SiS race report and other things… naturally!

So, we went to SiS (Schlaflos im Sattel) last weekend. I’m glad we did. It was great to see friends from throughout the world there. This little (only 400+ participants) is one of the best events this side of the Atlantic. Phaty, Keili and crew do a fantastic job and are to be commended for their efforts. THANKS GANG! What is also commendable is the efforts of the local people. They come out, volunteer, work hard, make food, serve drinks, etc. for 3+ days. I’m sure that they make a bunch of money from all of us, but it wouldn’t be the event that it is without the participation of the people of Weidenthal.

Here are a few photos from the event. Many more here and here.

This ball was about 6′ tall and had fake snow falling inside.

Toilet out of order. That’s bad at a bike event!

Marty rocking a lap in partion BWR gear.

Me (sleeping whilst standing…I think).

My teammate Matthias coming in at the end of the race.

Another of Matthias

A beautiful singlespeed Gary Fisher Superfly

That’s me there with all the colors on the lead-out lap.

Our friend David….always smiling

There’s a lot of love going on (actually, it was after bike jousting).

Tattoos and piercings everywhere

Even belt-drive fixies could be found

Also, a Ti Independent Fabrication singlespeed it belongs to Ken who is really nice and fast… bastard!

Yup… clueless me before the start.

Marty hitting the Start/Finish at some point during the night.

Busted! Got to love the Dopers Suck socks I bought from Ken.

A great shot of Ed that I stole from Keili’s photos. Thanks Keili.

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So…. after all those pics, it’s probably time to write just a bit. We hit town on Friday, went for a ride with Ken and then had fun chatting with everyone we know and having a few drinks. We woke the next morning to a beautiful day, had breakfast, ate some lunch, chatted some more and then did a lap of the course. We watched a bit of the singlespeed race, watched the jousting, took lots of photos and generally relaxed.

The race started just before 21:00 and I did the first two laps. I felt surprisingly good. During the first lap I, somehow, caught up with Marty and tailed him up the long climb to the top of the mountain. It was really great to have teammates in like uniforms for a change. Most of the races that I go to I don’t really know anyone and it’s good to have people you know around. Anyway, I cranked out a couple of first laps and then Matthias went out. After that, Armin and then Christian. While they were out I had a shot of really good Scotch and some food up at the refreshment booth and headed back for a nap. I awoke about 2:00 after what amounted to an hours sleep and then waited. No one had awoken me and I didn’t know that Christian had already done his two laps and then he rolled around after a break with food. He dropped the food and off he went for a third lap. Way to go man!

Then I hit the trail again and cranked out my fastest lap of the night. By then, there was a beautiful tracked worked in to even the most difficult parts of the course. Sadly, most of the way through my 3rd lap I ran across the ambulance picking up their second victim of the night. He’d fallen and broken his pelvis (OUCH!!!). The first had hurt himself but not too badly (Phaty informed me that both hurt guys have said that they’ll be back again next year). Luckily, the worst injuries I received amounted to sore muscles and a small rash from Stinging Nettles wrapping around my arm on the previous days fun ride.

Another couple of comments. This race has to have a large majority of the 29′ers and singlespeeds from Germany if not the middle part of Europe in general. If you’ve got the time, cruise through a lot of the photos. There are some beauties there. Thanks again to everyone that had something to do with this race. It’s the best!

My little Dinotte light performed well as did all my various Ergon products (BC2 pack, grips and gloves). I’ve mentioned it before and will again. I love Ergon! My Black Sheep is, finally, starting to act the way that I’ve always wanted it to. I might have been the week we spent together in Italy. Who knows? Anyway, if/when I get my seatpost I’ll have a complete bike after nearly two years of waiting. Is it time to get a new one yet?

This is a little pic of said seatpost if/when it ever comes.

A little home news. I’m applying for another job at the school doing the same job as I attempted to get the last time but at the school that I teach in nearly daily. Wish me luck. At 46 I suppose it’s time that I attempt to grow up and have a ‘real’ job.

O.K., now that I’ve worn out your eyes and brain…. I’m signing off.

FYI – Ken… still working on the tagged Blog.

ESSC08 European SingleSpeed Championships – Massa, Italy

Which one is pissyer…..? Them or me?

So… a couple of weekends back I drove along with two others to Massa, Italy where the European SingleSpeed Championships were held.

All-in-all the photos probably tell the story better than I can. Suffice to say we drove a long way, 700 km’s each way, got in a bit of a ride plus the race, got rained on, had some really good food, met some really, really cool people and had some really good times. The race is going to be in Dresden for the ’09 version of the European SingleSpeed Championships. That’ll make it a bit closer… I think.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with the whole Los Lobos crowd again somewhere down the road as they’re some of the nicest, most welcoming people that I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

Oh… our buddy Isaac pulled off a 3rd place finish on a borrowed bike against a pair of pros. Not bad in my book. Unfortunately, for us, Isaac is heading back to New Mexico in a month. We’ll miss him but you guys out west keep an eye out for this skinny speed-demon.

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Vox… one of the coolest, most laid-back dogs ever… Poor guy got attacked by another dog.. hence the bandage.

This crazy chef-dude below makes some of the best ribs that I’ve ever tasted. Yum!

Check out where the path leads… too much Ramazzoti boys? It’d never happen in good old Deutschland.

My buddy and teammate Ed… also from Missouri.

The kind in the Grey French SS jersey is Isaac (aka The Fastest Boy on Wheels) and the guy in the metal jersey is Flo. A really nice guy from north of Munchen.

Gary never considered this marketing scheme…. Gay Fisher

The aftermath of the trip.

Looks as though they put me down as finishing 41st even though I’d call it a DNF. RESULTS HERE!

A few different places to find more info. and photos.

Orme.tv SSEC link

Orme pics

Stefano’s pics

Singlestoph Photos

Flickr ESSC08 Pool

Los Lobos Blog post on ESSC08

So…. got my squeaking problems fixed today after putting Teflon tape on the bottom bracket threads and anti-seize on the outside of the EBB. Thanks to the folks at MTBR.com for helping me fix it.

My in-laws show up on Friday and then I’m doing the Tegernsee Marathon on Sunday. The following Friday we’re heading toward Rome for a week of vacation.

Before the weekend

A week ago today, I went for a ride with a couple of new ‘friends’. I’d previously met Axel when I spotted his beautiful Bontrager Road bike sitting at a beer garden south of München. Matthias and I went over and drewled on this thing of beauty. Afterwards, we looked at the beer garden crowd trying to gauge whom it must belong to. I picked the solo guy with the Sock Guy socks. If I remember correctly, I was right.

The Sock Guy….er, guy, finished his meal, got on his bike, rolled over to our bikes and did a once over then rolled over to us and struck up a conversation. We talked about Retrotecs (he has a Ti one with a Rohloff rear hub), Independent Fabrications (he has a couple, I think), Phil Wood bikes amongst others. I quickly figured out that Axel was probably an even more avid “bike geek” than even I.

A couple of weeks ago I received a message from a friend of Axels that he wanted to go for a ride and check out my Black Sheep. Somehow, we arranged to meet and he brought along two of his bikes (a Phil Wood Piss-off titanium singlespeed 29′er and a Serrota Ti 29′er) and one of his friends Tommaso. Someone had to ride the other bike. It was Tommaso’s first 29′er experience but definitely not his first riding experience (he mentioned that he used to do a lot of hill climb UCI type events (think… fast).

Anyway, we did about 45 km in total then went and had coffee and a snack at our local Bistro Bissone (very, very Italian). It was fun listening to Tommaso banter with the waiter in Italian. We chatted about this and that and decided that we’d definitely have to repeat this in the future.

In other news… we joined a car sharing group so that means that we should have a car when/if we need it and not have to pay too much to own a car for awhile.

Our friend Justine, whom we met on our Egypt trip, came to visit last week. It was really good to see her. We went down to Neuschwanstein on Sunday and then she and I wandered around town one day and went to see Hayseed Dixie. Kera, unfortunately, had to go out of town on business for most of the time that Justine was here. More pics here.

Lastly, I think that I’m going to do the City Bike Marathon race on Sunday if for no other reason than to figure out how bad of shape that I’m in. Maybe it’ll work as a good training race for Garda coming up in 3 short… very short weeks.

Ugh! Hack….cough!

As I sit here messing around with posting a blog, Kera is off with friends having dinner and having fun. Better that she’s there, than sitting here bored at home with sicky me. Instead, she gets to have a nice dinner, meet and hang out with some new people, drink a few beers and some schapps. Woohoo! That really doesn’t sound as sincere as I mean it.

Thursday I came home from teaching feeling pretty poor. By yesterday morning I awoke with a cough and upper respiratory crapola. Oh, can’t forget the charming feeling of ball-peen hammers beating on me all over. Hopefully, a weekend of rest will take care of it.

Really nothing special to report otherwise. I’ve been working a lot and working out regularly. Beyond that, we’re both well. I’ve been considering new tats and I’ve love to do a variation of the one above. It’s a fantastic combo of “old school” and cycling tat. Thanks to <a href=”http://cyclingtattoogallery.blogspot.com/”>Squirrels Cycling Tattoo Blog</a> for the photo.

Oh, last thing… for those of you that might be interested, look up to the upper right-hand corner of the right-hand column. There you should see a place to sign up for automatic updates sent to your email. I hope that you’ll do it to keep up on all the er, stimulating news going on here.