Largearthur

Peter at Vecchio’s birthday present from his wife. My old...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:03:57 -0500

Peter at Vecchio’s birthday present from his wife. My old Eddy Merckx MX Leader. That sweet old frame has gone to a good home.

Grrrrr.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:16:05 -0500

Grrrrr.

3 days of product shooting = total mayhem.

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:17:00 -0500

3 days of product shooting = total mayhem.

A crossers prayer, by Andy Feeney(mostly). Our Sven Nys , who...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:17:00 -0500

A crossers prayer, by Andy Feeney(mostly).

Our Sven Nys , who art in Belgium,
Hallowed be thy frame
Thy snow did come
The race was won
At the bowl of death as it is in December
Give us this play
Our daily ride
And forgive us for our bad passes
As we forgive those who badly pass us
And lead us not into the course tape
But deliver us to the barriers.
For the mud and the pain and the glory are ours
Now and forever.
Hup Hup!

Trevor hard at work this morning at Valmont Bike Park. We were...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:51:12 -0400

Trevor hard at work this morning at Valmont Bike Park. We were doing a quick shoot for DBC events and the Boulder Cup.

My apologies fine lady.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:52:00 -0400

Dear lady running on the bike path with headphones on,

Although it may not have looked like it, when I came right at you two wheel drifting and back wheel smoking on pavement in the half dark tonight I was in complete control. I’m sure it was hard to tell but when I missed you by the width of a bee’s wiener there was in fact no way I was going to hit you and furthermore had the situation totally in hand. Please understand, I do this all the time, on a closed course, in controlled conditions, and I usually pull it off. Would it help if I intimated that I was trying to beat a guy on an electric bike to said corner? Have you seen those bastards? It’s so unnerving to see someone doing 25mph, sitting bolt upright and not pedaling. He had the throttle(or whatever it is) buried trying to cut me off too. I smoked that sucker BTW.

Anyway, please understand that you were pretty much in safe hands, I would have put up my hand for a ‘disaster averted’ high five but I was so close I probably would have slapped you in the face.

Sincere apologies and be careful, there’s some real loonies out there,

Wild eyed guy on bike with blue and white clothing that didn’t say Moots, it said Boulder Cycle Sport.

Secret weapon.

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:21:12 -0400

Secret weapon.

Bucket o’ filthy stuff. USGP in fort collins today was...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:08:39 -0400

Bucket o’ filthy stuff. USGP in fort collins today was awesome.

Ben Berden in my studio!!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:46:08 -0400

Ben Berden in my studio!!

Homework time.

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:36:43 -0400

Homework time.

Start Debacle.

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:30:42 -0400

Clipped in, pedals set and the ref calls 15 seconds to go. As is the fashion I am watching the ref as he lifts his whistle to his lips but hesitates at the last moment, turning to the official next to him and asking “Are you ready to go? Those close to the ref heard the whole question, those not so close just heard the last word, GO!! As 4 or 5 riders on right side near the front row sat still awaiting the whistle the rest of the group launched like there was no tomorrow while myself, Keller and co. put up our hands in a WTF? protest. After a couple of seconds it was apparent there would be no restart so I snapped into my pedal and drilled up the start chute. At this point I was well out of the top 15, probably more like 20-25th place.

Pissed,…..that’s the word for it. I had a good start and great power and acceleration, I just did it ten seconds after almost everyone else. Realizing I had some serious work to do I hit full-gas up the right side and forced my way through on my way to the front. My wonderful friend and arch-nemesis Tim Faia chose the left side for his assault towards the head of affairs but my side had the cleaner shot. By the top of the pavement hill I had drawn alongside about third wheel and was on a momentum tear so just blasted up and passed the guy on the front. By this point I had burned way more matches just getting to the front than I should have and as I led off the pavement my heart rate had skyrocketed. I hit the carpeted gutter way too hot and almost bunny-hopped into the course tape. Not smooth. Narrowly missing a stake and correcting myself back onto the course I made the first turn and dropped off the log, my handling wasn’t great because I was in total oxygen debt but I bludgeoned my way through to the next pavement section including a very ugly uphill dismount and equally crappy re-mount.

A quick look back when on the pavement revealed a 10 second gap. Hmmmmm, that ugly-ass handling must have been reasonably fast, who knew? But now I was in serious trouble, totally in over my head, and I sorely needed to recompose myself. I hammered up the hill on pavement and then took a moment on the flat to settle a bit. My breathing was still out of control but after the next rough section I had a decent, fast, slightly downhill section to recover, I just had to make it to there. Through the pit I had managed to get a hold of myself and had moved on to internal dialogue coaching mode.” O.K. got a little gap, this is the first lap and Tim will almost certainly bridge across. Settle, smooth power, use your handling, work the turns. Tim is right behind you but he’s hurting too, otherwise he’d be here by now. If he makes it over to me the plan will change, best to try to hold him off.” On most courses I will always ride at least a few sections using a completely different line than the ridden-in line. At the way south end of the course I had decided to hit the loose off camber section at full speed, no brakes, drift to the outside, way out into the weeds, bounce back on to the course. Here goes, is it going to work?….Yep, no problem. That was blazing fast and I barely pedaled back up to the flat. O.K. I’m good now. Time to tick off the laps, no mistakes, good smooth power.

In the next 30 mins my lead over Tim came and went, sometimes under 10 seconds, but eventually the gap started to increase. I had a couple of minor bobbles and even dropped my chain on the barriers but rode it back on. That kids, is why you have a chain watcher. No one but me even knew. Inside two to go I drilled the hill as fast as I could and opened up a little more time. But that was the last of my matches. I rolled smooth and relied heavily on my handling over the last lap so I wouldn’t have to accelerate too hard out of the corners. Coming into the final barriers for the last time I could relax. Roll the last dirt and swing on to the final straight, zip up the skinsuit and voila!!

Last Friday morning I stepped out in the back yard, bleary eyed...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:31:42 -0400

Last Friday morning I stepped out in the back yard, bleary eyed from the Vegas return drive and dressed only in my undies, and came face to face with this guy at about a four foot range. Seems he’s adopted our north east corner as his own so today I got a shot of him. It’s illegal to hunt deer inside city limits right?

Ripping through the Utah desert, billions of stars, stunning moon rising, Keller at the wheel. Chad...

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:10:32 -0400

Ripping through the Utah desert, billions of stars, stunning moon rising, Keller at the wheel. Chad just pulled a monster driving shift and we’re going to make it home tonight. Life is good

Trevor on his way to Vegas, he let us tag along.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:02:41 -0400

Trevor on his way to Vegas, he let us tag along.

Damn.

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:56:32 -0400

Damn.

Revenge.

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:16:00 -0400

Revenge was sweet last week as favourite Francesco Assagrande took out yet another stage with a combination of fierce attacking and wily cunning. Ever the golden boy of the crack the big man dispatched all comers on the line after breaking away to win the climb, soloing off the front for a while, covering all the moves and faking out the ever gullible Frankie O to get to the back of the sprint train. Victory was almost lost when the obscure “width of the ass at the hips” rule was invoked and Assagrande had to submit to a humiliating ass caliper test. Disaster was averted however when AAG’s ass, measured in riding position at the widest point, came in a scanty 4.7mm shy of the 857mm(2.87feet) legal limit that would have discredited his win. L’insanitie magazine quoted the big guy as saying ” Man that was close, I would like to thank god but I won’t. In this instance duct tape gets the nod for being sticky on one side, shiny on the other and holding my ass cheeks together”

Breaking with The Crack’s fine tradition of attracting star riders like AAG and Andy Hampsten, tomorrow’s sacrificial Crack virgin will be the venerable but not unattractive Jon Tarkington( Now you have to come fucker) If anyone divulges the course or enlightens him to the location of the sprint there will be dire consequences.

And finally, in a post-script dripping with hardy-fucking-har, when the aforementioned Andy Hampsten was questioned as to if he would return to the crack he replied that it was way too hard and that we were a bunch of friggin’ maniacs. Officials here at Crack HQ positively gushed with pride. Remember that this classic hard man won the Gavia (and in turn the Giro) in ‘88 in a bloody blizzard. Yep, we’re legit.

Next week will sadly be lacking one of the founding fathers as Assagrande goes of the to the Tour de Colorado stage challenge classic beer tour event brought to you by quizno’s and comprising of bike races from point to point with some transfers in between and an time trial or two. At least I think that’s what it’s called.

6:30am, Hills that kills course.

Cue the drum solo!!!

La Vielle.

Shooting Peter Stetina for Paved Magazine off the tailgate of...

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:43:00 -0400

Shooting Peter Stetina for Paved Magazine off the tailgate of the truck on Lee Hill.

Zoe and me.

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:47:10 -0400

Zoe and me.

The random-est thing I have ever bought at the Salvation Army...

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:02:02 -0400

The random-est thing I have ever bought at the Salvation Army Store.

Beautiful.

Wed, 18 May 2011 23:48:47 -0400

This morning, about the time the exquisite soul of Wouter Weylandt was laid to rest in Belgium, I rolled out on a ride with friends, some old, some new. We rode, suffered, laughed and bantered for an hour and a half. We didn’t talk of Wouter, the horrifying injustice of it all, why the good ones have to die. We just rode and enjoyed the sport we love.

Later today I went to my son’s school to see him receive an award for riding his bike. That kid rode to school and back again, day in-day out, missing only five days since he began kindergarten. He’s just about to finish fifth grade. He has ridden to school and home more than 760 times over six years in 15 below cold and horizontal sleet, pouring rain(today) and howling wind(most of April). He has never asked if we could drive to school, not once.

Today was a sad day in some respects, but today was also a stunning inspiration. Although spectacularly tragic the loss of a comrade casts into sharp relief the magic of the bicycle. Its archaic and simple design, its uncanny power to unite. Today I saw Tyler Farrar laid bare in front of the television cameras as he honored his beloved friend. Today I saw my tough little eleven year old slog home in the rain one more time. Today I felt tears run down my face more than once.

Today I realized our beautiful sport lives on in all of us.

Thanks Wouter, we’ve got it from here.