Santa Style

Last night’s Queen City Bicycles Christmas party was different than all the rest.  Sure, it started out the same (eating good food and drinking all the beer), but things changed when Dicky and Jon “Danger” Evans showed up.

Photo cred:  Lunchbox

Dicky brought some photos to make things all “Gangnam Style.”

What? 

This:

Since it was a Christmas party, we can call it “Santa Style.”

He’s probably talking about this today too (and his version is most likely better), but we took the odd collection of photos that he found and strategically placed them all around the shop.

Are you ready to ride?

Those photos ended up everywhere, on walls, bathroom fixtures, and even people.  It was a good time for sure.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, even though our actions could have been considered juvenile.  I mean, my teenager was better behaved than us “adults.”

That’s because he got his drinks out of this cooler:

And not these:

Merry Christmas and all that.

See y’all next week.

It Ain’t A Party Until…

Lunchbox and the Space Cowboy show up.


So yeah, last night was the Queen City Bicycles annual Christmas party, and it was a great time as always. Great food, beer, and friends, all while we hung out in a bike shop. I think I ate way too much, but that’s not hard to do.



With tons of people milling about, it was kinda like an after race party, without the stinky, sweaty racers.





We were permitted to shop (even though it was after hours), and Lunchbox bought a new hat. He was happy to show it off to past Tarheel Trailblazers President Mr. Jim. Jim reads this poor excuse for a blog sometimes, so he might like the fact that I’m trying to make him famous on the Internets.




I even did a little shopping.



As a special bonus, the Dirt Divas were there to sign their calendars. Lunchbox made sure to get acquainted with them



There was even a special guest, Queen City Bicycle’s own Toughman Terry:



Little Miss Sunshine did a little shopping too, and had her eyes on a new bike.




It was fun, fun, fun. Big thanks to Bart for having a bunch of beer drinking cyclists in is shop for the evening. We pretty much hung out until the end, well at least until the end of the beer. The good beer didn’t last long, but some of the locals made a beer run. They showed up with PBR, so that was my cue to get the hell out of there. I wasn’t about to go from IPAs to PBRs. That would’ve been a recipe for disaster.


With all of this holiday stuff going on, it seems like my offseason training is getting pushed aside. I’ll make sure not to let that happen, since I have most of the day free tomorrow. D-Wayne wants me to head up to his neck of the woods for some riding, but I don’t think I can squeeze that in tomorrow. I have yet another holiday party to attend, so I might be cutting it close if I went out of town. It looks like I may stay local, or even head out to Uwharrie tomorrow morning. I don’t give a shit where I ride, as long as I get my bike out somewhere.


Oh yeah, of course I’ll be building some more trail. Full weekend report coming up on Monday.

Maybe I Should Start Getting Serious

Yesterday I got an e-mail from the local race promoter regarding the upcoming Winter Short Track Series here in Charlotte. I knew the series was set to kick off next month, but I hadn’t really though much of it until I saw the e-mail. I guess that made it real.


If the series started this weekend, I would be in a world of shit. I haven’t been riding very much at all, so my endurance is definitely in the shitter. Sure, I can blame it on the fact that I broke a rib just as I was about to embark on an offseason training program, but that would be mostly bullshit. I’ve still been physically able to ride, but I’ve chosen to drink beer in the warm confines of my domicile instead of freezing my nuts off out on the trail. I guess there’s still time to “train”, but who knows if I will get off of my ass to do it.


I usually view the Winter Series as a training tool anyway, and also as a reminder of how out of shape I get in the “offseason.” It didn’t take me long this year to put on that extra 5-10 pounds of weight, and now I’m pretty far off of my “racing weight” of 225 pounds. Who gives a shit, right? I mean, I’m a clydesdale anyway, so I’m supposed to be heavy. Well, every little pound counts I guess, so I should probably do my best to get the weight off before the season starts. I’m still gonna be a heavyweight no matter what, and the only way I could get under 200 pounds would be to cut off one of my legs. Screw that, I need them both so I can pedal (slowly) in my races.


So yeah, maybe it’s time to get serious. Not too serious mind you, but perhaps I should train a little more. During the season I can drink all the beer I want, and never ain a pound. I guess everyone goes through this in the winter though. I’m a little over my usual weight, but it’s not like I’m some kind of lardassian though:





I know, I just ruined any chance of you fantasizing about those hot girls. Sorry. Here, is this better?




Anyway, I’ve got from now until January 16th to get ready to race. I probably should get at it, especially since I’m part of a new team now. I don’t want to disappoint my new friends over at Bike29 and look like some slow fat slob in their team kit. Meh.


In other, less serious news, Lunchbox and I attended a Christmas party last night hosted by Southpark Cycles.



The party was held after hours at the shop, and we had a great time. We saw lots of our cycling pals, ate some good food, and drank some good beer. When I gave the official B-43 photographer the camera and told him to get some photos, he snapped a few for me (well, for you but whatever.)




My racing buddy, Southpark Cycles team rider, and fellow Internets blogger Space Cowboy was there, and we chatted about all things bicycling (of course.) Here we were caught talking about who puts the most bullshit on their blog:





No party would be complete without cake, and there was plenty of it:



And it was really good:



Okay, maybe I was a little too excited about the cake.

We had a blast, and it was good to hang out with all of our cycling friends and enjoy the holiday season. Big thanks to Bart and the rest of the crew at Southpark Cycles for hosting such a cool party. I’m already looking forward to next year.