Damn Son!!!!

Did a relatively epic MTB ride yesterday.

Soon after I left work early, a buddy told me of this new weekly MTB ride hosted by the Austin Flyers (BSS club/race team).

From their website:

"Weekly Mountain Bike Rides

Join us for our weekly intermediate to advanced mountain bike rides every Tuesday evening, July 7th through August 25th.

Meet Austin Flyer’s Pro/Cat 1 racer, Brian Kuehl at Bicycle Sport Shop on south Lamar at 5:30pm for training rides on the Greenbelt.

Rides will be about 2 hours long. Helmets are required. Be sure to bring plenty of water. Energy snacks will be available complements of the Austin Flyers Cycling Club.

Yup that's right, Homeboy is Pro/Cat 1.

I am admittedly a "lone wolf" and have done a lot of my road and MTB'ing alone or with a friend. Lately though, I've realized that I had reached a limit of progress in doing so. In the past few months I started riding the various group road rides, but yesterday was my first MTB group ride."

Wow.

Brian and the other guy (a bss wrench) have mad skill and are FAST. Its one thing to clear stuff, its another to do it with grace and flow.

I didn't disappoint, I hung in there with my SS. Though, I need to change my gearing now that I am riding more back trails. I'm thinkin' between 34/20 or 32/20 will work out.

We did some awesome technical back trails climbing and gnarly descents with a few good ledges. All stuff I had never ridden.

There is this view from a ridge that is AMAZING.

I feel like a grew alot as a rider yesterday. I needed to ride with people better than me to continue progressing. I would not have attempted some of those obstacles if they were not leading.

I also cleared (quite cleanly) the elephant butt again and got props from the fellas.

Total ride time was about three hours. I went though all three of my bottles and could have drank another.