Happy Trails Steve

Steve Larsen died yesterday from a heart attack during a running workout. He was 39 years old. I remember this guy absolutely dominating all the NORBA series races in the late 90s. When USA Cycling passed him over for the 2000 Olympic team ( the 2nd time in a row that the fastest guy didn't make the team ) he took it out on every racer that showed up to challenge him. Watching him race those races in person was a good thing. This dude turned into vindication incarnate as soon as the gun went off and destroyed all comers. That was the first time I'd seen anyone race for some other reason than to win. Winning seemed a foregone conclusion, the question was only by how much. A man with something to prove is very dangerous indeed. When the path of destruction ended at the end of 2000, Steve left the sport. Crushed them all and walked away. Pretty classy I think.

Anyways- Steve was an incredible athlete either on a MTB, a road bike, or in triathlons and will be missed. Godspeed Steve-

DH

Manchester

Loaded up the Megavan w/ 2 Brads and Andrew yesterday and headed North to the wonderful land of Manchester State Forest. After a few stops for junk food and a requisitioning of an awesome "Bass Fever" vanity plate (courtesy of Brad P.) we made it to Manchester.

The trail was just as good as I remembered. My bike rode well and the shoulder held up fine. I did come up with a few gripes however: 1. I rode with a few gears on my bike. Reminded me why I've been on a singlespeed- hated the gears and they are coming back off! 2. I'm out of shape. Bad. I've been riding the road bike somewhat well but when you can ride a road bike effectively you can really fake being in shape and still go fast. On a mountain bike it's black and white- you know 100% for sure when you are not fit. Anyways- to paraphrase a great song-"we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there"- time to get to work.

Yesterday turned out to be perfect weather- high 60s- low 70s and partly cloudy. The trail was in good condition, and we all rode well together. The Brads were moving out while Andrew and I were cruising in the back. We had F-16 fighter jets screaming overhead all day on mock bombing runs and dogfights- pretty cool. All in all a good day out with no incidents. I'm looking forward to getting some fitness back and some of the big summer/ fall races.

Later- I've got to go ride now, I'm done being slow! DH

Rainy day

I'm trying to get motivated to ride my bike right now. I have the morning off and it's pouring rain. That means rollers. Yay. I'm so sick of the rollers. I'm really sick of not being able to have some sort of consistent training going on. The shoulder is still not healed- It's 85% but I still can't pull up on the bars. Normally, everything is fine- it's the little jerks that hurt and I still get some considerable pain when I yank on something hard or torque a bolt. Not much I can do about this being a Mechanic. Pretty much doing the 2 steps forward, 1 step back for awhile now. I guess I'll eventually get there. Can't get any leverage and still having some control issues when going hard. Hate to say it but I'm a little squirrely on the bike. Fortunately I know this and try not to endanger my fellow riders when like this. It would be nice if the other squirrels out there knew it and were not oblivious to their lack of handling skills but really- what can you do?
Anyways- rollers this morning, then the day off tomorrow. Meeting up with a couple of Brads for a day trip to Manchester SF and some decent trails. Hopefully everything will go well and I will get to ride my brand new Niner MTB ( That I've had for a month and a half but haven't been able to ride.). Manchester is a good trail system and I like riding there- they work hard to improve the trails there. Should be a good indicator of if I'm ready to ride off road again or not. Hope I'm ready- I need to get back racing soon. I've missed alot of good racing and feel bad for my team that I'm not out there- big waste of time and resources if I'm not out there. I won 2 out of 3 races before I got hurt and want ( need ) to keep that going. So.... cross your fingers- I'm going to find out where I stand tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have a good ride report to post.
Later-DH

Treasure

Check out what came into the shop for some service yesterday. Fat City team bike. Circa 1995ish. I remember seeing these at the NORBA national races in 94-96. Always wanted one. Use to actually see spectators and racers at those races too. 600-800 racers in the expert waves, 120-150 in each age group. My how the times have changed!

Good Stuff-

DH