Breckenridge

A few months ago, I was applying to law school as part of my application, I submitted a personal statement. I wrote about a certain race I did last year (It's about 1000 words, you don't have to read it:

When I was in first grade, I started riding my bicycle alongside my dad as he would run. We would usually go five or six miles five times a week. Sometimes I would get tired, and my dad would give me pushes to motivate me and keep me going. These rides, which at the time seemed forever long, helped teach me to get to the finish line. I couldn't stop or quit on these rides, I had to keep going. Stopping far from home was pointless; I would have had to keep riding to get home anyway. My dad would be disappointed if I quit as well, and I didn't want to disappoint him. So I pushed through, and rode through any pain until I reached home. This is how I learned to love riding bicycles, and learned to experience the joy and sense of accomplishment that can be found by pushing through to the finish.

Fast forward a few years, and I still love cycling, and that feeling that comes at the end of a long, difficult challenge. I’ve felt it numerous times in cycling, school, and service. I felt it after my semester long econometrics research project. I felt it every night after the 14-16 hour days I put in with a volunteer dental group that I translated for and assisted in the Dominican Republic. I felt it this summer as I completed the Breckenridge 70, a 70 mile mountain bike race in high-altitude Colorado.

I have been competing in cycling events since 2000, but the Breckenridge 70 was unlike any other I had ever participated in. It was three times longer and had four times as much climbing as any other race I had done. I had to train harder and prepare better than I had for any race I had done previously. Having no idea of course conditions, other than a rough elevation profile, made it particularly difficult to plan for. I had to alter my training schedule by putting in longer rides than I would have for shorter races, and adding additional training to my already busy racing schedule. I also missed several races I had hoped to do in order to spend more time training for this race.

Preparing for the race also necessitated several changes to my equipment. I made small tweaks and upgrades to my bike during the regular racing season. I treated a few of these races as experiment sessions. I tried different tires and found a good tire that wouldn't flat or tear in rocky conditions and was still very light. I experimented with gearing setups, trying to find an optimal range of gear ratios that was still as minimal as possible. I tested different parts and found ones that were both light and durable. I experimented with different modes of calorie consumption, as consuming 200-300 calories per hour and not get sick to my stomach while riding proved difficult for me. I felt that I had taken every step possible to ensure my success.

As race time closed in, I felt that my equipment was ready, and my fitness was acceptable. I was in great shape, but apprehensive about the distance and my overall endurance. The first 15 miles of the race were amazing, which I expected due to my good short distance fitness. However, about 20 miles in I really started suffering. My body was not happy. Nonetheless, I discovered that my mind was totally ready for the suffering. I was able to stay mentally fresh almost the entire race and keep my body going through all of the tough climbs, no matter how much my legs hurt. My body fell apart, but my mind stayed strong and helped my body to keep going. I had no mechanical issues, so my mind only had to focus on my body pressing forward. When my stomach could no longer handle solid foods, I was able to rely solely on energy gels and liquids. My preparation was paying off.

Upon finishing the race, I knew that I had just obtained a major victory. I didn't make the podium, not even for my age group, but I did have a stellar first endurance race. On top of that, my mind had been able to stay strong when everything was telling me to stop or take it easy. Being able to push on when it got tough, when my legs thought it was impossible, made for the most joyful day that I've experienced on a bike. The months of pushing though training, good preparation, and the mental and physical suffering I endured throughout the race was so rewarding in the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that it brought. That feeling was a result of the pain I experienced in reaching my goal—pushing through the difficult hours of the event, the long days and weeks of training, and the discipline and sacrifice necessary to accomplish my goal. The Breckenridge 70 taught me an important lesson: I can accomplish things that require pain, sacrifice, and discipline, and when I do, it leads me to want to undertake even larger challenges—just to taste the victory.

The funny thing about it is that the race is actually called the Breckenridge 68, but it ended up being 72 miles so I started calling it the 70. Oops, my bad. Didn't realize I made that error in the statement until now. Anyway, the race is pretty rad, and apparently some of the schools liked what I had to say because they let me in. (My LSAT definitely had nothing to do with it ;) ).

Anyway, this race is happening this Saturday. And I'm stoked. I'll be riding rigid SS instead of a geared Superfly this year, which I think will make me faster. Plus I'm in better shape, which might help as well. Two days to go and I've got that butterfly nervous excitement feeling. Can't wait to go race bikes!!!

PS. I am retiring (for 3 years - Lance, Farve and Michael Jordan style) from racing bikes after this race. So if you want to race me one last time, you better change you plans and come out to this race!

A Mechanic's Wife

So, I started swapping parts this morning on Ashleigh's commuter (bar, stem, etc.) because it is on it's way out the door. I left it halfway done, totally forgetting that she'd want it for school as well as a ride to 7 peaks she had planned. She sent me a text asking if she should take her mountain bike (no) or what? I told her to drop the seat on my commuter and use it. She didn't like that too much so she decided to put the bike back together. Put the stem and baron , fixed the brake levers and cables back up and rode off. I got home and her bike was gone, and let me tell ya, I was pretty impressed. She was pretty proud of herself too. She should be, she did a fine job. Best of all, she did it all right too! Headset adjustment and everything. Nice job Ash!

Wednesday Night Worlds v.9

Woah it was a good one today. I really struggled the first two laps today, after my brief break from riding the legs felt pretty low on power. Any time it started getting steep (which was twice) my legs would start complaining. Luckily it's a pretty flat course so I was mostly okay. Brandon, Stuart, Kenny and I grouped up towards the end of the second lap; Brandon came by along with my second wind. We both attacked each other and put some distance on the other two. We traded places back and forth the next two laps and really worked off each other. I got in front of him whenever I could coz he was filming and I wanted to be the star! Brandon and I really fed off each other. I'm sure we cruised a lot faster than we would have on our own. I know that I descended much better with him on my back than I did the first two laps.

3 races in 2 days is a lot...

Last Wednesday was the Deer Valley Pedalfest, which is one of my favorite courses of the year, as well as one of the most painful. Aside from Little Stick, which is the most brutal climb anywhere in the world, it is full of fun, fast, sweeping singletrack. We ended up racing in 45 degree weather that was on the verge of a thunderstorm the entire evening. It was cold but the course was perfect: dry without dust. Although I rode around for 20 minutes before the race, I didn't get warmed up and really struggled up the first climb. It was amazing how much easier it was the second time, even though I was getting worn out. I ended up chasing for a rider for 3rd most of the race, I caught him well after I thought it was too late, but ended up taking the place by 5 seconds. There was a rider in our category that is on the Bahati Foundation team, so all of us singlespeeders can take consolation in the fact that we raced a rider who earns a salary. The local pros can too, as the entire Cannondale Factory team showed up, including Jeremiah Bishop, and the current world XC marathon champion.

The next night Dan and I headed up to the Soldier Hollow race where we took 3rd and 4th, and then jumped in our car right after finishing to get to the night ride. We knew we wouldn't have a chance here, because we didn't know the trails. We kept up for part of the climb before we each "got lost." Or is that "got tired?" We were both pretty cooked but had a blast riding with the Draper crew.

I was intent on taking Friday off but Dan talked me into a "recovery ride" up to Sundance. We did take it pretty easy, and the recovery came in the form of s'mores bars at the deli.

Saturday we rode the Nebo loop. This was the best ride of the week for me. It was a blast riding all day long and not getting tired. I've said it before, but the real payoff of all that winter riding is more being able to do epic rides without worrying about making it than performing well in races.
15 hours of riding this week, including 3.5 of racing (at 1 hour race pace!) I guess that fried chicken won't hurt too much....right?

Dilemma

The Deer Valley ICUP race got rescheduled for this Wednesday evening at six. Which is great, racing on Saturday would have been miserable. There is only one problem, there's another race Wednesday. And it's weekday worlds. And now I don't know which one to go to. There are a few pros and cons for each race. At the ICUP race I get to race in the single speed category, which means I don't get dropped on the downhills as much, since we all have to coast. It's at a course we only get to race once a year. And, it's like all prestigious, or something. The weekday race has it's advantages too. It's at Soldier Hollow this week, a course that tends to suit me. It's low key and fun, and even if someone crashes into you and messes up your race, it's "just a Wednesday nighter." It's also a lot cheaper. Like 30 bucks. On top of that, Mark declared it double points week to try and attract us it over the ICUP. Not that it matters, since I'll miss the second half of the season anyway, but I'm doing pretty well in points, which is kind of cool. Missing it would drop my pointage by quite a bit. Big deal right?

So, I'm like 50/50 right now. Which would you do? Which are you doing?

Pre-Race Mentality

A race postponement is always bad for me, especially when it's weather related. I've usually spent the last few hours getting psyched up for a race, and then all the sudden I'm wondering whether the race will happen or not. Every change in the weather makes me more or less prepared for the starting gun. Luckily today, the race was postponed to another day, because by the time the anticipated start rolled around, I was mentally prepared for a nice drive down Provo Canyon, not for a sprint up Little Stick. Man I sure felt bad for those marathoners. A 5:30 AM start and pouring rain did not look like any fun at all. See you on Wednesday night. 6PM. Fortunately (or not), the single speed category didn't get cut down on distance.

Motor Dope

Yeah, coz if anybody needs some extra wattage, it's Cancellara:




This is like a conspiracy theory gone wrong.

Best Ride Ever.

I got 80 minutes on the bike last week (Not including the Thursday Night Race - 2:20 total) So to make up for that, I did this:

I've ridden Hobble Creek a lot over the last few years. I've always gone up Left Fork because that's where everyone rode when I started. Right Fork is a lot better. Nice road, no houses, much more serene. About 9 miles from the bottom of the canyon the road turns to dirt, and turns up. Pat told me I could take this road all the way to Diamond Fork, and he was right. Awesome ride. The dirt section is 7.75 miles long, and the road is so smooth right now that it didn't even phase my ultralight road tires. It's about 3.5 miles up at 8-10% and the rest is downhill. Then it hits Diamond Fork road for 15 miles of smooth fun descending. Get on Highway 6 for 5 miles and it's 13 miles back to Provo. Check the stats below: Laps 2,3, and 4 were on the dirt. Suh-weet.



Cascade from the backside


Pretty up there


Smooth dirt road


It was muddy like this for about 50 yards at the top. The mud was dry enough that it didn't pack up on the bike.

Even found some red rock back there. It's called Red Ledges.

NOT racing bikes

With the last two Wednesday Night World's races being postponed to Thursdays, I've been too torched for racing twice as much two days later. So I've skipped the last two ICUP races. I know, I know, they were two of the races I wanted to target this year, but the Wednesday (err, Thursday) nighters are so fun and sometimes you just got to take the weekend off from racing bikes.

Last week, I put in a bunch of hours on the road bike instead of racing at Sundance, which was good. No regrets.

This week I was on the bubble all Friday about racing Soldier Hollow. The course suits me well and I wasn't too sore from Thursday. By 10 PM I had decided to race but allowed myself a weather-related opt-out. Well, it rained all night and I hardly slept, and when I did I dreamed a dream that I often have. It's not a great dream and doesn't get me too excited to ride my bike. By morning I was out. Rumors of a snow-line and course change confirmed the decision. I didn't want to spend $40 racing the lower hills that I race all summer on for $12.

Instead of racing we cleaned house and in the PM met up with my dad to go shoot some guns. We don't get out for this very often (Ash has never gone with us, so it's been at least 2.5 years) but it's always fun when we do. Usually an uncle and some cousins show up, but today it was just my dad, Ash, and me. It was nice because it meant we all got to shoot a lot and not wait for each other. Reload and shoot.

After teaching Ashleigh how to load a gun and all that good stuff we set her up on a rifle. After a few clips on that she got ready to shoot my dad's .22 pistol. Her first three shots were dead on. Then she looked at us and was like "how do I aim on this one?" Ummm..... I think you have it figured out....It was her first time shooting guns ever and she totally outshot me on the rifle and the handgun.

Luckily we brought a shotgun and some clay pigeons too. I'm used to shooting with one or two other people at the same clay pigeon so shooting fast has always been a priority, otherwise someone else gets the shot. Today we only had one shooter so I was able to take my time and shoot well. I only missed one out of about 20 birds and even got a couple of them twice, just for fun. My dad was laughing because I was shooting so well and it was nice to make up for getting outshot with the other guns.

It was a fun afternoon, it was great to get out and do something I enjoy but don't get to do very often. And I shot a lot better than I could have raced. And it makes me feel pretty good having such a sharpshooter of a wife too!!!


I don't know how she shot that handgun so well with her eyes closed...






Hit and....

Hit!

(The proof is in the zoom)




???

Photo Dump

These have been sitting on my phone for a while and I finally figured how to get them off faster than emailing myself each one individually:



Our 2008 Subaru has been through a lot. That ticker past 50k a long time ago. (It just passed 60). The first pic is deer damage that happened 7-8 months ago.



My BMX bike had Dura-Ace cranks on it for a while, and clearances were tight.


Racer's will fix your broken Superfly. Trust us, we've fixed a few...we've got a rack reserved for the darn things.



This couch used to be in the back at Racer's a few years ago. We threw it out when we found out it was infested with mice. Somehow, it ended up at the local laundromat.



It's been a chilly, wet spring, but at least it's not this bad.



We built up a Superfly for a client that had scored it from the GF Pro Team. It's Heather Irminger old bike. I'd stare at those fork decals for days. This bike was the first we built up with XX. Now everyone rides that stuff.



Ash on the way to one of our few snow days. We definitely didn't get enough snowboarding in this year.



I rode as much of the Alpine Loop (Provo Canyon side) as I could last week. It was pretty rad, I had to use some of my cyclocross skills for the fallen trees and stuff. Made it less than a mile away from the top. Soon we'll be able to ride the whole thing. Sweet.

Wednesday Night Worlds

So, I used to run in high school and stuff. I was decent. I ran cross country in the fall and track in the spring. I was competitive in CC but track was where I came alive. I was much better (relative to others) at the 800m and 1600m than I was at a 3000m CC race.

That said, I'm kind of the same way on the bike. Which is why Wednesday Night Worlds is the greatest race series ever. The races are never over an hour, and that's a lot shorter than an hour and a half, or two hours, or six, or twelve...

The courses are sweet too: Soldier Hollow is a fast, relatively flat course that you rarely need brakes on. At Sundance you're always going up or down, and the it's a good mix of quick and technical.
I first started racing bikes at this series clear back in 2001, I was like 17 or so. Venues and organizers have changed but the racing is always fast, furious, and fun. This has to be the most relaxed racing scene ever. Also, racing is cheap, and you almost always get more out of the raffle than your entry fee. For more info check out www.weeklyraceseries.com

If YOU come, Dan might even break out his old Nike sweatshirt...

Better a saddle rail than a collarbone.

5 Mile Pass. Not one of my favorite races.

Last year, I had 3 flat tires. I finished my 2nd lap when the leaders of my category were finishing their race. I had the slowest time of anyone, including the pros (who did more laps than me).

This year started out better - with dry dirt, but went south quickly. About 15 minutes into the race, I took a wrong turn. Didn't realize it for far to long. This put me pretty far back and I started playing catch-up. Took a few turns in the wash to fast and took a big spill. Bike landed upside down, dislodging my GPS (after crushing it, I'm sure), broke my saddle rail, and we'll find out soon if anything else. My bike sure felt squirrely the rest of the race. The next 15 minutes I was an emotional wreck, and it showed in my riding. I'd get angry, ride hard for a few minutes, then get frustrated and sit up. I finished my first lap and had a nice chat with Stu as I exchanged bottles, which helped me get my focus back on. I had a good 2nd lap, and worked my way up to 4th.

Here's what I learned:

-Don't wake up at 5:30 and drive 3 hours before a race. At least not without some prerace pickmeup.
-Trim those bars. I hit Rick, one of the pro ladies, and a ton of trees with my bars. I either need to cut them down or learn to ride a bike.
-Gearing. My gear coach is two for two in helping me pick a good gear. However, it's always a very painful one. If you don't like the hurt, don't take his advice!
-Suspension. I'm beginning to see the merits of a suspended fork.
-Fitness. All you need is one good, 50 mile, 5000 vertical foot ride per week to stay fast. (And some intervals, a winter's worth of base work, and of course, some recovery).
-It took me a while, and a talk with my wife to realize this, but broken bikes are better than broken bones.
-Don't go the wrong way. Duh.

Race or Ski?

It's a three option weekend.

1) Mountain Bike Race at 5 Mile pass
2) Road Race at Antelope Island
3) Snowboard at Snowbird

With rain and cold forecasted all weekend, racing doesn't seem like the funnest option, especially after last year's debacle at 5 mile. Antelope Island in the rain isn't all that great either. With 7 inches today, 8-12 inches expected tomorrow, and more Friday night, some spring powder is very tempting, although I've felt pretty good on the bike lately. Decisions, decisions...

What would you do? What are you doing?

Squaw Peak

Squaw Peak is ride-able, although there is some snow on part of the road around mile 4. I was so excited I had to do it twice. Get it while the gate is closed, and the gettin' is good. To celebrate, I started a TT page for the climb. And the descent.

http://squawpeak-tt.blogspot.com/

Sea Otter - The Race

So our race start was scheduled at 7:30. Monterey is 45-50 minutes from Santa Cruz, and Ashleigh's parents live 15-20 minutes from there. Which means we woke up at 4:30 to get there and set up on time. I started out driving and made it about 25 minutes before I started zonking. Thanks Dan for driving the rest of the way.

The race started a little late due to the Gran Fondo that took off right before us. That was good because it gave me more time to warm up on my favorite section of racetrack in the world, the backside of the Laguna Seca Speedway.

The race started out on the speedway just before turn 5, and was run in reverse. I'm sure it was quite the sight watching 65 single speeders spin up to 22 mph on the track. Luckily I took Racer's advice and was running a monster 34x18 gear, which was perfect for most the race but I sure was angry at Racer on the steep climbs. It paid off though and I was able to make some good moves.

I got on to the dirt in third and was maintaining a 5-10 second gap on 2nd until we hit these turns with sand traps - deep sections of sand right behind blind corners. I eased up, reminding myself that one place wasn't worth missing the rest of the year for. He got up to a minute ahead of me, but I was able to pull him in on the last climb - a 4 mile long fire-road along a ridge with beautiful green views all around. I caught him at the peak of the last climb. After that it was a short descent, a bridge crossing across the racetrack, and 1.5 mile of uncut trail in the middle of the raceway. This section I'm sure was put on the course just to frustrate single speeders, all of us whom couldn't hold enough momentum due to the bumpy grass. Pushing a bike in front of hundreds of people .5 miles from the finish sure makes you feel good.

So, I ended up 2nd, which was great. Dan won his race with a time about 5 minutes faster than mine, but he had gears. Wimp.

They had a podium girl and she asked if she could give me a kiss when she handed me my medal. I said no way. They were doing awards for all the mtb classes plus a road race which meant 10-12 classes, 5 places deep. Would you want a kiss from someone who had kissed at least 50 faces in the last 10 minutes. Well, Dan sure did. I've never seen a grin so big as when he got his podium kiss.

So that was that. A few hours at the expo, where we saw all the cool new bike toys, and a relaxing afternoon at home. And an awesome dinner by Ash's parents.

Oh, and the 13 hour drive home was pretty sweet too.

Ocean Otter

This weekend was the Sea Otter Classic. Which is like, the most awesome race ever. For several reasons:

1. It's close to Ashleigh's parents so we get to visit them.
2. There's like a million people there and a huge expo with all the new stuff.
3. The companies bring their employees that are actually fun to talk to, since they are meeting end consumers. (Unlike Interbike, where drab employees are just trying to make sales and hardly know anything about the product. Except for that Niner guy who smelled way to badly of alcohol for it only being 2 in the afternoon).
4. You can race bikes.
5. Ashleigh's parents live close to UCSC, so not only do you get to race, but you get to ride some sweet trails too.
6. That drive. Man, gotta love the drive. (not really)


Anyway, Ash flew out Tuesday and Dan and I drove out Wednesday night/Thursday day. We got there right in time for Ashleigh and her dad's tee time, so Dan and I took off for a ride. We did two loops at UCSC with different descents. The first one was obviously (after we finished it) a pure DH trail, my rigid 29er was a bit overwhelmed. The second descent was also a little much for the bike but it was doable.

Friday, Dan and I took off to register in Monterey, came back, met Ashleigh, and Abby and Rob for lunch, and then slept like babies while Ash drove around. When we woke up, the three of us, Ash, Dan and I, went for a ride at UCSC. We got a bit lost, and, not wanting to subject Ash to the DH trail from yesterday, Ash and I turned around and took the easy way down. Nice.

Saturday was race day. I'll tell that story tomorrow. For now, here are some not so good UCSC pics:

Arizona State University

So, it's decided. We are going to Arizona. I'll be attending law school at ASU in Tempe. Pretty rad. 2 weeks ago I visited the University of Colorado in Boulder and ASU. I was really impressed with the city of Boulder, and the campus. Not so much with the school itself though. ASU was sort of the opposite. The law school is housed in an older building that reminds me of the Flinstones, or a dinosaur museum. The law library is new and very nice however. The program however blew me away. Tons of clinical opportunities, a great legal writing program, low student to professor ratio, and a dean with a really progressive mindset. The scholarship offer was pretty nice, too. It kind of took Boulder out of the occasion as it will make ASU only slightly more expensive than BYU, tuition-wise. Ash and I were already leaning towards Arizona, but the visit sealed the deal.

That is saying a lot, considering my day prior to the campus visit, during which my rental had a flat tire, which I changed, but caused me to be late to a reception that night.

Arizona State seems like a great option, and we are so excited! We'll be moving in August-ish sometime, so we'll be sure to savor our summer in Utah.

PS: Like a million people have already told us how dreadfully hot the summers are in Phoenix. So, we've got that. But you can still remind us if you want to.

Dana Point Crit - hopefully this video stays up.

Dana Point is a beautiful area in Southern California. For me, it marks my failed attempt of surfing. However, this past week there was an NRC criterium (the pro level crit series in the US) there. Apparently there was a bit of drama. With five laps to go there was a big crash. The issue is whether Bahati (#5, the guy interviewed in the middle of the video) was intentionally crashed out, or whether his crash was due to "poor bike handling skills." I have my opinions. Let me know yours.

Video at: http://www.insidecyclingtv.com/videos/129/dana-point-grand-prix

Bike Change

It's classic's season, but this video makes me miss 'cross. The few times I've done bike exchanges for racers has been pretty exhilarating, but not so much as racing. Definitely not as much as winning Flanders, not that I'd know anything about that.

Computer Dependent

So, I'm pretty good with the google. Or at least people think I am. At my last computer using job I always got asked to google something or other. Anyway, the internets are pretty rad since nowadays you can get info on just about anything in just a few clicks.

Well, yesterday afternoon I was looking for the marinade for some chicken. I knew it was in one of our cupboards, but Ashleigh manages that space and I had no idea where it was. Heck, I didn't even know if it was a mix or in a bottle. After a very casual glance in the most likely spots, I erroneously realized that I could just google it. "Dear google, where in the kitchen is the marinade?"

I was halfway to the computer before I realized that the computer wasn't going to help me with this one. Although I'm sure the interwebs could have found it a lot quicker than I did.

Nuevo Mexico

My brother in law spent the better part of last week trying to convince Ashleigh and I to move to New Mexico with them after law school. All he would have had to do is show me this video...

New Mexico's BEST | Vital MTB

...and that would have convinced me, at least enough to visit!

Crashing

I've been thinking about crashing lately- and how I rarely do it. I'm scared of crashing, probably coz I broke my jaw in a bike crash when I was in 2nd grade. I think that fear keeps me from doing stupid stuff. Anyway, here is a video with a guy crashing a lot.

WTF with Watts | Vital MTB

Geek

Why I'm going to law school: Because this kind of stuff is super intriguing to me...

The author spells it out, but, what incentive does one have to go to court if the state is going to take all of the settlement. As a lawyer, why would you represent someone knowing that all of the settlement is going to the state? By allowing the state to take 100% of the settlement, it takes away any incentive to seek a settlement. Law and economics. Gotta love it.

A terrible new AZ Court ruling for State, County, and Municipal employees who have been injured

from Tucson Bike Lawyer by Erik

The Arizona Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would not grant review to a Division Two Arizona Court of Appeals case, Ariz. Dep’t of Trans. v. Cox.

Jennifer and Richard Cox were injured in a motor vehicle accident and incurred medical expenses of $25,000.00. They obtained a total of $30,000.00 from the motorist who hit them. They were insured through a state plan. The court ruled that the state could take up to 100 percent of a person’s injury settlement, but not more, to reimburse the state for the medical expenses.

Up until this decision, the normal practice would be that the state would be reimbursed for, at the most, 66 percent of the medical bills under the so-called “common fund” doctrine. The idea of the common-fund doctrine is that because the Coxes had to hire an attorney to get that settlement, and since the state directly benefited from that attorney’s work and would have most likely collected nothing without it, the state should contribute to the attorney fees. Otherwise the attorney is working for the state, for free.

What the common-fund doctrine does is it gives an attorney some incentive to take a case that otherwise wouldn’t pay. Cases like the Cox case, where the medical bills are high and the tortfeasor’s insurance (the torfeasor is the person at fault) is low. The common-fund doctrine lets the victim get an attorney, make at least some recovery, gets the state back most of its money, and pays the attorney.

Without the common-fund doctrine, the attorney has no reason to take the case since he or she will literally be working for free, and possibly for no other reason than to reimburse the state, which can now literally take 100 percent of a victim’s settlement.

I think this is an insane decision that benefits no one except the insurance companies. It is only going to result in the state obtaining less money over the long run, because tort victims are not going to be able to secure representation and there is no way insurance companies are going to pay the state anything if they don’t have to — which they won’t.

And of course the decision hits bicyclists harder than most, because bicyclists (and pedestrians) are much more likely to rack up large medical bills if hit by a car.

The decision does not affect people who are privately insured.

–Erik Ryberg

Preparations

Over the last few weeks everyone has been preparing for the wonderful upcoming event, the Desert Rampage. At least, everyone should have been. I'm sure half a dozen people will show up at the shop tomorrow wanting a full overhaul of their bike so that they can race on Saturday. Which is great, and I encourage you to do so if you happen to be one of those people. That is how bike shops stay in business. It just sucks for the mechanics.

Anyway, my friend Dan and I have both been preparing for this weekend, albeit in very different ways. We are both racing in new categories this year which of course means we needed (I mean, absolutely need, like our old bikes are useless) new bikes. I got mine in October. All the locals have seen it, and by now everyone knows it is a golden singlespeed.
It's mostly a low maintenance bike, and it's been about the same since then. I think I changed the bar, stem and seatpost over the winter, because I borrowed those for the initial build. I didn't need to prepare this bike hardly at all for the race.

Unfortunately for Dan, however, his frame has been out of stock for the few months. His bike just came in last week, which mean his prepartions have been building a completely new bike from scratch. He did a pretty good job building it up. It gets the silver medal for being pretty. (My bike obviously gets the gold, because, well, it is gold). This week, Dan has been busy building, testing, breaking, and warranty-ing his bike, which luckily, if not miraculously will be ride-able in two days. He's been preparing a lot, is what I'm trying to say.

Me? With no bike to prep, doesn't mean I didn't need to prepare. I did. A lot. In fact, it took about 3 weeks to prepare for the single-speed category, and I'm not sure I did a good enough job:


Growing the mandatory single speed category beard.

Good luck to everyone Saturday. Hope everyone wins their category. Unless it's single speed. In that case I hope you get 2nd.

Picture dump: