The Hangover....

so the sun has risen on the day after.........and what a day it was. the 40 has come and gone in its 5th year. wow, and a big sigh of relief. its a tremendous undertaking every year but we keep coming back for more. it sometimes takes a little more encouragement, read many many pints, to get george back on the horse but he eventually comes around. the main reason being the racers! you guys rock. all the compliments yesterday did not go unheard. thats why we do it. our motto has always been so long as everybody has a good time and nobody gets hurt we're happy. well we had one visit from the "bus" for a collarbone meets rock incident but other than the normal bumps, bruises, scrapes, and bonks i think most escaped physically unscathed. now mentally.....well who am i to judge.

we need to send a huge shout out to all our volunteers! these guys and gals give up a lot of there free time to help us by doing all sorts of everything and a lot of it not very glamorous. from helping mark, clear, and even craft some of the trails to picking up trash these guys and gals give 110% and ask for nothing in return. if it weren't for them there would be no 40.
big props go out to the apron gang who cooked your chicken, made all the salads and even passed around a few "mega-rita's"! these guys literally slaved over the hot coals all day to get the racers and spectators fed. good work boys! we are currently re-negotiating their contract but i think we can hash out the details for 08!

special thanks to the emt's as well! these guys and gals are there to look after you guys when you have gravitational issues on your 2-wheeled missiles! they don't even complain about getting all up close and personal with a bunch of sweaty, stinky, and muddy racers! they seem to maybe even enjoy it! without them you would have to suffer with the first aid stills of george and myself. these mainly entail applying liberal amounts of alcohol, internally, and then worrying about whatever may be sticking out of your skin later!

last but not least thanks to all the racers who came out and gave it hell! whether you finished in under 3 hrs on a 1 speed bike (tim! holy moly your one fast crustacean toting dude!) or over 6 hrs you rock!

thanks for coming out guys and stay tuned for more darkhorse info!

remember to continue to support the hudson 2 highlands series! we will be there. if you see 2 guys on 1 speed bikes suffering like dogs say hi and remind us that it will be over soon and point us in the direction of the cooler!

hand me my 40!

the 40 looms large on the horizon!
get pre-regged if you arent already! save a few bucks and help to quell george's fear that no one will show up!
we got some great stuff in store. new t-shirt design this year thanks to the boys at american icon!
same great bbq plan with a few tweaks. but for the most part the boys will be back with their aprons on firing up the grill and cooking a bunch of chicken! no not the chicken that got booted from the tour! although i imagine he is pretty well cooked at this point.

the course is shaping up and we promise to bring you two laps of fine stewart singletrack aged to perfection and hand crafted for our fat tire pleasure.

so start kicking up the miles and get set to have a blast! any questions feel free to email or call the shop.

ROLLIN, ROLLIN, ROLLIN....................

just like elwood sang somebody, and i cant remember exactly who, told me that marty's course was rolling terrain with some really fun and fast singletrack. it rolled alright!
i had sent george out to utah for some good mormon teaching and 3.2 beer consumption so i saddled up early on sunday am and headed out solo. not that there weren't plenty of other darkhorses in attendance. to be quite honest the most time i spent on the bike the week prior was an epic singlespeed adventure around the cul-de-sac with the kids! hey we were all on bikes with 1 gear! so despite not having any miles in my legs i was stoked to ride the seven as a 1 speed on some new terrain, and really the race was in morristown how bad could it be? well i got there and reg'd and spent some time bs'ing with the usual crew. watched richard and bill represent in the beginner class and then decided to get my act together. my warm-up pre-ride consisted of riding the first mile or so and noticing that it was a gradual climb. hmmmm.
fast forward to the 1st lap and they let the ss guys go out in front, i think only cause we staked are claim at the start and who wants to mess with someone crazy enough to race a 1 speed bike anyway! we are about 2-2.5 miles in and pretty well strung out in single file but still together as a group when one of the guys looks at me with that grizzled, desperate, tongue wagging, on the rivot expression and says "rolling eh?".
so from there on out it was a war of attrition. after the 1st lap i shot down a goo and traded water bottles at the start finish, thanks mikes mom and sis!!!, and felt ok. well the next lap was a suffer fest and the third, well lets just say that i just kept going forward. i payed heavy for being off the bike. i was deep in the pain cave on the 3rd lap and glad to just finish.
it was the kind of course where you would be paying hard on the climbs and then come to a swoopy fast singletrack section and forget all about the torture you just endured.
yeah i'll be back! maybe with a set of legs that have some juice in them or maybe not but i will have fun!

all in all i think fun was had by all. great course and a great bunch of guys and gals.

anybody headed up to mt snow this weekend good luck and have fun!

got beer?

But dont have a sweet pint glass to put it in?
what ever can you do? hmmmmmmm

well fear not!!!!!

darkhorse 40 pint glasses are here!
new logo and design for this year!

stop on by the shop and pick one up!
guaranteed to make your beer drinking experience that much more bitchin!

darkhorse gallop is in the books!

well the gallop is in the books folks! and what a day it was!!
we had some prep issues in the weeks leading up to the event. we had to alter our intended course a bit due another user group being in the park. as it turned out i think it was for the best. we settled on a 5.5 mile first lap and a 6 mile main lap. we upped the number of laps for all groups from the first race and it seemed like everybody really enjoyed it! seeing some of the same trails as the first race but in the opposite direction really gave the course a while new feel.
sunday started early....at like 4:00am early....with george and myself sipping coffee and covering last minute logistics. next thing you know we were packing it up. always goes by to fast.
we want to send a huge thank you out to all our volunteers! without them non of this would ever happen.
so the Titus demo trailer was there and was a huge success. mike and his dog kula had pretty much the whole demo trailer on the trails and everybody seemed stoked to check out their bikes!
the series continues to grow and the turnouts this season have been awesome! great beginner class and huge sport class! the experts and pro classes are just smokin fast this year as well!
we had an awesome pro class! harlan price took top honors doing battle with fast eddy ceccolili and troy wells to round out the top three. we had a special guest appearance by the fastest pro women in the nation! georgia gould came out and mixed it up with the pro men for a 4th place finish! all i can say is hoora!

it was hot, it was fast, everybody had fun and nobody got hurt. i hope everybody went home happy and had a great day. we sure as heck had a blast!

thanks for coming out guys and gals!

Campmor series continues to rock out wih its....

campmor series continues in full swing. the stewart singletrack challenge was a resounding success. we had a great turn out and a great day of racing. big props to mike rave 1st place 30-39 and fastest overall sport male! thanks to everybody that helped us out! without our volunteers george and i would flounder miserably and most likely start drinking beer at 8:00am! thanks to everybody that came out and raced! we hope everybody had a good time!

i the meantime.........

this past weekend was the team bulldog race at kittatinny state park. what an incredible venue and event. big props to brian l and his crew who put on a top quality event an some of jerseys sweetest singletrack. congrats to all team darkhorse riders who were out there flying the colors! especially those with only one-gear!!!!!!!

the darkhorse gallop rapidly approaches. we have a new course in mind and it should be marked pretty soon. if you want to check it out drop an email to the shop and we can point you in the right direction.

dont forget that the 40 in rapidly approaching as well!

campmor series kicks off with spring cleaning!

well the 2007 series got under way last weekend with blackbear cyclings race at waywayanda. man was it sweet, great course, great promoter, and a great turnout. check out their website for results and pics from the weekend.
gotta send a shout out to some team darkhorse members who reached the podium! richard and bill in the beginner class! big george himself in sport master old guys! hip hip hooray! dont let them fool ya they just wanted to finish first so they could get back to the cooler!!! cant forget mike rave who was just a few seconds off the podium in forth! an awesome weekend for the darkhorse crew!

the stewart singletrack challenge is rapidly approaching! george is wandering the singletrack at stewart to come up with an epic course for this year. we strive to keep it fresh and challenging and no doubt this year wont disappoint. we will have more info up on the darkhorse website soon and dont hesitate to contact us with questions.

prep continues on the 40! we are coming up with some great surprises for the 5th annual running!