whiKKKEEEE

Whiskey AZ called an there i went.    Well lemme start a lil before; went on down to see the inlaw’s new place on a golfcourse in north scotsdale. Whoa, lots of beautiful desert underneath all that pave and homes and golfcourses. Anyway, the weather was delightful and we busted through FLG en route to Carefree AZ. Day two i thought i oughta take a spin on the niner which went back to ss whiskey wagon in preparation for the WHIkke Offroad Classic I was to attend. On up the road i went into the tonto nat’l forest where i tried to sniff out some singletrack. Not wanting to get to far afield on our only full day with the inlaws i opted to hop a gate into a ‘preserve’ where i happily ascended a narrow well maintained double track thinking i’d eventually arrive at an overlook, and see the house. Well a while later i sensed the top and rode around the final corner. A 100 yds up was a house with black windows set in to the hill and immediately a fellow in black pants and t shirt came out of a side door with something glinting in his hands, looked at me, placed it at head height behind a bush and returned inside. I promptly turned and burned at a lovely pace down the umpteen switchbacks, power sliding most of them. His position, somewhere within the national forest looking south at Phoenix, with a very large aquifer underneath his mountain seemed rather ominous. Anyhow the desert and mountains of AZ are beautiful and the energy is crazy.

At about 4:20 0n saturday morning i slipped off up to Prescott arriving at the Prescotonian where Dave the fevre was chammyin’ up and gettin ready to race the Whiskey Offroad Single Speed 50 miler for the chance to win a free ticket to SSWC11 Ireland. I punched him in the nuts and rode off up the course to begin my day of disorganizin’ and discombobulatin’ with a stop for beers en route. Of course i got lost on the road section looping a cul de sac and coming right back into the middle of the race where i remained. At the first rock in the first corner of singletrack after the 6 mi-ish warmup the peleton got reduced to walking and headed off through the bushes cutting switchbacks. Upon reaching the point where racers were getting back on their bikes i parked and began offering shots of scotch and pbr. As expected at quarter till 8 on saturday morning in the begining of a fifty mile punisher, he singlespeeders were 9 times as likely to take a shot and a beer than girls, gearies, and smart people. Sometimes the STomprz Stomp so you don’t have to.

As the cluster diffused in the corner a random rider spun up, in full red cliff bar team kit and as he rode by i hopped on his wheel asking why he was out there, ‘training for the PRO race on sunday’ of course. And i proceeded to have the most perfect PRo training ride i could have asked for, where the PRO politely waits behind all the racers, allowing me to catch back on, and rips passes at opportune times. Of course I happily passed in the bushes trying to keep up with him until i filled my right hand up with cactus on one of the sweet DH’s.  At one point while we were bogged down on a climb behind walkers, i offered that he might enjoy training with the case of beer i had on my back. He just grabbed the handlebars of my loaded niner and continued to spin slowly up the climb that people were walking while wheeling my bike next to him. Maybe that wore him out because he was 15 min off the pace on sunday finishing 18th. Brady Kappius, Go Go Go.

The more likely people a STompR might find themselves disorganized at a race with were the AZ Drunk Cyclists who were complementing my scotch with their bourbon and the SUnday Cycles crew had a Keg atop the final climb where I finally managed to get drunk before ripping the course back in to town. Dave Lefevre Stomped Strong with a pull of uphill whiskey en route to 7th, 17 minutes down or so. We were slightly silly but deemed it prudent after a burger and some ceremony to head the hour and a half to Sedona where we met the lovely baby momma and her dad for dinner and spent the night in Grandma Lefeveres earthly home, rolling home from sedona today.

Back to snow town where the Precip continues to fly in white flakey form here on the first of May, hooray,  next weekend for a lil disorganizing and STOMPN at the 18 hours of Fruita.