I made it on the front page of the ABQ journal a few weeks ago with my allegedly excellent ski form:
In an article promoting the Chama Chile Classic:
Which I completely did not go to this year as I was so tired. Instead I rested after a very fun yet exhausting trip to knoxville for work. I crammed in two rides among working and other shenanigans. I need to go back without working as I did not see quite everyone I wanted to and working really interupted my having fun time.
Riding in the slop with Gary:
Excellent evidence of a good ride:
I have been skiing a fair bit since I have been back, perhaps races will happen again. The snow is in reasonably good shape and the trails have been well groomed. I did a great little back country ski trip from the ski hill parking lot over and down to the Caldera with my friend zach, more pics here scoping out a guided tour that Zach is organizing. Among the highlights were hopping fences in skis:
Snow biking has been excellent too. Even where the snow is aflame:
Finally the infink is now action little girl. It is good.
I am proud to be a founding member of Team Ed. Our namesake has an excellent profile this week in the Knoxie Paper: here. Note the terms "tortoise mentality" used in the article. I think that means Ed is sort of the kent of the southeast.
Make sure you watch the video:
Well done Ed and G.
Also note that shorter fellers that ride more than you and live in super twisty rooty muddy knoxville are all about the 29'ers. Probably a lesson in there somewhere...
I was able to find a nice photo from the initial race of Team Ed at the 2002 edition of the 12 hours of Haw ridge race: We were all on single speeds. That is Ed, Eric, Tarik and Gary from left to right. Ed is the one we are talking about, Gary is featured in the video and article as well. Eric has the sweet vanagon and was serving hot soup and cold beers to go with his laps. I think we were attempting to grow Ed like mustaches on short notice. Good times.
Team Ed still races actively. Check out their tales here
When I was in Knoxville a few weeks back, I was able to sneak in some mountain biking with much of Team Ed. Plans were afoot for multiple evening rides, but we were thwarted by an inch of rain a day. Cleverly, we took advantage of G's thursday off and a hole in the interesting talks at the conference to set forth to the TN-KY border where lies the well drained trails of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. We set off early in Gary's mini Race Squirrel and headed up to the Norris exit to rendezvous with Hammer and KD.
We met up at the Starbucks at the Norris exit of 75 north. The fact that Norris rates a starbucks cracks me up no end. Poor poor waffle house, usurped as the default meeting point. After coffee and oatmeal and nary a grit nor biscuit, we headed into the wild jungles of northern Tennessee. Along the way I enjoyed the cultural dichotomy of the big cross over Adult World:
Eventually we rolled into big south fork, unleashed the bikes and changed into our matching outfits:
After a few miles of gravel road riding we reached the trailhead:
And enjoyed 20 miles of swoopy fast, mostly smooth singletrack.
With gorgeous views:
And tiny little bicycle men:
And valuable trailside artifacts:
Despite the torrential rains the trails were clear and fun. I borrowed a well undergeared singlespeed cannondale from an honorable judge and spent most of the day fruitlessly trying to keep up with the other three on their properly geared single speed 29'ers. After a while I pushed the hammer down and stole his bike and was relieved to be able to at least hang onto G and KD. While my single track skills have eroded somewhat, they are not as bad as it appeared.
After the ride we headed back, firstly negotiating the drive through big south fork canyon:
and then enjoying more cultural oddities along the way:
Once back in town, I went back to the Tomato Head and ate my third (of four) Kepner Melt of the week.
As I was heading back to the hotel Clarko called and coerced me into attending Cycling Specific Pilates taught by the Geri Mewetmaster5000. Alas there are no photos of this event, but it was painful yet fun and I was able to see more people.
The day was capped by a visit to the bar in the sunsphere. The sunsphere was closed to the public for my entire tenure in knoxville, but now there is a bar up there and I was compelled to visit. G, KD, hammer and myself all met up there and were surprised to find the bar nearly empty. No matter, the beer was cheap and the views were great and the decor was barely updated eighties woodgrain lounge and the bathrooms sported black toilets. The champagne of beers was served in champagne glasses:
After a short while a horde of identically dressed young women from UT and their prospective paramours ascended upon the sunphere for fancy attire drunken revelry. I do not really miss this part of knoxville at all. Fortunately when you are not living there anymore, it is funny.
And with that, the long day came to a close. It was good to get back to Knoxville, I was able to see almost everyone through planned events and random occurrences. I want to thank Gary for making the mountain biking possible. It was great to see everyone.
The official Team Ed take on the day's activity. Rest of the photos here
Moscaline's Knoxville correspondent BruceC sent these nice electro assist trike photos a few weeks back:
The photos are taken in Market square, Knoxville, the bike owner apparently uses the bike as her primary transportation.
Neat I thought. I have never seen such an electro assist. But then not one week later, here in the LBS in Los Alamos I spot the knoxville electric trikes sun bleached doppleganger. Well then:
Did I mention I hate football. Its the nascar of team sports for fuck sake. I guess if you like Nascar, then that is not really a problem.
Anyway, i was unable to watch the haughty siberian fembot play the belgie pocket female federer live today as the local network decided that the international powerhouse "Lobos" were more ratings worthy than the haughty siberian fembot. Are the lobos even D1? Nice job there local CBS affiliate. So I sit here at damn near midnight trying to catch up on the tennis.
College football. What the crap? Why are grown men driving around New Mexico in a PT cruiser custom painted in University of Tennessee colors? Why?!? It is things like this that make me want to lie about my latest degree institution. Uh yeah, it was from, like Bob Jones U, or something. What a joke.
in front of the Los Alamos (NM) Post office
There is a game you can play when flying to Knoxville (TN). You are not allowed to look at your gate, you just wander around the terminal until you can guess which gate you are flying out of. The give away usually is the preponderance of people dressed head to toe in UT orange. Only once of 20 odd times did this not work for me.
Anyhow, I think i forgot where I was going with this. I really don't like football, and universities that sell their souls for big time football are a travesty. Go to hell UT you are getting no alumni donations from me. First you gave over the entire campus to sports, and secondly you sold my address to marketers. Go to hell.
Yikes, Boonen and quickstep worked the Discovery boys over again at the Flanders hootenany. Instead of Quickstep's picture perfect teamwork delivering uberstud (getting his strength from the armadillo in his trousers... well, just click here and here for the photographic evidence) Boonen to the line victorious, Leif Hoste attacked on his own, perhaps to the surprise of the only guy in the final group who might (might that is) been able to pip boonen in a sprint. Having Hinky doing teamwork and then sprinting for third should not have been an option in discovery's plans. Bah...
My worst nightmare for the upcoming paris robaix is that hincapie-hoste-hammond for discovery were pitted against Boonen-Bettini-Bozatto (for alliteration's sake) for quickstep over the last few bits and quickstep take advantage of discovery team infighting and sweep the podium. At least with Hammond out for a week or so following his crash at flanders, there is one less possible podium seeker amongst Hincapie's flock. Bah indeed. Hopefully the discovery team can figure it out, they have the Ghent-Whelgem on Wednesday followed by the big cobbled enchilada on sunday. if quickstep wins all three I will be mighty depressed.
Anyhow, last week in knoxville, my buddy G and I took to the south knoxville Ronde-like course on fixies and he worked me over but good. A reprise of a memorably brutal fixie ride with Mark and G back in ought four, just before I left knoxie. 30 miles of the brown road loop ending with the beautious Burnetts Creek Road and lots of mini walls, rr crossings, one lane roads and the like, perfect for a hard hard fixed gear workout or the best of south knoxville in one ride. Paved singletrack it is, mmmm good stuff. Probably my first ride over 20 miles in 6 months, but no bonk and my legs were good enough for an evening ride 10 miles over to the shop for a couple beers.
One of the nicest things about riding in knoxville is the third creek greenway. A twisty strip of asphalt wending its way through a riparian zone, an urban oasis sandwiched between railroad tracks, old neighborhoods and crumbling industry. A healthy dose of hobo singletrack leaves and joins the paved path at frequent intervals. While I am generally no fan of cycling on mixed use paths, this one is special.
Particularly pleasant is riding the path at night. There usually is just enough ambient light to guide your way as the path morphs into a shimmery silver strip through the forest. However, it can be slightly disquieting. As you crest a small hill and drop into the low spots on the trail next to the creek that gives the path its name, the temperature drops noticebly. Then you hear it: the call of the peepers. From the swamp on either side a cacophony of calls emits, growing to a deafening crescendo.
As you ride along the peepers on either side grow quiet as you pass until you are enveloped in a rolling enclosure of brief silence between frog cries. But woe be the traveller who stops on their way. At first you are in a temporary silence between the far off peeps, but slowly the nearby frogs, sensing your stillness, begin to call out to you. Impelling you to follow them into their stagnant inches of dank swamp. The call is irresistable to some and many a weary nomad has been called to their watery grave by the siren cry of the peepers.
I am sitting in a room in a new hotel here in Knoxie that, near as I can tell, is 7 stories above what once was a porch of an acquaintance where I once had a beer.
Spent the procrastinating part of the evening using dorknuts as spacers on a set of fenders on a brand new bike I don't have yet really. More on that on tuesday hopefully.
