It was an early Saturday for this Cthulhu. Meet up with Chip at Grundel Bruisers HQ for a 6 am departure to Echo, OR. A 3 hour tour that would put us at the center of mountain bike mecca, at lease for today it was. Fast fwd to Echo, a small agri-town with pioneer days charm where the locals are super nice even though their town has just been overrun by spandex wearing, fat tire bike riding, hopped on sprint leggs and coffee, city folks. Still they were gracious. The day was perfect, such that short sleeves and shorts were the order of the day. Just before my race I heard that it was the largest turn out of racers for this event so far. Milkshake and Case were already there when we arrived and gave me the 4-11 on what I could expect. My plan was to ride and have fun and pass as many people as I could while still maintaining a smile. They promised 70% singletrack of a 24 mile race, pretty sweet percentages I’d say. The singletrack I did ride was AWESOME! I’d of ridden more if it not for my shitty chain breaking, not once but twice. The broom ATV picked me up at about mile 12 and took me back to the road where i hitched a ride back into town in the back of a pickup truck. It was still great fun and I don’t regret a thing. I’ll be back next year Echo.
This was the kind of day that makes you forget about riding in the rain and gloom of winter. This type of day makes it all better.
Thompson to Old Germantown to Skyline and somehow ended up at Roots, whew! It hurt but it was great day spent with a bunch of my favorite people. Thanks for waiting for me and not making me feel worse than my body was doing

Stevil Kinevil wrote the story about The Single Speed Cyclocross World Champs in this edition of Dirt Rag and they used my pictures. RAD!!!
Read the whole story at
http://www.allhailtheblackmarket.com
Here are some of my favs
Despite being Valentine’s Day and despite the fact that it was pouring rain when I was woken up by my pug Bruno at 5:30am on Sunday. I managed to make it to our regular pre-ride meeting place ready for a ride with the rest of the Cthulus. A few of the regular suspects weren’t there but a few new folks joined us on our way up North to “Vantucky”. We rolled along the roads of Washington state for awhile trying to stay out of the axles of monster trucks and ignoring the occasional “get off the road” call. Still a good ride and good times.


As I was making my way back to home in Portland, I came across Team Beer and stopped for a couple of beers. They had just finished their shift of being course marshals for the “Worst Day of the Year Ride” so of course I had to stay and hear the horror stories of the day. Brutal!