Weekend of fun

My Friday night was way more exciting than normal with the infamous Downieville on-line registration at 8pm. I can't give away all my secrets, but I definitely had the computer up and web pages ready to go by 7:45. 7:55 rolls around and i give it an early test click and the page goes through - already open... type away my contact info as quickly as possible, click "proceed" and the page refreshes with a red error at the top - invalid passcode. What passcode? Sure enough there was a passcode field. I go back to the race home page, call a friend, and see all the "feedback" comments popping up on active "passcode, what's the bleeping passcode?" things got heated real quick and somebody posts "sierra buttes "trailstewardship" ring a bell?" Just in case this could be it I copy and paste that and the registration goes through. I quickly type payment info and I'm in! Tim Z is on the phone trying to do the same and no luck - sold out... Then the drama starts over with the cross country registration page. Was the passcode just a way for the promotors to let their NorCal buddies in? Either way a lot of people were really unhappy with the whole thing.

Saturday morning I check my email and see "downieville registration error" The message from the promoter says something about problems with active.com, that everyone is getting a refund and next Friday is the RE-DO. WHAT? Re-do? These guys need to just do a lottery and save everyone a lot of trouble.

Anyway, if that's the biggest controversy in mtn biking, we're pretty lucky considering what Floyd Landis is going through right now. He definitely got screwed by some serious politics in France. If mountain biking was a multi-million dollar sport we'd have the same kind of issues.

This morning I rode with Noah in a fun local event in Simi Valley - 90min relay race. Despite a rainy evening the conditions were perfect and there was a decent turnout of 200 or so Los Angeles area riders. The laps turned out to be only 7min long at full race pace and we had to alternate every time so it turned into a really good workout. 7min full on then 7min trying to spin while waiting for the next lap. Fun stuff! Lunch was at the only place worth stopping along the 405 - The Local Place - the take out restaurant of the Royal Hawaiian Bread factory. Mmm pulled pork and rice Hawaiian style.