Weekend Ride Anthem

"No one on the corner has swagger like us."-MIA

I heard the anthem late this afternoon played from the loudspeakers at Duke East Campus Field Hockey Stadium. While I was intially startled by the sound of the amplified gun shots, after a moment of recognition I thought that the song's bravado and, uh, enthusiasm captured my weary but elated state. I was happy to get in a pair of rides on my singlespeed at 2-6 this weekend. On Saturday, Ben and I rendezvous'd with JD, who became a father a second time over about a week ago. After greetings, congratulations, and some time admiring JD's beautiful new Waltworks 29er (21.5lbs!), we warmed up through Umstead and the looping trails. It was here that Ben uncharacteristically took a double helping of trouble. The first was quick, caused by too much speed on the downhill approaching a rock garden, but the second was far more dramatic fall into a drainage as Ben tried to act on his second thoughts approaching a "skinny" bridge. I saw Ben's tumble in agonizingly slow motion: feet over head, Ben landed on his back with his bike on top, leaning against a barbed wire fence. He came out with a few scratches and maybe some bruises, but the damage could have been far worse. I fell in this exact spot about a year ago. The resulting knee injury bothered me for at least a month. Falls out of the way, we enjoyed the rest of the trails without incident.

On Sunday morning, Linus, the Professor, and I made a singlespeed trio on the same network of trails. And we were moving. Linus, dailing in his new Karate Monkey, declared the bike to be "perfect". Unlike the day before, we came across many, many other riders, including one of Chef Daniel's pals who gave us a shout out when he saw the Second Empire kits. We capped the day's perfect weather and perfect rides with a perfect visit to Biscuitville.