smelly breezes

Dear Reader,

I got home from work late last night.
Didn't have enough time to get outside,  lights weren't charged, trails were wet- I had to ride the trainer.

I'm not fan of riding the trainer. But when there seems to be a future riding outside, the trainer does seems much more bearable.

Layla thought it was pretty awesome to look out the window and fart into the fan while I rode.

Let's just say, I didn't think it was nearly as awesome.

looking forward to some colder, but outside miles this weekend.

rock on.

respect.
fatmarc vanderbacon

Cutting Class

Dear Reader,

Monkey and I both had intervals on tap for Tuesday evening. I will admit a sleepless night Monday, and Monkey constantly giving me weather updates of total suckness for the rest of the week, we decided to skip class and jump in on one of the local trail spinner rides.


the ride was very fun. good people, fun loops around fairhill.

The guy that leads the ride is a good guy. He does a lot for the community and I really respect him.
Although I am proud to have been a part of the Wooden Wheels Racing Family, I have not been on that team for 10 years now. I'd guess that I haven't worn a Wooden Wheels Jersey in probably 8 years now. That being said every time I see the kind gentleman he asks, " so how is wooden wheels treating you? you still riding for them?" To which I point to my jersey and say, "no, I'm on C3 Athletes Serving Athletes. I have been for almost 5 years now."

The kind gentlemen says, " I hear Dog Fish Head is sponsoring you guys this year."

Confused I retort, "no, sir, I think they are sponsoring Wooden Wheels, but I ride for C3, you know out of Baltimore... Charm City Cyclocross ?"

He smiles and winks at me, "you guys gotta bring some extra beer to the races this year okay?"

Exasperated, because we have had similar conversations like this for the 10 years that I have not been on Wooden Wheels team, I point at my jersey and mutter somewhat under my breath " C3- 3x MAC Champs, 2x Mabra champs... Bad Andy... Kris Auer...Laura Van Gilder...Wes Schempf" I continue to mutter as he leads the group on up the trail.... "C3 not Wooden Wheels..."


Aw fuck it, next time I do one of his rides, I'm wearing one of  my old Wooden Wheels Jerseys...

Thanks for a great ride, and a great time. Monkey and I rode home all smiles.... We'll leave our stinky old intervals for the basement tonight...

you know this would be a great picture if not for Monk wearing the most God Awful Pajamas ever.

respect
fatmarc

My father was Zorro.

Dear Readers,
True story.
"hey, hon in our twenty years together there are a couple of words I have noticed that you have developed your own slower Delaware-weirdo-family pronunciation " I said playfully to Monkey as we drove toward Twenty 20 Cycling Company Saturday afternoon.


"What do mean?" Monkey responded coyly...

"Well," I explained, "say bull."

Monkey obliged, "Bull"

I continued, "now say shit."

Monkey says, "shit"

"Now, say them together " I direct her.

"booshet" she says.

We both start laughing. "What exactly is "booshet" ?" I ask.

In protest Monkey says, "that's not right."

"I have another." offering up my next pearl of wisdom. "say jack"

She says, "jack"

"now please say ass." I request.

"ass" Monkey utters, almost starting to laugh.

"And put them together:" I say leading the witness

"jeckace" She says.

"Really, jeckace huh?" "what exactly is that?" we both start laughing as we speed down the I 95.


"Dude, you are not right, that is some serious booshet, you jeckace!" she jabs at me, as we both burst into laughter.

Dear readers, seriously, get my wife to say "jackass" or "bullshit" and hear for yourself. I am not making this up.

Potter and Layla are getting comfortable together...

 Diane climbing up to the look out at Elk Neck Friday.



I took this picture when I cracked at Fairhill Saturday. I thought it would be a cool shot. I was wrong.



Fort James, who now rides for the Secret Henry's Team, and I did a nice loop of the Granogue course this morning, prior to our Granogue Work Party. We did a couple loops around the Weymouth's section. There is a rock garden that I haven't cleaned in maybe 5 years. I mean Spot was still a Canadian Company. Peaches only had one kid, Todd was still really fast up hill, and well Fort James rode for Fort. I have to say it took 4 runs at it, and made it twice.  I was stoked.

Heather, Jimmy and Anne Rock headed out after working the course, to take the fruits of their labor.

had a great group of folks out working on the Granogue Course. We have a couple of nice new twists for this year. I won't list who all is here, because well, when I make lists I get myself in trouble. Lot of work done today, lots to do still.  You should go here and register. It's gonna be an awesome racing this year for sure. Thanks to everyone that came out to help pull the course together.

Get read for a seriously cute picture of Potter.

respect.
fatmarc vanderbacon

the history of the blue cup ride

Well, I had hoped that Todd would provide us with the history of the Thursday night blue cup ride.

Todd commented, "write your own damn blog!"

On last night's blue cup ride, he did mention he liked the picture of my nephew from his shopping trip and something about the movie mannequin being his favorite movie ever.

I thought that was a little weird, but he proceeded to throw the smackdown around the trails of fairhill, so I wasn't going to argue with him.

Monk and I are going to cut out of work early and head down to elk neck this afternoon.
Gonna be a great weekend...

respect
fatmarc vanderbacon

The World's Oldest Tuesday Night MTB Ride:

By Mr. Forrest

The Longest continuously held Tuesday Night Ride in the World, maybe the USA, ok maybe the East Coast, probably just around here.

The ride that started back when there were pay phones, the ride before Marc got Fat, before Buddy broke any legs, back before Ted 2000, back before Fuzzy went gray, back when "Bobby" was a boy, back before BIG wheels ruined it for everyone and back before I was old. I am talking wayyyy, back when Justin T, a kid named Joey and some really fast girl, were all regulars for some big FUn on Tuesdays.


Back before Robert was "Rotten" sure he smelled a bit but, back before Matt T was a fruit. Back before I was burgled 3 times, no make that 4 times. Way back to 1996.

This season, the FUnnest season of all, marks the 16th season for the TNT ride, the ride that started the 5 minute rule, the ride that made beer drinking in parking lots cool again.

That's right folks the TNT ride is back for an other season of ball busting, beer drinking FUn.
Looks like the trails are dry, the weather will be fine and we are all ready to get ready.


Just in case you forgot the ride starts at 5:30 from the Zingo's lot.........on TUESDAY NIGHT

Man it's good to be back.
PEDALPEDALPEDAL

todd

And now for something completely different:

Nephew and Niece doing some bike racing...
This is how it all starts:

Busy Little Bee

Dear Reader,

It was one of those wonderful weekends. One that makes me realize just how lucky I am. I realize it's really just great to be alive. I have an amazing life. It all started Friday when my sister in law sent us this:

My nephew is a boy after my own heart.

Saturday was a hard ride with some friends. I never felt good. Never found my legs, or rhythm. I did feel like I kept getting kicked in the teeth. But I never got dropped, I never quit, I just kept telling myself one more hill, one more section... Stay on the wheel... At the end of the day, well I made it to then end of the ride. It was a good day.

Sunday, Diane and I headed down to Elk Neck.Conditions were outstanding. Elk Neck is great fun, one of my favorite places to ride. There's not a ton of trail there, but it's like Jedi training for my favorite kind of riding. Tight, twisty, rooty, oddly placed rocks and logs and difficult technical climbs. Diane was riding very well, I was proud. I mentioned to her that Elk Neck was like Dagobah system. It's Jedi training. She says to me with a smile and a wink, "I've wish I could get Yoda off my back!"  We both laughed out loud.

And then there was hanging with Layla and Potter.

hard to have a bad weekend with these guys.

(warning gratuitous cute puppy photo next)

  

weather looks good in the next ten days. Hoping to do Sugar Hill next weekend and a little tour of Fairhill if we can... Daylight savings time should get us some good riding this week too. Just in time, I was starting to feel a bit like a vampire. Let's have some fun...

thanks for reading.

respect

fatmarc vanderbacon

Blame Mackay.

This is Brilliant.



thanks Tom.

respect
fatmarc Vanderbacon

ghosts

Ghosts rattle around in my head.

I HATE, I mean HATE changing my positions on my bike.  When my fat ass broke my previous seat, I knew I was in trouble.

No amount of measuring, No amount of lining up seats. No, not even the use of tape, can make this process easy for me. Someone asked me why I used the same seat for over 15 years now. Simple: it's always the same. the measurements work. But now, here I am with a new seat. Uncharted territory. And the Ghosts, the Phantoms, the doppelgangers are full on in my mind.

Changing the seat is like looking in the mirror and saying Candyman three times.

The demon has entered my head.

I get  the seat set up, in what measured to be the exact position on the old one.

Riding around, the ghosts taunt me. “ Hmmm, it feels a little lower than before” Disregarding my measurements, my time trusted rules about messing with position, I raised my seat. “that feels better”

45 minutes later, the Demon whispers in my ear. I think I feel something in my knee.
 “Hmm, maybe I raised it just a bit too high. Maybe my knee didn’t really feel anything, But something isn’t right.”

The Phantom taps me on my left shoulder, and I fully commit looking left, he slips by me on the right.

I lower my new white seat a few millimeters, I pull out the measuring tape. “hmm, close this should be right….”

I wake up in the middle of the night. I think my legs are sore. Hmm, I am just tired, or something off with my position…

I walk down to the garage and pull out the measuring tape again.

The devil rips through the room, laughing at me all the while.

I HATE changing out my seat.


respect.
fatmarc vanderbacon

Steve and Kevin.

Dear Reader,

It's March and people are getting the itch to get racing again. Bike racers can only sustain themselves on rides and trainer intervals so much. Sure enough it was 50 degrees and raining, so of course I was signed up to do a couple of training crits. Rain, and Road Racing in a meaningless crit, what could possibly go wrong?

Super fun day.
35+/45+ race
Maybe 25 starters. A couple of moves early that split the field. Maybe 9 of us got clear. God I'm stupid, it would have been so much smarter to realize there was a split and not be in it.  As there was 9 of us, there was a lot dynamics, people going, chasing, all that good stuff. With about one and a half to go, we all kinda sat up and looked around at each other. It was the first time in the 45 minute race, that it let up for a few seconds. Seriously felt like I was bleeding out my eyes.  Someone commented, "you know we could just ride in the last part of the race like this..." Wade announced before I could get it out of my mouth, "that would be really awesome" And then the attacking started. Dude from Pro Pedals got clear. I sat up with 200m to go.
1234 race
combined the 3/4 field and 123 field. 3 dudes took off in the first 50 feet and were totally gone. The rest of the race was much more mellow/manageable than the old man race. Not a ton of folks working together, and no real chase. Big groupetto riding together. With maybe 5 to go Warren from Alliance looked over at this kid from Cadence and said, "dude are you going to pull through or what?" Warren and the kid from cadence were both  totally working all day. I chirped up, "you know I've been sitting on both your wheels, and you've been working really hard, while I have been hiding out. Perhaps we should yell at the guys behind us?" Everyone laughed.

Chuck took a couple of nice flyers today.

Dude from cadence attacked with one to go and stayed clear to finish ahead of the field sprint. Good on him, he was working really hard. I sat up for the sprint again, not that I would have been a factor or anything. Fun day. Rainy, Nasty day. I was destroyed.

Best Part of the entire day was this dude who I think must have hand washed his shorts last night and not rinsed them too well. With all the rain and total epicness, his shorts were foaming over with suds, all over his seat, his shorts, down his bike. It was awesome. At one point I was on his wheel and the headwind blew a sud over my shoulder. Totally rad.

Thanks to Chuck and Sophie for riding over with me, it was great to have company.

thanks to Sophie for the photos too.

thanks for reading.

respect
fm

"I don't sleep. I wait."

Dear Reader,

So I went to a local Deli for lunch today.

The guy in front of me steps up the counter.
The Deli-kid asks, “What can I get your sir?”
The gentleman in front of me answers, “I’ll have a Charlie Sheen.”
The Deli-kid, looking puzzled, “Pardon me sir?”
The gentleman if front of me continues, “ A Charlie Sheen. You know, a tuna meltdown!”
The Deli-kid, cracks up, “one Charlie Sheen coming up!”

Only in America. Charlie Sheen Mania is sweeping the nation.

My new seat:

My new seat at the Newark Reservoir:




My new seat  at a soccer game:



 My new seat at the University Library:

My new seat at the Newark Bike Path:

So yeah, I got a new seat. I was breaking it in today...

Have a great one.

respect.

fatmarc vanderbacon