STDD Remedy Trip: Days 7 & 8

Everybody told us that a trip to Sun Valley without a ride at Fisher Creek was not like a trip to Sun Valley at all, so we planned on going out there on Friday. As things ran their course the night before at the VIP Party, others decided to join us. By the time I woke up Friday, I was vague on just who was going to come. All I could remember was to be at some coffee shop on the corner of Washington and 2nd Street at 9:00AM.

When we got there, Matt Robertson was waiting for us. He said we were still waiting on Rob, Alex, and Joe. Rob showed up. I re-met him for the third time. He shouldn't change his clothes so often. Once Alex and Joe from Shimano arrived, we were on our way.

While sitting on the floor of the Shimano Sprinter, I looked closer at Joe's helmet that had a sticker on it.

Not just Joe. Joe Freaking Lawwill. I'm not much for hero worship, but due respect has to be given to this man. Young people may not know what I'm talking about, but he was one of the downhill pioneer types. Pretty cool.

Anyways, we had a long slog of gravel to get to the top of the descent. I took plenty of pictures. Joe took even more.

Rob managed to smash into a sign and have a major tire mechanical... on the long, wide dirt road climb to the top.

The road was littered with dilapidated structures from a time when dilapidated must have been the vogue option.

It was easy to take photos and it made the miles go by. I realized I was wearing some ironic socks given the week I had been through.

Bike29 FTW!!

Once we finally got to the descent, Joe stopped taking seven photos a minute and swapped over to the GoPro. He hopped on Zac's wheel, and I think that was quite fortunate...


given how far Zac flew off the trail when he snagged a pedal at 1:03.

Zac lived to fight another day. He really made friends with his Scott Genius 40 and was hanging it out all week. Sure, he mighta laid it over two or three or four times and even dinged the seat stay, but he was on his game dropping me in his jet wash left and right.

Fisher Creek ended up being all that and a bag of chips. Classic Sun Valley style riding, just a bigger bite of down in one swoop. Back at the Sprinter there was... you guessed it, beer. Joe insisted on some more photos with the snow capped mountains in the background, and then we loaded up and headed back to town.

Zac took another one of his now famous power naps. I was insanely jealous of his ability to sleep on command.

On our last day in town, we planned on hitting the Super Duper D course one more time with the Scott boys and the media folks at 9:00AM. That failed on many levels, so we took to the hillside for some racing spectation.

We did manage to hit the course one more time right before the pro women's start, although it was not snag free. The amateur racers shared courses with the Super D and some of them were still out there, so we had to hang out in the woods and shoot the shit until we were allowed to finish it out.

We got back just in time to watch 6/7th of the women's race. Yes, Georgia "I gave my name tag to Zac and he didn't even give me a hug" Gould won, but there was bigger news than that.

Heather Irmiger raced in a bikini top. While I think boobs are great, I admire practicality even more. Everyone knows I eschew unnecessary fabric. Hell, I think lengthy hair is a vain luxury in cycling. When it's hot, clothing does nothing but make you hotter and less efficient (while providing ample space for sponsor logos). It's about time that the less-than-top-heavy women in the sport chuck the restraining knocker blockers and maximize their bodies cooling potential. I know some women need to keep their feed zones under control, but if you don't really got it, flaunt it.

I'm not afraid to admit that I mighta been in a bike shop in the past week looking for a women's spaghetti string tank style jersey for ORAMM.

Saturday night, we packed our bikes and bags and then headed across the street for the Sun Valley Shakedown concert. Beers, music, more bike talk... and then bed.

Anyways, that's it for the STDD Remedy Trip. There's some loose ends I'll cover next week in regards to the equipment we used, but all the nitty gritty portions are out there now.

Did we have fun? Hell yeah. I haven't ever been to a week long MTB festival before. What an incredible way to spend a week without racing (I can't consider what I did at the Super Duper D "racing"). There are over 400 miles of single track in Sun Valley, so we hardly scratched the surface. It would be so easy to spend the whole week there without ever getting in a car to go for a ride, and for that matter, to drink beer, hang out, grocery shop, whatever. Although the Nationals won't be in Sun Valley next year, I believe the Ride Sun Valley festival will be happening in 2013. Sure, you can head out there any time of year, but the Stoker Rides and camaraderie levels were certainly a reason to schedule your trip at the right time.

I miss Sun Valley so much it hurts, although this image sent to me yesterday by Cush makes me think I got out just in time.

If there's anyone in the women's field with this much chest hair, might I suggest you keep your jersey zipped up tight.