Alex ... the "Dolppinator"?

Who cares about Obama or Clinton?

Vote for the important stuff! Finalist #3 here. Friends helping friends.

Thanks.

I raced...

... and almost won the 6 hours of Addison Oaks. Glad the big win went to teammate Christian, who is simply fast.

So I ended up 2nd (out of 17) in the 30-39 group, but also out of all Solo 6 hour riders. Did not expect that at all, which makes the result even more enjoyable.

Props goes to the other 2 WOLVERINE/AMERICAN C& F teammates Bill, who won the 40 and up category - and Robert, still placing high despite lower back pain lately.

Pretty nice video from "mattmtb"

Anybody took pictures at the race?

The big BLIP

The big rides just keep on coming... Brent invited for the PILB 100, but due to the Hermitman creativity the ride turned into the BLIP 100.

That sounds good, so good that I think it could be right up there with the latest BOOBS 100, Jim's clsssic HIP 100, the infamous PIMP 150 and the untitled 162 mile day.

Perfect day yesterday for a long ride, thanks to
- Brent for setting it up and showing us new routes
- Bill for riding faster than the speed of sound at the Poto
- Cruise for being honest about the trails he liked and disliked
- Robert for the name and the artwork
- Jim, always good having you around

Even though I had to cut the ride short and skipped Brighton I was still able to witness the highlight of the day. Don't know if the squirrel was on a suicide mission when it ran into our group on the dirtroad, or just out mixing up it's daily routine. Maybe it just wanted to step it up a notch... Hope that was the case, since we could totally deliver it for the little guy. It ran into Brent's rear wheel, was catapulted up 4 feet in the air, where it flew by Bill's Camelbak, just to land in another set of spokes and catch some serious air again. Good thing is he ran away afterwards - not in straight line though...

Woah - Check out Chile

Remember my bike trip to Chile in January 08? On day 6 of that trip I arrived in Chaiten from where I started one of my most epic bike days I ever had.

Now I read in the news that the "Chaiten" (the vulcano 6 miles away from town) erupted last week. They had to evacuate the town itself and an area of 30 miles around the mountain.

Nobody expected this vulcano to be still active, based on some crazy geology math they calculated the last time it erupted was 9430 years ago. That's a long time.

Do some math, and you'll realize that the duration of 1 sec in relation to one day is pretty much as long as 5 months are in relation to 9430 years... man, that was close.

The pictures I could have been taken if I had been there...

How did this just happen?

Big sorry to all the members of the SLR (Stupid Long Riding) Series... we did the HIP 100, the PIMP 150, and kept talking about the one special ride, and it all came together today out of nowhere.

Met up with the Hermitman for some leisurly miles, and when we rolled out we decided to ride Bloomer, Bald Mtn and Stony - maybe even Addison Oaks. All of a sudden it dawned on us that we should replace Addison by Orion and bum - there we have it.

Bloomer, Orion Oaks, Bald Mtn, Stony - all connected with a start out of Royal Oak will give you 100 miles (and an empty stomach).

HIP 100

Great epic day, too many stories that even those pictures (and the video) can't tell...

NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Ride the D. Ride the D again.

5:20 AM departure for a long day on the bike - pretty much started rolling straight out of bed.

Arrived at the old historic Fort Wayne just in time for the BeatTheTrain ride. Hijacked downtown with about 15 riders, and put knobby tires in Germantown, on Belle Isle, between burried bodies and through the Heidelberg Project.

Bring on the sun

The German and his town

BTT crowd

Heidelberg Project...

... more of it

Wake up, Detroit!

Rise, Shine and Bike Belle Isle.

Mike and I then abandoned the ride and made our way back to Ferndale, just in time for HoDaddy's event. We found ourselves in the position of being the honorable ride leaders and had over 60 people chase us on Woodward back into the heart of the D. Ventured off onto Cobo parking roof, Riverfront, Belle Isle (again...), Elmwood Cementary (again...), Heidelberg Project (again...) and split of with a fine small group into Hamtramk for the last highlight of the day - the somewhat hard to find Homemade Disneyland. 2 beers at mile 95 sent me into a state of complete dizziness, and I finally crashed 5 miles later... luckily I had my coach under my ass, so that was actually pretty nice.

Mike (just back from an internship as Alaskan fisherman)