4th of July Cruise - That was a Hell of a lot of People!
Photo Gallery here (70 pix)
My Top 15 Gallery here
Well the big news is the big turnout - 655 people, officially. That pretty much crushes the previous record of 380ish. This week is Bike Week and everyone was out in full force to enjoy a perfectly warm evening of cruising around town. I don’t know if the move to Scott Carpenter has encouraged more turnout or not, but it’s a pretty good thing that the ride start has relocated because we would have had people backed up all the way to Wahoo’s back at the ol’ Sport Garbage. The theme was red white and blue and the costume turnout was outstanding.
The ride headed out in the opposite direction as last time, Read more
Pic of the Day
Words & Photo: Steve Z
OK I’ve had a couple requests for this picture, apparently this is what comes up first when you Google me. This picture was taken in Nov. 2002 after a snow/mudfest ‘cross race in Colorado Springs. I was training hard for Nationals in what would turn out to be my last season of racing. I had done some really hard 5 min VO2 intervals on the trainer in my garage that Thurs and went really deep. 
I was intentionally overtraining a bit with the intent of achieving overcompensation, where you body adapts to the extreme workload and becomes fitter after you taper and rest for your peak event. Well, race day came with snow that turned the course into leg sapping peanut butter. My legs were like wood and I suffered like a dog en route to my worst finish for the whole season. I was running a single front ring with a 42-27 and this course had a full on climb to a mesa that I had to push in these conditions. All of these factors let to a very intense session hanging out in the pain cave, which is what gives this picture so much power. The spray of mud from the competitor’s tires froze on contact with my face, so much that I was wearing an expressionless mask. My lips will nearly oblivious to the trail of drool running down to my jersey, yet the eyes speak volumes. I posted this picture for the weekly photo contest on Velonews, and won a nice Graham Watson coffee table picture book. Click on the picture to see the full, uncropped version. Cheers.
Pic of the Day
This is Ryan from Ellsworth Bikes. Ryan is not a pro bike rider. This stunt is called the Mushroom Drop, and is at Bartlett Wash in Moab, UT. When he dropped this he hadn’t ridden a mountain bike for over a month. The Ellsworth Rouge bike that he’s riding isn’t even his. He’s not wearing any crash pads. Just like everything else, this is a lot bigger when you look at it in person. Don’t try this at home, kids.
Pic of the Day
Photo: Steve Z
Pic of the Day
Photos: Steve Z
The main thing to note about this photo is that it is not Photoshopped in any way. It took me hours to get the conditions just right for this abstract art. Or it was an accident. Either way, what the hell were we up to? Check out the gallery.
Everything you think about lactic acid is wrong
It turns out that science has been wrong for 80 years. A buildup of lactic acid does not cause your muscles to burn or tire or eventually become sore. Actually your body converts glucose to lactic acid, and your muscles use the lactic acid as fuel. So pro athletes who have an extremely high level of lactic acid in their blood are not ‘tolerating’ it, they are actually adept at producing high levels of it thereby outputting high performace. So lactate threshold is a complete farce. Oh well, lets just call it aerobic threshold amonst friends. More details in the NY Times here.
What the Hail?
Boulder Hailstorm Photo Gallery
It was Saturday afternoon and our group was filling up at our last stop before heading out of town, the Conoco in Table Mesa. Just ten minutes ago, I commented, “Those are some pretty cool looking clouds . . .” To which Wendy replied, “Yeah you know Boulder, it will threaten all afternoon then rain ten drops.” Well that turned out to be an incorrect prediction, as we witness the craziest storm any of us had ever seen. Read more
Pic of the Day
Photo: Steve Z
OK, can anyone name who this little guy is supposed to be? I don’t watch TV so I’m out of the loop, but the girls at the Med were all excited about it. And for the Super Bonus Question, what is this little guy made of? I know the answer to that one. The hint is the restaraunt where he was born.
Pic of the Day
Words & Photo: Steve Z
Slacker Slackliner: Timmy O’neill
So this is what a mountain bike ride with Timmy O’neill turns into. Slacklining across Boulder Creek after sundown. The low light conditions were a bit much for the pocket cam to handle, but the shots are fun anyway. This was after we ripped out a Betasso loop, which was noteworthy for me because it was the first time I’ve ridden the Canyon Link on my geared bike since the recent trail work, and consequently I cleaned the Link without dabs for the first time ever. Pretty cool, despite the rumor I heard that Travis Brown cleaned it on his singlespeed. Damn genetic freaks.
Cruiser Ride Takes Over Scott Carpenter Park
Words & Photos: Steve Z
Complete Photo Gallery (44 pix)
Last night was the first ever Cruiser Ride to depart from a location other than the Sports Garage. The event went off pretty smoothly, the start was pretty low-key, with Johnny hangin’ out making sure everyone didn’t have too much fun. TJ from Blue Sky was there with a booth set up providing services, although he probably would have had more fun if he didn’t have to work. Chris V made his usual announcements, although the new spread out location made it easy to get out of earshot so I have no idea what he said. There was some cheering at some point, so it must have been good. The decreed themes were ladies summer dresses, Miami Vice and togas. Read more
Boulder Bicycle Polo is a Shin-Slappin’ Good Time
Photo Gallery (48 pictures)
Photo Gallery Top 15
Boulder has an impressive list of bike factions. There are the roadies, mountain bike racers, mountain bike freeriders, trials guys, messengers, singlespeeders, fixed gearheads, cruisers, and who knows how many more niches. While some of these groups are often at odds with each other, quibbling and backstabbing like an MTV Crib, one group blurs the lines of stereotype, welcomes all kinds, and challenges all for the title of non-conformity. Boulder Bike Polo.
Bike polo existed in Boulder back in the late 80’s. The fossil record indicates there was a group that traveled around and played matches against other cities. Mysteriously, this group vanished, no one is quite sure why, some think it was an Ice Age, some maintain it was a giant meteorite, but the archaeologists search on for clues.
Doug Render is the de-facto ringleader of the current crew of polo players, he owns the 15 mallets he brings to every game and started the Yahoo Group. He says that it’s good to be the king and reign supreme over his minions. Well, not really. But he did tell me he started the group back in 2000. Read more
Photo Of The Day
Photo: Steve Z
Mr. T lives on the back of a building in an alley in Telluride. In fact, he lives all over Tride, someone stencil tagged him all over the place. I really like Mr. T. He is the inspiration behind A Dumb Little Band that happens to be one of my all-time favorites. They have a new album out called Yesterday Rules.
So you think you are a great bike handler?
Cedric Gracia will show you that you aren’t. Click Here for video. The waterskiing thing at the beginning is dumb, but it gets a lot better.
Photo courtesty of www.gravitybolivia.com
6-15-06 Cruiser News and Pictures - Big Announcement, Start Moves to Scott Carpenter Park
CLICK HERE TO GO TO PICTURE GALLERY (78 PIX)
CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY TOP-15 PICTURE GALLERY
Record 
numbers of cruisers continue to flock to the Boulder Cruiser Ride. 358 was the Official Count, but pinning a fixed number on a constantly changing group is unrealistic at best. Let’s just call it high 300 amongst friends, OK? Nonetheless, Aaron did a great job with the help of his Cruiser Issue Counter Clicker Dealio. Aaron did admit that sometimes he loses his timing of the clicker when cute girls ride by, but I’m sure that has more to do with the newness of his new toy, but I digress.
Our ride started at Scott Who Needs A Nickname Real Badly’s house, where for the 2nd week in the row we’ve had marg and guac warmups. Hot Robbie warmly received all guests at the door with a water balloon in the face, as illustrated by Music Man Ryan’s shirt stain. Most would assume that it was PBR, but it really was water. Shocking, I know. Upon leaving I had a costume bike blowout. The 4 foot Spongebob Squarepants that I had mounted on my 3 foot sissybar began shitting torn up Syrofoam bits out of his makeshift bunger. It wasn’t pretty. The photos tell the tale. Look for Spongebob to show up next week on the back of the Moto Trike with a stapled taint.
At the start of the ride Chris made his usual announcements with the help of Ryan Duzer (Doozer?). This week the announcements took a historic turn. For the first time ever, next week’s ride will begin somewhere else than the Sports Garage. There has been talk, there have been rumblings; but it is official, with numbers pushing 400, we need to begin the ride off of public streets. The final straw was an asshole employee of the Sports Garage that ran over Tony Cantrell’s mint Columbia last week in a rage because he could pull his car out of the lot as fast as he would have liked. But whatever the reason, get the word out.
Pic of the Day
Words: Steve Z Photo: Daily Camera
This picture ran in the Daily Camera on the Sunday after the ‘04 Big Wheel Rally. The Big Wheel Rally is an annual pub-crawl in Boulder where the participants ride modified kids’ Big Wheels, while wearing funny costumes. You can learn more about the Rally, coming this year in August, at www.bigwheelrally.com. When this photo ran, I was 6 months into my employment at Ball Aerospace. A pretty conservative place, I mostly tried to keep a low profile around the management types. Anyway, Monday mornings I had status meetings (yes, as bad as it sounds) with 15 coworkers or so. Well, about 6 of them saw this picture in the paper and were questioning me about it! “Um, yes Sir, I do think it is normal for a 30-something man to ride around in public on kids’ toys wearing a wig and a pink tank top . . . um . . . weren’t we discussing the optical distortion of the 1.5m optic due to thermal gradients while in the thermal-vac chamber . . .?”
