07.29
Hi Everyone
Sorry it’s been a bit since I updated anyone on what Ariel and I and the demo bikes have been up to.
July has been insane.
Ariel went to France and got 13th, top American ever, in the pro field at the Mega Avalanche at Alpe D’huez. Go Ariel! Check this video clip from his 3rd place qualifying run.
ariel’s mega alpe d’huez adventure from abby hippely on Vimeo. Might have to get Ariel to point the camera up a little more, eh? Next time…
Meanwhile, I went to the Downieville Classic, swam in the river, and realized I am not a cross country racer anymore. No going back to the glory days when I won the All-Mountian there in ‘05.
Then it was off to Mountain Bike Oregon (MBO). Check out some pics below.

Most all of our bikes went out all three days of the event. Total we had 50 some odd people try bikes over the weekend.

MBO and PBR good combo!

Dakine posse, Slaven, Ariel
We rolled in to MBO late Thursday night, actually Friday morning (midnight) to the Dakine posse bumpin’ techno, LOUDLY! We realized then, as we were parked across from them all weekend, how it was gonna go. When you can’t fight ‘em, you might as well join ‘em! Here’s the posse riding Moon Point later in the weekend.
After MBO we posted up in Eugene for a few days to wash the bikes and have some office time. We also decided we were gonna do a food tour of Eugene, which has some awesome places to eat.

clean demo bikes, thanks to the Days Inn Eugene

Riding the bike path to dinner. We found this bike path winding along the river in Eugene via our new smart phones, go Droid!

The best tuna tartar/ceviche ever! Red Agave 5th Ave. in Eugene. They make a good Tamarind Margarita too!
After a few days in Eugene we hooked up with our BLM contact outside Portland to pick up a permit to demo at the newly re-designed Sandy Ridge trails 40 miles outside Portland. This was also the site of this past Sunday’s demo day. We took the opportunity to help with some trail building.

Building two tables in an A-line style flow trail at Sandy.
This spot is RAD! If you are in Portland make the effort to get to the Sandy Ridge Trails. BLM land, once timber land, opened to recreational use by Congress. The red tape and trail construction efforts are possible in large part, due to a young BLM employee named Zach Jarrett. He’s under 40, people, a BLM employee, AND a mountain biker!
I’ll leave you all with this painting I saw at this restaurant in Klamath Falls. Bad food, cool art:

Can you see it?
Until next time!
A and A








