a midsummer night's dream, er, i mean midsummer hiatus. and an 8 hour race.

i know some inquiring minds have been wondering if i fell off the face of the two wheeled earth.  no, just a bit of midsummer downtime out this way.  had a fun and somewhat rewarding first half of the season on the bike, then came the end of june and the arrival of Dave Nicolay (who some may remember is a team hoff member, though i haven't seen him on a bike since a NYE very intoxicated ride into downtown raleigh).  we lived it up a couple of days in tahoe and then hit the road for Moab.

what followed was a 4 day raft trip down the colorado for Joel's dirty thirty.  lots of beer.  lots of whiskey.  no riding in sight.

it started with a bit of this:

then onto this:

with a fair amount of this:

a few of these:

more of this:

plenty of this:

a few rocks:

some of this:

followed by this:

definitely a fair amount of this (Dave, making the team proud):

even some of this (very late, very 'hydrated'):

then this:

wrapped up with this:

yes, dave is sleeping in a crate.

then came a week with dave and joel both back in Tahoe.  good times.  then some climbing and such for the month of July.

like this in yosemite:

and a washed out shot with the B:

what, its August?  yeah a month off the bike - eating, floating, swimming, climbing, drinking and other general merriment.  August 1st - the Kirkwood 9 to 5.  i found out about it 4 days before the event and decided to race because i needed to get back on the bike.

technical course.  descent climbing.  finished second to a former pro in the single speed class (he also set the fastest lap of the day!).  we had a 'fun' battle during the race in which he better me in the final two hours.  just happy for the podium after a month of nothing two wheel related.

the only flat section of trail:

podium:

sweaty armpit man is trying to hold my hand . . .

'recovery' ride sunday was a brisk 100 miler with the boys around the lake and up to Truckee.

happy august.