The party's over

What more could possibly be said about the Double Dare?

How about the fact that if I had to DNF at a race, at least it was a race that encouraged ten hours of drinking by the fire.

photo cred: Brado

Yes, sitting by the fire watching riders come in to tell their tale was priceless. Watching them go back out again at 6:00AM was even better. In the above image, you see the guy dressed up in riding type clothing? That's Adam Pisgah BA Penny, who although coming in shortly after midnight, was told that he was within the fuzzy gray area of midnight and thusly he would be allowed to continue (and win with Mark Sacket). He looked happy and sad at the same time. I'm one of the people sitting (right next to "Just Katie Miller") on the ground listening. I was just happy at that point. My sadness had been liquified.

I was reminded of one of the better moments by Chris Strout in Monday's comments:

I think my favorite moment was at 5:25 or so when Eric first got to the fire.

Clay: "Eric! You didn't hear us come in!"

Eric (completely deadpan): "Yes, yes we did."

Good god you guys were loud.

Yes, yes we were.

I had a nice time being "those guys." I must say that Clay has mastered the art of dry humor. He kept me entertained for hours, and although I've never spent that much time in his company, I welcome the next time that we both end up DNF'ing together (although his DNF was much harder to earn than mine).

All the "racing" is done for 2011. Time to clean up the bike room (done) and hang the number plates on the wall (not done).

I managed to squeeze in one "W" for the year (as long as we include stage wins), and if a season's success could be measured in fun points, I would say I clearly came out ahead of the competition by a kilometer.

Until next year...



I've fallen behind on many topics I thought I would cover at some point but didn't, so I suppose it's time to get around to that...

eventually.