With the Ridgeline Rampage mtb race snowed out, it was up to Sean to represent Team Alchemist this past weekend on the road. He threw down at the Weld County Road Race. Leading the pack for much of the race in his custom Alchemist Team attire. The Pais-Mo kit got a lot of attention. Nice work out there, Sean.
As bad as the weather has been for riding in Boulder, it’s still not as bad as the weather in Minnesota. Steve has been holed up through a long Minnesota winter, but his little girl, Amelia, still finds a way to sport the Alchemist colors. Good thing she gets her looks from her mother.
Amelia getting in some saddle time, and looking mahvelous.
Team Alchemist had a great weekend in Fruita at the Desert R.A.T.S. race. A bunch of top podium spots. Ken defended his Men’s 30-39 title from last year. Ryn won the 30-39 women’s group. Jenn won the 40-49 women’s group. Becky took third in her first mountain bike race ever. Congrats Team Alchemist!
Ken’s race report:
Desert R.A.T.S. Report: Alchemist Train Chugs to Multiple Age Group Wins
The Team Alchemist effort at the Desert R.A.T.S. (Race Across The Sand) on May 12th started with a flat, but ended with multiple podium finishes. The out and back race is contested on the Kokopelli trail starting in Rabbit Valley, CO and turning around near the “Cisco Disco” in Cisco, UT. The course consists of mostly smooth double track with several rocky technical sections.
We got to the pre-race safety meeting 15 minutes before start and I realized my sidewall had a slice in it, and was bubbling out Stan’s. Since it was the only tire I had, I decided I needed to boot / duct tape the slice, and put in a tube. That was when the Alchemist Pit Crew (actually the other Alchemist racers) flung into action. How many people does it take to fix a flat? 6 – Chris Castilian, Stuart Walsworth, Jon Pulley, Becky Anderson, and Ryn Kreidl all took over and put everything back together, and rumor has it, Jenn Dice got a video of the teamwork. Luckily the race starter, delayed the start a few seconds, but once we got it inflated he said, “OK, we’ll start in 8 seconds” and we were off.
Chris Castilian led the Alchemist Train out of the blocks and put us comfortably in the 2nd group of 7 riders, with 5 other riders going off the front, and not seen again until the turnaround. After about 10 minutes, Chris told us his work as the locomotive engineer was done, and he settled in to a more comfortable pace. On the way out to Cisco, Disco Stu, JP, and I took turns pulling the train, but couldn’t drop the 2 stowaways. We made a quick turnaround in Cisco and had about a 10 second gap on the 2 other riders. We got into our 3-person paceline, pressed on the pedals a little extra, and were able to increase the gap to 1 minute quite quickly. We held the gap the rest of the race, and got that extra boost of energy from Deb Pulley (volunteering since she is recovering from surgery) and Tom Dice (out of the race after braking his chain multiple times) at the last aid station. Stuart was feeling frisky and kept the pace high through the last 2 climbs and Jon kept up nicely, while I struggled to keep up. They took a minute to enjoy the nice scenery, and allowed me to gather myself. We crossed the line together, and finished 6th, 7th, and 8th overall. Luckily for me, the 30s category was a little thin, so I won the 30s, while they came in 4th and 5th in the 40s. Chris kept the pedals moving after pulling us along at the start, and finished 22nd overall. They didn’t come home empty handed though, as they all won water bottles in the post-race raffle.
After the race Stuart said, “Jon Pulley has been closet training all year. He was super smooth in the sand. Way to crush JP!!!” Jon drew the stink-eye from Jenn last year after his famous Mountain Flyer quote about the course being well marked http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/view.php/desert-rats-classic.html . He noted it was “perhaps not as well signed as last year!” as we all made several small wrong turns this year, including a nasty 2 MPH crash by Disco.
The ladies did not disappoint in their race as well. Jenn pushed the pace early, and Ryn pushed hard to keep up. They worked together and “girled” rider after rider. They quickly found themselves in the top half of the pack, and in 3rd place in the women’s race. Becky was competing in her first mountain bike race, so started at the back, but quickly found her rhythm and left many a slowpoke behind. On the last few climbs, Ryn started acting like a Walsworth and hammered up the hills. They finished together, placing 3rd and 4th in the women’s race, and each won their age category. Becky stayed steady the whole race and finished 3rd in her age group, and was already pointing out areas where she could have gone faster.
Ryn was proud of her effort after the race and mentioned, “the key to winning is picking your races well. Now I am no longer the only one in the Kreidl family without a 1st place finish!” Her sons, Max & Luke, have already engraved a few wins on their race resumes, including the Bolder Boulder, Longmont Kids Triathlon, CU Short Track, and the Pearl Street Mile.
The after party at the Stonehaven Inn was as good as the race with Castilian manning the grill. If you ever have any questions about Peanuts trivia, ask Stuart.
Claire, Nicole, and Patton went down to the Fruita Fat Tire Festival this past weekend. They demoed some Salsa 29ers and set up shop in downtown Fruita. Here are some pics from the weekend.
Mr. Fish found the perfect jersey
Borat loves Alchemist! This fan hung an Alchemist cowbell around his neck and strutted his stuff all over downtown Fruita. We couldn't be more proud.
Ryan with the newest hot-off-the-press Alchemist recycled T-shirt
Claire and Nicole with the Green Guru boys demoing Salsa Bikes
Alchemist Wool making the rounds
The Alchemist Ladies cut loose in downtown Fruita.
First, I want to apologize for the numerous Alchemist News blog post emails that have been sent over the last week. The RSS Feedburner went psycho. I think I disabled it. I think.
Voodoo Fire was yesterday. I sucked. If you want to hear more about it, it will be in the next post. But for now, enjoy this bike video. You hipsters out there with your skinny jeans and tricked out fixies. Next time you track stand the red light, just think, you ain’t got sh*t on this lady. You have to watch it to believe it. Yes, it’s so strangely incredible, you’ll have to watch it twice. No, Alchemist did NOT provide the wardrobe.
Schnyder makes gear cutting instruments. In other words, they make the precision components that makes precision machines. Based out of Switzerland, they know a thing or two about making nice stuff. Glad they chose Alchemist for their custom jerseys and kits. Marc Schnyder is a ridiculous mountain biker (#5 in the world in the 90’s). He can also carve some nice turns in powder. Check out this video he sent recently. It was shot in BC, Canada. Whistler and Revelstoke. I’m told Swiss guys earn their turns. Um, is that Adele, Mark?
Bittersweet. So stage 6 of the US Pro Cycling Challenge will finish on Flagstaff in Boulder. Yeah! But they are finishing at the flagpole at the amphitheater. WHAT?! Ok, I understand the finish at the mailboxes on top of Super Flag is a little tight for media and fans, but as Dan aptly put it, finishing at the amphitheater is like doing “Sissy Flag”. The local test piece isn’t the same without the Super part. You may as well just call it Castrated Flag. I know every little speck of pavement on that climb, and the gruntiest parts are above the amphitheater turn off. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that familiar look of agony on the uber-pros’ faces when they look up and see the Wall? Here is that vid of my Flag descent to the tunes of Justin Timberlake. I’m such a girl.
Flatwater Cycling kit
Lest all you Boulderites think that all sweetness resides in the Bubble, I have to let you know that there is a club out in Nebraska that kicks ass. Yes, Nebraska. Flatwater Cycling is stylin in Alchemist custom BLACKBOXX kits, complete with premium Italian fabrics, eco-Ink, custom Flatlock stitching, and Powerband grippers. While I’d like to take credit for that sweet design, I have to give props to Sean at Flatwater for the killer graphics. We are honored to partner with these Nebraskan badasses on their custom cycling jerseys and kits. Props fellas.
a: according with the letter of the scripturesb: adhering to fact or to the ordinary construction or primary meaning of a term or expression :actual <liberty in the literal sense is impossible — B. N. Cardozo>c: free from exaggeration or embellishment <the literaltruth>d: characterized by a concern mainly with facts <a veryliteral man>
Perhaps I’m being petty, but the misuse of the word “literally” is annoying at best. In the context of an enabling family member referring to the enabled patient on the stretcher, it really chaps my hide. In reference to the patient with the headache in room 6, my tolerance for semantics has reach it’s tipping point. The doting husband felt compelled to hunt me down at my work station and throw furry eyeballs at me until I could no longer continue to ignore him beyond a socially acceptable time frame.
“Can I help you?”
“My wife, she’s dying in there. . . LITERALLY.”
Perhaps I should have prefaced this with the understanding that we do, in the ER, have patients who are actually dying. And while bed 6 was in pain, she was not, in fact, dying. At least not according to any objective measurement available to us in western medicine. (Some might argue that we are ALL dying, a little bit every day.)
Adding to the emotional trauma of literally dying was the report of 10,000. That is, 10,000 out of 10. That is, 10,000 on a pain scale of 1 to10. Once we got her down to a reported pain level of 10 out of 10, I felt a remarkable sense of accomplishment, having logarithmically improved her pain level by a multitude of 1000.
Lots of things on the burner at Alchemist, but I just wanted to give a shout to the Han River Riders, who are a group of ex-pats with a collective passion for cycling in South Korea. Here’s the custom cycling jersey we did for them. Requested colors were blue, red, white, and black–the colors of the Korean flag.
Han-River-Riders custom cycling jersey
Got a new design coming down the pipe for the Alchemist retail store too. Camo theme. Not kidding. Pics to come.
Shaun, of The Laramie Enduro, rockin' the whole enchilada.
Folks have been asking if the whole Enduro kit is available. It is. Both items are available for purchase on the Laramie Enduro Store. The design and threads were created by Alchemist. Like what you see? Check us out for custom cycling jerseys, custom kits, and other custom cycling apparel.
Ten in a row. Not 3 foot putts made, not laps up Flagstaff, not days without eating fried food. I’ve never lasted that long doing any of those things. Ten pink patients in a row. Pink is the color that denotes a female patient in our ER. Blue, of course, is assigned to males. Dan tells me that statistically, the gender distribution for ER’s has been recorded as 50/50. If that were true, then today would have been the equivalent of flipping a quarter ten times and getting ten heads in a row. The probability of that is 1/1024 (1/2 to the tenth power. Fuzzy math? Not sure). Interestingly, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Slightly less interesting is the fact that I’ve never had 10 blue patients in a row. I don’t think I’ve ever had 5 blue patients in a row. 50/50? I’m not buying it.
Laramie Enduro registration opened up yesterday. I tell you this, not only because I, and Team Alchemist, plan to race it, but because they have the coolest race jersey you’ve ever laid eyes on. Perhaps I’m a little biased. Available for purchase at the Alchemist Team Store. The Laramie Enduro has become so popular that they have gone to a lottery system for registration, a la Leadville (but without the insanity). Race proceeds benefit the Albany County Chapter of the American Red Cross of Wyoming, Medicine Bow Mountain Bike Patrol, and other local non-profit organizations.
Team Alchemist Blog 