Back on the Bike...

Today was the first ride since 24 hours of big Bear. I took it easy and I was surprised that I felt pretty good. I never pushed real hard but I wasn't exactly going slow. I am also battling a little cold, I get these a lot after really hard efforts. It is nothing major just a little cough and some congestion. I should be good by Saturday. I also put suspension back on my bike. I have to tell you, I didn't like it. It felt flexy and squishy. I will give it a couple of more rides, but if I don't get used to it I am going back to rigid.
All in all it was a good ride.

Tonight we decide to try a new restaurant, I had been riding by the 6 Paupers in Hockessin everyday for months so I suggested we give it a shot.
We Were not disappointed, it is kind of sad but I judge a restaurant by the beer they serve.
The Six Paupers had a nice selection, I went with the Magic Hat #9 while Rachael went with Flying Fish Summer Ale. We started thing off with some chicken quasidilas, very good and they came with some rice and a black bean salad, also very good. For the main course Rachael tried the Lobster and rock shrimp ravioli, and I went with the crab cakes. Both dinners were fantastic, there wasn't any filler in my crab cakes and the raviolis were delicious. I suggest giving it a try if you are looking for someplace new.

Thanks for reading.
Buddy

Man, you see all kinds of shit at these events!
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24 Hours of Big Bear Part 2

I had heard and read a lot about this course and was anxious to see it for myself. After we were all set up we headed out for a pre ride lap. They had been hit by some heavy rains on thursday, but the couse was still in pretty good shape. It was rolling with one wicked down hill about a mile long and one long tough climb at the end. We all agreed it was a really fun course. My favorite part was a fast, twisty, bermed trail that weaved through a pine forrest. It was like the woods in Return of the Jedi. There were plenty of roots rocks to make plenty technical.

After our pre ride it was showers and food. By now more folks had arrived and our little compound had grown. We had an awesome group of people around us beside the likes of Keith Bontrager and Elaine Tierney. We had Karl Rosengrath, Justin (the wrench from Dirty Harrys bike shop) TJ (another wrench from Dirty Harry's), Scott and Charlie ( the rest of Keith and Karl's team, L Webb, Carol, Kerry, and Tiffany the IF chicks. All these folks were super cool, TJ and Justin cmae to wrenck for Keith and his team but they worked on everyones bikes and were more than happy to do it. Not to mention these guys were super cool.

We spent Friday night Talking, joking and laughing. It was a good time I felt lucky to be there.

Elvis isn't dead, he's doing 24 hour races.
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Andrew posing with team Elvi
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Run Forrest, Run!
As you can tell Matt was our runner, I was second Andrew third and Marc batting clean up. At the time the order seemed perfect. As it turns out, we should have made some adjustments. We had Matt and I doing just 1 night lap while Andrew did 2. We won't make the same mistake twice.

The single speed / rigid class was tough and it was a battle between the the top 4 teams. We lost some ground and decided to sit Andrew hoping to get Matt and I out for a fifth lap. Let me back up a second to say something about Andrew. Andrew is the man, he is one of the toughest people I know and even though he owns a single speed it is not his primary bike. He only had a week to get ready for this race, where as Marc Matt and myself live on single speeds. Andrew rode awesome, he battled pushed and gave us everything he had. I was glad to have him racing on our team, not to mention he was 14 years older than the oldest rider in our category.

We started a big charge at the end, We pulled back a lot of time in our last rotation but it just wasn't enough. I have to say I am in know way disappointed in our performance, every one of us rode as hard as they could on every lap. I was honored to be racing with these 3 guys and I can't wait until next year when we go back to win.
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Fitzy catching ZZZZZZZZZZZ's for the last time.

Fitzy came through for us again. I can't thank him enough for all he does for us. I have now done 4 of these events and he was the man at 3 of them. He is awesome at having us organized and ready to go. I would come in from a lap and know where we were and get handed a bag of stuff so I could shower and just head back to camp, then I would find my bike cleaned and ready to go. Fitzy tried to get us to switch our rotaion earlier, but we didn't listen. The last time Andrew did one of these he got pulled with ou notice and it was a little disrespectful, we didn't want to make the same mistake. Sorry Fitz, we should have listened. He also worked for the IF chicks who took home the gold. I really can't imagine doing one of these with out him.

fatmarc making a fashion statement!

There is a lot of stuff that goes on at theses events. I would like to tell all of it, but given my lack of typing skills it would take too long. I will say this, I had more fun at this race than any other. Granny Gera did a great job, it was a great course and venue. I got to race with 3 of my favorite people, and hang out with an unbelievable group of folks. These races are hard and you hurt for days after your done, but I just can't seem to get enough of it. I can't wait until the next one.

Thanks for reading
Buddy
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24 Hours of Big Bear part 1

It was a long weekend so this will be a 4 part series.

On Thursday we all met at Matt's house to load our stuff into the trailer, It didn't take long and we all left knowing we would be meeting very early Friday morning to start the journey to West Viginia. I got to Matt's house at 5:20am to load the rest of my stuff and we headed off to meet the rest of the gang; fatmarc, Andrew, L Web, and Fitzy. We all picked up a few goodies then hit the road. The plan was to get passed Baltimore and stop for breakfast. We got through Baltimore pretty easily and stopped at the first place we hit which happened to be a Waffle House. After a greasy meal we were off and running again.

Four and half hours later we made the turn into the Big Bear Lake community. We were making our way to the venue and about half a mile from our final destination we hit a traffic jam on the dirt road. It turns out one of Laird Knight's employees rolled his car off the side of the road. The crazy part was this all happened on Tuesday, We don't know why they waited until Friday to pull it up out of the ditch. It wasn't long and we were on our way again.

We picked out our little spot and started to set up a little compound.

Our home for the weekend. Our little compound ended up a lot bigger. We combined with 2 other teams, L Webb's IF Chicks, Keith Botragers Wheel Works, that's right we were a group of guys from Newark sandwhiched between rock stars. It was a lot of fun, all the peopl aroud us were really cool and when we weren't racing or resting we were having a lot of fun.
Well I will be back later with a whole loy more.
Thanks for reading....
Buddy
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OOOPS !!!
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