Catching up... Street Cred, Arkansas and Pirate cXc!!!

It's been a while (since i said i'm sorry!)

Yep, it's been a while.

Instead of boring you with what's been keeping me from blogging i'll get right to the fun bike stuff.

Sreet Cred Crit (2-18-12)

The Crit was the only one of the four stages of street cred i was able to do this year. That made me sad but racing the crit made me happy. In a nutshell... i was winning the race (only because i was the last one to pit for the mandatory catbury egg ingestion) but i knew i was doomed when when Pot Pie caught back up to me after he pitted and before i even pitted. Watch out for Pot Pie, he could be trouble this year. But street cred is not about winning. It's about feeling good all the time and it was a blast. Well done Lev for keeping Street Cred alive. You know i still have the original blue leads jersey in my closet, we need to get that to CB. That's a piece of KC history right there.

i accidentally deleted my photos from the crit. sorry.

Now on to...

Somethingclassicin... Arkansas!!! (3/1 - 3/4 2012)

So every year for the past 4 or 5 years Lev and i have ventured down to the Natural State to ride mountain bikes. This year Dave also came and shattered any notions we had of being fast. We were the power trio but Dave was definitely Sting and did the heavy listing. I'd like to think of myself as Stuart Copeland and Lev makes a perfect Andy Summers. Sting just keeps going, no wonder he went on to be big things once the Police broke up. Nice work Dave. Plus he's handy so when you break your real deraillure he can help turn it into a singlespeed so that you can pedal home.

Arkansas is awesome and i highly recommend you go there and stay in Eureka Springs and ride the trails at Lake Leatherwood. Pick me up a pewter wizard while you're there.

Now on to...

Pirate cXc!!!

Now were pretty much back up to real time. Today is Sunday but last night i was lucky enough to make it out for the final race of the Pirate winter race series. Like with Street Cred i told myself i have to do at least one of these. I love riding my bike but i also love hanging out with folks who love to have a good time, and it's even better if they love riding too... well, the pirate crew appears to have the monopoly on that. What a blast.

The night in a nutshell...

Head out to the priates lair (great to finally be there after reading so much about it), notice immediately that while this is certainly not a sanctioned race it's most certainly a well run event (i got a spoke card and a race number and the sign in had a folding table and a pop up canopy! Seriously... everything about this event was great), mingle with lots of costumed mtb crazies, head to the backyard for a short skills competition on the pirates homemade skills course (i have no skills and was happy to spectate and snap pics), ride about 10 min to the start of the actual race (another sign this is a well run event... an actual banner at the start finish!). Then... race time.

Race re-cap....

(We haven't done a race re-cap in a while, so why not.)

I'm riding my cross bike since my mountain bike is broken (typing that makes me feel spoiled). I look around and see Chrisgo is the only other dude rocking the skinny tires. Something like 30 of us line up for what is to be a 4 lap race thru cross / mtb single track like conditions. This was my first time riding trails at night so i was excited and nervous.

There are plenty of fast people here and despite the fact that this is for fun and i'm worried about hurting myself i was hoping to go fast and be aggressive.

The race starts and i immediately wish i was riding my mountain bike. there are lots of big ruts and the ground is bumpy so it was a rough ride, i have a huge blister on my palm to prove it. Despite this i was able to ride just about everything. i'm probably sitting 5th after 1/3 of a lap but then about 5 folks cut the course (understandable, it was night time and a little hard to see where to turn) and put me in 10th. Not a big deal, this will just make it more fun.

Being that this was a top notch event there were bonus seconds available every lap in the form of beer, liqueur, donughts, etc. which were available at the start finish. For every goodie you ingested they marked your race number with a sharpie.

I neglected to pit on the first two laps as the thrill or racing was running thru my veins but halfway thru lap 3 i came to my senses and realized not stopping to partake in the refreshments would be totally lame. Besides, i'll do plenty or races where you don't get rewarded for stopping so how can i pass this up. So on lap three i stopped for 3 dixie cups of beer. it tasted great but was hard to drink quickly and then hard to pedal hard after that. I dug deep in this race. It was 44 min long and basically cross like intensity.

Considering the bike i was rocking i think i had pretty good flow thru the course. there were a few sections i just ran and while doing so imagined what the mtb folks thought of me. "whose this dorky kid in capris and why is he running over these small logs?" I love it! I battled with a few folks and when it was all said and done i finished 3rd in the geared division! That was good enough for post race mention and a prize from the ample swag table. Neon pink sox in the house!

I believe Don Won crossed the line first, not surprising, but what was surprising were the amount of lettres he had on his race number. I had 3 'B's' since i drank three cups of beer. Check out his race number in the pic below, theres scribbles all over that thing!

Well done, sir.

The highlight of the race was the immediate post race party. It was a sight to behold and something i'll never forget. A bunch of crazies sitting in a field with 300 lumen lights on their heads cheering on every finisher while downing dixie cups of beer, donuts, and... well, lets just say Mountain Bikers are not like Road Riders. I love everybody but Mountain Bikers sure know how to have a good time.

Well done Pirate, you put on a great show and deserve major props.

Spring is almost here and I'm psyched to ride my bicycle.