The Second Half

Reddy, Willin' an' Abel

Plans are set - I'm headed to Prescott this weekend for the Whiskey 50. Elevation ranges from 5500 to 8000 feet. It's a delicious recipe of singletrack, doubletrack, views, heat, and it starts and ends at Whiskey Row shown below. It used to be a serious derelict hangout until they cleaned it up about 10 years back and chased the drifters and punks outta town. There's 8 bars left to crawl through - so you can do some damage if you want.

I might need a little of the Jan Ullrich special drink to win the thing, and since that won't happen, I'll probably roll in around 4.5 to 5 hours. The winner last year was at 3:40. A 5 hour finish puts you in the top 1/2. My last ride before the race was today, and I rode a tough course with a buddy that was on a 37 pound freeride Azonic. It was nice because I didn't have to go full throttle, and I feel great about not wasting myself.

The Scalpel is almost dialed in completely, and I feel great on it again now that I have done 3 rides with it - getting used to the handling and the small fry sized 26" wheelset has been tougher that I thought. I REALLY like the 29" wheels. If I had an extra grand, I would sell the Scalpel and take the total sum to buy a geared 29'er.

Big Steve called me about 9-mile again, and its gonna be a snowball's chance in hell for me to get there this year. Then again, with direct flights to Wausau, you never know. That event is always a great time.

OK - off to Soccer Practice for the kiddos soon......more to follow.