Tour de France Time

Google Earth View of part of Stage 16, Wednesday, July 19th

Well, it's that time of the year again. Here are a few links to help get you ready for this year's Tour:
-If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can just click here to view the Tour route in 3D. (You'll probably have to rotate the globe around to France because the intitial view is still centered on the US. Funny.)
-I posted a link to TDF Blog last year. It has all kinds of interesting and unusual Tour-related items.
-ESPN's Cycling News Wire has photos published by the various wire services pretty much as soon as they're available to the public. Usually different than the ones found on cyclingnews.com or Velonews.

Chewie Does the Lumberjack 100

Lumberjack 100

The Lumberjack 100, a 100 mile MTB endurance race was held this past weekend up at the Big M Trail System near Manistee, Michigan.
A couple of our biking friends, Aaron "Chewie" Smith, and Nate Phelps have made the big time, not only finishing 57th and 58th out of 58 finishers, but getting their pictures on cyclingnews.com as well! Great job, especially considering that only 58 out of ~170 starters finished the race.
12 and 1/2 hours in the saddle in 90+ degree heat. Ouch. Oh yeah, Chewie did the whole thing on a fixed gear, and Nate rode a singlespeed.

St. Charles County Parks Mountain Bike Training Class

Eight participants showed up for the first St. Charles County Parks "Inroduction to Mountain Biking" ride. Four GORC elves showed up to help steer the participants around the park. SCC Parks employee Kent "trail shredder" James had a nice introductory level course laid out and everyone survived the the trek. All present seemed to have a pretty good time and I personally hear many saying "I'll be back to do this again next month".

The ride lasted for just over an hour and several folks went out for a few more miles after regrouping at the original start point.

I fully expect this ride to grow in size and when it does, there will be multiple groups going out covering varying skill levels. This is the perfect way to introduce that friend, relative, significant other, kid, stranger or coworker to mountain biking. Its also a great way to help someone who is familiar with riding to step up their skill level. We'll do our best to make sure anyone who shows up doesn't end up seeing something like this...

What:
GORC Mountain Bike Training Class

When:
2nd Wed. of each month, May 10 – Sept.13
6:00 PM–Dusk

Where:
June & July - Quail Ridge Park, Wentzville
August & September - Matson Hill Park, Defiance

Which Line Would You Take?

This is the spot on the trail at Big Bear where Rockboy broke his chain. The picture was taken looking against the flow of the trail. The line over the roots was the original trail, but proved to be a lot trickier than most riders were willing to chance, especially with the damp conditions. There were usually about 10-20 spectators here waiting for the carnage. Once the alternate line wore in, it wasn't quite as interesting.
So, which would you choose; the fast, straight shot over the roots with the risk of your front tire sliding and running you into one of the trees, or the safer, wider one which forced you to slow down?

Tilly the next generation

Ok, here she is. We got her from Gods Creatures. An anti-death adoption agency in SPFLD MO. She is approximately 12 weeks old now. Obnoxious! And wakes up at 5:30am leaping onto the bed and playing with your toes. She is the newest addition to the Adams's family and already pi$$ing off the Mandster. Anyway, she is helping fill the hole that Harriette made when she left us. RIP little Harriette and watch us down here going through the hell of kittenhood. Steph

Greensfelder Trail Elf

For those of you wondering who Kent, the Greensfelder Trail Elf is, here's a picture of him doing what he does best. Next time you see him, please thank him, a non-GORC member, for all the hard work he puts in at our workdays. Ok, well, maybe not hard work.
Don't worry if you see him wandering around in the woods talking to himself. That happens all the time. He's really ok.

Snap the flowers

Because sometimes it's worth stopping. Here's an article from MDC full of tips on taking pictures of wildflowers. I don't know when it was written but it seems a little dated -- there is no mention of digital, but photography is still photography, just quicker now. There's good info on lighting, improvised diffusers and reflectors, flash, composition, etc. If you're not comfortable controlling aperture and depth of field you might want to read up on that too. But past the basics, the real key seems to be having a good eye for photos, or just bring Frank with you like GORC in Colorado last year. Many of the modern small digital cameras have great macro focusing and some of them even have the controls to get really experimental. Then when you get back on the bikes you can use the same camera to shoot videos of your friends dropping off ledges. Or mount it to your handlebar for videos that would make you sick. This modern world...

Bridge to Nowhere

It made me sad to see this construction out on the Grotpeter Trail at Castlewood.
I thought about how many lunches the materials used for it might buy for workdays spent repairing and maintaining the deteriorating trails there.
It seems like it would be more useful to teach how to build sustainable trails, or reroute around problem areas, rather than attempting band-aid projects such as this.