Practically wearing out the keyboard the last 36 hrs. Processing images like mad, writing my bit for VN, and generally trying to get things in order. Good thing it’s been raining out, otherwise I’d hit out on the bike and get a lot less accomplished. Had a couple nice rides on the course down at Mt Snow and the knee felt reasonable enough. Sore for sure, but I could still ride which is good.

When they were racing down in Mt. Snow this weekend, it was pretty decent, but, man, was the schedule odd. The pro racing didn’t start until 3 PM on Saturday, a lot of down time. Sunny and nice on Saturday, rainy and crappy on Sunday. One of two, I’ll take it.

The crowds are getting smaller and smaller every year at Mt Snow. I’ve been going since ‘92, when it was a World Cup, and in the past 5 years it’s shrunk into a pale imitation of its former glory. The course is the same, but the buzz is gone, a lack of energy. Not sure how I feel about that. I know I feel bad for the athletes, who deserve good crowds to race in front of. Stayed in a friend of a friend’s condo with a bunch of guys and gals who were racing, much better than another anonymous hotel room. I have a pile up backed up images to process and even some stories to write. Off to the races…

The Mark II came within a hair’s breadth of getting chucked of a cliff today. The focusing issues I had back in the winter are getting worse and worse, with more and more frames coming in WAY out of focus. The 300/2.8 used to be a never-fail lens, but even it has started to suck. I slapped it on the old 1D and it worked fine. So, a $4,000 camera body that isn’t working right. Pretty sweet. It’s going right back to Canon, I know a bunch of other shooters who’ve had the exact same problem.

Down to Mt Snow tomorrow for the NORBA this weekend. I like it down there and the housing situation is going to be good, so that makes the travel much better. Took this today of Abi (in from Wisconsin).

My man Adam Craig showed up for the SSWC05 and raced in cut-offs and no shirt (though he made sure to get his sponsors on his chest in lieu of a jersey). He had raced the WV NORBA the day before and drove to State College just to do the race, arrived at like 1 AM the night before. He flatted and it took him 20 mins to change it as he was running a bolt-on rear wheel. He’d duct taped a wrench to his seat stay and he had to unwrap the tape before getting the wheel off. Adam is so resolutely positive, and seems so psyched to be making a living riding his bike, he went as far as to mention how surprisingly comfortable the cut-offs were.

Went up to Craftsbury VT this morning to do a shoot, but it was chucking it down rain so I turned around and came home. Chalk up another 3+ hrs in the car. Sweet.

Two posts in one day, damn straight. When you get the chance to shoot two pro cyclists on the streets of Harlem, it deserves a variation from the norm. Shot this in the AM of Todd H and Davide F crossing Amsterdam in Harlem. Harlem was a lot nicer than I thought it’d be, but the locals have no reservations of giving white guys on bikes a ton of grief. Todd gets right into it and gives as good as he gets. But I’m not used to being called a stupid mutherf-er by some random woman as I wait for a stoplight to turn green. Todd had some guy yell , “Get the F— out of Harlem yesterday.” Welcome to NYC. He just laughed.

The 16+ hours of driving since Friday were flawless, if a little tiresome. Got a bunch more to do before the end of the week too - another 8 I’d reckon. But it’ll be worth it.

This sums up the SingleSpeed World Champs on Sunday. Hilarious, but really fun. Shooting was decent. The winner was determined by a go-kart race after the bike race. No kidding. Winners got a big ol’ tat on their arms (a real one), a bottle of scotch, a new bike, and a custom made sterling silver head badge.

Now I’m in NYC, shooting some cycling. One of the biggest revelations of the weekend was how nice State College, PA was. Great riding, cool town. The only thing is that it’s in the middle of nowhere.

Just about to take off for the wonderful 8-hr drive down to State College for the SSWC05. I’ve had some monster drives this summer, so this won’t be too bad, but it isn’t too good either.

Had a scary one yesterday: riding my town bike down into town to drop off a FedEx and my front tire exploded and blew off the rim. The tube wrapped around the hub and got tangled in the brake. So I tried to keep it upright as my front wheel skidded on the rim, all while I’m going about 30 MPH. Didn’t wreck, but it could have been bad. The front rim now has a big flat spot on it from where it ground down on the road. Still can’t figure out why the tire blew.

Another first: shooting wakeboarding. I did a day shoot for a local resort yesterday and they offer wakeboarding as an activity, so into the back of a ski boat and off we went. Unfortunately it was super windy, so the water was all chopped up, but it was still fun.

All moved in to the new house, and now the unpacking begins. Pretty tiring experience, but it went smoothly, all things considered. One of the best parts is being able to ride my “town bike” for errands, just a 5 minute spin into town.

Still off the bike. Hard to tell if the knee is getting better, I guess it is. Just doing tons of stretching, that definitely helps. The weather has been awesome, pretty itchy to turn the pedals.

In between packing boxes, running back and forth to the new house, I managed to get out and shoot for a couple hours yesterday, some straightforward riding images for a client. Not too bad. The moving has been crazy, I cannot believe we didn’t hire a moving company, but since we’re only moving 12 miles it didn’t seem necessary. It was.

So the house is pretty much empty, even all my bike stuff has been moved so you know it’s serious. I’l definitely miss all the hill’s special features, like the test track, but living closer to town will haave its advantages as well.

Big couple weeks coming up. Tons of shooting, tons of driving. I wish my knee was feeling better, as the jobs will have lots of opportunities to ride. I haven’t ridden in a week because of some tendinitis related to post-op stuff. I should be able to turn the pedals at SSWC05, but not too hard. I’m going to try to race at Mt Snow, we’ll see how that goes.

Good grief, moving ain’t pretty. The house is littered with moving boxes, we start loading the truck tomorrow AM. Once the furniture starts heading out it’s going to get weird.

Just scanned this is of Jure Robic riding in Monument Valley during RAAM, shot with the Pentax 67 and a fisheye, Fuji Velvia 100. A little birdy told me there may be some rule changes at RAAM next year, they’d really change the nature of the event, probably for the better.

Starting to change the address on all my stuff (e-mails, cards, etc) even called Adelphia and Verizon to the hookkup for once we move in. Got put on hold for 20 minutes by Adelphia the first time I called, why do I think that’s not a good sign?