Trans-Sylvania Tidbits

Here is the part where I tell you what's going on with TSE lately... that I know of.

Donna Weiser became the second recipient of the exclusive Team Dicky TSE Registration Incentive Package. That means she signed up for the TSE, dropped my name, and got some schwag. What did she get?

A six ounce multi-taint serving tube of That Butt Stuff, my favorite butt elixir.

One Camelbak Podium Chill bottle

and One Backcountry Research Whammer Deal.

How happy is Donna? Let's just say she is more than likely very happy, but who knows. Perhaps she's not happy unless she's pounding big rocks into little rocks. Dunno.

If you want in on the schwag grab, all the details are here.

What else?

My favorite maker of wearable things has stepped up as a sponsor of the 2011 TSE. Who dat? Twin Six, of course, the maker of my absolute most worn piece of clothing since November 24th, the Dark Deluxe long sleeve jersey. If you've been paying attention to my posts since then you may have noticed that I've...

worn it in the mountains,

and on the road bike,

and while racing my way to (4th place) glory,

photo cred: Justin Butler

and I've even worn it to the grocery store, around the house, to my mom's surgery, to work, and just about everywhere else. I'm always all up in this thing, and I hate to take it off. There are two school's of thought here. One is that I might wear it out if I'm constantly in it, but the other is that I might die tomorrow regretting that I didn't wear it enough. I don't think I can live with dying like that.

More TSE news? I know, pinch yourself.

Word is that Mark Weir will once again grace the mountains of Central Pennsylvania with his presence.

The most interesting part of this story? Last year as we rode along during a non-timed section of the race Mark asked me, "How long did you have the Nomad (that I won at the 2007 Hell Ride) before you sold it?"

I replied, "Not too long, but if it woulda been a Tallboy I'd still have it."

To which Mr Weir responded "They woulda had to to find somebody other than me to ride that bike."

Why is that even slightly interesting? Word on the skreet is that Mark is coming back to TSE on a... duun, dun, duhhhhhh.... Tallboy. Hell yeah. Remember, Mark takes his cues from me.

I know you're thinking that there can't be any more news about the TSE to divulge, but you are wrong. The TSE website now has all kinds of updated course maps and information.

If you are a fan of squiggly lines and data then now is the time for you to get all giddy. Me? Little of this makes sense, and I'll probably just run the same gear that I ran last year and follow the arrows, unless I miss the arrows again and let Dave "Fourth Place" Cormier sneak by. I'm not much for data and science and stuff. In my non-expert opinion I would say the course looks lumpy, and I see an obvious omission of all the Amish buggies on the map. They are everywhere. Beware.

Could there possibly be any more info out there that you don't know about?

Yes.

Cyclingnews.com (the cycling oriented site that loathes my very existence) did a nice little interview with TSE promoters Mike Kuhn and Ray Adams that you might wanna check out. There's enough info there that if you haven't already signed up for TSE you probably will by the time you get done reading it.

photo cred: A.E. Landes

That's about everything that's come down the pipe so far. Tomorrow we'll get back to my favorite topic... me.