Tomi and the Brek Epic

Twas a rainy day when I first met Tomi McMillar. He wondered into the bike shop where I was working asking if the Thursday night shop ride would still be happening. I told him that the trails would probably be too muddy, but he should still check back.

About an hour before closing, the rain kinda stopped. Kurt rode out to the trail head to confirm what I already knew... mud. Still though, around closing time, a few of the regulars still turned up. Everyone had bikes, but most brought beer figuring that the ride probably wasn't going to happen. Kurt decided that we should do an urban ride around Dickinson College. This was a favorite "go to" when you just "had to ride". Dickinson College has meandering sidewalks, steps, connector trails between various buildings, grass rollers (re: jumps) and heaps of other features that made for interesting riding conditions. As we're gearing up, Tomi pulls into the parking lot w/ a sweet Ritchey P22 on the roof.

Sooooo. We're less than an hour into the night and I'm leading the crew around the library, through the entrance pillars, down the steps, around the plant beds to turn onto the... BANG!!!! Someone has definately flatted. I turn to see it's the new guy (Tom) and he's on the ground. Seems as though his front tire exploded at the bottom of the steps. I approach him just as he's picking himself up off the ground. "I fink I juft broke my front teef out" he says as he's feeling around his mouth. Sure enough.... no front teeth!!

Sooooo. Kurt's kinda freaking. It's his shop, his ride. We're probably not even supposed to be riding where we're riding. Kurt says he'll take Tom to the hospital (convienently two blocks away) and I'll finish the ride.

We wondered if we'd ever see Tom again. He was just gettting back into mountain biking after college and I was hoping we didn't ruin that for him.

Not only would Tom return to the shop again, he would become one of my favorite riding partners for the following 6 years until I moved to Tahoe. Tomi's one of those guys that I could call for ANY ride reguardless of distance, conditions, time of day (or night) and was always "on point"... except maybe that night with the high speed left hander, over a roller with an increasing radius on a bed of acorns hidden by fallen leaves..... but that's a different story.

Where was I going with all of this?? Oh yea. The Brek Epic. A 6 day stage race that sounds, well, pretty friggin' hard. I'm not signing up. Nor is anyone else I know. Except Tomi.... Tomi's all about this race. Oh, did I mention he's doing it on a fixed gear. And he's got a chance to race it for FREE!!! This is where you come in. See, my friend Tom has a blog much like the one you're reading here. Actually, it's far better and updated way more often than Mighty Mobile. You should check it out. Just click here and through the magic of the interweb, you'll be taken directly to it!

More stuff:Toms letter of intent for the race. Funny shit. It's kinda long, but you should really check it out. If you're still reading this, you've obviously got some time to kill.

Last but not least: Linky thingy for voting for riders for the race here.