First up was the Midwest Single Track Summit held this year at Klondike Park out side of St. Louis Missouri.  For starters I thought I was in for a long weekend of not riding. The Tuesday before the Summit I went out for a nice 3 hour trail ride. By the end of hour three I was convinced that my bike needed some big loving by the amount of squeaking and creaking the BB was making. Much to my surprise on Wednesday night when I was pulling the BB I discovered that the drive side chain stay was cracked. Panic! Thankfully, Surly had my size in stock so I had one over nighted so that I had a rig for the weekend. Wheew.

So Friday night arrive in St. Louie. Crack a beer and get to the schmoozing started. Several hours and beers later it was time for the night ride. Pull on the shoes strap on the helmet and headlight and hit the trail. Good single track and some Katy trail. Lots of beer stops with a Hi-Fi spinning vinyl in the back of a pick up. Ended up clocking 25 miles that night just riding around. At one point we popped out on to the road and the guy watching the corner said "go down the road and take the next right". I went down the road and around the curve and saw a dirt road that went right, so I took it with some one following me. The dirt road turned in to a really rutted steep down hill, fun to ride but seemed weird but I figured hell he said go right, right? Finally I decided to stop. The gal behind me, who turned out to be the lovely Tonya from IMBA, asked if we were going the right way and I had no idea. So happy with our selves for not eating it on the way down we started the trek back to the top to discover that yes indeed we took the wrong turn.  Only one injury that evening, local Tom took a hard spill on the asphalt. LOTS of road rash but spirit unharmed.

Day two started easy. I helped the Specialized rep set up and built a couple of demo bikes. Took a little ride on the single track that I had ridden the night before. Fun fun. Two smokes and four beers later my buddy Posson decided that since he didn't ride the night before (too drunk) he would tackle the trail so I suited up and went with him. We climbed the huge asphalt climb that lead to the fun switch back. Ripping down the single track up in front of me I hear Posson yelling. "Sounds like Todd is having fun" I thought to my self. Those thoughts vanished when I came around the curve to find Posson on the ground still yelling his bike in a broken pile and his front wheel bounding down the hill. His front wheel popped off at about 15 mph and dumped him on his head. So after I get him up, walked down the trail to the road, (big thanks to the other folks that carried our bikes down), sprint on my bike the couple of miles to the camp ground to get his truck, I drove him in to St. Louis to the hospital. Big fun. The whole time that I was in the waiting room I kept thinking, "damn why didn't I bring an beer?"  4 hours later we are back at camp, Todd is in a sling with a broken collar bone, and I am swilling whiskey and helping him out of his clothes. Sounds more fun than it really was. Regardless, we were back in time to watch the night time time trial and to see Ken get roaring drunk and tell us all he had found his new wife (long story). Needless to say the party was on that night. Kegs, bonfires, riding in a shopping cart down a hill, good times. I woke up on my cot in the van with one shoe on and my van littered with potato chips. I don't know I was drunk.

Day three there was a race. I took part although not real hard since I was convinced that I was still drunk.  Too much climbing for a SS rider like me. I placed last in the SS class. But good times all the same. Before the race I was sitting with Corey the Kona rep and we were trying to piece together the night before. "All I really remember is that I passed out a lot of business cards and I shouldn't have because I was really drunk. Now they all know who I am." Corey stated. I got a laugh out of that until I checked my wallet and discovered that I did the same thing. Damn.

Part 2 and 3 to come

Zeke

This past weekend at the Spoke Pony Showdown 3/6 race the 6 hour duo team "Phat & Evil" placed 2nd.

The duo consisting of Scott Cotter (of the now defunct www.ridephat.com) and zeke (www.evilcycling.com) went in to the race intending to "enjoy the ride and have a good time". That good time resulted in 2nd place finish that wowed both members of the team.

"Not too bad for two fat guys that didn't intend to race." zeke was overheard to say.

Fellow Evil Dennis Grelk  (see below) was also on hand for this event. He raced the 6 hour solo and placed 6th for his days efforts. Dennis was supposedly taking place in a crit race on Sunday wearing the all blacks. After the 6 hour when asked if he was still racing the next day the exhausted but happy Dennis said "Well, I don't know, but I have a 5 hour drive home to think about it."

For full results and pics of the Spoke Pony 3/6 see www.heartlandrace.com , the pics and results should be up in the next couple of days.