Arrowhead 135
Sunday
The day started bright and early at 3:00am. I drove up to Grand Forks to meet up with fellow Arrowheaders Pat White and Jim Grijalva, and our Director Sportif, Rick Mangan. We got all loaded up and headed off to International Falls, MN for the 9:00am gear check.
The Team Brown Bear Global Cooling Project sticker was already working : )
We headed into the hotel and found race organizers, Pierre and Cheryl Ostor. As well as the dreaded "gear nazi" Don Clark : ) Pat and Jim were pretty nervous about going through the gear check. I kept telling them that Don doesn't bite : ) He's just there to make sure we're all safe. We all passed the gear check with no problems. The rest of the morning was spent checking out all the cool bikes and gear that everyone had until the pre-race meeting. Lots of great ideas for next year.
After the meeting we checked into our room and started to get our bikes all packed up for the morning.
That's all for today. I'll recap the race tomorrow.
10 comments:
Looks like the bikes got some frostbite on the drive down.
:)
YER ALIVE!!!!
awsome job doode!!
Man I think cleaning the Pugs from the drive was a race in and of itself. How much did the "other" bikes wish they had Endomorphs on?
Nice work Dave. Can't wait to read about it.
Chris,
Jim's bike was "wavering" in the rear end about 1' side to side for every 4' forward after the county store. He had 2.3 on the back, and approx 23 lbs of gear on the back of the Cdale. The trail had halved itself at that point for rideable width. Endomorphs for him next year. I had IRC 2.5's on the fixed 8000 and didn't have Jim's problem, but having the frame bag to distribute the weight (approx 28lbs) I was carrying definitely helped the bikes handling. Endo's would have been nice, but Charlie Farrow proved that a 29er with WTB's and a great mindset can finish the course strong.
you da man simmons, you da man!!
ps-how you like my blogger id pic? pertty cool, no pun intended.
Very nice picture Dave. Sorry I made it home okay. You could've used those Surly parts :)
Yeah, I hate to say it Dave, but, I much as I would have liked those Surly parts....I would much rather have you(not in a homosexual way mind you) alive and well, and be able to join you on many a future gravel grinder, and whatever other kinda bike rides/races come up. To all you cats that raced...IMPRESSIVE!
Dave -- It was good hanging out with you at the Arrowhead. I liked your story, but you forgot to mention how Pat and I pulled over to let you pass so that your confidence wouldn't be shaken by being beat by guys twice your age. Pat was right about my 2.25s dancing on the trail, but he neglected to note it was his recommendation to switch out the 2.5s. At any rate, I think it will work out better next year; after the race Pat apparently spent some time running around with my wife, because she showed up at the house with a new Pug frame today. And it's got a custom really cool purple color. I can feel Pramann and Gray quaking in their boots already...
Congrats on the new Pugs frame! I know I'm quaking in my boots now. I'll never catch you guys next year. Are you and Pat going to start blogs? I think you should start one that follows the progress of your Pugley bike build. How's your nose? I'm coming up to GF on Saturday and was thinking of doing a trail ride Saturday night. Let me know if your interested.
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