weak sauce...

A frosty roll out at 7:00am. By the time we hit West B.O. & NW 27th we started to see some signs that it was both cold & there was a good deal of moisture in the air. No names today to go with the pictures, you'll have to just guess...

?

?

this ones a little easier...

We rolled up to Valpo, paused to visit with a few friendly locals who have seen us up there as of late & then rolled on to Ceresco & back in. Gravel was good! Hills just kept coming! 6+ hours out & about today. On the way out of Ceresco I paused to visit with these silent souls. Donkey's?
USA hockey...you played your asses off, well done! Olympics in HD has been killer. Nordic ski coverage has been plentiful & the action has not disappointed. I didn't realize until this year how much network coverage of the Olympics is as much about the human interest stories as it is about the actual action! If I never have to hear Lyndsey Vonn's name or the story about her shin again I'd be cool with that. With the games winding down this evening it's going to leave a void in my daily routine, kind of like when the TdF wraps up after 3 weeks of coverage & your left wondering...now what?

Later,

TK

a year ago...

I was curious what the weather was like a year ago this weekend. So it was 60 on Thursday February 26th, 2009 & we were slapped in the face with single digits & negative wind chill for the weekend. We spent a lot of time in Wilderness hiding out last year.

I heard a stat the other day...we've only had 5 days 40 degrees or above in the months of December, January, & February. That's a new record, smashing the old mark of 14 days set in 78-79.

Like many of you I've had enough. Hope we don't have a wet Spring on the heels of this "real" winter.

Whatever...bring it on.

Later,

TK

wed/sat...

Never got around to putting up some wednesday nighter's...

sunset @ SW 40th & Rokeby...

Rokeby @ SW 70th, still going to be a while before we hit any mmr...

m-dub & monsieur pool n' spa...

the fob-father...

c-bread...

Fast forward to today. Gravel was amazing! Temps in the upper 20's & a light NE, yesterday's snow was packed into the ruts...perfecto! Eleven rolled out from D St. on slippery Lincoln streets & headed for Ceresco? Actually we ended up in Valpo, we like it there...

sean, shawn, shaun (unsure how you spell it bro) was in for the adventure, good to have ya!

k-dub was there, rockin' his new deschutes jersey which, by the way, was the scene for this year's cx nats...

fob, c-bread, m-dub, & jb discuss life & leisure in front of the wall-o-dvds...

Pre-ride I had to force myself out the door this morning, my wrist is still sore from my historic biff 2 weeks ago. Its healing...but slowly, crashing again is not on my agenda, but sometimes the conditions dictate the outcome. I didn't crash & it ended up being a super-sweet ride, it was beautiful out today, as I said before the gravel was primo. Soooooo glad I didn't bail. As I write this its snowing out with the possibility of 4-6 inches through tomorrow, still plenty of time this weekend to "f" up my wrist:)

happy 40th rokke, good riding with ya today!

Later,

TK

je t'aime...

for the love of butchie...

The sacrifices we make for those we ride with:) I'm not going into any details but the wind is out of the south all day but Butch can only ride North this Saturday. Therefore...so we can enjoy his company we head North knowing we will have 30+ miles of headwind on the way home. No problem, wind was upper single digits & temps were around freezing. I can handle that. Gravel was in great shape with only a few nasty spots as seen below at NW 40th & W. Branched Oak Rd.

Dark Knight, Aaron G. & C-bread discuss the conditions. Also in attendence but not pictured: m-dub, FOB, DK, & Matt T. Good crew.

farewell my friend, hope Tvrdy's treated you well...

So it ended up being a pretty darn good ride. 60+ miles, high tempo, Cornbread punishing us on the ups & a 30+ mile grinder into the wind to finish...damn good!

I'm cooked. Came home, ate & then started working on my snow fridge. Four assorted Boylan's & a 4-pack of Sioux City. Hudson inspecting my work...
Later,

TK

flashback...

The Olympics bring back a rush of childhood memories. One in particular is Franz Klammer's gold medal run in the the '76 games. In front of a home crowd in Innsbruck Austria, Franz made this crazy, on the edge of disaster, final run to take the gold. The whole family glued to the television in the days before cable, satellite, & 150 channels.

Opening ceremonies tonight...

Later,

TK

the beaver tail...

Let me start at the end. This was my reward for what was either an historic journey or foolish. I haven't decided yet. When we rolled back in to town we hit up Rocket Fizz, this little gem caught my eye. Little is no joke, an 8 oz. shooter I'll call it. What is it? original Dr.Pepper made with Imperial Cane Sugar. As the story goes...this Dublin, TX bottler wouldn't sell out & still produces Dr. Pepper using the original recipe which includes cane sugar. Distinctly different, way better then its high fructose corporate cousin. I will purchase again. Perfect compliment to a hot bowl of my wife's jalapeno pumpkin soup. Made me forget about my sore wrist for a while, I'll get to that later.

An eclectic bunch departed D St. this a.m. Some of the usuals & a few unusuals. The more the merrier, and as I said yesterday...it's cool seeing new faces. Below: at this point we're about 10 miles to the north & west of Cortland. Gravel was sketchy. Fresh snow on top of barely frozen soggy-ness from yesterday's snow & warm up. We are stopped here after riding for over an hour into a SE wind with heavy wet snow pelting us in the face. I had already hit the deck about 45 minutes earlier but survived unscathed, this time.

here's what got me there, this may have been one of those days I could have used fat tires...

Cortland - "deer in the headlights" or "1000 yd. stare" you pick...

band of gypsys...

m-dub bein' all 21st century, JT in the background doing the same...

part of the fleet, 2-3 more rides off camera to the right...

Ok...the sore wrist. We roll out of Cortland & head North on 25th. Gravel is not getting any better. Melting snow pack on the gravel is just soft enough that it grabs at your front wheel at random moments as it gives way under your weight. Your constantly correcting as you try to keep things upright. Cornbread & I get in a rhythm & start cranking out the miles, it was all good until I found a rogue icy rut. Cue the slow motion as I shoot straight left heading for Cornbread's rear wheel. He punches it (as best he could) & I just miss taking him out with me. Naturally I did the smart thing or should I say I did what comes naturally, I put my hand out to break my fall. Bad idea. I usually pop up from winter mishaps, not this time. Shooting pain as I rolled onto my side not wanting to get up for a bit. Ouch...that hurt. Spent a couple minutes getting myself back together & off we went. Still about 10 miles South of Lincoln, gotta keep going. Couldn't grip my right shifter for the next few miles which made the conditions even more annoying. Some feeling did come back & as long as I stayed on the hoods I was ok. Its been a while since I've hit that hard. Dr. C-bread & I decided hyperextended tendons

I'm fine. Endurox, naproxin, Dublin Dr. Pepper, home-made soup, & a french pressed Sidamo...I'll survive. Sore but I'm good.

Historic or foolish? I'm going with historic. 53 miles of sloppy, wet, snow-packed gravel in a heavy wet snow...it was sweet! I'm shelled:)

Ran into Coach on the path once we hit town...

the beaver tail...

Later,

TK

remember the good ones part 2...

Thursday first brought rain then wet heavy snow overnight, maybe 3-4 inches. Temps barely dipped below freezing last night so I had my concerns about the condition of the gravel today. 8:00 am meet up at D St., usual cast of characters but we were joined by the good doctor, Scotty B. Cool seeing new faces.

Made our way to West Claire & we were rewarded with perfect snow packed gravel, not the muddy roads I expected to see. The sun tried to creep out, but on this day it would be our enemy. Hovering right around freezing, any warm up & our primo snow covered gravel would quickly become a mess. The cloud cover cooperated & shielded the sun all day.

nature's kick stand...

butch & mg...

dk looks stunned, smile dude...

malcolm for the refuel...

refueling at home, getting ready for an all out living room wall paint assault...

first things first, I got out this garden sprayer that was collecting dust in the laundry room. filled it with hot water & treated my ride to a gentle hot shower. toweled dry, a little lube, & put 'er to bed, until tomorrow...

4 hours & 60+, pretty sweet. best gravel snow ride I've been on.

the other dk (dark night) was flirting with a hundee. he'd pre-rode before the meet up at 8 & was at 90+ when we rolled back in to Lincoln. I'm sure he tapped out some in town miles to get himself over the hump. right on man!

Later,

TK

remember the good ones...

All gravel adventure-ers have experienced too many dogs with bad attitudes, lately the vibe has been real good. As Cornbread & I rolled down SW 42nd in the pitch black we were joined by this friendly soul. C-bread calmly stated "dude their's a dog running along side of you", ninja for sure. We didn't even hear him/her join us (for the stories sake I'll say it was a him). We stopped to give him some scratching & then he proceeded to join us as we continued our journey with no sign of turning back. After a mile or so we ended up riding him back to where we thought he came from & dumped him off to a confused looking jr. high kid in his pj's. Kid probably hasn't seen many bikers knocking on his farm house door at 6:30 at night, he actually handled it pretty well.

Ended up being a great night. Weather was awesome, 3 + hours for me, 40 & change for mileage.

Forecast, we just get our gravel back & there's 2-5 inches of snow coming over the next couple days. Probably won't be enough to ski & enough to make everything a mess on bikes:(

Whatever...remember the good ones.

Later,

TK