Crank-n-Stein Winter Classic

Jake and I got a short ride in this afternoon.

Here's Jake: The crazy man forgot to bring his helmet.

View of the Trail, yes very snowy and impassable for Jake's bike.  so we stuck to some plowed trails.

Rochester Mills to warm up after the ride...

Ride on
Mossy

The Couples Ride Video

All,

This could be, quite possibly, the funniest mountain biking video ever made!  I know many of you have experienced several of the situations.

Enjoy...


A Couples' Ride from Darcy Turenne on Vimeo.


QOTD:  What are some of the funny stories have you had?

Ride on....
Mossy

Today's training:  90 minutes of Insanity workout + 10 Mile Run!
Supplies:  puke bag, motrin and a lot of water 

Zoo-de-Mack Wrap up 2013

Here's the wrap up for the Zoo-de-Mack..  Sorry it has been so long for the writeup.

Friday

Everyone started to arrive at 9am for the trip.  Doyle had to go pick up Crash! and we were on the way by 9:30.  We did make the requisite stop at Starbucks with the trailer in tow.

Pickup Big Jim at the park and ride.  At I75 and Shasabaw road.

We stopped for the usual lunch/dinner at Big Buck Brewing Company, the beer was good, However,  food only ok.  We may need to look for a new location for next year…  Right now we are thinking stopping in PetoskeyBrewing Co

Off to the hot tub, it was a beautiful day the sun was shining and the pool water was very warm.  Doak, Crash!, Doyle and I splashed around in the pool for a while.  Doak was busy breaking the beach ball in the pool. 

We finally caught up with Carl for a few beverages in the room before the Zoo bar.  We arrived at the Zoo bar around 9:30 after dropping our stuff off in the room.  No water bottles this year…

Off to the ZooBar for more Tom Foolery. 

Hey am I getting a Kiss?

As ususal the crew at the ZooBar was throwing out free T-Shirts for the party.  A shirt hit me (Mossy) in the head, as I held it up I noticed it was a size medium.  Well a size medium might as well be painted on.  No one wants to see that so I gave it away.

A few minutes later Doak jumped on me like death from above.  Groped me and started to shove a Shellbeck Rum t-shirt into me shorts.  I turned and looked at him and said “I better be getting a kiss from you later.”  Of course, no kiss ever came.  I didn’t want it either.

Saturday

Morning, got off on the bike more or less on time.  I figured we snapped the picture at 9:30.

Enjoying the rain into Harbor

After the amazing ride we grabbed the cars and hit the 5pm ferry ride to the Island.

Hot Tub Announcement Time

Crash! and I decided we did need some hot tub time after the ride despite the crowded hot tub.  We changed and went down.  The Hot tub had about 25 people in a 15 person tub, but we crashed in anyway.

We had to squat in the middle to have any space at all.  After a I noticed 4 guys in the tub were gay, so this lead me to torture Crash!  What did I do, well I poked at him in random intervals.  He was convinced the guys were touching him, cause we all know everyone wants Crash! 

After a while one of the guys, we will call him Cam after the guy on Modern family stands up and announces it “HOT TUB ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!”  Cam proceeds to stay this until the entire hot tub is quiet. Crash! Was determined to keep talking until I reminded him it was Hot Tub announcement time.

Cam proceeded to inform the hot tub one of his freiends was having a milestone birthday of 40 and wanted to the hot tub to sing.  I had to tell Crash! To sing, but he just shook his head no and glared at me.

Dinner

We did hit Millie's on Main again this year at 7pm.  the food was fine and the beers were cold.  what more do you need?

About 9:30 Crusher (Zidzik) came in and wondered when we were going to head out.  I couldn't believe it was already that late.  So we headed off to the Pink Pony.  It was crowded and we left after on a drink and made the trek up to the Gate House.

Beeeees

After a while we finally made it to the Gatehouse.  After a few beverages Crash! Started shouting “BEEES!”  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I asked where are the bees?  He screamed again “BEES” and was pointing behind me.  I turned around and did not see any bees.  Again, I asked “what bees?”  Crash! Said “Bees out of her hair”  He was pointing to a tall lady with blonde curly hair, who was now looking at Crash!

Crash! Then stated again, “Bees!  They are going to come out of her hair….”

Red Pepper Incident

After the Gatehouse closed down the group made their way down to the Island Pizzeria.  I got in line to order pizza while the rest of the gang tickled in.  We had 5 of the 7 group members come in for one last hurrah of the evening.

After I ordered the two pizzas, I looked around to see Crash! Slumped in the chair.  He was a bit tired, but unwilling to go to bed.  I sent Doyle and Crash back to the room to grab a couple of beers to wash down the pizza.

Once the pizza arrive Crash! Was the first one to open the box and grab a slice.  The pizza was right out of the oven and was basically the temperature of the Sun.  Needless to say he burned the top of his mouth. 

After we polished off the first piiza we started in on the second pizza.  About this time Crash! Decided the rest of the za needed red pepper, then the beer needed red pepper and finally a couple of humans need the red pepper too.  Doyle grab the shaker from Crash! and informed him “No more red pepper for you!”

Sunday

Ferry ride home at 10am.   I sat next to Crash! on the ferry.  I asked him about the red pepper incident.  He said, “What did you do Moss?” 

I replied, “Oh it not what I did.”  Then retold the story to him.

Lunch at subway just south of Bay City.  Crash! didn’t eat, just milled around outside with plastic bags.  Don't ask why....

Sunday

We caught the 10 am ferry ride back to the main land.

And the long ride home.  After 4 hours the Starbucks black eye wore off and I turned the driving reins over to Angry John.....

CnS Training Ride 5/11

The wind blew and blew harder for this ride.

This ride we had Big Jim, Bob, Crash!, Coach Doak, John K, and me.  The plan was to ride 52 miles, once around Stoney and then on to Richmond via the Macomb Orchard Trail.  The ride around Stoney was very nice and we made it around.  After once around the main group rolled out of the park

After the bomb down 26 Mile road we arrive at Mound Rd and hooked back up to the Macomb Orchard trail.  We rolled the trail until the bridge just after the barn overpass (over M53).  We cracked open a couple of fermented beverages, as is customary for the last training ride for Zoo-de-Mack.

Bob and Big Jim Turned back at Romeo Plank as they needed to get back to the car by noon due to time constraints.

At this point Crash! and I were the only ones left on the trail.  We didn't make it to Richmond.  on the return trip we smelled the donuts from the Cider stand in Romeo so we stopped for donuts.  They were so fresh.  The sales girl took the donuts and put them into the cinnamon sugar in the back room.  We sat at a small cafe table in the from of the stand and enjoyed coffee and donuts.

We will not have a training ride next week as the team will be up north at the Zoo-de-Mack. We will work on a real schedule for training ride after Zoo-de-Mack so we all can still get together and Ride

I had failed to take any picture for this ride so I will leave you with this....



Ride on....
Mossy

Pros, Joes and Weekend Riders pay attention!

While I support and appreciate the sanctioned MTB racing governing body (USA Cycling and UCI), I also believe and race in the unsanctioned endurance MTB events across this country.  The governing body is looking to impose the long forgotten rule (1.2.019) in 2014 fining all pros $107 for each unsanctioned event they participate.  This would also include fines on top-level amateurs as well.

Help preserve events such as Leadville100 & 50, Shanendoah100, the Breck Epic, and many other events open to anyone who is willing to test their skill and endurance.  Such events are growing in both prize money and word of mouth, something the our national "sanctioned" series can't quite match.  Oh, by the way the Pros are joining in on the "unsanctioned" events due to the growing prize money and recognition.  

Who can argue such a decision by the Pros and the many of us novice riders?  The USAC can and are trying lure promoters, yet all these promoters and members get are more complications, fees, growing expenses and more stringent regulations.

My vote is for the growth of more "unsanctioned" events both nationally and internationally, and a continuous reminder by all of you (who love biking) to your local USAC and IMBA organization.

CnS Training Ride 5/5

Beautiful Weather....  It was the best day ever for the ride.  We started out as a foursome, but we ended with two.  

Riders included Jakester, Combs, Mossy and a new rider John K.  

The plan was to complete 40 miles for this ride.  We initialy started out for Stoney Creek for two loops around the park.  At the top of the intial hill John K, the new rider, said "You didn't tell me we would hit a hill right away!"  My reply was "Whoops, Sorry, Surprise, My bad..."  I am not sure he accepted that answer.  At the same time Jake's knee was hurting.  so I told him to turn around and call it a day.  Jake was only going to injure his knee further by attempting the ride.

After the two loops we said goodbye to John K.  Combs and I headed out to the mountain bike trails in the back of Stoney,  Once on the trails we rode to the back and slipped through the fence and onto Sheldon Rd.  We climbed the hills on Sheldon until we got to Gunn Rd, where the real hills are.  These hills can get 14% uphill climbs and above.  Most of the Stoney hill max out at 8% grade and are much shorter.

Gunn Rd took us to Paint Creek Trail, we rode down the path to Paint Creek and rod out to Lake Orion.  At the end of the trail we took a short break and head back to Rochester to have a final rest stop at Rochester Mills Brewery.  At the brewery we snacked on Chicken Nachos and dehydrated with a wonderful Maibock.  The Maiback was like heaven after 35 miles.  After the "Mills" we rode an easy 4 miles back to our cars.

Sorry guys no photos of this week's ride so I will leave you with this

Next week we will doing our last training ride for Zoo-de-Mack... A glorious 52 miles.

Ride on.... 

Mossy

Crank-n-Stein Training Ride

Our regular training ride was Sunday.  The weather was sketchy, but we made the ride.

The ride was out to Lake Orion on the Paint Creek Trail and back.  Of course the ride out was the grind up to LO.  Once in downtown Lake Orion we looked for and found the new BREWERY.  Hooray, Lake Orion has made it to the Big time with a brewery to re-hydrate us!!!!  But, the brewery was not open yet as we arrived around 10:30.  Booo.  So we stopped for breakfast at CJs.

We stared rolling back to Shelby when the rain started to sprinkle on us.  We made a quick stop in Rochester to check out a tented area Next to Rochester Mills Brewery.  It looked like a home improvement show, so we motored on to the cars.  We didn't really get too wet or got the bikes too dirty.

We completed the planned 28 miles and returned to the car at 12:30.

We look forward to everyone next Sunday at 9am!!!  Be there!!  Only two more training rides until Zoo-de-Mack.  I have a special new route for next week.

QOTD:  Is it ever too rainy to complete a training ride?

Ride on...
Mossy

Crank-n-Stein Training Ride

Jake, Karl and I where out for the first official Zoo-de-Mack training ride.   This was a 16 mile hilly ride at Stoney Creek. The Sun was shining and the temperature was cool around 40 degrees when we ended.

Where was everyone else you ask?  Don't know, I suppose it was too cold or too early for most people.
















Soon we will need to start adding in Tough Mudder training to the plan!

What is the coldest temperature you will ride in?


Ride on...
Mossy