Moving on, I've promised more World Cup and Sea Otter coverage and here it is. First, my World Cup DH mountain bike prediction that Josh Bryceland would finally get his first FREAKING WIN was a week off. The following weekend, he did it in Leogang. That's in Austria. Austria is really steep and rooty and I've ridden there and I should have had a little bit more insight into course knowledge before that prediction, but by God I'm essentially an 8-day-early prophet. Like Morpheus in The Matrix, my predictions seem to be just slightly off.
No matter, here Josh is in a pic from 2011. Carefree and talented as all get out with a buddy of mine from Santa Cruz (hey Will, why you never call?). Being "Ratboy." Dirt jumping with his bros all the time, certainly developing skills, but maybe not taking his talent as seriously as he should on an every day basis. He's the understudy of Steve Peat, and like Peaty he was doing it his way. And like the story arch of one Steve Peat, he finally took things seriously and got a win. Lots of wins are on the horizon if he keeps up the ethic. To me, he's Sinatra, but with a really bad accent:
I could listen to this kid for days, but the point is: World Cup Recap 2014 has different winners in every race so far. This is very exciting, people. Unfortunately, now we have a mere 5 more weeks till the next race. I've been trying to hold my breath but I lack the lung capacity. I think the UCI might need to work on scheduling if we want to keep fans interested. I don't think hockey players take 6 weeks off, ever. Seriously, their off season is like a month...
On to sea Otter part 14 (14 sounds right, correct? I've lost track).
Main answer: Ned Overend is amazing and he always will be and I like to see his progression and legend grow. Part of this blog for me is to try to make people fans of the sport of mountain biking, and Ned Overend and John Tomac and Thomas Frischknecht are the pillars of that. "The Human Lung," as he is known, now has a fatbike. If it wasn't real in your mind that this fatbike thing is legit before, it is now.
Additionally, we sell fatbikes from Surly and a more advanced one from Trek called the "Farley" and they came to market before Specialized. Specialized is one of the big three in terms of large bicycle brands, and they make a good bike. We carry the other two top brands in TREK and Giant, as well as Surly, and they all have a better warranty policy, so I say suck it, Specialized. You do have Ned Overend, but you're late to the show, your business tactics are questionable at best, and I think we have better bikes. All that "The Big S" is really saying here is, "Ned is fast on any bike we put him on... and we put him on this." Cheers, but that doesn't make your fatbike better, or you any more innovative.
Sand, snow, or just another cool bike in the quiver...fat bikes are here to stay for a bit. I think, however, that fatbikes are not at all about speed and every bit about the experience. That's the draw. Winning a race on a fat bike, even if you're Ned Overend, misses the whole point, and I think maybe other companies don't get that.
XOXOX
BC
P.S. I have a story about Ned and I one crazy night in Hollywood when I was working for Mountain Bike magazine that I won't tell out of respect for him, not that he did anything wrong. What I can say is, I almost went fisticuffs with a 'roided up Filip Meirhaeghe. This guy:
I would have died that night had Ned not told the Specialized handlers to take him away to let us enjoy the evening. Respect.
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