Sunday, August 31, 2008

Scratch

I did some serious nerve damage to my hands, presumably because of the broken fork. I've been pumped full of steroids the last few days... I cannot sleep more than a couple of hours and feel slightly out of it; on top of that my hands are still numb. If the steroids don't do anything, I'll have to go back to the hospital for more testing.

Anyways, my hands are my livelihood, a permanent injury is something I cannot risk, especially as I just started a new design/development business. Therefore, I don't intend on riding my bike in the foreseeable future. Thanks to Andy Buchanan and Mary Collier for offering to overnight a fork to Butte for me. I wish the circumstances of my hands would have allowed me to accept one of those offers...

Soon I'll writeup my thoughts on doing the route in August. In short, my limited experience on the route in August tells me that June is more ideal: longer days and the weather seems to be a little less erratic. I'd rather tour the route in August for sure though... there are a lot more people on the route to interact with, both fellow tourers and general people enjoying nature. ALSO, all the blowdowns were cleared (this made me so happy). It was fun.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Fork shit the bed

This probably explains the numb hands. I cannot afford to buy a new
one. No love from sram until I'm back in sf... Ideas? I'll have to
make some decisions. 2000 miles on a noodle is not my idea of fun


Sent from my iPhone

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Starting in 20 Minutes...

Cold morning in Banff. It's only 40 degrees (f). As you may have guessed, I won't be checking in until I'm stateside tomorrow, as I'm cheap and don't want to buy a Canadian calling card.

Friday, August 8, 2008

ITTing the Tour Divide

The cat's out of the bag for the most part on this one, but I've decided to give the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route another go, this time as an individual time trial. On the morning of Saturday, August 23rd, I'll begin descending the North American continent with my Salsa Dos-Niner and a small bundle of supplies. After all the planning and training that went into this years failed race, I feel that I have an obligation to myself to go out and do this before I move on to another junction in my life this fall.

Despite the potential insanity that surrounds this effort, especially after how much I messed up my heal two months ago, I'm more excited for this attempt than I have been in the past. 3 weeks of truly being out there: no other racers to ride with, no mass of spectators on the web and the occasional local driving out to the route to meet the blue dots descending down a digital map, and very little pressure. The ITT is the lost-yet-not-forgotten form of divide racing that, to my knowledge, has only seen one finisher (John Stamstad '99) and only a single attempt in the new millennium (Mike Curiak, '03). I can only imagine that the divide depression will set in sooner, the rain will seem to fall harder, and the nights will feel colder without the comfort of having fellow racers nearby; but maybe that makes this more enticing.

Testing photo post from cellphone