Everybody Must Get Stoned...

I am usually pretty good about remembering things when I ride, except for yesterday. I hit the road from my place for 3 hours of hills and tempo. About 20 minutes in I realized I left my water bottles chilling in the freezer. I quickly changed my ride plan. I decided to just go hard for an hour and a half. With a brisk headwind and some good hills I got what I was looking for, 30 miles in an hour and a half.

Today the weather gods were on our side. The forecast was calling for 70% chance of showers in the morning, yet I woke up to sunshine. I rolled into Fair Hill and did a little 5 mile warm up before the group showed up. We had a nice diverse group today, including the Proud New Dad, Peaches. Congrats to he and Amy on the birth of Ryder Forrest Thompson. Also along was Todd, who was riding his new bike, yes it was strange seeing him on that bike, Blair Blair, Leo, Kurtee, Jay Jay, Alan, Elizabeth, and Best in show. Todd laid out a nice loop, and was loving the ability to change gears at will. Me, I felt great, I am really liking the 2x1 gear, at least around here.

After the ride I set up in front of the TV with a couple of Stone IPA's and proceeded to watch the Flyers get crushed, and eliminated from the playoffs. Considering that they were dead last last year, I was happy to see them make it this far. Go Detroit.

Don't forget to register for Granogue, It is going to be a blast...

Cheers,
Buddy

You Done With That Champ...

This was one of those remarkable weekends, you know the ones that are filled with good friends and good times. It all started Friday night with Dinner at Home Grown, Faticus invited Rachael and I to join him, Diane, Breyla,La, La, Wes, E-Town, PMP,Rotten, and Liz. Good beer, good food, good beer and a few good laughs.



The next day had Marc, Diane, and Rotten joining me for road ride from my place. Yeah, I know, a road ride, the fact that we got 1.5 inches of rain the day before made a road ride the only option, well except for French Creek. Ride of the day goes to Marc, who forgot his shoes. I tried to hook him up with my shoes and do a little pedal swap, but his pedals liked it just where they were. So he ended up riding my Fixed gear, wearing my shoes that were a size too big, and still killing it. Plus props to Monkey for riding well on, what I think is a tough loop.

We followed the ride up with some climbing. Despite the top roping comp, we were able to get in some quality bouldering. This as always led to dinner. The plan was Half Moon, unfortunately a lot of other people had the same plan, so we went to Newtons. This is where it got strange. First, Marc, who despite his youthful appearance is 37, he got carded. Later our trying to be cool waiter says to Marc," you done with that Champ" needless to say the champ jokes are still going strong.

Today Marc, Rotten and I rolled Fair Hill. The pace was brisk and the trails were just dandy. A beautiful end to a fun weekend.

Cheers,
Buddy

The One That Started It All...

It was our first date, Rachael picked the restaurant. Nice place(that has since burnt down) with a very good beer selection. Up until that night my beer of choice was Sierra Nevada, not a bad beer, but certainly the best out there. I have to admit what attracted me to this beer was the price, I just had to know what a $7.00 beer tasted like. Rachael also pushed for me to try this one. I was awe stuck by the flavor, I couldn't believe a beer could taste this good. I even had another. Well I can now say the rest is history.

I do want to know what beer was it that opened your eyes, which beer made you realize there was more than the heavily advertised macro crap?

Let's here from you,
Cheers,
Buddy

Finally, and Yes, It was Worth It...

No matter how many times I have raced Michaux, it never seems to get old. Yesterday was the first installment of the 3 race series, Maximus. Unlike last year i decided to drive up the morning of, with Fitzy in tow we rolled out of my place at 4:30am to be there in time for the 8:00am start. The only problem was they changed the start to 9:00am, damn, I could have used that extra hour of sleep.

This was going to be a great day, the sun was shining and the temps were in the 60's.
I was rocking the one speed with my +2 Michaux gearing, I was liking it about 35 miles in. The race went well for me. I didn't win or anything, but I had a good ride, and felt pretty good most of the race. I had 2 goals for this race, finish in under 6 hours and clean Grave ridge, Well I finished in 5:33, and had one dab on Grave ridge. Not a bad day.

It was good to see so many folks doing the 50 miler (even though it actually 45, but I am not complaining)
I won't bore you with details, but I will throw some random stuff at you. First off Ben and I agreed to ride together, this was going well for the first 10 or 12 miles, but then I found my groove, and didin't see Ben again until after the race.
At one point I was riding with Doug. We were rolling along pretty good when we came to a steep climb littered with loose rocks, I was in front and saw 2 guys pushing there geared bikes up the hill so I figured I had to ride it. I here Doug saying "Buddy, your killing me", I say "Yeah I'm going to pay for this later" Later was 100 yards away as we hit another wall, we both walked that one.

The best part was no stomach issues.

Here is what I ate and drank during the race:
2 large bottle of Prolong energy drink
2 large bottles of Camelbak Elixir
3 bags of Clif Blocks
at the rest stop
Beef Jerky
PB+J
and half a Hop Devil, thanks to Lee for that one.
Thanks to the promoters and the countless volunteers, that made this a fantastic day for me.
I am not sure what my next race is, French Creek is this weekend, But I'm not sure I feel like racing.

Well time to roll,
Cheers,
Buddy

Building Bridges...

I wish this post was as profound as the title, but it is simply about bridges.

We had a work party at Granogue today, you can register for this awesome race here.

Our job was made easy by iPaul, who pre-fabbed the bridges in sections and brought them out to the estate.

While Paul, Marc, DenS, Nick, JW, and I installed the bridges, L Webb, and a friend took care of some downed trees. Papa Smurf and Kurtee took care of the plowed field and the ladies, Diane, Lisa, and Jill, cleaned up the Gas Pump Trail.

Since the guys knocked the bridges so fast we had time to harass, the ladies.

After all the work was done, we headed out to enjoy the fruit of our labor. The course is starting to come together and should be ready to rock by race day.

Well time to rest up, Michaux is tomorrow.

Cheers,

Buddy

It's All About the Flow...

Recovery from last weekend has been slow. I didn't ride until Wednesday, which was a special ride because Rachael joined me. She doesn't get to ride nearly as much as she would like to, so when we get out together it always fun.



Thursday I did some scouting of the Granogue course, since I am the course director this year. I rode a couple of laps, not the best place to ride when you are trying to recover.



The weather forecast was calling for rain yesterday so I wasn't sure if I would get to ride or not. I woke up to sunshine and birds singing and decided to hit up White Clay/Middle Run. Marc and Diane met up with me. Diane went off and did her own thing, while Marc and I got into the flow of some fast dry single track. The legs felt pretty good and the bike seemed to have a mind of it's own.



It has taken me a while to get used to all the new trails, but I think I finally have it all dialed in. It was an awesome ride, but of course Diane had to out work us and ride 20 minutes longer than we did.

Today was a little taste of Brandywine, Les led Marc, Paul and I on another stellar loop. My legs felt good, but I was having a hard time with the new bike in the rocks, it was riding rocks for the first time. Still had fun though.

Weather is looking grim for next weekend, I hope that changes, cause I may just be a fair weather racer this year.

Cheers,
Buddy

Bakers Dozen...

I am not going to get into a whole lot of detail, but I will give you the low down.



We rolled into Leesburg with a pretty strong group of teams, we had just about every class represented. I was doing the men's two person with Rich. Rich was amazing, I don't think he ever slowed down. His last lap was in the same neighborhood as his first few.



I was doing good until lap 8, the last of our double laps. I cracked hard. I still rode every lap as hard as I could, but where I came up short was in transition. I have never missed a transition before, until this weekend. On more than one occasion I wasn't there when Rich came in, I really have no excuse. I can say I was tired, but so was everyone else. I was having a hard time eating, then when I did eat I had a hard time keeping it down, but I should have been there. Sorry Rich.



Enough self loathing.



The course was super fast and super fun. We did 23 laps and came in 8TH out of 45 two person teams. I am not disappointed with that, even if I was hoping for top 5. The rest of our little group also kicked ass.

1st DUO Open: Breyla la and Wheelie Ted
1st DUO Men's: Zayne Braun and Jebbagger
1st TRI Open: Slick Rick, Monkey and Faticus
2nd DUO Men's: Blair Blair and Jan
3rd Women's Solo: Melanie Nystrom
4th DUO Open: LWeb and Papa Smurf
5th DUO Men's: Auer and E-town (coming soon to MTV reality TV!)
8th DUO Men's: BLRich and Buddy the Keg Breaker
10th DUO Men's: Jay Jay and Doyle Rules
16Th DUO Men's: F-James and Dave (who had the most fun of anyone)
Men's single speed Solo: Les Leach (12 laps, 3 highlifes, and two naps)
Men's single speed Solo: Sven Nystrom (riding until he feels like drinking)

I can't give enough credit to everybody that gave us there support:

Elizabeth, kept Rich and I fed and always had water ready, plus words of encouragement, just when it seemed like I needed them most
Potty Mouth Princess,
Gavigan, who wrenched and drank for 13 hours straight
Fitzy
Wes' new lady, miss Behavin'
Tom, for making sure we had the pimpest set up in all the land.
Peaches, for letting us use his truck
and Brian.

I have to say this one really hurt, I am taking a few days off the bike and hoping for a quick recovery before Michaux.

Cheers,
Buddy