HAPPY TUESDAY RIDE TONIGHT

TUESDAY 08.22.11

(Look for the Happy Tuesday Sign. It's the mark of Crazy Bastard Riding Goodness.)

Just so you don't miss it, and end up at the Park tonight for practice this is a reminder that we're riding out of Townsend tonight instead. We'll practice tomorrow. Details to follow. Like tomorro.

We'll roll at 6 tonight, so be ready. There may be refreshments in the parking lot, as well. So be prepared. That would mean bringing a bottle opener so you can open the beer somebody else thoughtfully lugged out there. Thanks again Craig!

 The route I've planned goes by this sign (above) so you'll know you're on the Happy Tuesday Ride, and not on the Mildly Amused Thursday or It Doesn't Exist Wednesday Ride.

Join in the fun. Be ready to roll. If you see a crew that looks anything like this, you'll know it's Tuesday!

TUESDAY-RIDE WEDNESDAY-PRACTICE THURSDAY-RIDE?

It's been brought to my attention that many of you want to ride on Tuesday, and not practice on Tuesday, but that you'd like to practice on Wednesday, and then ride again on Thursday.

(The leaves aren't falling yet, but this is one of my favorite ride photos of all time - just in case you needed to get in the "ride more mood.")

While this all makes a lot of tiring sense to me, I thought I'd put it out there and see who cares to do what on what day. If we can't come to an amiable agreement (and so far the whole thing has been terribly amiable) I will have to enlist a Ride Czar and a Practice Czar to make the final decision on which days we ride and practice.

Here are my potential Ride and Practice Czars putting their heads together and thinking about days for practice and riding:

(The douche on the left is the Ride Czar (potential) and other one is the Practice Czar.)

I don't know about you but I wouldn't trust these people if the told me you could get coffee at a Starbucks much less directing my training schedule. So If you know what's good for you (sounds threatening, but it isn't) you'll indicate your preferences on which days you'd like to practice, and which days you'd like to ride in the comment section (below).

The more we ride (twice a week) the more chance we have of seeing amazing scenes like these.

People like this.

Couples like this. Say they look a lot like the Ride & Practice Czar, don't they?

Strange and mysterious night riders like this.

Happy people like these happy people.

More happy people. And who wouldn't be happy here ..

This guy again ...

And finally a little something for me at the end of a good night's ride ...

Comment on your preference, and if it's too hard to make it ... right now it's:

RIDE TUESDAY TOWNSEND PARK ROLL @ 6

PRACTICE @ 5:30 @ LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED EACH WEEK

RIDE THURSDA TOWNSEND PARK ROLL @ 6

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GRAVEL ROAD RACING: THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE, OR ARE YOU KIDDING ME

The Gravel Worlds Championship Jersey up for Grabs In Lincoln, Nebraska Today

There's a great article on Cyclocross Magazine's Website right now about the Gravel Worlds Championships going on this weekend in some godforsaken place called Nebraska. It's really worth the read. If you're a gravel road riding idiot like me, and my guess if you're reading this you are, you'll appreciate it - and start getting some crazy ideas of your own. Author  David Boener writes an nice story, but you'll see from the start he not telling us anything that a Crazy Bastard Cross Member (Cross Member that holds nothing up) knows already.

Story excerpts with tasteless Crazy Bastard Commentary:

"It’s the perfect time to head out on the dirt roads and escape the hub-bub while working on your off-road skills via ’cross bike, and most of us have the fitness at this point to make our rides into epic adventures. "


CB: Yeah, adventures like some damn dog chasing you down the road that looks like this and chewing your Sidi's off:

"More and more events, sanctioned or otherwise, outside of the race scene are just begging for cyclocross bikes, and we’re stoked to see it. Events like the dirt gran fondo and dirt randonneur rides gaining traction have a future. Tomorrow Lincoln, Nebraska, brings us the “Gravel World Championship!”

CB: You'll notice here and everywhere else in the article that every dirt road race on the planet is mentioned except for those in Michigan. No Barry Roubaix or Washetenaw Whatever That Race is called get a jot. Of course as a Michigander you should expect this kind of national neglect by now. Harden' the F' up, okay?

(The above video has nothing to do with World Championship Gravel Story. I just put it here in case you were feeling sorry for yourself today for not being there, or being here.)

David Boener's Cyclocross Magazine's story continues with more inappropriate CB Commentary:


"I’m growing more and more fascinated with the Midwest every time I hear about “gravel grinders” – self-supported, unsanctioned ultra-endurance “races” on gravel farm roads in the Heartland."

CB: Do we  hear  faint note of smugness here? Maybe I'm being too sensitive. That's what being from the Midwest, and Heartland gets you. We're all having some serious low self-esteem issues that makes us think low-self esteem "gee I'm a loser but I'm cool" driven propaganda like this is a good thing: 

(Again the above video has nothing to do with the story. I just put it here to make some obtuse point I'm sure no one will get.)

Now, more Gravel Worlds goodness:


"Growing up in Colorado, we always thought of the Midwest as “flat,” and “boring.” But when I read the reports from races like the Dirty Kanza 200 and the Trans-Iowa, the Great Plains transforms in my imagination into an endless ocean of hulking rollers scored by thin ribbons of anonymous gravel pathways that go on infinitely."

CB: Sound like the way the Hobbits thought about the Misty Mountains growing up in the Shire. I didn't know people in Colorado ever thought about the Midwest at all. I can't blame him for thinking it's boring, though, living in Colorado.

"And now there’s one more reason to head to the heartland: The Gravel World Championship this Saturday, August 20th, in Lincoln, Nebraska."

CB: The only reason I'd go to Nebraska is for this race, which sounds wicked. I just missed the "one more reason" part. Like there's another reason to go to Lincoln? I don't think so.

"It’s a fully self-supported, wholly unsanctioned, “ride” (wink, wink), at the end of which the first finisher will put on a world champion jersey. The course is a 150ish-mile loop around Lincoln that includes “maybe four miles of pavement,” according to Pirate Cycling League member and participant Malcolm Tassi. Everything else is either groomed gravel roads or Minimum Maintenance Roads – forgotten double-track wagon trails that turn into nearly-impassable mud bogs if it rains."

CB: As a Crazy Bastard I'm all over this wink-wink shit. I think we should put it on our jerseys. If we had any.

"There are several checkpoints along the way, but each racer is responsible for his or her own navigation. The only documentation is a handful of Powerball tickets purchased at gas stations along the route. Like all Pirate Cycling League events, Gravel Worlds is free."

CB: POWERBALL TICKETS! Are you fucking kidding! Why isn't this race in Michigan? Our economy is totally based on the sale of PowerBall Tickets. Awesome! The FREE part will also appeal to our Dutch brothers. I sure a couple of you are riding or hitch hiking to Nebraska today - IT'S FREEEEE!

“The ‘world championship’ thing is sort of tongue-in-cheek,” admits Corey “Cornbread” Godfrey, the event’s founder and a Midwest endurance racing legend ...


CB: Huh?


"...it was only a matter of time before someone called their gravel race the world championship, so we figured we might as well."


CB: I gotta admit, the guy's got something there. He won't be driving a Chrysler through a junkyard anytime soon.


“I have no idea how it’s perceived elsewhere,” Godfrey said. “We’re kind of isolated out here. We don’t have the mountains. We don’t have particularly good road riding. So we learned to embrace what we have. And what we do have is miles and miles of endless gravel roads. You get to see part of the country that no one gets to see. Lincoln looks like shit from the Interstate. But it’s actually a really cool town. Same with Nebraska. Nebraska looks cool from the little gravel roads.”

CB: Make sure you check the whole story out on Cyclocross Magazine. And let's plan on a road trip next year. I love places that look shit from the highway!


Good luck to all of you racing this weekend! See you Tuesday.

FANCY BIKE RIDE ENDS IN BEERS

Fancy that - a beautiful new Fuji Cyclocross Bike! I think I'll borrow it. The keys are in it and I don't see the owner.

A beautiful night it was, for beautiful people and beautiful bikes. We had plenty of both - if you don't count me. New 'crosser Dan McGraw brought his brand new Fuji Carbon Cross (I think that's the name of it) out for its maiden voyage last night. He was flying on that thing - full of that new bike buzz.

Dan looking like he's ready to rock his new carbon whip. And he did!

Here's Dan being welcomed into the Crazy Bastard group ride by being offered a $100 for his new bike. I don't think he's going to bite on that one but you can see he has that "thanks anyway guys for trying to screw me out of my bike on my first night out."

You're welcome Dan, you are welcome.

Now on to the beautiful people ( not that you're not beautiful Dan). Here are just three of the ten on hand for last night's ride. Scott Walburn, back from a brutal few weeks of racing the Leadville 100 and the Ore to  Shore, Amy Haney, Big Mac, Jeff aka Redline Bastard, Jeff aka Slayer, Craig Rawlings aka Flying Bats ... and oh yeah ...

Jurrien Davison aka Ethiopian Bastard, being possibly one of the most beautiful people of them all in his splendiforous Hup Blanco kit DD handle bar wrap.

This kind of socialization led to beers in the lot, more beers in the lot and then some more at the HC later. And who the hell is the guy on the road bike? He looks like some kind of Bastard to me.

In the background you can see our old and good friend Russ Greenwood. Russ truly manned up and rode his ass off on his Single Speed last night, no doubt in training for some horrible 100 mile or 100 hour cross race or something. Nice going Russ, thanks for pulling us back all night with one gear! Sorry we couldn't help you, but you will be better "dude" for all the work you've done.

Nice night for a ride. Great roads. Stayed out of the deep gravel to the north. Temperatures were perfect and the beer was cold.

See you at practice next week.

RIDE TONIGHT: FEELING BIG? BRING YOUR BIG WHEEL WHY DON'TCHA?

(Guess who is leading tonight's ride? Yeah I'm the new guy! Look out bitch I'm on your right! Idiot!)

I'm frequently asked ( just once), "just what do I have to do to be able to ride with the infamous Crazy Bastards?" I never know what to say when I'm asked this (that one time) because I never saw a very high bar of eligibility for our rides. I'm guessing that our image exceeds my view of our group.

Could this be what comes to mind when people talk in hushed whispers about the Crazy Bastard Ride?

 (Is this really what people think we look like out on those dark gravel roads?)

 (Do they think these are the kind of uniforms we ride in?)

 (Do they think that ride leaders look like this - screaming at riders from the beginning to the end of the ride? Bastards!!!)

 (And no doubt the outside world views our after ride drinking sessions as something as cool - and wrong - as a whiskey gulping scenes from Mad Men.)

Well, those perceptions are all wrong. Here's a photo taken by our team photographer, from the team photography car during last week's ride:

(On your right! On your right! I mean on your left! On your left!)

 When we're done riding, here's what our group looks like back at the Honey Creek. Hardly Mad Men or a bar scene from Sons of Anarchy.

(Tonight everyone got cake because we ate every bit of our Asian Fried Carp. Mommy can I have some more? I love looking into those deep-fried carp eyeballs as I sink my fork into its smelly fish guts.)

So what do you need to join the ride? Something with two wheels, no motor, and a sense of humor and no common sense. The bar is set so low for the ride I've decided to ride this tonight just to prove the point:

(It's the next step after steel, alloy, scandium and carbon fiber: plastic!)

See you tonight - if you have the nerve after all this crap. Petere Towndsend Park just East of Cannonsburglar. We roll out at 6. Be there, bring your big wheel, cross bike, unicycle, or mountain bike.

CROSS PRACTICE VIDEO WITH ONBOARD CRASH CAMERA GOODNESS

Adam McIntrye has once again given us another epic cyclocross video packed with cyclocross goodness and crashes. Betting that he might not get an epic crash (he always does) on camera, Adam decided to ride the thing into the ground. himself. Watch and learn. Or something.


CX Practice 8-16-11 from Adam McIntyre on Vimeo.


In addition to the wonderful video we had a nice group out for practice: Laura M (Cupcake), Kim Thomas, (seen killing it on camera), Laura K, Big Mac (producer of our film) Craig R (Flying Bats), Jeff H (Slayer), Amy Haney, along with the bum that wanted jump, and the questionable poop I stepped in setting up the course.  Was also nice to see future Cross-nuts stop out to watch and learn Scott and Tom.

Thanks again to Adam for the quick turn-around, and another well-done video.

PRACTICE IS ON: 5:30 UNTIL WE'RE AWESOME OR JUST TOO TIRED TO FAIL ANYMORE

The votes have been pouring in. That would be 2. All have been in favor of practice so we'll have it tonight, near the North End of RSP. We should have something set up to practice barrier dis & mounts.

See you there. Here's a quaint training video you can watch until then.