Party On, Wayne

Saturday saw our annual team party executed with near perfection. It’s the time for our squad to look back on the year and celebrate our friendships, our successes and failures, our struggles and troubles, replete with an awards ceremony and some so-good-it-should-all-be-illegal food. Yes, this idea incorporates Sanders’ family recipe barbequed chicken. Amazing stuff.

Such a year for us, really. From a rocky start with a bunch of near misses, to some serious injuries, to cancer, and then to breaking the ice and having the wins come flowing in. Last night we celebrated all of that and more.

cancer and brain injuries ain’t got nuthin’ on these two

Along with some of our newer members coming out to party, there was a new food item in the offing as the estimable Brody Boeger took it upon himself to flawlessly execute the Bacon Explosion. Don’t believe us? Check it:

That’s about 4 pigs worth of pork. And it was DELICIOUS.

And of course another debut of sorts was the en masse unveiling of our special edition 2009 Cyclocross skinsuits and jackets. No worries, we’ll be back in black in 2010 for road as we always are, but we figured with so much black creeping into so many team’s kits, that it would be a good idea to rock some blaze orange action, which of course matches our reflective orange Ironclad gloves. Well, sort of matches. The idea behind this was both change, and of course, the “pursuit of hideous”, and we think it’s safe to say we succeeded on both fronts. We plan on installing a lot of headaches in spectators this year. They’re just godawful. But hey, you won’t ever be able to miss us in races now!

House of Orange

All in all, it was a great year. We thank all of those who were along for the ride, especially those who really showed up in our times of near death medical situations. 2009 was our 3rd album, and our 4th is going to be even better. But first, a few months of mud and falling down.