The Essential Epic Group Ride

The Epic Group Ride can start many ways. Keep in mind that you must keep your options open and be able to jump on the band wagon when ever the opportunity presents its self. While the Acacia crushing fest isn't where you might expect to find an invite for a mountain epic, this weekend it presented Care Bear and I with the a chance to ride a Colorado Classic, The Monarch Crest. 

The Epic Group Ride has some serious requirements:

1. You must have a mix of people, ie, racers, old guys, the token junior, bike industry folk and a foreigner. 

2. An early start complete with a mix of 7-11 and Donut Mill fuel

3. Classic Variable weather in Colorado

4. Mechanical Problems, preferably early in the ride. 

5. Post Ride meal plan that includes Pizza, Burgers or Burritos 

Our ride included all of these. Which elevated into epic fun status. Some of the highlights include a German SRM employee, Magura Disc brakes dying at the very top of ride(that means 5000 feet of elevation drop with little to no stopping power for that token junior), solid down poor on the Rainbow Trail section making the trails amazingly tacky and pizza in a little Salida Brewery 

Please go out and find your own epic group ride and don't watch to much of the Olympics

Ride

Mitch Hoke

Going Single

I don't know about you, but I hit mid-summer and the motivation to strap on the heart rate monitor and crank up the hill in carefully selected heart rate zone to achieve a good metabolic rate for my training ride. It's not that I'm not psyched for a little raging and elevated pulse, it just takes something more. So I decided that those 27 gears offer to much opportunity for slacking off and went for the single speed. The single speed and I have been friends for a long time but were forced apart for "more serious training". But were back now. 

So if your feeling a little tired trade those 27 gears and protein shake in for the single speed and a post ride PBR.



Two cyclists were killed this week in Colorado Springs because of a careless motorist. Please drive and ride safe.

Ride

Mitch Hoke

Back to the Good Life

Traveling eventually takes its toll. While i will miss the east coast, muggy weather and stuck gas pedals, im shore glad to be back in CO. No driving or flying need here. Just the single speed I to keep things simple. Speeking of simple check this out and make your life a little more simple.

http://1world2wheels.org/go-by-bike-challenge

Ride
Mitch Hoke

East Coast Touring with Freinds

NY was a good time. The racing course was excellent and the accommodations were comfortable. Care Bear had a good ride and the Rudy Bear was winning the ST only to suffer from broken pedal.
Vermont is full of Oreo Cows and hopefully Todd will be bringing the the normal Oreo's. Amelia isn't coming sadly. Its dry and lets hope is stays that way for two more days.

This was the Bikeman Attack or the Precourt Retort, I can't remember which. Harry just has to many tricks up his sleeve.

Ride

Mitch Hoke

The Ramras Roost

The Ramras Roost is not only a shelter for aspiring racer types. It is also a new way of riding bikes. Zac demonstrates below

The Tall Bike provides an excellent platform to get your roost on.
Sometimes when duty calls you need to strap on the old number plate to roost correctly
Other times you just need friends and some quality turns
He even helped me learn how to roost

Keep Riding

Mitch Hoke

Elephants and Hiphopopotumus

Just be gald you ride bikes and won't turn out like this guy on a spoof motivational photo

And that your probably smarter then this.

Racing starts again with weekend with CB straight into Park City and then the East Coast and maybe even French Canadia

Ride

Mitch

Ah, Teva Games

When racing doesn't goes as plan because of bad planning and preperation its good to have a nice venue to relax in. The Teva games is perfect. There are lots of dogs and outdoors people. Lots of free Lara Bars. After the race you can relish in the fact that you finished and Filip Meirhaeghe. But in like the Care Bears discription of a Norba you can't be psyched about beeting Trebon, because he pretty much dominated the hole time.

I found Harry Precourts Doppleganger
So i preriding when i rolled up on like 20 people trying to take pictures of stuffed animal trying to hunt another stuffed animal.
The Teva Games also has an event that you just run threw alot of mudd.

John Barker took some sweet pictures but won't give them to me

Ride
Mitch Hoke

Live Like Mike

Last year the mountain bike community lost a a great freind. Mike Janelle was as fast as he was kind. Mike leaves behind a wife and child. The good fokes at Tokyo Joe's have put together a great way to remember Mike and help his family out. The 40 dollars goes to a trust set up for the family and you get a shirt, live like mike dogtag, stickers and free meal at Tokyo Joe's. You can even pay with your Paypal account because you are an ebayaholic

If you ever met Mike Janelle you know this deserves your support. Please visit www.livelikemike.org. 

Ride Like Mike

Mitch Hoke

Impomptu Training

DPC, John Bark and I went down to the big oval looking thing and raced some fixede gear bikes around circles last night. I know what your thinking. Lame Right. I will never talk to Mitchell Hoke again. Well its kinda fun. I would never trade in a mountain bike race for it but its better then doing intervals. Here is list of why you should go too.

1. You can show up not knowing anything about how to race on the track and not have enough money and thy will let you race with seasoned vetrans.

2. There are more spectators then at a Norba.

3. Track guys hav no endurance and you can break away with fat old guy and john Barker.

4. There is the cuitest mid twenties USAC official i havw ever seen.

5. Since you don't have a tack bike they give you this sick old school ones for free.

John Drops the Ball in the Sprint Final
This bike could be under your tushie

Not Track racing but fun aswell. More Fun?

Where is Jeff Hansen

Ride

Mitch Hoke

Fun Weekend

While some US pros were ripping in it up at World Cups(and others were just lounging around in swiss villas) I have been moving from one place to another around the springs. How ever now that the moving process is complete i can return to the favored routine of riding and eating.

Last night while helping Taylor break in her new house i had a third run in with a bear in C Springs. I mean they are everywhere now. I think them and the hipsters have some plot to take over. But this little guy just seemed hungary

With dinner in the belly we set off for the nights adventure. Women's Roller Dirby. I would recommend that you go some time. Im totally shore of the rules yet but there is a hole lot of carnage

They have there own myspace page

Well have fun out there. 

Keep Riding

Mitch Hoke

People sayin Hot Hot Hot!

The National Mountain Bike Circuit made its third stop in california wine country. Bummer for me and my roommate for the weekend we are not of the drinking age and could not partake in all the wine tasting events in are little dutch town home of Solvang.

While the weather was mellow down by the coast on the beach, the coastal cooling effect leaves when you go inland. So on race Alex Howard was convinced that the temperature at the course was over 100 degrees. I like to think it was 98 degrees so i think of the boy band. It didn't help either that NMBS races have pro men racing at 2 in the afternoon.

They were alot of good heat stories from the weekend. For instance Dylan Stucki become delirous in the heat and decided that he needed to call it a day and head home. While this was a legitimate choice considering he only has a black skin suite to race in I question his decisions post throwing in the towel. Some where on the course Dylan started walking but he decided to take off his shoes and walk up a hill. You never know what the heat will do to your decision making until you experience "hot feet". 

Similarly Mitch Peterson spent some time under the few trees on course trying to get his wits back. I passed and we chatted for a while and then road away from him. Then he got passed by this guy who kinda pissed him off or something and he caught me again. Then we had a drag race up the final climb. I think he started fading again after that. He's a tree hugger. 

Georgia Gould wasn't the only one to be taken off in an ambulance from heat stroke. Apparently the race promoter succumbed to the heat as well after the Short Track. 

This made it hard for people who were left off the results, ie Dylan Stucki. 

I got to ride an Olympian's spare wheel during the XC after suffering a flat tire. Meg is osom and doing wheel changes and The Crusher Family and the  Downing's are priceless at helping out wondering U23's. 

Ride for Fun

Mitch Hoke

Beach Time

Well after three trips to good old Cali I finally got some beach time. Nice. But it wasn't like on Martini's blog where there were topless women with their hands in your back pocket. Maybe you have to marry someone for that to happen. But there were some large ocean birds. And people doing really funny yoga. They kinda looked like Euro couple from Super Troopers. I went up and offered them a mustache ride but they refused.


I snapped this photo but then realized i need a real camera.

Heading up to the venue tomorrow for some pre-ridding. But the faceplate to my stem got left in C springs so i don't know how my bike is going to work this weekend.

Ride alot
Mitch Hoke

Blogging Motivation

Normally as work such things subside and riding and free time go up people are inspired to blog more. I however have stumbled upon the opposite relationship, the inverse correlation if you will. More free time, less blogging. But hey worse things have happened

Also i havn't really done anything radical enough to warrant a self-indulgent deluge that is modern blogging, i mean except for struggling to pick out the best tone of nail pollish to match a plad team team kit.

But some people are out and about doing cool stuff. Jeffy got watch the Absalon dominate in Madrid



If you don't keep up on MSC action. Jungle Jay is back in full form. Bumber for the rest of us.

Keep Riding
Mitch Hoke

next up

this weeked will be a lovely race in nathrop colorado. nathrop has been one of the msc's top notch courses for years. short climbs, flase flat head winds, little descending. the only downer about the course is the little bit of single track at the end through the trees. buts not all fun games out there, somtimes you have to just put the hammer down and crush.

the ramathorn is most likley racing a single speed in nathrop. and lets face everybody knows this is not the course for it. zac has been training hard though. crushing it up buckhorn will short get you ready for race full of spinning out.


sometimes the best motivation for riding hard is a large black bear


tough as nails and i managed to find our way to boulder on wednesday night for the premeir of seasons. the movie was sweet. unfortunatly we had to sit threw a trials demonstration by ripjoke

i am not omitting capitals to make a statement. my shift key is simply on the fritz right now

ride mountains
mitch hoke

POWERSHOTS!!!

Its so nifty what you can find on the internet. google search: POWERSHOTS, NOVA, 2008


Mitch

Weekend Update

This is the first weekend i havn't raced since fontucky. Its nice because the riding the springs is great right. unfortunatly i missed Joey D and single speed ride. On the upside Casey Bowen and I got to rally Hansens van because he isn't hear.


Sounds like are boys over in europa are having a good time despite the tight competition. Care Bear has some good anicdotes on racing over the pond

Found this, Trever and I got our suffer on.


So as if there wasn't enough reason to spend all day on facebook, they now have instant messaging. I was hoping to get in a good training block this month, but i might suffer with this new technolegy.

Ride more then you facebook stalk people
Mitch Hoke

Coolest Stuff I have Ever Done

So Sometimes when races don't really pan out they present oppertunities to do things you never thought possible. They make you really learn about yourself. I would like to say that i gained some character today by suffering threw a race and not dropping out, I'm not sure that was true today. But i did two of the coolest things i think i have ever done and probable ever will do.

First off, I started to the race really hydrated which i guess is what your supossed to do. But i didn't something else your supposed to do, pee before you start. So about 25 minutes into the race i was really hurting and not like the going hard type. I have never had to pee so bad in race. For the first time in my life i actually peed off of my bike while riding. The organizers of the race were kind enough add a road decent with like 3-400 vertical feet that gave me the opertunity to releive myself. I never thought it was possible. I was really phsyched about that.

So after my urnation experience i rode pretty well with tonkin and ryan woodall up until halfway threw the sencond lap and went kaboom. I went from getting a top 20 back to 34th in the last 15 mintues of the race. But another amazing opportunity presented it self. 2 minutes from the finish Snoodle and Ned Overend caught me. I hadn't been able to grab anybodies wheel for more then 5 seconds but when Ned went by i thought "man, im going to out sprint ned overend". So i got up the hill with him and stuck on his wheel tell the raceway. I think he tried to put the hammer down and ride me off his wheel but were going donwnhill on a road so it didn't work. I sprinted him at the end and beet him. I felt kinda bad but when do you get a chance to sprint Ned Overend.

Also. There was alot of a road section in the race on raceway and it was the sketchiest shit. I mean their pro mountain bikers you would think they could ride in a pack. Nope

Mitch Peterson crushed it.

Go ride
Mitch Hoke

Sea Outer

The great thing about the Sea Otter is that its the biggest race in the US with out the biggest racers. All the big guns are getting ready for Houfabike. The other thing the Sea Otter is lacking this year is an event staff with any knowledge of what is going on. I was trying to ask where the XC was and the staff pointed me every direction in the venue and none of them led to the race course.

So to say the least it took me a while to find the XC course. When I found it i managed to meet up with some more confused people. This couple asked me as i was riding bye if i knew where the start of the "Super Dizzle" was. I didn't know we were calling it that now.

In the last 24 hours i have managed to finish an entire jar of nutella. Thats like 1900 calories. It makes me feel blessed. Some people are not even allowed to eat that many calories in a day. I get to eat that much just snacking.

Maybe tomorow i will take a picture of the sun setting over the ocean or somthing and leave people with inspirational quote.

But here is what logging to much car time does to my hair

Ride
Mitch Hoke

Off to California Once More

My traveling hiatus was very nice. But tommorow i will be joining travelers in the sky heading for the sunny Sea Otter. Should be pretty fun but i think alot of people are skipping it this year. The Big Care Bear is heading to Brussels for a little WC Houfalizel action. He said its been raining alot there so it should be fun and muddy.

I had pretty succsesful opening MSC weekend. Big Mike and the rest of the MSC guys put together some really fun course even if the XC took less then hour and ten minutes. The High Lite of the trip was heckeling Kelli Emmit on the Podium. Somehow me and Fuentes both yelled "Shows us the Tat" at the same time. And we were standing right infront of Kelli's mom.


Well I have new hair cut now and white bar tape.


A guy saw me riding my fixie and asked what was the advantage. I didn't know what to say.

AH BOB SAGET
mitch Hoke

Tough as Nails Crushes Rocks

Just got off the phone with the ramathorn. Sounds like him and Tough as Nails had a pretty good time down in Gallop NM. Ive done some road trips threw there and its a tough place. But Tanky Precourt got it done and took the big old DUB-YA. Just google Dawn tell Dusk and you'll find em. As I type Harry is getting free dinner and contemplating a 8 hour drive back to the Springs

Precourt spends quality time with new components

On the non endurance front I managed to hold down the fort for MgGregor 310 in the MSC prolog. I finished in like 16 minutes and was like 40 seconds down for Rad Ross. I think mine to harrys suffer ratio is like 1 to 50 for the day. Amy got some good celular pics.

Money in da Bank

Props to Amelia for title and love and support

Ride
Mitch Hoke

Check it.

This you tube is all the rage at CC

Just like the Good ol Days

Lucky for me i got to kick old school with Art Nelson and the Crusher this weekend. This was back in the day of Channel 4 news crew. To bad Matt B was back on the front range.

Name the kid in this old school pic. Its from the CMBHSSC circa October 2004

Hope yor heading to the MSC opener.

Get out and Ride
Mitch Hoke

Fountain Hills, my retirement home.

Well Im real glad to have made it out of Fontana alive. I mean sketchy hotels and crossing freeways can really get to you. The drive was pretty short and sweet with little Benny. We got some cool veiws. 
California has some pretty cool power plants along the I-10
Arizona has some sweet biker bros. The guy on the left had to be pushing 350. His bike puts out way more watts then I do. 

I currently am pushing new biking style. Its like a goggle gap with  bike helmet
The scenery is much better here then in the LA basin. Sitting in this coffee shop I found that the most popular drink for health conscious elderly people is the "non fat skim, decaf, double, fat free vanilla berry mochachino". I haven't tried one yet but here its to die for. 

Ride More

Mitch Hoke

Thats Racing?

Well Racing never goes quite how you plan and hope for. Fontana was a fast race and i felt like a newly upgraded sport racer in a world cup field. I did get to spend some time on Liam Killeem's wheel with the Big C for like 30 seconds. Hop on over to Sam J's bloggeroo for a little report. 

Short Track was better then XC because i didn't get pulled, that was a first. 

I wanted to show you a sweet picture of snake that was on the course but our hotel is to ghetto to have high speed internet. 

Ben k got second in little league XC and 1st in Short Track

Ride

Mitch Hoke

Fontana?

The LA basin isn't a place where you would normally picture a race venue filled with spandex. The air hear isn't as quality as many of us Colorado natives have come to enjoy racing good old MSC. Lots of cars and lots of roads.


Life on the road and the excess of smog have driven Ben K off the wall.

Everybody should check out the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader". It has to be the easiest way to win a million dollars. The only catch is you have to be a dumbass to be a contestant. John Barker would be perfect.

Also give Big C a visit at his new action danger site.

Keep on riding in the free world

Mitch Hoke

Jeeps anyone?

Moab the Meca of bike trips for the early and late riding season is also host to another sport besides mountain biking. I wish i could say that it was the shuffle board capital or host to a great bowling league. Nope. For a week in March Moab is filled with more jeeps then you thought existed in the US. Now i can see why people are into rally car racing and stuff, but the jeeps just drive up a trail and average speed of 1 mile and hour. I would like to give the drivers the benefit of the doubt that they are smart people. But who wants to drive across the country pulling a jeep just to drive it down Amasaback. Ide much rather save some gas and use two wheels.

Dirty Harry scored one for the home team with a pissed off over sized truck driver and his new "cry me river" routine. (you can ask him)

We then got a great going away present the last day on Slick Rock. This is a freshy Jeep role over. Injuries to driver: Ego


There are some Trails for bikes only


Sovereign


Ride and Respect
Mitch Hoke