"Take the Damn Thing Already" - Photo of the Year (Cont.)

D.

E.

F.

G.

H.

I.

J.

Mrs Snob Said...

"I saw a black Christmas tree and thought of you."

Still Not Warm

How's this for a rookie mistake?

I went out intending to log a bit over 3hrs at a nice snail-like pace. It would help if I would have checked the weather. A brisk 50 degree temp dropped to 40 in an hour and I was completely unprepared. Add a northwind with a little pace to it and I was hurting. My hands and feet were going numb and I had that wonderful feeling in my chest you get when the cold cuts right through your clothes and attacks your core.

Complete and utter genius. It's only five days until December. Why should it be cold?

"One Fucking Gear" - Single Speeder of the Year

Dave Nice. Proved you cannot keep a good man down. Stolen gear during the the GDR and just keep riding and smiling.

Dan Jansen. Rocked the SS category in the Ultra 100 Series and famously hit 30+ no handed on the SS. (into a headwind, uphill both ways).

Jesse LaLonde. Graves Disease? Fuck it. He came strong anyway. Stars and Bars of the team variety at 9Mile. Super Fan for his bros. (and I didn't even mention the BKB.)

Your Mom. Face it. She rocked that Schwinn in her day.

Rich Dillen. "Worlds" Victory. TransRockies on just One. Great Ultra100 results. Manly yes, but I like him too. Will he unleash his Karl Rove (I am sure that's too harsh) tactics to win the Blogger election away from Danielle? It worked for Race Face TR vote.

Paddy Humenny. The only Canadian on the list (I think) and he wants to move. I guess Dallas is a shoe-in for the Canadian prize next year. Keeps killing his blog, but have you ever noticed the number of positive comments he throws out to people? Solid.

Mark LaLonde. The Darkness. A is for Action. Marko is just a mother fuckin' badass. You'd latch on to his wheel, but you can't. Stars and Bars. Results for 06 you wish you had.

Matt Wills. Long rides, short rides, you name it he brings it and makes it fun. Committed to Rigid? Check. Rocking the pink SS? Check. One of Lincoln's Finest.

CX Sunday

Strange day today. The long road start put the three one gears at or near the back from the start so it was ketchup. Had a blast though and that's the beauty of cross. Mix it up. Both days were of the "lose ground on the road and gain it back off" variety. It's not like I am contending for anything so I just tried to peg it as hard as I could, ride smoothly and see what happened.

Flew the BKB kit today. Went Balls Deep. It's all good.

Nebraska Cross Saturday

And so it begins...



Where is everyone? (Jackie Robinson's Number!!)

If there were audio for this moment, you would hear me yelling gibberish.


Horns? YES!


MOD, what's up with that foot?

The Money Tree

See, it does grow on trees.


MOD is getting paid.



Coaching Lesson Number One
"I say Gents. Good Show!!"

"Shut up and Type" - Blogger of the Year

Read this in your best starlet voice: "The Nominations for 'Blogger of the Year ' are:

Eddie O'dea. He probably deserves my vote since he put his hand in the middle of my back to get me going at 9 Mile when I blew all of my speed coming into that gravel climb.

FatMarc. Funny. Self-Deprecating. Fast.

Danielle Musto. To quote Joe: "Funny, lots of good stories and pictures, and she wins the overall from time to time at endurance events."

Paddy Humenny. Killed his blog just in time for the awards. How appropriate.

Endurosnob. That guy's an asshole.

Jason Sager. If getting completely screwed over by USA Cycling wins you this. He should win in a landslide. He's also hysterical.

CVO - Lincoln's Founding Blog Father. As Cornbread said, the most influential man in Nebraska Cycling. (He's also cool as hell.)

Guitar Ted. Sheldon Brown of the Midwest. If Jeff Kerkove is Mr.24, Mark may be Mr.29.

Jesse LaLonde. Creepy Friendly. Single Speed Nazi. Founder of the BKB. Rockstar.

Rich Dillen. Could this be the beginning of a Bad Idea Racing awards sweep?

Let the voting begin.

The Future of Fun

I just stole that title off of 'Today on MSN," so how weak am I?

Planning to remove the Cheddar and be betta in 2007? Marc's starting a little service to assist. Where are the F-bombs? Maybe that comes during the rides with your coach.

Speaking of Wild MOFO's, Sam's was scheduled to get the wrist checked today. Ah, the itch of deadskin.

Paddy's blog is dead again. What's new?

Got an out-of-the-blue email from an old friend today. We worked together at the Bicycle Garage of Indianapolis and had some good times together, including qualifying for the USARA 24hr National Championships in his first race. Now the man works for Giant, based on his email address, and somehow "caught rumor of this blog the other day called endurosnob and I knew it could only be one person." Is that bad or good?

It is nice to know that this thing has at least one practical use. Good to hear from you, Scott.

Voting starts tomorrow. No Diabold. No Ernst & Young.

I do have a Sharpie and I am not afraid to use it.

Crash

Word on the street is that the blog is crashing people's browsers. Sorry folks. MonkeyGirl is on the case though, so hopefully it gets sorted out quickly.

Thanks to the folks who nominated for the Awards. We'll kick off the voting next week along with some ridiculous crap I made up on my own.

The Endurosnob Awards 2007

Some of you may remember that last year I asked the question, "How About Endurance Cyclist of the Year." It turned out to be a battle of communities between the Kerkove Army and friends of Dejay Birtch. In the end, Dejay walked away with the popular vote.

Let's roll the dice again (after all, today is election day) and add a couple of categories.

Category One: Endurance Cyclist of the Year.

Category Two: Single Speeder of the Year.

Category Three: Photo of the Year (Relating to the above two categories. I have my own porn.)

Category Four: Blogger of the Year.

Here's how we'll work it. Put your nominations into the comments to this post or send your photos my way. (Email is in my profile.) After a week, I will take your nominations and put the categories up to a vote in separate posts.

This was pretty fun last year and people had the right spirit, giving people props, so let's keep it rolling this year.
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Let me get the ball rolling. (I'm saving the photo for when I send them all out.):

Endurance Cyclist of the Year: Rich Dillen. (Yes, he's a great choice elsewhere too.)

Single Speeder of the Year: Dan Jansen. (I struggled with this one.)

Blogger of the Year: Creepy Friendly. (I could probably be arrested for stalking his site.)

I also wanted to put all of the guys as Single Speeder of the Year, so much respect to all.

Clarification: A few people have emailed asking if you can nominate in only one category. The answer is absolutely. Various levels of geekdom are welcome.

Hand-Ups in Hell

Interested? See CreepyFriendly for the goods.

Season in a Spreadsheet

2007 has been on my mind a lot this week. So, with a spreadsheet pulled up and time to surf around the web-r-net, I came up with the following loose schedule:

March: Ouachita Challenge. IMBA Epic trail. Good reports from Squirrel and Mr. 24. What else is there to do in March?
April: TransIowa. This may be the last go at this one for me. The Arizona Trail is the current Devil on my Shoulder.
May: Dirty Kanza. Still bummed I missed 06.
June: Lumberjack 100. Big M and a big mug of Founder's Ale?
July: 9 Mile. 19hrs really wasn't enough.
August: Endurance 100. Not sold on this one, but August was looking a little bleak.
September: Mohican 100. Which would mean I am one race away from qualifying for the Ultra Endurance Series. Not sure what to do about the 4th race though.

Feel free to yell "pull" and shoot holes in this. I'd love the feedback.
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Props out to the rockers who killed dreams at the Iceman this weekend. Jesse grabbed Fifth rocking the Rig. Marko hit 12th. Joe grabbed 13th in SS with big wheels and his friend Dan Jansen grabbed 7th in the Pro Cat. without a der. The good Dr. Cale also came in strong in the 50-54 group. (Now we just need to get him on the SS.)

Inspired By...

The Bouncing Souls

Penta-Pumpkin

After flying a black flag in front of my house for two months, this won't phase any of my neighbors.






Honorable Mention: Mohawk's creation from two years ago. Still works.

"The Joke's Over" by Ralph Steadman

Even if you don't know the name, you probably recognize the artistic style. Ralph Steadman has just released a memoir which covers in large part his friendship with Hunter S. Thompson. Forward by Kurt Vonnegut. Not too shabby.
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TransRockies Registration opens November 1st. I'm not sure how quickly the race fills up but if anyone is interested, let me know.

Business Tripping

Just returned from a business trip to Mini-apple-less. Yippee. In the middle of presentations I found myself thinking about...

eating healthier... could I actually do the vegan thing...
training for cross... is it too late to really make a difference...
9 Mile... better than sixth...
TranRockies... who'd be a good partner...
Is the air dead in this room?...

What I didn't know going in was that Laura Bush was speaking at the hotel we were staying at. The morning she spoke there were cops all over, the place was tapped off and I was looking around for a dead body. It was just Laura Bush.

I am not a fan.

If Only He Rode A Single

I was doing a little nutrition research today and found my way to Organic Athlete. In the process, I go to their athletes page and read Molly Cameron's Bio. You can guess the story from there. Intrigued, I hit his webpage and start reading his blog. Archives. Mentions of Lincoln transplant Matt Slaven and then I see the pic on the right. Tattoos the BKB can be proud of.

I don't know that I could go Vegan, but I am sure I will keep checking back to see how his season goes. Do you think maybe he has a somewhat sweet ride?

CX Day Two: Gut Shot

We have a race!!!


I love my bike. The engine needs a lot of work.


Tony Givin' It with Power.


Day Two. New faces turn out and we had a full blown tacitcal race on our hands. Sir Wilhelm running it SS and a cat he races with on the Trek Midwest team charging it with gears (sorry his name escapes me even though MOD told me several times.) This cat rocked a crazy bridge early to pull Tony back, then recovered for a few laps as Tony pulled him around. Then things got fun. The course had a long slightly uphill section that appeared as if it would be Tony's undoing, as the gears allowed the fresh face on the scene to either sit and recover or pull away as needed. With a couple to go, Tony was actually on wheel and losing ground on the flats and the one long climb on the course. WE NEED MORE COWBELL. Somehow however, on the last lap, just after said climb, Tony popped out of the woods with the lead and held it for the win.

As for me, I got my ass handed to me yet again. My fitness blows and I've got pictures to prove it. (Speaking of Pics, MOD's got the goods.) We've got a month until the Lincoln weekend, so I'll focus on gaining back some self-respect there, but won't forget about the Midwest Cross Cup either.

I love a good beating.

CX Day One - Sir Wilhem I presume?

"I beat you with one leg."


No dab here. Also, the scene of Tony taking a beer handup.


GiveR Mod!!!


Matt P was a blur.


Cross is beauty.


I spent most the race in this position, trying to figure out how to get into my pedals.

Cross Season - Yeah!!

Shit. That reminds me that I forgot to pack my arm-warmers.

Chewing on Glass

Restless. Edgy. Angry. Tired. Pent-up. Tied down. Tethered. Impatient. Teeth Grinding. Fist Clenching. Bloodshot.
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Cross Saturday and Sunday. Hit up Velosource today. Saw the virtual course before it came down. Made a gear decision.
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Good time to let it all out.
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*****

Hunter S. Thompson would be Proud

Welcome to the Kitten Factory!!!

Bikes Belong

Now that's a parking lot.

Bicycles are so Passe

"You never thought you'd get addicted, just be cooler in an obvious way."


"I can't help but feel responsible. I always knew that you were insane, with your pain."


"Shouldn't you have got a couple piercings and decided maybe that you were gay?"

"Fah, la, la, la, la, la, lah..."

"I never thought you'd be a junkie because Heroine is so passe."

----------------------

Anyone who knows me knows that my family and friends come before everything else. As you can tell, I got selfish and broke that rule. The past two years have been a test which my crew and I have passed with loyalty and honor so, fuck it, I am celebrating.

Much love and respect out to Jeff, Corey, Sam and Johnny who helped make this bike a reality.

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Holy Cow. I had quite the grammar error rolling there. Jeez.

It's Time to Play "Where's Marko?"

Based on the children's series "Where's Waldo," this game is truly fun for the whole family. Just take out your latest issue of Velonews (Bettini cover) and turn to the first photo in 'Off the Front.' Now it's simple: "Where's Marko?"

Tired of looking for Marko? Me too. You can also play the bonus version of the game: "Where's Paddy?" Don't let the Canadian and his Rabobank jersey get away scott free, but his mixing and matching of helmet can make him a difficult find.

That's enough adject stupidity from me tonight. Maybe I will make the blog less ridiculous tomorrow.

Snob out.

Conspiracy of Snobbery

Familar with the Grand Unification Theory? Me either, but I believe it's the concept of combining theories in various sciences and potentially religious world views into one all encompassing scheme. Fuck that. All I know is that there is a lot going on and it's throwing me some curves, so Chaos Theory rules the day.

Chaos:
Apparently if you are linked on the left, you have won something recently, gotten your ass hurt, or broken a component on your ride of choice.

Mr. 24 breaks a digit. Sam goes down. YET, Rich rocks the house, Paddy stays inflated, and Joe keeps his chain on. Chaos.

Speaking of Mr. Kerkove, his post regarding what race you would rather win leaves me thinking about 2007. Nationals is a must. A real season is a must.

If several of you aren't sick of drinking beer with the Snob after 2007, I will be disappointed.

Digging for Fire

Mrs. Snob feels the title of this post should be, "Drunk and Grumpy," but....

Rode the bike to the grocery with the RadMan and didn't touch the bike the rest of the day. Why? I am not really sure.

So, someone help me out with the new class structure in Cross. I never got a Norba License because most endurance races don't require it or a one-day serves a brother just fine.

I have visited our friendly USA Cycling site for some answers and found this: "If you are a new racer, then your CX category will start as a 4. Just as in road and track events, you can upgrade to a 3 by earning points in CX races.

If you had a 2005 USCF or NORBA license, then you were issued a 2006 CX category when you renewed."

WTF? So, I am a 4? I'd appreciate it if someone could clarify this for my dumbass. I was a fiery furance to race SS Open this year and obviously didn't know what the hell was going on.

In other news, it looks like Eatough has a battle on his hands at 24hr "Worlds." An Aussie named Craig Gordon is working to fuck up Eatough's Movie and end the "Worlds" steak. Ride424 is bringing the updates. If Eatough wants it, he needs to get the lead back asap. The longer the underdog hangs around, the more he begins to believe and the harder he is to kill.

Knives out, Eatough. Knives out.

Blah Hum-Bug

Why is it that everytime I update my links, I seem to forget someone I meant to add?

New reads on the left.

Bloggerdom at its finest.
___

I like Circles.

I Got Your Fall Right Here

Damn, I love fall. Great day. Great people.

Meet the crew at Bridge A. Cruised it. Snuck away for some heavy breathing. Drug my ass back to the crew at Bridge B. Paced it nicely with Corey and Nate back out to 14th.

Noteable Moment One. As Corey, Nate and I popped over the newly made Jamaica Trail, I heard Nate say something I couldn't make out and saw some people to our far left down the trail. Once we hit 14th, Nate explained that the dude was naked and pulling up his shorts and his lady friend walked back to her bike. Ah yes, many great ways to enjoy the great outdoors.

Noteable Moment Two. Corey and I heading back up the Rock Island trail toward home and just after we passed the Y we saw two uniformed men in the distance. As we rolled up, we each had a cop standing in front of us and holding a shotgun at his side. They had gotten a call from a woman who said she saw a guy sitting on a tree stump with a shotgun in one hand and a cell phone in the other. We'd seen nothing like that, explained that to the officers (along with further "did you look here?" suggestions) and then moved along on our merry way. I didn't mention it to Corey at the time, but I thought, how wierd would it be to hear a gunshot right now? It was all good though. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Nate sticking his ass in the frame.


He's not one the phone, though it sort of gives that look.


Corey rolled up at stopped two. Welcome Big Skinny.


Nate's all about the Vogue. Strike a pose!!


Not only was it a busy day in the park, apparently it was a busy night as well.