Classic coaching duel to the bitter finish yesterday at Foothills CX brings long awaited victory, sweet victory, to our deserved Rider ‘O the Year! The day dawned cold and foggy as Highroller and Furious rolled up on yet another excellent track down in Littleton and preliminary recon showed a power course with a tricky run up section, long hummocky grass stretch and a lot of big ring haunching. Highroller got things started in the 4s with an excellent jump off the line only to drop the chain over the first barrier and see 10 + riders stream past. Hung tough thru the middle laps and picked a couple riders off to squeak out a 20th place. Then the rains began. Sean got a great start as well and sat comfortably in the front group of 5 while one rider solo’d off the front. Tensions were high as Highroller and some dude’s girlfriend engaged in a bitter chessmatch, carefully marshalling resources, attacking and counterattacking, and devising strategies on the fly. Moving Sean into second place Highroller saw the gap draw closer and closer and at the bell a devastating stratagem saw Furious roll up on the leader’s wheel heading into the first barrier, then attack by as the leader fumbled the remount and take the front with a half lap to go! Sean maintained a slender gap until the last couple hundred meters when the chaser dropped in on the inside line of a corner, forcing Sean into the weeds, and 2nd place! Karma is a bitch however and the new leader slid out on the very next corner allowing Sean to re-pass back into the lead, peg it to the floor for the last 100m and roll across the line with time to spare!! Winner!

Budweiser sponsor?

How do I get one of these Budweiser jerseys?

On Location

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Originally uploaded by shZo.

Ready for the auction Sunday night. Get it before it's gone!

Details

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Originally uploaded by shZo.

Next round we'll hire Pete for some idenity help.

Doghouse

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Originally uploaded by shZo.

None of your dogs would fit in this, but the next time you have an old refrigerator to get rid of....

Big cyclocross day on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday in Littleton on what should be a pretty epic day for racing! 50s, sloppy, good course...what more could you ask for? So who is in besides Furious and Highroller?

Good Morning bIKE cLUB members and fans, this is the beginging of the rest of your lives. Why dont you have a seat? Today, the Zion Curtain will be your teacher.

Hey! Do you have a fire pan?

Food, water, and a car! The Zion Curtain wrasseled the best of 'em to the ground, was it the heat?

I live the Western Slope!

The joys of thinking of... well... maybe I could get back on my bike and ride it?

I see you too MOA, what the hell is everyone looking at? A bird? A plane? The uberancestors?

MOA going weee! The picture below is brads Weee movie, but I guess it didnt work...

Weeee!

Glick, Sean, Uno and Highroller braved the waters and the run ups Sunday in front of literally dozens of screaming fans in a battle for cyclocross glory. When the lung bleeding, double vision and dry heaves had finally cleared was it all worth it? Of course not but we'll be at it again next weekend. More cowbell!!

Highroller and Uno duke it out around the Interlocken course, oh and 65 other guys as well...

Highroller unsuccessfully chasing Uno in the early goings. Brutal course gave no free passes, anywhere, but the hordes of cheering Cyclonauts certainly helped keep the motivation high during the umpteenth ascent of the the triple run-up slaughterhouse hill!

Suffer!

Cyclonauts! Another excellent Farva weekend is in the books and like most bIKE cLUB misadventures it started with a well scripted, prioritized and detailed plan of operations crafted during months and months of preliminary research, executed by highly trained professional Footsoldiers, and displaying the flair for suffering, the ballet of bike-honching and the poetic violence we have been bred to perform, often at the cost of our own desires, health and dignity, by the revered Uber-Ancestors in their distant mountain grotto! There is trail to be ridden? Then, we ride!

Cyclonaut conga-line stretches the calves on the first, of many, hike-a-bike sections. Everyone rode like tru death-dealing Footsoldiers which no doubt brought proud tears of acidic mist to the triple eye-stalks of the Uber-Ancestors on High!

Time to get down to business! Chainsaw pulls thru on the first climbs of the day.

Sweet trail conditions though a little eroded in spots. Wouldn't have wanted to be standing in this spot during last week's rain storms

Uno in fine style drops off the plateau with the Kokopelli down there in the valley somewhere. Whitney and Thumper were the only Footsoldiers to clean this nasty drop.

...and some hike-a-bike thrown in to keep it real. Real hot and painful that is!

Aaargh matey! High o'er Rabbit Valley in the middle of the Curtain.

Day Two. Everyone is beat and in various stages of hangover-recovery and or Pancho's recovery. Why don't we just do a little Lunch Loops action...it'll be easy!

Secret trainer! Hisssss. B-rad shows us how it's done on a rapidly disintegrating rental steed. That's coming right out of your paycheck Thumper!

Sweet Jiminny Cricket! Uno test the traction limit...

Hello! I see you Dub! Whitney holds onto something solid after peering into the abyss...Excellent journey Footsoldiers! Let's do it again next weekend!

Himarkin' it!

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Originally uploaded by Loni Sue.

Probably to everyone's suprise, Brad had the best photo of the weekend...and it didn't involve debauchery!

Farvas 2005!

To the surprise of, well, no one, Brad waltzed away with the Innuagural Golden D'oh! trophy for the dumbest action of the year. His acceptance speech, such as it was, is sadly lost to the smoke of time, but I'm sure it was heartfelt and touching. Something wistful yet full of hope for a greater future. Anyways... Chainsaw took home the One Liner 'O the Year, Dash a well deserved Whitesnake, Sean ran away with the Rider 'O the Year, Highroller squeaked out the NBBBC Cup and Loni was rewarded for her heroic stoic-tude during Tickler 1 and received the slightly sticky Gay Johnson Spirit Award! Huzzah to all our winners for 2005! Huzzah!

There will be a new trophy on offer for the 2005 Farvas, hand carved from endangered tropical hardwoods this lustrous hued beauty will walk awaay with the Cyclonaut(s) responsible for the single DUMBEST thing of the year! Sure to be a hotly contested category so enter your nominations today! Also accepting nominations for One Liner 'O the Year, Trainwreck Award for Calamity, Whitesnake for Best Performance of Public Drunkeness, Rider 'O the Year and the Gay Johnson Spirit Award...and the NBBBC Cup Plaque will be awarded so wear a tux! And I am now proud to present to you...

The Golden D'oh!

Dash clinics the field thru the 1st barrier set! Best course of the year so far thanks to the great conditions and Boulder Racing course setters.

Uno's hot start sees him flirting with the top 15 or so, until disaster struck and he flatted back to mid field.

Highroller's run turns to a mincy prance by the last few laps...

Boulder Rez looooong run thru deep sand takes it's toll. Dash mid-pack after a sweet start

Rolling roadblock!

Uno on fire at the Fed Center, just after lapping Highroller...

Sean pulls into the top 10 on the short road section...

Saturday's sufferfest at the Fed Center saw Highroller solo off the back in stifling heat and dust...hack! No barriers at all on this course and a lot of silt but Furious powered thru to a nice 8th place in the 3s!

Now we're getting down to brass tacks! Classic cyclocross conditions with cold temps and spitting rain and a brutal sandy course at the Boulder Rez. Sean was kicking ass in the 3s solidly in the top 10 while these three miscreants dropped in on the large Cat 4 race. Uno would have run away with it but he suffered thru a long wheel change after a front flat allowing Highroller to eke past and hold him off to the finish. Highroller also flatted the front but got a pro-level swap from Steve-O Gabbard and didn't lose more than 15 seconds. Dash just suffered with Highroller in his sights all race. Only could have been better if we's wrapped up with frites and mayo...

Why hellooo my pretty littl...acgk! Sharp jabbing pain, numbness creeping....gack! A single photo to summarize the 05 bIKE cLUB (mis)adventures.

Not the BookCliffs my fiends but a portent of a bookend ride of sorts, though stretched into the typical soul-crushing epic that blurs the line between enjoyable outing with friends and possibly life-threatening journey into Hell during which I may have to eat one or more of these sick fuckos I used to call 'friends" just to survive. Standard bIKE cLUB Farva weekend in other words...

Deacon Dave says "Join us!"

Or else!

It burns my eyes-es!

Hark! What light doth on yonder window break? It is the sun, in fact, shining thru a laboriously hand carved crevice high, high in the frigid Mountains of Lore by aeons old creatures of alien motivation and incredibly eye-watering acidic stench. Miles distant on the teeming plains said sun-beam doth hit a mysterious sigil amongst the startled herd of Footsoldiery, signaling the time to stop wearing white for some, harvest time for yet others and for a select few Cyclonauts, pre-natally nurtured and in vitro-ically addicted to adrenal fluid, it’s meaning rings stark and clear in the crisp mountain air, like a crystalline forest sprite ground beneath a steel jack-boot! The Farvas hath come! October 15th & 16th Fruita environs. Friday night we gather at designation Alpha for camping and breakfast before a loooong ride roundst Z-Curtain-KoKo-Westwater-Bugs on Saturday morn. Sat afternoon we’re into town for libations/showers/Mexican food then back to Camp Alpha for the Farva Ceremonies themselves. Sunday morn pack up, b-fast in Fruita at Pancho’s then into GJ for some Lunch Loop action sure to grow hair in regions you never considered anatomically possible, or desirable! Oct 15th & 16th Fruita…be there! Bring your trophy (by “your” I mean “used to be yours”) and make sure to fill out your ballot promptly after vomiting and/or naked wheelie-ing thru the campfire.

Vail Pass...bring it on!

The snow is falling my scheming minkeys! Copper and Vail Pass areas had 2"+ on Wednesday...

Cyclocross - again

It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian.

Sunday Oct 9 Boulder Reservoir, close enough to ride your bike.

Cat 4 35+ Category at 10:35 if you don't feel like competing against people without jobs.

Sometimes you gotta grab life by the haunches and hump it into submission.