We first met Andres and his teamate, Carlos, when we did the inaugural death defying preride of the Fools Gold Endurance Race. The Fools Gold is the wild invention of Endurance Racer Eddie O'dea of 55nine Performance here in Hotlanta. Andres and Carlos were about to fly off to Alberta for the TransRockies Race, so I knew they would be no slouches for the ride. Indeed, they tore up the 50 miles like seasoned pros. Come to find out, they are in the cycling clothing business. It is nice to see people that engage in the sport of their business.
It was like Christmas when we opened the package. Thanks Andres!! I've already worn 2 of the jerseys and they feel great. I love the bright colors, especially for riding on the road. Full zippers, pockets that actually hold stuff and I can reach them, comfortable material, and a cut to fit a female. Why can't everyone figure this out?!
Great work, Zerie USA. Check it out. The quality is great and the prices are even better.
Our other exciting news came when we learned the race results for the Marathon des Sables!
Our friend, Jeff, exceeded his expectations by a landslide and finished in 48th place!!!!!! That's 48 out of 747 racers (850 started), and he was the 2nd top US finisher. Doesn't this picture from the race website make you want to race across the Sahara!?! Amazing! Jeff, we are so proud and thrilled for you! I cannot begin to imagine the emotions and feelings that you are experiencing, not to mention what you went through during your 29 hours of running over 6 days. Mission Possible was a Great Success! Congratulations!!!Our weekend excitement was topped off by a good ole hard ride of quality time that had been eluding us for weeks.
Joined by Robb, Jungle Boy and singlespeed wonderboy, Flatfender, we headed up through the fog to climb the singletrack trails of Rich Mountain.
My last ride here was 4 weeks ago with 30 riders representing our 20 year span of riding. This time it was with 3 of our new riding buddies. It was Flatfender's first time on these legendary trails, and we were happy to be his tour guide. The challenge was to keep up with him! Our only hope was that he did not know the way. sneaky tactic.
The beauty of the mountain biking world is that shredders can ride with non-shredders and we all play together quite well. We ran into Woody, a riding friend from over 15 years back. He and his friend, Chip, joined in the fun. The more the merrier.
Woody is a hoot, and a very talented mountain biker. He was the perfect rider to give Raja a run for his money on the long downhills. Rich Mountain trails are basically long 3 mile climbs with long 2-3 mile downhills. Singletrack, rocky, rooty, technical, steep, everything a nitty gritty mountain biker is looking for in a ride!
For all the climbing you do, there is an equal amount of fun downhilling to reward you. The guys were eating it up. I was hanging on and enjoying the ride!
The climbs were beginning to take their toll, but Flatfender was game for the whole enchilada. It is always so easy to cut the ride short after you climb Stanley Gap and Green Mountain to the lake and back up. I was feeling it, but figured adding Flat Creek wouldn't kill me. I wanted a good whopper ride, and dang it, I was going to get it. Raja waffled, but Flatfender and I prevailed.
Having survived Flat Creek with smiles on our faces, we slowly made our way back up the last climb of Stanley Gap. Flatfender disappeared into thin air. I was stoked to make the long techy sections, but my arms were beginning to fade when it came to the downhill. Guess I need to work on the upper body strength!
It was a hard 3 hrs 40 minutes in the saddle with only 25 miles, but we had 4500' of climbing to show for it. Not shabby at all. Turned out to be a victorious weekend all the way around! Zerie, Zerie good!
See you on the trails! And again, Congratulations, Jeff!!!! You Rock N Roll!
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1 comment:
Looks like a sweet ride. Nice pictures too.
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