bring on the gravel

it's been gravel roads for the last three weeks. it's important to hit a convenient store at the turn around for some hot coffee and day old donuts to warm up the toes. i think it approached freezing today. 70miles of cold weather fixie drop bar gravel road action.

Grasshopper #1 2010

G.A.S.#1 done with no bloodshed outta me on my 47th. Others suffered scuffs and dings. I heard tales of gore. A great time had by all. Congrats to Shane and his leadout man!

The seasonal do-gooder.

I read an article a couple of years ago that mentioned if everyone who rode Mt. Tam gave up just one hour of trail maintenance a year, there would be something like, 150,000 surplus hours.
I am of the opinion that if one is to ride off road for say, 40 or 50 or 60 hours, at the minimum 4 to 8 hours should be committed to working on trails. I'm not an IMBA trail building genius, but I know how to divert water, and cut downed timber to make bridges through mud holes. It really seems to be a small price to pay in exchange for all of the many hours of pleasure that trails provide us..
All you need is to throw a folding saw, and a collapsable shovel in a backpack, and take an hour in the middle of a ride to do a bit of good.

Besides, as I've said in the past, 'drinking beer in the woods is drinking beer in the woods', and that's never a bad thing.

*

"How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains? Yeah. Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind."

1st race of the year

Yeah it's January, and all I've been doing is cross-country skiing and shoveling snow...but it's race season in Phoenix already! Skiing must have paid off, though, cause I pulled out the win! Great weekend coupled with gorgeous desert camping and sunset, campfire with friends, and listening to coyotes all night. Big thanks to Daniel Christianson of Take You Photography for the great shots!

getting warmer

after a few weeks of fog, it was nice to see some sunshine today. we only got a few miles of gravel before we deemed it too soft. thanks again to cornbread for the pic.

Spinning Toward Success

The Casa Grande High School Mountain Bike Team is rolling out the 2010 race season with an extra day of practice each week thanks to the generosity and sponsorship of Club One in Petaluma, and resident spin instructor Andy Eber. Last night we had our first team "spin training camp" with over 14 CGHS riders, 4 coaches and 3 parents. As I pedaled I was struck by how, in my four years of coaching, we've never truly ridden side by side as a team due to the spectrum of ability and fitness on our weekly training rides. Riding together in this spin class allows us to do just so. We are excited that the spin sponsorship that Club One hooked us up with will make us all much faster on our bikes and much closer as a team.