He who hesitates is lost.

On august 18th some friends and I headed up to Deer Valley to ride the lifts and ride the mountain. It turned out to be the worst bike trip, nay the worst trip I have ever had.
I will leave out the minutia and focus only on the big disappointments.

We left St. George at 4:30 on friday afternoon and after a multitude of stops, some necessary, some completely useless we arrived at the condo in Park City at 11:15pm. The condo was nice, I ended up with a double bed all to myself. I think the other guys know by now that I am a primadonna about my sleep and were being kind. Over the years I have realized that I need two things to ensure my happiness and overall well being.
1.) Earplugs. Never leave home without them. Some of the "dudes" that I ride with like the TV a little to much. A couple of years ago I had to ask them to turn it off at 2 am. Maybe I am the stick in the mud.
2.) Tylenol PM. Just in case the earplugs aren't enough. I also don't sleep well in strange beds, which is good for Sarah.

I awoke on saturday morning to rain. Lots of rain. The lifts don't open until 10 so we decided to go get breakfast and see if it cleared up. We went to Squatters cafe, I have been there in the past and it was good. This time however was a different story, all six of us were extremely disappointed with out meals. I guess Squatters only knows how to do dinner.
The rain never let up so we decided to go down to Salt Lake and try out a new freeride area on I street in the avenues.

Here is Duane, the birthday boy showing how real men do it.



Me riding Johnson's bike.






And finally the shot that ended all the fun.


In this shot I am going way to slow. He who hesitates is lost. Right below my front tire you can see an area that has been dug out, I failed to clear that area with my rear tire and nearly came to a complete and abrupt stop. My chest pounded into the handlebars knocking the wind out of me and I proceded to fall/plummet down the rest of the decline and wad up at the bottom like a rag doll.

The worst of my numerous nagging injuries is the right knee. It was reconstructed back in 02' and has never really been the same. Two of my compatriots had to nearly carry me back to the truck. I hate hurting myself when I do something stupid.

So, writing this nearly a week later my mt bikes are hung up, my left wrist will be another 2 weeks in healing and my knee still hurts in a very special way.
I don't believe there is any permanent damage and oddly enough it stops hurting when I ride my road bike.
I have no plans at this point to ride dirt any time soon but I added another 100 mile roadie to my list of things to do.

Please no comments about how a 36 year old guy should be more careful or maybe your to old, etc. etc. etc. Sarah has already said it all.

ULCER 100 .................and eleven

August 11th was the ULCER (Utah Lake Century Epic Ride)100. It's a quick jaunt around Utah Lake with 2000 of your closest friends.
There are 7-8 rest stops along the way supplying water, gatorade, advil, and sometimes food. At the midway point in the bustling metropolis of Goshen we were served lunch. On the menu; Build your own hogie sandwich. I passed on the sandwiches as in the past I have learned that there are only a few things I can eat while riding...... ham and cheese is not on the list.

This map will give you a good idea of the route going in a clockwise direction. Starting and ending at Thanksgiving Point.

I tried to stay at the front of the pack so I could "sit the wheel" of the fast guys in order to help my time. I could go on and on about the benefits of drafting and how well it works but it's pretty boring unless you ride.
I had a personal goal to finish in under 5 hrs. They bill the ride as 100 miles but as it turns out it's actually 111. For those of you without a calculator, I had to average 22.2mph to pull it off.
I arrived at the finish with 8 guys snappily dressed in matching kits from the well financed Franklin Covey Team and my Garmin reading 4:53 total ride time.


These are a couple shots I ripped from some guy named Phil's blog. Apparently he had time to take photos and didn't mind the extra weight. He says on his blog that it was his lifelong goal to ride a century. Mission accomplished Phil, you are now prepared to die.

I have a few things that I want to bring to your attention;
First, whoever is in charge of the road maintenance in Lindon, Orem and Provo should be fired. The road conditions on the surface streets of those towns is atrocious. It was like riding thru a mine field trying to dodge the pot holes.

Second, recumbent cycles are not cool. Tricycle recumbent bikes are even worse. Somehow one of these uber-dorks found himself in the lead group at the start of the race and proceeded to raise the anger of everyone by being unable to hold a line around a corner. The owner of one of the bike shops in St. George was cut of by the afore mentioned nimrod and went down at 20 mph instigating a 20 bike pileup, which is funny to every one except 21 people.

Third, why would anyone live in Saratoga Springs? And can someone from Happy Valley tell me what is that smell emanating from the lake?


I understand that a few people managed to stretch their finishing time out to 8 hrs. I wonder if they had fun? Self flagellation is not my idea of a good time.
There are two more century rides before the end of the year. One in Moab and the other is here in San Jorge. Both are absolute killers with a lot of climbing. I will let you know how I fare.