Why I Race My Bike

Today's April blizzard shut the big D down. Looking outside, I see barely three inches of snow, but the rush-hour timing of the storm closed basically everything.  

Thus, snow days are good to get caught up on all the tedious crap that needs washed, cleaned, organized, fixed, sorted, thrown out, etc. Once in a while I come across priceless gems that even I (being a pretty extreme minimalist) just have not had the heart to get rid of just yet.

Today's finds epitomize my personal, ultimate motivation for racing a mountain bike. No feeling evoked by a sunrise, sunset, flower, tree, lake, river, waterfall or section of perfect single track can come close.

Mesmerizing, but nope.

So,without further rambling, I think my entire reason for racing can be summed up by the quest to obtain the following [insert emotional moment of self-actualization here].

Drumroll, please:

A close up of the beauty:

And to follow suit, after racing since he was 6 years old, Les said this is why he will never stop zip-tying number plates to his handle bars:

Ahhh, trophies. The ULTIMATE assurance that all the money, miles, tears, blood, mud, sweat, cholla, rocks, flats, repairs and sacrifices of bicycle racing are  worth it.

I would love to see your finest, most coveted momento from racing. There have got to be some gems out there. Send me an email with a picture of your "precious"and the race story if you want to (allthingsepic@gmail.com) and I will put together a blog post of them all.