sugar bottom scramble and other tid-bits

so, since last wed a few things have happened.

1. we had us a friday night fixie ride


2. bren, andy and i rode some sugar, then were joined by john for more riding.

3. andy was nice enough to take me tree climbing


3. andy built a fixie. it rocks socks.

4. it rained friday night, so sugar race was cancelled postponed saturday morning. sadness ensued.

5. fire pit corn + beer = pre-race carb loading session
read: we salvaged saturday. i even unpacked my room. about time, eh?

6. sugar bottom scramble!!!!

hilarity ensues.

7. yerke and i finish the bike rack.


right. so i might have left something out, if i did, i'm sorry. it's been a busy few days. oh yeah school started. but that isn't terribly exciting. and i certainly don't have any photos of that. but that's only because kim didn't stick around long enough this morning to take our first day of school picture. we'll have to do one tomorrow.

sugar race write up:
here's the quick and dirty... it was a fun, fast, frustrating time.
FUN - it was tons of. i rode out with andy, who was kind enough to pull his b.o.b. containing our post race beer (or what little remained after certain drunkards raided our race beer stash late saturday night!!). but we did rig a radio up too, so that was fun. dave joined us on his road bike, and the three of us headed out just after 9. we got there probably near 10ish. we were there in plenty of time to see the beginners off at 10:30. got registered up, ran around and chatted with folks. bren showed up a bit later than desirable! she slept in accidently...been there done that...as you may well know if you've been reading this for a while. but was in plenty of time to be situated and ready to go for the beginner race. speaking of the beginner race...amanda put in one heck of a showing...2nd place was the rumor i heard. way to go! bren made a nice showing too! nice job on her first even mtn race.
FAST - it's a race isn't it? why wouldn't it be fast? trails were in good shape too.
FRUSTRATING - so, yeah, i think once the race got postponed the race gods were angered and started plotting to make this a bizarre ride for everybody. things were going well for a while. that while being the 1st lap lake side of the trails. then, the north side came out of no where and kicked everybodys arse. andy had a spot of bad luck, when his crank arm bolt came loose a bit before the end of the 1st lap, and ended up with a dnf. sorry buddy. i got to the first black trail, and shortly after the first downhill, i caught a stick and it ate my chain. so i had to stop, get out the tool, remove half a link, and re-attach my chain. all the while watching as people were blowing by me. i'm guessing the change took at least 3 and a half minutes. i was fumbling all over. and i think at least 10 people went by me. lots of them were nice and asked if i had what i needed. which is one of the many reasons i really love mtn racing. finished up, and hopped back on the bike. i had been doing very well for me, and decided it would be a shame to just quit now, so i took off, making it my goal to catch the people who had passed me. so for the next lap and a half i kept making it my goal to get whoever the next one was in front of me. when i caught jami, she was all sorts of great, and kept hollering at me whenever she'd see me on a section of trail. thanks, it helped tons! i didn't make cyclocross the first time, someone was already walking my line of choice to the right, so i gave the left a go, but am not quite that good...so hopped off and finished it with what had to be one of the worst transitions back to the bike ever. but it worked. made it the second time though. which was nice. it was very cool to have a crowd of people hanging around all over the place on that hill. on the second lap, much to my surprise i passed yerke off the bike. poor guy cramped up. him and about 4 other people. everyone was having a hard time of it sunday. there were weird cramp vibes going on all over. (see above comment about angering the race gods) anyway, even with my chain issue, i managed to pull off a 13th place finish. which i am super happy with. but, pompous as this may sound...i can't help but wonder if i could have done a bit better sans chain problem. oh well, we'll find out next year! post race i rode home with andy, we stopped for some ice cream...which hit the spot. and i even scored another pair of glasses for schwag, and a gift certificate too. throughout the race, john played photographer with my camera, and took, what i think, are some super fun pictures. he now knows how to use my camera better than me... along that note, let's hear it for the jokers who came out to watch us suffer: margo, ma, lindsay, kim, john, and scott jr. thanks guys!

steve g. aka "number terror" rocks socks.