On the Trail with IMBA

As promised, here are a few more shots of the young guns and the big kids tearing it up at the Bike Park in Boise. Thanks again to everyone who came out to ride! 

Well, gather ’round IMBA friends, and let ol’ Spencer spin you a yarn about the 24 Hours of Moab, something that happened way back in October of 2008…

Now, I always like to break out a special costume of some sort when participating in 24 hour relay races. Sometimes it’s a bit revealing, like a speedo. Other times, it’s more gaudy, like a neon skinsuit. Either way, the objective is to add some levity to the event, and I’ll admit that I do like the attention as well.

So this year, at 24 Hours of Moab, I decided I needed to step up my game a bit. For 2008, GT Bikes has stepped up as a Team IMBA sponsor, and I didn’t want to let any of those guys down. So, when I happened upon a wedding dress, which can be seen in our new IMBA ad campaign, soon to hit magazines, I knew I was in for a wild ride. Naturally, the best bike to ride with a wedding dress is my white 29er singlespeed (aka the White Whale), which is, serendipitously a GT! So, I saddled up to do the first lap for our team, looking absolutely splendid.

The first 20 minutes of racing went quite well. I was passing people left and right, probably moving up to somewhere around midpack, and the White Whale was riding like a dream. However, the proverbial scheisse hit the fan, when, on one of the course’s steep uphills, I broke my chain. Despondant, I tore off the dress and prepared for a long walk back. But before I knew it, I happened upon some good Samaritans, who insisted I could fix the chain. After a fair bit of elbow grease, we had it up and running, albeit in a rather weakened state. I donned my dress again and continued on. Unfortunately, my earlier theatrics had rendered the dress very ill-fitting, and it was constantly sagging down and getting stuck in the rear wheel, which would frequently bring me to a skidding halt. I struggled my way around the course, until I reached one of the final uphills. Predictably, that is where my chain broke again. However, this time I was fortunate to have another helpful (and better prepared) rider on hand to lend a chain tool and a quick link. At this point, I knew I was home free… a few more miles to go. As I looked down at my watch, I realized I could finish in under two hours, if I pushed it. As the finish materialized on the horizon, I checked my time — 1:58:30 — so close! The final stretch has a chicane, to slow traffic, and as I blasted through these corners, all of my worst fears came to life before my eyes. A massive wad of wedding dress, the size of a small muskrat, lodged itself between my front tire, the fork and my brake. I was catapulted onto my face in front of many onlookers and came to rest in a heap on the ground, tangled in my hateful apparel and the White Whale. I struggled to remove the offending fabric from my bike, but I soon realized it was hopeless, given what little leverage I had to pull on it firmly. So, I instead wriggled out of the gown like a tuna fish, struggling through a tear in a fishing net. At 1:59:30, I dragged my bike and dress across the line, like the carcass of a wild animal, relieved to be finished with the burden I had endured for two hours in the wind-swept Moab desert.

Team IMBA knocked it out of the park this year, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for 2009. Sign up… I promise you won’t have to wear a dress (unless you want to).

My dress and I, during happier times…

The Boise Velodrome and Bike Park is full of goodness including dirt jump lines for all abilities, pump tracks, dual slalom and a mountain cross course topped with many tasty miles of single track and a skate park. We spent a couple days riding the park and were psyched to be involved in the local Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day which pulled in many locals and some big names in the world of mountain biking including larger than life Randy Spangler who keeps things in check  at the park even when he’s not around.

The best part of this sign aside from the obvious is that it is visible from just about everywhere in the park. I think the next logical step would be adding a motion sensing recording so Randy reads his sign each time someone walks by.  

I’ll have more photos and info about Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day in Boise soon so stay tuned!

Well, it’s official. The 24 Hours of Moab is right around the corner, and Team IMBA is raring to go for our second year of fun in the desert! We are psyched to have GT Bicycles on board as a sponsor — and we’ll even have Olympian Todd Wells on hand to ride the course on Friday with the Team IMBA crew. Sweet! Not only that, but Western Spirit will once again be providing amazing deliciousness to us at Camp IMBA… those folks can cook up a storm.

Stefan and I are taking off tomorrow morning to help with set up. Our tent is bigger and badder than last year, so make sure you stop by to check it out. There’s been some talk of bad weather rolling in on the weekend, but I’m still feeling optimistic. It’s the desert, right? Come on. If it rained there with any regularity, it’d look a heck of a lot greener. Well, rain or shine, it’s going to be another stellar event, so if you’re out there, come stop by, and if you’re not, then make plans for next year! There’s no other race like it…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ai2rhh-W9yI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I’m still in the King Range of Northern California, working on some concepts for the next 2 phases of our Paradise Royale mountain bike trail system.

The grand opening was on Saturday. Jim and Kathy Haagenschmidt, Tom Ward and myself attended on behalf of IMBA. There were over 70 people in attendance, awards were handed out to IMBA, the California Conservation Corps, the Student Conservation Association, The Bigfoot MTB club, Nic’s Interns and several local schools. The rec planner for the King Range BLM office Scott Adams announced his retirement, he was given an honorary lifetime membership plaque by the BIgfoot Club and Jim H presented Scott with a folding chair, he’ll need it after all that work. The Paradise Royale MTB Trail was officially opened by Tom Ward and Linda Rousch (director of the Aracata BLM region) by cutting the bike chain draped across the trail entrance will chain cutters (check out the photo — very cool)! Many of us rode the new 14 mile loop, sessioning lots of the jumps and drop-offs.

Judd de Vall and I will be helping to design a new jump trail segment/ with pumptrack near Tolkan Campground. I started another phase of XC trail linking more ocean views with the mighty redwoods and douglas fir groves.

On the drive here, I stopped to ride trail systems in Reno, NV and Draper UT, both have added/completed trails we designed in our first year of Trail Solutions in 2002….so good to see people walking, hiking, running and riding trails we created from nothing!

Back to WInter Park next week,

Joey

Another photo-op for T-Dub!