Full Conditions

 You may have noticed a few small changes to this blog.  Well here's the scoop.  I'm not done with this thing yet so for the past few weeks I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what to call it and how to move on.  I was surfing the net and looking through bike books and came across the term "full-on conditions" which essentially means going for a ride regardless of impending weather or riding in the worse possible conditions imaginable.  After  bit of deliberation I decided that sounded better then superawesomebikemusicfoodwisconsinblogwrittenbythecoolestdudeevergivehimsomemoney.blogspot.com  so I decided to go with it.  I feel like the temperature of WI is fitting for the title change and it opens me up to move outside Eau Claire.  I will be keeping the URL the same for a few more days before switching it over to fullconditions.blogspot.com, so tell your friends and be ready.  More changes to come,  but it took me a zillion hours to get this done so be patient.

Big Falls and Beyond

 Over 20 people showed up for the big falls ride.  Lots of fun, and got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while.  Once we hit the road and opened the first few roadies the rest of the night was a solid blur until getting home at 2 in the morning.

 Sunday was the Firecracker.  I came in towards the back of Sport racers which is fine by me because the whole course was a total blast.  It hit almost every awesome section of trail at Lowes and once my Mojito induced gut rot went away I went through the whole thing smiling, even at the end as I was getting passed by 40 year old Clydesdales.  Afterwards I met up with my fam who came out to spectate and we camped out at Red Flint,ate some snacks, drank some beers, and heckled elite/comp.  Afterwards we went and got Mexican food.  It was an awesome day.  

Now, if you'll excuse me I got a bike that needs some riding.  Get outside and enjoy the day before it gets disgustingly hot tomorrow.

P.s. for more Firecracker coverage check out the CORBA facebook and the official WORS page.

Copper Harbor

Going up to Copper Harbor last year I had no idea what to expect.  I'm still a relative noob to mountain biking and I had no way of imagining how awesome the trails are.  Ever since I've been waiting for an excuse to go back up, and now it looks like the place is about to blow up.  Magyar and Nick clued me in to this little video done by Trek to showcase the trails and specifically the new jump line up there.

Pair the positive press up with totally unique events like the Miners Revenge race which puts people through an abandoned mine and apparently has approximately 12 billion feet of climbing per lap and I think it's pretty fair to say the U.P. is going to get pretty huge in the next couple years.

Changes

 Well, a few weeks ago I alluded to the fact that I've been busy with a lot of different stuff and there were some big changes coming up for me and this blog in the future.  Today the future has arrived.  First a little biographical information for those who may not know it.  I moved to Eau Claire after transferring here for school after a bummer of a year I spent in River Falls.   I am originally from the area, growing up in the country outside Cornell WI, and always thought Eau Claire was the coolest as a kid.  That and a desire to be closer to my family after the sudden death of my mother my senior year in high school drew me here.

I started school here and started looking for people who were interested in the same stuff I was.  Music, bikes, adventures, fun, etc. etc. I got really lucky and happened upon a lot of people who were into the same stuff and were totally nice and full of energy and supportive of each other.  The rest is kind of history.  TNR evolved, dozens of us evolved as people and especially as cyclists.  Faces came and left and somewhere in the mix I started this blog and started trying to document it.

 My goal from the beginning has been simple, promote cycling in Eau Claire and beyond and share some of my thoughts and observations in the process.  I think that the energy surrounding cycling in Eau Claire has only grown in the past 5 years, and I like to think that maybe in some small way this blog is a part of that.  Eau Claire is a very very special place and it deserves all the props it gets.  

 So anyway, what the point of all this?  Well after school I got a gig at a local non-profit and as of Friday my contract is up and I will be moving to Madison the week after that for a new job.  I know it's not a huge move, but I'm a pretty quiete sentimental dude and this place is very special to me and it is going to be a tough one for me.  The friends I've made in Eau Claire are some of the nicest, best people I've met in my entire life and the scene we've built here is incredible, welcoming, fun, challenging, and surprisingly dynamic and strong.

 It feels good to go to races and events around the midwest and hear people distinguish you as "those Eau Claire guys"  even if it's by and large for the shenanigans that we pull.  I will miss that and hope to come back to Eau Claire to be part of it again some time in the future.

 As for this blog, well that's a tough one.  I've always like the idea that maybe their is some impressionable teenager out there who reads this and gets inspired to ride there bike more and stick with it and have fun.  I know when I was a bored15 year old living 10 miles from anywhere dicking around on a BMX I would have latched on to something like this hard just to have something to relate too. That said this has become a pretty serious hobby of mine (as lame as "blogging" sounds on a list of interests) and I would have a hard time parting with it even if I wanted to, but I can't really write about biking EC when I don't live here any more.  So what going to happen?  I don't know, I'll sort that shit out this week.  Pretty anticlimactic eh?

 In the meantime I will leave you with a few more snapshots of the EC area.  I will admit I did a ton of reminiscing going through files of pictures and am already bummed about leaving a lot of the small things that make this place so great.  There are not very many cities in the world that you are just a quick bike ride from world class ski jumps, woods, fields, rivers, lakes, trails, and more hobbit holes bum caves and bridge hangout than I can even count.

 In the mean time the annual EC Velo Big Falls Ride is tomorrow night and it will also be doubling as my last TNR probably for a long time.  All are invite and I hope to see many friendly faces there read more here. I will be around for the next week hitting all of my favorite haunts so if  you are looking for me you know where to look.  

 See ya out there.

Lonesome Crowded West

One of my all-time favorite albums by one of my all-time favorite bands.  Part biography part dissection of one of the most iconic indie rock albums ever.  It's nice to watch something about the Washington music scene in the 90s and not hear every single person blab on about grunge and give things like K Records much overdue face time instead.  Worth a watch for the commentary in the first couple minutes alone.

Stay cool

 It's been stupid hot and muggy out lately.  Luckily if you live in WI you are never more than a few miles from a swimming hole.  I've been spending my time after work rolling out to the best of the best and trying to stay cool.

 Even Rocky has been trying to get a little swim in in her water dish.

NVGP

 Derek and I rode out to Menomonie on Saturday for the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  We made good time out and watched the pro men leaving town and stuck around to watch Magyar and AG2 do their crit.  They both looked super strong the first half of the race, but shortly after Mags fell off the back.  AG hung on and turned himself inside out for an impressive win though, so hats off to him.  After the race we got some grub while a storm rolled in.

 We hit up the liquor store for some handup shooters for the race winners, spectated, visited Menomonie's premier bike shop Simple Sports for a cold one before the Mens pro finish rolled into town.

 On the way out we stopped by Elk Lake and I took a quick dip and Mags got a flat or two.

 Then got back in to town and jumped in the river again.  All in all an awesome day.

Weekend

Get out and ride this weekend!

London 2012

Saw a neat video of the London 2012 MTB course the other day and a bunch of interesting coverage on bike radar.  God I want this built in my back yard.

More coverage of the course here.
For that matter a bunch of Olympic cycling stuff is up online at the official page here as well.

North of ten

New North of Ten edit of old footage from Lake Owen.  I spent my summers at 4H camp singing songs about manners and I could have been up to these shenanigans.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

The Nature Valley Grand Prix returns to Menomonie this weekend.  If you aren't racing then you should at least attend and spectate.  Last year a few of us rode out grabbed lunch, watched the Crits and mens finish, cheered, and spread some joy.

It's a very cool event and a good excuse to ride to Menomonie and walk around in spandex without getting funny looks. 

Summer living

 Summer in Wisconsin means watching baseball, drinking beers, riding bikes mimosas by the river, more bikes, jumping in the river, grilling out, rolling dice, more beers outside, and more bikes.

 Get outside and enjoy it while it lasts!

Tour Divide

Former Eau Claire resident/troublemaker/EC Velo alum/all around good guy Chris Z and another Madison deviant Brett S are doing the Tour Divide this year and takes off in a couple days.  2,745 mile unsupported mountain bike race along the continental divide from Canada to Mexico.  Dudes are tough as nails.  

You can track the ride online here. Good luck, ride safe, have fun, send along some poutine and tacos.

Big Ring

 Last weekend was the first weekend getaway I've had in a long time and it was a total blast.  I got up early and headed to Cadott for June Dairy Days annual free pancake breakfast which I've been going to since I was a kid.  I met up with Magyar and Matt and after eating half a dozen pancakes, a pound of cheese curds, and a ton of fruit we loaded up the van and headed to 9 mile in Wausau for the Trek Big Ring Classic. I had never ridden 9mile before so I was looking forward to a nice weekend of mountain biking and camping.  We got up there, unloaded cracked a few beers and got right to riding.

 We hit the comp pre ride quick before setting to the single track.  The single track is amazing with a lot of great flowy sections, fast rolling granite, and a ton of technical rock sections.  The only criticism I had was the lack of  signage got kind of confusing after a while for a first timer.  After a couple hours of riding we got back to the site and had a few more beers before heading out again with Matt.  By the time we got back our site grew by 2 people and a dog and we set into drinking and making a huge dinner staying up late getting roudy and checking out Dogtanamo Bay next door before hitting the sack.  Sunday was race day.  I rode Sport and did about as well as I had expected and had a ton of fun.  Sam got a mechanical and Mags came in 7th for single speeds in Comp.  Heckled a bunch, drank some more, rode a bit, packed up and got back to Eau Claire to hit up a buffet before soaking in a hot shower for half an hour.  

 Can't wait for the Firecracker.