"That was irrational of you... not to mention unsportsmanlike."

Sheesh what a weekend. I had hopes of driving up to Pisgah on my day off Friday but the green blob on the radar directly over Pisgah didn't look promising so I decided to head to FATS. The plan was to ride the less popular Deep Step, Big Rock and Tower trails first and then come back towards the parking lot and finish on the all-too-popular Brown Wave and Skinny loops. The trails were deserted and in pristine shape. I can't remember having so much fun on a bike. Big Rock counter-clockwise and Tower clockwise are easily some of the best riding imaginable. Fast, flowy but not as pump trackish like Great Wall or Brown Wave. There are some steep climbs and even steeper, very tight descents. Even though a shower had passed through overnight, the trails were dry with the corners quite tacky. Coming back on a conenctor trail, I overcooked a tight lefthand turn and kicked my leg out to prevent a crash. I instantly felt my back muscles seize and then give out. I had pulled my lower back yet again (September 2010 was the last occurrence) and hobbled to the car. Fuck. I was on my back unable to move Friday and Saturday and then spent 3 1/2 hours in a car Sunday driving to the Dinosaur Jr / Off! concert in Atlanta. Incredible show. Off! blew me away. Their lead singer, Keith Morris, was the front man for the Circle Jerks. Their guitarist played in Burning Brides. The bass player was from Red Kross(!) and their drummer Mario Rubalcaba played in Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes! So yeah, pretty much a super-group. Dinosaur Jr. performed "Bug" in its entirety along with a few other hits. Still one of the loudest bands you will ever encounter. Although the show was amazing, my back paid for it dearly and after missing work Monday and Tuesday, I am sitting here on a Wednesday morning at my work desk, typing this in agonizing pain. Such is life. I hope to be back on the bike in a few weeks.
Here is OFF!



Here is the sherm pipe I found at FATS. Scraped the resin out for some foil hits on the drive back home to ease my back pain.


Here is Dinosaur Jr:

Fairwell dear friend...

If you've even hung or tried to hang with the Hoff crew you have undoubtedly heard about the "Burrito Ride". Well Joshie dropped this little nugget of information on me last week. Yo Burrito is no more!!! I know... WTF!! I guess with the Hoff crew not giving the place a stead flow of drunkards they couldn't stay afloat. So on that note, A photo bomb for you Yo Burrito...

not burrito related but just because

Also I do realize that these photos IN NOW WAY represent the shit that has gone down on burrito rides. I merely inherited the tradition. So dig deep through your photos Hoffs lets see what you got! Do it for Yo! Single tear.

Belated Burn 24 Hour report

Early in the year I talked Chad into doing the duo category at the Burn 24 Hour. Seemed like a fun idea at the time. He had never done a 24 hour race and i had only attempted a duo once at the 24 hrs of Adrenalin in Conyers around 2004. I made it to around 2am before i climbed in the tent with B and called it quits (B went on to finish solo). Fast forward to May 27th...Chad, Andrea, and I are riding Mad Max style in the Cane Creek work truck down I-40 headed to Wilkesboro to set up camp and pre-ride. I don't have any pics of the course but it didn't seem so bad. Some climbing, lots of roots, some fun downhills. Afterwards, we headed to Amalfi's Italian Restaurant and discovered the best reason to ever go back to Wilkesboro...Beer in a boot.

Beer dranked, we called it a night and headed back to camp. Saturday dawns and I finally talk Chad into doing the lemans start AND the first two laps. Awesome. From there on we were 2 laps on, 2 laps off. The small hills on the course suddenly seemed bigger, and the roots were super slick and massive.

Chad stayed calm and collected. I, on the other hand was mentally and physically all over the place from lap 1 until my last lap. One lap would suck, the next would be great. That continued most of the night. Chad didn't break down until around 1am i guess. Thank dog, i couldn't believe how easy he was making it seem considering he had just come off the couch a month earlier.

I thought we would settle into a nice groove and churn out moderate laps. Turns out we were actually racing, and had been for 13 hours, something i wasn't completely expecting. After looking back at our lap times we had consistently ridden mid to high 40 minute laps for the first 12 hours. 50 + minute laps didn't come until after midnight and even then they were only 5 minutes or so off the pace of most of our day laps. That explains why the pace felt so hard.

Around midnight we were in 8th or 9th place out of 15 teams. By 7am we had moved up to 4th, 30 minutes out of 3rd place. This was good and bad. Good because we had dominated through the hardest part of the race to move up, bad because with sunrise, I had also expected to ease off. Andrea talked me off a cliff a couple of times when I was mentally thrashed and we pushed on through to the finish. We never caught 3rd, so 4th place it was and we were happy with that. 28 laps total, 208 miles. Hardest race i've ever done.

What do we have here??? 7'ish on Sunday morning.


Like a boss...click to get the full effect.


Finishing the 6:30 -8am shift



Me: this course can eat a dick. Chad: yawn. I just had a nap, a hot dog, and a pack of nutter butters.


Mr. Happy off again. Very Nice!



Low point of the race for me. Lap 12 of 14. Sleep deprivation mixed with racing is a bitch.


Finishing up.



Done.


Interesting tidbits...evidently Chad has a son (see pic below). They met for the first time at Amalfi's. You'll have to ask him about that one. Chad's nipples also instantly chafed on the first lap. He wore band-aids over them from lap 2 till the finish. I have pictures but only for the right price.


Also, putting a portable grill together 30 minutes before the start is not the best use of time.

Thanks to Andrea for being Directeur Sportif for the weekend. Not only did she get us a boss pit site, she stayed up all night making sure we were ready to go when it was time. Thanks also to Kel and Josh for cooking and generally keeping up with all our shit and having it ready when we needed it.

That is all, thanks for coming.

12 Hours of Tsali Observations

First of all, it was hot. Real hot, even for Tsali. The attrition rate was high and the enthusiasm for churning out laps on a dusty course was low. Jerm and I pondered finding some cheebah to smoke after his 4th lap but I had to peace out and besides, my drug season doesn't officially start until Bastille Day. But anyway, apologies to Jerm for not having anything on hand. Apologies to Herb for leaving before saying bye but considering his laps were averaging three hours, I couldn't risk it. Plaudits to the all women team of Kelly, Lauren and Andrea for scoring a solid 4th place. Interesting hand-off technique as evidenced by the pic...

Chad was pro-tastic manning the lap counter clipboard as interim team director. Times, laps, splits, places, caloric intakes, etc. Chad was on top if it. Here, he and Kel discuss mid-race strategy and resuming the team doping program....

Eric acted as team mechanic. He did a good job adjusting shifter cables and lubing Chris Strout's chain, liberally. I seem to remember Eric grilling some hotdogs as well. Jesus, they were delicious. Is there anything that man won't throw on a portable gas grill? Then my camera battery died. Watching the suffering made me wish I was out there.... swimming in the lake with a Busch Light surrounded by hillbilly lake pee... not racing! New Hoff kits are all black. Should be interesting come late August...

Hoffencross 2011

August 20th. This could be you if you win this year...

The World is Creepy Small

I was out riding Kokopelli yesterday and ended up riding Troy Built with a couple fellas. After the ride we were chattin it up and it turns out these dudes were from Calgary, eh and were visiting Moab for a week and had just come up to ride here in Junction for the day. After sharing life stories one of the guys asks me if I have ever heard of one Rich Dillen, and I'm like "ummm,cha bra, why?". Apparently this dude is his teammate at the Breck Epic. No shit. Mind. Blown.

Race Report: Mead Roubaix

Mead Roubaix = Epic hurt! I cant say I've ever experienced a race or even a ride quite like this. The course, the weather, the competition all made this race a true tough man's or woman's challenge. The course ended up being extremely sandy forcing a lot of riders off their bikes. Heading west there was about a 25+/- mph wind destroying any kind of rhythm you may have had and crushing the souls of riders left without a group. Races broke up before the half way mark of the first lap. If you missed the group you missed out.
As far as my race... I cant really say I'm happy or unhappy with it. I ended up 30th out of about a 75ish field where only 48 actually finished so I'm ok with that. I had my hopes set on a top 20 but dudes are strong out here. I think actually finishing this thing was a feat in its own right. So Mead Roubaix, check!

Peep the Garmin data

If you want to check out some more info/pics/video check it out here. 303cycling or over at CyclingDirt

Here is what I'm eying up next: either The Koppenberg or Superior Morgul Classic with some crits thrown in here or there.

Front Range Hoff OUT

Time to test the legs.

While most cycling fans will be on the couch or in front of the computer watching Paris Roubaix, cyclist on the front rangee will be mixing it up in our own "hell of the north" Mead Roubaix.
The weather has been going in and out but odds are that were in for a very northern France/Belgian style of race.
I for one am pretty excited/nervous, having always wanted to do a race like this and feeling pretty fit and dropping a bit of my "winter" weight but knowing the level of competition here in Boulder can shut down the ego pretty quick.
I've got the whip ready with some 25c Continental Gatorskins, K Edge chain watcher and some clear protective tape for the DT, underside of the chain-stays and front of the fork blades.
Let's see how it goes...