Resurrection

Alright I guess I'll be the one to breath some life back into this blog. Hopefully with the race season in full swing starting this weekend some new and interesting blogs will pop up on a semi regular basis. Maybe we'll get a post from this guy who has a thing for bunnies. 

more carolina crap!

woooooooo!

I know the masses are simply jumping out of their seats waiting for this update, so I am half-
assing it!

We do half tons of photographic evidence of racing, but I do not have the ever so elusive cord necessary to connect my fancy pants camera to my comp-u-tron 5000.

Any hoo, here is a race report:

XC was started at the ungodly hour of 8 am. It was cold, and miserable. Luckily, there was a comfy hill next to the feed zone where napping was more than possible. Scott and Menso were Cuh-rushing it. As it is already known, Leland finished 17th, and menso 10th. Cal cycling as well as Stanford was racing, but since they chose not stay with the rest of the WCCC we did not care about them. All I do know is natish fell onto his grill, causing sever head trauma. Well that’s what he will tell you anyway, in actuality he bruised his cheeks a little, and had his head wrapped up like he was injured in the civil war.

The DH was a slip and slide at best. The first day, (Thursday to you not on vacation) the course was rather dry and hella fun. All that crap those north Carolinians said about gnarr was BS. It was 90% fast while the other 90% was technical. It was a blast. Friday was such $h!t show, that they canceled are seating runs, and created a start order from everyone’s norba rankings; IE, pros went first, then semi, then expert, then sport.... blah blah blah. We wanted to put LMC Cycling into a head lock. So we did what any freedom loving American would have done, we returned to our condo. The riders meeting we attended Friday evening was supposed to help the riders figure out ways to practice Saturday morning, but instead, shuttling was banned, and the lift was not going to be turned on until racing was to begin. Since we are crafty Nevadans, we hiked our lazy asses up the hill and rode the course, even with the threats of being banished from the race. Come race time, the mud was thicker than peanut butter, and made a relatively easy section of the course the most difficult, while the technical sections over rocks were the easiest. Cody was our top finishing DH rider, with a 36th place, while I received a disrespectable 39th, and miles 40th. For the record, I beat miles by 8 seconds. The fact that he could not pedal is null and void. My race run was awesome until about a 1/8th of the way down the course, where is shot over a catcher burm (or berm) and the end of a steep shoot and smashed into spectators. It’s a good thing I sell cross bikes, because what proceeded next was the raddest mount in the middle of a rock garden. Ever. After said incident, I managed to smash into multiple trees, and do terrible, but all was not lost because I smashed those people. Style points for sure. As said earlier, miles had issues with his drive chain and had to jump off and yank on his chain to get back into gear, only for it to slip off upon the next pedal stroke. Cody rocked the skin suit, but it was totally cursed, and he crashed all over the place too. Not good. He was also the only member of the team to beat all the girls, as Jed was so kind to point out to us via text message.

Short track was a war. Leland was lacking in the traction department, as he chose not to run his new mud tires...zee speed kings. The mud was so thick, and Leland so strong, that he was spinning out while trying to pedal down the hill. The Arnold voice was simply to over powering for him, as we screamed in our best Arnold and or hanns voice every time he passed. Because the field was so large, and the traction was so shotty, Scotty 2 Hotty was pulled about half way through the race, meaning all that Nevada had left to do was laugh at the other clowns who were suffering the wrath of the short track. And it was good.

Slalom. Yet another junk show. People in college are supposed to be smart, yet for some reason they did not put ribbon up at the finish area, making it difficult for riders to see which side to cross. Luckily, though, they only screwed the first 25 riders before realizing the ribbon was necessary. This led to the angriest people from Colorado any human being has ever seen. With the threats of violence, LMC was forced to let the first 25 of us go again. This was extremely lucky for me, because I kept my theme of smashing into hay bails very much alive. Cody, I, and miles each re ran our runs, but we were just out of the qualifying bracket tenths of a second. I finished 34th (in the nation), Cody 35th (in the nation), and miles received another 40th (which makes him 80th in the nation). We stuck around to watch some of the racing, but we were all so beat, and the crowd was too serious for good cheering. Only one tool with a megaphone and inside jokes was making noise.


Over all, it twas a wonderful experience, and we had a pretty good time. Only one window was broken, and it wasn’t our fault. The police were also completely avoided, as the masters of disguises were present. They are probably still looking for that jerk with the glasses and the mooostash. Regardless of the poopy racing on the gravity side, we are stoked the Scott crushed it in the XC, and look forward to next year.

- Edward Joseph McDonald

Scotty 2 Hotty will be providing the photographic as well as videotronic evidence of our presence in the southeast, the land of camoflauged busch beers, nascar, and elkaholics.

and here it is!

Eddie crushing the DH

Miles Cruising the DH sans chain

Miles in the DS on the DH rig

Eddie in the DS

Cody Smith Dh run

Cody Smith DS

North Carolina – The slightly thinner and health conscious of the Carolinas.

 

Our plane touched down in Raleigh without incident, which, as the OC will tell you, is highly unlikely. As the OC explained amidst rows of nervous passengers most planes crash on take-off, landing or while just flying along for no reason at all. Keep in mind that Cody normally speaks at a decibel level usually reserved for warning someone of a falling piano.  We discussed at length the many different ways our flight could end in a smoldering, crispy mess. My favorite though was the extremely high odds of our plane being cut in half by another plane immediately before landing.

I did a short stretch of time in North Carolina back in the mid 90’s.  Eddie, at this time, was probably still running around with a sippy cup although I suspect that sippy cup contained a mixture of whiskey, cough syrup and Benadryl. We come to NC to wage battle. We are few but we are mighty. Let me introduce you all to the players.

Eddie McDonald – Eddie is a 20-year-old English major with the liver of a 65-year-old long shoreman.  He hails from the pleasant rolling hills of Marin County. There is nothing pleasant about Eddie though. Behind that boyish smile and those black-framed glasses is a deeply disturbed human being. More often than not Eddie awakens in the middle of the night to find himself not inhis bed but naked in the Red Rock petting zoo surrounded by feinting goats. Eddie claims this is because of a rare seizure disorder but I have my suspicions. Eddie will compete in the DH and dual slalom this weekend and will represent Nevada Cycling well.

 

Cody Smith – Often referred to as the OC, Cody actually was a long shoreman from New Hampshire. Before joining the Nevada Cycling team Cody bounced up and down the eastern seaboard looking for dock work and making ends meet by cleaning up in bare-knuckle boxing matches. He met a woman though and is now earning his bachelors degree in hydrogeology at the university. Cody brings to the team serious DH experience and a Boston accent which makes people move the f$ck out of the way when lining up.

 

Miles Kreidle – Miles is fairly new to the team but raised some serious eyebrows with a commanding DH performance at Parkfield. Not much is known about Miles and maybe that is for the best. This much is known though – he can rip and that’s good enough for me. Until we learn more about Miles though he will be renting his own condo or, at the most, sleeping on the porch of our condo. He can’t be trusted.

 

Scott Leland – What can be said that hasn’t already been said on countless forums, magazines and websites.  Scott has returned to UNR to earn a master’s degree as a Nurse Practitioner. Scott will represent the endurance division of the juggernaut UNR cycling team. A little known fact about Scott is that he once won Collegiate National Mountain Bike championships. Well, not won outright in the sense that he came in first, but in the sense that we were all winners that day.On this trip Scott brings to the team a key component needed for our fiscally challenged team– the all important senior citizen discount.

 

Stay tuned for more updates from Banner Elk NC

Here is the clothing availability for the 08-09 season. Thanks to Marian for getting that all done. 

Size	X-Small	Small	Medium	Large	XL	2XL	Price
Men’s SS Jersey	0	3	6	8	4	0	$60
Women’s SS Jersey	0	2	4	2	0	0	$60
Men’s bib	0	3	7	9	1	0	$60
Women’s shorts	0	2	2	2	0	0	$55
Free ride jersey	0	0	1	5	1	0	$55

New Nevada Cycling blog

Welcome to the new Nevada Cycling blog! The aim of this blog is to provide a communication tool for members of the UNR Cycling Team that is easier to update than the website. The website will remain as a fixed site representing the team but as we all know updating the site can be challenging. The blog will be a place where photos can be uploaded, news can be disseminated, riders can post rides, and will serve as a place where race reports can be viewed. 

        I am still setting up the blog so it will be changing from time to time.  I plan on posting some updates  while we are at nationals so everyone can see what is going on out there. I think it is set up right now so that anyone can comment on the posts. I would like some feedback as to whether or not you all think we should open the blog up to public authoring or should we just have a few authors? Let me know what you think. Gabe seem excited about it.  

Parkfield race report

I'm sure all this weekend's participants at Parkfield are recovering, catching up on homework, and cleaning their bikes for next weekend, so I'll jump in and write up a race report. I tagged along with Scott L. this weekend to cheer for the team and enjoy the Parkfield festivities with the OC, Gabe, Miles, Jake, Blake, and Eddie.

After receiving a mere 5/100ths of an inch of rain

 on Friday night and Saturday morning Jake and Scott awoke for their 8am XC race time to find clump factor 4 clay mud. Not impassable, but definitely not enjoyable mud. It was still drizzling and chilly at the start of the race as they lined up with a mix of about 25-30 Pro's semi pros and collegiate A riders. Jake had an unlucky start as his chain snapped right at the gun. He managed to fix it quickly, but still got to the hike-a-bike section about one-two minutes after the main group. He definitely had a lot of work to do to catch up.

About two hours later, Scott came through the finish and lost a final sprint to a Humboldt rider for the last spot on the podium. "What? SCOTT LOST a sprint finish, and didn't even make the podium?" I'm sure you're asking yourself. After fighting back and forth w/ Menso from SLO for the lead for the majority of the race, the mud finally caked up enough on his bike that he was forced to stop and dig it all out with a stick. Menso go

t away clean with an ideal set-up for the mu

ddy conditions, but Scott quickly fell back into seventh. He managed to fight his way back to fourth, and looked as he passed me that he was going to edge Humboldt out for third, but his derailleur had already called it quits and wouldn't allow him to shift down for the final sprint. Jake valiantly fought his way back and managed to finish around 10th place (?)

The sky cleared up and the sun came out, and the entire crew got ready to compete in the DS. SLO had revamped the course from previous years from turn, turn, smash to turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, finish. The crowd was as rowdy as ever, complete with a gong if you crashed, although the event definitely dragged on longer than it needed to. All the UNR riders qualified, and nobody got gonged. Unfortunately, nobody except Cody advanced to the second round after having to go head to head with Miles. Then he decided to take a time o

ut during the race and crashed on the first turn where we were all cheering for him.
   

                                                                                                            Although nobody podiumed for the day, we all headed down to the awards ceremony and raffle. Nevada didn't have the best luck at the raffle, other than all the crap that kept getting thrown at Eddie, the 

rowdiest one in the crowd, in an effort to shut him up. The shirts, hats and waterbottles weren't doing it though, so finally they let him draw a ticket.

 The Nevada vibes pulled Eddies hand down to the very bottom of the hat, where, lo-and-behold, he p

ulled up Gabe's ticket, so Gabe was able to walk away w/ some new sh*t.

The Pixie races got a late start, but Gabe and Eddie stepped it up for Nevada, and did a few laps for the team.

No resting allowed for the endurance guys on Sunday the STXC started at 8am. Again, Jake and Leland lined up w/ the Men's As for the first race of the morning, and again, Jake had a lousy start and hit the dirt on one of the first turns. He managed to fight his way back up a few spots before the super fast started to overtake the rear of the field and the officials pulled them. This left only Scott in the race for UNR--but man did he represent. He threw down an attack in the third or fourth lap that neither Menso or Nitish could respond to. Nitish later told Scott that it "broke him in half". He managed to put 10 seconds into Menso in one lap, and his lead only grew, as did the expression of suffering on everyone's faces for the next 20 minutes. Scott held them off and finished for the WIN.

He then switched shoes with Cody and passed his bike off for the Men's B race. After a few laps, Cody was in a solid second, but his seat was slowly slipping, down, down. He had to jump off, and readjust, and lost quite a few spots. He hung in there, despite a bee nest on the course that was throwing in some stings here and there as riders raced through their swarm. Scott managed to distract some of the bees, and was stung six times on the sidelines, but Cody still finished w/ a few stings on his calves.

The weekend finished with the DH race, and Cody, Miles, Scott and Blake all raced with the A's and Gabe was forced to do B's because of his license. I watched at the last chute at the bottom of the course, where all the worst wreckage seems to occur, luckily, everybody from UNR cleaned the entire course. Miles came flying through the last stretch, and the crowd uttered a collective "wow." He seemed to me to disappear more quickly through the trees toward the finish than anyone else who had come through so far. The results definitely proved his speed, and he pulled in FIRST PLACE in Men's A downhill. Huge accomplishment at Parkfield!! Great Job Miles!!!

And great job to all who raced this weekend! The team definitely pulled off some impressive results at what is usually the largest race of the year. Can't wait to see the pictures!!

 

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