JULY 4TH...CRUSHING ROAD RIDE, KILLA FLOATING AND FISHING, AND EAGLE FIREWORKS..

Eagle Fireworks from the Burnsy deck

Hopefully you all had an awesome 4th. Reports from the Firecracker 50 seem to be both good and bad. Some local racers won National Marathon Championships, including Sari Anderson in the women's pro race, a very close second and third were Gretchen Reeves and Jen Gersbach, all local FAST gals...way to represent girls! Defending her singlespeed title was Amy Hermes (aka Amio Hermallini). I spoke with her after the race and she said she had never suffered so badly in a race...and she still won, congrats Herminator. Initial reports show many racers abandoned or crashed out this year. The heat was brutal, and with 11,000 feet of climbing over 50 miles at 9-12,000 feet, you have a recipe for disaster.

The worst news perhaps locally is that Jay Henry (Tokyo Joes), defending National Champ, touched wheels early with Brian Smith (Trek/VW), both went down in a pile and Jay was hurt badly from what I have read...we all pull for Jay big time here in the Valley and hope he is OK. Ryan Trebon, Ross Schnell, Jake Wells and many others all abondoned early due to heat exhaustion and other ailments. Jeremy Bishop was able to survive for the Men's open win.

velonews photo

Bishop riding for TREK/VW comes through not knowing he won the Firecracker
On the home front, well, our day was a bit better. The day started with a crushing effort from Fred "the freight train" Reynolds pulling the entire morning road ride and scorching the quads of myself and Steve Silagy, then an awesome float/fish on the Colorado River with Ja-No-Brah and Ryan McFeakster, followed by crashing Fred's BBQ, then Fireworks from Burnsy's deck a block away from my place...what a country.

McFreak is back in town, not sure how these guys made it down the river, but they navigated the "shit" like no others.