that was nice...

dear readers,

This is the MAC's 3x Junior Women's Champion. Her father sent me a note and this picture thanking us (the MAC board/promoters) for all we have done. Kinda made my day, on this the last day of the year. Good Stuff For sure.

be safe out there.

respect
vanderbacon

Photo Blogging

Dear Readers,

Electric Lemonade to kick off the weekend

Shocked  and Pleased to hear this dude wanted to ride on the road this weekend...

Rode out to meet the Willowdale ride with these guys (Eric, Dennisbike, Jeffy and Nick)

Ryan and Garvey too..

nice camel back dude...

no comments

respect
vanderbacon

Riding Brings Smiling Faces...

Dear Reader,

My name is fatmarc vanderbacon. Once I went out with some friends to get a slice of pizza and a beer, and the Iowa/Penn State wrestling match was on TV. It was awesome.

You know what is even more awesome? Diane got to ride a bike outside this weekend! First time since Providence CX. Knee is still not right, but slow, very slow progress. Riding a bike outside is a pretty amazing thing,  I hope I never forget that...

these two have been pretty beat up this year. Riding outside is always brings the smiles!

Monkey went sexy jeans ride to not overdo it.

24 minutes, not long, but today a victory...

Saturday, I rode one of my favorite local rides the Turkey Point Loop. Now, I will say that I only do the full Turkey Point loop a couple of times a year, which I always question why. Then when I do the Turkey Point loop I remember why. ITS REALLY, REALLY HARD.

While Diane was all smiles on the ride, I was feeling a bit more:

I was lucky to have a great group of guys to drag me around and make sure I got back to the house.
Our group was Dennisbike, Nick, Joe B, Scotty, Dave, Chris C, and I.

good riding for sure.

thanks for reading...

respect
vanderbacon

Pride and Chasing the Shark

Dear Readers,

My name is fatmarc vanderbacon. I wrapped up my semester with a final exam last week. I did well. Ten classes done, 2 to go. Another A in the bank. I'll admit, when I first got an A in my first couple of classes, it was elation. These last two classes were really hard, I'll admit it was as much relief as joy when I saw the grade.

So it's been tough pulling the plug on cross season early this year, so with school in the bank, I approached the appropriation committee about racing this weekend.  Diane's response was very similar to Marcellus Wallus here:




She made the point that I haven't done an interval or ridden my cross bike since Fairhill, and that while the idea of racing sounds great, the actual execution would be- well horrible.  That and we do have a bunch of holiday stuff going on. I didn't put up too much of a fight, and didn't really have a good counter offer because- well she was right... Next year... Next year...

Saturday, I got out early, trying to avoid the storms. I wasn't sure who all would show up, but we ended up having a really nice group. Someone snow blew the trails over at white clay and middle run. I won't comment on that. BUT I will say that few days later the trails had lots of slick icy sections, and were well ridden in. They were really fun. Big group, solid pace and good day to get comfy with the new bike and sliding around.  But I'll admit, without Buddy the leg breaker, it wasn't the same.

Saturday afternoon was a shit storm of rain/snow, so it created a nice opportunity to ride down with Wiser and the crew.  Swimming with with sharks. We put in a solid ride, and fought a lot of head wind, I was pretty spent. My legs are hurting as I type this...

Water crossings on a road ride...

spent most of the day sitting in the back hiding

I'll also admit, I thought for sure my ride today would put me over the top on my team's strava club board. But alas, my teammate Jen Tillman, the Tillminator, took me out again, with a pretty damn solid ride of her own today. Damn, so close... Good on you Jen!

Busy week at the Clog Factory this week, so I'm guessing I'm not gonna get a run at Tillman next week. It's a long winter!

thanks for reading.

best to you.

respect
vanderbacon

Mr. Belvedere still hates you, but we love Buddy the leg breaker

Dear Reader,

My name is fatmarc vanderbacon. I had the great pleasure of riding my bike with Buddy the leg breaker, Kid Chris, Nick, Shane, Rombach (toughest man on the planet) and Kurtee last weekend.

"big deal" you say. "you ride with those guys ALL the time..."

Yeah, well yeah, but after a few months of crushing souls minus an ACL, Buddy the leg breaker will have surgery this week to be made whole again. I'll miss riding with him, and he called his shot as we headed out for the "Mr. Belvedere hates you loop" for his last ride.

A few thoughts:

1. Mr. Belvedere hates you much more in December than in June. This was much tougher than I remembered.  We had two LONG peppy sections that stung my legs everytime I walked up the stairs the rest of the weekend.

2. We turned onto Old Elk Neck road and it looked like someone smashed 100 cases of beer all over the place. There was glass every where. Perhaps fitting, Buddy got a flat on his last ride for a while.

3. While changing the tire a kind woman drove by, slowed down to take a good look to, we assumed  make sure we were okay. Just then the kind young woman flipped us the bird and sped off. Welcome to cecil county.

4. As we rode into North East we saw lots of road closed signs. It became clear that the Christmas Parade was coming through town, and sure enough we rode right through it. We greeted the crowd with our best pageant waves. We were greeted by kind smiles all along this section of the route.

At the end of the of the ride, it was all smiles, as Buddy explained how much he loves parades, and we wished him the best of luck wtih his surgery. It was a pretty damn good day...

looking forward to riding with Buddy very soon...

thanks for reading.

respect
Vanderbacon...

losing things, riding a trainer in a parking lot, and stuff like that

Dear Readers,

My name is fatmarc vanderbacon. I lost my wedding ring this weekend. Ouch. In the scope of an otherwise incredibly awesome weekend, I lost my wedding ring. I'll admit that put me into my own sort of fit and personally inflicted havoc. But, at the end of the day, I'll say that it was all for a good cause. Now the good news is this: I have a friend named Benny da Jewlar. Benny is da Jewlar for cyclist everywhere, 

and Benny was able to help me out with a new ring. Thank you sir. BTW even if you aren't a cyclist, I would highly recommend Benny as a jewelry resource. 

"How the hell did you lose your wedding ring?" I'll get there...

Thanksgiving morning started out with a spectacular ride with these gentlemen. A couple of nice hours over at fairhill making a special spot in my belly for a lot of food later.

While Diane can't ride a bike yet, Blake, Consorto, and Kita also rode out of our place and we hung out for a bit and shared things we were thankful for... and few Fat Tire Ale's courtesy of Mr. Sean Mealy!

Cyclists are demented and sad, but social.

Everyone headed out to their respective festivities. Might I add I thought it was really one of the best ever from my brother and his wife at their sweet new house, and yes even from the outlaws.

"Great, now how the hell did you lose your wedding ring?"

Okay, on Friday Henry's Bikes was holding a CF foundation fundraiser. Essentially they were going to have people riding trainers in front of the shop for 24hrs. I had signed up to ride from 4:30pm-6:00pm. In the course of rushing there, and trying to find socks, and.. well I lost it. I scoured the Henry's Parking lot. I scoured my car. I scoured my sock drawer. It's gone. I'm quite sure an evil little gnome took my ring into some odd black hole. bummer

Good news is that the CF Foundation Raised just over $7000!
And frankly, I think the event could do more. Could get more spinners! We could do $10k next year. I look forward to being a part of this again next year!

That cute guy in the back with hi-vis booties and no wedding ring- yeah that's me...

So at the end of the day, I got to be apart of a pretty amazing event, got to see lots of friends, and have a really wonderful long weekend...

As Kelly Cline said, "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store, Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more. Happy Black Friday"

thanks for reading.

best to you

respect
vanderbacon