mountain bike headquarters home page
Subject: Giro, Love
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 10:42:37 -0700 From: Eric Muhler
Is giving your two cents worth a new or old Giro tradition? Here's mine!
I loved that Giro! Ugly, wasteful, hot (in my limited experience) that it is, it is a great epic, a useful (circum) navigation tool, a great way to get to know the valley, and in particular I find the last 4.6 miles of uphill truely divine with just a splash of naughty nectar. I only have two Giros to contemplate, but this year's addition of a "Lemming's Leap" variation added to the sordid splendor. Plus I've never been on any ride with a woman showing us her.........bruise as frequently as Lisa was so gracious as to do.
My history with past Giros goes something like this:
Giro #1 - I was about to buy my first bike.
Giro # 2 - I was about to try my first hill on my year old Bridgestone.
Giro #3 - I raced at Sqauw Valley.
Giro # 4 - Boeschen's human sacrifice coming down Devil's Gulch, (a wonderfully named place for human sacrifice) made it possible for me to rest sufficiently that I could finish, and with the Grace of Bill and God, I did.
Giro #5 - Due to Giro cheaters like Jim and Michael Kelley, who stayed on the course, I ended up coming up Barnaby near the very end of the pack, (that's my excuse). The thirteen people who passed me going up were compulsive, competitive, types who mistakenly think that the hillclimbs are some kind of race, when actually the Giro is simply a particularly long and steep Monday stroll. I'm above that sort of grasping, common, speed climbing. Some people don't seem to know that its hip to be slow. I'm hip. (You may argue with that, but you can't argue that I'm slow!)
Giro #6 - Be there, God willin'!
Final notes: One sign of maturity, (obviously, from the many reports, the Giro has matured) is flexibility. I know of no ride course anywhere that contains such flexibility of route. This year, unlike what I saw of last year, (where everybody rode the same uniform, route) I was treated to the sight of a rider (Danny) sailing back down the way we had come up, off the top of White's Hill so that he could include B-17 on the route. Lisa and Abby appeared, as if by magic, at Horseshoe Junction! Chris and company departed off Goldman down a previously unknown-to-me singletrack towards his house to prepare drinks and open the facilities for those like myself in dire need. Michael More led the Lemming's Leap off Psycho-Cow Bypass, and everybody in it at the end, in a marvelous moment of mental congruity, determined to circumvent the horrible and unnecessary brutality of the prescribed route up Barnaby. This level of freedom within the structure of a large group ride brings to mind the image of a large group of jazz musicians all blowing beautiful, individual riffs, at once off the same changes. Dirt Dixieland in the pastoral groove, ala Miles, Keith, and Coltrane all bringing eras, styles, energies, and variations of texture to the great, mashed, mix.
The food was fantastic, too. Thanks to Brent and Nanette for hosting the fabulous party, Juan and Barbita for their unflagging dictatorship, and of course, all the Freaks for their fantastic trails and love of riding. It was a great day. Let's hope the temperature trend continues in the downward direction.
El Mule-o Eric Muhler The Grand Vizier
ericmuhler@btceastbay.org
http://www.btceastbay.org