06.26.2012 | 11:21 am
You know how after you do something really awesome for the first time (I’m talking about bike-related stuff, so just put any other “first time” related train of thoughts you were having right out of mind), you immediately start thinking, “I’ve got to go do that again?”
And then, after a while, you start wondering about whether you’ve managed to exaggerate the awesomeness of that thing. Maybe, you think, it’s going to be one of those things where the next time you try it, the novelty will have worn off, leaving you to question whether there’s any point in trying it the third time.
Then you go back for the second time. And sometimes it doesn’t live up to your recollection from the first time. And that’s disappointing.
Every once in a while, though, when you go back and try something a second time, it’s every bit as awesome. Maybe even better in some ways, because this time you notice details you missed the first time.
That’s how an event becomes a tradition.
And that is, in a nutshell, my experience with the 2012 LiveStrong Davis Challenge.
Here are a few highlights.
The Winner
First of all, you need to meet Ed P, the winner of an Ibis with top-end Shimano components, plus a trip out to Utah to get his bike custom-fitted for him by SLC Bicycles, then some riding with The Hammer and me.
Here’s what he had to say in his email upon finding out that he won:
This is awesome; I’m so pumped! I’ve been attempting to convince my wife it was time for a bike upgrade for over a year now. And, as I’m sure a lot of married mountain bikers (any biker for that matter) realizes, this is a difficult case to state. Especially when your wife believes your bike is “perfectly fine.”
I’m a big fan of your blog and think what you do, from raising money for LiveStrong to raising money to buy bikes for kids in Zambia, is great.
I must admit, there was a little selfishness in entering your contest, but I really didn’t think I’d win and knew the money being raised was for a great cause. I was just trying to help out any way I could.
You asked for a pic and I provided one. I probably should offer some explanation for the scars on my forehead and nose….I had Mohs surgery to remove Basal Cell Carcinoma from my nose in April, and plastic surgery to fix it up. Fortunately the doc said he got all of the cancer, but my advice to all is wear sunscreen!
I saw your recent Tweet about this type of skin cancer. The doc told me the same thing about this “being the best cancer you can get.” Best wishes to The Hammer on her treatment. [Note from Fatty: The Hammer is having a basal cell carcinoma removed today.]
I’m definitely a mountain biker, so I’m going with the Tranny or the Mojo (leaning toward the Tranny). But, I need to calm down and take a look at my options. I’m definitely looking forward to the trip to Utah. Once again, I’m going to have to re-read your past blogs and select where I want to go. This will be a tough decision, for sure.
Thanks again, not only for the great blog and contests, but for all that you do to make a difference!
Once Ed’s made up his mind, I’ll let you know what he’ll be riding, and where. And I’m sure a blog post or two or three will come out of this trip.
Congratulations, Ed!
The Dinner
OK, now on to the events of the Davis LiveStrong Challenge itself.
Like last year, Team Fatty gathered Friday night to hang out, as well as get a tour of the US Bicycling Hall of Fame.
There was a group of about 30 of us, which was about the same as last year. However, this year, David stepped things up about five notches by grilling bratwurst — using my recipe — on the patio.
And he did magnificently. I was happy to declare, in fact, that his brats were every bit as good as mine. And I proved my assertion by eating three. Which I felt entitled to do, because I’m sure at least one person in the group was a vegetarian and so probably didn’t eat any.
Here’s Greg Chapek. He’s happy about the bratwurst, too.
I’d go so far, in fact, as to say that he’s very happy indeed. Perhaps the reason he was so happy was that I had just revealed to him what I was thinking. Specifically, that the course was incredibly flat, and the weather was expected to be ideal — not especially windy, and not especially hot.
I was thinking, I told Greg — a very strong rider — that maybe a group of us should do our utmost to see if we could do our first sub-five-hour century.
Greg was intrigued (and also very very happy).
And of course, there was cake, provided generously by the true organizer of the whole Team Fatty in Davis experience, Angie G.
It may look like a Halloween cake, but it was actually incredibly delicious, and I’m proud to say that I ate two pieces.
I’m not as proud, however, to announce that I then ate another two pieces.
The Day Before
One of the things I love about the Davis event is that it’s mellow. You have time to relax. Plus, the packet pick-up spot is right by a terrific farmers’ market, which of course has expanded way beyond produce to pretty much anything you could want to eat.
The Hammer and I ate. A lot.
And right now I’m becoming uncomfortably aware that I have so far talked about nothing but eating for this entire post.
Oh well, you may as well get used to it.
We hung around, eating pastry and sandwiches and possibly even some produce.
Not to mention admiring the wide variety of t-shirts passersby had chosen to wear for the occasion:
Then the Hammer and I went on a little bike path tour of Davis, which has got to be the bike-friendliest town I have ever been in. Feel free to check out The Hammer’s Strava of the ride, which is interesting primarily in that it may be the only Strava upload she’s ever done that hasn’t netted her at least one QOM.
The Fundraising Award Dinner
The night before the big ride, LiveStrong always puts on a special dinner for its top fundraising teams and people.
And since Team Fatty has raised more than double the amount of the second-place team, that definitely included us.
Here I am, pretending to listen intently to someone about something. You can tell I’m intent because my arms are folded.
This photo is also notable because I believe it is the first time in about five years that I am wearing a button-up shirt, like the big kids wear.
Since we won three out of four awards (Team Fundraising Award, Individual Fundraising Award, Individual Messenger Award), I was supposed to get up and give a five-minute speech.
So I got up and talked for about fifteen minutes, rambling about any old thing that came into my head. Basically, it was like people got to see what this blog is like, except live and unedited, and with — unbelievably enough — even more typos.
The Ride
Eventually I stopped talking and everyone got to go to back to their hotels and get to bed. But then we had to come back early, because — as the top fundraising team — we needed to report to the starting line half an hour early to get our team photo at the starting line.
There was an event photographer taking those pictures for us, and I’m sure we’ll eventually see them, but for now, a few that we took ourselves will have to do.
This one’s my favorite. We had time to scrawl in chalk, nice and huge, the team motto:
It’s probably worth clicking on to see the larger version, because then you’ll get a better view of my magnificent quads, not to mention the strained look on my face as I’m sucking my gut in.
Once all the pictures were taken, the race ride began.
Before long, a good-sized group of Team Fatty coalesced into a paceline, stamping out 23mph miles one after the other. Jeremy. Greg. Matt. Mike. David. The Hammer. Me. And others.
The course was flat. The weather was beautiful: a mild wind that made southbound riding a little hard, but not bad (if you were in a paceline). We flew.
Occasionally, a rider would have to drop off. Matt, David, and Mike early on. Jeremy toward the very end. And occasionally, we would pick up a rider or two.
Elsewhere on the course, other groups from Team Fatty were picking up riders, too. Yesterday morning, I got an awesome email from Phil who got picked up by what I like to call The Big Orange Train:
Team Fatcyclist,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the wheel yesterday. I will try and be brief here; I have only been riding for two months, I am a stocky model with a bad knee. I lost contact with my team on on after the Steiger hill climb. I was alone, battling the Vacaville winds and using a lot of energy. This is when team fatcyclist came up to my left and the leader asked “how ya doing?”, My reply “old and getting tired!” in turn he said “Grab a wheel”. I joined the tail end of the pace line and we were off!! We caught my team mates in short order and they jumped into the line as well. I never counted how many of us were in the line, but it grew and grew as we passed other riders.
I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to your team, the pull as well as all you doe for the LiveSTRONG foundation!
Have an awesome day!!
Phil
Our average dropped and it looked like we weren’t going to get that sub-five century after all. We were going to miss it by just a few minutes.
And then — right around mile 75 — we saw the “20 Miles to Go” sign.
Whaa?
So the course wasn’t going to be 100 miles. Which meant we still had a chance to finish in under five hours.
We stepped up the pace.
Greg — who had been pulling way more often than anyone else for the first 80 miles of the ride — was starting to tire. I was feeling great, though, thanks to the fact that I had been sucked along for most of the ride, doing hardly any work.
So for the final 15 miles, I pulled. Yep, for pretty much the whole thing. And I felt great doing it. We flew, passing groups that had passed us earlier.
Thoughts of imminent pie consumed me.
Then I saw Andrew — the fastest guy on Team Fatty. He had finished half an hour ago, and had turned around to come finish with more of us. Then, after he did that, I believe he went out a third time and finished with another group.
I would be that awesome if I had the legs for it. I swear.
In any case, we did it. The Hammer, Greg C, and I crossed the finish line in about 4:56. A sub-five.
Except, of course, it wasn’t 100 miles. But still, I think we can make a claim to being, at the very least, half-fast.
The Pie
Meanwhile, David — yes, the very same David who had awesomely done the brats for the Friday shindig — had arranged for pie to be waiting for us under the Team Fatty tent.
Lots and lots and lots of pie.
I may have had four pieces; I may have had five. I confess that my recollection of the events of the day become foggy and confused after the fourth, because I seem to remember a cyclist with a horse’s head mingling among us.
With such a nice day, a tent, lots of shade trees, and a nice breeze, there was no reason to not just hang around and relax for hour upon hour, talking at length with anyone from Team Fatty (and quite a few people who weren’t) who was willing to put up with me.
The Importance of Celebrating
The LiveStrong Challenge at Davis was a perfect weekend for me. A wonderful town, great friends, perfect weather, a fast ride, and an important cause.
It was, simply, incredibly fun. It wasn’t a serious, sad weekend. The seriousness had all happened before, when we had taken the step to fight cancer and raise money for a cause we believed in. Now we — and everyone there — had a chance to relax, have fun, and celebrate our success before taking a deep breath and diving back in.
I’m incredibly proud of what Team Fatty did for LiveStrong here. And I love the tradition we’ve gotten started here.
The tradition is set: we’ll be back next year: same place, same events. Same silliness, same serious reason.
If I were you, I’d start making plans to be a part of Team Fatty and joining us.
Comments (45)
06.23.2012 | 7:23 am
Hey, what if I liveblogged the process of me choosing a winner for the contest I’ve been running? I think that’s a great idea. Do you agree that it’s a great idea?
You do? Awesome!
6:22: I’m going to go run the report for my own donations. This will take longer than it usually does, because LiveStrong switched to a new system this year and I don’t know my way around as well.
6:25: Holy smokes. I can’t remember the password for my account, thanks to the fact that I’m using a notebook computer right now and the password is saved on my desktop computer.
6:27: OK, got it on the fifth try.
6:28: Apparently I raised $56,105, during the course of this contest. THANK YOU for your generosity, people.
6:30: Oh, downloading a CSV was easy. That’s a nice change.
6:33: Just realized that I do not have a spreadsheet program installed on this computer. Downloading one now.
6:37: Team Fatty Davis raised a total of $93,934. Congratulations on your hard work, Team Fatty!
6:42: Team Fatty Philly has raised $1201 so far, and Austin has raised $400. A good start!
6:48: Nothing to do now but wait for the spreadsheet software to download. On the super-duper fast hotel internet connection I’ve got.
6:50: The 6:48 note was sarcastic.
6:55: Oh come on. It’s just a spreadsheet.
6:57: Fine. While I wait for this to download over the next 1.8 eons or so, I’ll try using the online spreadsheet in Google Docs.
7:09: The Google Docs plan is working out fine. I’ve got all the essential data in there now and now just have to figure out enough about formulas to give everyone their assigned contest numbers before I do the random drawing.
7:22: OK, I’ve got everything in the spreadsheet and the formula is applied.
7:23: For what it’s worth, the spreadsheet software has still not completed downloading. So Google Docs was definitely the way to go here (I was not paid to say that).
7:24: Heading on over to random.org to pick a number! This is the big moment, folks.
7:28: And the winning number is 6576. That may not mean much to you, but it…doesn’t mean anything to me, either. Heading on over to see who has that number.
7:30: Oh, this is too weird. You’re not going to believe this, but it’s true: I am the one who won the contest.
Seriously, I made a donation, just like everyone else. And my number won.
Too bad I’m not eligible.
I swear, the first time in my life I’ve ever won a contest and it’s my own stupid contest.
Heading off to draw another number now.
7:33: OK, this time the number drawn was 52,315. And it is not me this time. I won’t give a lot of hints, but I will say that the winner is a man, and is from Austin TX.
No, not that man from Austin TX.
I’m going to start writing that email now.
7:41: The email is off! Now I just wait to hear back from the winner. I’ll update again when that happens.
MONDAY MORNING
7:15am: Still haven’t heard back. Oh, and also I’m traveling today and so won’t be able to post anything. I will get to work, however, on writing up my experience at the LiveStrong Challenge here in Davis today, though. Cuz it was awesome.
9:07am: I just heard from a (very surprised) Ed Perrey, who’s very excited to have won. He’s considering options and will get back to me shortly on what he’s thinking in terms of what bike to get and where to ride.
Congratulations, Ed!
Comments (29)
06.21.2012 | 10:31 am
Friday is the last day of this contest. Yes, the one where, by donating multiples of $5 at my LiveStrong Challenge page, you get to select any of several popular models of Ibis bikes. Then pick up the bike and get it professionally fitted at SLC Bicycle Company. And then head out for some amazingly good riding right here in Utah, with me as your guide (scary).
Recently, I made the case for choosing the Ibis Mojo SL. And it was a good case indeed. If you’re into mountain biking, you couldn’t do much better (though if you’re into hardtails, you should probably give the Ibis Tranny some serious consideration).
But you know, not everyone prefers dirt. Some cyclists love riding the road. And you know what? I’m one of those people. At least three days a week, on average, if you were to ask me whether I like road or mountain bike riding better, I’d choose road.
And in fact, at least 50% of the reason I picked the house I picked is its proximity to a very special road ride.
So today, let’s talk about some ideas for road riding if you win, as well as the bike itself.
Meet the Ibis Silk SL
Your Ibis Silk SL starts with an amazing frame — a 2.2lb carbon beauty, available in either a clear matte finish or Siberian white — and then adds the amazing Shimano Dura-Ace component set, making this a full-on dream bike.
You will love this bike, and it will love you back. In short, the two of you will be in love, and will never want to be apart.
Let’s Ride Local
Here’s a little secret: my day job doesn’t require that I live in Utah, and it for sure doesn’t require that I live in Alpine, Utah.
I live here because I love it here. And one of the main reasons I love it here because of a nearby road called The Alpine Loop. I like that place so much that I did my 100 Miles of Nowhere on it this year.
It’s a big, beautiful road, with incredible views of mountains, evergreens, and aspens as you go.
If I may, allow me to suggest you ride it during the early part of Autumn:
You’ll climb around 3000 feet to get to the top, and it won’t be easy. But once you get there, you get to choose whether to go back down the way you came, or head down to Cascade Springs, which is worth seeing on its own merits — its a series of beautiful, tiny waterfalls fed by an aquifer.
Of course, that big seven mile descent into Cascade Springs means you have to climb back out of it. Which is either awesome or awful, depending on your own point of view.
On the way, there’s a fair chance you’ll see moose lounging about:
Or, you know, we could go down the other side of the Alpine Loop — the Sundance side — which is just as beautiful and even more curvy and twisty. Really, just an awesome descent on a beautiful mountain road.
And if the Alpine loop doesn’t satisfy your road-riding-in-the-mountains itch, we can go do Nebo.
Or, if all this sounds like a little too much, we’ll just gather up the twins and go riding on the Provo River Trail:
Regardless, I’ll probably want to make you finish the ride (time of year permitting) by trying out the sliding rock, about a mile from my house:
Don’t worry, I won’t make you go down head first (but I will use peer pressure techniques to try to get you to).
Not Local?
If the Alpine Loop and the Nebo Loop don’t sound exotic enough for you, we can head out toward Moab, and ride in the Canyonlands. I’ve never actually done that before, but have always wanted to, and this would be a pretty awesome excuse.
Or — and I know this is breaking the rules because we wouldn’t be in Utah anymore, but we’d be pretty close — we could go to Grand Junction, CO and ride across the Colorado National Monument:
I’ve talked about riding this road before. Believe me when I say the stunning scenery is almost matched by the perfection of the pavement.
If I hadn’t already ridden this road, I would be wondering why I hadn’t.
I Believe I Have Made My Point
So I think I’ve made a pretty good case for riding your road bike in my neck of the woods. And if you win this contest, that’s an option you can consider. And consider well.
Road or MTB? It won’t be an easy decision.
But you won’t win if you don’t donate by Friday. And your donation will help LiveStrong continue it’s amazing work toward the fight against cancer.
So if you haven’t done so — and hey, maybe even if you already have — go and donate some multiple of $5.00.
You might win an awesome bike with incredible componentry, a custom fitting, and a great biking trip customized for what you like to do.
And you’ll for sure be doing a good thing.
Comments (37)
06.20.2012 | 12:27 pm
This is Lisa Nelson, my wife:
Also, to her right, that’s my shoulder, but that’s not important right now.
What is important is that she’s beautiful. And really nice. And smart and fun and easygoing and patient and stuff.
She also likes riding bikes. Here she is, riding a bike:
See how happy she looks riding that bike?
But Lisa doesn’t just ride bikes, she also participates in races. Quite a few races, actually. And she does pretty darned well in them, too.
But Lisa says she’s not competitive. No.
Lisa says she just rides “for fun.” Or “to see how well I can do against the clock.” In no way whatsoever, she says, is she interested in racing to beat people.
With all due respect to my lovely, kind, patient and smart wife, I have always known that this is a complete load of horse crap.
And now I have proof. Oh mercy, do I have proof.
New Toy
A few months ago, my friends started using Strava a lot for their rides. (Strava is an online social network of people who upload their bike ride information from their GPSs, giving them the ability to compare how they’re doing against themselves and each other, as well as to comment on their friends’ rides. For more info, click here.)
Why? To compete against their own previous best times, sure, but also to compete against each other.
Ever a sheep, I also signed up. And got hooked pretty fast. So I told The IT Guy he ought to sign up, too. Which he did.
And then we both told Lisa that she ought to sign up. Honestly, though, neither of us expected her to sign up. Lisa doesn’t have a Facebook account. She doesn’t have a Twitter account. Lisa prefers, it seems, to live in the real world.
But she did sign up.
Why Lisa Is Called “The Hammer”
After Lisa signed up for Strava, I took her Garmin Edge 500 and uploaded pretty much the entire contents of her GPS to Strava.
The results were a little bit shocking.
She currently is the Queen of the Mountain (QOM) or Course Record (CR) holder for nine pages of riding segments (sections of road or trail people have marked as being worthy of having an ongoing competition to see who can do that section the fastest) in Strava.
By contrast, I have a grand total of 5 KOM / CR listings, and I think most of those segments were created by accident; I don’t even know where most of them are. (The sole exception being that I am very proud to be the current course record holder for the Utah Tour de Donut course.)
So Lisa started browsing her list. And within minutes, I was hearing her yell (because she was upstairs and I was downstairs) like:
- “Did you know I’m the QOM on the Mont du Chat in France?”
- “Hey, I’m also the QOM of the Col du Glandon! By more than twenty minutes!”
- Oh, I’m the fastest woman on the Mud Springs climb! And I guess I’m the only woman who does that climb, too!”
It went on like that. For quite a while.
Outrage and Vengeance
And then, of course, the inevitable happened. The Hammer (because calling her “Lisa” seems so out-of-place in this context) got an email from Strava, telling her that someone had just posted a faster time than her’s on one of the iconic climbs in a neighboring town.
The Hammer was no longer the QOM of Squaw Peak.
Then, to add insult to injury, The Hammer got another email: she was no longer the QOM of the climb from Provo Canyon to the Sundance Ski Resort.
Horrors!
So we made a plan. The next day (which is now yesterday), we would head out to Provo Canyon, where she would make an attempt to reclaim her QOM status on Squaw Peak. Then we would ride back down, ride up the Canyon to the Alpine Loop turnoff, and then ride, full-tilt up to Sundance.
My job would be to ride alongside her (we agreed that I would never give her a pull, since that would put an asterisk on her presumed victory), telling her how she was doing, giving her encouragement, and providing chitchat to distract her from the fact that she was riding out of her skull.
In order to ensure I remembered the times we had to beat, I wrote them on my leg:
We needed to be faster than 34 minutes climbing up Squaw Peak. And faster than 16:30 going up to Sundance.
First Climb
Squaw Peak has an elevation profile that looks like this:
4.3 miles, 6.9% average grade. It’s as consistent as it is difficult. Which, by the way, is “very.”
We rode alongside each other. She sweated and focused. I sweated and focused and talked, saying anything that came into my head.
“Hey, you’re riding strong,” I said.
She did not reply.
“Good day for an attempt at a PR. Nice and cool, and no wind,” I said.
She did not reply.
“Look at that house. It’s really big,” I said.
She did not reply.
“You’re halfway through the climb now and on track to beat the record,” I said.
And also I said many more things. Finally, she replied.
“Please stop talking.”
I stopped talking. Which I was happy to do, because it’s not like I was lollygagging and riding one handed while she rode at her limit.
As we got to the top, though, I did venture to say one more thing: “Don’t stop right when you get to the top. Keep going, because you can’t be sure where the Strava segment ends.”
So she blasted to the top of Squaw Peak, finishing in 32:46 and obliterating the previous QOM time of 34:27. (Sorry, Natalie!)
All hail The Hammer! The Queen of Squaw Peak!
Second Climb
We rode back down, where The Hammer — without really trying — set a women’s course record on the Squaw Peak Descent. (Sorry again, Natalie!)
Then we cruised, nice and mellow, ’til we hit the climb to the Sundance ski resort, which has an elevation profile like this:
“2.2 miles, 6.8% average grade” is accurate, but it’s the “average” part that makes this tricky, because the first mile is pretty easy. The second mile gets harder, with the second half of the second mile being absolutley ugly-brutal.
Once again, I talked (and talked), which goes to show that I am a slow learner.
And, with 0.4 miles to go — where we were well into the absolute hardest part of the climb, The Hammer said, “Shut up.”
I shutted up.
Except, as we got to the sign that says we were at Sundance, I said, “Keep rolling, you don’t know where the segment finishes.”
She passed the sign in fifteen minutes, beating the previous best by almost two minutes.
The Hammer kept pedaling, still rolling surprisingly fast. Demonstrating that after you’ve been going at your absolute limit, merely going hard feels easy.
So we kept climbing, going on up to the top of the Alpine Loop. She was no longer killing herself, but I could tell she was going fast, and had obviously given herself a good start by flying up that brutal first 2.2 miles.
And that’s how The Hammer became the QOM of the Alpine Loop (Sundance Side), beating the previous QOM time by twelve minutes. (Sorry, other Lisa!)
Oh, and on the way down, she set a CR for the descent, too (Sorry for the third time, Natalie!)
Disbelief and Confusion
So we got home and — even before taking showers or eating or anything — quickly uploaded her GPS data.
Here’s what Strava had to make of it:
Six QOM/CRs, along with some other awards. Not a bad day’s work.
But that’s not what The Hammer was focusing on.
“I didn’t get the QOM for Sundance!” she said. In fact, the Sundance climb — one of her two main objectives for the ride — didn’t even show up on yesterday’s ride at all. Even though she had slaughtered the previous women’s record.
Why not? Well, that’s the weird thing about Strava. The segment must have been defined so that in order for The Hammer to have completed that segment, she would have had to make a left turn into the resort parking lot, and maybe ridden ten or fifteen feet down it or something.
So Erin’s record lives to fight another day, although The Hammer has vowed to return next week.
Plans
So what’s next for The Hammer’s relentless quest to be the QOM of all the land? Well, believe it or not, she has made a list of target segments and times:
No, that’s not her handwriting. It’s mine. I’m The Queen’s official scribe now.
I am told that, today after work, one or more of these is going down.
Truly, The Hammer has become a Strava monster. And I have nobody but myself to blame.
PS: Full Disclosure: I have no relationship at all with Strava. In fact, about a month ago I contacted them by email and told them that I’m a bigshot blogger and that they should upgrade me to a Premium membership for free. They didn’t even reply.
PPS: An Evening Update: As of the QOM hunt we went on this afternoon, The Hammer is now QOM of Jacob’s Ladder, crushing the previous QOM’s time by about 2.5 minutes. Wow.
However, when The Hammer made an attempt on Clark’s — possibly the most popular MTB TT around — she didn’t quite nab the QOM, missing it by 19 seconds. So pro MTB racer Erica T keeps her QOM on this segment . . . for now.
PPPS: A Morning Update: Live by Strava, die by Strava. Late last night, The Hammer got email saying that someone had taken her QOMs for both Squaw Peak and the Alpine Loop climb. My guess is the timing of the upload of these rides (both rides are from a while ago) is not coincidence. The Hammer will be back to reclaim her throne sometime soonish.
PPPPS: A commenter noted that Erica Tingey — the pro MTB-er who holds the QOM for Clark’s — has recently got out of the hospital following a really bad accident. Get better soon, Erica! (But The Hammer’s still going to have another try at that QOM!)
Comments (65)
06.18.2012 | 12:41 pm
An “It’s My Birthday; Buy Me a Present” Note from Fatty: I’m 46 years old as of today, which means that I’m closer to 90 than to being born. Make me feel better about this fact by buying me a present. Specifically, how about going and donating $5 or $10 at my LiveStrong Challenge page? As a side benefit, doing so gives you a chance at winning the trip and bike I’ve been talking about (and in fact will be talking about in the rest of this post).
We’re down to the last few days of the big contest I’ve been running — the one where you can win your choice of four Ibis bike models, outfitted with top-end Shimano components. And also the one where you get flown to SLC where you’ll get that bike professionally fitted for you at SLC Bicycle Company.
And then you and I shall have a grand time as I show you some of the local rides here (or in another part of Utah if it makes more sense).
Today, I would like to offer a suggestion or two as to what that trip might look like, should you choose the Ibis Mojo SL.
We Should Just Stay Local
Once your bike is fitted for you, we should waste no time at all on traveling. Instead, we should head straight for Corner Canyon, where I will show you mile upon mile of extraordinary singletrack.
And I’m not kidding about the “mile upon mile” thing, either. Yesterday, The Hammer and I went on a ride at Corner Canyon where we purposefully avoided repeating any trail.
After 30.7 miles of singletrack heaven we ran out of water and came home. And there was still plenty of trail we had not touched.
Then, maybe the next day, we would head out to American Fork Canyon, to ride the trail that inspired my post about how a trail is like a lover: Tibble Fork:
Of course, if you’re not looking to do something quite that brutal (though beautiful), there are other options in American Fork Canyon. Lots and lots of options.
We Should Go On a Road Trip
Or you know, maybe you already have a ton of perfect forested singletrack near your home, and you’re interested in something a little more desert-like.
I can help you there.
We could head out to Moab and ride what is probably the most famous trail in the world: The Slickrock Trail.
Or ride around the White Rim.
Or, if you’re completely nuts, we could ride the Kokopelli Trail (but first I’m going to need an proof from you that you’re up for it).
There are no bad options at Moab.
But maybe you’re thinking Moab is too cliche. Everyone goes to Moab; you want to do something different.
In which case, I’d be happy to take you to ride the grand trifecta of Southern Utah Mountain Biking in Saint George, Utah:
The problem with doing all those rides is that you would fall so in love with your bike, the trails and me for connecting you to the bike and trails that you would give me a suffocating, unbearably long embrace and I would pass out due to your gratitude.
But I’m OK with that, just this once.
Or . . .
And you know what? You kinda don’t even have to choose whether you want to ride local or go on a road trip. We could probably put something together where we go riding locally in the afternoon after you get your bike set up, and then head on over to St. George or Moab after that.
My objective, in the end, will be to make sure you get as much awesomeness out of your trip here as you can stand.
And then knock you flat on your back with just a little bit more awesomeness. Just to prove a point.
But Here’s the Thing
In order to win the bike and the bike fitting and the trip, you’re going to need to be on my magic spreadsheet of winningness. And the way you get on that magical spreadsheet is by donating, in $5.00 increments, at my LiveStrong Challenge page.
Do it to win.
Do it to help in the fight against cancer.
Or hey, do it because you want to get me something for my birthday.
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