I'm still steaming and have the adrenalin buzz from riding perhaps the most technical bike race course I've ever done. More technical than SSWC2005 in State College, Pennsylvania? I think so. But the kind of technical that you simply don't get sick of. As I said in my previous post, there are so many roots and rocks here, so we renamed it Rockholm. The ride started with a 20 minute rollout through town to a ski hill. Then the lemans start up the ski hill was dumb as usual but completely necessary to string out the couple hundred riders before…

T-minus 7 hours and 40 minutes until rollout of SSWC2006. Yes that's right, reporting to you from lovely Stockholm, Sweden, in just a short amount of time a mass of singlespeeders from around the world will leave the local bar throughout the town of 800,000 to the trails that await our carcasses. The trails are much more technical than I'd expected. If tree roots were a sellable commodity, I think Sweden would be the most wealthy country in the world. If any of you though State College, Pennsylvania offered a difficult course last yéar with rock garden after rock garden,…

Yesterday, my ortho surgeon put my ankle back together with 8 screws and a metal plate. Everything went well, and I hope to be back on a bike in a 8-10 weeks. My struggle will be waiting an appropriate amount of time before I start pushing myself again. I don't want to go out of the gate too fast and have this injury nag me for the rest of my life. -----

Dave mentioned in his last blog post about the possibility of me going to SSWC in his place after he broke his foot skateboarding at 4:30 in the morning. Well, I did not go to Stockholm. This is largely due to a very painful condition from which I suffer called Midwestern Responsibility. Oh, I thought about going --thought real hard, mind you-- and was almost there. Dr. Nick had everything set to transfer the ticket if I gave the word, I warned the lovely and talented Ms. Bloggins of my impending departure (baby, you're the greatest!), and I begged my…

Friday morning, about 4:00am, was perfect for a run to the 24-hour grocery store on the longboard; the temp was about 21C and the moon was almost full. So I set off on one of my usual routes. There was a slight headwind, but I knew I'd appreciate it on the return trip. I got to the store, and the crew was cleaning the floor in the area I wanted to shop. So I left. No big deal. The trip was mostly about playing on my board…less about shopping. I bombed down the hill on Ford Parkway on the way…