Eddie Vedder Translated or something...

This is a hilarious and creative way to finally understand what Eddie's talking about.

http://homepage.mac.com/jeffgarden/ledbetter.swf

24 Hours of Big Bear Part 1

There's lots to say about this one! In a nutshell: MONKEY! Ten Pound Monkeys were a great team, great friends, great course, great weather and a 10th place finish to boot! It was great hanging with the other City Bikes team memebers as well, pitting with A Team With No Name and talking to the folks from U.S. Postal, The Big Meats and Innuendo.



Ezra




Ten Pound Monkies,
originally uploaded by mdonahue.

I'll have time to post some shots via Flickr over the next few days as JB suggests that I take some time off due to a sight shoulder dislocation. (I think that is a good idea).

Off to Big Bear

Heading out to Big Bear today! The weather is insanely nice, although there are predictions of showers in the area near the race. I think they need to come up with a 24 hours of Rock Creek or something.

After a long night of wrenching Jamie's bike, it appears that it's ready. He had a string of bad luck this week regarding the bike, an Intense Tracer. First, his rear shock blew up and stopped holding air, he had to replace that with one from a friend of ours who luckily has the same bike and has since moved up to a Stumpjumper FSR. The shock transplant fit. But no sooner was he back in business then he realized he needed something at the local mall. Pulling into the parking garage he managed to tear the bike, and entire roof rack off of the top of his car. At first glance, the bike seem ok, but upon closer inspection, his fork drop-outs were bent out such that the fork will no longer hold a wheel. Luckily, another friend (me) had the same front fork- collecting dust in my basement which is a rather sad state for a Marzocchi Z1 CR! So he switched that out last night as well, along with pulling and greasing his BB and replacing the cassette, and big rings.

Something tells me some adjusting may need to occur as this bike is new!

The Big Bear time keeping will take place online so check it out live starting at 12:00 noon on Saturday.

Real Time

Time to pack!

24 Hours of Big Bear is coming!

The 24 hours of Big Bear, formerly known as the 24 hours of Snowshoe, is rapidly approaching. The event is next weekend!

We've got a great team this year, the Ten Pound Monkeys. We're in Men's Sport, which seems to be by far the biggest class at the race with 43 teams. It seems like an awefully big class.

This race features a really neat online live update time-keeping system so you can follow each and every team's progress throughout the event, up to the second. Last year's results are still up, and this year will follow the same format. My team last year was "Six Inches of Travel and Then Some."

Time to start getting supplies and equipment together, not to mention food!

We'll be pitting with Team With No Name which should contribute to the festive atmosphere.

Off Road to Athens

Last night I went out to see Off Road to Athens, a film about top level U.S. Mountain bikers and their struggle to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. Without revealing too much, I'll say that it was an emotional look into competitive mountain biking. A truely candid view of the inspiring men and women who compete in the sport.

Amazingly there were many twists and turns to the film (not just regarding the trails). So while it had incredible racing shots, it was not your run of the mill mountain bike flick. It was a lot more interesting including heartbrake, conflict, scandal and more. My wife and a few non-mountain bike friends came along to see it and they came away saying, "that was awesome!" Before seeing it, I was somewhat nervous that they would only be mildly enthused about being dragged to a mountain bike movie at 9:30 on a Thursday night, but all three were impressed with the film and the story it told.

Another neat thing about it was seeing Jeremiah Bishop and Sue Haywood on the big screen. While I certainly don't know these folks personally, I've been at some of the same races and shared a few words with J. Bishop over coffee and bagels before the Shenandoah Mountain 100 for example, so this gave it that local feel, yet bigger and global at the same time. The races these athletes rode in were brutal- Scotland, Austria, Mt. Saint Anne... I'll be picking this up on DVD once it comes out. It's definitely a motivational film with a great story. Props to Jason Berry and Ken Bell for their didication and talent.