LIVING PROOF THAT SNOWBOARDERS AND SKIERS CAN LIVE IN HARMONY.....

This looks a lot like the charge to Chair 5 on a POW day at 8:30 in the morn...wake up sunshine!

This is Red Bull Homerun 2016 in Åre, Sweden. More like a warzone than a downhill race. Alexander Sehlberg finished 6th out of 500, and Joel Bengs managed to reach the afterski as 4th best snowboarder, despite being a part of this massacker. Filmed by their friend Johan Henriksson

Posted by Anders Bengs on Sunday, March 27, 2016

I MISS THIS CHARACTER.......

When will this guy return to the big screen....I'd put his ass up against Chuck Norris any day. JSayin. BTW, how's the fishin?

MORE EXPERTS IN EAST VAIL...

After last weeks snow and wind cycles in Colorado, what the fuck is anyone doing in East Vail? Oh I forgot, just another bunch of experts out there. This guy is lucky to be alive.

ANTOINE DEMOITIE RESTING IN PEACE...

I did not know much about or follow Antoine Demoitie as a professional cyclist. By all accounts he was very well liked amongst his peers in the pro peloton. Everyone has an opinion on his tragic death, including me. With regards to the moto brigade and bike racing at any level, yes it is a necessity, yes they need to be close to the action for a number of reasons, but it is a big no when it comes to letting their own egos and driving abilities get in the way of what they are trying to cover. It ads another dimension to the sport of cycling that already has it reeling in the wrong direction in the eyes of many. 

According to reports, Demoitie was involved in a crash during the bike racde when he got mixed up with a couple of other riders, pretty normal stuff in pro racing at the top level with so many riders fighting for critical position in the main group. I may be wrong, but it sounds like he was on the ground post crash when he was struck by one of the following motorcycles which caused his fatal injuries. He later died at the hospital of these injuries.

My opinion is just that, an opinion is just that, mine. Not one other person may agree with it. It is tiresome to hear these stories. They are increasing in frequency in the pro cycling ranks. I've been around a lot of bike races. The people who do not race, but are part of the race coverage or officiating, have a tendency to get caught up in the race as if they are in the race. They finally get a chance to jump on their super jacked up testosterone infused motos on side streets and highways and let it rip, at anyone's expense. The egos are often over inflated and caution for the racers are thrown to the wind. Cover the race, but stay out of  the race. If you can't handle your machine with respect for the riders then get out. I'm not impressed by your G-force accelerations to catch up to or pass riders in a bike race. Pay attention. Why in the hell should the racers have to deal with you as well as the rest of the stresses of pro bike racing? 

As far as I'm concerned, the moto driver in this case is responsible for the death of a cyclist. Try telling the judge in any crash situation where another vehicle or pedestrian is hit from BEHIND that it was not the driver's fault who caused the accident from behind, and you will be laughed out of court. If you were driving to fast to avoid another vehicle, or in this case a crashed out cyclist, you are at fault, I do not care what the hell the excuse is. Have some common sense when you are out there following a group of bike racers, be ready for anything to happen because it will. Leave your damned egos at home, you are their to cover the race in some capacity. Stay the fuck out of the racing and at a clear and safe distance and speed. Wake up UCI. Safety for the riders you are there for is your number one concern, that's it.

"YOUR GROUP RIDE JUST GOT A BIT HARDER, MECHANICAL DOPING IS HERE LADS, IN PRODUCTION.

"Your group ride just got a bit harder"

AND HERE IT IS FOLKS, TODAY'S NEW SNOWFALL REPORT FROM VAIL AND MARK SASSY!

Look, I don't like to get caught with my pants down and neither should you. I had considered heading up to the hills today to ski despite it being both Spring Break and shitty driving conditions. As usual, I checked all the snow stake cams online as well as the snow report. This included looking at the Vail snowcam for the past 24 hours. I looked at it about 6am and the camera showed about 3 inches new had fallen since yesterday morning at 5:30am. When I checked the online snow reports for all resorts it said that Vail had received 5 inches in the past 24 hours which I thought was a bit strange. When I skied at Arapahoe Basin last week and they reported 5 inches it was actually more like 14, hmmmm I thought to myself. Then this TV8 snow report from the Vail Valley and good friend Mark Sassy. He clearly says Vail received 5 inches of snow.....the snowstake behind him, all though blocked by the pop up ad, clearly shows that the snow is not even up to the 4 on the snow stake, which I'm guessing means that there was actually 3? And then states that Beaver Creek received 10 inches of snow when the snow stake behind him shows maybe 8? Call me cray cray crazy folks, I guess I'm just missing something here. My ruler has been wrong all these years, go figure.

HERE'S ANOTHER ANNOYING SKI VIDEO FROM YESTERDAY, IF YOU HAD BEEN THERE YOU WOULD NOT FIND THIS SO ANNOYING.

I'll let you know when my next really annoying ski video is available. For now, you will have to suffer through my day AT Vail yesterday. Rolled and charged the old school lines prior to exhaustion, then left the rest for dead. Ski season is just getting started folks.

LET'S HAVE A LITTLE TALK.....

It's funny, kind of, you really have to be careful these days as there are folks out there who will either try to banish you for life or actually threaten to bring legal action against you for the words you type on blogs, even if you post a disclaimer like the one in the upper left hand corner of this blog that states everything I type is basically bullshit and should be taken as such.... I got myself in some heat years ago right here on A2B that I'll probably continue to pay for until I'm dead. Which is not that big a deal in the big picture, or I would not have said those things. Steve Tilford got himself in a little bit of trouble for addressing the same issue Bobke is talking about below. Masters and amateurs who cheat. To be quite honest once again, those who do are plain and simply scumbags. I know two of them. I raced with one. I think he is a fucking douche bag. It's a pitiful story that is not even worth discussion because the riders would deny everything. I'm Frankie and Betsy Andreu in this one, no physical proof, just words vs. words. Dickheads

Bobke hung out with the LOV Bike crew at Cross Vegas a couple of years ago. I doped in that race. I think I drank 3-4 shots of whiskey hand-ups just prior to the barrier run up during the industry race. It helped me a lot.

PHOTO CREDIT GOES TO HANS BERG.....THANKS FOR BEING OUT THERE.

I've been skiing in Colorado now for 33 years. I have zero pictures of myself actually skiing that are any good, probably because I suck at skiing according to some people. I finally got some courtesy of Hans Berg from our Cat Trip last week. Thanks Hans. Great memories from that Powder Addiction trip.

HERE IS ANOTHER ONE TO HATE. FROM YESTERDAY

I'm guessing everyone was riding their fat bikes again? Because there was NOBODY at Arapahoe Basin yesterday despite it being spring break. The Legend once again falsely reported the snow report at five inches new....maybe five inches new on top of the ten that fell before that. Sick skiing while Legending.

HOW'S YOUR WEEK GOING FOR YA?

 Mine has not sucked....what a monster snow week in Colorado. I hope you got to ride your fat bike and freeze your fucking balls off in all the new POW.

SKIING VIDEOS ARE SO BORING. COLORADO IS GETTING A VISIT FROM THE SNOW FAIRY THIS WEEK, OVER AND OVER.

It has been a monster week of snowfall in the mountains of Colorado, so I have been out playing in it a bit mixed in with a little march Madness. My legs are tired, my toe nails are going to fall off, and I can't turn my skis anymore, but that is my problem. I know how much people hate my ski videos because they are not in them. It's fun to post them up on Facebroke and see how many people do not like them or make comments on them because they are kind of pissed that they were not actually there that day. Most of the time they go ski Vail and try and tell me how awesome it was, to which I respond, "that is awesome, wish I could have been there because it always seems to suck where ever I go ski, whether it is Cat skiing or at Arapahoe Basin", which is bascially the center of the skiing universe. Here is a little vij from our Snowcat trip on Wednesday, I hope you hate it.

Oh, and then there was this from today at The Legend, it sucked there too. I did not add any music to this video so you would hate it even more. These two days sandwiched around a four pack of March Madness games at the Pepsi Center yesterday. It's true, Denver is the best place to live in the universe.

Seton Hall and Gonzaga warm up for a battle. Little Rock Arkansas beat Purdue in what was maybe the best game I've ever seen live at a sporting venue. Amazing.

UNBELIEVABLE SKI DAY WITH POWDER ADDICTON AND APEX BOOTS ON JONES PASS.....

photo credit; Eric our guide from Powder Addiction
In the winter, I work a retail job to help get through my announcing "off season". I work at a ski shop. The ski shop is Christy sports in Lakewood which is a four minute drive from our house. This job also keeps me in my beloved ski circle. Part of that circle is having opportunities to acquire and do cool stuff. Passes, gear and ski trips are all out there for the taking. Yesterday Dan Gump of Apex Boots brought along a dozen of us on a Powder Addiction snowcat ski trip on Jones Pass where it had been snowing for three days. Over 30 inches had fallen and there was no trip the day before ours. Needless to say it was absolutely outstanding out there on a very stormy and powdery day. Thanks guys for one for the books.

LET'S JUST GET THIS OVER WITH NOW....

You are now looking at the next Presidenta of the United States of America. Deal with it.

MIGHT AS WELL ADD TO THE HATER'S LIST.....

JUST OUT OF MY MAILBOX IN LAKEWOOD, A BALLOT TO VOTE IN EAGLE.

So here we have it. I moved to Lakewood, Colorado two years ago and re-registered to vote there right after I moved. The town of Eagle seems to think I still have an interest in voting on their issues as I keep receiving these fun little tid-bits from the Eagle Town Clerk. Do I want to vote to pile an additional $10,000,000 (just under actually) of debt with a tax increase on the Town of Eagle for a River Park? Oh hell yes, let's do it, it will look awesome right next to Eagle River Station. Kisses. That's four times.

LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT, MUST WE GO HERE AGAIN.....

This is my blog. It is a rambling random combination of garbage and thoughts that occasionally cross my mind that I find both entertaining and ridiculous.  Since this blog started all those years ago now, I think almost 10, it has covered a lot of crap and good stuff. It is my opinion about much to do with nothing because it is MY BLOG. If you read this blog that is fine, if you do not read this blog that is finer, because for every single person who is in disbelief of some of the words I choose to type, there are dozens, if not thousands who agree with them. But again, this is my blog. If you do not like the words I type here, and would like to leave a comment, then do so, that has always been the case here at A2B. However, if you choose to leave some type of weak rebuttal to my thoughts and leave them as "anonymous", your comments will be deleted. Get some balls, leave your name, your full truthful name, and your comments will be saved. If you post as anonymous that just does not work, Trolls suck. My name is Larry Grossman, what is yours? Sometimes the truth hurts, sometimes it does not, most of the time it's just plain ass funny. I'm not going into long winded explanations of why my opinions are the way they are, nor should I expect you too, just be rest assured that I always have a solid base for my own personal opinions on everything, just like everyone else. To be honest, I think I actually go pretty easy on some of the topics I choose to laugh at or discuss. There is one way to be sure that the words of this blog do not bother you. DON"T READ THE FUCKING THING....Oh wait, I just heard the WAAAAAAmobile outside my door, better go check to see who is driving it.

I will however leave the comment that was a response to my previous post in the comments section as an crappy example of what not to leave in the comment section. Then I will move forward deleting comments that are posted with no identity...unless it is another shitty example of what not to leave in the comments section, then I will leave it. 

If you have a problem with what I think about a crappy bike pump, shitty snow this time of year at lower elevations, or the fact that I love living somewhere that somebody voted to be the best place to live in this country, then please fill out the form above and submit it to someone who gives a crap. thank you.

THE STRETCH RUN IS COMING.....BE READY.

It's that time of year. All the "cyclists" are out there killing themselves every single second of the day to get what they perceive as "faster" on their bikes, despite getting older, and the "skiers" are just ramping up for the best part of the season. It's been an odd snow year in Colorado, amazing start, and then the wind out of the sails the last month or so. But for those that know better, this is the time to be ready for the spring thing. The snow in the true "high country", and I'm not talking about Vail, is about to get REAL. Fuck El Nino and all that bullshit, don't need it, just need elevation and cold temps. The quiver is tuned to perfection, so go ride those bikes all March....more for the shralpers.

TURNING LEMONS INTO LEMONADE, LEZYNE, THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE....

Somewhere about and around ten years ago, when I lived in Eagle, Colorado, and my local bike shop was the Mountain Pedaler, where I occasionally worked, if you needed something your balls were basically tied to the cutting board when it came to buying exactly what you needed. You were at the mercy of what was available in the random piles of stuff strewn around the bike shop and what was recommended by Charlie Brown who was the guy who ran the shop. Whatever was available was always the latest and greatest according to somebody and when the Lezyne floor pumps came out it was absolutely the greatest piece of equipment ever invented by man at the time, so I bought one. That fucking thing was the bane of my cycling existence for the past ten years or there about. A couple of days ago I had the guys at Campus Cycles in Lakewood, where I now do all of my cycling related business, order me a Silca chuck to put an end to the madness, the chuck was there in two days. This would have taken a couple of weeks at my old mountain shop. I was happy.

What happened next was one of the most incredible experiences of my cycling life and world. The joy I took in cutting that piece of crap Lezyne head off of that pump was beyond epic, let's just say it would have been comparable to Florida State winning 10 National Football Championships in a row. That piece of my old pump had been responsible for pulling cores out of presta valves for ten years, not "turning" freely and smooth to get that fucker on and off the presta valve (it was threaded to do so) and now it laid there dead on my work bench. Great Joy. Attaching the new Silca chuck took a little bit of heat and grease but I got er done, and presto! I now have the world's greatest presta valve pump ever invented. Life is all in balance once again and the stars are aligned and I can keep the old Lezyne head in a prominent position on my garage work bench so everytime I see it I can flip it a bird and tell it to "fuck off" which will bring me great pleasure. What a great day.

Die you Bastard.

I'M NOT SURE WHY I'M POSTING THIS. IT JUST HAPPENED.

Donald J. Trump: Show Us Your PenisUse hashtag #trumpshowusyourpenis

Posted by CollegeHumor on Sunday, March 6, 2016

LIVING IN THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN AMERICA....DENVA.

I looked down the list a long way and did not find Eagle on the list, must be some kind of mistake JS, right?

SURELY....

THE ENTIRE EVELYN STEVEN'S HOUR UCI WORLD RECORD AS IT WAS LIVE...

HERE IS MY POLITICAL POST FOR 2016. GOOD LUCK WITH HILLARY VS. DONALD, I'M EMBARRASSED TO LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY AT TIMES.

My parents and sister were all born in Canada, they are dual citizens. My brother and myself were born in the United States. It would not take a whole lot of effort to apply for and become Canadian citizens. The way things are unfolding here, it's probably a pretty good idea. Jesus Christ.

Canada prepares for the U.S. election debacle and it’s hysterically funny #USElections2016Courtesy: http://www.americabutbetter.com/

Posted by In the NOW on Wednesday, February 17, 2016

TAYLOR PHINNEY GETS IT...

"I've been thinking a lot about training recently. It needs to be personal. A lot of people feel like they need a coach because they need to have someone to be accountable to. But if you don’t have that accountability within yourself first, you can’t really expect yourself to be as good as you want to be.”

Photo Credit....Kevin Scott Batchelor, Velo News Article

This quote from his recent Velo News interview...I've been preaching this mantra for years. People "think" they need someone else to get them on a program to finish 14th in their age group category at the local Roubaix. Well, fuck it, just go ride your bike a lot if you enjoy riding your bike a lot, and don't tell me about it because I do not really give a shit....you've been born with a limit to your natural engine, be happy with that, because no one else cares. If in all your insecurities you feel you need to social media and Strava every single bike rid you do, you are doing it for the completely wrong reasons, and just motivating the people who  already kick your ass in races to kick your ass more, trust me. So have a good day and go ride your bike because you want to, and that is all.