Three *@#% 'in Mountain Madness

Ouch! Ouch again! Oh and ouch one more time. With a bunch more ouch mixed in the middle. Oh and it was 90 something degrees too. Somebody call the "Whambulance".

Well well, yesterday was Three Mountain Madness and for some reason, Chris, Ben and myself turned down a trip to the beach to basically see if we could kill ourselves on road bikes instead. We chose the 75 mile route and got off to a rocky start. The ride began "officially" and very punctually at 8:00am. Well at 7:59am, Chris' rear tube went "pop". With magic, Chris changed his tube in 1.376 minutes and we were off. Now we just had to pass 600 or so cyclists ranging from some dude in sweatpants and a t-shirt on a brand new full Dura Ace Trek Madone to every single Euro-wannabe in the Mid-Atlantic. Basically we rolled. Three man TT passing dozens of cyclists at a time. By the time we hit the first climb we were settled in and had made up about as much as we were going to. About this time, I regretted not swapping my cassette the night before. Lesson learned, an 11-23 cassette paired with a 53-39 crankset isn't too pretty on this ride, unless you are of the former East German cycling type (a.k.a Jan Ulrich) and like to grind it out.



Personally, I like to try and spin.
Consequently, I found myself looking around for one of these most of the day:



Hot discussion topics of the day included the following;
1) Pro cyclists all have to be on drugs.
2) Most cyclists passing us up the climbs were surely on drugs or were just plain cheating (negative gravity propulsion devices?).
3) Bull City Cycling is contemplating restructuring into Bull City Surfing next season (or maybe tomorrow). Who knows, I did hear the waves at Jordan Lake were "going off" today.
4) Oishi is thinking of cheating.....errr I mean he is participating in a scientific study at Duke's K Lab.
5) We should buy lotto tickets, because Michael Ball won't loan Brian the Rock Racing Chopper anymore after his recent unauthorized fly by of Duke Chapel. See below:



Also, Pilot Mountain is getting steeper and the Park Rangers are in cohoots with Smoky the Bear on a government cover up. I smell conspiracy. Also I think the acceleration of gravity has been significantly increased in the area. This is confirmed by my lack of speed up the climbs and Oishi's lack of brake pads at the finish.

All in all it was fun. I mean I now have some killer jersey tan lines and was lucky enough to pound a Mountain Dew after the ride. Now that is extreme!!!

Onward in June to the TORC Triangle Mountain Bike Race in Chapel Hill and Blood, Sweat and Gears in Boone.