Saturday, April 25, 2009

It's a JOKE!

I guess I made the post below sound WAY to real. I apologize to those who thought I really did get sponsored. I'm flattered that so many of you thought that I was actually talented enough to earn a "team" car. Also, I realized after the fact, that the Wisconsin plates on the car made many of you think it really did come from Trek Corporate, it was just a coincidence. Many thanks to the rich guy who parked a burnt orange Corvette in the Bar M parking lot and left his bike rack down for me to put my bike on. I'm really glad the alarm didn't go off. Anyway, to those of you who know me from the pre-bike days, you know I would have asked for a Mustang, not a Vette!

Monday, April 20, 2009

General Motors and Trek to Sponsor me this year.....

Since the Trek/VW race team recently disbanded Trek has been looking for a new automotive sponsor to fill the void left by Volkswagon. Despite talks of GM's financial crisis they happily stepped up to the plate to take care of Treks more talented racers transportation needs. I am the happy beneficiary of this new deal. Pictured below is my Trek Remedy with my new matching Corvette, custom rear mount bike rack included.

Talking with Trek sponsored racer Ross Schnell recently about his new race deal, he was proud to show me that SRAM had kicked in some blingy matching orange derailleurs and Crank Brothers hooked him up with snazzy orange Iodine wheels. Well frankly I'm not impressed. My sponsorship deal is head and shoulders better than his. I am sure my strong results in the Throwdown race series helped me to attain this new sponsorship.



And in other news we rode Goldbar Rim today! Yea it was pretty sweet.

Above: Merrick takes a digger. More of a SPLAT actually. It was very ugly as his bike just stopped and he kept going.

Blom drops into the Portal View point.
Merrick drops into the Portal View Point.
I had a good day out there, dabbing only 11 time the entire day. Cleaned the uphill, and cleaned the Portal! YAY! No wonder they gave me a new Corvette!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

THROWDOWN TWO!

Brad rips it for Greg's "shot of the week."


Despite some crazy windy weather and threat of rain another THROWDOWN is in the books. Flyin Ryan was sick so we were all gunning for his last weeks time of 5:05. We came close!
Winner this week with a smoking time of 5:07 is Mason K.
Second, with a much improved time of 5:09 is my-self.
Third is Brad A. with a time of 5:13 and this weeks cover photo.
Fourth was Killer Kieth L. with an ugly crash at the base of the Widow Maker. He still improved his time despite the digger! 7:19
Better weather and a different course next time.....

Captitol Reef

Temple Mountain at the heart of the San Rafael Swell. Picture by Mary.

Mary is taking some really cool tree shots lately. So, despite having a motorized beast on the back of our truck, we quickly left The Swell because there were so many ATV/Moto chuckleheads ripping around. Our hope was that they would all be leaving late Sunday, but most seemed to be planning on a Monday holiday too. It looked like a trailer park, because apparently folks can't camp anymore without a TV, AC, or a DVD. Gone are campfires and tents in favor of all the comforts of home. And, gone too is the experience, ya know, camping?And camp we did. After driving 50 miles out of the way for gas (man I love Utah) we headed up and over some pretty tall mountains to drop into 3 awesome little towns near the entrance of Capitol Reef Nat. Park. Bicknal, Loa, and my favorite, Torrey UT were in a line as we dropped back down towards the cliffs of Capitol Reef. We found a perfect campsite nestled in some rocks which sheltered us from the wind. It was a darn cold night, but our new two person bag works perfectly and can even fit a Gustifson if needed. Sunrise turned the cliffs pink as pink can be.Before breakfast Gus and I headed up a trail near camp. I was quickly in heaven as I realized it was an old mining trail blasted into the rock. I was having dreams of someday riding my bike down it and connecting to this trail by way of the distant slick rock I could see in this far away view, pictured below. We drove through Capitol Reef like good tourists and even stopped at the visitor center and some marked view points, like "The Goose Necks" below.


It was quite a good trip and we packed a lot into only 1.5 days off. We for sure will be going back. There is a lot of rock out there to explore.