Bro GC is on the tall tires!

After reluctant observation ,of my cheap ride, for almost exactly a year, my bro GC decided to take my lead and ditch his huge, heavy $3k dual suspension mountain bike. He dropped it on craigslist and a week later it was headed off down the road in the back of some total newbies pick up truck. After much pushing from yours truly, He replaced it with a fairly cheap mail order 29r. Sound familiar? It appears to come from the same factory as Fuji and truthfully looks like the same bike.

Today he was able to break away from AT&T for a couple of hours and put it to the test at OM. He said he loves it. Hopefully it will hold up as well as mine has. I know he will love the 29r. I'm glad to see him on the bike and putting his life back together. I imagine that he will be a force to deal with in a few months or so. Congrats on the new ride GC. Ride her hard!

North Georgia revisited

Ccup and I arrived in Dahlonega on Friday evening and checked into the Super8.....I know..blame it on our cheap ass sponsors. After a short nap we decided to go into town to find some food and spirits. Dahlonega was full of posh little places that ,I suppose, are fueled by Atlanta folks that have weekend cabins in the near by mountains, but Curtis and I settled in on the local Italian/American dive bar.

After a quick scan, we realized that they had the basic liquids for a cyclist survival. Fat tire and PBR on tap. After we found our spot at the bar ,the first thing that we found humorous was that the bartender "Really!" had his nose buried in a "Bar tending for dummies" book. The beer was good and the food was ok. I don't know what it is about the North GA mountains? Looking back to my May of 2010 post about Helen.....well..... The locals started to creep into the pub. I haven't watched any fashion TV lately but I doubt that plaid is the new sexy for 2011. Then out of no where, the disco ball dropped from the ceiling and the karaoke was warming up. Ccup and I made a quick escape. Ccup commented that North Ga could rival some of Alabama's finest rednecks any day. Honestly, I fit in pretty darn well.




The next morning came early. We spared ourselves the Super 8 breakfast and chose oatmeal instead. We fumbled our way to the vineyard with poor directions and somehow found our target. The funny thing is that 5 cars with bikes followed us, having no idea how lost we were. Registration was sloppy. But we finally got suited up and ready to go. The race started out with a nasty cross course and a 100 yard run/crawl up. It then made it to the North Ga forest and instantly started an 8 mile climb straight up a dirt road. At some point most of the peleton was walking. This was Hell on Earth. After a long descent, there was another 5 mile climb followed by an uncountable amount of 500 yard climbs. And then finaly a possible deadly downhill. The weather was great which made the very very long 50 mile day tolerable. I finished on my single in 5 hours and 10 minutes. The course ended with another cross course and a 300 foot crawl up with MGD hand offs.Ccups heart rate monitor said 3600 calories burned. I am pretty sure that this was the toughest day I have had on the bike. It was somehow satisfying to see people with gears still limping in an hour and a half later as we headed home.

Dangers of the velodrome

Inside the Masters back pack

Im Just saying!

7 days and 7 nights

Well, the snow is still here. It has been one week of snow on the ground. I have really enjoyed the beauty of it. It looks like we may be in for a couple more days of it at my house. I think we are on the shaded side of the mountain.


Beautiful day. Church, lunch with good friends, then a nice sunny snow ride. Skyball was still snow capped off in the distance. Although Skyballs Siren Bitches were calling us, we took a right instead and resisted. The temp was nice and warm but then dropped about a degree per minute in the last 20 minutes of the ride.

Is anyone aware of this?

http://www.blkmrkt-racing.com/

More inclement weather?

My new plan to push on through the worst weather this year is tough. Reluctantly, after work today, I headed to the local trails for a spin. You'll never guess what I found.

When the park is the most beautiful all year. You guessed it........CLOSED!

I pushed my 29r up the hill next to the park. I then slipped into the down hill of one of the switch backs that turns near the pavement. Most of the trail was virgin snow. I was really surprised that no one had decided to take a hike through the snow covered trails. I saw lots of dear tracks and then finally ran into a single set of human tracks. At least someone else in the city appreciated the snow covered mini forest this day. The stream that snakes under the three bridges was beautiful.

I was pleased to find that most of the trail was easily ridden. However, the ice shell on the snow demanded a lot more effort on the first trip through. All in all it was a peaceful ride and a good work out.