Dirt Rag Catches Rez Dog Racer Alone With Snyper

Rez Dog Makes Dirt Rag

Moabites and other pagans

Kevin and I went to Moab. If it was not 2am by the time we arrived; I would have dusted my sandals off and continued to Fruita.  In apparently typical May form, Moab was overrun with disease...Texans, Tourists, Truckers, Jeepers, Creepers, and New Age Seekers.  All we desired was a place to lay or weary heads and drink a beverage in peace.  After searching...we finally opted for cow pie ridden shoulder/ditch 15 miles in on the Lasal loop.

We awoke to some jackass honking his horn at us...sending my heartrate from 60 to 160 instantly.
We waited in line at the Jailhouse Cafe for 30 min to get an overpriced breakfast, whereafter we parked our car in the slickrock parking lot in the very last remaining available spot.

We climbed 10 miles and 3000ft to the top of LPS Porcupine Rim...and had an extremely excellent ride on a most awesome trail.  Kevin's Diplomat was making sweet work of the banging while my racing rig felt like I was shooting a 50 cal gun all day. But it was good.

We camped 25 miles out in the lasal loop again...but not in the ditch.
Rode Slickrock in the morning.  Nice.

Ate burgers at Milt's drive in...a highly recommended place right near the turn for slickrock.

Proceeded to meet Paul at Phil's World.  Kevin was so impressed with Phil's world he figured it would be difficult to enjoy the HDT in the same way again...."kinda like going back to kissing your sister vs having a real girlfriend" (I didn't quite relate to Kevin here, maybe a cultural Iowa thing?...but I'm taking his word for it).

Then we ate dairy queen and came home.

Helter Skelter...Continued Thoughts on the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde..by Bob

Well . . . it began with Chuck deciding to completely rebuild his front fork minutes before departure and ended when an ER doc at the Cortez hospital sewed four stitches into Bob’s cheek late Saturday night. In between, the chaos there was . . . more chaos:

1. Pre-ride (aka Helter Skelter) – Six Rez Dogs – Peter, Alan, Chad, Jack, Chuck and Bob - joined by Rez Dog adoptee, Paul, landed at Phil’s World Friday afternoon and looked like they were being attacked by the pack just south of the Bread Springs loop hill. They spread to the wind. Every man for himself. Parking in different spots. Fanning out onto different sections of the course. Then somehow managing to regroup.

2. Pre-game meal (Will Night Guy appear?) – There was a buzz in the air before the pre-game meal at Paul and Sarah Berry’s home in Mancos. Would Night Guy appear? You know who I’m talking about. He’s the guy – one of Chuck’s multiple personalities - who famously appeared the night before DtD and left Chuck massively hung over. In Cortez, would Night Guy write checks that Morning Guy couldn’t cash? In spite of a concentrated effort to lure him out, Night Guy was - for the most part - kept under wraps as the pack devoured a fantastic meal in a fantastic setting.

3. Camp Chatter (How do you hit a sheep on a road bike?):

• Jerseys – The excitement leading up to the unveiling of this year’s jerseys is off the charts. Most of the chatter centered on the addition of a sheep. A sheep? Yes, a sheep. You know. The sheep that Peter T-boned at 25 miles mph on the Bread Springs loop descent. How do you hit a sheep on a road bike? That will have to wait. Back to Phil’s World. It was agreed by all that adding a sheep to the jersey design was a stroke of pure genius.

• Equipment - Bob started things off on his first lap by splattering on Tuffy’s Rim and breaking the nose off his new $90 seat. As Paul was switching it out, Chuck took one look at it and accused Bob of eating it. He asked if he could have a bite. Chad was next. Has there ever been a race when some part of Peter’s bike didn’t end up on Chad’s bike by the end of the day? This weekend it was a disc. Chuck’s newly rebuilt fork was one of the few bike parts that didn’t flair up.

• Stray Dogs – Of course, anyone who didn’t show was chewed on. Greg’s top form and Andy’s love life were hot topics. There was unanimity that Andy’s love life was going in a good direction, but there was mixed opinion on whether his closet need to be dry walled. Greg’s top form also drew mixed opinion. Would it usher in a reign of terror or an age of enlightenment? Inexplicably, Chuck’s arch nemesis’s, Dirk and Chuck W., somehow flew under the radar this weekend.

• Chad meets the Captain – When Chad was in college, there was one poster on the wall. Ned Overend. As Chad was walking around the fairgrounds, who did he bump into? Yeah, you got it. Ned. The Legend. And in this case, the legend was not only a legend, he was a friendly, gracious guy who enjoyed taking some time to talk to a young guy with a hand drawn picture of a rez dog on his jersey. Pretty cool.

• Chuck’s camel back – Have you seen the camelback that Chuck bought at the Gallup flea market? I’m sure you have. If you’ve seen him in the past month, he has probably shown it off to you every time. It’s the one that has 23 separate compartments and expands to 2 ¾ feet. He wore it in the race. No joke. In the race. One racer from Colorado said he was going to the Himalayas in the fall and asked Chuck if he could borrow it.

• Chuck’s deception and Bob’s penance – Just before the next to last lap, it became obvious that Bob would be heading out several minutes ahead of Chuck. A brash challenge followed: “You may catch me, but you can forget about getting by me.” Ten miles later as Tuffy’s Rim loomed ahead, Bob heard a rider approach quickly and in a low, deep, foreign voice growl “Rider up”. As Bob pulled over, a cackling Chuck blazed by. Still stinging from the defeat/deception, Bob put in another lap in which Tuffy’s Rim kicked his ass for a second time and left him looking like the alpha male rez dog (the one on the far end of the Red Rock loop that has personal relationship with Dirk’s achilles and Chuck’s calf) had him for dinner.

4. The Race (Podium. No Mas.):

• 12HOMV has gone big time; it’s no longer a low key, regional race. The rider cap is now 750 rather than 500 and it still sells out in a few days in January. National level riders show up and the cut off time for the last lap has been moved up from 6 to 6:30.

• Jack and Bob hit their goal of 7 laps (114.20 miles) in Duo Geezer (50+). Jack: “They really need to think about changing that name.” Last year they would have been on the five place podium. This year they were 7^th out of 12.

• Chad, Peter, Chuck and Alan put in 8 laps (131.20 miles) and just missed the cut off for a ninth lap by six minutes. Last year they would have had 24 minutes to spare. They ended up 10th out of 42. Last year they were 4^th and shared the podium with Price, Tomac, Wiens and Brown who were 2^nd. This year Ned replaced Price on the Local Legends and they finished 3^rd behind Waltworks-Fuentes Design and last year’s winners, Directory Plus.

5. A closing question – Did Chuck’s shock really hold up or did he just pull a spare out of camelback compartment # 17 when it blew up on him mid-race? Just asking.

12 Hours of Mesa Verde-Bob's Lacerations

2011 12 Hours of Mesa Verde

(anecdotes by Paul Barry)

The Rez Dog Racing team took a bite out of the 12 hours of mesa Verde this year with two teams representing the pack.

In the 4 man team category were Chuck, Alan, Chad and Peter.

The duo geezer category had Bob and Jack ‘geezing’ away.

The event actually started the day before for the dogs with a pre-ride of the course followed by a re-fuelling dinner in Mancos.

Heated discussions ensued with whom to start the first lap being the topic of the evening.

Chad was out first the next morning at 7am sharp, everyone’s first lap went off without a hitch.

They all started to get settled into the rhythm of racing and resting.

The duo geezers were ticking away nicely too and the team camp was coming together with bike stands and tarps set up for shade.

While checking out the standings a mistake was noted which caused a bit of a flutter. The race organizers showed the leading team putting in sub-one hour laps.

Rex Dog Racing’s four man team was averaging one hour twenty minute laps so how could this be? “There was no way that those guys could go so fast” said Peter. The mistake was corrected and the dogs were holding a position just outside the top ten.

Big Bob came in after his lap and we noticed his saddle was damaged.

“It looks like he bonked and took a big bite out of it” according to Chuck.

It didn’t look that tasty to me. Jack had a worried look on his face as he went out for his lap, hoping his saddle would make it back in one piece.

Crunch time came when 7 laps were down and the eighth was in progress, people were looking at their watches trying to figure out what times were needed in order to get the 9^th lap in. Cutoff for the start of the last lap was at 6pm.

Mean while Bob took a look at his saddle and said “let’s switch this out for the full suspension, I’m doing two laps”.

Ok tough guy, here you go.

The pressure was on. Out went Chuck on his second lap. He returned with a blistering 1:17.

“Alright Alan, 1:20 average is what we need”. He looked like a steam train as he headed off down the trail.

The clock was ticking, it seemed to speed up too and 6 pm was approaching fast.

Bob came in and went right back out, hardcore if you ask me. Jack had a look of relief on his face.

Tic tock, tic tock. The clock got to 6 pm way too quickly and the train must have run out of steam because the 9^th lap wasn’t to be. There was instant relief on Chad’s face as he cracked a cold one.

So we waited for Bob. In he came looking like the warrior that he is. Blood flowing from a couple of dings, he still had a smile on his face.

“I think it was a tree branch”. That tree must have come off second best.

The award for the toughest dog of the day definitely goes to Bob.

He did 4 laps, ate half his saddle without mustard or ketchup and put the hurt on a tree.

Both teams finished with respectable results (unofficial) at the end of the day. The 4 man team took 10^th with 8 laps and the duo geezers took 7^th with 7 laps.

Overall a good time was had by all, the weather was great, the bikes held up well and the legs were hammering non stop.

La Tierra Torture 2011

Bobcat for the win!

here's a little tiny bit about the race(s) we just did. the yeti and the bobcat raced the short track on saturday afternoon. saturday the weather was pretty good- sunny and cool. we got in a pretty good warm up. we ate some blue sharks and looked around for the start line of the short track. holly, jenny, maggi and zach strategically placed themselves at the top of the climb to cheer the Rez Dogs on. the short track was, according to one race volunteer, "between 1.5 and 2 miles"...
hmm, ok, thanks. that's pretty helpful but not really.
anyway it was a 4 lap race and finally after 3 laps the bobcat reeled the yeti in and planned to ride his wheel up the last climb to the finish. the yeti signaled the bobcat to pass with only a few hundred yards to go. the bobcat urged the yeti on to continue the grueling pace and finish. the yeti insisted that the bobcat pass so the bobcat obliged and crested the hill to roll past the line in 1st place with the yeti only seconds behind in 2nd. a pretty good race and pretty fun. not to mention the pretty ladies and children cheering us (the bobcat and the yeti) (the Rez Dogs) on.
sunday's race took place on a pretty cold and pretty windy morning. pretty cloudy too. it was a good race. 3 laps at "between 9 and 10 miles each". the bobcat paced himself. rode lap 1 pretty conservatively. rode lap 2 pretty hard and then rode lap 3 pretty tired. but pretty happy to be finished. the yeti rode the 3 laps pretty consistently. then we ate pizza.