"It's not that bicycling is so important, it is that everything else is equally unimportant."

Picture Gallery Update  
Added another gallery with a few pics of our the dirt TNS ride at Wakefield on 6/28/05. Check the gallery out here.



I also added a few more pics at the end of the 24 Hours of Big Bear mountain bike race gallery that Spearmint sent me. Check them out here.

Enjoy!

DT
posted by DT at 12:24:00 PM
|

TNS #22 - 7/5/05  
Hence forth shall be known as "The Debaucle". Like I've said, work has been super crazy lately, 12 hour days and whatnot, kicking my ass.

I was late leaving work, didn't get out of the office until 6:30pm for a ride that starts at 6:00pm and I'm a good hour away from the house where all my bike stuff is located. Spearmint was a no show (evidently at Annapolis Rocks without his cell phone) so he didn't answer any of my messages about being late or relay them to Stoner. My plan was to have them just leave me a message of where they were and I would ride out to meet them, less hanging out time, but I'd have to put in some good riding and drinking to catch up. At 6:30pm having not heard from Spearmint, I called Stoner, who was at Trader Joes. He was doing some grocery shopping since Steve never showed up (next time give me a call man!). Stoner was still up for the ride so we met at my house and had a nice Weirbacher Heresy Imperial Stout aged in Oak...

Stoner and I left from my house after the beer and rode to the W&OD and hit Rock Bottom at Balston mall. They have a nice beer on tap right now called American Dream, a good west coast IPA. It's in celebration of July, national beer month evidently. After a couple of beers and some grub, it was time to head back home. We made it all the way back to our right turn off the W&OD before the rain really caught us. Up to that point it was just a super mean headwind. Once the rain actually started to fall it was all out heavy rain. We probably were only stuck in it for 10 minutes, but in that time it was enough to soak us so thoroughly that when I stood in the house for more than 2 seconds in any one spot, a puddle appeared below me. Not that this was a bad thing, it was a good end to a good ride. Again, I'll say it, I don't mind riding in the rain. It cooled us down and got rid of that humid feel in the air. Good times.

Let's hope next Tuesday goes better for everyone! Any new ride takers?

DT
posted by DT at 9:44:00 AM
|

July 4th Ride  
Rode Wakefield and put in about an hour of riding. Main goal was to test out riding with the gift Kristin gave me for my birthday...a 30 gig IPOD Photo...freaking sweet! Only kept one ear bud in tried to keep the volume low enough to hear everything going on, yet still hear the music. A little tough finding that line, but once I did I was off. Did a quick lap around the race course and then just played around on the creek trail, did the race course backwards and finally did the powerline climb a couple of times to end. It was a totally new experience. Instead of zoning out on the music like I thought I would, you tend to zone out on the trail and get super focused on the dirt. The music itself is like having background music to your life. You can still hear whats around you, but there is this low music playing in the background...something I've always dreamed of having. Pretty cool to be able to create the soundtrack to your life...now I see what gundog99 is always fussing about, ha. Although I still think I prefer less words. It's still too early to tell, but I don't think you'll see me in the woods listening to audiobook or something.

I think I'll be setting up an instrumental playlist though. I find I prefer the songs with long extended sections of beats and ambient sound. Not that some good punk didn't get the legs moving...

DT
posted by DT at 9:22:00 AM
|

Birthday Ride - 7/2/77  
It's your birthday, what do you want to do? Go ride some dirt damn it! Meant to send an email out to a bunch of my rider friends, but work was so crazy that it didn't go out until late Friday evening...for a Saturday morning ride...it did get posted to the MORE ride calendar though. Not a lot of takers, but JB showed up for his first dirt ride in years. Spearmint was going to come, but he was running so late he had to bail. Ending up picking up one other guy named Joe who saw the ride posted on the MORE site. Good stuff.

The ride was labeled as a casual birthday ride. I wasn't planning on hammering, just taking my time, enjoying the ride, being outside on a nice day, and reflecting on the past year and the year to come. Lots of big changes this past year and on the horizon, a lot to be thankful for this year.

Ride was slated to start at 11:00am, we got started about 20 minutes late, not bad though. Left the Skatequest parking lot with two people in tow, neither one has ridden the full loop. We just rode our own pace with me giving little bits of information about the trail and what was up ahead. No problems and everyone was having fun. Our first and only mechanical of the day happened on the gravel road a little over half way into the loop. JB was remarking how he took a pretty nice chunk out of a tree with his foot/pedal and thinks he might have bent the pedal spindle. Next thing you know his crank just falls off! Scatter time, gotta find the crank bolt. Joe and I head back along the gravel road and back up into the singletrack. About the time we get back, JB's yelling "found it!" Problem now is I don't have an allen wrench that big, so I just use a smaller one and get it as tight as I can. Luckily a few guys we passed early on came cruising by and had the size we needed. Once the crank was properly tightened (get a torque wrench JB!), we were back on the trail.

We rode over the bridge MORE built and then the water crossings, all big fun. The water felt super nice. Next thing we know, we are cruising through Tamarrack park and busting out onto the W&OD. A couple of short miles on the paved path and we're back at the cars. A nice easy ride all around, very relaxing. Hm...the ride is over...guess it's time to head over to Old Dominion to pick up the keg of Pale Ale...birthday BBQ and all...

DT
posted by DT at 8:57:00 AM
|

Wednesdays @ Wakefield #2 - 6/29/05  
This race was just bad. I mean when you suck, you suck, there's no bones about it and this race I sucked. I just didn't have it when I wanted it, heck I barely had it when I needed it.

The course differed ever slightly, just at the end, but it really had no effect on my game (of which there was none). My first suck ass moment came when I didn't leave work early enough. Ok, so I'm always late, no biggie, but this put me in the very back of Sport, like there wasn't even enough room for me to slip in on the last line so I was in a line by myself, ha. I then forgot to have some Gu just before the start, cause you know...I was busy sucking ass. Gun goes off and we're heading up the hill. I pass a few people on the hill so I can sit in line at the first singletrack. By this time I know the head of the field is just gone, but I figure, hey I can at least have fun trying to make my way back up into the pack. I gun it a little bit so I'm all by myself for the most part, then on the first ditch ride my chain just falls off. Guess the guys at TNS the night before were right when they said my chain looked super slack...anyways, I get passed by a couple of people while I throw the chain back on. Fast forward to me after throwing the chain for the third time just before the last hill climb at the end of the lap. F it! Guess it's time to take the extra minute to tighten this puppy up...ah much better! Unfortunately this gave me a first lap of just under 25 minutes, almost 5 minutes slower than the week before.

This couple of minutes of time would come into play by the end of the next lap. Pretty uneventful lap, I found a little mojo left in the tank and motored on to try and fight my way back...back to what I don't know, I guess the class that started after me. About half way through my lap the winds really started to pick up, temps dropped, it got super dark...the storm was moving in. I was pretty psyched as I really like to ride in the rain, but it's something you just don't do in this area unless your caught out already riding, bad for the trails and all. As I finish most of the lap and I'm pulling into the straight stretch along 495 the rain starts to fall hard now and the lightening is filling the sky. As I make my way to the start/finish to head out on my 3rd lap I see tape over the singletrack...evidently lightening cancels the race and beats out my desire to finish my race and go out for my 3rd lap, course is closed and I get a big fat DNF.

Ah, such is life. The first lap sucked, but the second lap pretty much made up for it and hell...I got to ride in the rain, so I'll call this one a draw.

DT
posted by DT at 8:30:00 AM
|

TNS #21 6/28/05  
Dirt ride at Wakefield. We did one loop of the race course before Spearmints rear rim split ending his ride. Stoner and I headed back to the switchbacks for some dusk riding photos. Stoner brought a Rogue Crustacean barley wine style beer to split in the parking lot and then we hit Kilroys for the most horrindous SNPA I've ever had, seriously, they might have well just put Budweiser Select in there...

DT
posted by DT at 8:27:00 AM
|