2005 Year in review

[francois]

Yet another 2005 story...

This one is worth remembering because it's my best riding year ever. With my toddlers growing up and allowing more free time, my New Years Resolution was meet more bikers!

The stars aligned and I met some awesome, awesome people.

The year started out with a bang as I joined Greg Gardner's big ride. 40 miles in January. Now that's worth getting up for.



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Also in January, Tommy aka 'DirtDevil' visited from sunny Puerto Rico. We demonstrated the redwood forest of Soquel



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Then March came around and the Sea Otter thing happened. I did a road race and an SS race. We ran the mtbr booth and met a ton of new friends and old friends



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In April, we had the first Norcal Roadbikereview gathering. On the first mile, a stick got in a spoke and two bikes were crumpled. MikeG had to go to the hospital. Note to self: road crashes are dangerous. Also, road rides suck for photos



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Photo-John said we had to go to Fruita in May. So we did. This is the best trip ever. It will now be an annual thing. Stopovers at Goosberry and Moab



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We had a little May by the Bay action on the hallowed trails of Santa Cruz



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In July, Downieville happened after taking a year off. Few events can recover so quickly after taking a year off. Downieville can!



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A lot of epic Soquel Demo rides happened in the summer



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And finally, a photography student from San Jose State was able to capture Soquel Demo in all it's shaded glory.



The SF Grand Prix happened for the last time. My son has been to the race for the last four years. Next year, no more.



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Ricky aka 'drevil' and Bigboulder came to Skeggs for a visit



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Then in the fall, a massive ride occured at Henry Coe



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Then an epic ride followed at Auburn



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Finally, we close out the season with a Thanksgiving ride in Los Gatos



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So happy new year to all! I think I'll stick to the same New Year's Resolution for 2006.

francois

[DiRt DeViL]

What can I say, meeting you and the crew was the highlight of the year for me. The rides that you took me to were awesome and will never be forgotten.

Also meeting Ken in KC, djohnsonaz, stangmangt thru here was another high. No riding in KC was done due to weather and was able to take out djohnsonaz, stangmangt and a puertorican living in Dallas (lanakila) to some of our local trails and have made a lot of friends on mtbr.com

Here I share some of those pics.

2005 New Year's/MTBR Gathering Ride


Soquel ride with the MTBR crew


djohnsonaz trip to PR


stangmangt trip to PR


lanakila trip to PR


Last 2005 ride






Another highlight for me as a parent is that Little DeViL aka Pepe started the XC raging season with a bang and after breaking his leg during the summer (non cycling related) he has kept hooked on cycling and can't wait for the 2006 season to start.



Next Sunday we'll do our first road race and hopefully he'll do better than me.

Thank you all for the memories and hopefully will do it again in the near future.

Tommy

[francois]

It was wonderful meeting you as well. Little email, little ride... and now I have a great friend in Puerto Rico!! Hope I can make it out to your hood and hope you make it back here.

fc

[DiRt DeViL]

Mi casa es su casa.

[Photo-John]

Francis-
I think that's my favorite post ever from you. The photo layout looks great and your photos improved a lot this year. I also like the way you looked back and made an organized account of your year. And I'm really happy I got the boys to go on a real road trip in 2005. It's about time! They're worth the time, effort, and stink

But I don't think I'll be wearing a bib in front of the camera again. That's going to follow me for the rest of my life. I think I owe you one for that.

[anthonys]

See, I'm in there too...

Nice stuff, cool presentation.