What do you get when you mix 30 or so cyclists, 7 boxes of Franzia, and the beautiful town of Lake Placid?

The answer...Complete and total Mayhem

Before I get into the Tour De Franzia, I've got to talk about downhilling at Whiteface. On Saturday Adrienne, Myself, and Bill mounted our trusty steeds of iron, and hurled ourselves down the East's tallest ski peak. I am so psyched to have such an awesome place to ride so close to us.

and on to the Tour...

Prologue: Mutt's house
after sharing a cold beverage or two with my friends in the parking lot at Whiteface I returned home to find the Tour already ramping up. In a matter of just minutes I cranked up the grill and began feeding the masses while making sure no cup was left without Franzia. Things were really getting going when the call was made "On to Stage 1"

Stage1: The Weber's

The mountainous terrain proved to be challenging for many participants, especially for the guy who decided to ride a tandem by himself. There was Bocce, shrimp, and of course, Franzia. After taking 3 boxes at this stage we finally decided that it was time to head to the Art's Center.

Stage 2: Lake Placid Center for The Arts
In our finest display of team work we all rolled in to the Art's Center together just in time to check out the trial's demo. Sam is truly amazing. We enjoyed the mountain bike movie, and then...on to stage 3.

Stage 3: Bill and Mel's

By the time I arrived after taking a few spokes out of Adrienne's front wheel and picking my brother there was a fire going in the backyard and the Franzia was flowing. Mel had baked up some goodness, and also made some delicious treats of the refrigerated variety.

Stage 4: Lisa G's

This is where things really started to heat up. There were lots of people hanging out and enjoying themselves at the G spot. However, across the street at Staion St. there was an equal amount of excitement going on. It was almost too much to handle.

Stage 5: Adrienne and Amy's

Somehow I ended up with a passenger on this stage. This was probably the tightest stage. We stuffed as many people as we could into their apartment took down some Franzia and got on our way.

Stage 6: Eli and Conor's
I think by this point everyone was pretty excited to get down to Main St. I know I was there at Eli's, but it wasn't long. Unfortunately it was durng this part of the tour that the most crashing happened. I am going to apologize to Hannah for the last time. She had a horrific crash as a result of the rear wheel on my tandem. She went down, hit or nose, a good amount of blood in front of PJ's.

Stage 7: Main St.

The ultimate stage of the ultimate tour. We rolled in, turned heads, and had fun. Everyone won.

It was an awesome night. Can't say a whole lot more about it. Here's to a crashless Tour De Franzia in 2010...

I almost forgot about the final...final stage. Sunday morning a giant family breakfast was had up at Eli's. It was wonderful.

A Funny Thing Happens When 15 People Get Together To Do The Same Thing

Everyone Has Fun

Tonight a whole crap load of us got together to ride mountain bikes. It was awesome. We discussed pressing issues, rode bikes, and enjoyed life. A bunch of us continued the good time at Lisa G's afterwards. We've got a big group and a loud voice, we can make things happen.

I really hope we can all do it again.

Right now I feel little bit of calm before the storm. This weekend should be very exciting. Opening weekend at Whiteface, and Tour De Franzia. it should be a good one.

A "Mellow" Weekend in Quebec

Discussions for this weekend began on the last mission to Quebec a couple of weeks ago. We went back and fourth about different options, and how we could possibly conquer a significant shuttle with enough time to do everything we wanted to in a single weekend (we are all working folk). When it came right down to it we needed a dedicated shuttle driver, and simply couldn’t find one.

What we “settled” on was running the Teaureau on Saturday, and then going downhilling at Bromont on Sunday. I have but one question…

What, or who have we become to think that running 18+ miles of class IV/V and downhilling at one of Eastern North America’s best bike parks is mellow?

The River was great, the riding was great, but both were anything but mellow.