Why Do I Not Own a 12 -27 Cassette Damn it!

DEATH BY HILLS

California has the Death Ride - Georgia has the 6 Gap Ride - Texas has the Hotter Than Hell 100 - In Missouri, we have the Death By Mother Fucking Hills. Big thanks to the jerks at Team Seagal for hosting this ride. They say 56 left and who knows how many finished. I will say it was one of the hardest rides I have ever done. What makes a hill worthy is when you are climbing a 22% grade, going 2 mph zig-zaging back and forth, guys are actually teetering, loosing their balance and falling over and your taint is gushing blood. (Babler Forest Grade=fucking stupid) Now do that for 90 miles and you have this ride.

The pros - I rode with a great group - the pace was nice, most re-grouped at the top of insane hills - and it was just fun to be out with fellow cyclists. The cons - my fucking cassette. Man, did I need more gears. I think I screwed up right leg climbing - man does it hurt. In attendance was Dave Smith - who is a wild beast - He beat me by over an hour - he finished with the lead group (a total of three) and he just smoked the ride - I hung with large crowd of good guys and rode with Phil (Phil going up a hill - Grade = fucking stupid) and a bunch of other guys I know - Guys from Team Seagal, Tyler, Sandbox, Mitch the Masher, etc.

I took a video of some hill (Grade = fucking stupid) but it came out sideways - here it is:

I stole this video from Team Seagal's site - going up Bartizan (Grade = fucking stupid)


One of the coolest parts was stopping at the monument on old 100 and taking our picture like the pictures of old. Pretty freaking cool. Thanks to Team Seagal for the pic.
Will this ride make me stronger - Hell yes - I lost part of my colon on the ride so I am lighter now.
Was it weird that I went to work on Monday with Chamois butter in my underwear?

WTF!

How does one week go from temps below freezing to temps in the mid-70's. Well, that is what we got and it was awesome. I put in some quality miles and it paid off.

Saturday:

Started the week doing some mountain biking in the snow with my oldest kid. What a blast - signed her up for a little FrostBike MTB series and she rocked it. She easily stayed up with the group, fell only twice and had a blast. We were out the perfect amount of time on the perfect course with a perfect group of ladies for her. She rocked it - even in the the snow. Later in the day I rode with Andy and Ron - Ron killed it the whole ride - I pulled off early (after 20 miles) to watch my daughter play basketball. Ron is looking strong - I told him on the ride - Dude, you are riding strong, you've been training. He replied - no, it's just you are riding slower. I than find out from Alex and Andy that he has been killing it on the trainer at home - what a suck-ass!

Sunday:

Rode with Phil and large group of guys and dollsand great ride, about 50 miles - did a hybrid of the Knucklehead ride with some nice hills - it was so nice and warm. Phil and I killed it going down Clayton, shelling the entire group - It felt great to let it go.

Monday - did a lot of commuting (33 miles)

Tuesday - Spin at The Huband bee afterwards!

Wednesday - did a lot of commuting (33 miles)

Thursday - Commuted - Judy went on a ride and rode up to my work to ride with me homethat was really nice to have her riding with me. I took my track out bike for it's inaugural ride! That night, I went out with LC, Andy, Alex, Adam for a little night ridewe did the old Maplewood Ride (25 miles) - it was amazing to be riding at night in shorts!

Saturday - Did the Hub Saturday Ride - During the whole ride I felt great - totally fine. The ride had its fast paced moments - a few Cat 1 and 2 guys showed up and helped drive the pace - I felt fine the whole ride - That's the kind of ride that left me so pumped. The last Hub ride, I suffered the whole ride and we were going slow - I guess I just needed a good week of riding to re-start the engine.

The next week is supposed to return to the 40's, so I'll see how it goes. Next week, I am going to start adding some bike candy to the blog to inspire people for the up-coming season. Next Sunday is the opening race of the season with Froze Toes, but I think I going to do Death By Hills. 80 miles, a lot of hills - now that sounds more like it.