A momentous day, two nightrides, and upcoming alleycat

photo: courtesy of Dan Smith

Last Tuesday we went for a night ride like most Tuesdays. The conditions at Hartland are unbelievable right now and everything is dry and tacky. This results in an even more enjoyable ride than usually. Partly because of the awesome conditions and partly because it was simply about f'in time, me and Shayne finally cleared Switchbacks. Double whammy, 2x10! A momentous day indeed... I couldn't help but exclaim: Yeahhh!!! I've finally slain you, you evil bitch of a climb! and Shayne said something like: "mumble mumble this thing is f'in awesome, it just wants to climb," as he sat down and looked at the Stumpjumper demo bike that we just built up. The Stumpjumper sat well with Shayne, apart from a slight miscalculation on the first drop of Small craft warning, which caused a bent wheel and a puncture. After we got that kind of straightened out, it was not an easy task to keep up with Shayne as he mashed the pedals on that stumpy and generally rode it like he stole it. Somebody has got to break it in right? I was calling him all sorts of evil names until finally settling on speedy stanchions, as a twist on his known nickname, dirty.
We had the privilege of riding with Dan Smith and his buddy for awhile, and Dan Showed us the correct way to attack the pizza drop. I told him that I might do that sometime after I grow up.
Mr. Smith is powered by an air/beer cooled nuclear reactor so he can't stop for too long at a time unless there is beer (this can be an inconvenience when riding with the Rider's Crew as we are all christians and puritans and don't touch alcohol, cough cough) so when Shayne was doing minor surgery on the stumpy, the Dan Crew took off and was not to be seen until after the ride. We also had a new rider with us that night, Lisa from Australia and she did well by her country. Our crew consisted of Me, Justin, Andrew (current RSC trophy holder) and Shayne. Justin tried a couple of times to take the crash trophy from Andrew but did not manage to crash in a spectacular enough manner. A valiant effort none the less. Justin has a special routine when crashing and it goes something like this: Uh oh (universal) ...CRASH!!! "Hahahahahha" sproing! back in saddle and ride. He is indestructible that little ninja, and fears nothing. "I believe in nazing Lebowski" (insert German accent).

Nic Nicholson and Lucy showed up just to barbecue our meat which was incredibly nice of them to do. Nic couldn't ride since he's looking for a new place to live, which takes priority over riding at this time.

If anyone knows of a three bedroom place for rent for young, soon to be parents from England. Shoot us an e-mail and we'll rely it to Nic and Lucy.

Last night we had another night ride to say farewell to our crew member Ryan "Lavadome" Wickham, who's moving to Campell River for a few months at least. It was a bare bones ride with just three riders: Me, Ryan and Jess who's visiting from Colorado.

Justin is ready for carnage.

In other news there will be a kick-ass alleycat tonight like we've mentioned before. Me and Justin will be riding and there will be a Bike art show afterwards, and fermented hops. Be there or be square.

Hushovd chrashes, Boonen wins, nightride and trail maintenence

Hushovd crashed in the final k's and did not have a chance to kill Boonen on the sprint. Oh well, at least the winner was riding a Specialized and I did not loose too much money on my bet.

Night ride tonight. I won't be able to make it, since I'm still getting over the plague that's been holding me back for the last 10 days. Justin and Andrew will be going out though, and the conditions should be great. So get out there and "lay ze powahh dooown!"
If you're not racing on Sunday the 19th there's trail maintenance at Hartland. Here's the notice from Simbs:

"Join us for SIMBS trail maintenance this Sunday at 8:45 am at the Hartland parking lot. We supply the tools, gloves and training.

RSVP to me chris@simbs.com by Friday at 9 am and I will have a roast beast, turkey, ham or veggie sandwich for you. Please let me know your sandwich preference.

If you don't respond by the deadline, I won't have a sandwich for you but you are still welcome to join us. Just bring your own snacks.

Email if you have any questions or to let me know you are coming. Bring your bike for a ride afterwards - we have secure storage.

Hope to see you there,

Chris

Wrist report... or crying Vikings

So despite my best effort, I did not succeed in fracturing my wrist on that fantastic endo on Friday night (when are endos not fantastic anyway). Apparently I only managed to sprain the wrist which means I should be back on the mountain bike fairly soon. Unfortunately I won't be making it to tonight's night ride though as I'm still whining and generally being a sissy about the sprain. And as we all know, sissies are not allowed on the night rides and this sadly includes myself. So no night riding for me tonight, but I hope the rest of the crew gets out there. I shall be with you in spirit, and in beers...

Reigning RSCT trophy winner Halldor hangs onto the cup for yet another ride....

So Mitch, Baker, Halldor and i all went for an impromptu night ride last night....a night ride that was full of people definitely NOT at a level one could call "fit" (that's NOT fit Claire! Myaha!So come out and play!) so the night was crisp and beeeeautiful, and i was able to take it all in, slowly, as my lungs attempted to cut my body off from that pesky gas called oxygen. We did a bit of a different route from usual, meandering up the fireroad to the top of jelly roll(where i achieved a bird-shaped bruise due to leg/frame interactions), then ran down to northridge, sidewinder, who's yer daddy, night shift, short cut(where upon Halldor had a mighty viking crash down the left side of the first rock roll and injured his wing...VIKING DOOOOWN!!!!) , shock treatment into the TTA....i have to say i'm becoming quite the fan of night riding. i don't know what i'm going to do when i can see more than a 3' circle of fuzzy light in front of me. Something about night riding makes you do stupider things that you'd usually bypass, makes you look up at the stars and breifly forget that irriatating burning-lung syndrome you picked up somewhere between the last vestiges of summer and the first chilly winds of winter (too wordy for you Jamie?...too bad!). in short...suck it up, buy a light and come join the silent masses....oh did i mention you rarely run into other riders on the mountain...oh yes...if your local hill is crowded during the day, then go by night and find a whole new mountain to play on!
that is all

Night ride!!!

Great right last night, and lets face it, when do you ever have a bad ride? The ride could only qualify as a borderline, group ride. Me and Justin made it out from the shop, and made it up our conventional climbing route: Skull, inventive, little face, centerfold, switchbacks. We were just about ready to go when we saw a light shining trough the trees and the hard breathing that most people would associate with Ryan Leech. I recognized the breathing as another Ryan, that is to say Ryan "Lavadome" Wickam. He had forgot his shoes and was late, but hammered up the trails to try and catch up with us. We let him take a breather before heading out again, and when Ryan stopped seeing double, we continued up the trail. It was a beautiful night, and surprisingly warm which resulted in slick trails and quite a few bails. Ryan took the "Rock star crash trophy," with his SUHE (spectacular up-hill endo), and I have to say that I feel blessed to have been able to witness this phenomenon for the second time in under a month. I almost managed to bail into the drink on one of the bridges and if I had succeeded in that I surely would have taken the "RSC Trophy" for myself. The park was busy with at least four groups on the go, which was awesome to see. We rode for about two hours and got a good burn going, and then had a beer in the parking lot with one of the other groups.

Cowboy logic of the day: Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.