Highroller crossing the floodwaters. Nice, tight ass? Yep. Handsome? Sure...

Just not that bright...

Team Tickled Pink and Tortoise combine their considerable brain power for an easy bike shuttle across James Creek. Look Ma, no drowning!

Woo hoo!

Uno leads the charge up 102J. Let's ride this the other direction next time...

Nearly passed out in the road coming out of Gold Lake. A nice Beaver pointed us in the right direction after a couple sketchy gnomes hassled us from the woods. Team Tickled Pink mooned a few cars full of tourons while Tortoise got down to some serious face-stuffing!

Also had to stop for a cheeseburger and some Coke from "the gun". I thought the phrase "to inhale your food" was a bit of an exageration before I saw Brad in peak form...

Ok, let's see, yep right on schedu...oh Christ please please make Loni wait for us!

The After photo...aren't people supposed to look BETTER in these things? Stoner, zoner, dazed, and a zombie!

Thank Sweet Baby Jesus that Loni stuck around for us with grub at Peaceful Valley! All hail Loni!

Wilkommen a la Tickler 2005! Step right this way!

The Tickler started innocently enough with an easy spin up Hei...gack!

Sole riding shot from the entire 12 hours so don't rush. Soak it in, observe Uno nicely setting up the right-hander. Maybe there is a deer in the background? Nice chiarascuro eh?

Derka!

Hork!

....then we hike up this stream for a bit, I think.

What layer of Hell have we gotten ourselves into?

Feel the burn!

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More water! Matty A demonstrates the damp-log crossing technique, courtesy of DeFeet Golf socks.

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Actually, the Tickler was quite wet...

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Somewhere on the Tickler...wait, no I think that's my little brother. Anyway, the Tickler was this much fun. I propose the Tickler, Round II, starting where we left off. Who's on board?

Team Tortoise prepares to creatively interpret the official race course! Staying the night...optional!

Team Punctuation showing some team spirit, er, well holding hands at least, bright and early at the Tickler start line.

Team Foreign Horde, hey wait these guys color-coordinated! What the?

Small Chinese woman joins Chainsaw in Team Tickled Pink as the Tickler ends in a shocking 9-way tie, all Cyclonauts making it as far, but no farther, then Peaceful Valley, high, high up in the Foothills of Lore, but sadly only perhaps a third of the way round the entire Tickler course!

Tickler is a go! Team Tickled Pink above is raring to race and looking good in the Female division though they will face stiff competition from Team Punctuation featuring Click and Dash! On the Men's side it looks to be a barnburner between Team Tortoise of Thumper and Highroller and Team Foreign Horde featuring a powerful Franco-Prussian Axis of Armbrustmacher and Cheseaux... In the immortal words of Ramirez from The Highlander, "There can be only one!" Loni has volunteered for aid station at Peaceful valley so drop off a cooler and spares at Cheese-Os place tonight and prepare to suffer! Race starts at 5:34am tomorrow, or at least by 6am...be there!

What a wonderful night for a moon-dance! Hot as balls and a challenging twisty course but the Cyclonauts were not to be denied starting with Chainsaw's excellent 2nd place showing in the women's event! Her state of wreck-ed-ness was a cruel foreshadowing of the punishment the Men's Bs were about to dish out but Sandbag, the Crossbowmaker, and Cheese-O took off like frightened rabbits, riding over some unfortunate 1st lap casualties, and heading towards the tete de la course! Sandbag pulled in a 5th I beleive while Matty A got 8th? CHeese-O was a bit further back while way, way back in the gutter Highroller and Thumper were engaged in a duel to the death, at least until B-rad schranked his chain, again, while rolling up on the unsuspecting Highroller. Thusly Highroller holds onto the Maillot Monsieur Pomme for another stage while Thumper leapgrogs the absent Dash for 2nd place on GC. Uno continues to wander in the Cs field wasteland...come on man race in Bs against your friends!

NBBBC Cup round three throws down tomorrow night Footsoldier so oil up the single and prepare to mingle! Highroller is off to a commanding lead with (2) 1st places while Dash hangs on with a 2nd and B-rad with a 3rd place so far. Short Track is the Devil's Mistress however and things can change topsy turvy in a heartbeat with either of these challengers, or an unkown dark horse, more than capable of prying the leader's jersey from Highroller's sweaty back at any moment! Wed 5:50pm...be there!!

The coveted Maillot Monsieur Pomme!

For Sale: One wrecked human being. Empty, no accessories, special skills or clothes included. Sean reduced himself into a husk-like hollow waif during 80+ miles of suffering in the dessicating 90 degree wind at the Hugo RR on Saturday, rolling across the finish after 30+ miles solo, so drawn he couldn't even summon the energy to vomit, if that gives you any indication of the state of affairs. Highroller fared a little better hanging with the main peloton over halfway thru his race and then working in some good smaller groups to eat up 20+ riders after getting dropped at the halfway point. Ended up 49th outta 110 or so while Sandbag was in the 50s in the Cat 3s. Nothing a giant bucket of cold Coke and a lobotomy wouldn't cure so we were both at it again for the State Championship criterium in Longmont yesterday. Don't know about Furious as I couldn't stay vertical long enough to watch his race but I hung tough on a super fast course (53x11 the whole time!) running tailgunner on a rapidly dwindling pack from deep, deep within the Pain Cave. Good fun, AND a mere taste of the deprivations nescessary to withstand to grasp for success at the Tickler! 41st for me, achieved only by biting the handlebars for the last 20 minutes, no idea on Sean's whereabouts but I'm sure his body had I.D. on it so we woulda heard if he'd shown up unclaimed...

Like a giant gob of peanut butter on the roof of your mouth the Tickler approaches, tasty in retrospect but potentially life-threatening at the time!

Dream Team '05. More fun/mile, more drinking, more skirts, more epics both planned and unplanned, and much much brighter arm-warmers!

Glick sucks bugs off the front heading out for a Wanker/Brad's Mystery Trail loop...

Gack!

That's all folks! See you Wednesday night! 5:15 for chicas, 5:50 for the hombres...NBBBC Leader's Jersey will be in the house so bring your single for the opportunity to wrest the coveted Maillot Monsieur Pomme from the sweaty back of Highroller hisself!

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A bluebird day, fresh tracks, and Mt. Toll in the background! What did you do on Saturday?

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He's cooking now!

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With our pristine up-track in the background, Dash shows off some spectacular backcountry form!

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Stripping the skins in preparation for 3" of heavy new powder.

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So Dash & Cheese-O set off @ 3:00 AM for some skiing fun. We were able to ski from the trailhead, taking the skiis off only twice (once to cross a semi-frozen bog that I led us to). Our destination: Blue Lake and the surrounding terrain.

Last off the line leads to clear sailing for Thumper as he picks off the stragglers

Normally level-headed C. Ryan gets sucked into the madness!

Thumper kicks the chain off for the 5th time...Gack!

Uno holeshots the Cs!

If you raced last night in the inaugural 2005 Wed Night short track and got beat by some little girl and/or gumby on a singlespeed you fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia; and only slightly less well known is this: Never go in against a Cyclonaut, when death is on the line! Sean "Sandbag" Steeves came prepared to continue his shocking run of dominance against the Jr 10-14 Girls category, and promptly delivered a spanking, running amuck thru the broken remnants of the Bs like Rodan thru a cardboard Tokyo, while another suspect sandbagger, Uno, swooped in on the hapless Cs like Mothra over a fleeing crowd of panicked salary-men and ineffective plastic tanks! Somewhere a lethal high voltage line waits patiently for these monsters of the short track.
On the NBBBC Cup front Dash, Thumper and Highroller came prepared for small talk and cocktail wieners whilst Matty A inexplicably got his wires crossed, fruitlessly prowling the front for prime rib on some sort of geared contraption. Low expectations were rewarded as Dash fingered the filling out of a discarded deviled egg, holding off a mechanically-challenged Thumper in the Cs while Highroller brushed some tasty brownie crumbs off the picnic table, holding off all but the top 10 or so in Bs. Due to a capricious nature and the pressing need to get to Juanita's earlier it has been decide that the Bs is where it's at so if you dangle with the bumblies in C you only scored half points.
Thusly Highroller will be sporting the NBBBC Cup leader's jersey at next week's event, D.Ash holding down second on GC while Thumper cabooses in 3rd. See you out there!

Winner!

K-dub's got it and earns a 1 minute head start at the Tickler, now coming up in less than 3 weeks. Of more impending peril though consider tomorrow night's activities and just how good that cold beer hand-up is going to taste after choking on the dust and raw adrenaline of 40 or 50 wingnuts going mano y mono round the CU Research Park. 5:50pm for the hombres (B) and we will be scoring for the NBBBC Cup so mingle with your single and prepare to Throw! Down!

Name the Tickler course location pictured above and receive bonus 1 minute head start!Tickler course correction! Overland fire seems to have closed down trails in the "Moto Park' area so we're changing the course. Sorry but now you won't havre the opportunity to get shot at or run over by MX-idiots, or at least not on that particular trail. Now once we drop out of Heil we'll spin up the pave to Jamestown, head S at the Post Office and climb up to Gold Lake, ride past the resort and almost all the way to P2P before taking a right onto CR 100 and heading N. Comes out almost to Overland Trail where you'll bang an East and drop down some rollies to the St. Cerain TH and head for Miller Rock. You should bring a map. And some boots for trembling in. And shark repellant. June 25th 5:34am Eben G. Fine. Be there!