I scooped this one off Affinity’s blog. Sinda Jukka is a long-time Affinity supporter and he just sent Jason these photos from an afternoon at the track, where the locals raced to celebrate 60 years of the Käpylä Olympic Velodrome in Helsinki.
Grain is good. See the rest of these lovely photos here!
From the day I flew into LA, all Kyle kept saying was “we’re gonna take you on the hardest ride of your life”. All I could think was “what? we’re going to Australia?”. Turns out, Cloud Burst, aka Cloud Bonk is a tough ride. Not the hardest ride ever, but a damn tough ride. So what qualifies as a tough ride? Well, for starters, you’re climbing for like 30 miles straight, from sea level to 7,000′. And there are no shops, no spigots, no nothing to get water. Just a crap shot of drinking from “the Earth”. Previous experiences with that cunt, Mother Nature has left me bed-ridden for days… So yeah, it’s not your every day, supported, group ride through the dainty countryside like a lot of centuries I’ve done are.
Cloud Burst does live up to its nickname and yes, it is a tough ride but how can you fixate on the negatives with such a rad crew? I had so much fun this day that the photos don’t even begin to capture it. Sure, it’s beautiful and yes, these roads are some of the finest California has to offer but to experience this ride with your true friends is something else.
That and the burgers are the top are the best! In the end, my Garmin was showing under 10k of climbing, so we hit Griffith to bring it to a nice and even 120 miles and about 10,300′ of climbing.
YEESH! I will say, this is the most fun I’ve ever had on a bicycle before and these photos are my absolute favorite 35mm ride photos. Ever.
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The Angeles National Forest is a magical place. If you decide to take any of its roads up for the full ascent, you’re in for a great day of climbing. One of my favorite rides is Mt. Wilson. From the Shell Station at the bottom, to the top, it’s about 18 miles up. It was the first time I’ve done any HC climbs but the group I was with made it feel like a walk in the park. It’s extremely breathtaking. Since we rode out to the ride, we totalled 60 miles and over 6,000′ of climbing.
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I went on a lot of rad rides while in LA and this one in particular I had always wanted to do. It’s a ride through the hills, over some dirt running trails and up the backside of the Hollywood sign. Save a pinch on the dirt, it ended up being a blast. 30 miles and 2,600′ feet was the perfect amount of riding that morning.
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It’s surprising to me how many people have the misconception that “Texas is flat”. While most of the eastern part of the state is indeed, very flat, in Austin, we’re smack dab in the middle of Texas Hill Country. Granted, the highest elevation we have is around 1,500′, there are plenty of good rides with 1:1 ratios of miles to elevation. When Brad and Marty from Geekhouse came into town a few weeks back, they said something to the extent of, “Austin’s pretty flat, right?”.
So, like any good host, I took them on a little hill loop. The weather was just right and not wanting to kill Marty, we took it easy, meandering through ranges and stopping at swimming holes. We ended up doing 40 miles and over 3,000′ before the allure of tacos took over…
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I don’t think I’ll ever want to go on a “training ride”. I have way more fun goofing off and taking photos on my ride bike than I ever would “smoking people” up a mountain. Unless there’s green involved… Both of these photos were taken on rides in Cali, expect their respective Photosets shortly. I love the one of Ty doing a wheelie up Mt. Wilson. Although, Woody clearing the chain is pretty impressive too.
Photo by Jeremy Dunn
I don’t want to say too much about this photo. So I’ll just say that you should head over and read this article on Tenspeed Hero that Jeremy wrote about Julie Krasniak’s olympic preparations. And yes, she rides that bike in those shorts.
Photo by Brenton Salo
Brenton recently spent some time at the Alpenrose Velodrome with Team Sizzle Pie, a Portland-based racing squad. He shot a bunch of great medium format photos. You should really check the rest out at his Flickr.
Photo by Brenton Salo
Coming off his Guest Gallery is this portrait Brenton took of Portland framebuilder Ira Ryan. This is a great photo, Ira’s a great dude and that’s an awesome bicycle. The original version of this photo was mirrored (scanned), so I flipped it. Hope you don’t mind man!
A century in Texas can be boring as hell if you don’t plan accordingly. It’s easy to get stuck alongside a busy highway for miles on end if you’re not careful selecting your routes. When I wanted to put in a hundred or so miles a few weeks back, I had a general idea of where I wanted to go: Pedernales, Johnson City and past Hamilton Pool. Most of the roads were desolate, with minimal vehicular traffic and climbing over the hill ranges provided some excellent descents into the river valleys.
One of my favorite routes is the switchback over the river right outside of Hamilton Pool. It’s this really sharp right, over a worn-down bridge and then a steep, switchback up, landing you at the base of one of the few Cat 3 climbs in the Austin area. Four of us went out in high spirits and under the cloudy skies, we had a blast. Until the sun came out and scorched us all. This Recent Roll is dedicated to fun with friends. We totalled 110 miles and about 5,500′ with an 18mph average. Not bad.
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