The Rider.

"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.” -Time Krabbe, The Rider, 1978

Wintery Weather Racing!

This is yet another blog post that should have been written a while back. Presently, we are in the midst of some jersey and sock orders as well as getting some decals made and lots of other fun and TOP SECRET projects along the way. So forgive me for my blog-tardiness. I know a lot of the guys are getting seriously fit in preperation for the Tour of Battenkill. We hope to do a fun little photo shoot for TOMS Shoes' "Day Without Shoes" campaign. Unfortunately, the weather is interfering with our plans a little bit, but I'm sure we'll find a way to make it work.

More fun stuff...some of the fellas from the Great Lakes and Mid-atlantic squads manned up and hit the trails for some seriously snowy racing. Here's what Greg Capelle had to say about the Snotcycle event:

"First of all I want to thank Plumgrove Cyclery and Gotime Racing who put on a wonderful event. Despite the arguably horrendous conditions it was run very smoothly and I think everyone had a great time. This is a great venue, a great race and I hope we can get more of my KindHuman teammates out there next year!

Driving out to this event, in Leesburg, VA, you already knew it was going to be an interesting day. When the C race went off, the ground was pretty much clear. The snow was pouring by eleven o'clock and the accumulation was at least four inches by ten o'clock when the SS category left the line... the ground was frozen solid. I doubt if the temperatiure ever broke 25 degrees.

There was no order to the line up, first come first served, which landed me starting in nearly the very back of the field. Luckily the lead-in to the single track was long and wide and, having raced this event last year I had plenty of confidence to make up 20 or so spots before we even got in to the woods.

I continued to make up ground, bridging to groups, picking them off and bridging up to the next. There was plenty of lap traffic to deal with on the second lap and between that, two crashes and a rear rotor that will never again see race day. I'm very happy with 10th place and I'm looking forward to a season of even better performances for TOMS and KindHuman.

Was a great day, can't wait to get the kit back on with some of my fellow riders and really pick the competition apart!"

Greg...you are rad. And kind of fast. You should have seen the gear ratio he was pushing at Urban Cross at IX in November. Dude is nuts and I love the guy for it!

A new addition to the team, hailing from the lower peninsula of Michigan, Bradly Potter recently put on a snow covered event that drew in some pretty big names! Some might be familiar with a certain six time consecutive winner of the Leadville 100 (until a certain yellow jersey wearing Texan had to steal the spotlight last year)...Dave Wiens showed up! WTF!? Really!? Dave mother-lovin' Wiens! I don't know how Brad was able to pull that off...but ku- ... -dos. Here's what Bradly had to say about the event:

"Myself and another member of our local MMBA chapter put together a simple grassroots short-track race on an old golf course (currently working with the city to turn it into a bike park and establish a weeknight short-track series). Being the middle of winter and early in the morning we only had 15 racers, but I think most had fun while suffering over the 1.2 mile course with 115 feet of climbing per lap. We do not have many elevation changes in the Lansing area, so I felt pretty good about the distance to elevation ratio. Here is a quote from Wade (Great Lakes Regional Manager) the day after the race, 'Did Wiens say anything to you about me? Did he mention the bitchen leadout from the start I gave him? It was like 3/4 of a lap. He owes me and I think he knows it." In the end, Jesse Gould took the top honors in the A-Class with Dave Wiens right behind in 2nd, and Ron Stack further back in
3rd."

Great work fellas. Hearing that y'all are putting events like this together and getting out there in the bitter, bitter cold weather makes me truly proud. That is what this team is all about. We are blessed to have such positive influences for our sport and for the "One for One" mission out there riding, racing, suffering and freezing thier butts off on the bikes week in and week out! It's going to be a great 2010!