Lange Twins Winery and Vineyards: An Open Letter

Dear Joe:
You are cordially invited to join the FT3 family on any Tuesday for our weekly Mt. bike ride. Yes, this is a bit of a distance to travel, but we are fairly confident no one in Northern California is having more fun on Tuesdays than us. This is the least we can do after you opened up your backyard to us and let us tear up some of your land during the best Cyclocross race this year! Furthermore, finding our blog and sending us positive praise on the Pabst photo, further merited this open invitation. Much of our riding group was present for the cross race and the others have been fully updated on the awesome venue and gracious hosts. If you find yourself in the foothills, possible exploring some our fine wineries and vineyards, make sure to bring your bike along. We will introduce you to some fantastic trails and at least on local dive (proprietor of necessary "post ride" tacos and PBR) that can't be missed! Hope to see you in our neck of the woods, as many of us can't wait to be back at your place next year!

Cheers
FT3

Ride Report:
The last ride of the decade turned out to be one of the best rides of the year. We ushered off the ride in true new years style, putting down a bottle of bubbly prior to taking off. Fear of snow covered trails had me a bit scattered on route selection. In the end, maybe I should be scattered a bit more often. We linked together a great series of trails with some ripping downhills, steep climbs, plenty of single track, and enough wet roots to add a bit of excitement. The weather played every hand imaginable. We saw what appeared to be clearing skies, overcast, rain, sleet, and snow...all in all a Wintry Mix (pronunciations vary)!

B, Cap'n, Councilman and I all piled into one rig in true Green Living styling and headed up to the lake. There we met with NoHandle and a late arriving, yet ready to rumble, Xteric. After taking care of the fore mentioned beverage, we heading out the preliminary route of the qualifier. However, after getting onto the first fire road, we took a sharp right down a short single track section onto the lake loop. From there we headed out road kill and straight for backdoor.

WHAM

Just prior to the crux move into backdoor, Xteric had a temporary lapse of judgment on a wet root and went down, and went down with a purpose. As B later noted, "Dude, you crashed H.A.R.D. hard!" I am pretty sure we all, at one point, thought, "ok, who is going back for a car and how are we getting him out of here." Yet, in true hard man style, akin to a guy that spends his working days hovering on utility poles far off the ground, Xteric rallied and remounted and we were off...Spot On Mate, Spot On!

The ride continued without incident and on wet but good trails. We climbed back up to the lake loop, took down the lady parts, headed south on the horse trails, climbed Rufus' rising to the horse parking lot, jumped onto Fleming and finished it off with Palin's plunge...Great ride.

Without calling out any no-shows. Peter was an oft mentioned topic of conversation as was the identity or possible identities of the new blog follower. Yet, in the end, it was determined that sometimes you make it, sometimes you don't, but in the end, it is just much more fun when you do...so here is to hoping you all make it out soon.

Tacos, PBR's and Rye were served up in style. Payment was zoo as all debts were settled prior to the new year. The second taco order came in a single basket which forced the group into some math and sharing...very scary moments. B and Cap'n shared a frozen beer, you really had to be there for that one!

Upcoming rides:
Friday Mornings Hangover Cross is On!
Meeting will be at the Bagel shop at 11:00
Race time at the not-to-be-mentioned school is 11:45
A's, B's, C's, and Z's will all race together - race time will be somewhere between 30-45 minutes.
Post ride prizes at Starbucks on Mo Flat!

Good by to the aughts and hello to aught +1

Until we Ride!
LOtB