Long lost blog re-discovered

It's been years since any of us posted to this blog. 3 in fact. I'm hoping we can resurrect this and have some fun with it, now that I discovered how I can get into it. Hopefully I won't forget this time.

First let's recognize 2 Hellclimbers for their National MTB Championship victories for 2009. Congratulations again to Keith "Mr August" Sanders and "Buckshot Bruce" Bates. Nice job guys!

Also congratulations to Alex Howes on the U23 National Road Championship Victory. He sure earned it!

Hellclimber's Creed

This is the Hellclimber's Creed, to be memorized by every Hellclimb Gang member. Adapted from the Marine Corps Rifleman's Creed.

This is my bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my bike is useless. Without my bike, I am useless. I must ride my bike true. I must ride faster than the competition that is trying to beat me. I must gap him before he gaps me. I will. My bike and I know that what counts in riding is not the gear we wear, the noise of our breathing, or the grimaces we make. We know that it is the results that count. We will podium.
My bike is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its frame and its wheels. I will keep my bike clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.
Before God I swear this creed. My bike and I are the defenders of the Hellclimb. We are the masters of our competition. We are the saviors of my life.
So be it, until victory is the Hellclimb Gang's and there is no competition.

Danaco does well at Moab

Check this out, our own Dana Franklin and teammate Volker Orgeldinger went out to Moab on March 25th to participate in the AdventureXstream adventure race. This race included Kayaking in the Colorado River, lots-o-running, a 275' rappel, and lots-o-mountain biking. They took second overall in the 2 person open division, beating a bunch of tough adventure racers in the process. Way to go Dana! Results can be seen at:

http://gravityplay.com/axs/index.htm

Current state of things

Okay, I've been lax about posting, but I'm turning over a new leaf as of today. IndiaHippy is back which is a blessing and a relief. Also a cause for concern because now the he's all fixed up, the guy's gonna be ON it when it comes to going fast, it's one of those things you know will happen, like an earthquake or a thunderstorm. That's a great thing though and I know we're all pulling for him to be back out there with us on the two wheeled sweat machine.

I was calculating my drive to work and the current high price of gas. I drive 21 miles one way, which is just about what my truck gets per gallon of gas. With that in mind, commuting one day saves me $5.60 at current price! I'm planning on riding to work and back 3 times a week as it's my easy ride between suffering days on the Hellclimb and the Thursday night oney ride. I figure I'll save $16.80 a week. I feel it's the only way I can fight back. Plus I hope the extra mileage will mean more speed, endurance or whatever on the race course.

The early season turnouts have been small for the Hellclimb, but I guess it's somewhat expected this time of year. I can say I've missed two which is unusual for me, but both have involved some kind of mishap. Broken car one day, and flu recovery another. Who the hell expects to get the flu this late in the year? I 've been lucky this entire offseason and hadn't caught even a cold until last Friday. That was a miserable deal for sure. The last time I had hurled was a few years ago, and my body had kind of forgotten the biomechanics involved it seemed. Oh well, everything has a bright side and the weight loss that came with this is welcomed. I lost 5 lbs due to not eating anything but an egg for 72 hours, so I guess I can't complain. Worst part was that it was tough to even drink water, and I appear to be ruined on coffee. I still can't take a sip of it and it's been almost a week, what's up with that?.

Since it's now race season, I sure hope you guys will send your race results in so I can put it up on here. I'll make a post with some of our Gang's results as soon as I gather them. I know of a few I want to look at and make sure I get them right before I put them up. I'm also going to post everybody's team affiliations so that we all know. There have been some changes.

Well I have been remiss for not posting much lately, but I've been so damn busy I haven't had time. First, for anybody who hasn't been keeping track of Indiahippy, our man in Asia, be sure to check out his blog www.indiahippy.blogspot.com. Very cool watching him get fixed up so he can come back and kick all our asses AGAIN....

The Hellclimb's coming along nicely so far this year. I've been trying to think of a previous season when we were doing the whole route by the first week or two of April and I just can't remember ever doing it. This bodes well for the season. Last week was great, a good turnout and nice to see the Sons of the Hellclimb come out and blow our doors off going up Lookout. Actually, Indiahippy Jr was kind enough to give myself and a couple other old farts a push up the early part of the climb.

Another fun thing to see was Deadly Fredly blast ahead at the beginning of the Gennessee loop then miss the turnoff for the back section. Mississippi G and I were yelling to get his attention, but he was in a zone and didn't hear us at all. Didn't see him again until we were descending Lookout. That's what he gets for ripping that climb and dropping us. He'll think twice about doing that again.

There was one thing that happened that made me wish I'd packed my camera. As Danaco, Mississippi and I were ascending Paradise Hills Rd a big herd of Elk ran down the hill, crossed the road in front of us and leaped the guardrail on the other side. I wish I could post a picture of it here. I need to pack that thing, but it seems like alot to bring along on a ride as hard as the Hellclimb. Guess I'd better get tough and do it.

The weather is supposed to be crappy tomorrow for the ride, hope they're wrong....

Hellclimb/team stuff

So obviously we didn't make the first Hellclimb scheduled for 21 march due to this crappy weather we've been having. Guess the plan is to try it again on the 28th. Same time and all. Hope everybody can make it. weather's supposed to be clear and nice. Arm and leg warmer time! I love it when you start at the bottom of Lookout and heat up real bad on the climb, then need to don your arm warmers for the descent. That's when you know the season's really here.

I've made a team move so I figure I may as well post it here. I joined Team Evergreen Racing. I'll miss riding for K.O.R. but the time is right for me to do this. With the close proximity of the team and the high degree of organization, resources etc. it seems like a great thing. Plus there are already a few of the Hellclimb gang on T.E.R. so I'm hoping I'll fit in as well as I can fit in anywhere.

Hope to see everybody Tuesday.

Battle the Bear is alive and well

Bear Cross CountryLakewood, ColoradoMay 13, 2006Online Registration @ Active.comPrintable Registration (Coming soon) Printable Course Map/Description (pdf)

Hellclimbers, I was suprised to find out that although the Battle the Bear race isn't on the MSC schedule this year, they're still having it. This is sort of a double edged sword for me. Do I jump in and do this race, considering the damn weather's always hotter than Mississippi G's disc brake rotor after descending Falcon, or do I avoid the fatigue it'll cost me considering I'll be traveling to Angel Fire the next weekend. A tough question for sure. Maybe I'll jump in it on the Single like the last two years just to see how I do. Make up for last year's poor performance there. Then again, I do claim to have a very specific goal for 2006. Will I risk screwing it up? Hard to say. Only thorough thinking and Kathy Sabine's weather report a couple days before hold the answer. That race is weird for me. I remember 2004 there was a pile of dead animal carcasses next to the first 2 track that was stinking to high heaven. Jeffy and I smelled it a couple days before the race when we were out doing a course recon in the afternoon. Couldn't help but investigate where the stench was coming from. When we got over there we discovered the rotting pile of critters. It was hard to tell just what they were due to the level of decomposition, and we were shaking our heads wondering who had piled them there. Then when race day came and it was 90 degrees you could almost feel the stink as it hit your face passing by the area, and it wasn;t like you could hold your breath with the blistering pace being set on that road. Ahh the memories of races past.