Jan 2nd, Death March!

Hello Everyone,

What a day! We started out with about 10-12 brave souls heading out for the full monte. A surprise visit by multiple time National Cyclocross Champion Tim Johnson and his wife Lynn made all of us work a little harder than usual up Old San Marcos and 154 but we pretty much stuck together and got to the Armour Ranch turn-off as a group. There we were joined by a few reinforcements including Kim McD, David Jurist, Mike Abbott, Gene, and a few others. A little later we were also joined by a few of Mike Hecker's Coastal Tree care riders so we had a pretty good sized group as we approached the base of Figueroa Mtn. The climb was long and relentless but with some pretty spectacular scenery. As would be expected there were riders spread all over the mountain but everyone made it to the top in one piece. Except for Carson Blume. He ended up taking a little dip in one of the small creek crossings on the way up. Luckily the new white Chicken Ranch kit is "water safe". Near the top of Fig we were joined by Susie and Kimberly and we rode as a group into Los Olivos for a little lunch stop at the Country Market. I was feeling pretty worked at this point but a nice tri-tip sandwich and a coke brought me right back from the edge. At this point some there was some dissention in the ranks. Tim Johnson decided he was going to ride back home along 154 and back the way we came thus shortening the ride considerably. My guess is he was intimidated by the depth of talent within Team Chicken Ranch and the relentless pace that we maintain and he felt that to continue on would simply be too difficult. Afterall he has Cyclocross Worlds coming up in 3 weeks......Then again maybe he was just bored of riding around with a bunch of weekend warriors?....I'm going with my first guess. Several other riders also opted for the "shorter" loop leaving only 5 brave, hearty souls to continue on. Gabe Garcia, Dan Rudd, Carson, Blume, Randall Tinney, and myself. Fortunately we had a few Coastal Tree Care boys willing to escort us all the way to the end of Alisal and the 101. Thanks guys we owe you one!



We did a great job of working together and made great time down the 101 taking turns on the front. Once again I slightly over-estimated the distance of this ride and it only ended up being 104 miles (from In-N-Out) instead of the 117 I had originally thought. I took us just under 7 hours total time including the lunch stop and a few regroups....not too shabby. We have to do this ride again! It's a great loop and not as difficult as I intially thought it might be. Don't get me wrong...it's tough....but it's not a death march. The only real mishap on the whole ride was when I dropped my camera going about 30 mph down the back side of Figueroa. Thankfully, it survived. Looking forward to doing a few more big rides next weekend!

See ya,

Matt

Happy 2010

Hello Everyone,

What a great way to start out the new year! We had a fantastic ride up Little Pine and Camuesa Connector this morning. Great turnout! with about 20 riders starting out at 9:00am from Lower Oso. The fireroad had these sections of sticky mud that made the climb a little tougher but we all made it up without to many problems. It was good to see Greg Knowles out there ridin' like a champ. Angelo showed up for I believe his first Mountain Chicken ride and showed that he's been hiding some impressive MTB skills from all of us, but now the cat's outta the bag. Steve Boelter showed up in his new CR kit lookin' good! I've seen him plenty of times in his old Platinum kit and I always thought he was a nice guy, but until I saw him in a CR kit I never realized just how handsome he really is. Black and red are definitely his colors.....he must be a summer.



The Santa Cruz trail is world class, and in great condition. The ride down was a blast. I'd forgotten that Little Pine is higher than the front range and you can still see the ocean and the islands from the summit....stunning. When we got to the bottom a few of us decided to climb the 19 Oaks trail as a "shortcut" back over to the top of Camuesa Connector. Dave has appropriately renamed the 19 Oaks trail the "19 hikes" trail but it got us where we wanted to go. When we finally got back to the cars Luke, Jonathon, and Greg were already there drinking beers and hanging out. I was a little embarrassed for Luke 'cause he was drinking "girl" beer......bud light with lime. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just pictured Luke being more of a Sam Adams, or Colt 45, kinda guy, but at least now I'll know what kinda beer to get for the Team Chicken Ranch end of the year party.

Well, time to rest up! I want to make sure I have plenty of energy to lay on the side of road with double leg cramps during tomorrows ride! Anyone who didn't ride today is going to have to do all the pulling at the front tomorrow.........Aaron Baker, Dan Rudd, Randy.....this means you!

See ya in the morning!

Matt

December Mountain Bike Fun!

We had a nice little turnout of 6 Chickens for a great ride on Sunday.

It was a bit chilly early, my computer showed as low as 41 degrees early in the ride, but it warmed up quickly and the trails were in epic condition, very Nice! The Magnolia contingent registered about 40 miles and 4000’ feet of climbing in just over 4 hours, others probably came in a bit lower.



A couple high/low lights included Fastrack, Iron Mike and Platinum Nick cleaning the rock wall, then Big Rob pausing to take a bath trailside, and I got the chance to ride the final 25 miles or so with only one foot clipped in due to a pedal spring failure.



Hope to see a few more ‘smiling’ faces next time. It looks like the first Team Big Bear XC race event will be Sagebrush Safari on Feb 28, not too far away at all….

Ride On!

Paul

New Years Day 2010-Little Pine

In case you missed all the muddy fun on New Years Day, you check it out by watching the video.

Chicken Ranch's Year In Review, Sort of!

This is the time of year that all those year in review stories hit the airwaves.

Why should we be any different?

We celebrated a State Champion, enjoyed many a fun ride and the trash talk never stopped, but below were some of the highlights or maybe low lights of 09.

In 2008, our Team Leader used a very unusual form of cross training,

2009 wasn't any different. Mr. Chicken Ranch aka (The Mutant or LJ) used a strange secret training method.

He even forced his children in to doing this irrational form of training (notice the look of pain on young Benko)

Matt, if you are going to go for a secret training ride, make sure the papparazi aren't following you.

2009 also saw Blingerman and his cycling accessories become so hot he had to start moonlighting. I hope you all received your invitation to The Best of Bling!

In 2009, there was a rumor circulating that I did not do any racing. Below is photographic evidence that those rumors were false. Good Job Patrick!

Last but not least I have never received an answer to the question "What is Dave doing to Blingerman in this photo?" Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks for the memories boys and girls and if anyone has anything to add, please email me or just share your 09 thoughts in the comment section.

Enjoy the Ride!

Nice Ride, Nice Kits!

Hello Everyone,

I've probably seen the the sunrise from Gibralter Road well over 100 times but I'll tell ya it never fails to "wow" me. The views on our MTB ride today were absolutely spectacular. We're so spoiled to live in such a beautiful place and lucky that we're healthy enough to take advantage of the terrific riding opportunities that are right outside our doors. Too cool.



Little smaller turnout today but we had a solid group and had another great ride on the front country trails. I think a few people were tired from doing the Thacher loop on Saturday and opted to take it easy today. It's all good.

Hope you're all enjoying the new kits. I know I'm stoked. The new shorts are definitely a major upgrade and look great, and I think the White kits turned out really nice as well. When I first saw them in the bag I wasn't sure, but seeing them on the road I really like 'em! I know some people expressed concerns about sizing. If you feel like your kit just won't work, option 1 would be to try and exchange with Dave for a different size. We did buy extra kits. Option 2 would be to express your concerns to Dave in writing and if we have a number of people with sizing issues, he can forward those concerns to Garneau and they may be willing to replace some items if necessary. Option 3 would be to call Robert Ramirez's home phone and leave a really long and nasty message on his answering machine insulting his manhood and questioning his sexuality. It won't fix your problem, but it might make you feel a little better.

Please remember that noone is making money off of the kits. Dave puts a lot of time and effort into ordering, organizing and distributing the kits as well as fronting the $30,000.00 necessary to place this order and he doesn't make a dime. In addition, everyone of the sponsors on the jersey is also one of your teammates and they not only bought their kits just like you. But they also put in extra money just so that we can all do fun team events throughout the year and support local bike friendly organizations. Sometimes it's easy to forget that the names on the jerseys aren't just big companies, they're actually your friends and riding buddies. So here's a list of our 2010 sponsors and the riders attached to them.

Fastrack Bicycles Dave Lettieri
The Towbes Group Craig Zimmerman
SB Aircraft Management Bill McBride
COCOON Jeff Bermant
Howell, Moore, & Gough Joe Howell and Kim McDaniel
Jed Hirsch Construction Jed Hirsch
WORKSHOP Architecture Mark Wienke
David Jurist Construction David Jurist
TELEGRAPH Brewing Co. John Nygren
Meridian Group Robert Ramirez

Please support these companies when you can, and when you wear your jersey, which hopefully is often. Be a nice person...........have fun........ and smile a lot!

Thanks so much for joining this group and I look forward to riding with all of you in the coming months.

Sincerely,

Matt

Ride 12-06-09

Hello,

I have to say that was one of the best rides we've ever done. We discovered new trails. Re-discovered old trails and had a blast while getting our butts kicked by some of the steepest climbs imaginable and, as Dave would say "tearing up some singletrack dude!"



West Fork was a total surprise. the trail is in fantastice shape and many sections have been re-worked to make it much less death-defying and more rideable. Riding up East Fork was a challenge but the scenery was top notch and well worth the effort. We discovered a great little trail that connects the Romero Catway with the lower part of the Romero singletrack trail....very cool. This was one of those rides where there's a lot of hooping and hollering and guys yelling "Yeah, this is awesome!" and "Wow, that was cool!" Of course that was on the descents. On the climbs there was also a lot of yelling but I'm unable to write some of the words that were used. Suffice it to say there were a lot of four letter descriptive adjectives and exclamations. But in the end everyone was happy and had that natural high going on that you can only get from working your ass off and accomplishing your goal. Speaking of accomplishing goals I hope all our marathon friends did well?......Robert, Gabe, Joe, Nikola....am I missing anyone? Waiting for race reports and results. Sorry I wasn't out there with ya.........but not that sorry.

Mike Abbott rode exceptionally well today. I think he may be part mountain goat. I've never seen his parents but I wouldn't be surprised if one of them has bucked teeth...... and horns. Dano is a new man on his brand new Ibis machine, and as he said he can "feel the money" when he rides it. Doyle was making excuses for not finishing as soon as the ride started but he ended up sticking it out and did the whole thing and still had a smile on his face at the end....nice work. Dave pretty much lives at the shop or on his bike and he's not used to walking or hiking. So the hike-a-bike sections really took their toll on him. It always fun to see Dave suffering. He almost opted out right at the end but he hung in there and discovered his new favorite section of trail. Luke also suffered his way through "almost" the whole ride. He did all the hard parts anyways. So if you need anything done to your bike, today is good day to bring it in. I have a feeling Luke is going to be very productive today. To everyone who rode today, great job! That was an epic!

Ride stats: 4 hours 20 minutes...........only 28 miles........5,025 ft. of "hard earned" climbing............10 tired but happy dudes.

See ya next weekend.....if the weather allows?

Matt