THROWDOWN at the FARM

May be your last chance at XC glory for the year, serious course, friendly club, and all the dirt you can handle. Go To the PAMBA link "ON YER RIGHT" for all the poop...I actually RODE my mountain bike last night, almost forgot how fun that is at night under a full moon in the woods

Cross is Boss...(stole the pics from Moritz)

First race of the 'cross season, yeah I'm hooked. 2007 hasn't been kind to me however, as once AGAIN on the first lap I was trying to snooker everyone in the first corner around a traffic island and hit the curb, DOH!!! After I got back into my pedals I punched it to catch up setting about mid pack now, hard left into the first dismount and run up I'm feeling good, go for the re-mount, stand on the pedals and my chain had come off and twisted itself around my chain stay, DOUBLE DOH!!! Oh well, now I'm dead last and playin catch up. I did manage to catch a few and ran the rest of the race without screwing anything else up. Looking forward to the next one. I like movies, preferrably in the comfort of my living room but every now and again we'll hit up the big screen, BIG MISTAKE, some snot nosed kid behind us had never had the parental instruction to clear his clogged nasal passages, so for the first 45 minutes of "Resident Evil III", snuffaluffagus (which i began to call him) would sniffle up a big wad of snot every 30 seconds, I kid you not, It got so bad we moved over and behind him and could still hear it off in the distance. After watching so much violence and death I began a secret plan to dismember snuffy and stuff his fat ass into my empty popcorn bag...but the better angels of my nature took over and I spared his life (sigh*) Maybe I'll go with romantic comedys from now on.

Yeah thats how I roll...

Before I start whinning I'll let everyone know that the City of Burlington is "on board" with making Dehn's trails a legitimate reality WOO HOO! Sugar Bottom you ask? The FIRST MILE of the race I had already been passed by the single speeders who left 30 seconds behind the experts, at 1.2 miles I had dabbed the ground on two corners and I was coughing up some nastiness I'd rather not describe on this forum. 1.7 Miles and I pulled over to let ALL the sports by, once they had ridden past, I decided it was OK to leave my breakfast (off trail mind you). Being a trooper and knowing that my hacking fit was over, I decided to press on, at a little over mile 2.3 I put the bike down again trying to catch back on, it was about here that I had to walk because I was seriously going to have an accident before I made it back to the port-a-pottie, uh-oh, now that would be embarrassing. and i didn't want to pass out on the trail with my bibs full of ****... afraid to throw a leg back over my seat I weaved my way my way back to the start/finish line and DNF'ed. I had completed 3.2 miles of the 30 mile expert race, but i left everything I had on the field so to speak...I've ridden and raced with a cold before so I thought it would be no big deal, I should have known by the amount of sweating I was doing BEFORE the race even started something was wrong, needless to say I spent the rest of saturday and all sunday on the couch, although I did sneak in a couple miles on my cyclocross bike, maybe I can repair my wounded pride with a couple of CX races that are coming up...c'mon 2008! I'll post up some pics of some local XC hero's WHEN THIS STOOPID COMPUTER STARTS COOPERATING...

Labor Day Fun

ow OOOWWW!!! working the ropes! Camp run-a-muck I HATE camping at public campgrounds, too many people too close, and with the Mississippi at flood stage finding a secluded spot was going to be tuff. We settled on camping at the "primitive" sites in Palisades state park in savanna Illinois. We scored the LAST one available out of the three that they had, primitive means you hike in and carry EVERYTHING you need (including water)with you. If your in Colorado a two mile UPHILL hike is pretty normal, In the midwest its an anomally. 1.7 miles all uphill to campsite "B", actually a VERY nice place. All I could think about is what a cool downhill race this trail would make, especially the last/first 1/4 mile at what I'm guessing is a 12% grade. Also NO BIKES ALLOWED, but still, you could get a good 45 to 50 mph coming down the thing. Three tips; 1)don't forget your sleeping bags on the first hike up to your camp 2) No matter how tempting it may be, don't try to adjust a jet-boil campstove AFTER you've heated it up. 3)Climbing and rope work with three blistered fingers can be painful, however, one MUST NOT LET GO no matter what. Did my fastest lap at Geode for this year sunday, however, I'm still close to five minutes slower than my best ever time, must be gettin older faster than I thought.