Chinese Ticks and Singletrack

Last Saturday we gathered The Cats and headed over to China Camp in San Rafael for a day of super-cool single-track and fun. 12 Cats (the dirty dozen) clawed up the trail and collected about 23 miles throughout the park. I believe our venture uncovered every single nasty climb there was to find. The sweet singletrack wasn't enough for some of our punishment seeking riders, so we detoured a few times to test our legs and minds. My knees are still aching 4 days later.

As if the climbing didn't hurt enough, a hitchhiking tick decided to burrow into Yvette's neck, so Mojojo had to do an emergency extraction. He moved in like Steve Irwin mumbling something in an Aboriginal tone and grabbed that sucker with his teeth and pulled it out head and all. (substitute fingers for teeth for visual fancy).


All of our Cats use Frontline or Advantage (for that Raceday edge) so it came as a surprise that this little guy was successful at landing the first stage of his mission.

At any rate, a great ride, great people, great post-ride eats and THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WEATHER I have seen so far this year.

It's that time of year, so check your legs, socks, clothes and friends for ticks. They carry disease and can really be a pain in the ass (if you let them get that far). :-)

To see more pics, view our Flickr page here.

Death Ride is on!

Found out today that I'm in for the 2008 Death Ride. The lottery names have been listed and quite a few of our Team are in as well. It should be a great year now that I'm forced into putting more mileage and hill climbing in. I feel like this might be what it takes to give me more strength for the the single speed MTB races, and provide me with an awesome goal for the year.
I don't just want to give it my "all". I want all 5 passes in a reasonable time with less pain in the end. 15,000 ft of climbing and 129 miles sounds pretty brutal, but I'll work up to it. It should be fun!

Yesterday, a friend and I did the Georgetown loop with some added climbing and it felt pretty good. Granted it was only 60 miles and 8000 ft of climbing, but we hammered it out pretty fast and were back home in under 4hrs. I could see doubling that up at some point. Gonna need some salt tabs and Sportslegs though... :-)

Papa

Crime Scenes & Trailwork

So... today was our scheduled trailwork day with FATRAC out at Salmon Falls AKA Darrington Trail. Our group all arrived on time for a 10:30 departure into the singletrack for a few hours of much needed clearing and downed tree removal. We split up into 3 groups so that one group could clear a tree from Sweetwater before meeting up with the other 2 on Salmon Falls. The day was awesome, weather good, good work, pics, yadda yadda.
About 1pm we began to wrap up and head back to the trailhead. Upon arrival back at the trailhead, we initially noticed yellow caution tape across the entire parking lot around our cars. My initial thought was that someone was breaking into cars and the cops had arrived. We then were notified that a body had been found by some passing motorcyclists in a ditch at the north end of the parking lot. Pretty freaky stuff.


After our raffle and the process of giving our names/statements to the El Dorado County Sheriffs, we were allowed to return to our cars and vacate the lot. Channel 3 and 10 were on scened to report.
There's more pics of our day on Flickr if you're interested.

News Story

Trailwork pics on Flickr

Usually a day of trailwork leaves you with good intrinsic satisfaction.. It did, but was short-lived.

Papa Cat

Wheel Weight Weenies

Ya' know.. I use to make fun of weight weenie bike owners (and still do), but I've gained more respect for the grams when it actually has a functional purpose.
When I started riding 29'ers a few year back, I was sold on the concept. The rolling, the traction, smoother ride... yadda yadda you've heard it all. It was then that I began to experience the extreme with regards to rolling weight. Larger wheels have more rotational mass and can affect your bike in many ways, some good, some bad. I started to pay more attention to tires, rims, spokes, etc. and have began to really cherish the lower gram counts associated with them. I recently bit the bullet with some Industry 9 wheels, Stan's hoops, sub 600 gram tires and the Stan's tubeless system. Man, what a difference. Faster acceleration, more responsive braking, quicker turning, all because of lighter rotational mass. My hubs are light as well, but it won't play into those characteristics as much.
Morale of the story.... Keep the weight down and "let the wheels go round!" :-)
Papa

Team High Road Debut

I was lucky enough to get invited to the Team High Road presentation/introduction yesterday in Palo Alto, so I bit the bullet and traveled down knowing fully that I'd be coming back on a Friday evening from the Bay Area.. Traffic wasn't too bad.
At any rate, the turnout was good.. Roger Hammond, George Hincapie, Linus Gerdemann, Michael Rogers, Greg Henderson and a bunch of big names in the cycling world. Phil Legget announced and introduced the team which is managed by Bob Stapleton.
I'm not as privy to the standings, but I believe this team has a pretty good chance this season at bringing home some wins. The most exciting part for me as a shop owner is seeing a strong team on Giant Bicycles. T-Mobile did well, which helps the brand, but with Hincapie on a Giant, I think the brand is going to do even better this year.
The bike: The new Team Advanced frame is amazing. Some crazy new implementations and lighter weight frame created by a brand new carbon process that hasn't been used by Giant before. They look really good.
My highlight of the day was actually exchanging words with Phil Leggett. He said "hey there, how're ya' doin'? I said "great, thanks".... :-) I supposed I could've actually stopped and chatted, but I'm sure he's got better things to do than talk with some bike shop owner about the weather...
Great team, let's hope they throw down this season!



PC

Lunch with Leggitt and Hincapie?

It looks as though I might be attending a luncheon this Friday for the debut of Team High Road. T-Mobile dropped sponsorship this season and the remaining team along with George Hincapie are now "Team High Road". The team is still sponsored by Giant and now riding the brand new TCR Advanced Team frame which will also be presented to the public during the luncheon. A few Giant dealers were selected to attend and I'll be making the drive down to rub shoulders with some of the fastest riders in the industry. I really just want a free lunch and I'll drive 2 hours to get it..
;-)
At any rate, maybe I'll post some pics in my next post.

We just got in a nice shipment of carbon road bikes today, officially ending the 3-year standoff with the road market. I wanted to carry more road bikes in the past, but when it came down to it, couldn't afford to buy a ton of cool MTB and Road, so we skimped on the road. We are now well rounded and should be able to outfit anyone looking to get into skinny tires and speed. I'm pretty excited about road bikes right now, but I LOVE the dirt.
It's two very different sports, and I like them both in different ways.
More to come later... PC

Pork chops and Applesauce...

I'm not sure why "Pork Chops and Applesauce" is stuck in my head, but we had it for dinner the other night. What skit or TV show was that from anyhow? Anyone?

Yesterday I took part in TBF's MTB#1. Expensive, but fun. The weather turned out to be perfect and the trail a little goey but not bad. I took 4th in single-speed and I think we had about 5 podium finishes from the team! Weights and longer training rides are certainly paying off. The shop is starting to pick up for the season now that there are some fun races close by. Before we know it, Sea Otter will be here.. the Cool 24 and then BAM! Summer and Northstar, along with some super cool days on my little sailboat.

Next month I find out if I got into Death Ride and if so... the hill training starts. Hills, distance rides and gym visits will be an everyday thing until July rolls around. I don't know how I'll do up at altitude on a road bike since I'm not really a roadie, but I'll have fun giving it what I can.