Hot Chicks & Ugly Friends (Single Track Style)

I debated where and what to ride tonight after work. Possible slick single track at Boyce or do a road/rail trail ride closer to home. I chose single track. I'm not sure why, but I could NOT get a good flow on. Was it the Cross Mark's sketchyness on the tacky but sometimes slick Boyce dirt? Was it the trails that seemed to be being eaten alive by summer vegetation? Was it the fat man's fart humidity that was so intense that if you slowed down too much your glasses would fog? Was it the poor rear shifting I was having for the first 3 miles? I have NO idea! But for the few miles I felt like nervous novice out for his first mountain bike ride. Not good.

Luckily most of that went away, and my "flow" got a LITTLE better, but it was not the best ride I ever had. It was kinda like try to score with a hot chick at a bar, but not being able to ditch her ugly friend. Every time I thought I was about to "score" with the single track, the ugly friend would return in the form of something like this...

or this...

Yeah, that stuff isn't really SUPPOSED to be there. THAT is what happens at Boyce after a thunderstorm (which we got last night). Scoring was tough, the ugly friend, was extremely hard to ditch AND was more than a tad bit obnoxious.

I did find SOME flow out there tonight, and if we really wanted to keep this hot girl/ugly friend metaphor going I could say that while I didn't exactly "score", I did get her drunk enough to make out with her a bit and get her number. Not sure if I'll call her back though. She was OK, but a bit psycho and I have to say I REALLY don't want to see her ugly friend again. Bitch.

The supportive parking lot road graffiti/suburban teen angst
got me motivated and up a pavement climb to more single track.
And sort of made me giggle.

All kidding aside I did get to ride for nearly 2 hours (1:50) and got over 15 miles in, and while I didn't have the greatest ride and had to do some bush whacking, I've had much worse. I got my shifting going with some on the fly barrel adjustments, the new wheels were snappy as expected, and I got used to the Cross Marks not being able to dig into some of the slick clay turns. At least I got to work my core a ton to keep the bike upright! The Maxxis Crossmarks are freaking HELLISHLY fast. If it had been 100% dry tonight thy would have been the titz, but I found myself longing for my stand by tire- the IRD/Panaracer Fire Pro.

I'm off work tomorrow, but not sure if I'll get any riding in. I'm supposed to be getting a dishwasher, but I've yet to hear from the folks. Plus I have a ton of other stuff to do, including cleaning two bikes and prepping the Dos Niner for some hours on the mountain on Saturday.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from this year's Tour:

"Don't step on my dog, or
I’ll cut your head off.”
- Cadel Evans

Cadel would later slip, fall, and hurt his knee while pounding Foster's oil cans and vegemite sandwhiches at a post Tour party. His dog could not be reached for comment, but was heard to be heard asking Cadel's Belgie body guard "Who can it beeee now??"

Later.