TO THE SUMMIT!

Man, what a weekend.

I slept for maybe 5 hours all weekend. And none of it was in my own bed. I think I spent about 80% of the time on my bike. The other twenty percent was spent either getting unintentionally involved in some manner of madness, or eating. It all started WAY too fucking early on Saturday morning. The alarm went off and I got up to drive to the middle-of-nowhere hippytown Connecticut to help Brooksie sell lots and lots of amazing TOTALLY SWEET vegan treats to hippies, yogis, potters, and other weirdos. All in all, a relaxing day in the sun with a giant table of vegan treats in front of me that I couldn't eat.

(The following pictures were taken with an iPHONE. I feel the need to make this disclaimer thanks a certain someone who has given me a complex about not being good enough.)

I found boulders out front of the Boston Children's Museum. Of course we had to stop and say hi.


There are at least 2 semi-quality boulder problems on these things.


I can not do any tricks.


Except for a no-hands trackstand.

Then it was off to meet up with the Geekhouse boys for a night of riding, eating, telling stupid stories and other random adventures. I ended up riding around Boston with Joe until some unholy hour and crashing in his spare bedroom for like 12 minutes until we had to get up to go compete in the George Street Major Taylor event in Worcester.

The view from less than 1/3 way up.

There is really no word to describe how daunting of a task this race is. It's only something like 500ft. A time trial sprint....UP THE MOST RIDICULOUS HILL EVER. An average grade of 18% with the steepest bit (conveniently located at the top of the climb) clocking in at a hellish 24% grade. SHO MY GOD. There were around 150 competitors. Riding on super expensive bikes, three person tandems, BMX bikes, track bikes, touring bikes, and one dude even attacked that hill in a really big crappy wal-mart mountain bike in nothing but sneakers and platform pedals. Due to poor planning, Marty and I shared a GEEKHOUSE bike as well as cleats for our shoes. We swapped out the rear cog and mashed up the hill on a 46-20 gear ratio and I think we did bloody well. Marty beat me by 2 seconds even after taking a nasty spill half way up on his first go because he is an amateur and can't handle the bike he built with his own two hands. Marty's entire family rides, and his dad and younger brother both raced as well. Overall, this event was great fun. And I will definitely return next year to beat my time this year. (Which for the record, I got because of BAD ADVICE from Marty.) I can definitely shave AT LEAST 5 seconds off my time. Anyhow....whatever.

Me just leaving the starting line. Before shit got *difficult*.

Approaching the 28% grade. So steep.

Marty at the starting line.

Ladies and Gentlemen, MARTY WALSH.

Second go, much better. WOOO!

Um. That's really quite a hill.

After that we went back to Marty's parents' house and stuffed our faces with vege-kebabs, boca burgers, veggie dogs, and sprite. Then headed back to Boston for an evening of riding, eating, and movie-going. Turned out amazing. THE HANGOVER is a surprisingly good film. Unless, of course, you're a ritard.

I'm heading to San Francisco for some friends' wedding this weekend, but when I get back there's a lot of cool features coming for THIEVES LIKE US. I have confirmed the interview and video session with GEEKHOUSE, as well as one with OPEN. So those should make for some insightful and mildly entertaining reads/views. So keep checking back on that front. I also have some product reviews coming up...which I will reveal more about later.