Say it out loud.

Story time, bit of background for ya'll that might not already know. Long story short(ish), some chumps in Harrisonburg wanted to do a group party ride fixy thing at the SMT hundo. Chumps ended up backing out; owee owee, we're weak, my knees hurt, I'm old.....whatevah. I had a sucky summer Michaux race, incredible legs, blew up another derailleur, an hour hike back to the car, drunk by 11am, passed out in the parking lot, Bender got me home, hungover ride back to Big Flat the next day for the car. The following week Chris let me off the volunteer hook at the 101. I guess something else snapped with my derailleur out in the woods of Michaux and I chose to do a 101 mile mtn bike race as my fourth ever fixed gear bicycle ride.

It was the hardest fucking thing I have ever done on a bicycle, period. I went to deep dark places that I don't ever need to revisit for a good long time, it got ugly out there. But then around hour ten, I hit the most blissful piece of singletrack and it was the sweetest god damn no brake Ewok planet cruiser thru the ferns & trees zippity unthinking flow that made everything alright with the world.

Angels sang, it was groovey.

In 2005 I got the dubious honor of being first to ride a ss for the mtn stages of le Tour, last year I was stupid enough to attempt and finish the 101 on a fixy. Then I rode fixed mtn for the remainder of the season until the hundo. Was honorary Rally King at the Philly rally, rode the hundo an hour faster than the 101 (hydration IS important apparently) and then the freewheel was spun back on, rear brake reinstalled and I was riding 'normal' bikes again.

But there was still an itch, Poe's telltale cog. I liked riding the fixed wheel, that cog snickered at me from it's shoebox confines, taunting me, seducing me, snickering. I hadn't ridden my road bike but three or four times for some short recovery spins back in August, and was hungry to roll the skinny tires. Knowing Jay had a fixed roadie hanging in his garage, I asked to borrow it. You know, just to try out the fixed thing on the road, to see how I liked it, get a feel for what's managable, check out the practicality of it. That was back around Thanksgiving, and, well, I now own said bike. Based around a Miele frame that was rescued from the mean streets of Philly by Harlan, this truly is a champion's bike.

Now here we are, been reading everybody's blog as always, maybe more so now that I am also a bloggity blog person, and I'm seeing a lot of thinking and chat about the season. I've seen and can sense the thought of, "oops, now I've gone and said it out loud, now they know......." What races? Where to go? What's my approach gonna be? What are my goals? How? Why?

Hopes?

Aspirations?

For me, short and simple...........

I plan to ride/race le Tour de 'burg 100% fixed in 2007.

Then hopefully keep rollin' that flow into the 101 and hundo, unless my body really revolts this time around.

The Stable: