Seeing Double?

Worlds collided at the Boulder Res. last night. The Punisher setup a night ride, and after our Moab trip was scrapped at the last minute (0-2 on Moab attempts now) I decided I'd make the ride. Never being satisfied with getting destroyed by just one person, I had invited Chris Plesko of SlipAngles blog fame to join up if he wanted a nice, easy ride. I don't have a nickname for Chris yet, but if John is The Punisher then Chris should be The Executioner or something along those lines. John hurts you, but I think Chris buries you.

5 of us showed up, 3 on rigid singlespeeds, John on his geared hard tail bike that he would ultimately ride in a single gear all night and Justin on his Titus dual squish. The Boulder Res is a good night ride option, but it is really beat up right now making the rigid that much more rigid.

The Punisher continues to make claims about not riding and how terrible of shape he is in, but I know better than to fall for that trick. Chris has been doing ridiculous things all winter (1000 miles in a frigid, snow filled January! What?!$#@!!) so I knew he'd be in top form.

We set off with everyone seemingly pulling about the same pace, with the pack leader continuously falling to the back as they held one of the numerous gates for the rest of the us to pass through. The climb up to the Mesa looked steep and super sloppy from the 2ft deep snow bank that has just recently melted, so we decided to just loop the Boulder Res instead.

We mixed some dirt, paved roads, double track and bits of singletrack as we made our way around, slowly turning back west towards the foothills were the wind started to kick up and blow our pack apart. Off the front, Chris & The Punisher chatted it up while seemingly not realizing that we had kicked the pace up as we did a slow, gentle climb into a headwind. I held on to their wheels knowing that I wouldn't be able to hold pace if I dropped the draft. Clint, who was riding flat pedals, and Justin, on his first ride of the season, were the victims and fell off the pace a bit before we all regrouped at another one of the gates.

Then the mechanical happened. I guess its one too many cheeseburgers, but as I stood to crank on a small uphill my chain pretty much exploded. I'd like to think it was raw power, but I'm guessing it was sheer weight. With some trail side surgery, The Punisher was able to take a link out and piece it back together. It was a super tight fit even after rotating the EBB as far back as possible. It made lots of creaking and crunching, but it ultimately held for me to nurse it back to the parking lot. So its a new chain for me today, and a lesson learned. Just run a 9 speed chain so if/when you snap a chain, you can bum a powerlink off someone to get you running again.

All in all a fun ride, even if there were two Punishers out front this time. John seemed to be really strong for a guy who says he hasn't been riding, and I'm not sure Chris ever got his heart rate over 100bpm. Maybe when he was hammering out that 300 yard long one hand wheelie on his SS, but probably not even then. Good ride, good to meet Chris & Justin and always good to ride with The Punisher and his sidekick.