Had planned on racing Punchbowl today, but I did not get my stripped cranks replaced in time. First DNS, Did Not Start, ever. I got my first DNF, Did Not Finish, this year out of the way in February, so hopefully no more of either. Here’s to a surprise day off:
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-9067416427722807670&hl=en
More info from http://www.contestedstreets.com
Holy shit, just got the results for this. Two years ago we rode the double century and it was the maiden voyage of the Seven. Last year we rode the entire King of the Mountains series of centuries and had done pretty well. We were amped for this.
Friday night Jack raced the downtown alley-cat criterium and won $187, but it cost him his legs for this. We rode as a group for a bit, then this kid John dropped us and ended up second overall. Brian (Davidson) and I split up after Decker Canyon and I rode the rest of the course alone. Two weeks ago I went out and rode it alone from home, 125 miles in 9 hours, so I knew what I was in for. The start is staggered, and they ask the sub-8 riders to start last, which means you spend the day passing people. It makes you feel faster than you really are. Did my best to stay focused, which is difficult with so much climbing. When I got to the top of Stunt Road, I was not coherent enough to talk to the people at the checkpoint. Brutal. It’s a tough love. This course is so beautiful; it’s why I love southern California. I don’t have any pics from the ride, but since it is the two-year anniversary of the Seven, here’s a pic my friend Kelly took for an upcoming book.
This weekend is my first real road race, a 3-stage, 2-day race called Conquer the Canyons.
Dear Budge,
I know I shouldn’t of taken your bike without your permission, but my fixed is broken and I needed to be on one for the Team Bonobo photo shoot for the new video. I was really careful with it, even when doing those wallrides on 7th street. Dropping in on it did not seem like that big of a deal because I was already getting near the top. I should of pulled it clean, but I guess it being a little big and the fact that I haven’t ridden fixed recently kept that from happenin
g. Now you have a broken frame. After peeling my face off of the sidewalk I kept asking why I had your bike and what I was doing. It didn’t make any sense in my concussion-induced haze and it still does not. The bitter taste of blood in my mouth when I woke up the next morning was a gruel reminder of my fuck up. They don’t make camouflage to hide my aching pain. Years from now I want you to remember me as your fun housemate who always cooked up good food, not the jerk that took your Olmo and broke it. Please forgive me. Love, Matt
For the second year in a row I woke up the morning of this event not knowing if 10 or 100 people were going to show up. Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer is a Swarm! event based on Danny Chew’s Dirty Dozen race. I found the ten most brutal hills in LA; the group rides together to each hill and then ‘races’ to the top. We regroup, ride to the next hill and do it again. There is a point system to declare the fastest of the day, but for most people just getting up all of these in one day is a huge feat. Hell, the LA Wheelmen make a huge deal out of the their ride up Fargo St. (notice Swarmers! Brian and Alec doing it on a tall bike!) and on Feel My Legs it’s only one of ten…Check out the GPS data of the ride. Almost 3000 feet of climbing in less than 20 miles.
Last year it was dry at the start and started raining at the first hill. This year we woke up to rain that slowed and then stopped before the meeting time of 930am at Pershing Square. We took names, did a warm-up through downtown and headed for the first hill that goes from 5th st to Grand and up. Check out some of Budge’s pictures of the first hill (and others) on his myspace page. Stephen Roullier has some fantastic pictures up here.
The hills:
1. 5th st to right on Grand
2. Sunset to White Knoll to Marview
3. Quintero (off of Sunset)
4. Echo Park Blvd to Left on Baxter to top
5. Baxter St (north of the previous hill)
6. Fargo St
7. Earl St to left on Bancroft to top of Earl
8. Silver Lake blvd to Duane
9. Mulholland fountain to Hillhurst to Vermont Canyon to Observatory
10. Mitcheltorena
None of this would of been possible without the team of volunteers, Budge, Morgan, Kiecker, Michael, Alec, Stacy, Plex, Chris Palestine, Gnuzycats, Luz, Molly and LA bike winter. Thank you.
All finishers got this dope shirt.
Where does the name come from? I’ll give you one hint: S&M. Winner gets a free tour of the course.
Molly and Swarm! put on a metric century as part of Los Angeles Bike Winter. We met up at the bike block where the Kitchen and Orange 20 are. About 25 people showed up and for many this was the longest ride they have ever taken on. Congratulations!
There are some other pictures here.
Check out the GPS data(thanks Paul!) as well..
Friday night was the 2nd anniversary of the Santa Monica Critical Mass ride and the Green Party opened up its doors to us for an after-party yet again. I missed the ride cause I was preparing my music to be laptop DJ (which ruled). The party was fun, we raffled off a bunch of great prizes, etc, etc. About a dozen of us left at 130am, heading across town. Budge was super drunk, which was funny when he was kicking mirrors on Porsches, but less funny when he was falling on the ground.
I road Molly over to Echo Park and took a long way back so it was almost 4am when I arrived back home. This is part of my sleep deprivation training. I read for a couple of hours and made food then went on a 32-mile road ride at dawn. What was most odd was that I felt cold the whole time, but I knew that it was not that cold out. Afterwards, sans spandex, I rolled over to Janie’s for her cupcake r
ide.
I brought a bright pink shirt to have a pink cupcake screened on. They rode to some bougie place in Beverly Hills that doesn’t have any vegan options (and were pissy when asked). So instead I rolled by the house to scoop up Jack, Megan, Morgan and Budge to meet the main group at Mannie’s for some breakfast and vegan sweets.
Side effects of no sleep:
Patience for annoying shit reduced
Tolerance of people on the westside very low
I ended up catching a 3-hour nap around 3pm, before heading out for the night. Including the commute miles, I rode almost 100 miles in the 33 hours I was awake plus I had run for an hour and a half early Friday morning.
Sunday Stephen and I did Tony’s gravity race and then did a moderately paced 40 miles through Griffith Park and then up Chevy Chase and back.
Team Swarm! met up with some of the Dock Riders today for some fast, flat miles on PCH. Ended up rolling 9 deep. Caught another group from Santa Monica to Pepperdine and suddenly almost 20 of us were cruising along the coast at 24 MPH until we dropped them all on the climb (I think commuters have a real advantage in climbing. Or something!). There was only a 30% chance of rain, but it rained on us for most of the ride. Not so bad as the temps were in the low 50’s, much warmer than two weeks ago. Has anyone else noticed that suddenly we ride with some fast people? 100 miles in 7 hours or so. This pic is from Magu Rock in Ventura County, our turn around point (thanks Jesse). Looking forward to rolling to the Death Valley double 16 deep.
Chris got this to me recently and I wanted to share it cause it rules so much.
Isn’t the title an odd linguistic structure?
Regardless, on Sunday my fixed gear frame snapped when Megan and I were riding to Lomita to meet up with Jack, Brian, Max, Jenny and Kiecker. We picked up Alec on the tall bike and we were riding through Redondo Beach when I saw a big JESUS sign someone had put up against a pole. Like all good citizens, I took democracy into my own hands (foot, more specifically) and kicked it over as we rode past. Yes, sometimes I am still 15 years old. I know this. Three blocks later I got an odd wobble in the front end. I say odd because this bike wobbles often. After pulling over and inspecting it I found that the lug was cracked all the way through. Uh-oh. We were close to Vege House so we road slowly the rest of the way. After eating, it only took leaning hard on the bars for the tubes to separate. Is this a sign?
I’ve been riding this bike for almost three years, after someone in the A-house gave it to me in lieu of one month’s rent. Not sure how many
miles I’ve put on it, but easily several thousand. Many of those riding in LA with friends, at events, etc. I put on the Jam Master Jay sticker almost straight away. The frame deserves a proper memorial, but we have not thought of anything yet. Will keep you updated.
Stephen Krchmer, the infamous journalist, put on a benefit race that was half alley-cat, half cyclo-cross. After a run-to-the-bike start you had to follow the route slip to a set of stairs, where you would hoist your bike up on your shoulder, run to the top, hop back on your bike and then race to the next set. Ten sets total throughout Echo Park and Silverlake. The race was really well run (thanks Stephen!) and about 30 people started it. There was even a prim and at the top of the last set the route sheet just said, ‘Now find your way back to the start.’ That’s a little tougher than it sounds when you are oxygen deprived and disoriented. Nonetheless, fresh off the 508, Team Bonobo ruled it 1-2-3, all on fixed. Alec came up fourth on the tall bike. Yeah, he carried the tall bike up all those stairs.
Thanks Stephen, all the people/companies that donated prizes and everyone who raced and helped to raise money for Orlando. It is some fucked up irony that someone who was pictured in double-paged ads (as a courier) for an insurance company, can’t afford health insurance.
Wire Donkey covered the race if you scroll down from here you can see it.
Alec: The cap is rad and all, but I bet you thought Jack was going to win, eh? He might be the only person who can pull off a cap with a 1st place ribbon on it. I am seriously stoked on the number of Alec caps I have now!
