154: shake and bake

There is this sweet little dinner/café around the corner from our place. Although it’s not in Newark, it does rank up there on Monkey and my list of favorite places to eat. The Cricket Café delivers fair prices and good portions. Following today’s race at Sewell, we treated ourselves to a couple of good meals.

I had the meatloaf dinner with mashed red skin potatoes :

And a side of fries. Yeah that’s right double starches tonight.
Monkey had her favorite: the buffalo chicken wrap, but tonight with fries instead of a side salad.

Summer Sizzler- If my race today was three laps long, I would have finished in 2nd place behind my team captain Kris Auer by about 2 seconds. Sadly today’s race was four laps, and I finished in 2nd place 2 minutes down on Kris.

Our plan was pretty simple go hard from the gun, work together to get clear, and keep rolling. I got the hole shot, and Kris and I took turns on the front working together for 3 laps. Then at the start of the fourth lap I shit the bed.

I felt goosebumps all over, and then wave a nausea rushed over me. I expected to blow what GU and gatorade was in my stomach all over my top tube. I was cracked. Trying to keep the C3 Sollay.com express rolling, Kris backed off and was waiting for me on the tops of each of the rollers. I told him," get your ass moving, we worked too hard to let someone else steal the win, because your busy waiting for me!" Kris nodded, as I looked bad, but gave me strict orders, “you better finish up in second! ” I gotta do what the captain says you know!

I’ll be honest I was worried, I felt really rough. I had visions of the 4th lap collapse I had a couple years ago in the single speed class, where Topher and Maurice came around me in the final half lap. Luckily, Kris and I had build a pretty nice lead, and I just tried to push hard on the ups, and anywhere I could let the bike roll, I did. My core temperature seemed to drop a bit, and my head started to feel cooler. Finally in the last section I started to feel good again. I had just enough to hold off a hard charging Rob Campbell, one of my cross rivals. Good to Rob.

At the end of the day, it was 1-2 for C3-Sollay.com, that last lap I just kept repeating in my head “my bag of courage is deep, my bag of courage is deep, My bag of courage is deep”

For what it’s worth I’ll be Cal to Auer's Ricky any day. Shake and Bake baby, Shake and Bake. That was a very fun ride.

Perhaps better than my ride, and something I am really proud of was Monkey’s ride.

Sure enough as the sport field staged, the skies opened up and poured on them. A course that puts emphasis on bike handling when dry, was now a muddy, slippery challenge of a race. This is all Monkey’s fault.

What Monkey's fellow sport riders fail to realize is that in the past two years every time Monkey raced mountian bike in New Jersey, the skies have dumped on her. Buddy T Kegbreaker has taken to calling her the rain goddess. It's pretty funny.

Luckily for Monkey, she is a pretty damn good mudder. Following two laps of slick, muddy, slippery racing, Monkey ended up in 4th place- Her best finish since graduating to the sport class.

Monkey will qualify her result saying Sewell is a great course for her, and that she is good in the wet stuff. I however know how hard she has been working, and I am super proud of her ride. Rule number four of the DCCoD is "never accept a compliment, answer with standard verbiage as such: I have a lot of work to do still" Damn crossers and their rules.

Now I know she’s happy too, because she ordered fries tonight and not a side salad. So all in all it was a good day for Monkey and I.

one more quick one:

Kris on cell: "where are you parked?"

Monkey: "next to the the C3 Building, where else?"

Wes and Auer congratulate Monkey- without getting too close...I’d like to give some props to the Loweriders, freaking stand up guys, one of my favorite Super Series team’s for sure.

Thanks to the promoters of the Summer Sizzler, who have always treated me with great kindness and generosity.

Best to Kim who broke her hand today in a nasty stack- lets hope for a speedy recovery.

Thanks for reading.

respect.
faticus

153 (noted): long haired freaky people

Last night I went on a nice bike ride with Jebalicous and Monkey. We saw this fellow Peter who I met a couple of weeks ago. He asked if ole Jebalicous was my son. "No way man!" I responded. Peter continued, " but you to look so much a like." To which I responded, "he rides way better than me, and his real parents are way smarter than me, don't let the long hair fool you, Jebalicous is my friend, not my kid."

Monkey then did the math for me (me 37, Jeb 15) and it's not that outrageous to see why Peter made such a leap of faith. Hell, Jeb is a really nice kid, a parent could do far worse, you know like my parents who have me for a son. Who am I kidding Both Jeb and his sister Megan are great kids, a product of great parents: Brian and L-web. Heck I'm happy to just be associated with the family...

But just to avoid any future confusion I got a haircut. This way folks can see my face, and they will know that although I think of ole Jebalicous as a little brother, No way could I be his father.



But I digress, So I went to see Lauri, my hairstylist. When I walk in the door she gives me a big hug and asks, "has it been 9 months already!?" Lauri is great, and one of the only folks I went to high school with that I ever see.


When I told her what I wanted, she was concerned Diane would be unhappy, and then commented, "I've never cut your hair that short."




as always she did a bang up job. She rules.

This spring I have done a pretty good job of staying pretty mellow about my racing. Last spring I didn't have too much fun, and really didn't race all that well. This year I have had a ton of fun, kinda stumbling through a couple of mountain bike races, and few time trials along the way. However, I knew all along the the focus of my spring would be Big Bear.

Kris and Ethan had talked about doing this for a long time, and although I am riding far less than I have in past springs, I kinda knew all along that I better keep moving because going into Big Bear half cocked was not going to be a good thing. I have had some solid training, and with this guy's guidance I'm feeling good about next week. A couple of more efforts and I should be ready to go.

As much as I hate giving my money to Laird, I have to admit one of the things I would love to do before I walk away from this game is to win one the West Virgina 24hr races. I still remember when this was the race of the spring each year. I have raced at 4 of the 5 venues, finished on teams as high as 3rd, and as low as 69th. Buddy T. Keg Breaker, Amazin' Andrew, Peaches and I had a good look at it a couple of years ago, but had bad strategy and it cost us the race. You live and you learn right?


So here I am taking another shot at this. A little scary for me as it is the first time I've done one of these things without L-Web, Buddy, or Peaches on my team or with me since 2001. I have great teammates, and expect the best, but it will be different for me. You know like the bad uncle move or when you cheat on yourself. Was that over the line?


Maybe I get to mark another thing off my "to do before I die" list? We'll see. Hopefully I don't go south like Sampson or let my teammates down by falling on my face.

go here and buy this. (pretty please)


and check out my poll.



not that one the one on the sidebar. was that close to the line again?

respect.
faticus

152: More Granogue

the unabomber:

Jan working registration:
Just Saying.

The night before intense, vivid dreams of wrestling circus freaks. I remember putting the dog faced boy in a crossface cradle, and the worlds fattest dude, I pinned with a half nelson and a one on one. I do think I woke up with Riley in a headlock at some point.

Nervous energy I guess.

Our friend Brent from Minneapolis, or the MID-coast as we like to call it, flew in for the weekend and the race. The cliff notes version of the trip looks like this:

Get Brent off plane
Get Brent drunk on Mexican Picnic’s fine margaritas. (it was Rotten's 25th birthday)
Get Brent up early by having my dogs break into room and spoon him
Take Brent out and ride Middle Run and White Clay
Get Brent to Granogue and mark course
Get Brent drunk on beer at Home Grown Café
Get Brent up even earlier than yesterday and drag him to race
Get Brent into the endurance event. (4 laps later…)
Get Brent to un-mark course

Introduce Brent to vitamin I

Get him drunk on my deck with beer from Beer Church
Get him up early to ride Fairhill

Brent announces aspirations to be the Amish Hugh Hefner. (does he like hairy women?)
Get him on plane, 3 days later, hung over, legs thoroughly trashed, hopefully soul replenished.

it was great having him out, his honorary DCCoD membership card is in the mail. He is always welcome to stay in the Wes Wing of our House.

This is Jim.

You might know him as the unholy rouleur. He was finished first on Saturday. Now he didn't quite get in all the laps he had hoped for, but after plowing into a tree on the river trail, feeling a little concussed, Jim meet my friend, and personal physician Dr. Tim.

Who is a pretty accomplished cyclist in his own right. (thanks for your help Tim!)

This is Anne Rock.
Saturday she earned the first annual Granogue Life Time Achievement award. Because she deserved it, and she's way cooler than I am. Best to you Anne Rock. Best to you.

As the beginner raffle was running a little slow we started having some feats of strength to move the process along. First it was "can you pick Kurtee out of a crowd?" for some jerseys. Then it was math quiz time, "what's 2+2 ?" Then it was, "who has a birthday soon?" Finally, the creme dela creme. The push up contest. 5 individuals battling it out for a sram 9 speed cassette. In the end we kinda had a tie, an 11 year old kid and a 29 year old woman refused to give up. So we settled the contest with a thumb wrestling contest. The kid never had a chance. Thanks to everyone for playing along.

best of all, as I jumped in the car, turned my cell phone on, four very complimentary, very nice emails thanking all of the Racing Group for their efforts popped up on my phone. That folks is the way to make some one's day.

Thanks to everyone for coming out. Hope to find some pictures of the push up contest on the internerd somewhere.

respect.

faticus

151: Granogue

Dear Friends,

I wanted to thank all of you that came out to Granogue to celebrate the live of our dear friend Andrew Mein, to have some fun racing bikes, to support the Hera Women’s Cancer Foundation, and enjoy a great day.

624 of you could have been anywhere in the world, but you chose to be with us. We are grateful you made that choice. That includes 41 of you that were kid racers, who were just awesome.

I wanted to take this time to thank all of the volunteers that made this year’s Escape from Granogue happen. As you are all aware (because I have told you all a million times) this race is not put on by one team, or one club, but by a coalition of teams, a group of people who recognize all our responsibility to be ambassadors for the sport. Programs supporting this race include: The Secret Henry’s Team, Wooden Wheels Bike Shop, Twin Six, Bike Line, First State Velo Sport, VisitPA.com, the Loweriders, C3-Sollay.com, The Les Leach International Man of Mystery Fan Club, and of course The Delaware Cyclocross Coalition of Delaware.

Thanks to your efforts.

The work of Sam and Elk with the Hera Women’s Cancer Foundation was able to raise over $1700 dollars with their raffle yesterday. Additionally, We (the race) have committed $1 per rider to Hera to making this day really a great day for there efforts.

I also like to thank our gracious hosts, the Dupont’s and the residents of the Granogue Estate, for allowing us to play in their yard yesterday. It truly is an amazing place, we are very fortunate to have an event here.

I remind you all, that the estate is private property, and we appreciate you not poaching those trails outside of the race day. Any trail poaching jeopardizes the future of the event.
Thanks for your cooperation.

As I promised last year, we’ll keep working to put on a better event, last night a number of us enjoyed some frothy beverages, and were busy scheming up improvements for next year’s mountain bike race.

Thank your for your support and patronage.

respect,
faticus
Director Supreme of The Racing Group
C3-sollay.com
http://www.fatmarc.com/

150: ant hand

Someone’s little darling in my neighborhood thought it would be a good idea to store some food in my mailbox. Perhaps this was retaliation for our lawn becoming a bit of meadow whilst our mower was being repaired.

Either way, Saturday when I pulled the mail out of the box I felt something totally creepy all over my hands.- Yup Ants. The mailbox was infested with the little critters. Totally gross. In the past we had a spider, which Diane and I nick named Boris, living at the back of the box. Boris would handle any little creature that wanted to try and move into our mailbox. Sadly, about two weeks ago when going through our mail between our copy of the Title Nine catalogue and Rolling Stone magazine, poor Boris was found, smashed to bits.

And so, without Boris in our box, and someone’s little darling deciding to throw their left over chicken nuggets, or maybe a half chewed up sour patch kid in my mailbox, I have a new ant farm. After my ant hand experience Saturday, I sprayed the box down with Ant killer. I had hoped this would encourage the Ants to find another shelter. Last night’s mail pick up confirmed my worst fears. The Ants go marching on.

Ugh.

Rain last night. Had to ride the trainer for the 3rd time this year. Usually I would have bagged, but with Granogue this weekend, and looking down the barrel at this. I felt like I better get the chamois time where ever I could.

Granogue Pre-reg closes today at 4:00.

respect.

faticus

PS: thanks to everyone who helps out with the event, everyone who honors Andrew, everyone who respects the rules, and helps to make this race flow a little easier. Thanks to the 286 riders registered this morning for coming out to celebrate with us. Look forward to seeing you all Saturday.

149: speculative

Sometimes when you want something for a long time, the anticipation can lead to a huge sense of disappointment when things don't exactly work out as you planned.


Allow me to explain. Washington Street Ale house is a nice little bar in downtown Wilmington. Now I don't frequent the place all that often, but every time I have gone i get this wonderful macaroni and cheese dish. It has a light bread crumb topping, sun dried tomatoes, fine 5 cheese mixture. Really rich, really tasty. I have to admit knowing we'd be in town for the IRONMIKE TT Friday night, all week long I was dreaming about how great this meal was going to be. I was super stoked.


So after the TT, E-town and I had to head around the corner to his house to get him some, well, pants. So the DCCoD caravan hit the bar ahead of us, and started to order. Then we got the call.


Potty Mouth Princess : "do you guys know what you want? We're ready to order"
Faticus: "yup, I'll take the mac and cheese!"
Potty Mouth Princess: " They don't have it anymore. New menu."


silence.


Potty Mouth Princess: "hello, are you guys still there !?"


I was devastated.

my hopes, my dreams, all shattered, in that brief exchange. It's painful to even type these words. Guess I'm gonna have to go back to Portland to get a fine Macaroni and Cheese meal again. I could of course try to figure out a recipe for myself. (ha, ha) I ended up with a cup of beer and cheese soup, which was solid, and a very nice fish and chips- which were really very good.


The time trial itself went pretty well, although I'll admit I made a number of mistakes. It rained all day, but let up a couple hours before the race. The course that twisted along the Brandywine River and was under the canopy of trees, as such it was still really wet. Just as things kicked off and the course started to dry out, a heavy mist began falling, and a light shower gently fell on the racers.


I'll admit I was scared. I didn't want to crash. The course was technical from my standpoint with the monkey hill cobbles, and lots of tight corners. This wasn't your typical flat out and back TT run.


So I take off and I pretty much did what I said I didn't want to do, which was ride scared. I balled up a couple of corners, and heading up the final climb, totally started turning on the finishing straight, a block too soon.

The officer at the corner wasn't too helpful as I asked, "hey, is this right!?" She nodded indicating yes, and then she started freaking as I set up and started to turn right, she screamed and I had to basically stop to get started again. Not the way I wanted to finish up the final rise, so I sprinted to get back to speed, and made the correct right turn, and rolled it in to the finish.


I'll admit, I don't like riding scared. I was kind bummed that I did that. And was kicking myself for that, I am a pretty good technical rider and bike handler as long as I keep my head out of it.


As the results came out and the beer started flowing, I was shocked, and everything seemed to get better. Total DCCoD sweep in the Cat 3/4 race ; 1st E-town (C3), 2nd Rob Collins (Henry's) 3rd Faticus (C-3), 4th Der Jan (FSVS). Jebbagger took 1st in the 5's and had the 7th best time overall, (etown 8th, Rob 9th, me 11th). But Jeb did have a dry course, as he was the 4th rider out of the start house.


I mean, the course was much drier than what we had to contend with. (please note sarcam) I should also note Jan likely would have taken me, but he fully committed to the wrong turn on king street, and had to turn around to get back on course.


I was proud of E-town as he pulled the W going Eddie Merckx style on the very technical course. He's been riding well, but in his head a bit lately. Buddy T. Kegbreaker always says, "empty your head man, empty your head..." E-town's was empty tonight for sure.

The podium was in a crowded bar with lots of raucous folks who weren't bike racers, and were pretty lubricated by the time the band stopped and we were called up. Joe Jefferson was busy pimping us out, I just remember looking out into a see of semi-drunk folks, with women at the front and feeling like a mega dork standing there in lycra. Wearing lycra to the bar is not cool. Dennis got this great shot:
EPI:

Okay from folks I know that are really good guys, and just from the general blogosphere, my understanding was that Johnny Sundt was a douche bag. E-town and I commented as we warmed up, "there's Johnnny-douchebag-Sundt" as we pre-rode and he passed we said to each other in unison : "there's Johnny- douchebag-Sundt." We snickered like the juvenile pricks that we are. It was fun.. heckle the pro. be a jackass. Welcome to the DCCoD.

Plus when a guy punks the local cross heroes, we take it personal. We are a tight community like that.

Funny thing is this after the race, standing around when the results were posted, and waiting for awards, Johnny came over and was talking to me. It was weird, he was really friendly, and really nice. He was talking about racing the Monkey Hill cross race, and the cobbles, and holding his girlfriends clothes while she got her call to the podium. Just a small exchange, but I clearly remember thinking to myself, "why is Johnny-douche bag-Sundt talking to me? I'm just some cat 4 hack." I wished him luck, and rolled out a bit. Etown gave me the stink eye, and asked "what's up with that !?" I just laughed and said, "I have no idea, but he was really nice to me. Not douchey at all. really weird. let's go get you some pants dude." Karma she is an odd mistress at times.

all in all, a really good time. Thanks to Breyla-la, PMP and Monkey for coming out and cheering for us. Thanks to Tom and LWeb for their help at the start finish line too. Thanks to team DRT-Deep Blue for a great event. Thanks to all the folks cheering going up Monkeyhill, that was really cool. Thanks to Washington Street Ale house for a fine fish and chips. Thanks to Johnny for not being a douche to a couple of smart asses.

respect.

faticus

148: Gorgon

Perhaps I should consider a hair cut ?

or maybe a comb?

or maybe not.

Nothing says pimp more than fresh white handle bar tape.

except for maybe this:

So what's with this? Last week it was FAKE ROB now it's FAKE C3 !!?? C3 is clearly Charm City Cycling. Don't try to sell me Connecticut Coast Cycling as C3? This clearly sounds like a turf war. White Kits? What do they have a Bad Allen? Les the Conqueror? Does their director have hair down to his waist? Do they have a Chris Boom? Or a Sal T. Hammer? Maybe their Diane "diesel" Grim is methane? F-town? Skinny Mark? Kenny May? Bad Dog? Jeff Cordrocker? What gives !?

You can't steal our mojo man. I see a long and ugly courtroom battle over the use of C3 coming. Luckily we are sponsored by a law firm. Can you Say pro-bono ?

Friday night I have a TT as part of this festival. Drove the course last night. It's gonna be very technical and hard. The course goes up world famous monkey hill. Really that's what has made this event so attractive to me. Another chance to race up monkey hill. Debate among friends has been whether to use aero equipment or not. Who am I kidding, the debate has been where are we eating and drinking after the race.

Washington Street Ale house has the sweetest macaroni and cheese... I can't wait.

respect.

faticus.

147: who said that yellow was a gender neutral color?

Went on a little ride with a man called leg breaker and a man called Rotten. Bad men they are. I am shattered.

Perhaps semi-retirement is not so good for the form? They were on me like a bad suit. Pretty much 20 minutes into the ride we were cruising across a section of slick, slimy roots. I was thinking about them as devil's fingers, and how I pride myself in being able to ride such technical features, and how challenging they are. Thinking, "man, we are bad asses..."

I commented to Rotten, "I felt set free from the ultra-stable yet hard to turn and no carving provided by the bastard son/ moped, with the ability to carve and flow again on big black I am having a lot of fun. " No sooner did I blurt out the words, then I found myself on the ground. The thing about slick, slimy, devil's fingers roots, is that it takes nothing to throw a no talent hack like me on the ground.

instant karma kills ego every time. Nice little hipper. I had another picture but you could see my wiener and my really hairy ass. This is still a rated R blog thank you.

I kept waiting to hear Rotten say, "so how you like your freedom now bitch?"

in this video Rachel works a v3+, I tell monkey to move, and Buddy just looks good.

what the fuck is a mach 6? Memo to big time movie directors, don't mess with the basic mythology. Geeks like me get really offended. I mean how do you kill off Professor X and Cyclops. Shameful.








Proper mental attitude is essential for success in mountain bike racing. Start by moping around the house. Next check the internet to see if the race was cancelled. Begrudgingly head off to race.
And then win. Simple formula.

or you could be like me and just quit.



Well done my friend, well done.

Finally, Granogue is closing in fast. Register now. As you may not know we will donate at least $1 for every racer entered to the Hera Women's Cancer Foundation. You can enter a raffle to win cool stuff, and help a great cause. Raffle drawings at The Granogue race, you do not have to be present to win.



But you should, be cause the race rules, and you know you can say hi to me. And my friend Brent is coming. If you buy a raffle ticket, Brent will sign any of your twin six merchandise. Really. I promise.


fucking Mach 6. What is that!?



respect
faticus

146: eye

The weather man forested 50% chance of rain. Which also meant a 50% chance of ride. Those of us working our tails off to get Granogue groomed and ready for race day would congratulate ourselves with a few laps of our course.

Sure enough as I drove through Montechain, the skies opened up as one of those spring showers that enables everything to turn green and come alive, pounded the estate. As I parked, I looked up the hill to see Buddy the leg breaker, E-town, Papa Smurf, and Jebbagger rolling in from a lap. They were wet, but smiling ear to ear.

The spring shower quickly past, as I along with Wes t. Conqueror, Dennisbike, F-Rich, Green Trek John (on a bologna bianchi), Breyla-la and BLElizabeth, joined up the original group and we headed back out for a lap.

For me Granogue has always been one of the most challenging places to ride. The combination of quick punchy climbs, gratuitous roots, and loose rocky sections, just lead to a very unique set of trails. The fact that the trails are rarely open, never really gives you a chance to totally get the place dialled in. The course has a natural flow and looseness to it, which can be deceiving. It's very easy to gather a good head of steam as you rip through a nice section, only to realize all too quickly you're in over your head ripping through a technical section. Panicked you quickly find yourself white knuckled, and reaching for the brakes.

Last night the addition of a spring shower made the roots that much more slimy, the corners that much more challenging, and the rock gardens, and roll ins that much scarier. It was pretty damn perfect. Granogue is a special place normally, tonight it was borderline magical.

The fact that much of the trail system is off camber, requires another level of understanding, skill, and patience that is not quickly learned or faked by bigger wheels or full suspension.

Bombing through the trails with this group of riders: all very proficient- all folks I have a lot of respect for, I felt as thought my timing was off, as if the angel on my left shoulder was saying, "you're pushing the edge there faticus..." My angel continued as I struggled across a off camber field section almost planting myself into a hedge row, "Danger! Danger! back off..."

The demon on my right shoulder chirped away, "push the envelop, this is what you live for, stand on the pedals boy..."

Despite my knowing better, despite the fact that crashing tonight and getting hurt would but an text book case of bad judgment, I drove on with this amazing group carving the estate's trails up.

At the end of our loops, I smiled, and wiped the dirt out of my eyes off my face. I felt tired, but refreshed, hungry but satisfied, any angst I may have had with the world- past.

A small group of us ended the day sharing a burrito and a laugh. It was a perfect ending to a pretty damn perfect day.

New Henry's Kits came in. They look great, but something's funny about Jeb's collar:

Freaking PIMP. 14 year old pimp...

respect

faticus

145: Goat

I live in Cecil County, Md. If I was to ride my bike out of my garage within a 5 mile radius of my house I can find at least 5 homes that have confederate flags on on their front steps. I'm all for a persons right to express themselves, but folks it's the year 2008. It's time to move on.

But I digress, in my county, which is really is a pretty nice place to live, I accept that if a few of my neighbors still fly old Dixie, that getting curbside recycling is going to be almost impossible.

Yeah, so me just trying to do my part, I of course recycle. This means hauling multiple containers of bottles, cans, and other recyclable material up to where I work in Southern Chester County, where there are a number of recycling stations to drop my material.

I have to be honest that I'm always worried about getting pulled over after dropping off my recycling. You see the bulk of my recyclable material is beer bottles. After the drop my car smells a bit like your favorite bar after closing on Saturday night. Oh, no not the nice place you go now, but the dive you used to go to in your early twenties, you know where you showed up at midnight, and tried to see how many rounds you could squeeze in before the bar closed at 1:00. I can't remember the last time I closed a bar...

There I go digressing again. If I got pulled over, I'd get drug down town pretty fast. "have you been drinking son?" the officer would say. "No, sir" I'd reply, "then why do you smell like a brewery boy? Out of the car long hair, your goose is cooked!"

and seriously, stone sober I can't say the alphabet backwards. I'd be totally fucked.

been missing Rotten Rob and liz , who have been a world travelers of late. Saw some guy at the climbing gym Monday night with a scruffy beard, shaggy hair, and a mandana, and I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't Rotten. I was meandering around Middle Run , and saw a bunch of folks I hadn't seen in a while, including Ted Logic. I came upon the FU in FUn ride, and lo and behold who's sitting 2nd wheel That's right good ole rotten!

After my ride, I was heading home when I saw this:

yup, someone walking their goat. I'd like to say this was in Cecil County, but alas it was not.

Meandering on the bike went well , although I couldn't hang on the FU in Fun ride. I heart my bike.

Tonight is half priced nacho night!

respect.

faticus

144: thundercats are go!

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth."

Saturday morning was spent with a good crew of folks working in the Granogue course. Lots of raking, and bridge building, and trimming. All good stuff that help to make this race as special as it is. Even for those of us that have only been able to do the race twice in the some 9 or 12 years of the race, the juice is still worth the squeeze. Thanks to everyone who gave up their time to help work on the course. Granogue is coming together nicely. Will you be there?

after putting in some quality work time, we put in some quality play time:

C3-Sollay teammate Cruella on the roll in.

International Man of Mystery, Les Leach makes Fitzy's delight look easy:

In the past the knock on Green Trek John (on his bologna bianchi) was that he had a huge motor but not so great bike handling skills. On Fitzy's delight, one of the toughest sections of Granogue, John shows how far he has come.

Dennisbike is one of the original bad asses in our region. He defines well rounded cyclist, excelling in each discipline he has tackled. People talk about local legends. To me he is the epitome. Even more than his riding is how much he gives back to the community, from his photos to the time donated at countless races, to the wisdom his passes down to saps like me. Watch him eat this up.

Sunday, saw me grabbing Jebbager out of bed and throwing him in the back of the toaster.

"get in the car long hair!!!"

We ended up at French Creek meeting JDub, Joel (every time I hang out with this guy I like him more), Chappy, Baggy Short Dan, Sanford and son, Mike, Brey la-la, Wheelie Ted, Andrea, and a couple other folks I'm sure I missing. Jeff tried to poison us by over lubing his chain before we left. The car stunk of pro-chain lube, and almost asphyxiated us both. At French Creek, one of my favorite places to ride, We left with a big group, but shortly trimmed down to a little more manageable number.

French Creek is such an amazing place to ride, so different from my normal diet. I was loving the rocks, and carving the trails. Considering how poorly I have been riding the rock gardens at B-wine lately, I was pretty stoked with my ride today. It was pretty outstanding.

On the way out of the park, Jeb practically passed out. I'm guessing 4 hours with Slick Rik Saturday, and our nice tour today took a little out of the guy. He sure as hell didn't show it on the bike. Thanks to Bike Line crew for letting a couple of crossers sit in.

" I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I--I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

Brian, Jeb's dad also has realized the aerodynamic benefits of lycra when cutting the grass.

respect.

faticus

(poem by frost.)