What do you get when you mix 30 or so cyclists, 7 boxes of Franzia, and the beautiful town of Lake Placid?

The answer...Complete and total Mayhem

Before I get into the Tour De Franzia, I've got to talk about downhilling at Whiteface. On Saturday Adrienne, Myself, and Bill mounted our trusty steeds of iron, and hurled ourselves down the East's tallest ski peak. I am so psyched to have such an awesome place to ride so close to us.

and on to the Tour...

Prologue: Mutt's house
after sharing a cold beverage or two with my friends in the parking lot at Whiteface I returned home to find the Tour already ramping up. In a matter of just minutes I cranked up the grill and began feeding the masses while making sure no cup was left without Franzia. Things were really getting going when the call was made "On to Stage 1"

Stage1: The Weber's

The mountainous terrain proved to be challenging for many participants, especially for the guy who decided to ride a tandem by himself. There was Bocce, shrimp, and of course, Franzia. After taking 3 boxes at this stage we finally decided that it was time to head to the Art's Center.

Stage 2: Lake Placid Center for The Arts
In our finest display of team work we all rolled in to the Art's Center together just in time to check out the trial's demo. Sam is truly amazing. We enjoyed the mountain bike movie, and then...on to stage 3.

Stage 3: Bill and Mel's

By the time I arrived after taking a few spokes out of Adrienne's front wheel and picking my brother there was a fire going in the backyard and the Franzia was flowing. Mel had baked up some goodness, and also made some delicious treats of the refrigerated variety.

Stage 4: Lisa G's

This is where things really started to heat up. There were lots of people hanging out and enjoying themselves at the G spot. However, across the street at Staion St. there was an equal amount of excitement going on. It was almost too much to handle.

Stage 5: Adrienne and Amy's

Somehow I ended up with a passenger on this stage. This was probably the tightest stage. We stuffed as many people as we could into their apartment took down some Franzia and got on our way.

Stage 6: Eli and Conor's
I think by this point everyone was pretty excited to get down to Main St. I know I was there at Eli's, but it wasn't long. Unfortunately it was durng this part of the tour that the most crashing happened. I am going to apologize to Hannah for the last time. She had a horrific crash as a result of the rear wheel on my tandem. She went down, hit or nose, a good amount of blood in front of PJ's.

Stage 7: Main St.

The ultimate stage of the ultimate tour. We rolled in, turned heads, and had fun. Everyone won.

It was an awesome night. Can't say a whole lot more about it. Here's to a crashless Tour De Franzia in 2010...

I almost forgot about the final...final stage. Sunday morning a giant family breakfast was had up at Eli's. It was wonderful.

A Funny Thing Happens When 15 People Get Together To Do The Same Thing

Everyone Has Fun

Tonight a whole crap load of us got together to ride mountain bikes. It was awesome. We discussed pressing issues, rode bikes, and enjoyed life. A bunch of us continued the good time at Lisa G's afterwards. We've got a big group and a loud voice, we can make things happen.

I really hope we can all do it again.

Right now I feel little bit of calm before the storm. This weekend should be very exciting. Opening weekend at Whiteface, and Tour De Franzia. it should be a good one.

A "Mellow" Weekend in Quebec

Discussions for this weekend began on the last mission to Quebec a couple of weeks ago. We went back and fourth about different options, and how we could possibly conquer a significant shuttle with enough time to do everything we wanted to in a single weekend (we are all working folk). When it came right down to it we needed a dedicated shuttle driver, and simply couldn’t find one.

What we “settled” on was running the Teaureau on Saturday, and then going downhilling at Bromont on Sunday. I have but one question…

What, or who have we become to think that running 18+ miles of class IV/V and downhilling at one of Eastern North America’s best bike parks is mellow?

The River was great, the riding was great, but both were anything but mellow.

Yet another weekend of boating and staying up late

Once again I tried to cram as much excitement into this weekend as I do just about every other weekend. Really, this weekend began on Thursday evening when I met up with Joe and Eric for a couple laps on the Branch. All the rain brought in to a really nice level for us. I went back for second on Friday evenm though I couldn't rally anyone to come with me.

The real excitement came when I met Phil on Saturday morning to run the West Branch of the Oswegatchie. This is now my new favorite run in the western Adirondacks. After Phil and I were finished hucking ourselves off all the big drops I headed East, and he headed back to Syracuse.

I stopped by Chestertwon to have dinner with the folks, then it was off to Sara Lindsay's surprise birthday party. Let me tell you...she was surprised. To make a long story short I stayed up waaaaaaay toooo late, and paid for it in the morning for sure.

Sunday morning I rallied over to the Middlebury to meet up with Xavier, Nick, Trip, and Adam. Despite the less than optimal flow the Middlebury gorge is fantastic place to spend a morning, especially afte you've been staying up real late.

After two laps I was headed home, ready for a nap.

There are some pretty big plans on tap for next weekend. I'll wait to divulge them until they actually happen.

When 13 people paddle together in Quebec something is bound to go wrong...

and it did...The numbers speak for themselves.

13 people
4 days
4 swims
1 dislocated shoulder
1 severely broken kayak
almost 40 miles of river paddled

We got to paddle the Saturuski, the Nilelsen twice (Sunday being a lot more successful than Saturday), and the Tewksbury on the way home on Monday. All quality classic Quebec runs.

It all ended well. I had a great time hanging out with people from all over the northeast. We've got to do stuff like this more often.

The plan is to return in a couple of weeks to get on the Teaureau.

The Lake Placid Weekly Workout Plan

Looking back on this week, I realized that most of the stuff I did after work could be considered "training." I rode a bike in a number of different capacities, went kayaking, and even took a "rest day." The only thing my training plan is missing, is the main event, the goal, the one thing that I am "training" for. I am sitting here on Saturday morning waiting for my main event. I feel well prepared, because I followed the Lake placid weekly workout plan. Here it is:

Monday: Mountain Biking
Bill, Bagel, Matt S, Kyle, Scoots, Adrienne, Brad and myself went for a pretty significant mountain bike ride over in the Loggers Loops. The trails are riding great!!!
We somehow lost Scoots and Matt S. somewhere along the way, but we found them again safe and sound when we got home.

Tuesday: Off Day
Cinco De Mayo. After a full day of teaching, and an afternoon of working at Placid Planet, Bill and I hopped in the Ranger and grabbed a free load of firewood from Saranac Lake. We returned with our bounty to find a full-on party going on at my house. Scotty discovered the blender and made some tasty margaritas, but he couldn't figure out how to keep the stuff in the pitcher. I woke up in the morning to find some very sticky counter surfaces.

Wednesday: River Road Time Trial
The first Placid Planet Time Trial of 2009. 26 riders out there, very good turnout. Special thanks to DJ for the pre-race beer. I was slow on the "fixie", but there are 5 more TT"s to go and I will get faster.

Thursday: Kayak practice with Eric and Joe
We met up for some runs on Hulls Falls. I was surprised to find such a great level. I feel really fortunate to have such a fun piece of whitewater 20 minutes from my house.

Friday: Downhill practice
After getting absolutely destroyed at Plattekill last weekend, I decided I needed some more time on the downhill rig before Whiteface opens. It was a good opportunity to rake the "Fawn Ridge Downhill" and have some fun on the new bike. We followed up the DH session with a much needed evening at Lisa G's with the ladies.

So...here I am, after a full week of "training",fully prepared for whatever adventure will come my way. I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do. I might go get some truck loads of mulch, might go kayaking, might check out a new mountain bike trail. Anything can happen. I am ready for my main event.

Hot days do great things to mountain snows

You know if it's 80 degrees and John's Brook is running you will most likely be able to find people to paddle with. Today was no exception. Bill, Scotty, Eric, Duggan, Bagel, Justin, Dan, and myself all put whatever commitments we had aside to run the gem of the Adirondacks. A few of us had some different desires so we split up into two groups.

Not much to say, John's Brook rules. Scotty, myself, Bill and Dan Hays hiked up the trail a ways to find the river at a nearly perfect level. I stopped quickly to snap a couple of pictures. Our run was not without incident, but everyone floated under the Bridge at the end safe and sound.

New England Whitewater Triple Crown

The New England Whitewater Triple Crown was held this past weekend at T'Ville. Never before has an event been organized where slalom, wildwater, and freestyle are contested for combined points to determine an overall champion. By the second day of competition the triple crown turned into somewhat of an endurance event. After our second runs of wildwater for the competition we were all feeling pretty tired. After the dust settled I'm pretty sure EJ won. I think I finished somewhere amongst the top ten men. Highlights for me were a 5th in the Wildwater on Sunday, and two clean slalom runs. I need to practice freestyle more if I'm going to compete in it.