Finally

Got out for a night ride last night, not a crazy ride by any stretch, but it felt good to get out and pedal. Rode a bit of single track and double track, but the bulk of the riding was pavement or dirt roads.

For the wildlife report- two deer crossed in front of me early in the ride. And I saw one porcupine cross the road in front of me. I actually tried to get my phone out to snap a shot, but despite their slowness he was quick enough to get into the underbrush before I could get a shot- next time.

Rode with gears last night, need to stop doing that! Talked to JJ about his new rig- looks nice. Hmmm carbon fork for the Mamasita? Might be in the cards.

Sastra to Cervelo- so maybe they really do make the best bikes.

later,

DEA

Bikes come and go

I am selling my Salsa El Mariachi frame & fork in case anyone's looking for a nice 29er setup.

CHeck it out here if you are interested:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330267009674&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=014

This is the current project I am working on to replace the El Mariachi.

A nice new Soma Juice in a snazzy red paint scheme.

I ordered a new Carbon fork to go on it which hopefully will arrive tomorrow so I can assemble it this weekend and have a test ride.

I'll put up some more pics once its further along.

JJ

Tyler on top again

I don't know if he did or didn't, but if he did- he served his time, if he didn't then cycling lost out on a few years of great cycling from Tyler.

He's always been one of my favorite riders, but there have been days where I just didn't know what to think (and still don't)- but either way- Kudo's to TH for winning the jersey!

Cedar Creek

Sunday morning I went for a ride over in Cedar Creek in North Conway. It has dried out pretty well considering the rain we had earlier this summer. I rode with Chris and we headed out from his house. First we rode Energizer and then some more of the usual tight twisty singletrack through the pine barons. When we popped out onto the fire roade we were surprised to see that some work had been done on the road and the usuallywet area at the end of a small pond was actually passable by cars with a nice new colvert in place. We then headed up the long fire road climb to the Mineral SIte parking lot and then decided to check out the High School Trail. I had never ridden it before and it was pretty nice. Some climbing but lots of descending witht he last section almost like a pump-track.

We ended back on the fire road and rode back tot hte top and out past the mineral sites to Sherwood Forest. At the gully Chris decided totake a run a clearing the climb out of it.

He got close but ran out of gas at the top. After that we headed down the very fast/fun downhill section and back to the bottom. Overall we got almost 2 hours of riding in on a very nice Summer Sunday morning.

JJ

Guess I was right

About Scott and Columbia.

Just don't ask me to pick PowerBall numbers.

DEA

Hmmmmm

It's fun to try and read between the lines- first this story about Giant being the bike sponsor for Rabobank and saying nothing regarding Team Columbia.

Then this story about Scott dumping their sponsorship of Scott-American Beef (of course I'd dump that sponsorship too- not only the doping issues- but a crappy team name)

Sooooo- how long until Team Columbia announces they are racing on Scott?

my random thought of the day.

DEA

Red Jersey Summer Series, Race #3: Cranmore Mountain

Thursday Night, Aug, 21, was the third race in the 4 race Summer Series put on by the Red Jersey. The race was held at Cranmore Mountain Resort and is always know for not being a flat race. It usually has some very good climbing and will punish people.

I got to the race and brought both my SS and my geared bike and I wasn't sure what I was going to ride. I pre-rode the course on my geared bike and was confident that the SS was going to stay on the bike rack. The climbing was pretty tough but what made it worse was that the first climb has some real sloppy sections to it and that trying to stand and climb on the SS was not going to work for me. After my inspection lap I got a drink and lined up at the start.

My class was set for 2 laps and as we set off the pace was pretty fast. I knew a few of the folks in my class and tried to keep in contact with those that were ahead of me. After making the initial climb we came to a very wet section that I decided would be faster to run that to try to ride so I got off and began to run up the ski slope some. I like skiing down much better than pushing a bike up. After s short section of singletrack we exited the woods and rode up the ski trail a bit more before turning directly down hill for a couple hundred yards in some very wet and quickly deteriorating grass/mud.

We continued a traverse across the ski area as we approached the tubing area and again headed uphill. This was a much better climb as far as conditions went as it was dry. The only problem was it was steeper and longer and had a lot of loose rocks to contend with. I was running my bike as a 2x9 so I had no granny gear to bail to and had to climb in a bigger gear than many folks and it allowed me to pass a few. We then dropped into some fun singletrack downhill sections that were pretty freshly cut, when they get ridden in more they will be real nice.

As we finished the first lap and started the second I could tell that my legs and lungs were still suffering from the recent 24 Hour Race as there just was not a lot of gas in the tank. About half way through my second lap a friend of mine who I had been in front of passed me and I was just not able to catch him. He was descending with a lot more confidence that I was and he ended up getting me by about 10 seconds.

At the end of it all I was surprised to hear my name called as they were announcing the podium spots, but I finished in third place. With the fourth and final race, the "Fat Tire Fest" coming in a couple weeks I think I am still in the running for a top three for the season series in my class.

JJ