Big Bikes

Things I'm Thinking of Doing

This is as much an organizational exercise for me as it is a piece of brilliant entertainment for you. I have not put together a plan for the '09 season as of yet. Things are moving forward and it's time to get busy.

Here in The New-Improved England (This one has Dunkin Donuts) we got the Root 66 race series which is all USAC sanctioned and whatnot and we got the more Grassroots EFTA series. Both these series have great races to offer. I will definitely be hitting a bunch up in-between bigger (not necessarily better) things.

My goal every season is to mix things up, do something different. New things I'm thinking of doing are The SSUSA and Dirt Sweat and Gears down south in the spring.

Thinking about the Massanutten Hoo-Ha! In VA, don't know if I can squeeze in that much travel in such a short amount of time.

Hundies? Geez, I dunno. Last year seemed to work out as far as training for shorter-faster stuff, don't really know if I've got the time to train properly for these big bastards. I might hit The Lumberjack and see what happens. If I suck donkey mittens I'll call it a base ride and move on. News flash, the Lumberjack is full! Since when do mountain bike races fill up? I thought this sport was dead. Oh well.

I bet The Windham Mountain "US Cup" race won't fill up. That was fun last year and kind of a big deal so I may do that one again. Camping is cheap and on site, they really put together a nice event. Not to mention the nearby swimming hole of the gods.

If I do decide to try the 100's I might roll down to PA for the Wilderness 101, hopefully that won't fill up before I get my head out of my ass.

Then we got the US Cup at Mt. Snow, Vermont. I'd kind of rather throw myself down a flight of stairs than do this...but I'll probably be there. Mt. Snow is always the hardest two hours you will spend on a bike all year. Maybe this time I won't try to do three races in three days, but that would be uncharacteristically smart of me.

Of course there's one definite in all this yammering; SSWC09, Durango. That's happening. With the new date in conflicts with Chequamegon which I was hoping to do, next year for that.

Oddly enough, the only other definite I have is a frickin' road race; Battenkill in NY. Speaking of New York, I'm pretty sure I'll head over and do The Singlespeedpalooza and maybe the Darkhorse 40. My Single-Speedin' 29ering brethren Sean Cavanaugh and Mike Montalbano have been talking this stuff up and it sounds pretty good.

I've got crazy ideas about trying to get The Shop to send me to Wisconsin for Trek World and extending my stay to include a WORS race.

Do I try to get the band back together and do a team 24? Didn't do one last year and I missed it. Not only are those a hoot, they are killer training. I'm always flying high a couple weeks out from a 24.

If anyone (hi, three people) has any ideas or suggestions for awesome races or events I should check out I'm all ears...or eyes...whatever. I shut my gob now, I have plans to lay.