All this just happened to happen

Strap in, random on.

With the Big Frog 65 coming up on Saturday, tomorrow will not happen.  I've got to get up and prepare for a midday rendezvous with Luke Sagur in order to hit the road in time to make check-in before it closes.   Ironically, once again I will be driving to work on the annual Ride with the Mayor Day.  Usually it's the weekend before PMBAR and I'm skipping town after work... now they move it up a week and I decide to enter the Big Frog 65.

Whatever.

I'll be the guilty looking guy in the peleton who hasn't actually worked up the appetite to eat the free breakfast.

... and a phone call just now (7:39AM) and plans change once again.  Maybe I ride to the ride, maybe I don't.  I have mentioned before how much I love "fluid" plans.

So let me try to cram some stuff in before I leave.

My Spin Fondo shoes were a fail.  Uncomfortable seven ways to Sunday.  I found a pair of NOS 2009 Mavic Razors on eBay... the most comfortable shoe that couldn't stand up to hike-a-bikes and was improved and worsened with a redesign.  I have done everything I can to reduce the metal content in them to make them courthouse metal detector friendly... including swapping the cleat mounts.  I always wondered why I kept those two holers... now I know.
April's SchwagBox arrived.

The crotch lube/chain lube combo is becoming a norm, but new literature and bars are always welcome.  Random trail eats and bathroom boredom killers.  We all know I'm a ProGold guy when it comes to lube, so I just squirrel away all these samples for the post-apocalyptic zombie wars when it will fetch a premium price.  No one wants to ride a noisy bike with all the zombies hanging out in the woods.

Thad "The Man Who Loved a Fat Bike and Lost" Marsupial brought this to my attention:

La Ruta adds fat bikes...

SRSLY.

My poor reading comprehension aside, the entire article explains why a fat bike category makes sense.

"... we have pictures of him riding the railroad bridges. He is the only cyclist who has ever done this in 21 years of the race."

And that's the best that it gets?  Fuck me.

In the same article...

"Urbina has previously entertained the idea of having a singlespeed category, but thinks there is not enough interest. However, he noted that there is more interest in racing La Ruta on a fat bike.

Shoot me

In the fucking head.

Now.

La Ruta is about climbing and pain.  Fat bike plus a fuckton of climbing, very little of it being technical or loose or sandy or covered in snow?

I have a love/hate relationship with La Ruta, but I pretty much feel that way about everything in my life.  This is pushing it more to one side than the other.

On the love side, Bill "Big Worm" Fehr, the Charlotte messenger who is a heartbeat away from becoming the elder, is the subject of this short filmage.



He told me that it would be okay to make fun of him, but it's not as much fun when the victim is complicit.  The film work is awesome, although the lack of me is not.

So, the Big Frog 65 in two days.  The sport class for the NUE hundie.  Best thing about only doing 65 miles this weekend?

I tend to do well in bad weather (when I decide to stick it out and finish).  As I have said before, I am fueled by the misery of others. 

BUT

I do not want to have to overhaul my bike and/or swap out brake pads and do all the other shit you have to do after riding 5+ hours in the rain.  Shit work.  Too many races coming up way too fast and the only thing that makes it better is that I'll be racing three different from now until June.  I can leave a dilapidated bike in the corner for a couple weeks if I have to.





Monday, race report.


probably