Thank you to everyone that came out to race, and those that just came out to support. It seemed like everyone had a great time, I enjoyed myself eveh though I didn't even get to race. Here are the results from the event:
On the guys side, Teddy took 1st with an awesome time of 1:19:6, he got faster with every one that he did. Awesome job Teddy. Pete (st. pete) and Julius end up taking 2nd and 3rd. There were some really tight race, Mel go some awesome photos that we should be able to post very soon.
On the girl side of things, Lucie took 1st with a time of 1:31:5, she was really rocking it at there. Katie and Andrea round things out with 2nd and 3rd. I believe I heard all three of them talking made game about how they scared all the rest of the girls off once they heard that they were all doing the sprints. Just sayin, maybe some ladies need to come out next time and show them whats up.
Here are all the results
Guys Gals
1. Teddy 1. Lucie
2. Pete 2. Katie
3. Julius 3. Andrea
4. Jared
5. Mike
6. Justin
7. Eric
8. Shawn
9. Jeremy
10. Juan
11. Buddy
12. Antimo
13. Preston
I'll Have the point standings up in a few days. But the standings are as the placing follows at this point in the series. I apologize again to everyone about the last second switch on the spot. I know that this may have thrown some people off with the ratio that they had choosen for the day. I hope that we will see the same faces out next month and new ones. I believe this is the makings of something beautiful.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Stage One: The began of the journey
It's only 17hrs away.,,,excited? I know I am.
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=28.600236&lon=-81.346924&zoom=17&q1=s%2520interlachen%2520ave%2520and%2520e%2520new%2520england%2520ave%2520Winter%2520Park%252C%2520FL%252032789&q2=kiwi%2520circle%2520winter%2520park%252C%2520fl%25203278
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=28.600236&lon=-81.346924&zoom=17&q1=s%2520interlachen%2520ave%2520and%2520e%2520new%2520england%2520ave%2520Winter%2520Park%252C%2520FL%252032789&q2=kiwi%2520circle%2520winter%2520park%252C%2520fl%25203278
The O-fish-al fliers
Finally had the chance to sit down with Julius and got the fliers done. Thank you so much Julius your amazing.
This is for the guys side of things
And this is for the girls side.
Got back in town from St. Pete tonite, after sitting around for 2hr in the cold(thanks shipwreck) I bailed out on playing polo. And in classic orlando style, as I was getting in my car I got a call informing me that the people with the gear had just arrived. I proceed to drive off. From there I took off making my way to Axiom to grab so stuff from Corey Mcdole. Everyone at Axiom is awesome, those guys really hooked it up for the race. I went in there to just grab some stuff, and after talking to Rick (the owner of the shop) I end up with way more stuff then excepted. Axiom really did us a solid and their not even anywhere near being a bike shop or anything like that. I truly appericate what they did. Once a again big thanks to Corey, Taylor, Ross, Rick, and the rest of the Axiom crew.
Oh and Stage 1 of the sprint series will be hitting the blog and midnight suckaz!!
Choke On It
This is for the guys side of things
And this is for the girls side.
Got back in town from St. Pete tonite, after sitting around for 2hr in the cold(thanks shipwreck) I bailed out on playing polo. And in classic orlando style, as I was getting in my car I got a call informing me that the people with the gear had just arrived. I proceed to drive off. From there I took off making my way to Axiom to grab so stuff from Corey Mcdole. Everyone at Axiom is awesome, those guys really hooked it up for the race. I went in there to just grab some stuff, and after talking to Rick (the owner of the shop) I end up with way more stuff then excepted. Axiom really did us a solid and their not even anywhere near being a bike shop or anything like that. I truly appericate what they did. Once a again big thanks to Corey, Taylor, Ross, Rick, and the rest of the Axiom crew.
Oh and Stage 1 of the sprint series will be hitting the blog and midnight suckaz!!
Choke On It
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Yesterday fun
So yesterday I had to take a little trip to take care of some personal business. I called Shipwreck up and asked him if he wanted to tag along with me, he meet me up at my house and we headed out. What was suppose to be a 8 mile ride end up turning into more like 16 as we drove the opposite direction and completely out of the way. Upon arriving at our destination we found ourself in the waiting with a rather amazing group of people, but there was one person sitting in the room that looked very familiar to me. It wasn't until he jumped in on a conversation that Sean and I were having that it clicked in my head, Jeremy Rogers.
DVS from Garret Curtis on Vimeo.
We sat there talking to him for awhile, told him about fix gears and all the stuff going down in Orlando. I had to go talk to some people about some stuff, sometime during this Rogers was on his way out and Sean had the chance to talk a bit more to him. He end up getting his number and my some sponsorship chances. I don't really know what the point of the store is beside you never know who you'll run into.
----
Later on that day we meet up with Robert, Justin, Luke, and Jtron at my house. We all decided to head out on a little ride. We end up at the hospital to catch up with Anthony, while sitting out side Jtron and sean began their own little trick session.
From their we head over to pita pit and meet up with JJthejetplane, some of us had a bite to eat while others such as Anthony pulled wheelies down Fairbanks in the middle of the day. I grabbed my check and as I was heading to the bank one of Orlando's wonderful motorist decide that he would instead drive down the middle of the rode and proceed to hit me on my bike. My bike and my body were completely ok, the fun thing was all the guy had to say was sorry and was more in a rush to catch the light then to make sure that I was ok. I learned something from this, which was always be aware of what going on.
DVS from Garret Curtis on Vimeo.
We sat there talking to him for awhile, told him about fix gears and all the stuff going down in Orlando. I had to go talk to some people about some stuff, sometime during this Rogers was on his way out and Sean had the chance to talk a bit more to him. He end up getting his number and my some sponsorship chances. I don't really know what the point of the store is beside you never know who you'll run into.
----
Later on that day we meet up with Robert, Justin, Luke, and Jtron at my house. We all decided to head out on a little ride. We end up at the hospital to catch up with Anthony, while sitting out side Jtron and sean began their own little trick session.
From their we head over to pita pit and meet up with JJthejetplane, some of us had a bite to eat while others such as Anthony pulled wheelies down Fairbanks in the middle of the day. I grabbed my check and as I was heading to the bank one of Orlando's wonderful motorist decide that he would instead drive down the middle of the rode and proceed to hit me on my bike. My bike and my body were completely ok, the fun thing was all the guy had to say was sorry and was more in a rush to catch the light then to make sure that I was ok. I learned something from this, which was always be aware of what going on.
Race Info
The registration spot for the sprints will be Pita pit in winter park, 140 W Fairbanks. The parking lot there is for customers, so if you can ride there that would be better. The actually spot for the sprints will be posted at midnight on the 21st. You can find it here under the sprint series forum, on the hellcats blogspot/Myspace, the sprint mysace, and 407 at that time. You can check the spot out and get a feel for it right up until 5 when the sprints start. If you can drop a message in the sprint forum before Saturday letting us know your going to do the sprints, that would help us alot on time of figure the bracket out. We will also be at the trick comp. If you are going to be there. Excited to see everyone out on Saturday!!!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Canadian Rider Has Made Unorthodox Climb to the Top
I thought this story was pretty sweet, and just gives me drive to become a better rider. Also I'm watching the Tour de Califorina. So check it...this guy would totally be a HellCat.
Those who have heard the tale of Svein Tuft have wondered, could it possibly be true?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
The Holness Family
Tuft, above, is now a member of the Garmin-Slipstream team. At 18, he spent $40 on a thrift-shop bike and built a trailer to haul supplies and his 80-pound dog, Bear, and rode into the Canadian wilderness.
How he dropped out of school in the 10th grade, lured by the freedom of the outdoors. How he evolved into a barrel-chested woodsman with Paul Bunyan biceps. How he ventured, at 18, from his home in Canada into the wilderness on a $40 thrift-shop bike hooked to a homemade trailer.
They have learned of the way he traveled sparingly, towing only his camping gear, a sack of potatoes and his 80-pound dog, Bear. The way he drank from streams and ate beside an open fire. Or hopped trains across Canada, resting as the land flickered by.
Now 31, Tuft is out to prove that all the raw travel and personal drive can translate into something beyond his survival. Recruited by one of the world’s top cycling teams, he is about to begin a more disciplined journey. It starts next weekend with the Tour of California, where he will race with the Garmin-Slipstream squad, and is likely to continue this summer at the Tour de France.
“He’s a late, late bloomer who lived a lifestyle that has been completely incongruent with any professional cyclist out there,” Jonathan Vaughters, the team’s director, said. “In Europe, you are pressured to succeed by the time you are 18, and if you don’t do it by the time you are 21, then you’re done. But Svein? He’s somebody who has lived life according to how he wanted to live it.”
Tuft figured out he was a natural racer at 23. He was home from a cycling trip to Alaska when his father suggested he try racing. In his first event, a local road race, he was in the lead when he dropped out with a flat tire. Two races later, he won for the first time.
From there, he blossomed. But Tuft also felt trapped between a life in the outdoors and one in the structured world of professional competition.
Kevin and Mark Cunningham, owners of the Symmetrics Cycling team in Canada, found Tuft in 2004. He was mowing lawns. After racing in virtual anonymity for three professional teams, he had quit the sport because he said he did not want to be associated with its doping problems.
But the Cunninghams wanted him. They knew he had the potential to be one of the fastest cyclists in the world.
“At first, you have this idea that this guy’s a nut case,” Mark Cunningham said. “But he’s not. He’s super down to earth, kind and a straight shooter. I thought he was going to be this extreme sports, in-your-face guy. But he was the opposite.”
They coaxed Tuft onto their team with a promise that it would be clean and that he would be free to vanish into the mountains during the winter.
“We had to get used to saying, ‘Svein is missing,’ ” Kevin Cunningham said. “ ‘He’s AWOL again.’ ”
Last year, riding for Canada, Tuft surprised many by winning a silver medal at the world cycling championships in the time trial and also finishing seventh in that event at the Beijing Olympics. He won four gold medals at the Pan American Road and Track Championships.
Some say that was just a start.
A Long-Distance Pedigree
As a boy, Svein Tuft (pronounced Swayne) was known as Svein the Strong. He always knew he would not grow up to be a wimp.
His grandfather Arne Tuft, racing for Norway at the 1936 Winter Olympics, finished sixth in the grueling 50-kilometer cross-country skiing event.
His father, also named Arne, was drawn to Canada from Norway after reading Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild.” He started out in logging, then became a general contractor. Now, he camps in the Arizona desert for weeks without electricity or a phone.
Svein Tuft’s mother, Lesly Holness, is a fitness instructor. In Svein, she saw one determined boy. To her dismay, she said, he always enjoyed testing himself, with each challenge more extreme than the previous.
One Christmas, her son asked for an Army tent, which he pitched next to their house outside Langley, British Columbia. He spent the winter in it.
By 15, he had grown restless. His parents had separated, and he hated studying. He quit school.
“It wasn’t like I was into drugs or alcohol or anything,” Tuft said softly. “I wanted to explore, and I was searching for so many things. I just never felt right anywhere. At that age, you don’t know anything about yourself, and I was trying to find out who I was.”
For a few years, he was obsessed with mountain climbing. He rode a bike more than 50 miles from home into the mountains and stayed for weeks at a time, leaving his parents behind to worry. He said he and a friend once spent more than 24 hours hanging from a cliff face after their climbing rope snagged.
“He decided he was not going to do anything like the establishment,” Holness said. “It was very unsettling to all of us, but there was no stopping him.”
At 17, Tuft bought a used 10-speed. He welded together a trailer, using the frame of a heavy old BMX bike and the bottom of a plastic barrel.
And on one September day, after he had turned 18, he left with Bear, his German shepherd mix, and headed nearly 600 miles to the remote Bella Coola Valley in British Columbia. He said he rode 12 hours some days, pulling the trailer packed with about 200 pounds of gear and food — and his dog. When Tuft struggled to climb hills, Bear jumped out and sprinted along the roadside grass.
Tuft ate corn, beans or bannock, a flat bread. When there was a store around, he splurged on chocolate milk, which remains his favorite drink. He camped beneath spruce trees or open sky.
“A lot of people said, ‘Are you crazy, what are you doing?’ ” Tuft recalled. “But for me, it was all about being alive and learning how to get through a difficult situation. There were days that it was snowing and cold and you haven’t eaten enough that day to get the internal fire going. I really wanted to see how I’d react to that.”
But on that trip, he was ill equipped for the winter weather, which grew harsher as he climbed north. He wore only wool and brought no tent, just a bivouac sack and a blanket.
“When I was that age, I never thought I could die, but I thought, uh-oh, this is it,” he recalled. “I thought, how did you get yourself into this situation — what have you done?”
On a trip to Alaska in the spring, during which he covered more than 4,000 miles, he shared gravel roads with mining and oil trucks. People along the way asked about his journey and invited him to dinner, though he was obviously in need of a shower.
On one stretch of highway, his clothes were soaked, and he had a painful cough. In the distance, he spied an abandoned cabin. Inside, as if in a dream, he found kindling and a stove, jars of pasta and a bed. He slept there for four days.
Over time, bike touring became second nature. He worked odd jobs, like splitting wood, baling hay and painting fences. His hands grew rough.
“All of those wonderful adventurous stories of riding his bike to Alaska, the railroad-car jumping, yes, those are all true,” his mother said.
“But I want everybody to know that, no, Svein was not an orphan. He was raised by two loving parents. He had his own room, a trampoline, a motor scooter. But he was just looking for something else.”
A Racer Reborn
In 2001, within two years of his first bike race, Tuft was on the Canadian national team.
“I guess I really wanted to prove to people that I could do it,” he said. “You always don’t have to fit into one kind of mold.”
In 2003, he showed up for the Prime Alliance pro team’s training camp near Los Angeles. He had ridden there from Canada.
“He had this really long beard, and he smelled very bad,” said Vaughters, who was in his last season as a rider. “I remember thinking, O.K., this guy is completely different than the image of the typical European money-driven cyclist who buys Porsches in his spare time.”
But Tuft was not pleased with the lifestyle. During his career, he had seen performance-enhancing drugs ruin lives. He decided there was no future for him in the sport, so he quit.
But the Cunninghams soon came calling, convinced that this mountain man was worth the trouble. Eventually, Tuft the bike racer was reborn, though he still considered himself an outsider.
In 2006, after winning his third consecutive Canadian road time trial championship, he moved into a trailer on Kevin Cunningham’s property. It was the perfect combination of old life and new.
If the sport’s drug testers needed to find him, he would sometimes provide only vague directions, like “end of the logging road, up the trail head at the top of the ridge.”
Though upper-body weight is taboo for bike racers, he worked out so hard in the off-season that he would thicken to 190 pounds, from 170.
Kevin Cunningham warned him: “Do not do another push-up. You gain muscle so quickly, you will look as big as a grizzly.”
Teams offered him more money to leave Symmetrics, but he stayed out of loyalty.
Yet when his team folded last year under financial strain, Tuft spoke with Vaughters once again. They focused on the Garmin team’s antidoping stance and its relatively laid-back approach. They agreed that Tuft’s talents were well suited to certain parts of stage races like the Tour de France and to relatively flat races like Paris-Roubaix.
Kevin Cunningham reassured him: “Just be yourself. It will be more corporate, but you will be fine.”
At a training camp in December in Boulder, Colo., Tuft stopped to see a reflection of himself in a store window. He saw a cleanshaven face and cleanshaven head, a dress shirt tucked into dark pants and a gleaming BlackBerry in his hand.
He shuddered.
“I said to myself, ‘Whoa, who is that guy?’ ” he recalled. “No way is that me. No way.”
Most of his teammates were used to a transient life in hotel rooms, not on forest floors. They lived in Europe and liked designer clothing and French wine. Tuft knows he will soon move with his girlfriend to Girona, Spain, the team’s training base.
When this new life unnerves him, he said, he looks at a tattoo on his right forearm: We will never be here again. It was his mantra while on trips with Bear, who died seven years ago.
“It was by far the most content I’ve ever been,” he said. “My bike was a piece of junk. I had nowhere to go, no place to be. Didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. If I felt like lying on the side of the road, I did.”
At that moment, Tuft’s BlackBerry buzzed. It was someone from his new team.
He had to take the call.
Those who have heard the tale of Svein Tuft have wondered, could it possibly be true?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
The Holness Family
Tuft, above, is now a member of the Garmin-Slipstream team. At 18, he spent $40 on a thrift-shop bike and built a trailer to haul supplies and his 80-pound dog, Bear, and rode into the Canadian wilderness.
How he dropped out of school in the 10th grade, lured by the freedom of the outdoors. How he evolved into a barrel-chested woodsman with Paul Bunyan biceps. How he ventured, at 18, from his home in Canada into the wilderness on a $40 thrift-shop bike hooked to a homemade trailer.
They have learned of the way he traveled sparingly, towing only his camping gear, a sack of potatoes and his 80-pound dog, Bear. The way he drank from streams and ate beside an open fire. Or hopped trains across Canada, resting as the land flickered by.
Now 31, Tuft is out to prove that all the raw travel and personal drive can translate into something beyond his survival. Recruited by one of the world’s top cycling teams, he is about to begin a more disciplined journey. It starts next weekend with the Tour of California, where he will race with the Garmin-Slipstream squad, and is likely to continue this summer at the Tour de France.
“He’s a late, late bloomer who lived a lifestyle that has been completely incongruent with any professional cyclist out there,” Jonathan Vaughters, the team’s director, said. “In Europe, you are pressured to succeed by the time you are 18, and if you don’t do it by the time you are 21, then you’re done. But Svein? He’s somebody who has lived life according to how he wanted to live it.”
Tuft figured out he was a natural racer at 23. He was home from a cycling trip to Alaska when his father suggested he try racing. In his first event, a local road race, he was in the lead when he dropped out with a flat tire. Two races later, he won for the first time.
From there, he blossomed. But Tuft also felt trapped between a life in the outdoors and one in the structured world of professional competition.
Kevin and Mark Cunningham, owners of the Symmetrics Cycling team in Canada, found Tuft in 2004. He was mowing lawns. After racing in virtual anonymity for three professional teams, he had quit the sport because he said he did not want to be associated with its doping problems.
But the Cunninghams wanted him. They knew he had the potential to be one of the fastest cyclists in the world.
“At first, you have this idea that this guy’s a nut case,” Mark Cunningham said. “But he’s not. He’s super down to earth, kind and a straight shooter. I thought he was going to be this extreme sports, in-your-face guy. But he was the opposite.”
They coaxed Tuft onto their team with a promise that it would be clean and that he would be free to vanish into the mountains during the winter.
“We had to get used to saying, ‘Svein is missing,’ ” Kevin Cunningham said. “ ‘He’s AWOL again.’ ”
Last year, riding for Canada, Tuft surprised many by winning a silver medal at the world cycling championships in the time trial and also finishing seventh in that event at the Beijing Olympics. He won four gold medals at the Pan American Road and Track Championships.
Some say that was just a start.
A Long-Distance Pedigree
As a boy, Svein Tuft (pronounced Swayne) was known as Svein the Strong. He always knew he would not grow up to be a wimp.
His grandfather Arne Tuft, racing for Norway at the 1936 Winter Olympics, finished sixth in the grueling 50-kilometer cross-country skiing event.
His father, also named Arne, was drawn to Canada from Norway after reading Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild.” He started out in logging, then became a general contractor. Now, he camps in the Arizona desert for weeks without electricity or a phone.
Svein Tuft’s mother, Lesly Holness, is a fitness instructor. In Svein, she saw one determined boy. To her dismay, she said, he always enjoyed testing himself, with each challenge more extreme than the previous.
One Christmas, her son asked for an Army tent, which he pitched next to their house outside Langley, British Columbia. He spent the winter in it.
By 15, he had grown restless. His parents had separated, and he hated studying. He quit school.
“It wasn’t like I was into drugs or alcohol or anything,” Tuft said softly. “I wanted to explore, and I was searching for so many things. I just never felt right anywhere. At that age, you don’t know anything about yourself, and I was trying to find out who I was.”
For a few years, he was obsessed with mountain climbing. He rode a bike more than 50 miles from home into the mountains and stayed for weeks at a time, leaving his parents behind to worry. He said he and a friend once spent more than 24 hours hanging from a cliff face after their climbing rope snagged.
“He decided he was not going to do anything like the establishment,” Holness said. “It was very unsettling to all of us, but there was no stopping him.”
At 17, Tuft bought a used 10-speed. He welded together a trailer, using the frame of a heavy old BMX bike and the bottom of a plastic barrel.
And on one September day, after he had turned 18, he left with Bear, his German shepherd mix, and headed nearly 600 miles to the remote Bella Coola Valley in British Columbia. He said he rode 12 hours some days, pulling the trailer packed with about 200 pounds of gear and food — and his dog. When Tuft struggled to climb hills, Bear jumped out and sprinted along the roadside grass.
Tuft ate corn, beans or bannock, a flat bread. When there was a store around, he splurged on chocolate milk, which remains his favorite drink. He camped beneath spruce trees or open sky.
“A lot of people said, ‘Are you crazy, what are you doing?’ ” Tuft recalled. “But for me, it was all about being alive and learning how to get through a difficult situation. There were days that it was snowing and cold and you haven’t eaten enough that day to get the internal fire going. I really wanted to see how I’d react to that.”
But on that trip, he was ill equipped for the winter weather, which grew harsher as he climbed north. He wore only wool and brought no tent, just a bivouac sack and a blanket.
“When I was that age, I never thought I could die, but I thought, uh-oh, this is it,” he recalled. “I thought, how did you get yourself into this situation — what have you done?”
On a trip to Alaska in the spring, during which he covered more than 4,000 miles, he shared gravel roads with mining and oil trucks. People along the way asked about his journey and invited him to dinner, though he was obviously in need of a shower.
On one stretch of highway, his clothes were soaked, and he had a painful cough. In the distance, he spied an abandoned cabin. Inside, as if in a dream, he found kindling and a stove, jars of pasta and a bed. He slept there for four days.
Over time, bike touring became second nature. He worked odd jobs, like splitting wood, baling hay and painting fences. His hands grew rough.
“All of those wonderful adventurous stories of riding his bike to Alaska, the railroad-car jumping, yes, those are all true,” his mother said.
“But I want everybody to know that, no, Svein was not an orphan. He was raised by two loving parents. He had his own room, a trampoline, a motor scooter. But he was just looking for something else.”
A Racer Reborn
In 2001, within two years of his first bike race, Tuft was on the Canadian national team.
“I guess I really wanted to prove to people that I could do it,” he said. “You always don’t have to fit into one kind of mold.”
In 2003, he showed up for the Prime Alliance pro team’s training camp near Los Angeles. He had ridden there from Canada.
“He had this really long beard, and he smelled very bad,” said Vaughters, who was in his last season as a rider. “I remember thinking, O.K., this guy is completely different than the image of the typical European money-driven cyclist who buys Porsches in his spare time.”
But Tuft was not pleased with the lifestyle. During his career, he had seen performance-enhancing drugs ruin lives. He decided there was no future for him in the sport, so he quit.
But the Cunninghams soon came calling, convinced that this mountain man was worth the trouble. Eventually, Tuft the bike racer was reborn, though he still considered himself an outsider.
In 2006, after winning his third consecutive Canadian road time trial championship, he moved into a trailer on Kevin Cunningham’s property. It was the perfect combination of old life and new.
If the sport’s drug testers needed to find him, he would sometimes provide only vague directions, like “end of the logging road, up the trail head at the top of the ridge.”
Though upper-body weight is taboo for bike racers, he worked out so hard in the off-season that he would thicken to 190 pounds, from 170.
Kevin Cunningham warned him: “Do not do another push-up. You gain muscle so quickly, you will look as big as a grizzly.”
Teams offered him more money to leave Symmetrics, but he stayed out of loyalty.
Yet when his team folded last year under financial strain, Tuft spoke with Vaughters once again. They focused on the Garmin team’s antidoping stance and its relatively laid-back approach. They agreed that Tuft’s talents were well suited to certain parts of stage races like the Tour de France and to relatively flat races like Paris-Roubaix.
Kevin Cunningham reassured him: “Just be yourself. It will be more corporate, but you will be fine.”
At a training camp in December in Boulder, Colo., Tuft stopped to see a reflection of himself in a store window. He saw a cleanshaven face and cleanshaven head, a dress shirt tucked into dark pants and a gleaming BlackBerry in his hand.
He shuddered.
“I said to myself, ‘Whoa, who is that guy?’ ” he recalled. “No way is that me. No way.”
Most of his teammates were used to a transient life in hotel rooms, not on forest floors. They lived in Europe and liked designer clothing and French wine. Tuft knows he will soon move with his girlfriend to Girona, Spain, the team’s training base.
When this new life unnerves him, he said, he looks at a tattoo on his right forearm: We will never be here again. It was his mantra while on trips with Bear, who died seven years ago.
“It was by far the most content I’ve ever been,” he said. “My bike was a piece of junk. I had nowhere to go, no place to be. Didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. If I felt like lying on the side of the road, I did.”
At that moment, Tuft’s BlackBerry buzzed. It was someone from his new team.
He had to take the call.
I just saw this
I just ran across this as I was looking at Defgrip.net. On of my favorite artist Shepard Fairey was arrested. The story is crazy check it out if you have the time to read it.
February 10, 2009
Was Shepard Fairey Arrested To Embarrass The Mayor Of Boston? - A First Hand Account
Photo by Holly Combs, PEEL Magazine
For those who know Shepard Fairey, the news of his arrest in Boston, on the eve of his opening at the ICA, came as a big surprise. We were surprised because for well over a week while Shepard was preparing the exhibition, the biggest show of his life, he was the talk of the town. Shepard was everywhere, from the front page of the arts section of the Boston Globe to a highly publicized media event with the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino.
Remembering that Boston was the same city where the Police had manipulated a promotional stunt for the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" into a full scale terror alert, we asked ourselves -
If the police wanted to arrest Shepard Fairey so badly, why did they wait so long after the warrant was issued to arrest him? In addition, why would they arrest him on the night of the biggest opening of his life at one of country's most prestigious art institutions?
Last night we spoke with Dave Combs, the publisher of PEEL Magazine, and were amazed to hear that the cops are actually pulled Shep out of a cab to arrest him and that they did it as Shepard was entering the museum parking lot.
This morning Dave sent us a long note about what went down. We wanted share it with you...
Photo by Holly Combs, PEEL Magazine
From Dave:
The real story about Shepard Fairey's arrest in Boston Friday night is the resulting riot that didn't happen – a riot that the Boston Police Department may have carefully planned to provoke and hoped would happen that evening, but didn't.
On January 2nd, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed a one-year wage freeze for city workers, including the Boston Police Department. The Boston Police Superior Officers Federation agreed to a contract on January 23, but not until after the city dismissed its residency case against West Roxbury Police Sergeant Michael Hanson. In the mix of the deal was an alleged list of more than 25 superior police officers who are living outside the city in violation of their contracts' residency requirements. Through the use of strong-arm tactics, the Mayor got his wage freeze and at least 25 of Boston's Finest got to keep their jobs. The following day, two warrants were issued for Shepard Fairey's arrest.
On Wednesday, February 4th, Mayor Menino met with Shepard and was photographed shaking his hand following the unveiling of Fairey's 'Peace Goddess' banner on the North wall of City Hall at a public event to promote his show, Supply and Demand, at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. Thursday night Shepard sat for a Q-and-A talk at the ICA which was publicized by the museum after which he signed autographs for more than an hour. Shepard was not arrested until two full weeks after the warrants had been issued and after numerous public appearances in Boston.
The obvious question is: Why did the police take so long after the warrant was issued to apprehend their man? Was it a matter of pure incompetence? As admiring fans of his work, were the police giving him opportunity to make appearances and put more art out on the streets of Boston? I don't think so.
My wife Holly and I were riding in the cab with Shepard and his wife Amanda from the Renaissance Hotel to the museum when the police made their move, and the answer to my question became clear only after replaying the event in my mind several times and re-examining the circumstances over and over again with Holly. It is my belief that the Boston Police Department had carefully planned to serve their warrants in front of an audience of approximately 800 excited Shepard Fairey fans, some of whom had reportedly paid as much as $500 on Craigslist for a ticket to the event. In my opinion, the BPD had at the very least set out to make a public spectacle of the arrest, and at worst were intent on provoking the agitated crowd to riot. They clearly had it out for Mayor Menino, and had engineered the perfect scenario with which to simultaneously tie Menino to a "criminal graffiti vandal" and conveniently show up to be the heroes of their own story.
Two unlikely factors worked together to foil their plan, as Shepard was arrested quietly and with no fanfare just outside the entrance to the museum parking lot with only four known witnesses apart from Shepard and the Boston Police officers themselves.
The first unlikely occurrence was that my wife Holly and I were riding in the cab in the first place. Completely unplanned, Shepard spontaneously offered to share the cab with us since we were leaving the hotel to go to the show at precisely the same time. Holly hopped into the front seat, Amanda remained on the drivers-side, and Shepard made room for me to his right. I squeezed in and shut the rear passenger-side door. One of us quickly told the cab driver we were going to the ICA and the cab driver quickly backed out of the hotel pick-up area and headed up Seaport Boulevard toward the Museum.
The second unlikely factor was that the driver missed the turn for the entrance of the ICA. We had to show him where to turn into the museum. As we approached the entrance Holly, looking back, noticed that there was an unmarked tan SUV tailgating our cab. She pointed it out to Amanda, who said something like, "Why is that guy riding our ass?" At the same time Shepard said to the driver, "It's right here! The museum." and pointed to the parking lot entrance. The driver slowed down to attempt to make the turn but still missed the entrance by just a fraction of a second and we passed it by a short distance. The driver tried to back up or turn around but the unmarked SUV directly behind us was blocking our path. Police officers quickly surrounded the cab, and one of them pounded loudly on the driver's window. "Boston Police, stop the car! Turn off the car!" The officer exchanged words with the cab driver, and one of the officers flashed a badge and asked us each to identify ourselves. When Shepard calmly said, "I'm Shepard," one officer commanded, "Everybody out of the car, now!" We quickly decided to OBEY.
Two officers surrounded Shepard on the far side of the cab in the street and an additional officer herded the remaining three of us over to the curb on the other side of the cab where we stood facing Shepard with our backs towards the museum. The officer asked if any of us were family and Amanda told them that she is his wife. The three of us stood stunned overhearing the officer explain to Shepard that they had warrants for his arrest. Shepard calmly explained that he had already taken care of the warrants, and one of the officers said, "These are new warrants." More verbal exchange ensued, and at some point Shepard raised his hands in front of himself and from what I could see from the curb, the officer cuffed or zip-tied his wrists. Holly asked, "What's happening?" Amanda replied she didn't know. About then one of the officers told us that Shepard was going to jail, and he would be there until Monday morning. They pulled his two black bags out of the cab and asked who they belonged to. "It's his records and laptop for DJ'ing, but my stuff is in there too," Amanda replied. The officer put down the bags and said he didn't want their stuff.
Amanda proceeded to inform one of the officers that Shepard is diabetic and that his insulin pump was low and would need to be refilled very soon. She went over to the other side of the cab where the officers were standing with Shepard and I couldn't hear what she said to them. She told the cab driver to keep the meter running and wait. About this time the officers were leading Shepard away from the cab and towards their vehicle. As they were taking him away Amanda reminded him that he has rights and he needs to talk to their lawyer. When she returned to the curb on our side of the cab an officer told Amanda the phone number and district where they were going to take Shepard so she could bring his insulin. We had no pen or paper so Holly took down the number into her iPhone, and emailed it to Amanda. Amanda at first asked me to stay there and watch to make sure they didn't do anything to Shepard, but in the time it took for Holly to get the information from the officer and email it to Amanda they had already gotten Shepard into a marked police vehicle and we couldn't see him any longer. I remember at one point during all the activity turning around and looking behind us at the museum to see if anyone in the parking lot or in front of the museum could see what was happening out here. Apparently they couldn't as it was fairly dark and we were pretty far away from the museum. No one was watching us save for the Giant icon above the museum.
What we didn't realize at the time is the events were clearly the Boston Police Department's "Plan B". Had the two unlikely events I described not happened just as they did, their "Plan A" would have gone something like the following…
Plan A: We successfully make the turn into the ICA. The unmarked SUV follows our cab and drives right up to the front entrance of the glass-façade ICA with 800 of Shepard's fans inside and outside hyped on adrenaline excitedly watching, waiting for him to arrive. The SUV swoops in and the undercover cops emerge to seize Shepard right in front of all those fans. Now, I was in that crowd later that night, and I can be sure that at least a handful of those guys I met inside wouldn't have just stood there without doing something. It might have been that they ran out and shouted obscenities at the cops who were arresting Shepard, or they might have simply lost their minds and just mobbed the cops depending on the number of people who ran out, all while the cameras were rolling. Either way, something ugly certainly would have jumped off, and whatever happened it would have played right into the hands of the Boston Police Department and helped them hand the Mayor his ass on a platter. Remember, Mayor Menino was photographed just two days earlier congratulating Shepard and welcoming him to Boston.
Later that night we took another cab back to the Museum and we went around the line of people still waiting to get in as our names were on the guest list, and that's when we realized how many people would have been watching Shepard get arrested if we hadn't missed that turn. We went inside, and saw the expectant faces of all those in attendance and we were heavily burdened with the knowledge that Shepard wasn't going to be coming that night. We went upstairs to try to find some friends, and tell them what was happening in order to get some outside perspective while were surrounded by 20 years of Shepard's artwork. Everyone agreed that there was little we could do right now, and that Amanda and the others were taking care of business. Later on we went downstairs to hear Z-Trip as he was keeping up the vibe and carrying the weight of the crowd's expectations and their emotions about Shepard's arrest. I didn't hear the announcement or the crowd's response when they said he'd been arrested, but with his incredible energy and marvelous skills Z-Trip managed to turn a terrible situation into a rally and unite the crowd to party in celebration of the struggle against the powers that be. If you can just imagine the energy in a room packed with 800 fans led by Z-Trip in a one-finger salute to the Boston Police Department to the tune of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of" followed by Bob Marley singing "Get Up Stand Up" to bring it back down you can see how he helped us work out our frustrations with the music, and be able to then chill out and not start that riot after all.
It's my opinion based on what I experienced, Shepard Fairey became a pawn in an ugly political game in which the Boston Police Department was willing to risk the safety of the citizens it has sworn to protect in order to punish the Mayor for his shady deal. With cops and city government officials like that, who needs criminals? Apparently they do
February 10, 2009
Was Shepard Fairey Arrested To Embarrass The Mayor Of Boston? - A First Hand Account
Photo by Holly Combs, PEEL Magazine
For those who know Shepard Fairey, the news of his arrest in Boston, on the eve of his opening at the ICA, came as a big surprise. We were surprised because for well over a week while Shepard was preparing the exhibition, the biggest show of his life, he was the talk of the town. Shepard was everywhere, from the front page of the arts section of the Boston Globe to a highly publicized media event with the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino.
Remembering that Boston was the same city where the Police had manipulated a promotional stunt for the show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" into a full scale terror alert, we asked ourselves -
If the police wanted to arrest Shepard Fairey so badly, why did they wait so long after the warrant was issued to arrest him? In addition, why would they arrest him on the night of the biggest opening of his life at one of country's most prestigious art institutions?
Last night we spoke with Dave Combs, the publisher of PEEL Magazine, and were amazed to hear that the cops are actually pulled Shep out of a cab to arrest him and that they did it as Shepard was entering the museum parking lot.
This morning Dave sent us a long note about what went down. We wanted share it with you...
Photo by Holly Combs, PEEL Magazine
From Dave:
The real story about Shepard Fairey's arrest in Boston Friday night is the resulting riot that didn't happen – a riot that the Boston Police Department may have carefully planned to provoke and hoped would happen that evening, but didn't.
On January 2nd, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed a one-year wage freeze for city workers, including the Boston Police Department. The Boston Police Superior Officers Federation agreed to a contract on January 23, but not until after the city dismissed its residency case against West Roxbury Police Sergeant Michael Hanson. In the mix of the deal was an alleged list of more than 25 superior police officers who are living outside the city in violation of their contracts' residency requirements. Through the use of strong-arm tactics, the Mayor got his wage freeze and at least 25 of Boston's Finest got to keep their jobs. The following day, two warrants were issued for Shepard Fairey's arrest.
On Wednesday, February 4th, Mayor Menino met with Shepard and was photographed shaking his hand following the unveiling of Fairey's 'Peace Goddess' banner on the North wall of City Hall at a public event to promote his show, Supply and Demand, at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. Thursday night Shepard sat for a Q-and-A talk at the ICA which was publicized by the museum after which he signed autographs for more than an hour. Shepard was not arrested until two full weeks after the warrants had been issued and after numerous public appearances in Boston.
The obvious question is: Why did the police take so long after the warrant was issued to apprehend their man? Was it a matter of pure incompetence? As admiring fans of his work, were the police giving him opportunity to make appearances and put more art out on the streets of Boston? I don't think so.
My wife Holly and I were riding in the cab with Shepard and his wife Amanda from the Renaissance Hotel to the museum when the police made their move, and the answer to my question became clear only after replaying the event in my mind several times and re-examining the circumstances over and over again with Holly. It is my belief that the Boston Police Department had carefully planned to serve their warrants in front of an audience of approximately 800 excited Shepard Fairey fans, some of whom had reportedly paid as much as $500 on Craigslist for a ticket to the event. In my opinion, the BPD had at the very least set out to make a public spectacle of the arrest, and at worst were intent on provoking the agitated crowd to riot. They clearly had it out for Mayor Menino, and had engineered the perfect scenario with which to simultaneously tie Menino to a "criminal graffiti vandal" and conveniently show up to be the heroes of their own story.
Two unlikely factors worked together to foil their plan, as Shepard was arrested quietly and with no fanfare just outside the entrance to the museum parking lot with only four known witnesses apart from Shepard and the Boston Police officers themselves.
The first unlikely occurrence was that my wife Holly and I were riding in the cab in the first place. Completely unplanned, Shepard spontaneously offered to share the cab with us since we were leaving the hotel to go to the show at precisely the same time. Holly hopped into the front seat, Amanda remained on the drivers-side, and Shepard made room for me to his right. I squeezed in and shut the rear passenger-side door. One of us quickly told the cab driver we were going to the ICA and the cab driver quickly backed out of the hotel pick-up area and headed up Seaport Boulevard toward the Museum.
The second unlikely factor was that the driver missed the turn for the entrance of the ICA. We had to show him where to turn into the museum. As we approached the entrance Holly, looking back, noticed that there was an unmarked tan SUV tailgating our cab. She pointed it out to Amanda, who said something like, "Why is that guy riding our ass?" At the same time Shepard said to the driver, "It's right here! The museum." and pointed to the parking lot entrance. The driver slowed down to attempt to make the turn but still missed the entrance by just a fraction of a second and we passed it by a short distance. The driver tried to back up or turn around but the unmarked SUV directly behind us was blocking our path. Police officers quickly surrounded the cab, and one of them pounded loudly on the driver's window. "Boston Police, stop the car! Turn off the car!" The officer exchanged words with the cab driver, and one of the officers flashed a badge and asked us each to identify ourselves. When Shepard calmly said, "I'm Shepard," one officer commanded, "Everybody out of the car, now!" We quickly decided to OBEY.
Two officers surrounded Shepard on the far side of the cab in the street and an additional officer herded the remaining three of us over to the curb on the other side of the cab where we stood facing Shepard with our backs towards the museum. The officer asked if any of us were family and Amanda told them that she is his wife. The three of us stood stunned overhearing the officer explain to Shepard that they had warrants for his arrest. Shepard calmly explained that he had already taken care of the warrants, and one of the officers said, "These are new warrants." More verbal exchange ensued, and at some point Shepard raised his hands in front of himself and from what I could see from the curb, the officer cuffed or zip-tied his wrists. Holly asked, "What's happening?" Amanda replied she didn't know. About then one of the officers told us that Shepard was going to jail, and he would be there until Monday morning. They pulled his two black bags out of the cab and asked who they belonged to. "It's his records and laptop for DJ'ing, but my stuff is in there too," Amanda replied. The officer put down the bags and said he didn't want their stuff.
Amanda proceeded to inform one of the officers that Shepard is diabetic and that his insulin pump was low and would need to be refilled very soon. She went over to the other side of the cab where the officers were standing with Shepard and I couldn't hear what she said to them. She told the cab driver to keep the meter running and wait. About this time the officers were leading Shepard away from the cab and towards their vehicle. As they were taking him away Amanda reminded him that he has rights and he needs to talk to their lawyer. When she returned to the curb on our side of the cab an officer told Amanda the phone number and district where they were going to take Shepard so she could bring his insulin. We had no pen or paper so Holly took down the number into her iPhone, and emailed it to Amanda. Amanda at first asked me to stay there and watch to make sure they didn't do anything to Shepard, but in the time it took for Holly to get the information from the officer and email it to Amanda they had already gotten Shepard into a marked police vehicle and we couldn't see him any longer. I remember at one point during all the activity turning around and looking behind us at the museum to see if anyone in the parking lot or in front of the museum could see what was happening out here. Apparently they couldn't as it was fairly dark and we were pretty far away from the museum. No one was watching us save for the Giant icon above the museum.
What we didn't realize at the time is the events were clearly the Boston Police Department's "Plan B". Had the two unlikely events I described not happened just as they did, their "Plan A" would have gone something like the following…
Plan A: We successfully make the turn into the ICA. The unmarked SUV follows our cab and drives right up to the front entrance of the glass-façade ICA with 800 of Shepard's fans inside and outside hyped on adrenaline excitedly watching, waiting for him to arrive. The SUV swoops in and the undercover cops emerge to seize Shepard right in front of all those fans. Now, I was in that crowd later that night, and I can be sure that at least a handful of those guys I met inside wouldn't have just stood there without doing something. It might have been that they ran out and shouted obscenities at the cops who were arresting Shepard, or they might have simply lost their minds and just mobbed the cops depending on the number of people who ran out, all while the cameras were rolling. Either way, something ugly certainly would have jumped off, and whatever happened it would have played right into the hands of the Boston Police Department and helped them hand the Mayor his ass on a platter. Remember, Mayor Menino was photographed just two days earlier congratulating Shepard and welcoming him to Boston.
Later that night we took another cab back to the Museum and we went around the line of people still waiting to get in as our names were on the guest list, and that's when we realized how many people would have been watching Shepard get arrested if we hadn't missed that turn. We went inside, and saw the expectant faces of all those in attendance and we were heavily burdened with the knowledge that Shepard wasn't going to be coming that night. We went upstairs to try to find some friends, and tell them what was happening in order to get some outside perspective while were surrounded by 20 years of Shepard's artwork. Everyone agreed that there was little we could do right now, and that Amanda and the others were taking care of business. Later on we went downstairs to hear Z-Trip as he was keeping up the vibe and carrying the weight of the crowd's expectations and their emotions about Shepard's arrest. I didn't hear the announcement or the crowd's response when they said he'd been arrested, but with his incredible energy and marvelous skills Z-Trip managed to turn a terrible situation into a rally and unite the crowd to party in celebration of the struggle against the powers that be. If you can just imagine the energy in a room packed with 800 fans led by Z-Trip in a one-finger salute to the Boston Police Department to the tune of Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of" followed by Bob Marley singing "Get Up Stand Up" to bring it back down you can see how he helped us work out our frustrations with the music, and be able to then chill out and not start that riot after all.
It's my opinion based on what I experienced, Shepard Fairey became a pawn in an ugly political game in which the Boston Police Department was willing to risk the safety of the citizens it has sworn to protect in order to punish the Mayor for his shady deal. With cops and city government officials like that, who needs criminals? Apparently they do
I'm on a Boat
I'm posting this video for Shipwreck. This video is by far the best thing I've seen this weekend. Shipwreck What!!!!!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Details about sprints
Ok so I'm going to try and explain a bit more about the sprints. There will be a Womens and Mens division, The Fast and Sassy/ The Quick adn the Dead sprint series. The reaces wil be set up in a bracket type system. The number of people in each group will depend on the nmber of people that come out for each race. There will be an overall 1st place winner, receiving a cash prize. there wil also be the speed demon award given out at each race; this will be the person with the fastest time. So this could be the winner of the sprints or a completely different person. The sprints will vary between different styles; soe short and sweet, othere long and straight. The goal is to keep you quessing and always on your toes. We're excited about the series and hope that everyone can make it out.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Yep
So I got in a few prize in the last couple of days for the race, excited about that.
Also sure you've already seen it around, prolly's blog and 407 but our local Mel has a book for sell of pic and what have you so check it out. Pick one up.
Also sure you've already seen it around, prolly's blog and 407 but our local Mel has a book for sell of pic and what have you so check it out. Pick one up.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Seagull bags
I thought it would be a good idea for you guys to get familar with some of the sponsors for the sprint series, just incase you haven't heard of them. Get in the know cats:
Seagull Bags specializes in waterproof, high-quality custom courier bags. What began as one guy in a basement trying to build the perfect bag has grown into a respected but low-profile maker of custom messenger gear. While our bags have gained international acclaim for their durability, smart design and custom embroidery and artwork, our staff is small enough to lend close personal attention to every order; we pride ourselves on working directly with you to build a bag exactly to your specifications.
My name is Daniel McKewen. I started Seagull in 2003 because I had an idea for the Perfect Courier Bag, and rather than waiting for someone to read my mind and make it for me, I decided to do it myself. After spending hundreds of hours tweaking my design and refining my sewing skills, I had a product I was proud of. I now offer my bags in many shapes and sizes, each designed with the same close personal care as the initial ones I made for my friends, family and own use.
Our designs are completely original, and we work very hard to offer you something completely different from the other guys’. From our 3-ply construction to our original strap designs, we are trying to change the way that people think about messenger-style bags. Our cam buckle strap system is one of a kind, and despite a lot of companies now having strangely similar systems (and weirdly coincidental constructions), ours is the original; our designs are all time-tested and are constantly refined, because we want each bag to be the best bag we’ve ever made.
As demand for our bags has increased, the company and our catalog has grown by leaps and bounds. John, Maika, Kelly, Adam and I are putting out a record number of high-quality bags, all still handmade in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world, open our own storefront/workshop, and sponsor and provide prize bags for many of the world’s premiere courier races†. In the process, we’ve met a lot of awesome people, and those friendships are what we love most of all.
If you see me riding around, please introduce yourself. I am 6’6” with red beard and a crusty white track bike. You can’t miss me.
Go check the site out:
seagullbags.com
Seagull Bags specializes in waterproof, high-quality custom courier bags. What began as one guy in a basement trying to build the perfect bag has grown into a respected but low-profile maker of custom messenger gear. While our bags have gained international acclaim for their durability, smart design and custom embroidery and artwork, our staff is small enough to lend close personal attention to every order; we pride ourselves on working directly with you to build a bag exactly to your specifications.
My name is Daniel McKewen. I started Seagull in 2003 because I had an idea for the Perfect Courier Bag, and rather than waiting for someone to read my mind and make it for me, I decided to do it myself. After spending hundreds of hours tweaking my design and refining my sewing skills, I had a product I was proud of. I now offer my bags in many shapes and sizes, each designed with the same close personal care as the initial ones I made for my friends, family and own use.
Our designs are completely original, and we work very hard to offer you something completely different from the other guys’. From our 3-ply construction to our original strap designs, we are trying to change the way that people think about messenger-style bags. Our cam buckle strap system is one of a kind, and despite a lot of companies now having strangely similar systems (and weirdly coincidental constructions), ours is the original; our designs are all time-tested and are constantly refined, because we want each bag to be the best bag we’ve ever made.
As demand for our bags has increased, the company and our catalog has grown by leaps and bounds. John, Maika, Kelly, Adam and I are putting out a record number of high-quality bags, all still handmade in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world, open our own storefront/workshop, and sponsor and provide prize bags for many of the world’s premiere courier races†. In the process, we’ve met a lot of awesome people, and those friendships are what we love most of all.
If you see me riding around, please introduce yourself. I am 6’6” with red beard and a crusty white track bike. You can’t miss me.
Go check the site out:
seagullbags.com
Yo
So right now I'm thinking that the sprints on the 21st will start around 5ish. But thats not a solid time. I'll have it down by this weekend.
I've gotten a couple of helmets from some shop around the area, I'm hoping to get a few more.
That's about it for now.
choke on it!
I've gotten a couple of helmets from some shop around the area, I'm hoping to get a few more.
That's about it for now.
choke on it!
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