Strada dos

Sunday was the Strada Fango gravel ride.  After the Mammoth I pretty much knew I wanted to try out another long gravel ride so I was pretty excited about checking this out.  After the mammoth Derek and I also got to talking about doing it on the tandem.  The idea sounded fun, but I was initially reluctant for a lot of the obvious reasons.  Despite having this blog I am actually a pretty quiet shy person who values alone time on the bike and does the majority of cycling on my own.  The idea of being tethered to another cyclist for almost 60 miles of rough riding seemed pretty horrific.  Before we made the final decision we went out and put about 20 test miles on just to see how we rode together and it went smoothly so we were on for Sunday.  About as quickly as we could pull the bike out of the trailer people began questioning the plausibility of even being able to do the full route on a cross bike let alone a tandem.   

 Now these doubts were validated pretty quickly.  After the initial roll out and gravel road we hopped onto some ATV trail that really tested everything we put into the bike.  Short punchy rocky climbs followed by sandy descents and plenty of twists and turns was all we saw for what felt like forever.  Regardless we maintained control and pushed what felt like a pretty decent pace through it all.  Eventually we got back onto some gravel and I finally got a chance to take a picture of something other than Dereks back.

 The course was really breathtaking especially early on with the sun coming down.  This area is near my old stomping grounds and it's quintessential Wisconsin wilderness. As one racer said it feels like you should be in a Leinies ad. So at around mile 15 when we experienced our only couple mechanicals for the day (dropped chain and puncture) it was a welcome opportunity to stand in the woods and have a beer.  We gave up about five minutes on the repair and hit the road.  

The next stop wouldn't come until the top of the Category 5 Flambeau climb where we had a welcome beer and some food before bombing the side of the hill into a giant mud pit.  There is a certain point in long distance riding where your brain just kind of shuts off and everything just begins to run from muscle memory.  That point was reached not long after and lasted until about mile 50.  We ended up soloing for a long time until finally catching Riggs in the last section of ski trail to the finish.  When it was all said and done we got about 56 miles in in a little under 5 hours totaling around 4,600ft of climbing.  After the finish I had a couple beers and we packed up and headed out.  After a nice long shower I ate everything in my fridge and hit the sack by 9.  I had no doubt that we would be able to do the thing tandem but I was surprised how wiped I felt by the end.  I'm sure it is the first time a tandem has ever graced any of those roads or trails, but hopefully not the last.  All in all totally fun awesome ride and I am looking forward to seeing it grow and evolve in the years to come.  Great work to the organizers and riders for showing up.  

can't maintain

Once the end of any season approaches I begin to seriously neglect basic maintenance on whatever bike I may be riding at the time.  When summer ends I hang up my dry road bike in total disrepair thinking every time "I'll replace all that stuff this winter"  Inevitably I completely forget about all the stuff I broke until the next season and have to scramble to put it back together.  This happens every year without fail.  I've given up even carrying the slightest notion that this will change, it's just part of my existence at this point.  Anyway, the point of this is that towards the end of last year I knew the brakepads on the Bianchi were pretty much toast and this week I finally got around to replacing them.  

They were almost non-existent on the leading edge and not much better the rest of the way through. The moral of the story: Their is none, I already stated I will neglect my shit every change of season no matter what so what's the point in saying I will do otherwise.  Suck on that Aesop.

Strada Fango

I briefly mentioned this is happening.  Now I'm giving it proper attention. This Sunday, it's free and sounds awesome(Cat. 5 gravel climb!).  Be there! More info here.

mammoth

 Saturday was the Mammoth Gravel Classic in St. Croix Falls.  Derek dropped by and we rode out past Lowes Creek to meet up with the rest of the EC group heading out. In all their was 8 of us which was a pretty awesome showing for a random 70 mile ride.

 This was my first taste of the whole gravel road ride thing and it ended up being a lot of fun.  After the roll out I didn't bother trying to hang with the lead pack but found a nice group to tuck in with until we hit the first gravel section.  I finally felt like I got a chance to use my fat tires and especially through the sand sections I got to catch and pass a lot of the cross bikes.  I stopped at the first beer stop and ran into Morgan of the Fast Crusade blog, had a quick beer, and grabbed a roadie before getting back on the bike.  This is where stuff got a little sketchy.  The gravel section out was a breeze, but afterwards the ride hit a long straight blacktop section.  By this point I was riding alone into the headwind and had no choice but to just plug along on the MTB waiting for some tree cover, gravel, or at least a hill to break up the monotony.  Had I spent more time looking at the ride I would have noticed that it was 50% blacktop which made me feel very slow and ill-equipped for a few large sections.

After what felt like forever the ride finally came into some hills and some scenery change.  The second stop point was a gas station which I decided to skip.  My legs felt a little heavy but I had enough energy to just keep trucking along.  And so thats what I did.  I ended up riding with a couple different people the last half of the ride and decided to blow off the final stop because I was still buzzing along with plenty of food and water and the sky was growing darker pushing me to roll in before the rain really started coming down.  I finally got hit by the rain the last 5 minutes or so of rolling into town which was nothing knowing that their was a couple coolers of beer awaiting me at the finish.  All in all it was a really fun ride and needed prep for the Strada Fango this weekend.  We all sat down and had a little grub before heading back into town where I ate pizza and drank beer all night.  Wish I would have grabbed more riding pictures but didn't take the time too.  Too bad so sad.  

long way home

 Had a meeting out in Altoona this evening and it was so nice I had to take the long way home.

Commute by bike.

Jams

I went down to Revival the other day to pick up a Graveyard album I ordered and got a few other things as well.  I first heard Graveyard not to long ago and immediately fell in love. Since then I've been listening to a lot of psych/early metal stuff non-stop and this album has quickly become a favorite. 
 
I was suprised to find a handful of J Church 7"s and a few other random Cringer and Pansy Division 7"s  Like a lot of kids in the 90s I thought that the whole west coast/Berkley punk scene was the coolest thing ever and I really loved (and still do) a lot of those bands i.e. Rancid, Mr. T Experience, The Queers, Crimpshine, Enemy You, etc.  But J Church was one of the first bands that I really liked that could pull off weird spoken word about Albert Ayler and still cover Rudimentary Peni.  Not only were they fun but they seemed to have this huge body of practical knowledge and experience backing them that separated them from hyper doctrinal bands like Filth the overt nihilism of bands like Blatz and the California dreaminess of bands like the Queers.  J Church came across as being smart as hell, incredibly talented, and only a little dorky.  And they weren't afraid to do the occasional hangover song as well.

 Grabbed the new Sleigh Bells and I also picked up an original pressing of the Swing Kids 7" which I was pretty stoked to find.


Really happy about this.  Check out Revival on Saturday for Record Store Day.  TNR tonight rain or shine.

Elstran

New Erik Elstran edit done for Osiris.  Crank arm slides to everything. The line at 1:17 is just ridiculous.

Durand Road Race

I'm kind of late to the party on this, but the Durand road race is this Saturday.  I think I will probably be doing Mammoth but this should be a good time for anyone with a speed bike and no plans.  Check out more info here.  I know this is hypocritical because I don't think I'll be racing this one, but support local races! People work extremely hard on organizing this shit and I know how much of a bummer it is when you do that and locals don't even show.   

tactics

Saturday

 Spent the day outside enjoying the warm weather and eventually met up with Magyar and hit up Levis. Awesome awesome trails with lots of fun technical stuff, lots of climbing, and a really great scenic payoff.  It's going to be a fun year I can tell already

Valleycat VI

Valleycat is coming up quick.


See ya there!

mammoth

This is coming up in a week and a half.  I think I'll probably at least be doing the 35er and it sounds like a decent crowd from EC will be heading out.  I'm admittedly skeptical of the whole gravel ride craze, but it's free so I really have no excuse not to go and neither do you.  More info here.

no troubles

 Today was the laziest day I've had in recent memory.  I'll take it.  Hope ya'll had a happy easter.  Check out an updated Valleycat flyer below.  More sponsors and stuff to come. If you haven't already check out the fbook and make your plans to get here. http://www.facebook.com/events/331308933583064/

PR

Paris-Roubaix is on Sunday.  If you're even marginally interested in  that sort of stuff you can stream it over at www.steephill.tv   It is one of the few races I actively plan on watching at least parts of and I have been asked in the past on multiple occasions where I stream this shiz from.  Now you know.

the good life

This dude's living it.

jams

Slow day at the office

saturday

 Only had one day off last week so I milked it by spending the whole day at Lowes before making and eating a bunch of food at a progressive dinner.

Wish it was the weekend already.

from the vault

It's that time again.  More photos of random occurances and things that mean little to most people but I feel like putting up anyway.  

 The significance of this photo is that every single year the city plows my driveway in.  Last winter when we had that slush storm I ended up with roughly a foot and a half of slush covered with roughly another foot and a half of hard pack on top of it.  Rough life

the LAWRENCE ARMS // Them Angels Been Talkin' from ben pier on Vimeo.

Jam

North of ten is having a super duper jam coming very soon.  Check out more info here