Pantani Ride - Tuesday Update

Supa'Tuesday out here at the Rancho Relaxo. What's that mean?
Well, snow, for starters. As you may have guessed.
But also, let's have a Pantani ride update.

First and foremost, the level of apathy around this joint is enough to make a man turn to whiskey and not come back. Yes, it's been snowing a lot. No, conditions are not ideal for riding, even if you've got a fatty, 4 inch-tired monster rig, ice boots, and no appreciation for the feeling in your toes. But that doesn't mean we're ready to throw in the towel on the Pantani ride. Here are a few reasons this thing is on like Donkey Kong:
1) Marco would go. Think about this. Think about the reasons he did what he did and the reasons we do what we do. Painful cold, by that kind of logic, only makes the ride BETTER. The word for the day is masochism. Use it in a sentence. Be cool.
2) The rooster says he is in. I don't think I know this guy, but I feel a certain kinship, and he seems like the kind of guy who might like to crush a 114.89 mile ride sometime in early April. Wish I knew more, but I don't. Do your own research on that one.
3) After whatever happens today happens, and whatever shit from the sky falls out of the sky tomorrow, we're looking at 3 straight days of sunshine before Sunday. That should be plenty of time for the hard-working men and women of VDOT to almost completely ignore obscure gravel roads like Fox Mountain and Simmons Gap, leaving them in a state of washed-out, iced-in, near total disrepair come Sunday. All traits I find attractive in a dirt road.
4) If, for some reason, good sense trumps the need for speed on Sunday (and let's be honest, I don't think it will) we've got other options for pain. A timed run up Simmons Gap might be worthy. Singletrack here on the farm might be workable by then, opening up the possibility for a dirt crit. The sky's the limit.

So prepare accordingly. Pack all your shit in your car on Saturday. Skinny tires, fat tires, running shoes, extra socks, bottles, and a spare lung. And keep checking back here as your misery tries to convince you to stay on the couch. Sunday will still happen. Like Hiser said, you can't cancel a mountain.

Up, up, up.