Long commute home - If you don't blog about it, it didn't happen.

Got off work today at noon. Rode to meet Sox and Sondy at 1230. We ended up going a few miles South of Cortland and turned around after a small distant dark spot in the sky grew beyond our comfort zone.



Sox: What do ya think?
Sondy: Hmmm..
Cornbread: Let's just turn around now.



We turned around with the wind at our backs and quickly got the fuck outta there.



Ahhh, look at the possum taking a nap.



Sondy kicked ass today. He can ride a road bike really well.



Made it back in town before it really began to rain. Got wet a bit, but nothing like what it could have been. Screw you, storm....

Anyone up for a Summer Commute Photo Challenge?

I bet you can't watch the whole thing.

The Summer Commuting Challenge begins today!

Alright, who owes me a beer? I didn't receive any pics via email today, so I'll assume that everyone rode their bicycle to work. Just for a refresher, here are rules.

Who: CVO, Skip, RockD, Steve, Wills, Butch, Bonsall, Chapman, Oliver, MG, Regina and myself

What: Commute to work or owe your challengers a 12 oz. beverage (Old Style, High Life or Budweiser, Guinness, or Busch)

When: Memorial Day to Labor Day 2007

Why: Bikes are fun and cars suck

Official rules:

1. You must ride a bicycle to your primary occupation or forfeit a 12 oz. beverage of your opponents' choice on Friday of each week.

2. The 12 oz. beverage may be either Old Style, High Life, Budweiser, Busch or Guinness. You can choose to buy cans and give them to your opponents (off sale cans/bottles) or buy downtown (encourage Yia Yia's, Oso, Bricktop or O'Rourkes).

3. Kids and injuries are the only excusable reasons to drive to work. Limit five free passes for the duration of the summer.

4. This is the honor system. No proof of riding to work is necessary.

5. If you drive to work, please submit a pic of yourself driving to coreycycle @ hotmail.com





Can anyone identify these Summer Commuting Challengers?

Branched Oak 12 Hour Start

The Empire Strikes Back

Another Memorial weekend Branched Oak 12 Hour is in the books. The rain from earlier in the week and day for that matter, made for a sloppy muddy race. After 6 hours, the lines thru the mud had solidified and became less greasy and more tacky. A little too tacky at times.



Pic of Skip's bike at the finish of the race.

The trails will be perfect tomorrow.

There were several Iowa bruthas down for the race. Very stoked. Thanks for coming down fellas!



The FFL and company set up at it's usual spot. The willow tree. That tree kinda reminds me of something. Hope it's still standing next year. Wasn't lookin' too good.



The race started in the usual fashion. LeMans style start. Skip started the race for Team Old Style.



Jeff Kerkove was the first rider through on the first lap. He went on to win the solo category for the second year in a row with 17 laps. Ouch. Good job dude.



The battle between the Rusty Sickle Bandits and Team Old Style ensued all night long. Team Old Style ended up pulling ahead in the wee hours of the morning. Twenty laps total for the overall win. Great job Skip!



Skip walks in after the twentieth lap. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.



Kris rocks it thru the start/finish line for a sunrise lap. Lot's of Rasta at the race.



Skip, took a digger going over the logs on his final lap. Sounds like a little rodeo clown action went down. Kerkove witnessed it. Maybe we'll hear about it.



My bike didn't look all that bad. Must have been all the Pam cooking spray that was applied. Unfortunately, I got a lot of Pam on my rotors. Ummm...yeah.



CVO had a great time. That's what it's all about.

CVO, thanks for going out early and setting up camp. Great battle bro. Lookin' forward to next year.

Almost ready to go

I really hate all the prep work needed for a race. Spent the last three hours gettin' ready to go. The fact I'm a procrastinator doesn't help. The problem is, I wore myself out gettin' ready. Hopefully I'll perk up after hittin' the mud.

Lookin' forward to hangin' out with some out of towners at the race. Heard there's a bunch of Iowans coming to the race from across the river. Look out!



Put the new Bontrager XR's on the IF. The WTB Nano I had on the back had a terrible wobble. Third one that's happened to. WTF? Anyways, we'll see how clean the bike looks after the race.



Spent a lot of time trying to find shit in my toolbox. I really need to organize that damn thing and figure out how many tools I'm missing.

Another stupid Kanza question....

This question was never asked, but it was on the tip of my tongue.

If you could only eat one thing (one food stuff), what would it be?

I'd go with salmon. Why, 1. because I love it and can't eat enough of it and 2. It has everything I need to survive...for the most part.

How about you?

Charge up those lights...

and bring some mud tires cuz it's gonna be muddy tomorrow at the Branched Oak 12 Hour.

Rumor has it, that the team of CVO, Milhouse, Fraiser and Butch is the team to beat. Maybe so, but Skip and I are gonna have a go at it. Should be a good time.

A new low...

Went to do some recycling the other day. Vomitron and I loaded up the truck and drove to the 19th and L street drop off. We find a parking spot next to the bins and begin to unload a huge load of shit. While at the clear glass bin, Vomitron and I are bewildered by a guy coming from my truck carrying a load.

"Geez, you guys sure have a lot! Don't ya?!"

"Ummmm....yeah."

He drops off one load and conveniently meets me back at the truck while Vomitron walks off with a big tub of glass. I must have looked like the weaker of the two. We both grab another handful and he looks over to me and says...

"I'll tell ya my story after this load. Alright?"

"Sure, that'd be great."

Next thing I know the guy is laying his story down while I unload.

"I'm an educated man ya see, I've taken anatomy, physiology at Hamilton College. I know professor Douchebag. We was good friends. We used to golf together. That was back in the seventies. You was probably a baby then. You know I'm an old fart. I'm 52. I just ran out of gas outside of town. I walked all the way from I-80 looking for assistance."

"Wow, that sux. Did try the police or highway patrol?"

"I tried the police, but they wouldn't help me. Now you look like a good Christian man. I'm 18 dollars short. That'll help me out a bunch to get 18 dollars. I bet you're a good Christian man. Well, I hopin' you are a good Christian man. "

"I'm not a good Christian man." is what I wanted to say, but this dude was a lot burlier than me and had a desperate look in his eyes. He was obviously sufferin' tryin' to scrape up some cash for his next fix. Eyes sunkin' in and blood shot, rotten teeth in his mouth, filthy dirty, plus he smelled like shit. He was really antsy which made me feel sketched out. So I got my wallet out and gave him five bucks. Him eyed my wallet as I opened it. Obviously looking for bigger bills.

After getting the cash he walked directly over to another guy that had pulled up to recycle. He made short work of him and got some cash. Apparently it wasn't enough because he grunted, "Well, he gave me five dollars." and pointed over to me. I just put my head down and laughed. This guy was trying to shame him into giving more money. MuthaFuckin' Bravo! Maybe he was educated....that's some great psychology.

He never said why he needed 18 dollars.

So I'm gonna memorize all the local soup kitchens, shelters, and Red Cross locations across town. That way I'll be able to help without giving money for someone to buy drugs next time.

If you could be reincarnated, which animal would you like to be?

This was one of a number of stupid questions I asked during Kanza. Kinda makes you feel like you're back in third grade, but it does help pass the time on the bike. Most importantly it helps you get some insight about your travel companions and friends. Skip and I did the same thing during TI.

I put some thought into this question. I'd be a bald eagle. Think about it...you can fly AND have razor sharp claws. You're also a protected species. America, fuck yeah!

CVO, could you bring over those trimmers for Ruka?

Almost game time

The Summer Commuting Challenge is shaping up. Tuesday will be the first official day of competition. Ride to work or owe 9 beers on Friday. So far there are ten participants. Let me know if you wanna join.

The Summer Commuting Challenge....it's like a backhand fist to the face!

Summer Commuting Challenge presented by Cornbread

UPDATED INFO!

Who: CVO, Skip, RockD, Steve, Wills, Butch, Bonsall, Chapman, Oliver, MG, Regina and myself

What: Commute to work or owe your challengers a 12 oz. beverage (Old Style, High Life or Budweiser, Guinness, or Busch)

When: Memorial Day to Labor Day 2007

Why: Bikes are fun and cars suck

Official rules:

1. You must ride a bicycle to your primary occupation or forfeit a 12 oz. beverage of your opponents' choice on Friday of each week.

2. The 12 oz. beverage may be either Old Style, High Life, Budweiser, Busch or Guinness. You can choose to buy cans and give them to your opponents (off sale cans/bottles) or buy downtown (encourage Yia Yia's, Oso, Bricktop or O'Rourkes).

3. Kids and injuries are the only excusable reasons to drive to work. Limit five free passes for the duration of the summer.

4. This is the honor system. No proof of riding to work is necessary.

5. If you drive to work, please submit a pic of yourself driving to coreycycle @ hotmail.com

Dirty Kanza 2007

Lincoln Chapter of the Machocistic Brotherhood starring...



Matt Wills
Fixed Soulcraft Holy Roller custom 29er
Lincoln, NE



Jeff Bonsall
SS Inpendent Fabrication custom 29er
Lincoln, NE



Matt Gersib
One by nine Salsa El Mariachi
Lincoln, NE



Skip Cronin
Single Speed Independent Fabrication Ti Planet Cross custom
Lincoln, NE



Off we went into the Kansas countryside searching for the meaning of life.

BLUE RIBBON: Turn here.



Temperatures were mild with projected winds 15 - 20 mph from the South for most of the day. The wind was in our favor for a majority of the first three hours.



Many fields of wheat along the way.



Checkpoint #1
Mile 50
Madison, KS
Population 853



Quick stop in Madison and then off on the next 50 to the next checkpoint in Cottonwood Falls.





The hills began around mile 60.



Cameron Chambers pushin' up a long slow steep loose punishing climb. <---new record for number of adjectives prefacing one word

Skip and I met up with him around mile 70. Always a pleasure to see the guy.



Stunningly fantastic views that went on for miles on crest of the hills.



Ran into The Cattle Gauntlet for a couple of miles.

Method of attack: make some noise and keep on pedalin'.

Mission accomplish with no causalities.



Checkpoint #2
Mile 99.28
Cottonwood Falls
Population 966





After a 20 - 25 minute break, we take off on the 55 mile loop back to Cottonwood Falls.



Yeah, there were some hills......and of course, the steady resounding headwind from the South.



Skip and I link up with the another fast and strong Cameron from Kansas. He went on to finish shortly ahead of Skip and I. Great guy.



Skip and I enter the town of Cedar Point with Cameron. Don't blink.





There were many colorful species of wild flowers along the 200 miles.



Checkpoint #3
Mile 159.70
Cottonwood Falls

Drumstick for Skip, Pizza and energy drinks for Matt, Ritz bitz, Red Bull and a Slim Jim for me.





Refuel and back on the bike. Quick and efficient stop.

Skip and I take off for Emporia with Matt right behind.



Found a beautiful quiet little lake North West of Emporia in the final 30 miles of the ride.



Also found one mutha of a hill on the southeast side of the lake. Ugh.



Suns goes down and the lights go on.



Finished around 10 pm. Sprinted past a guy that passed Skip and I on the edge of town. I'll let Skip elaborate. Skip was 10th overall and 2nd SS behind Cameron Chambers. I finish 8th overall and 7th in the open category. MG was shortly behind. Matt and Jeff finished together soon after MG.

Thanks for your help Skip. Couldn't have done it without ya.

Thanks Jeff, Matt and MG. That was a lot of fun. Glad to be there with ya. Really lookin' forward to the next one.



Final distance above. Took a few wrong turns in Cottonwood Falls on the loop back into town.

Awesome race. Course was clearly marked and had a plethora of gravel, rocks, small quaint towns, free roaming cattle, empty Busch Light cans, and stream crossings. My hat goes off to the race organizers at Heartland Racing. They always do an outstanding job. I'll be back next year.

That sure was fun. Thanks guys.

Last minute prep for Kanza

Notice anything missing? Couldn't figure out why my bike was riding so shitty all week. Noticed earlier in the week that the 38 tooth ring had a wobble. Yep, bolt missing. That would have sucked to ride 200 miles like that. Time to bust out the Loctite.

Happy 30th Birthday Dude

Sorry I'm gonna miss the shindig. Have fun and don't land on your face.

Makes sense to me.

Secret weapon for Kanza?

No, it's not creamer. Get your caffeine fix on.

My buddy Randy brought this in to work today. He grabbed it at some gas station when filling up on coffee. They're givin' them out for free next to the creamers. Seems kinda sketchy to me. Kinda like crack...."First times free!", then you're hooked and doin' unmentionables to get some.

The Summer Commuting Challenge

Who: CVO, Skip, Showen, RockD, Steve, Wills, Butch, Bonsall and myself (maybe Jesse)

What: Commute to work or owe your challengers a 12 oz. beverage (Old Style, High Life or Budweiser, Guinness, or Busch)

When: Memorial Day to Labor Day 2007

Why: Bikes are fun and cars suck

Anyone else interested? If so, let me know. May need to limit how many join. If I actually miss a day I don't wanna buy a freakin' case of beer for the other 24 participants.

Official rules:

1. You must ride a bicycle to your primary occupation or forfeit a 12 oz. beverage of your opponents' choice on Friday of each week.

2. The 12 oz. beverage may be either Old Style, High Life, Budweiser, Busch or Guinness. You can choose to buy cans and give them to your opponents or buy downtown. Beer payment can be either off sale cans/bottles or beer boughten at any establishment in Lincoln, but I encourage Yia Yia's, Oso, Bricktop or O'Rourkes.

3. Kids and injuries are the only excusable reasons to drive to work. Limit 5 free passes for the duration of the event.

4. This is the honor system. Big brother is watching.

NEW RULE ADDED!

5. If you fail to ride to work you must submit a pic of your pathetic self driving to work to coreycycle @ hotmail.com The pic must clearly show the utter disgust on your face for helping kill the planet. Please be careful while taking pic. Cornbreadblog.blogspot.com is not responsible for accidents/injuries/smooshed squirrels/or legal expenses for mishaps while taking pics.

Bike to Work Summer

Why not make it Bike to Work Summer? That's my goal. Did it last year and gonna try again this year. Yeah, you're gonna get wet and probably be late once in awhile, but considering how much gas is at the pumps, why not?

Spread the word at work. It's contagious. CVO and Hoss had a good thing going last year. The person that doesn't ride to work has to buy the other guy lunch. I don't have a office mate that'll nut up to this challenge, but maybe with the $$$ I save on gas I can find another motivator.

Anyone up to the challenge? Snob, CVO, Jeff, Mod, Sam, Showen...I'm lookin' at you suckas.

Battle Royale - The Mud in The Gully

Yeah, there was some mud and standing water in The Gully. You gotta expect that after all the rain from last week. Fortunately, this was the worst of it. The rest of the course was primo.

Paul, lookin' for some glasses and a water bottle.



This poor guy lost his prescription glasses in the puddle. We looked for awhile, but draggin' a shovel thru the muck didn't seem to be very effective.



He almost made it. Did a nice track stand for a couple of seconds in that pose.



Impromptu trail maintenance at it's best. THOR!

Nice work fellas!



RockD, Paul, Skip and myself moving dirt, mud and sand to create a "line" to the left.



Jeff likes to get dirty.

Battle Royale Start

Battle Royale - The Race Organizers and Volunteers

The God Father - "Mother Hen to Big Bird. Get me a burger. Over."



The muscle guarding the God Father with their.....shovels?



Skip, Matt, Jeff and Brock - this is some serious shit, mang.



RockD - Emergency Medical Massage Therapist

Matt on the mic. He sang the Eagles Greatest hits all day. Yep, that was him.

Jeff keepin' shit on track.

Brock - The Official man with a stop watch thingy jobber dealie-yo.



Skip with the NEW EnduroSnob Hand Saw and Screw Driver grilling utensil set (patent pending).

Foreman's got nothin' on you!

Big shout out all all the folks that helped get the course ready for the race and also volunteered to help out today (didn't get pics of all the volunteers, but you know who you are). Thanks for all your hard work. The course looked great. Hope everyone had an enjoyable experience.

Battle Royale - The Riders

And they're off! LeMans style start.

That's a lot of lycra.



T-bone - overcame mechanical difficulties early in the race to....well, I dunno....how'd ya do Troy?



Showen - too fast for my camera. Slow down dude.

Likes: Bikes, beer and boobs.



Emily - One tough gal. Rolled the SS 29er for 7 laps. Wow!

Correction: Ummm...she obviously has a derailleur in this pic....so Dee Dee Dee!



Jim - How's the air quality at Platte? Great race!



These two shared a bike and a helmet for the race.

Real friends share sweaty athletic equipment.



Jim Craig - "Let's go for 12 hours!".

The heat will do funny things to ya.



Mod - Are you wearing booties? Big pimpin'!

Still believes in the Easter Bunny.



Supa Fast Don Raskey - the name says it all. Punched out laps faster than anyone.



CVO - Damn dude! Eight laps! Hellz yeah!

Lives on beef jerky, broccoli, salmon and Cokes.



Charlie - "Oh SHIT!" moment captured. Way to land it! Thought you were goin' down.

Wants to get a teardrop tatoo.



Kev - Big wheel mutha brutha!

Serves a mean cup of coffee and pastries at 0530 from his garage.



Jim Winklepleck - The Dark Knight rides! Great race!



Coach - Helluva race. Amazing finish.

He will eat your soul!



Tim - 1st place SS. Another outstanding race.

Not the first time he's done 10 laps at Platte.



Jeff Kerkove - Thanks for coming to the race! Hope to see ya at Branched Oak 12 hour in a couple of weeks.



Matt Wills - 2nd place SS.

Inspiration. Nuff said.



Kory - flyin' in the Gully. Take no prisoners!



JB GB. Knees held up for a great race. Bravo!

Member of the Lincoln Chapter of the Masochistic Brotherhood.



Sam - punchin' out laps like Tyson on the blingle speed.

Stand back! His calves are gonna explode!



Dale - havin' fun on the SS 29er rigid.



Steve - rockin' the Rasta!



Brian - he can run, he can bike. What can't he do?



Kevin - the overall winner

Gutsy performance.



Darin lookin' good at the front of the pack to start the race.



Nate - the future is now! Rasta Power!

A "Junior" rider that's not so junior in skillz.


That's all the pics I have. Sorry if I missed ya on the race course. Check out Tom Winfield's website for more pics. John Petersen will also have some pics too.

Thanks to all the participated and volunteered. Over 70 riders raced today. Another successful local endurance event!

Baby steps

Rode to work today for the first time since last Thursday. Haven't been able to ride much at all in the past week. Knees are still f'd from TI. Bums me out to drive to work when gas is greater than three bones a gallon.



Hope to not drive my truck to work at all for the next three months. I took a lot of pride in the fact that I didn't drive Soccer Mom for three months last summer.

Went to my chiropractor and massage therapist yesterday. Pelvis is back in line after a little of the ole happy crack-crack. Instantly felt 100% better. Then my massage therapist put me thru the ringer with an hour of assisted active isolated stretching. I'm very inflexible and have some scoliosis/kyphosis of the spine, so I wasn't expecting much. Well, I was wrong. After an hour, I was able to stretch further than I ever have. At one point, Heather told me to look to my right (had my eyes closed cuz it freaked me out) and I noticed my left foot next to my right ear. Insane.

The hour session was very tough. Felt like she was putting me in submission holds and at one point found myself tapping the table. No tap outs. I left there soaked in sweat and exhausted. Went home and took a nap. Highly recommend it. Hopefully the stretching along with some yoga will help loosen me up.

Son of a tick!

Picked up this little fella at Platte yesterday while walkin' the trail with Jeff and Tom (one cool dude you should meet). We were the THOR presence at Platte on Wednesday getting the trails ready for the Platte six hour race. Sondy and Chapman showed up a bit later and got a lot of mowing done. We got about 3.5 hours of trail maintenance in. Stoked.

The trails are lookin' good, but there is some standing water in the gully and some horse damage in 001. Guess we need to put up a sign that says, "Horses and equestrians will be shot and eaten beyond this point." or something like that to discourage them from riding on the bike trails. The horses went thru when the dirt was soft and did some pretty awful damage to the trail. Probably take a year to smooth back out again. Very frustrating.

Anyways, back to the tick. This fucker hunkered down and didn't want to let go. Busted out the Zippo and tried to roast him off, but that only caused me to burn myself. Thought about using some Vasoline to suffocate him off, but couldn't find any. Must have used it all....... Lit an incense and put it right next to it's noggin'. It backed out and was then promptly lit on fire. Should have gotten video of it goin' up. A jet stream of fire rocketed out of it's arss while charring in the Zippo's flame. Very satisfying.

So be careful out at Platte this weekend. Jeff found several ticks on his clothing during the 3.5 hours. Be sure to do a tick check after the race. Don't forget your nether regions. Recruit a friend to help check those out. Preferably a spouse or significant other. Don't ask me cuz I'll kick you in the junk.

The spot where I was bitten (shoulder) feels fine, but my whole arm feels funny. Kinda crampy and achy. Hopefully that guy didn't have Lyme disease.

Nice try buddy.

Loved by good, feared by evil.

VOLTRON!



VOLTRON!



VOLTRON!

Everyone wanted to be the black lion.

The IT band Sux

Hey Bonsall. This is our problem.

I've been dealin' with it since I was 12. This is much more common in taller individuals who have a quick growth spurt (yep, that's me). Damn you genetics!

Had to quit running because of it. Now the problem has found me in cycling. Gonna start some mild stretching again. I've been slacking for quite some time with the stretching and I paid the price.

Sweet tan lines

Ahhh, the sock/knee warmer hybrid tan line. Very elusive in this part of the country.



The good ole standby.

Can anyone top these?