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At the Precipice – Riding Sonora Pass

by Arlyn on October 21, 2009

The air is chilly at 9,628 feet atop Sonora Pass in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. I’d spent the last hour and a half climbing ever so slowly to the pass and now I was considering the unthinkable – descending the other side.
“This has got to be the craziest thing I’ve ever done on a [...]

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My First Cyclocross Race

by Arlyn on September 28, 2009

Cyclocross is cool because the race course has such varied terrain – grass, pavement, sometimes mud and usually a little sand. This was not the case at yesterday’s race. The second race in the SoCalCross Prestige Series was held at a motorcross park way out east in the desert.

This is an example of what [...]

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How I became a Cyclocross Racer

by Arlyn on September 23, 2009

I couldn’t stop staring at the cover of Velonews. The February 2009 edition had just been tossed in front of my while I sat munching a sandwich in my kitchen. The cover depicted a wet, slimy, muddy and yet intensely focused cyclist – I was completely captivated. What crazy sport was this? Cyclocross – [...]

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Join the fight agains MS

by Arlyn on September 21, 2009

For the third year in a row, I’ll be riding the 150-mile MS Bike Tour next month to raise money in the fight against multiple sclerosis, and do you know why?
I ride for my friend Blake’s dad who has struggled with this debilitating disease for the last 17 years. It may have taken [...]

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Three times the screw

by Arlyn on September 4, 2009

Thirty-six hours before I was to board my flight to Colorado to race the Leadville 100 I was riding peacefully in my backyard canyon, trying to keep my legs loose. That’s when I felt a terrible “ker-chunck!” from somewhere and felt my bike sag depressingly towards the ground. Shiny metal fragments flew off my [...]

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So, what’s next?

by Arlyn on August 31, 2009

Standing in front of the Leadville Courthouse at 5:54pm on August 15th, it occurred to me that for the first time in a long while, I had nothing to do. I did need a shower pretty badly, but besides that, my schedule was completely empty. Wow, what a strange feeling…
I started preparing for [...]

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You’re going to crash!

by Arlyn on August 28, 2009

If you ride a mountain bike with any regularity, you already know what this is about. If not, you may be surprised to learn that you are going to crash if you ride a mountain bike, so just expect it.
Sometimes crashing happens in predictable ways. Like, you know you shouldn’t have bombed that [...]

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2009 Leadville Trail 100 MTB Race

by Arlyn on August 27, 2009

The shotgun went off about a half second early. The blast surprised me as I counted down the last 10 seconds to the start of this year’s Leadville Trail 100 MTB race along with 1,232 other riders. I half-expected to start moving at the sound of the gun, but with about 800 riders in [...]

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Photo Montage from Leadville

by Arlyn on August 18, 2009

I used this really cool tool called Screenr to put together a little photo montage of my Leadville 100 race. There’s some good shots of Lance and Dave Wiens in there too.

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Leadville 100 Silver Buckle

by Arlyn on August 16, 2009

I’ve spent the last eight months focused on earning this. I did it.
I wonder what’s next…
Sent from my (fabulous) iPhone

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