Tour Dah Denzer

The weather sucked, the rides were awesome, the big guns came out(of some sort), shots were heard, shots were taken, fun was had, and no one lost an eye.  No cats or chickens were harmed in the filming of the next video!

I know the next one is blurry, but the person taking the pic was raised in a bar, yup with guns.  

Road Trip

Screw this, I'm outta here!!!

Fueled up RK style!!

Oh yeah, we have bike wash babes on this trip!!  To hell with just holding the umbrella and putting on chapstick!  

Highly recommended trails!!

Highly not recommended!  I bet you all went to those fancy Wisconsin camps!  The lady here was crazy!  Mocked  us for heading back to the State Park to go ride "mindless" trail as she put it!!  

This weekends activities and this bad dog is up fro grabs in the first ever Freedom Rd 2 x 6  challenge as part of the Tour Dah Denzer!  I am sure there will be lots to come out of this event!! 

St George

Group at the start of a long day of Barrel Roll/Zen/Stucki Springs/ Sidewinder/and don't forget Suicidal Tendencies!

Myles ride.  I almost needed it after a close call on Sidewinder

Michelle on Prospector

Myles on Gooseberry Mesa

Top of Gooseberry Mesa

You all in?  I heard yup!!

I know pics do not do trails justice, but the yup was quickly followed by a nope!

Re hydrating Frazierita style!

No complaints here

If you ask Michelle that is a first out of me, I always have something to say!  So on Thursday, Michelle, Myles, and I made the trip to St George, Utah for the season opener of the NUE. We flew into Vegas and bolted right away before Myles became corrupted and had the urge to gamble.  Travel was smooth and it was amazing to realize ho win the middle of no where Vegas is.  We arrived into St George and moved into our lodging for the next couple weeks.  Glad Michelle talked me into bringing our own espresso machine, cause this view every morning from our patio with a latte is not going to suck:)

 
So for the race.  We started with pre ride on Friday and quickly realized that this was one of the most technical courses I have ever raced.  Myles and I both crashed once during pre ride and Michelle broke he shifter.  After pre ride I worked to fix Michelle's shifter but had no luck and she would not be able to race.

Race morning.  We woke later than normal and pulled into the venue at around 6:20 PM for the 7AM start that actually ended up getting pushed back to 7:15 due to the lack of daylight. Good thing I am blind, cause it was still dark when they said go!!  Luckily daylight broke just in time before we hit the barrel trail!  At the start we immediately separated a lead group of 9 and were riding pretty hill until about 45 minutes into the race when Alex Grant decided to light it up a bit.  With this being my first race, the fact it is March, and with the 85 degree temps expected later in the afternoon I decided to just ride my race and let them go.  I went back and forth between 5th and 9th for the rest of the day and rolled into my third aid stop, and the start of the 2nd lap at about 4 hrs 45 min, with goose bumps, and hungry in 8th place. I spent a luttle extra time here, gt down a banana, a half bottle of Gatorade, and an oatmeal cream pie!  MMMmmmmm!  That is  my new fix in the 100s.  I rolled out of the aid in 7th spot and settled in for the 2nd lap.  All seemed good till I had to get of to step over a cattle guard and both of my toes locked pointing straight down?  Kind of hard to get back on your bike on your tip toes!  I finally got back going and had to spin for about 5 minutes to get the cramps to go away.  By the time I finally started riding well again Gerry Phlug had already passed me and offered some words of encouragement.  I kept it steady up to the Barrel Roll trail and caught Gerry again on the first lap.  Shortly after I caught him he flatted, which is a bummer!  Luckily for me I had no mechanicals and  was able to keep my body working for the entire race to come in for 7th place overall.

I was really happy with that for it being a March 100 mile race and the lack of riding that I have done due to being sick in January and the snow that keeps hammering Wisconsin. Next up is two weeks of riding in St George with various people popping in and out to to ride with us so I am excited to enjoy the weather and learn how to ride some of the technical trails around here!

More to come but I think it is time to sit on the patio and enjoy a 2nd latte!  

So deal with it.....

There she blows!

That has been this last week.  Things are blowing up around me with the Hot Tub pump going first, then the dryer input shaft, and now another pool motor this morning.  I might have to camp out here tonight with my laser sighted rifle to get rid of the Gremlins!  Pretty sure they are sneaking cookies out of the Bistro after midnight and wrecking havoc on all my daily plans!

Here was my last two days in Pic:

So that is the drum of the dryer sitting on the floor and the center of that plate is their shitty weld that broke!  The removal was interesting too.  The length of the drum is 39" and the space between the dryer and the sink is 36".  Oops!  So I had to lay on my back lifting the drum with my feet, while lifting the front of the dryer off the ground with a bar to make room to get it above the sink.  Yup, worked the same putting it back in.  Oh did all that while rebuilding the pump that was keeping the hot tub down, and doing a little of this:

Yup, hanging out at the Laundromat! They are still as interesting as I remember!!

Now lets throw in some of this:

Not sure were the day went but had to use the trainer to get my ride in on Tuesday night.  Then got some of this last night:

Got cold when the sun went down!  Makes you work on your skills when you cant see the ice ruts in the road!!  Good thing for studded tires!!

Then in my spare time I booked another warmer weather trip as well as lodging and registering the team for all non WORS related events through June!  Here is my list as of now, hope to see you at the races!

Big "D's" Bike

If anyone is interested in purchasing my fine race machine from 2012,  see below.  Feel free to contact me with any questions. 

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/bik/3613550923.html 

Thanks and happy riding!

Big D

Hangry!!

Valley Girl Fever

Like Whatever!!

Can't believe I am on vacation and caught a cold again!! That really sucks.  Seems much better today but yesterday I spent most of the morning sleeping then we met up with the Matters later in the day. I still decided to ride but did a sub chilled pace around Fantasy Island for a couple hours. Too many cactus right along the trail to snap any shots, plus Andrea was already behind me.... "Chris!! The sign says stay on the trail!!". Good thing Stans seals up all those cactus needles!! Yup, we have all moved away from the day of slime tubes:-)  Was there ever a day riders used those?? Bet ya Scott would know!

So today is a relax day and we have massages booked to prove it.  So hopefully the downtime today will allow me to kick this Valley Girl Fever I picked up and I can get back down to business tomorrow.   Which thanks to Brian's nice chill outlook means just some fun riding around the Tucson area.

On yer left!

Yup, might have to say that a little louder this year!  One cause I am nearing 40 and two after the Pyro and loud music at the concert on Saturday.

The concert, Michelle and I have been wanting to see Shinedown for sometime now and they were in Madison with POD and Three Days Grace.  I was a little unsure of Three Days Grace with the fill in singer from My Darkest Days but they rocked and the drummer can rock!!  It was also sweet cause we had some good seats:

Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace Backdrop

Shinedown

So if we are already in Madison then we should probably catch a flight somewhere warm to ride bikes since we just got Michelle's new SWORKS Epic!  Hmmm, where should we go??  Well the Matter's just got to Tuscon why not visit them, Andrea is fun!!  OK Brian is too!  So Sunday we hopped a flight west.  We got in late and did not see much of the scenery driving in, but from what I remember there is not much to look at anyway between Phoenix and Tuscon.  After a short night of sleep we did wake to this out the back of our patio:

I think this will work for the week.  So day one we rode part of the AZ trail.  Loads of fun and Brian and I ripped for a few hours not knowing what the girls were up to.  I found out once I was done with a text message that read, call me when you get cell coverage.  I was hungry and immediately thought, sweet, they want us to meet up with them for Burritos and Margaritas!!  Nope, hello, we are in the ER.  Michelle lost!

I was not even there and still want to faint!  Yuck!  8 Stitches to stop the leaking! She is fine!

So day one in the books and that is the only picture I got??  Must of been riding a lot harder then when Tyler and I were here??  Oh wait, I did get a secret shot of Brian's recovery drink!  Top Secret, do not share!

I was too nervous to try anything that creates fog like that in a sink???

Day two: Mt Lemmon to Bug Springs, I want to rip the entire trails till the wheels fall off my new bike! Sweet!

Loads of fun!  Time for some food and beer then wait and see what day 3 brings!!

Noth'n to say so enjoy the pics

MacGyver

We didn't make it 5 minutes and Tyler decided he needed rest and broke his bike, maybe he should of went with his first plan... Pony rides!

I wouldn't let him bail and put my MacGyver/engineering degree into action and made the next SRAM XCP rear derailleur prototype! Lighter and cheaper, sounds win-win to me!

Not sure if we will see it in QBP anytime soon but it made it almost 4hours!! Good thing for us we have a good support crew at home and Michelle and Scott got us a new derailleur next day shipped to us! Thanks!!

Other than the mechanical it was a good day of riding the south section of the Black Canyon Trail.

My awesome new ride, thanks Pete and Bill!!

Tyler back up and riding after our MacGyver fix:

Today is a chill day, which means catch up with work back home, clean bikes, laundry, and put a real fix on that "wreck" Tyler is riding!

Dirt don't hurt