Big Bikes

SSWC09 Part, What are We up To Here....Four

I do not know why I am awake. I closed the bars last night with a dude from the Texas crew (I believe they call themselves "The Rogue Posse") named "Chaos" (his real name is Steven). At "No Way Jose's" an after hours Mexican joint he first shouted for Tequila, then, when he was refused, shouted "Pastore!". When the server looked at him bemusedly he said "This is a Mexican restaurant...Tacos Pastore, two!".

It gets better.

Earlier that night Brad from Texas cooked us up an amazing meal of braised pork tenderloin. While we sat eating a couple young women walked in, one of them said "Hey, I think that guy (pointing to Steven) walked into our house last night, walked back out and started puking off our porch. I went out there and patted him on the back and asked if he was OK, he just looked up and smiled and said 'Ya man!'".

The Texas sense of humor is as hard to acclimate to as the Durango altitiude. It basically involves saying "Fuck you" to people's faces a lot.

I could go on, but you probably want to hear something about the bike race. It's in two hours, the air so thick with tension, you could eat it with a fork. I do have to keep this quick, I have a costume to assemble. Yesterday I got out for a little course recon. The plan was to hit just Raider Ridge but I wound up doing almost everything. I started out solo, but that didn't last long. First I ran into George from Bike 29 and his VT buddies, then Dicky, and later the super-fast crew of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Heather Irminger and Travis Brown. I hopped on their train, getting a locals tour of all the best lines. You know what? Heather Irminger freakin' rips.

This went on until a Soulcraft rider in their group rolled his tire off the rim (BLAM!) on an off camber rock section. I began following the a guy in a Colavita kit, I was sucking wind, feeling like I hadn't acclimated at all. Then I started talking to the guy, turns out it was Anthony Colby, winner of the 2009 Mt. Washington Hill Climb. My wind sucking had nothing to do with altitude. Anthony ended up showing me around the course, super-cool guy.

There was a haphazard plan to take the 3PM Hermosa shuttle with Ben Thornton and the Texans, but I spent too long out on course. Apparently the idea of taking a 3PM Hermosa shuttle is pretty stupid according to the locals. We all ended up bagging.

All right, time to go buy a Coke and suit up. This is gonna be ri-god-damn-diculous.

-t