Black Mountain

Curtis and I hit up Pisgah today. The big climb and hike-a-bike may have been a bit too much this close to Boone Roubaix...but...it was SOOO worth it. My new bike came in last night, but I missed it on delivery, so I ended up being out a mountain bike. One may ask, "How then Mr. Cyclist did you mountain bike today?" The answer comes in the form of a borrowed Specialized Enduro from Curtis' new shop Motion Makers. I had an Enduro back in the day as evidenced by my previous post, but this is a new and improved bike. Very cool, and very confidence inspiring on the descents. Curtis was riding a Stumpjumper FSR, and even with an inch less travel, he was still walking away from me on the descents...techy skill! It was definitely a good day on the trails...probably one of the best rides so far this year!

Flint Hill/Bloomtown Ride

Hike and Ride

Hike in the AM with Lisa and Lorien.





Gravel Grindage Goodness in the afternoon.

Hello Horsey.


quand je suis arrivé à la forêt d'Ardennes


Road Ends.


Indeed


VERY cooked legs.

New Bike Forthcoming

I put in an order with a shop I used to visit from time to time in the Pittsburg area; Speedgoat. They had a frame/fork deal on Salsa Big Mama's, so I decided to plunk down the money and pick one up.

It hopefully should be here in the next week or so. I, thankfully, already have all the parts aside from a seatpost to build this beast up. This will be my first foray into a 29er full suspension, and the first full suspension I've had in over three years. My affairs with full suspension bikes have been love/hate. I love the way they descend, typically am indifferent towards their climbing (gaining traction, but losing efficiency), and then hate the maintenance that they inevitably require. My affairs with 29ers however have been love only, they've treated me well, and fit me very well. I'm excited to see how this bike rides, and may get to test it out in theeeee Pisgah next week if everything falls into place!

Full Suspension History

Bike #1 Specialized Enduro...travel=entirely too much. Fun on the descents, miserable climber. This photo is of me racing in Ohio...on a six inch travel bike...with a camelbak...and baggies...slowly. Wow, really?


Dropping off a flight of steps about 5' to a flat landing.


Bike #2 Cannondale Rush...travel=4 inches. Cool bike that I enjoyed riding, first bike riding in Pisgah done on this bike.



Bike #3 Cannondale Scalpel...travel=3/4 inches. Crazy light bike, much fun, but sold to get another 29er. Probably should have kept this one though for racing.

Humbled.

Tonight, I got dropped. Dropped bad. But, it was still tons of fun! The crew rolled out of Lewisville probably about 25 or 30 strong. The route out towards East Bend was Conrad>Yadkinville>Taylor>Flint Hill>Mt. Bethel Church>Baltimore. Right about there is where it all got fuzzy, painful, and ended with noises of whimpering from me. I made a pull on Mt. Bethel Church leading towards Baltimore. The last little climb before the turn onto Baltimore, I found myself at the back of the pack. I look up to see a light shining down from Heaven on an orange angel named Erich at the head of the pack. As we make the left onto Baltimore I heard a very distinct sucking sound. The source of said suck, is still up for debate. Suck in my riding/tactical ability? Suck as the pack surges forward away from me? Or, just plain suck? In any case, I see a small gap open in front of the two guys ahead of me. Gap opens further and I'm stuck.

It didn't matter though really, either way I would have been dropped as the pack accelerated to 30mph. My calls of BRAAWAHHH went unheard, and I was off the back. I put my head down and worked with one other dude (thanks Casey) trying to get back on. We were hammering at 25-27mph, but the pack kept getting further and further away, game over. They pulled away so quick that we weren't even sure what route they took at the next stop. So we rolled back Bloomtown to Flint Hill to Conrad. We still pushed at a pretty reasonable pace, and rolled in to have a chat with the other cyclists. I was pleased to see E riding so well tonight, dude got second or third in the sprint...without even knowing where the sprint was. I'm telling you, blog world friends, light shining down from Heaven.

Boone Roubaix Video

Can't wait!

Also, can't embed the html for the video..so, clicky linky...totally worth it. I promise. promise. promise.

Boone-Roubaix Pre-Ride

Prepping

In my preparations for the upcoming Boone-Roubaix, I ordered up some 26c tires from Kenda. I mounted them up on my clinchers tonight and got everything (relatively) cleaned up and ready to go for the pre-race scope out on Saturday. Many of the CLM will be heading to Boone in the AM to pre-ride the course, and then have have some unbike related shenanigans afterwards. I'm definitely enthusiastic about getting my road bike out on some more gravel and dirt. The opportunities to do so here in the Triad are fairly limited, aside from a few exceptions. The finished product for tackling said gravelly-goodness are below:


Not much clearance...but, 'nufs enuf


Gravel bomber

CL plus Hill Repeats

3x West End Hills+ 3 repeats on Alamo=Hungry and tired.

Regrouping after murderfest on Peace Haven. Mitch modeling the new kit, very cool.


Duane having fun in the West End

Tuesday Night Special

Not to be confused with Saturday Night Special, or .38 Special. I hopped on a ride tonight with the guys at Mock Orange. As I am waiting on the curb, my buddy Sean comes rolling up. Sean was my very, very, very first customer when I worked at Paceline under the tutelage of Cameron. We took off with Jay rocking the Kona Ute and Charles his singlespeed mountain bike. This was a good indicator of the style of this ride, flat out fun! Some of the roads that I enjoyed the most were roads that I had never been on; areas around Bethabara and Buena Vista. I snapped just a few photos, and really only two turned out even mildly respectable:



I couldn't help but notice all of the various flowering shrubs and some of the trees are starting to show color. There was more than one occasion tonight that I caught scent of them as well...a welcome sign of spring!

Tomorrow holds what should be a pretty taxing ride with CLM members Chancey and Sirena (possibly others). A modified city loop including repeats on Alamo sounds like a ticket to a sufferfest. Excellent. Also, speaking of sufferfest, a bunch of us are heading up to Boone saturday to check out the Boone Roubaix course. Check back for pics!

Wind=Pooh

I had a couple things to pick up at Cycletherapy today, so I decided I would ride down there. Doing some math calculations (my gps wasn't charged) I guesstimated that I arrived with an average of around 22mph. I knew my math had to be jacked up. I went in to find that Rob had jacked up his thumb in a fixie chainring and that another customer of theirs was having an estimate after being hit by a car. Rough crowd today at the shop! I got what I needed and headed back up towards my place. I quickly realized that my math was indeed correct, but that wind wasn't in the equation. Cycling=Fun-(wind+reeeediculous drivers) On the way back, I stopped for some parking lot sprints and glam shots...this is the best I could muster as far as glam goes...



And sprinting...well, I sprint like a post-polio geriatric, 'nuf said. Oh, and the return journey with a horrendous headwind was around 17.

Another Great Weekend in the Mountains

After nearly a week apart, Lisa and I were more than anxious to see one another. She was on call at the hospital for the weekend, so the decision was made that I would head up to see her. No argument there from me, yet another chance to explore and fish in WNC...sweet! I arrived to fog and heavy rain friday night. I brought all my flyfishing equipment with the hopes that I could go if she had to work on Saturday. She had four appointments saturday morning, so I headed out to explore some wild water.


The water was much higher than normal, and relatively cloudy/stained with sediment. Grassy Creek and Cane Creek were both flowing pretty fast.


I felt a bit like Sisyphus, casting into the current only to have the fly float back to me in about an eighth of a second. I quickly felt rather absurd, so explored further upstream in hopes of a calmer pool of water.


I came across a small holding pond near the streams edge, so I cast into it. First cast and I feel a tug...

Yeah, that's a largemouth bass. The first bass I caught on the fly, came the first time I cast into a pond, while fishing this area for the first time...far out. As I headed back down to the B&B to meet Lis, I was greeted with this view of Mt. Mitchell. Definitely still socked in in snow. Wow.


We spent the remainder of the day in the Asheville area scoping out possible future places to live, and eating lots of pizza from Asheville Brewing Company