Well it's about time...

We got a big epic in. The "epic" Sundays continue, much to wives and girlfriend's discontent. Dare I use that word "epic", kinda like using "extreme". Is the word epic over used. I like epic rides. What do I define as an "epic" ride you ask, there are a few ingredients, I use duration and level of fitness required to complete as the major deciding factors. Scenery doesn't hurt. For the most part the ride must be over 30 miles in length, and be strenuous, leaving you with that feeling of completion that borders on exhaustion. Nothing of course is written in stone. Then again the definition of "epic" changes throughout the season. Our ride on Sunday is one of the Bellingham epics, dubbed the Triple Bypass. We did the traditional route, which has a bit more flat spinning in the beginning. It started with the cross town warm up on the rail to trail, "epic" huh? After just over half an hour of pedaling we enter the first short trail section, then the climbing began. It was a small group consisting of me, Craig, "see ya at the top" Etheridge, and Kevin "the new father" Noble. The first climb in Kleator Rd. a bunch of tempo climbing, we quickly settled in to our own rhythms, Craig was out of site shortly there after. We joked about having to strap 30 lbs on his back so we could all be the same weight. Kevin and I tip the scales near 180, Craig would be lucky to be 140 soaking wet. After a few miles we arrived at the top to a bit on snow and the beginning of the Black Diamond, yes that is its name descent. Craig had to wait for me and then we waited for Kevin, then Kevin and I extracted our revenge on Craig on the descent. Black Diamond is technical, steep, rooty, with slick rocks mixed in for good measure. More double track lead us to the next section, a climb dubbed Burnout. This thing goes and goes and then gets steeper and steeper. I kept Craig closer in contact on this on. At the top his bike decided to have some problems, which took a bit of trail ingenuity to fix, rocks were necessary. Then we again got to ride away from Craig on another steep descent. Which landed us at the bottom of the next challenge, the third and final climb, Sick Joke. The steepest, loosest, with the most baby heads climb, add wet ground to that and you will be mashing away to your hearts content. I refused to walk any of it, not that it made me any faster, I got to watch Craig walk in front of me, but I didn't get off. Then some super fun flowy, rolling, technical, descent and it was back across town to Kevin's we were rolling. 35 to 40 miles round trip, not bad for a early March day. Thanks again gentlemen. I'll leave you with this parting shot of Craig, look how happy he is.