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Happy New Year Greetings! |
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Written by Jason Mahokey
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Tuesday, 02 January 2007 |
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I must say the New Year's holiday kinda rocked this year. I was glad to be nearly done with the stress of the holiday season and happy that I would once again be taking advantage of the unusually warm winter temps and lack of snow to get in some outdoor riding instaed of being a slave to the stationary trainer in my basement.
New Year's Eve (day) I spent 2 hours on some local single track aboard the Dos Niner . I had a great time in the woods continuing to put more miles on my new Panaracer Rampage tires and the Dos Niner.
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I've been on the Dos Niner for almost a year now and it continues to amaze me. I'm sure it's a combination of many things (weight, fit, geometry, components, etc.,) but as I believe I've mentioned before, this bike just feels "right" to me. Starting to get real anxious for the Salsa Mamasita hard tail due this spring.
After almost a year the ONLY knock I have on the Dos Niner is that the paint is prone to chipping. I think the only way to completely avoid chips on a painted mountain bike frame would be to NOT ride off road or get a naked Ti frame. And since I'm a single track junkie with a somewhat depleted checking account, THAT is not gonna happen any time soon. Plus I don't think you could get a Ti soft tail in the weight/price range of Salsa's Scandium Dos Niner.
After the ride, it was back home to gussy up (as much as I "gussy") so we could head out to some friend's for some New Year's Eve festivities. 3 couples, 3 kids, eating food, drinking a few tasty home brews and SSSSSTRUGGLING to stay awake 'till midnight. 12:01 a.m. "Bye, see ya, thanks, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."
I've never been much on the New Year's holiday. I really don't "get it" but I did meet Wifey on New Year's Eve 12 years ago, so I GUESS some good has come from it. HA!
I was more than happy to say good bye to 2006 and content to drink a couple beers, call it a night and have enough energy to go for a sweet road ride on New Years' Day.
2007 Day 1. Miles 1 thru 35.
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Happy New Year! And what better way to celebrate than have my chamoised up cheeks in the saddle Truthfully my New Year seems to Start November 1, when I start looking towards the 2007 season, but it was nice to start Day 1 of 2007 with miles 1 through 35.
Went out to Scottdale, PA with Brennan to hang at my Dad's house and get some road mileage in. Temps were in the high 40s with a steady, and often annoying breeze blowing. Thank God I took a vest 'cause the temps were deceiving. When the sun went behind the clouds and the breeze kicked up, it got more than a tad nipply.
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About 10 miles in I had to negotiate a usually fun, twisty farm road, with some serious caution since the previous night's rains washed a bunch of cow manure across the road and I did NOT want to start off 2007 by eating some manure pavement.
My legs felt pretty good, even with having mountain biked Saturday and Sunday. On a slight climb with about 5 miles to go, a freaking big ass dog with no leash (of course) is getting his nether regions in an uproar, showing me the fangs and forcing me to unclip and slow to a near stand still so I could try to talk him back to his yard.
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I was making some progress, almost away, THEN another one shows up. This one even uglier than the last. It looked like some kind of junk yard dog. Face all mangy covered with what looked to be mud, dried road kill guts and the remnants of a freshly sniffed turd. GGGGGGGreat! NOW I gotta be nice to THIS one! STILL no owners around even with this may lay going on right outside the house. FINALLY I'm able to slowly pedal away. Eeesh. Should have kept an eye on the HR monitor. It was probably going nuts!
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As I'm pedaling I'm all kinda jacked off about dogs. Not a big fan of 'em anyway, but I do dig some. I see a man and a girl up ahead. I was slowing down to ask them who the hell's dogs were back there still barking their heads off at me, when I saw the girl walking an English Bull Dog puppy, My favorite dog!
So I stop and chat with the girl and her dad about their new puppy and all of my hatred for the two mongrels back down the road left me and I was feeling pretty darn ok with dogs again. Dog Karma.
I've been super in to using a new web site called RouteSlip.com. You can map your ride via Google Earth, shows mileage, elevation gain, etc., It's a great way to map a course or discover new courses that others have made.
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All in all another great winter (if you can call it that) ride. 2:05/34.5 miles.
As you can see from the elevation profile above, the terrain here in Western PA makes it hard for any sort of "recovery" type riding, but damn the ups and downs sure do help the climbing legs. ;)
Well hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's Holiday season. Looking foward to another year with Bikeman.com and hopefully another year of Al letting me continue to post excerpts about my attempts at breaking out of endurance mountain bike racing's mid pack.
Now here are some photos from the New Year's Day road ride.
Later.
Jason
"The Soiled Chamois" |
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