June Gloom
by Rob Blue on June 4th, 2007
Don’t let the title fool you into thinking that I am depressed or in some kind of funk. I am feeling great. June Gloom is what we call the weather here in Southern California this time of year. It seems that every morning it is gray, hazy and chilly until lunch time then the marine layer burns away and we are back to summer. It’s like getting two seasons in a day although some area right on the coast never seems to clear up on some days. That sucks. Where I live and do most of my riding does not suffer this cruel fate.
I am actually going to combine a couple of things into one post today since I have been lazy about writing lately. I have also been doing a lot of thinking about the future of the Evomo Mountain Bike Team. No gloom to report here either. Even though things have not turned out exactly as planned this year (do they ever?) we are all set to expand the team next year and make it even better. I can’t get into all of the details yet since we are still working a few things out but it is going to be cool.
The thing I like about the team is that the we bounce a lot of ideas off of each other. No rigid dictatorship at Team Evomo. Although I call myself the Team Director I am really just the guy that keeps all of the ideas and relationships organized. We steer the direction of the team together with input from the team members and our very cool sponsors.
Well, enough of that, let me recap some of the past week of activities. The riding has been great and just keeps getting better. I finally feel like I have some legs again. I have been training 7 days a week for the past 3 weeks now. I spend 4 days on the bike and 3 days doing core work with my buddy Matt Wright. Matt is a good friend and an awesome trainer. I don’t know where he comes up with some of his crazy exercises but they are very effective and never boring. I can feel the results on the bike already. I feel stronger and more balanced than I ever have. I have had no lower back fatigue or neck stiffness at all lately. Those are usually my biggest complaints when I start upping the mileage. Not this year.
Speaking of mileage, another one of my blessings this year has been my buddy Zach Justman. Zach and I met years ago on the job and are now working together once again. He recently decided to get hard core about mountain biking and I now have another guy as crazy as my friend Youssef to ride with during the week. There are not many people who jump at the chance to go riding at 6:30 in the morning so I really am digging the fact that Zach wants to get as many rides in as I do.
Zach and I hit one of my favorite sections to the Backbone trail the other day early during the week. It was awesome. We had the whole thing to ourselves. Man that singletrack just flows. The views are awesome too when you crest some of the numerous climbs.
I am really having fun riding my Turner Nitrous again. Dave makes some cool bikes.
One thing that concerned me on this ride were the dozens of survey markers and stakes the lined the trail West of Kanan.
I called the Santa Monica Conservancy after the ride but they did not have information for me. If anyone knows what’s going on out there leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
On another weekday ride Zach and I hit the infamous Bulldog climb in Malibu Creek State Park. That is one long grind. Mikel and I took Zach on his first ride with us up Bulldog. I know a bunch of you that know the climb are thinking that we were being cruel taking a new rider there but Zach is a tough guy and he was looking really good up to that point and we told him we would turn around if it was too hard for him. He blew us away with his tenacity as he not only made it up Bulldog that day but we ended up continuing on and hitting the slick rock at the top of Corral Canyon and then looped out and down the Backbone to Malibu Canyon Road. Quite a ride.
It had been about 9 months since that ride and Zach suggested that we hit Bulldog again so up we went. Zach nailed the entire climb without stopping. His fitness is really coming along.
That ride also gave me a chance to check out these new glasses that I got from Tifosi. They are the Q3 with their Backcountry Orange Fototec lenses. I figured they would be perfect for combating the June Gloom and I was right on the money. They change color to adapt to the lighting conditions brilliantly. I don’t like to ride without eye protection and in changing light conditions it sucks to either carry two different pairs (clear/yellow and dark tinted) or try to deal with only one that is going to suck for at least part of the ride. The Fototec lenses allow you have the best of both worlds. They are keepers for sure.
Sunday’s ride was a real treat. I was finally able to get a ride in with both Mikel and Brandon. This has not been easy to pull off lately. We have all been swamped with our various responsibilities. I was stoked just seeing everyone again. For this ride we hit Sycamore Canyon which has some of the best riding in Southern California. Mikel, Zach and I met up at the Wendy trailhead while Brandon was an animal and parked off of PCH and biked up to Wendy to meet us via the Overlook trail.
I can’t tell you how cool it was to start off the ride in a pace line of Evomo Jerseys.
We did a couple laps of some sweet single track before heading up the Guadalasca Trail. For as much as Mikel was saying that he was out of shape he looked pretty solid leading the way up the trails many switchbacks.
We were all blown away at Zach’s improved climbing. Brandon had never ridden with Zach before Sunday and it had been months since Mikel rode with us so his climbing chops seemed like a huge leap to those guys. I have seen the hard work that Zach has put into it but even I was impressed with his performance on Sunday. I think we need to get him to the races now!
After a refueling stop at the top where it was yet again really cool to see a bunch of Evomo jerseys together, we bombed down the trail to the top of Backbone.
Mikel’s technical chops are awesome. I love watching that guy carve up the trail. He just floats and flows.
We ran into a friend of Mikel’s towards the bottom and stopped to chat. He had a really cool setup rigged to his bike so his son could go along for the ride. I have never seen anything like it. Since dad was a pretty big guy it made sense and probably was a blast or both of them.
We ended up getting a solid 3+ hours of pedaling in according to my Garmin Edge and my legs were not happy climbing back up the Black Bitch. I was really happy and excited to be back in the saddle with the guys. I am looking forward to hitting some more races and festivals this year. It’s going to be a blast.
June 4th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
we need to ride when i get my 5 spot build completed.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Thanks for the kind words Blue! I’m just happy to be able to get out there and have fun riding with you guys. Its a pleasure watching you guys ride!
June 5th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Brett, just let me know whenever you want to do some XC riding. I’ll leave the DH stuff to you and Takahashi.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
looks like Zach going to be a official team rider in 2008! I was going to say something clever about everyone else but i just got distracted by another erectile dysfunction email… gotta read this.
June 17th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
hey rob - just showed matt your kind words and needless to say be was beaming! wanted to show some love, well matt wanted to see your blog with his name in it and i just wanted to look at the hot guys in tight shorts! yeah! love to you and heather and the girls..see you soon. nancy