2 Epic

Remember this? 

Turns out it was a hoax.  Seeing how we were woo’d into the team and when finalized it was shouted from every rooftop, it seems appropriate to set the record straight on why/how this actually fell apart. Having a press release produced by a PR professional at WBR in March and published by every major cycling publication that was clearly a lie, is embarrasing to us now on a deep level. We pride honesty and integrity and are gutted to be mixed up in the opposite. The wool was pulled over our eyes by an attractive song and dance we bent over for.

After a wonderful weekend on the Kaibab Plateau we came home to an email from Brendan owner of Siren Bicycles that said simply he was having a hard time building us bikes and wanted to discuss.  This was no surprise – since joining the team we’ve had nothing but empty promises.  We rolled with it cause we really believe in what Brendan is trying to accomplish with his company – and his bikes are a super ride.

Still, that email was oddly worded.  A quick search of his blog revealed that he had deleted the March press release post that announced us as additions to the team.  A short while later he called Lynda.  He had no intention of discussing anything – he was calling to fire us.

And that’s pretty much what he did and dumping a ton of negativity in the process.  The latter was completely uncalled for and it makes us both sad.  We can understand a lack of finances in this economy but we can’t understand the lack of class and grace Brendan fired us with. It’s pretty clear to us that he’s overextended himself with the team commitments, times are tight, and he could have just said so and left it at that.  And, if it actually was more than that?  He knew exactly what he was getting:  he’s been in my garage (!), has seen our bikes, ridden with us, supported us at races, worked with us on multiple levels, read our blog etc etc. He recruited us in the first place. We did not go to him.

Sad and baffled, and this bridge has been torched.

The silver lining is the reaffirmation of previous notions of sponsorship.  Years ago I made a concious decision not to pursue sponsorship no matter the level of my riding.  As a working professional, I like to be paid for my time – and I presume others feel the same.  I do not feel “entitled” to free stuff, and frankly it makes me a litte uncomfortable to receive free stuff.  Is anything actually free?  If you buy it there are no hidden costs.  Know what I mean?

Lessons learned:

- Ladies get no respect in the bicycle industry, regardless of ability level.

- If you have to buy your team kit you haven’t really joined a team.

- and drum roll please….buy your own stuff!

At the end of the day it’s actually a big relief.  The press releases followed by the suprise $575 kit charge to us never settled well…we we’re “on hold” for months waiting for bikes. We finally took matters into our own hands with the Milk Moneys, and to be honest the Milk Money’s are far better suited to our pursuits than what Siren is able to produce right now.

We’ve been getting a lot of emails asking how the trails are holding up to the relentless round of storms rolling through.  If the camp was this weekend we’d be in trouble – next weekend it would likely be good to go based on the 7 day forecast (sunny and 50’s).

Yesterday we even ran into muck on Prospector trail (just north of Church Rocks).  That opened the door for riding the Bracken’s loop, a trail that I never considered would be rideable.  OK it wasn’t for the most part, but lots of it was frozen sand full of deep horse prints.  Fun in a bizarre way…and killer scenery. 

 The bottom line is we just don’t know what conditions will be like in a month.  They can improve – or deteriorate – quickly around here.  A week of good weather and everything under 4k’ will likely be good to go.  We will call it the week before the camp.  What we really don’t want is to invite y’all here from all over the country and then ask you not to ride vulnerable trails when you get here. 

Rant: The trails are kinda rideable when they are wet with a lot of slipping around and churning up the clay and dirt. This kind of riding is fun once in a while but trashes the trail, sometimes beyond repair. It is super tiresome to hear out of town folks say “I drove 400 miles to be here so I was gonna ride…” Then they go home with a mucky bike and we are left with crappy trails. That is so common. We do stay off the trails when they are mucky. We are riding the road today.

CL v1.0 vets will recall the windy Blakes climb of day 2.  I’d estimate 2+ feet of snow up there right now.  (!)  We won’t be riding Blakes, or Jem, or Gooseberry – those areas all got pretty hammered.  Still a lot of options if the weather cooperates.  Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas to all

We are enjoying a desert Christmas here in St George like no other before…

We still have angels this Christmas

Come visit but leave your mountain bikes at home.

Old man winter is rearing his head in St George. We don’t see him often here.

Big icicles on the moto.

Neighbours rallying and salting up the sidewalks

Busting out the puffy. It is actually snowing in this pic. Little tiny flakes floating around.

We have 2 more days of snow in the forecast! This storm will leave a mark.

Boys came to town with their colorful ponies

For some Jem action

and blue skies

3 GDR finishers (1 former record holder, one last year), 2 Alaskan smitten enduros, 1 stand-up comedian, lots of big wheels with big travel.

The riding was fun, the weather to die for.

But we didn’t.

Then it was dinnertime.  After the initial food bonk wore off the stories began to roll.  MC, while doing his best to recruit LW and DH for some Alaskan adventure once again solidified our outright horror at the thought of doing the stuff he goes up there for. 

But it was educational.  There is a difference between -40F and -47F.  At -50F you can toss a pan of boiling water straight up in the air and be pelted with falling ice cubes.  Bicycle tubes blow their seams at somewhere around -55F and bring on 40 mile forced marches (with double flats) for 17 hour nights (and it is still -55F to -65F OMG).

Twinkling gleam in the eye notwithstanding, MC needs to work on his recruiting line a bit more.

We did it. We finished Trans Rockies on single speeds. Wow that was hard! We even pulled off a second place on stage 4 and a third place in the GC at the end of the week.

Now we are tired…

 More later.

and vote for Chad