CANADA EH....

I kind of hate to say this at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, but I'm almost a little bit glad Canada was able to take the gold on their home ice today. I was VERY tired of comparisons to the 1980 miracle team. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I watched that 1980 game on a black and white TV while I was a senior at Florida State University with my roommates who were all from New Jersey and hockey junkies, one of which played at Rutgers the prior year. The 2010 game was a bunch of NHL pro players from Canada and the USA basically playing an allstar game. 1980 will never compare to anything ever again in sports future or history, period. Put it to rest. The 1980 upset of the Russian Hockey Machine by a bunch of punk ass college kids is what it is and should never be mentioned or compared to anything you will see today unless Jamaica were to field a team and beat the Canadians 7-0, that MIGHT compare. Good on ya Canada, your pros played better than our pros, especially in overtime.

Besides, what the hell were you thinking letting Crosby skate to the net ALONE in overtime? He should have gotten hit so hard he would have been peaking through his ear hole.....

THE NEW INDUSTRY NINE ROAD WHEELS, YOU'LL WANT EM.

Bike Rumor Review

THE BEST FOUR INCHES A MAN HAS EVER KNOWN

I'm pretty sure I've been accused of over estimating four inches in my life many times by many people. Today, Vail's ski people reported four inches of new snow, which actually gives me hope for my own evaluations and measurments because it was the best four inches I've ever skied...

The first drop in, Ouzo Glade, four inches my arse.

Dropping into Raspy Face, untouched, pure sickness on skis.

Vail and Beaver Creek have been getting hammered the past few weeks. Get here soon....

Then I get home and the USA scores six goals in 10 minutes against the Fins. The only bad part of the day was when I almost crashed my car reaching between the seat and the console for the McDonald's french fry I dropped down there while driving I-70. I almost got that sucker contorting my fingers in that tight space and then realized I actually grabbed the french fry I dropped down there three weeks ago as it was hard and had hair and carpet goobers stuck to it, I hate when that happens.

O.J. SIMPSON REPORTEDLY RELEASED FROM PRISON

In a bizarre twist, O.J. Simpson reportedly was released from prison when a suspect in the Nicole Simpson case came to the forefront. Police are not sure how the hell Shamu got out of the tank and put "that glove" on, but the fish is being held in a large enclosed pool for further questioning after previously being seen playing golf with the former NFL star at a course very close to Sea World some time ago. We knew OJ was innocent. This is Shamu's fourth murder rap, three of which we know about already.

Shamu was reportedly tired of doing "stupid fucking tricks" for people (in paticular the big "crowd tail splash move") to get fed some old, soggy, stinky sardines and decided to do something about it. The fish reportedly is keeping clammed up about the Simpson accusations however. How come there are no pictures of Oprah anywhere in a bathing suit swimming with dolphins? Ever wonder that?
Let's go ski!

MANTRA, NEED I SAY ANOTHER WORD

The Volkl Mantra Rossi S3

The Birds of Prey Downhill course at Beaver Creek of in the distance. There has been alot of "free" Beaver Creek marketing during these Olympics as they continue to talk about the crashes and the victories at what many consider to be the most difficult Downhill Course on the World Cup circuit next to the Hannenkamp. To the far right is the top of the DH course at the Beav, now covered with bump and pow, and the host of the 1999 World Downhill Championships.Today as a demo day at the Beav for me. Christy Sports hooked me with a couple of pairs of skis. The Rossi S3 is billed as an all rounder, rocker, dualtip, jib you name it ski. I skied the 177 and it's a pretty fun ride for sure, could have been mounted a half centimeter forward for me, I'd like this ski alot if I was 17 years old and into the park scene, it does everything pretty well, eve carves hardpack if you get on it sweet, but just would not be my first pick, HOWEVER, the Volkl Mantra which I skied in a 184cm ski is the SHITBOMB. I could ski this ski everyhwere for the rest of my days. I skied it everywhere, pow in the trees, crud, bumps, groomed and hardpack. THIS SKI IS SICK. The ultimate crudbusting pow rippin bump cruising carving ski, anywhere. I wannem.

Here's an annoying vij for ya.

ADDICTED TO DOUCHE BAGS..AN OLYMPIC ODESSEY

Finally, a moment in the 2010 Olympics I actually wanted to watch that was on MY television at home LIVE, Nordic combined.

These olympics have been a bit of a breakout to say the least for the USA, I wish we were a bit better at Curling, I could really see myself jumping on that bandwagon and then falling off in a drunken stupor when we won the gold with the last rock, but that does not appear to be happening any Olympics soon. That said, I do enjoy a good ol nordic ski on occasion, I've never claimed to be very good at it, but it's damn fun when you are not stumbling over yourself and falling in the most awkward of fashion.

The USA Nordic Team CRUSHED yesterday on the big hill ski jumping, and then of course right when Colorado was psyched to watch the live broadcast of the hugely anticipated 5k relay for gold where a Steamboat contingent was preparing to throw down a big ol can of woop ass, DOUCHE BAG number one starts unloading bullets on school kids and pre-empts the action and we miss it the 5k relay. Another FUCKING LOSER who did not take his schizo meds (just like the douche bag in Vail a couple of months ago) and decides to go to school, with a rifle, and bang up a couple of good kids. To which his dad responded, "yeah, he had been hearing voices for quite some time but could not afford his medications". Hmmm, any red flags there? Just another reason for affordable med plans. Of course the USA eventually sttod proudly on the podge with Silver. The reason they did not win Gold can be summed up in one word.....WAX.

Then of course, douche bag number two better not head back home to Holland (where they will have cement wooden shoes for him to swim in)but instead should become Korea's favorite adopted son after telling his speed skater to jump lanes and blow his life long pursuit of a gold medal in the penultimate speed skating race, the 5,000 meters.

And then a session at the most famous nordic track within 5 minutes of my home to attempt my onslaught on the 2040 octagenarian Olympics.

SOMEONE POACHED THE SNOWBOARDER'S LAIR TODAY AT VAIL

Shhhhhh, don't say a word, but I think I know who it was...

Damn fine day today at Vail with "The Doc".

HARDSCRABBLE SINGLETRACK COALITON STICKERS, HOW COOL ARE THESE?

In the midst of suddenly fantastical (Lady Gaga term thank you) snowfall and skiing here in Eagle County, the mighty Griffin, the guardian of Hardscrabble Mountain, and the now ingenious logo design for the Hardscrabble Singletrack coalition has arrived in a limited edition sticker. The design credit all goes to Jean K who is a master of graphic design and artwork, you can see the rest of her for real work HERE. When I asked Jean to design a logo, safe to say it was spot on. This Griffin, with a chest brand of a triple chain ring can be defined as follows;

The Griffin is a mythical creature with the face, beak, talons and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. At times, it is portrayed with a long snake-like tail. In some traditions, only the female has wings. Its nests are made of gold and its eggs resemble agates. In its body, the Griffin is blessed with the speed, flight, and penetrating vision of the eagle and the strength, courage, and majesty of the lion.
In symbolism, the griffin combines the symbolic qualities of both the lion and the eagle. It is the king of birds and lord of the air united with the king of beasts and lord of the earth. Because of the Griffin's strength and powers of sight, it was believed to guard hidden treasures and hide them in their nests with their young. Because of its association with the Holy Grail, one of the treasures most commonly guarded by Griffins was emeralds. (The Holy Grail was carved from a single emerald. It was used to hold the wine at the Last Supper and believed to have magical powers.) Other popular treasures guarded by Griffins were the Tree of Life, knowledge, and the roads to salvation. Greeks and Romans used griffin images to guard tombs.
Griffins are a symbol of the sun, wisdom, vengeance, strength, and salvation.
To which I respond, RAD LOGO.
Warning, this logo is not YOUR property, nor is it mine. Should you try and steal it for any reason other than to support the Hardscrabble Singeltrack Coalition, your first born will be eaten by a Griffin. Please ASK before you USE. Thank You

THE BEAV HAS LANDED..

Beaver Creek 7 inches, Vail 5 inches.....The Beav has landed. Big snow in the forecast this weekend. It's on, and it's really good.The Birds were praying

GOLD COMES TO VAIL

Via Lyndsey Vonn, way to crush crusher.

Mz. Crushness, Vonn, can you say endorsement Queen? I've heard Buick and Nike are looking for a new face...

With Mancuso going 1-2

VERY IMPORTANT RECALL INFORMATION

Toyota has recalled every single car it has ever made because they were "made in Japan" according to their CEO of shit cars. Toyota insists you can continue to drive these vehicles until you have the dozens of repairs needed on each of them as there is only a "pretty good" chance of dying in a crash related to random accelerating, brakes that won't work when you try to slow down from this random acceleration, and power steering that won't work should you have to try and avoid something as you hurl down your neighborhood sidestreet at 120 mph. The only exception to the recall is this 69 Corona as it was built during a "good year" and the car was named after a beer that later became very popular.

Try and re-sell that Toyota now folks.....

VAIL IS BACK.....

I'll never tell....

It's been snowing in Vail, a shit ton, so what better to do on a day off then jump on the bandwagon and act like this has been the greatest snow year ever here. Fortunately, no one else decided to jump on it today, and the joint was empty. Come ski Vail, you'll get to one-up your friends who do not, and you can take that to the bank, which is more than I have taken to the bank in quite some time. It was indeed a
FAT Tuesday

It was pole deep in many places....I'll never tell

Vail has decided to be Vail, finally.

And of course the standard recovery meal at days end.

The Pillow Case

THERE IS SOME KILLER SHIT OUT THERE

Every now and again I sleep like crap and do some blog surfing, and every once in a while you find some KILLER shit out there, the latest fav called "Circuit BMX" has got some FUNNY shit goin down. Helmets are apparently an uneeded accessory for these guys...

bmx trails 09er from emerson t1bmxrder on Vimeo.

STYBAR ENDS NYS SUPERPRESTIGE CYCLOCROSS DOMINANCE

All things must pass, and Sven Nys streak of SuperPrestige overall victories came to an end today in the final race of the series in Vorselaar, Belgium, when World Champion Zdenek Stybar defeated Niels Albert in an apparent epic battle that came down to the last lap where Nys crashed and Stybar was able to come from behind after damaging a wheel in a crash and overcome Albert on the last lap for the overall points title. This ended the amazing run of Sven Nys who had won the series every year since 2004.

I FIND IT ODD....

That an Olympic athlete that just won a "silver" medal due to two athlete's from another country who were basically thumping him going into the last corner crashed due to the fact that they were trying to crush each other in the name of competition, would skate around the ice rink afterwards sticking our country's flag in everyone's face. I mean if you win clean, sure, have at it, but second? And sort of by default. no wonder.....

There is no question Apollo is a great athlete, and this sport is exciting to watch, but get some humble on would ya? Most of the world already can't stand us.

SHORT TRACK MOUNTAIN BIKE RACING IS HITTING EAGLE....

That's right! You heard it here first, Elgee and John Shipp of the Dusty Boot have teamed up to bring you the first ever short track series here in Eagle County. Six races, all at the Eagle Fairgrounds from 6-8pm on Friday evenings. This series is all about FUN and drinking BEER. Stay tuned for details. Entry fees are just $10/race and we will have a free keg at the Dusty Boot after every race...the first battle will be on May 14th, 6pm. And do not forget Cult Cross on April 3rd also at the Eagle Fairgrounds!

Join the Facebook Dusty Boot Short Track Series group to stay updated on the latest.

DOUBLE DOUBLE, EAGLE STYLE..

Two days off, ski in the morning road ride in the afternoon. The sking is well, hard and fast, and a bit on the boring side right now. With zero crowds, hard pack snow, and some super crusher sharp edges on your boards, speed is not a problem.

ENDORSEMENTS POURING IN FOR TIGER WOODS

In a very strange turn of events, Tiger Woods has suddenly found himself inundated with endorsement offers. Just this week Toyota stepped up to the plate...

Toyota finds the Prius the perfect fit for Tiger Woods as they both just do not no when to stop. Tiger also has problems turning off the motor once it starts running..

KY has signed Tiger as well, no explanation needed for this one.
And of course the economy pack of trojan condoms, which is just about a day's worth for Tiger, it's just the perfect fit for the golf super star. Congrats to Tiger Woods.

DANNY PATE IS NOW MY FAVORITE RIDER OF ALL TIME

Pic from Tom Hopper/ Garmin team wrench

Start of the last stage at the Tour of Qatar, words can not do justice, half a ginser in Pate's pocket.

A REAL ESTATE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

As most of you do or do not know, I am a full time real estate agent. This job has been an expense the past year, which has begun to balance out the fat pockets of the years previous. So be it. There are many, many people, some very good friends, who are so freekin upside down on their mortgages right now there is no hope of ever gaining back what they thought they once had. This because the banks threw around free money for so many years. What did this do? Well, it did not actually increase the value of your home, it decreased the value of the money you were borrowing to buy those homes, and it was free! Unfortunately, now we all sit and pay, and we are going to pay for a very long time. I am not trying to push you one way or another, but those home values are not coming back, for many years. So, what is the best option for many of you? Read this link, (click on the "one click download" link then open or save if you want a copy) it is a very interesting perspective from Professor of Law, Brent White at the University of Arizona. I urge you to read this publication if you have questions about the possibility of short sale or walking away. For many, the short sale is not going to work, they simply owe too much money on their now devalued homes, the bank will not accept offers which are too low, and the banks do not want to be in the business of selling homes. For many who used the equity in their home like a giant ATM machine (thank god I refrained), refinancing their credit to death, walking may be the best option. Enough said, now back to A2B, just thought this might help some of you out there who might not know where to start. I'm out.

Click

Here

for the link to the article

TOUR OF QATAR, ALRIGHTY THEN...

photos from velo news

Belgian National Road Champion Tom Boonen crushes at the Tour of Qatar during stage three and moves into third overall, safe to say Mark Cavendish is no where near this house...yet. Snore. Intersting enough is the Trek/Livestrong U23 team making it's big timer premier in Qatar with Phinney on board. This has inspired myself to get on the bike for the last four days and start thinkin about it. I need a "Cycling Hero" video game to spin to in the house, now THAT would be cool. Make it so I can pick which stage of which race I'm going to ride, which team I ride for, and if I win a stage I am required to pee in a bottle and pass a drug test to move on to the next level, that would be cool.

And in other developments, the "Aints no more" earned the right to be as obnoxious as New York Yankee and Florida Gator fans for one year.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT....

CX Season is still rolling across the ocean, here is some entertainment vij to keep you rolling towards Cult Cross. Poached from CX Mag online.

SIMI CYCLING CENTER ROCKS IT IN SOCAL

There are some nice perks from working in the cycling industry, especially if you work for the best bicycle chain lube company out there, Squirt Lube. On my recent short trip to Los Angeles I had planned on hopefully and weather permitting squeeze a road ride in while there. Who else to call but the great guys at the Simi Cycling Center, who sell ALOT of Squirt Lube. Greg Dodler has a pretty cool story of how he ended up owning the shop, the shop where he bought his first Stingray as a kid, and he is a great guy with a great crew and the shop is amazing. It's one of the most unique bike shops you will ever see with TWO sides. He's got the actual shop side where the hands get dirty on the work stands, as well as a huge inventory of everything you need from Squirt Lube to Specialized bikes, and then there is what I'd call the "showroom lounge" where you can drool over the latest and greatest from Giant and Specialized as well as some other manufacturers while hanging out and deciding what to buy. It's sweet, and the inventory is LARGE. The funny part about this shop is the two sides are separated by a furniture shop in the middle of the two wings, it's pretty rockin cool as you get to shop and drool twice.

Anyway, these guys hooked me up with a Specialized Roubaix "Test" demo for the day which made the weekend. The bike road like a dream, we ran into the BMC pro roadies al0ong the way and got to tag along, followed by the Adageo pro roadies who let me caboose along as well for a while. A monster fun ride on the coast on a perf day with perf company. Thanks for the hook-up Simi and if any of you are in the Northern LA, Simi Valley area, make sure you check em out, they have one sweet shop! Simi also has one of the best Bike Shop websites I have seen, check em out HERE

I'll be rockin the Simi Cycling Center Jersey in Colorado this summer for sure when the snow melts away, thanks Greg.

Once we finished the ride and returned the demo, it was clear the coppers knew Elgee was in town... Sunday morning brought the big show, here Ray Benson and Michael Martin Murphy and friends perform at the pre-awards ceremonies "Sittin on top of the World", seats did'nt suck. 100 Grammy's were awarded here. Then flying back to freezing ass Eagle, Colorado where I thought this guy was a little to close for comfort...

AND IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL...SIA

One small detail left out of last weekend's shananagans was the fact that I stopped in Denver the night before leaving for Cali and crashed SIA, which moved to Denver from Vegas this year, which I would call a VERY smart move. One of my best friends in the history of the world, Duke Brown, who is the recreation director at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana was down for the show with his crew. This guy rarely loses MTB /downhill events in his age classification and has also held some world record fly fishing laurels over the years. What this meant was multiple beers after crashing the show and a free concert from EverClear at the Bluebird Thursday night.

This looks like a great way to just plain and simply fuck yourself up.

Duke contemplates buying the collector's edition memorabilia book from Hard Rock on the 16th street mall

The Atomic ski pitch for 2011, ski design has gotten CRAZY. Reverse Camber is something I've got to check out if it ever snows again.


Hard Rockin it Downtown Denver.

THE BIKE CONNECTION, SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA

After picking up my "loaner" road bike from the Simi Cycling Center (more on them soon) I needed a spare tube which was the one thing I forgot to bring. So on the way back to Sherman Oaks we stopped by this super cool bike shop, The Bike Connection, which is run by Felix and his crew were putting a new face lift on the place when we stopped by. Of course he got the A2B coverage for his tube deeds. Sweet shop, check it out if you are in their hood on Ventura Blvd.
From there it was off to Sunset Blvd for a "party", where the largest fixie, hipster night ride ever rolled by.

WHILE I COULD HAVE BEEN FREEZING ASS THIS WEEKEND....

I was incredibly fortunate to get the grand tour of the LA scene as well as Sherman Oaks finest bike shop, The Bike Connection, which was undergoing this rad face lift on their store front when we visited, some of the local arteests were "tagging" the store front with this incredibly rad mountain biking scene, it was actually pretty killer to watch. Felix is the man here, and they specialize in Specialized.

Later that eve, a quick run down Sunset to the Silver Lake hood and a music industry appreciation party for the Silver Sun Pick Ups, best new artist Grammy nominees where they were screening coolio carry bags for the crowd.... and while waiting to get into the party, the biggest fixie group ride I'll ever see, at 10pm at night, on Sunset Blvd.
And of course, the start of an amazing day and company on the bike in San Vincente, just down the street from where OJ did'nt kill anyone. I like BIG bike lanes. Here heading towards the beach and PCH.

PUXATAWNEY PHIL SEES SHADOW, GETS CRUSHED BY ANGRY CROWD

Puxatawney Phil saw his shadow for the last gal damn time today as a rabid crowd off cyclists chucked his ass out in the road shortly after seeing his shadow and promising six more weeks of Green Bay, Minnesota and the U.P. on all of us. He is seen here taunting the crowd and all smiles....

However, he is seen here obviously shortly after the above photo having paid the price for his swift and not so well though out decision..one observer was quoted as saying, "he just suddenly disappeared".