AREA MAN DIGGING THE SINGLE-SPEED

Feels odd not to be doing Sunday’s Mount Baker Hill Climb, but I think my racing itch has been scratched for 2009. This past year, my first as a full-on MTBer, I did nine mountain bike races—six of the Indie Series, an 8-Hour down in California, Test of Metal (aka, Test of Numbskullery), and Ski to Sea—and that feels like enough.

Then there’s the money thing that played into my decision not to do the hill climb. Indie series races are $30; Ride 542 is more than twice that. Feel bad pointing that out that b/c I do like the Charlie Heggem a lot and all that he does, but hmm, $75 is a lot of scratch.

In other news, I’m having a blast riding this rigid-fork single-speed. (Oh, did I mention that it’s a 29er too? See below post.) The simplicity is really cool and it forces you to rely on momentum and muscle to make it up hills. That's probably not something I want to do every time I ride, but for a strength workout, it’s pretty killer. I’ve got one Galbraith ride under my belt including a trip to the top of the Towers; that one had my legs shaking.

Finally, a shout-out to Beau Whitehead (http://paddlesurfnorthwest.blogspot.com/ ) who's heading to San Diego this weekend to compete in the Naish SUP (stand-up paddlesurfing) championships. Beau won four races in Seattle a couple weeks ago. Go Beau!

PERFECT DAY FOR SKI TO SEA

Bellingham's World Championships yesterday and what a day for it--perfect weather. High 60s, little to no wind, and best of all, I didn't flat during my mountain bike leg. Yay! Yay! Yay! I didn't flat! Get a flat during Ski to Sea and you're not just flatting for yourself, you're flatting for seven other people, several of whom you've never met (or met just hours before) but, for some reason, you still don't want them to think ill of you.

Our team was Awesome Dawson Descending Masters (pictured above: Tom O'Moore, Matt Eichenberger, me, Scott Young, John Clark, Pete Dawson, Rick Lingbloom and camera-shy Brad Haggen) and as far as I can gather, we finished 29th overall (out of the 398 teams that finished), 4th in the Masters division.

The mountain bike leg was pretty killer. No flats! (Did I mention that?) As opposed to say, Graham Yountsey, whom I saw attending to his second puncture at about the 3-mile mark and who wrote on his Facebook that he had "three flats and a broken spoke". Thankfully, RD Charlie Heggem diverted us away from the nasty puddle of goo at the end of the RR track section but the tracks themselves were still uncalled for. (Were I Charlie's parent I'd send him to his room for a time-out for including that section.) Saw Beau Whitehead after the race; he flatted on the tracks and also busted his chain on Marine Drive and ... still beat me by three minutes! (My time was 52:47.)

Wanna see something hilarious? Check out my photo on brunkphoto.com. I look like I'm reminiscing about the fetid railroad puddle: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=07Q600B8050029&po=29

Below, Baker watches the kayaks come in to Marine Park.

2008 CHUCKANUT 50K VIDEO

This vid follows buddies John Clark and Scott Young in the 2008 Chuckanut 50K.