I’ve changed my plans and decided to move to Tucson in two weeks. I don’t have a job there yet, or a place to live. But that’s part of the fun. Another part of the fun is that it’s 90 degrees there today.
Last Sunday morning, I met the team at the shop for a ride. About 10 minutes into the ride, my rear deraileur broke apart and got sucked up into my wheel. So I got a ride back to the shop and went mountain biking with Gilad, Justin, John, and Robby. AKA: The BROdown. It’s kind of like a throwdown with your bros, except not. Extra points are awarded when you substitute the word BRO into places it ordinarily wouldn’t be found, except in the BROdown.
Our destination was the Ulla trail. We drove east past lake Dexter and parked at the base of an 8 mile gravel climb. The wimpy mountain bikers sucked for air as I effortlessly soft pedaled up the hill, but my moment of glory came to an end two hours later when the gravel BROoad ended and we reached the descent. It was the steepest trail I have ever done, and I was riding a $450 hardtail (Tony’s bike). We all lowered our seats and put on our protective clothing. I had just come from the failed road ride, so all I had to put on for BROtection was my knee warmers. I took another look down the slope and put on my knee warmers. I let the other guys go ahead, but was surprised to find out that I wasn’t the slowest and was able to keep up fairly well with John. Justin and Gilad were way up ahead and would BROccasionally stop to take pictures on the steepest sections, fingers crossed in anticipation of a good crash photo op. They missed all three of my crashes, which weren’t bad at all. Nothing was BROken. My first crash was on a super steep part with rocks pocking through the dirt. I went over the handlebars and slid on my chest for a few meters, then came to a stop.
One of my difficulties was clipping in after taking my shoes out of the pedals. I was wearing my road shoes and had my road pedals on Tony’s bike, which kept getting clogged with mud. Two of the times I crashed was due to hitting tree roots and flipping over the handlebars while looking down, trying to clip in.
I had a great time, flying around the switch backs while my rear wheel wildly slid out all over the place. It felt like the scene from Star Wars when they’re on those flying things in the redwoods, darting around the trees at insane speeds. It all came to an end way too soon, and we were back at the truck. The BROdown over, and the rest of the day just an ordinary Sunday.
KENNETT PETERSON 