That's Mr. Vanderbacon if you're nasty...

Dear Readers,
I heard this track on Y-rock this week, and I have to admit I have been pretty obsessed with it since. It has been running pretty steadily through my head for days now. With the exception of an hour on our ride on Saturday where, for God knows why, the Dead Milkmen's Punk Rock Girl was stuck in head. Specifically, the section that goes, "We'll dress like Minnie Pearl, just you and me Punk Rock Girl", this has been on the steady mental play list...


SATURDAY

If you are Jake Davidson and reading this, please stop here. The ride sucked and was no fun and had no value training. There is nothing to see after this line for you. Other readers please continue:

The ride was an exceptionally good one. Very talented group, all like minded in purpose. I was freaking lucky to be able to hang on. Amy and Chris  had to pace me back to the pack a couple of times:



Thanks Amy, Thanks kid Chris.


So early in the ride I come to the front along side Mark the Shark.
I say to him, "Hello Mark. This will likely be my only time near the front today. I wanted to get a pull in and get it out of the way. Now, I can hide in the back the rest of the day."
The Shark responds, "you know if Diane was here, she would have taken four pulls by now."
I smile, "yup, she would have. I'm not as strong as she is and I know better"

we laughed as he continued to pull our group down the road, and I found my spot out of the wind in the back of the pack...

Every one  is riding well, and the fruits of the winter efforts were showing. it was cool. Got to ride with Chuck for the first time. Nice kid, you know when he wasn't punching you in the face on the climbs. Very friendly, funny, super cool, then he'd kick you in the nuts and drop you on the next climb.Then pick up his kind word and conversation right where he left off. Awesome guy.  He's clearly riding out of his mind. It was good to get to ride with him, and have him in the group of otherwise folks that I have had the pleasure of riding with many times before. The Mass boys are gonna love him...

heard on the ride:
Kid Chris, "I saw despicable me last night."
Fatme, " I saw that in the theater."
Travis, " you shouldn't say that out loud"


laughter ensues...

At the very end of the ride, I kinda lost Travis. (sorry man). Someone asked me, "does he know his way around?" to which I coyly responded, "no, I don't think so, but he's a ranger, so I'm hoping for the best."
Thankfully, we saw Travis's smiling face as we rolled into the parking lot of the Delaware Running Company.

SUNDAY

So when ever someone asks me, "are you a mountain biker or a roadie?" Smugly, I reply, " I race cyclocross." I know, kinda douchey, but I am what I am.

I admit, that I love my road bike, and enjoy getting to ride with great folks, and frankly in recent weeks, we have had some amazing road rides. That being said, my start in cycling was on a mountainbike, and at some level for me it always comes back to mountain bike riding.

I had fully planned to ride the road again Sunday, but then the rumors of trip to Pine Barrens came to fruition. Monkey and Blake pulled it together. We were lucky enough to be guided by Janel and Andrea, with Travis, Blake, Monkey, Kevin and I enjoyed an amazing day. The Wharton State Forrest offered amazing trails, and much needed time back on the dirt. The fact that it turned out to be 15 degrees warmer than we expected and sunny was just an added bonus.

Not even a broken seat rail: What do you expect- fatguy on ti rails, what could go wrong?

But I digress not even a broken seat rail in the first mile, could keep me from smiling for the entire trek.

It was amazing there, they even had logs that were challenging to get over,(like Janel) but if you wanted to go around them (like me, because big logs scare me), you could. We have nothing like that in Delaware. Who would think of such an ingenius trail design. Logs you can ride or go around. WOW.


Okay, I'll stop being a douche. It was a great day, and really what Monkey and I needed as we have both kinda hit the wall with riding the road, and really hit the wall riding indoors.

This picture is to show the team director that I am actually wearing appropriate team gear, and I won't get fined this month.

Miles of smiles today folks, miles of smiles....

thanks again to my friends for a great tour.


best to you.

respect
fatmarc vanderbacon or nasty