My New Riding Partner
Posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
It’s not easy to get motivated some days to do anything. Even living where I live, in beautiful Colorado, it can be tough. With all the heavy trauma I went through after a climbing accident seven years ago, some days my body is just not psyched to climb or mountain bike.
That’s when I lean on my partners. Most of my climbing partners are younger than me and ready to get out whenever they can. I usually can round up one or two fellas to go boulder when I need to. But biking can be a bit of a chore. I ride because it’s a great way to cross-train my body for climbing. I like to ride, don’t get me wrong; it’s a blast to rip down a single track in the mountains, cross a stream. I even like climbing. It has a really nice quality of repeated movement that is soothing to me. Watching the chain rings turn with my head down, watching the hill slowly glide past, is some days sublime.
And then there are the other days …
The guys I was riding with were of two extremes.
They either kicked my ass into the ground, where all I saw was their butts, or I was in front and quite frankly, I don’t want people to look at my butt. I have too many scars on this body to have people looking at me.
I needed someone new.
Someone psyched, but at my level so we could push each other.
I’ll call her the Queen because she comes from Queensland, Australia.
And she rips on the trails.
At first we had that weird “get used to riding with each other thing,” but I was into the way she was psyched to get out. It didn’t matter if I gave no advance; just show up with my stuff on and she was ready to take off.
Once we were out, she would always take the lead. At first I let her, but as we got used to one another, I started trying to keep up. She can climb faster than me, but on downhills she holds back a little and I can rip past with a laugh. Even in the rain and cold, when I’m less than psyched to go out, there she is, literally chomping at the bit to hit the trail.
It’s not a perfect relationship by any means, as my wife keeps pointing out.
She likes to play with tennis balls in a really annoying way. She likes to eat her food really fast without ever looking at you and then wants more, no matter how much you serve. Of course with her activity level, she never gains weight.
She also has a nasty habit of chewing on her butt. I don’t mean yelling at herself; I mean she actually turns and fleabites the part by her spine.
It’s weird. And loud.
Her worst quality, by far, is her love of tires.
Now I love tires, too, but there is a limit to my love. I buy them, I put them on, and I enjoy the feel of them biting into the trail as I lean into a tight single-track turn. But I have never — I repeat, never — had the desire to turn on my riding partner and bite his damn tire! I mean, seriously, what the heck is that about? We’ll be ripping through a great area, and she is right next to me matching me stroke for stroke when suddenly she gets this look in her eye … and then turns and bites my front tire. This usually results in me hitting her with the bike and then a stern talking to. Not that she cares; she does it every time. I was riding with my buddy Andy last week when she did it in front of him, not to him, but in front of him. All he did was laugh, which I think eggs her on, and then it was done.
We’ve had lengthy talks about this, and all she does is gives me that faraway look in her eyes that says,”Yeah, yeah, I’m doing it again next time, too, buddy. Watch yourself.” I guess every relationship has problems, and really this is not that bad. Most of the time she is the most awesome riding partner I’ve ever had. We just have this one thing we need to work on, and I’m sure it will work out.
I mean, she is a new dog, and you can teach them new tricks, right?
What were you thinking?!
Behave!!
Craig DeMartino is one of Cloudveil’s Inspired Mountain Ambassadors.
Don’t miss these great links! says: November 19th, 2009 at 7:13 am
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