Paranormal and onward

Another Paranormal came and went on Saturday night, probably the best one ever.

I won't go into a lot of detail. If you were there, you know. If you weren't there, you missed out - come next year.

But I will comment briefly on the nature of 130+ racers, many of them wearing elaborate, drivetrain-snagging costumes, all lighting it up off the startline into a 180-degree hairpin at outright dangerous speeds, and I'll say this - Everyone LOVED it.

Coolest thing to happen in my yard, maybe ever.

thankfully, someone thought to take pictures to prove it. Dangerous, crowded corner. All smiles.


"On your left, please. I'm on my way to plunder villages and rape women and children. "


This was, hands down, the fastest I've ever seen a man in a red flannel tutu ride a fixie on singletrack.


eventual women's winner, Laura Hamm, smiled big and then threw down 8 monster laps. And she did it all in a dress. In your face, bitches.


Kev29er taking the off-camber, caveman holeshot


at first, I thought "hey, someone dressed up as Markley." False alarm. It was just Captain America.

Outside of the party atmosphere and the luscious dirt conditions from just the right amount of recent rain, maybe the best thing was the racing. A couple of really close ones. Results are up (or soon to be up) at www.crcparanormal.com.

But why stop at 10 PM? The danger lasted long into the night with unattended bonfires, microbrews mixed with bourbon, howling at the moon and the like. Well done.

The letdown, however, was The Foof's dismal performance at the final regular-season BRCX race in Queen City. We sucked, basically failing to show up in any meaningful way, and the home team slid into second behind the mighty Cutters. But don't despair - revenge is nigh! Finals, conveniently will be November 7th at Massanutten, the very day after the 6 pak invitational DH finals in the GW. Beat that weekend rally with a stick, if you can (you can't.)

Knowledge:
The BRCX Cup - http://www.blueridgecyclocrosscup.com
6 Pack - http://www.bikemag.com/features/onlineexclusive/six-pack-invitational/

Number plates with Jesus on them? Blasphemy aside, I think Jesus would be very, very pleased to be a part of the Six Pack.

It's for the candy, kids. Might as well dress up a little. May your Halloween Weekend be haunted by the wickedest of skinnytrack.

Tuesday Crosstastic...and then the Paranormal

The Rocktown #2 postrace buffet. what 40 pounds of ribs looks like.

Well let's get crosstastic again. Tuesday, at the Cville Gardens.

http://www.blueridgecyclocrosscup.com/
It's bush league crossy crossness with, dare I speculate, vehicle traffic AND some autumn gardening? Nothing says safety like getting real hazy-anaerobe-vision while trying to dodge hapless yuppy sharecroppers and their subarus. God help us. The Fooftown fearless leader, Bruce Almighty, seems to think we'll be just fine. Nevermind that he's a veteran of some dangerous alleycat shenanigans with the scars to prove it, I'm in.

Moving on, by Wednesday the focus will then shift to the Paranormal.
www.crcparanormal.com
The course is downright silky right now. Come get some on Saturday, 4 - 10 PM. Kids race at 3. Tailgating to commence sometime mid-morning.

A threat to the duo podium, and also what 40 pounds of ribs looks like

Today though, before any of that foolishness commences, I've got to get serious for a second and say how awesome it is to have a beautiful, loving, understanding, nurturing, supportive, HOT wife that can rally, who wants to go ride on our anniversary for an hour before getting some Cuban steak and a microbrew and maybe watch some football.
this lady

Whatever I did in a past life that the world deemed, "yeah, OK, that was nice of him, let's give him the works next time around" must have been pretty freaking spectacular.

I am humbled by your awesomeness. And your ability to pick Monday Night Football games better than I can. But mostly your awesomeness.

2 years today. Rally.

It's Monday, sports fans. Go find that person that makes you happy and go ride something with them that makes you giggle.

Do something that matters

Let's start with what's important.

The world is run by the people that show up. Do something important:
http://savenorthfork.blogspot.com/


It's a little sobering to think about the freedom to ride this masterpiece over in West-By-God-Virginia being taken from we, the people. But it's a very real possibility.

Saving our access there could get tough. Really, the problem is focus. People are interested, but aligning the scattered parties in the right direction against the right enemy (not just wilderness designation, but oil drilling, etc) is difficult when you think about just who those parties are. Cyclists, hikers, mountain men - we are a wild, scattered bunch; and the disorganization can oftentimes be misconstrued with being the point itself.

It is NOT the point.
http://savenorthfork.blogspot.com/
Show up. The rest might just work itself out.

Speaking of focus, I saw a good bit of it out at the farm this weekend. Good hands came together, and the Paranormal course is absolutely dialed. Eric Moore showed up and rallied 6 laps, testing to see if he's got what it takes to win duo next Sat (he does, but DOES his teammate?) And my lady went and cranked out 20 miles on the road (on foot, mind you) prepping for the Richmond Marathon.
See, focus.

This is what focus looks like after 20 miles of pounding pavement.

On a less focused note, The Mighty Foof is getting a good clock cleaning these days in the Blue Ridge Cyclocross Cup. Rocktown is running away with the thing, and the Foof is actually in danger of falling behind the black sheep of the family, Queen City.
Shenanigan scorekeeping aside, we really haven't shown up in the biggest way possible just yet. But there are signs of improvement, namely Bruce Almighty putting Nick Waite away at the line in Staunton last week and stealing an almost-deserved 2nd place. Nice. Tomorrow, it's supertuesday over in Rocktown, one last chance to stick it to them on their home turf.

Bring it.

photo credits to whoever this guy is...http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c198/DUALRESPONSE1731/2010cyclocross%20series%20-%20rocktown/
And sweet Jesus that's a big picture of Fawley. But he's got talent that you just can't shrink.

In closing, I snapped this photo on the way out of Asheville last weekend, and I felt it summarized some things nicely, although I'm not sure what.

But don't forget your endurolytes.

The Silky Big Boy 2000

Most of you guys that ride with me know that I'm a trailwork fanatic. I'm often distracted mid-ride to pimp some trail, cut a downed tree, carve a turn a little finer, etc. So I carry a big saw - the Silky Big Boy.

Here's a sample of the Big Boy in action. It will cut ANYTHING. And oftentimes the places I ride are so remote that carrying a chainsaw to most of the deadfall is impossible. So having a saw small enough to fit in my pack but still highly capable is a real convenience.

Since I'm at risk of sounding like an advertisement for Silky Saws, let me lace some profanity in here to really drive my point home in the most secular way:

This fucking saw will cut through a goddamn refrigerator.

Now that you know Silky isn't paying for this, we can continue. Although, let's be honest, the minute Silky is ready to sponsor trailwork and trailworkers, and they stick about 30 of these monsters in the mail to us, I will happily remove or edit that phrasing to better fit their specific marketing environment, whatever that may be.

On with the story.

Well, sadly, after a long summer of some real abuse, my Big Boy 2000 broke last week. The blade actually split where the smallest tooth meets the handle (probably the weakest point.) In the future, I now know to avoid wielding my expensive folding saw like a bush machete. But this time out I pretty much assumed I was out of luck.

With no real expectations, I emailed Sherrill Tree down in North Carolina to see if they had a replacement policy.

I got this in response:
Subject: RE: Broke my Big Boy 2000
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 13:26:51 -0400
From: idemaio@SHERRILLTREE.com

David,

I will be sending a replacement Big Boy 2000 blade today, no charge and no freight. Please accept this replacement for your trouble with the Silky saw.

We appreciate your business and your good words about Silky products.

Regards,

Irene DeMaio

Customer Service Manager

SherrillTree

200 Seneca Road

Greensboro, NC 27406

Yeah, no questions asked replacement policy. They didn't even make me pay to ship it. Kick ass. Trail pimping to recommence this weekend.

Speaking of things that kick ass in North Carolina, this just in...
PISGAH KICKS ASS.
As of Friday, I've ridden Black Mountain as an out and back. The out and back are separated by 6 years and 6 months. Both ways pretty much rocked my socks.

Cunningham doing a little trudging to get to the action.

same spot, going the other way, 6 years ago and 6 months ago. Nice i-drive you ninny.

It's been a good year already. And on that subject of riding far away places and the once-mighty GT brand, I thought I'd put this picture up as a little parting shot.
Moore Fun in Fruita, Colorado, 2004ish. My addiction to the madhouse descent off of that Mesa, coupled with mankinds' inability to make a durable, aluminum full suspension bike in 2003, are probably the main two reasons that bike was reduced to scrap metal shortly after this photo was taken. But what a ride down.

Go stick it to something tall, Kids. Take your saw.