Where Metal and Mayhem Hit the Road

First the Mayhem -

Good week of riding - just feeling great.
Highlights from the week: Commuted everyday but Friday. A few days it was downright nasty - cold and rainy - but I still kept true. Bought a rear fender at The Hub after Monday's rain. It is bright orange so it matches the bike! Will put a picture up when I need it - hopefully not too soon.

Rode Tuesday after work with Michael and Jeff.MAYHEM! While riding up Mason cut-off to Clayton, right by the stop sign at the top of the little incline, right before Clayton, this Old Fucker drives by us with literally 6 inches to spare. I swear his side mirror brushed my arm - this was freaking close. Michael blasts up to Old Fucker and was like - what the hell! Old Fucker actually flicks him off. He then turns right and Michael chases him - so we chase Michael. Old Fucker turns into his subdivision, with Michael chasing him - he finally stop and Michael gives him a little piece of his mind. The best line: I've been a professional racer for 10 years and nobody has ever come that close to me asshole (that would be a professional CAT 4)! I would have taken a picture, because in hindsight it was hilarious, but at the time I thought he was punch the shit out of Old Fucker - so no picture!

The only group ride I did was the Hub ride on Saturday MAYHEM! I felt great the whole ride. We started out with over 30 people
and we averaged 20.1 mph. The ladies also showed up on the ride! The two big challenges on the ride involved me having to cover two breaks. The first was up Conway -Nate on the tandem caused a large separation and I had to go around him. If it wasn't for Mathew, there was no way I would have caught back on - he helped close like a beast. The second close came when I fell back to ride with Andy and than decided to catch back up. We got into a 5 man pace line - each doing 15 rotations and pulling off. It was such a blast - I remember doing that stuff when I rode with the Spirits as a Junior for a short while out by the SmokeHouse before it became all built up. Whie we were going down the outer-road, into the big hill, this new hubber guy got his wheel caught in the groove between the shoulder and road and went down hard. He was a little beat up but was able to limp back. I told Ron Clipp that it is rare to have a crash on the shop ride that he is not in!

Now the METAL!

Went with Phil Nadeau - bike buddy and husband of Hubber and blog follower Stephanie - to see See - I related it to cycling - plus Phil is wearing a Jittery Joe's mechanics shirt - so it is OK to blog about! We drove to Columbia to see a metal-fest - Valiant Thor, Baroness, Buried Between the Dead and Me and MASTODON. The concert was awesome. VT sounded like old school Judas Priest - Baroness was just amazing - I swear they could have stolen the show - Buried Between the Dead and Me, which has been renamed Bored Between my Ears and Eyes (which seemed to be a crowd favorite, which I did not get, but they were the youngest of the four groups, so I think the young kids liked them, but they sounded like shit) and of course Mastodon - which was pure metal. Before the concert, we ate at this Mexican restaurant and seated right next to us was the drummer from Mastodon, Brann Dailor. The place was sold out and we sat in the balcony for the first three shows. At the set change, we were debating about going to the floor, when we decided to take up the task. Amazingly, we were able to move ourselves into a great position, dead center and close to the stage.
Luckily I was able to miss the moshpit by a few feet - I'm too damn old for that. Next up - we are so going to get DRI tickets - now that will be old school awesome.