The Bonebell

The European National Championships for road racing are almost all occuring in the weeks leading up to the Tour de France. Most of these riders are holding onto the best legs they will have all year for these home races. It was almost a forgone conclusion this year that Sylvain Chavannel, of the Belgian Quick Step team, would win the French National Time Trial race. But there are always other plans. The race was won by Jean-Cristophe Peraud. You may remember him from such hits as the Olympic Mtb race in Beijing, silver medal. Jean-Christophe is a dirtbiker, and he put the wood to the best riders in France on a tight technical course. In true dirtbag style, he admits he is not looking for a pro contract, he just wants to go back the trails. He just wanted to take the boys to the wood shed, then leave them there to figure everything else out on their own. Everywhere you go it seems to me the same story: Roadies, super powerful, hard time when the really twisty stuff shows up. Mountain Bikers, twisty, hell yeah give me more. It’s like the comparison of the muscle cars to the German sports cars. The Bone Bell tolls when dirtbikers like Jean-Christophe, can take it to the streets and beat the road dogs at their own game. Here’s to another dirtbiker gobbling up pavement and leaving nothing but gravel in his wake.

No Shite
On my flight back from San Francisco, I inadvertently left a newspaper, and my trusty ‘Economist’ magazine at the check-in counter. Drat. It did, however, provide me the motivation to spend $21 on bicycling magazines such as Mountain Bike, Professional Cycle Sport, and Bike. Two of the rags are British, so they had a higher price tag, that and airline pricing. Professional Cycle Sport was definitely a vain attempt to want to know about roadie specific stories, but sadly, was the most uninteresting cycling magazine I had ever picked up. I’ll have to give that one away to someone who cares. The other two - were also sadly disappointing in breadth and even originality. I know this blog ain’t no literary feat of wonder, but I’d certainly hope to convey more spirit of MTB than the bad attempts of inciting why MTB still rules - or - is it dying type of banter. More to come below…

Tommy Bolin on My Mind
Tommy Bolin is the man - ‘San Francisco River’ - look it up and thank me later. San Fran was a welcome and much needed vacation for the wifey and I. I mean it was simply perfect. We ate and drank our way through Frisco - and we even relished on a tandem ride that got my wifey giggly cruising 30mph down a descent to Sausalito. Or was it the wine? No matter - the trip was great, and I saw so many happy MTBers in the bay area. Haulin’ ass mind you - on their ‘ride’ to the trailheads to John Muir National Forest. One of them was so kind to give my wife and I a push as we scaled one of the switchback climbs (we pedaled all the way up baby!) - he was riding a solid $5K rig and by his wiry but strong complexion looked to be a natural pro rider. We said our pleasantries and he pedaled off into the effortless blue yonder. I ran into him again in Sausalito and eventually listened to some chatty insight on his riding philosophy. “Ride because you want to reconnect with your surroundings”. He was on mile 60 of a 100 mile epic he started earlier in the day - on his full suspension rig. Its one thing to believe it yourself, its happily another to be reminded that that is probably the reason why Chicagoans suffer in silent misery waiting to become one with the trails - when the trails won’t have us. Not yet at least, and we patiently await them.

Racing is for Roadies
Now why the hell is this news in all the rags this month (including Dirt Rag - however - a much more insightful article from a USA Cycling perspective)? The entire history of MTB racing is ingrained from the US scene, but fell flat, literally, against the European status quo of racing. That European element elevated the MTB scene into a pseudo road racing atmosphere that was then dominated by the UCI regulations that didn’t recognize the US counterparts that started MTB racing in the first place. This wasn’t a bad thing - but somehow, the race became more important than the activity - and that is where I agree sentiments sour about the MTB scene. Sometimes riding your bike in the most epic areas, doing an epic ride, is the reason to grab a bike and escape. Epic cannot be captured in a 20 mile race in a 5 mile loop. Fun, of course, Fast, hell yeah. But it shouldn’t epitomize MTB. Much the same that downhill experts and freeride freaks o’ fun don’t define the knobby tired crowd either. Perhaps the smaller rags listen very carefully (for years) to their readers - its definitely about the ride and the exploration of new trails. Poaching trails is theoretically bad, yes, but exploring them to see what is possible to introduce to whole new audience is a legitimate exploratory activity, I think. How do we know what we are capable of riding, if we can’t explore what’s out there. Those are the most awesome epic rides we dare to tell the tale of - the ones where we found something to bring back to others to try - and hopefully even legitimize. Good luck to you explorers!

If you can’t afford a car - that’s okay - get a bike.

Pulled In Another Direction

Some rides happen, some do not. Forces sometimes act upon us and what started as a great day for a ride, has become something else.  P.I.A.D. is not being P.O.’D about the change of plans. Things happen, the car needs new brakes, cause you drove close to 10,000 miles farther than you should have. Or you forgot to burn off all the gas in your snowblower and you need it to start next December, cause shoveling sucks, so we sit on the porch and drink beer while it just sits in the corner and screams it’s 2 cycle lament for snow. Don’t worry kids tomorrow is a new day, and maybe that day will bring a new direction, one that points towards a bike path of some sort.

Stiggity - It is a morning ritual. Coffee, sip, open eyes, then go to the cyclingnews.com. As of Tuesday I am completely thrown out of wack. My mornings and the rest of the day are disjointed. Cyclingnews.com has morphed into a high tech shitty version of it’s former self right before my very eyes. Gone, is the ability to quickly navigate to a place where anything makes sense. What makes sense is the old version, quick, painless, infiinitely useful.  New site, slow, head scratching and infinitely confusing. And even worse the two disciplines that matter most to cycling…Cross, and MTB, are now second class citzens. Where they once shared an equal stage, it appears the roadies have taken over the site. And in doing so, tried to shove a dirty shorts chamois in our collective faces for fun. I was a habitually offender of surfing cyclingnews.com and now I fear that relationship has come to an end. This may turn out okay yet, now, there is more time for things like the dude, work, and RIDING.

I think we’ll sell some t-shirts that just specify that thought - alone on the front. Its unequivocally true - knobbies are sexier. I’ll have to put more serious thought into that to make it happen. It definitely gets your attention.

Making Things Happen
So - what ‘is’ happening?. Final iteration of a soon to be published site. Its the ‘hey guys do you like what we did and do you have your final comments in’ from our site designing friends. In the meantime, we’ve been making things happen, on our schedule, all the while silently involved in all these mini-endeavors trying to make them all tie in to the big picture. El Maya has been avoiding road racing like the plague, and the pavement is beginning to drive him insane. Nevada Dave misses the woods so much, he is choosing to walk the earth instead of running his knobbies bare on the road. Stigs has now done two road races - bringing the Bonebell road racing lifetime tally of all 3 of us to about 8? That sounds about right.

Rain
Enough said - El Maya is escaping for a one week trip to San Francisco starting Wednesday morning. Even if it rains in San Francisco, I won’t care - I’ll be putting the legs up and appreciating life. If its still raining when I get back, then we’ll have to officially start CX season sooner than anticipated.

Blues Continued…
Nevada Dave and I recently went on a walking journey - late in the evening, talking about life, ambitions, friendships, family, and dirt biking. We ended up in front of Roscoe Village Bikes. We were happy to see that there was a City of Chicago (4 Stars Bike) bike in the window. Civic pride was nice to feel - perhaps the friendly reminder that despite the rain, the crappy weather periods, its still Chicago and perhaps the dirt you have to appreciate is the one caught on the fenders from the rainy days. It also was a great evening to talk about music….lest we forget the thing that drives our flow in the forest, is derived from the sweet sound of music in our heads. Its Bluesfest time - and though I personally prefer my blues, whiskey soaked at 2AM in a bar, I’ll give you some Boom Boom for your workday tribulations.

It’s no secret that I am a fan of the ‘meat snack’. Jerky, stick, link…Whatever, I have a hard time telling a difference between some meat snacks and candy. My parents were in town to watch the Red Wings house the Penguins, and get their grandparent fix on seeing the dude.  We were at my brothers in Lakeview, he had just returned from a trip to the burbs and a ninety three year old wild game butcher shop, Czimer’s, in Homer Glen. They pretty much have every animal you would dare eat, and some you would not. He brought back a selection of Elk, Bison, Venison, Cajun Wild Boar, and Lion. The wild boar was the worst flavor and the lion was a curious treat that got better with every bite. Not a lot of bites to go round though, the legal lion meat trade is slim pickin’s. So with the King of the Jungle coursing through my veins I went looking for a few gazelles to chase down. A rather large herd was spotted in Winfield, so I loaded up the derka derka van and went hunting. On the way I dropped Papa Stiggs off at the Prairie Path and he rode his bike out to the race to maybe circle the gazelles and corral them in to the feed zone. I think the lion meat did the trick, the legs were spinning well and the short climb on the course was only done once standing up. Going into two laps to go I took the lead up the hill and eased into a lung searing pace not to get away, but just to shake the tree and see some of the blood in the back of my eyes. Heading in to the next corner at above 30mph I completely overshot the corner and ended up testing my cross skills while careening through a garden just praying my wheels wouldn’t explode on me. A horrible feeling for me as I spent the first part of the race thinking how badly the roadies corner. There was no getting back on to the field at that point I had brought the pace up to over 30 and the rest of the peleton went by me at probably 20mph plus whatever I was doing. That was the end of my race, but Morrissey held strong for a 2nd place and Seegs pulled in for a top ten. Nothing like the big cat meat to make you want to go ride in a pack and attack when they get distracted.

Tuesday - I forget my shoes.
Wednesday - I forget my belt.
Today - I forgot my wallet.

I was set to write up a blues song to myself - and then I caught the real blues. Mama Sweetheart - Koko Taylor passed on to the company of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and all those before her who helped shaped my love of Chicago.

Today Koko - you are on my radio all day. Today, I most certainly got the blues….

Haymarket, Jun 2, 2009, originally uploaded by The Bonebell.

The ride to work was fair - wet, but fair. Didn’t feel like a complete 2 hour ride before the office, so I opted for a fast low gear spin to Northerly Island to do a couple of laps of the same. I was pretty wet and mudtastic thanks to all the crud from the beach and lakefront on the path.

I was all good til I hit the gym to change.

I’m now in spiffy business attire - and wet, smelly, MTB shoes.

I rock.

{Photo Credit: Britanny Nigh}

This past weekend, El Maya took on the 6 Hour Solo challenge at WEMS #2 at Northern Kettles. It was a very sweet trail - newly laid out and a 1st to see an entire race focused pretty much entirely on singletrack. This definitely required a lot of focus as the room for error was exponentially increased with lap rider traffic and the weather which decided to serve up the best and worst of mountain biking all in one day.

The day started out grand - dry, but pretty loose trails, but a nice swoopy fast paced singletrack experience. By mid-afternoon, the same course turned into a muddy hellacious mess that added 5 pounds easily to everyones bikes and made traction impossible. The late afternoon brought the wind and sun back and a wonderfully tacky trail to re-explore. Only in the midwest can you expect to ride the same trails with different weather conditions in one day and get a different feel each time - not to mention a test of your technical ability to adapt quickly. It was my first race of the year and I was pretty damn grateful to have survived it and place exactly where I expected to place. I managed to get a Top 10 spot - however - officially, I finished 11th. I have to thank Julie Popper for reminding me that when I finish the lap to go check in my number to ensure my lap is counted. I should’ve stopped yapping with my pit crew, Steven Blum, and dirtbaggin’ friends on the way to the checkout tent. I missed my check-in by 3 minutes and 4 seconds. A very sophomore mistake. In the end, it bothers me only because I should know better, but I’m still happy and proud to have mashed on into a great placing regardless. It was a tough race! Mud tastes the same after the last time I raced. Yum.

Been a long time?
It was good to reconnect with dirtbaggers in the Chi-town entourage at the race - it was also a friendly reminder that we’ve had little updates as to what the heck the Bonebell is up to. We’ve been busy working on some great items, definitely progress moving forward, and we’re hoping to unveil it soon. We’ve been pretty quiet - but we’re definitely up to our eyeballs of tasks and new responsibilities we’re taking on with this site. Thanks for asking and keeping tabs on us - we sincerely appreciate it. We’re making new connections all the time - and events like WEMS definitely help us Illini keep informed with eachother. Say hello to the Illinois Valley Cycling Association. More to come as always….