because from time to time

there will be things that you want dearly

and you will have to fight for them

you will have to listen for a call

that starts inside you and reaches outward

racing is good practice

A vast journey can only be accomplished with small steps, repeated patiently until the traveler has grown as large as his journey. And the traveler is never alone.

life

(true life, that is,)

(riding, racing, art, love)

springs from a field of potential that is

limitless, boundless

not miserly, not restricted

go ahead

open up

there is plenty

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts

~Rachel Carson

pilfered shamelessly from an entirely worthy website: TrailCentral

Well I am off to Leadville to the last of the winter bike series up there, should be fun. Weather is highly iffy, chance for rain. What will a snow bike race be like on cross country ski trails in the rain?

behold; the opportunity to do things well

I am God in nature

I am a weed by the wall

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

i am where i am at, it has to do with weakness

i am where i am at, it has to do with strength

 

..a consistent nature, throughout, wherever it appears;

Jet engines, diesel locomotives, the human heart (both mechanical and transcedent), the seasons, rust and decay.

 

It rises, then settles to its steady state, at harmony with what it has been set to do.

 

Understand it fully once; and you can see it again, in many things.

 

Turn your back on it; it is better that you hope for nothing 

 

 

… how everything does cooperate with all; not a leaf rotting on the highway but is indissoluble portion of solar and stellar systems; no thought, word or act of man but has sprung withal out of all men, and works sooner or later, recognizably or irrecognizably, on all men! It is all a Tree; circulation of sap and influences, mutual communication of every minutest leaf with the lowest talon of a root, with every other greatest and minutest portion of the whole.

 

~Thomas Carlyle

 

Breathing in the night
There's nothing else I'm needing now
The wind is at my side
And so are you
And together we will rise

Above all these words and promises we couldn't keep,
Together we will fly above it all
But sometimes we will fall...
From the light
But it shines on us tonight...
And together we will rise

And surely it's a sign now,
That everything's in tune to some kind of higher plan
Surely it's a sign
That you were right...
And there's the secret line
That we've been denied...
But we're crossing it tonight
And together we will rise

Sometimes we will fall,
from the light
But it shines on us tonight
And together we will rise

Pass this line
That we're crossing here tonight
And together we will rise

 ~Rise, by The Frames

race a class tougher than you could

race a class that sometimes overwhelms you

race a class that allows for something marvelous to happen

I want to speak now of when she reached the meadow,

after a long, tough climb

 

There was a set of roots that she cleared, then her eyes looked up for the next,

but there was none, just smooth trail

The last roots belonged to a tree close on her left,

then there was another tree on the right,

through its heavy bows

the light of the sun in open meadow

 

The yellow flowers announced:

one phase of the ride was done

the beginning of new one

She answered

Grabbing the mid chain ring and 3 hard cranks

Power, not to negotiate technicals and the steep

This was different power

Power for speed

 

Through the gears, faster with each click of a shift

faster with each sweeping arc of the legs

Click

Swish swish swish

Click

Swish swish swish

through most of the cassette, then into the tall chainring

 

She was flying now, and it was her meadow flying with her

Leaves smacked against the pedals

and her legs

as she whisked by

checkmarks of perfection

Wind made waves in the grass,

her flight through the meadow was a smooth echo of this

A few observations from the world I live in, just a snapshot. Prompted by my experience as a finisher at the 2007 Tour d’ Front Range.

 

It’s no surprise when Chris Plesko shows up with extra miles put in before the main ride starts. Last year he became the only Single Speed rider to finish the Tour. This year he showed up at the 8am start on a geared full suspension bike. But he also showed up with an extra bunch of miles of riding, and lots of climbing on the clock, riding from his house to complete a loop of Centennial Cone before the Tour even was underway. Chris and I rode much of the Belcher climb together. The standard course was to take the more reasonable Short Horn option. But the technical at the intersection of those two trails was calling his name so Chris headed down that. That technical is hell by the way. He then went on and did the rest of Longhorn. Which is much more hell. It’s been 8 years or so since I made the mistake of going to the bottom of Longhorn. I think the only thing at the bottom of that gully is a visitor center for purgatory, snakes that have yet to be classified by science, and the souls of riders who vow never to get on a bike again. Plesko was probably still smiling as he rode by them all. Actually it is so bad down there even Chris had to walk, but he was still probably smiling. When there was a choice of the easier route or extra climbing, extra miles, Chris choose the latter every time. The only exception was when he left out Dakota Ridge because he hung back for another rider who was struggling at that point. Struggling rider happened to be me.

 

Nigel Thompson. One of the best aspects of my experience competing in the Clydesdale class at Winter Park this year was getting to know some of my competition. Nigel Thompson scorched the earth at a couple of those races,  and was incredibly consistent all season. I was happy when he agreed to join with me and some of the other WP Clydes to form a team for Moab, and I was happy to see that he was planning on riding the Tour d’ Front Range. About 1/3 of the way through the Tour, I was with a group of about 8 riders who had just finished the second major climb at Chimney Gulch. We headed across the road to descend Apex by way of Enchanted Forest, a sweet swoopy run through the trees. But before that was a nasty steep chute with a 4 inch deep erosion rut in the middle of it. A rider crashed pretty hard there. Nigel took the lead on calling the ambulance, talking with the paramedics, the rider’s wife, made sure that his bike was taken care of. That was the end of the day for the rider who crashed, and it was the end of the ride for Nigel because he volunteered to help the injured rider. He definitely was riding strong enough to finish.

 

Brady Hill was another Clydesdale at Winter Park, with consistent visits to the podium. He runs a great website, TrailsCentral.com, and he is one of the principal organizers of the Tour d’ Front Range. He was knocked out of the race early with some bad mechanical mojo this year. Not able to complete the ride, he did support for the rest of the day, meeting us at Matthew Winters, Falcon (top and bottom) and then at the end at Lair O’ the Bear. Then bought dinner in Golden. I don’t think I could have finished without the water, Gatorade and granola bars from Brady. I also get to have this guy on my team at Moab.

 Life is good.  

We show up

bring what we have

earn openness to the rest

 

We learn, unlearn, then learn something new

even with differing personalities

even with pain and loss

 

Something springs up

out of the direction

we keep going

 

Something more than persistence

exceeds our momentum

and intent

 

Smaller than the scope of “achievement”

too timeless for “lasting”

bigger than us 

In addition to being a pilot of this nifty machine,  my bro is a pretty awesome DJ. He spins tonight (Sunday the 19^th) from 8pm Pacific time to whenever, click below to listen;

 

Update, some technical difficulties, we are underway at 9:35 Mountain at this link:

http://ballisticstillness.slserver.com:8094/listen.pls

 

For those who watched, Denver had one of the most beautiful sunsets in the history of sunsets

            She’s coming home 

 

I know how good it is to be on a bike at twilight

And now it’s the porch

All that’s left of this day is twilight, bouncing around the places where it’s still free

The trees are dark

Green as the leaves may have been during daylight

            Against the glow that is left,

            They are the first true dark

Consider the trips accomplished in the last two hours

 

cool like the ocean
burned like a summer home
fooled by the notion
that the sums don't add up at all            ~Silversun Pickups 

"Ordinarily, everybody in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else..."