after this weekend, so hurry with the dough. :-)


    Sea Otter was big and hard! It's tough to imagine a better venue to pull off such a slate of events. The weather was perfect, our team looked pro doing a tune up ride down 17 mile drive on Thursday evening. Friday AM was the road race, very hilly and fast. It exploded on lap 3 up the hill and I managed to catch on pretty quickly, we were down to a group of about 12 riders at the point, maybe 4 - 5 more caught on later in the lap. I was the only team member that stayed with the final group of 16 to the finishing hill, I was gassed and came in 12th. I caught some of the festivities, went to visit my Cytomax buddy Frank P, who happened to be talking to Brian Rouse, a cool chance meeting. We then assembled for a great team dinner at a rented house overlooking the ocean in Pacific Grove; I don't even think the Bissell team had it so good.

    I was still tired but determined for the Saturday 8 AM MTB race. I worked my way toward the front on the race track leading to the dirt; I was 2nd man by the single track, all was good. We ran into lappers immediately and the passing game was on. I faded and lost a few spots on the climbs, then had a mechanical that took three tries to diagnose and fix; a 90 degree bent chain and suck routine. I lost quite a few spots, and the leaders, who ever they were, were gone. I fought on during the long ridge climb back and the bonus section they through in at the top of the track where I passed 4 more guys, not that it mattered for my race, but is made it fun for all. I ended up 16th, when early on I thought a podium was possible; more work on the climbing is needed or bring back the rollers and crits.

    It was a good weekend, finally recovered. Come and get you kits if you want them sooner than next Tuesday.

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