33rd birthday... "I saw Horny Toads Hustle".

The 9th and last southern stop on the NM Off Road Series had us rolling down lush I 25 to Las Cruces, a cool southern NM town known for it's Scoopies Frozen Custard, the pecan orchards, NMSU parties, Chope's Mexican Rest., and some damn fun singletrack around the foothills of some mountain in the Organ Mtn. Chain.
The "trip" started Friday night with some dinner and drinks with Sonya & Erik. Kara set up a babysitter and had a time I had to be home so I knew something good was up. We had a blast and heard one of the funniest close the date lines I've ever heard. Let's just say Erik was a pup and Sonya was the master. In the morning I was hangin a little and the realization I was going to be 40 soon hit me...like I'll be an old jammer soon!
That afternoon Richie Rich picked me and Q up and we rolled down to pre-ride the race. Myles knew I was heading out and he got bummed, then I got bummed, and Rich had to slap me for acting like a sobbing old man. Q was running late because he just bought a new CRV and was all happy he didn't get bent over the barrell at the delearship. After Belen he said "the new CRV is like that one coming up". As we passed these two grey hairs in the ride I blurted out "that's you and Jolie in about 4o yrs". It was one of those priceless road-tripping-with-the-boys moments and he wished he'd never said anything to the pair of lions who were feasting at his expense. That's good stuff!
Rich pre-rode the course on his 50cc motorcycle and it was a bad idea after the first climb. Q and I were watching Marty try to break us off on his hardtail...but he would pay the piper soon enough.
Here's a shameless plug for Lorenzo's in Cruces...lasagna with meat and chile verde is the BOMB! Marty slammed King Kong Casey's brewski and I thought they would go right there over the table and we'd have to tip the staff extra to keep them from calling the cops.
Race day started with some slow service and Q was wound up. We ate light since it was an early 8am start and headed out, since I still had to change my rear tire that I sliced on the pre-ride. Mike from the Bike Co. came through big by bringing me new rubber, some canisters of air, and spare tubes.

On the starting line were all kinds of hardcore's, namely Macky Franklin who is probably the closest thing I can think of to how Tom Danielson was in college. He's freaky fast @19 and had a summer of winning the Short Track Semi-Pro National Championship. There were like 3 other Pro/Semi-Pro's that I didn't know so I was ready for an interesting race. Actually all I could do was execute my plan and try to keep the undefeated season alive.
When the gun went off I just drilled like my sidelined boy Blick used to...and he did last year at this race I heard. Off the front and Q took a pull on a long road climb to the technical cool stuff. Macky was hanging tough as he should be a Short Track champ. Dax was rolling strong also and he had it all under control too.
After the technical sections I realized the Scalpel, the big 2.3 Conti up front, and the suspension set up had me all dialed in and I was gapping everyone on the technical stuff. So for the next two hours I kept it drilled and never really went into difficulty. The heat was intense and it became obvious that I hadn't ridden in hot weather for months thanks to all the rain we've had. I rode very smooth today and that was the biggest factor in my win. Macky got caught by Dax on the fast downhill section (he was a bad ass pro motocrosser in the day) and they were together after lap 1. Some chode guy cut the course and unfortuantely he took Rich and Casey Cook with him. He was the 'race leader' after lap one so I had to make light work of him too. Lap two was all about riding smooth, smart, and mechanical free since I was tiring a little and not quite as sharp.
Somehow the second lap was a minute faster and I think it was because I was off the front riding my own race. Mike came through again with a bottle in the feed station, muchas gracias. Only in a 2 hr heat race can a 24oz bottle seem like a winning powerball ticket. Macky got second about 5mins back and Dax showed he's the real deal a couple minutes later to get on the podium also.
Post race the keg was tapped and the Mex food was being served up so we tore it up and tried to stop sweating. Kara would have distanced herself from me fo sho. The Franklins are a cool family from Taos and Macky got the whole family into biking so I got to hang with them a little. My bro Dmitri teaches their daughter and so there's a good vibe with them.
Q probably went too hard the day before because he can ride better than he did and he felt like the tank was empty. He still pulled out 3rd place, testament to his never die attitude. Rich is on the upswing and he battled it out for 3rd and kept himself alive for the 40-49 NMORS Expert Championship. ??But what's up with King Kong Casey?? He put his stamp all over the race and crushed the cretons. He's won two in a row and told me he's feeling better than he ever has and the rides he's throwing down are proof. He's a good guy to coach because he challenges me in many ways but he follows the program and is killing it for being an "old jammer", he'll try and bear hug the crap out of me with his 18inch guns for calling him that but it keeps him young, punking anyone who wants to go with him.
Adios from El Paso, gotta take care of the clients down here and see if I can keep the undefeated season of beating Megadyne (a med. devices competitor) alive as well. Over and out!
As for Horny Toads they hustle off the trail when you roll up on them...pretty funny. Luckily we didn't dance with the rattlers, it's their breeding time so their having all kinds of crazy snake...I'll quite now.

Signal Peak and the BrokeBikeGilaBillies...what-the-f&%$??????

The race is always a treat as compared to some of the courses and this was an epic mud fest with all the hellamonsoon weather we've had this year.
I dialed in the bike with the mudders and put on some mudguards to key the ojo's clean. Race day started with a big Belgian waffle at the Econonlodge washed down with some surprisingly good cafecito with fakeleche. After a 3 duecer I was ready to rock the party!!
At the start line all the coolbro's were there, Q-Dog (showing RaceFace on his new Team Scalpel), Richie Rich (sucking down the last hit of powerjuice), KingKong Casey (looking rather svelte on29'rs), Fo Diggidy Dax (is there a dessert buffet post race?), Santiago (legged over the new World Cup Scalpel also) and all the contenders for the titles like Casey Cook, and wanting to beat us all Dave Wilson. The missing bro is a newly stylish BouldAir Hoppe who's no longer Neuvo Mexicano. He did managed to call my phone at 10:30pm the night before, and leave some rant message about epics and putting the smack down on JHK up there though. Sounds like the freak is off his leash?!
3.2.1 Go like a bat out of hell up the first climb, hoping Dave Wilson would take bait again and pop like the last times. Instead it was Team Sol off the FRONT!!
At the top of Signal Peak it was Dax, yo, and Q Dog, with peaked out Casey on his tale. The course had some uphill stream rides, it's harder than you imagine, and a bunch of big puddles. After the downhill I settled into my groove after I got by Dax (he's riding GRRRRRReat right now even though he may not know it). The RRRRRiver crossings were pretty burly and I went down face first in one of them, that mudscrub was getting old anyway. I slammed the right hand pretty good but no whining here.
On the last lap I gave it all I had and managed to finish strong. 14mins later FDDax came in and a couple mins later Qdog was washing up in the stream too. The "impressive ride of the day" came from the monstermasher himself KingKong Casey with a 4th place overall on the day...DaDAMN. I was like a proud papa with all the riders I coach coming in great spots. Richie Rich is dialing it in so everyone better not take an extra glimpse of "I'm bad" in the mirror or you'll pay for it.
The beef bbq was all beat up so we pretty much had to drink our recovery from the keg and Endurox baggie, at least that's what Richie said it was???!!!
The bike worked great, the feeds went great, I scored some kisses from the podium mamas, got some green back to fattent the wallet with, and managed to keep the undefeated MTB season alive... and we headed off to Lotaburger to make the fry cooks pause the smoking break. The coolest thing about hitting a fast food burger joint is that we just burned like 3 LottaCombo's worth of calories and if you only eat one you still drop weight while getting a mad grease ring around your lips as you try to remember to breathe in your feeding frenzy.
Sleeping on the way back to Querque made the turns of the Black Mountains feel like Kara rocking me to sleep, while the boys were both sacked out...and Myles was running the mean chain saw through his nose while he slept. I think he'll be a downhiller. Mason threw down like 800 mini laps so I wasn't surprised that he was tired.

Mi primera Vez?

That's right kiddies, the blog is on!