Sunday, April 27, 2008

Not this guy

So here it is sunday morning and i'm assuming all the heavy hitters are warming up for some serc racing in winder, ga right now. well, not this kid. im at home in gainesville drinking coffee and sitting in my now barren room. i like it in strange sort of way. the old man showed up early (ouch) this morning and loaded his truck up with all my precious goodwill bought furniture and headed back to jax. im back to everything i own being able to fit in my truck and thats the way i like it. why am i stripped down to nothing? i'm heading out soon, like friday gville will be the past for me. weird.


before i forget- get your moms something good for mothers day. its may 11th. they usually don't want much. i got my momma some lucero cd's and a case of sierra nevada and she was STOKED.


on to more important things. is my new frame camoflage yet? nope, i wish though. turns out its going to be extremely diffucult to do with all the different shapes. stupid manipulated tubes. and people wonder why i always go back to my old bontrager. best bike ever, pre trek even. anyhow, still working on that- stay tuned. in case anyones interested, a bunch of peeps are putting on a big bike festival with a bunch of races and events up in jax next weekend. my friend alex is putting on a dirt jump contest so i'll be up this week helping him dial in the jumps. i may even get a wild hair and enter the damn thing. nac nacs are still cool right? right? regardless everyone thats likes to ride bikes and get loose (i.e.- 90.2% of gainesvegas) should head to actionville for some fun. everyone likes alleycats through cemetaries...


heres the flyer.



looks like fun, and rumors are floating around of multiple free kegs all weekend. do it.

if your looking for a more local way to hang out with me (cause im awesome) and ride bikes, thurs night will be the last tues-thurs rollout ride for me for a while. Shamie has already dubbed it the assassins last stand ride and i figure that skinsuits should be the dress of choice. of course if you don't have a skinsuit you can just wrap yourself in saran wrap like the warlock is doing. gross.

random thought- has anyone seen the new villin mtb frame design that lex is doing? matt and the enemy just got theirs and they look tight! beefed up rearends with caps on smaller looking belevedres. also a new fork that looks like a steel version of cannondales old pepperoni forks. neat. also some amazing paintjobs that i'm guessing is joe m's work. i want them to build me a slalom frame now. maybe i'll go talk to lex tomm...

this post has gone on long enough.

oh good band- the refused. awesome punk from the early to mid 90's. yeah i know thats a black hole for music, but check these guys out. good stuff.

dano out.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

i (heart) being healthy.

its gone! feel good with the exception of tues nights bender. at least i found out that i can sleep in my truck pretty well. i hit up the tues night mtb ride and really pushed it to see where my sickness left me fitness wise. i was able to drop everyone but that cat 2 dude on the geared bike wearing a skinsuit on the fireroads, so i might not be as far off as i thought. the top gear isn't there anymore, but that doesn't seem to take long to get back. i do get totally worn out after about an hr and a half of fast paced riding. i'll have to throw in some long SS rides in the next couple weeks to work on that. im thinking i'll jump back into xc racing mid may now. thats good and im happy about that.

i've been riding my bmx quite a bit lately. a new skatepark got opened up down the street from my house so i've been having fun with that. i got out of the little bikes when i got back to florida a couple years ago, but in the last 6 months or so i've def started to pick it up again . so so fun! thats what i did before i started racing mtn bikes and i honestly enjoy it more, but im too old to huck myself all the time now.

im babbling, time to go work on the pump track.

dano out.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

i can see clearly now.

finally finally finally. that black death is gone, i think. i hope. i took it super easy this weekend slept pretty much all day today (sun) and pounded into that emergen-c harder than Mitch into a rock garden. double flat, every time. basically I'm feeling good. unfortunately i think that any sort of fitness gains from my winter training plans are all gone by this point. a month of down time will do that for ya. not very good for me, not at all. back to square 1.

i can't complain though, it ain't that bad. i got the official word a few days ago, I'll be working in Brevard, NC this summer again fixing bikes and taking kids riding for camp. this year is especially sweet because in addition to the room and board/ good pay, im only working 10ish to 4ish. plenty of time to hurt myself in pisgah and dupont. their also letting me go to as many races as i can. with this setup, i should be back up to speed rather quickly. i leave Florida, probably for a long time, in two weeks.

I'm excited to chill with my friends in NC and ride some of the worlds best (in my humble opinion) trails. its gonna be a guaranteed good time, and I'm looking forward to meeting new people and seeing if i can make the switch stick. I'm also looking forward to pushing my riding and education farther.

on a sadder note though, I'll be leaving almost all of my best friends behind here in gville, with is an amazing town full of good people. it also has one of the best riding scenes I've ever been around. as much as i bitch about, there's good reasons that i keep coming back. I'm wondering if there will be people as ridiculously fun to ride and hang out with in NC as I've got one phone call away here in FL. we'll see...

dano out.

Monday, April 14, 2008


once upon a time i didn't have the bubonic plague, but now i do and i can't figure out how to get rid of it!


seriously- any pointers?

Saturday, April 12, 2008

3 hrs of sleep i the last 35+ hrs. its like im an endurance dork or something.

Friday, April 11, 2008

not shit new.

not too much happening in the world of dan lately. work, sickness, bars, and trying (unsuccessfully) to get to a few races. between lack of cash and sickness not much real racing going on right now for fancy.

i've learned a few things though the last few weeks.

1. girls will get in your head and its hard as hell to get that shit out. the only cure i know of is lots of hard drinking, but even that seems to not work great. i think i've pretty much got this thing licked though, and i'm glad. i need to get back into my normal shitshow life.

2. bronchitis will knock you on your ass. i ignored it when i first got sick, and i've paid for it the last week or so. i can't really ride, and i sleep about 23 hrs a day. i see the end though. maybe next week i'll be able to get back on it. as long as im 100% by may 1st i can live with it.

3. womens pants are really comfortable and make my ass look great. i might have to pick up a pair soon.

4. i don't like swamp ass. its starting to warm up in fla and its time for me to head north.


so with the attainment of this knowledge i should be able to make some positive changes in my life and start to get it together. i figure wife, 2.5 kids, dog, good job, and suburban house will all be mine within the next year and a half.

ah shit who am i kidding, i thought i'd be married and out of college by 24 and look at me now!

im headed to the bar,

dano out.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Welcome to the Pretty and Fancy show.

we had ourselves a little Alley cat here in Gville last weekend.



Pretty and i figured we'd roll out to it on Sunday and pedal around a little, but little did we know what was in store. My death rattle still hasn't left me alone, despite my steady whiskey meds, so i wasn't figuring on it being much of a showing for me. Pretty was balls deep in a multi week bender and looking the part nicely. The night before the race we ended up in women's clothing at 4 am, just to set the scene for y'all. lucky the race didn't start till 330, and we needed that sleep.



1:00pm- I stumbled out of bed with a sweet case of the beer shakes and almost threw up in the shower from coughing.



i like to keep myself in optimal race fitness at all times. bonedeth.



2:30pm- roll up to the start and have a high life tall boy with pretty to get our carbs in. pretty's rolling hard on his giant carbon road bike, as are fisher and the tobinator. I decided to put a 32-12 on my SS and call it good the day before. i don't even pump up the knobbys. i am regretting this decision now as i am the only mtb signed up. i am stupid.



3:30pm- Race starts. i sprint like hell, taking every cut thru, curb hop, and stair drop i can find hoping the roadies will follow and consequently be killed. i cough a lot and don't see anybody after the first 2 minutes because of my route. this is awesome. my gear hurts a lot climbing the parking garage to the second checkpoint, so i resort to screaming like an ape while i climb. this works well and i pass an Asian sensation on his aerospoke equipped fixie.



4:00pm- i haven't really seen anyone for most of the race, but i figure its because I'm using every trail cut thru i know and going for the checkpoints with the most points only. Little do i know that Pretty is averaging about 50 mph and eating scenesters he finds along the way for energy while he hits every checkpoint in the race.

4:25pm- I finally make it back to the pits to turn in my tickets, only to be informed that i can only turn in 3 at a time, not sets of three. I'm told if i can sprint to the hippodrome and back in five minutes with one more ticket, they'll accept my other three that i already have in my pocket, but not the one for the hipp. i sprint off and and halfway there before i realize how stupid i am. i could have just ridden around the block and turned in my other three tickets. oh well, nobody ever said i was smart...

4:30pm- I fly back into the pit, almost going over the bars and give them my last three tickets, including the one from the hipp. nope, i didn't turn around. that would be like trying to pull a u turn in a funny car at full blast.

4:32pm- I finish my first beer from the keg and go looking for Pretty.

4:33pm- I find pretty as we both finish our second beers. we decide neither of us won and decide we are OK with it because there's a keg of beer and a bunch of our friends are there.

5:00ish pm- Time starts to slip away. Action makes us go outside for the awards ceremony. Pretty and Ian are out there yelling and screaming like retards and people are looking at them funny. Some girl starts talking to me about my bike. she tells me singlespeed mountain bikes are stupid and i stop listening to her. she continues to talk at me for 10 minutes until i just walk away. i hate her and think she must be Gabe's twin. i am very drunk at this point.

Sometime pm- Somebody starts calling Pretty's real name out. It turns out he won first place. people are amazed. They look at his deeply tanned thighs and Jack Johnson like face in awe. I explain to a scenester that pretty harnesses his power from his tan lines. he looks at me like I'm a retard. at this point they call my name for second place. Boom! people seem sad when they hear that i rode a mtn bike, but i don't care.


So anyways, i ended up with a t shirt and some socks and pretty won a Villin track frame. fuck yeah! we drank ourselves stupid on free beer and walked away with the top two spots. not bad for couple of retards!

dano out.