Quick Game of "Find the Bandit":

Howdy fellow Bandits/ fellow Bandit enthusiasts:

Now that summer's ratcheted into high gear, I felt it was certainly time for a long overdue update. I'll keep it short and to the point, much like Chris Nabel's chest hair.

Following exams, I spent a delicious week in lovely Lake Placid. Highlights included: tasty mountain bike rides on the Logger's Loops, River Road/ World Championship Time Trial, delicious Pearl-cooked meals, some solid rollerskiing with the "Putney Powerhouse" Willy Graves, and quality recording sessions with Axel Scholl and Bradley Noel Harden in the "X-Box Rock Band" Recording Studio. Classy stuff.

The juiciest rollerski story involved, as usual, Bobby Shabitt. Anyhow, after some nice sprints on upper Averyville (remember old stock photo? direct results of sprints gone wrong on upper Averyville), I heard the classic horn slam and pulled over to wait for Bobby to catch up in his white Silverado. We parried for a few moments with some choice words and right of way suggestions before I noticed the 6-Shooter revolver, complete with leather hip-holster, lying in passenger seat. I quickly conceded that round, so consider the current LP Rollerskiers vs. Bobby Shabitt standings to be 0 to 1. Do me proud, girls.

Just before skipping town, Woods and I partook in an epic father-son assault on the Whiteface Uphill Footrace, 8 miles at 8% grade. Stormy and cold conditions up top, just around freezing, so naturally I dressed accordingly, in my lightest/ shortest cut split shorts and matching Bandits jersey. See photo. Well played. Race was plenty fun, despite being dropped by a hard charging Duncan Douglas & Friends at mile 1.5.

After that, it was straight to Lake Clear airport for my almost direct flight to Innsbruck, with a brief stopover to enjoy debauchery Bandit style in Cambridge. I'm now enjoying the first few days in Lans, Austria, just outside of Innsbruck. Gorgeous area, copious amounts of great running/ nordic walking trails just outside the door, even a nice little lake across the street to swim in. Pictures/ stories to come soon.

To any Camp Shawnee readers, best of luck with training and save me a hot dog/ spot on the couch. Please don't save the hot dog until at least early July, and please don't store it in the couch cushions.

Lastly, a hearty congratulations are in order to graduating Bandits Anders, Ollie and Chris. Well done, boys. We'll miss you next year. Nothing but great memories. Be well, do good work, and come back often.

Happy summer, everyone.

Dave

... and May

May is paper time. Final exam time. Procrastination time.

The team has gotten back into the swing of legit training once again. Today a bunch of the girls pulled out their rollerskis and took them for a spin, and tomorrow Dave and Cullen are doing are triathlon/duathlon out in Hopkinton. The trees in Cambridge are all leafy and green, but the weather has been obstinate recently and it isn't exactly hot outside yet. Between the forecasted high of 50 degrees on Monday and the revolting quantity of papers and exams that we all have, everyone is looking forward to summertime. I'll be headed back to Lake Placid, though not to the red house on McKinley Street where I lived with Ollie last summer. I've found another red house, though, known to the locals as "Camp Shawnee," where I'll be living with Meri, Audrey, and Jennie Bender, a girl who skis for UVM. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's our own house and it's going to become the headquarters for Operation Get Jacked '08.

Looking forward to traffic-free pavement, buy-one-get-one-free deals at the Chopper, Jeremy Clark, bikes, lake showers, and make-your-owns...

-Schlutzer

The Bandits: Stealing Sugarbush Tri Titles Since '06

Now that it's April (and Meri's hindquarters no longer look like a hamburger), it's well past time to begin blog posting like a fiend once again. The first weekend in April saw a contingency of the Riverside Ski Bandits trucking on up to Vermont to compete in the 30th annual Sugarbush Triathlon. I've been doing the race since 8th grade and introduced it to Harvard kids during my freshman year. We've won the college category ever since. The race consists of a 5 mile run, 6 mile paddle, 10 mile bike, and 5k ski. This year Anders did the run, I kayaked, Dave biked, and Ollie skied. We killed it. A team of Dartmouth skiers finished a couple of minutes behind us. My Dad and brothers competed in the family division and slayed that, too. Some choice photos:

Anders heading into the tag zone

Anna starting the paddle


Dave, pre-bike

Ollie finishing the ski

Glorious, victorious bandits

-Schlutzer

my ass looks like a hamburger

...just not the spherical ones Ollie made for dinner last night.

Apparently when you invite someone to your house for a "run," it means "lets go classic rollerskiing in March." Interesting.

Anyways, it was me, so we all know how this turned out. Basically, Coil and I can't wear pants.

This is what you get for rollerskiing in March:






And, yes, I made those.

-M

Van Gogh was a painter, I think

This past weekend Schluzy and I went up to Trapps to coach our respective states at the Eastern High School championships. Tomorrow, when I'm one midterm away from spring break, I'll write a more detailed recap, but for now just know that Mass skiers won 5 out of 7 races, including both classic distance races and a classic sprint. Uber pwnage, as Dave would say.

Right now, however, I have to get back "studying" which is code for "sitting around in my room listening to 'Crazy on You' by Heart on repeat." As for art history, one of the Mass boys told me all I needed to know was "Van Gogh was a painter, I think." Looks like I'm all set.

-- O

At least EISA mass starts don't look like this..

-M

And It's Middlebury

Seven weeks of racing go by far too fast. We're heading off to Middlebury in twelve hours for our last carnival of the season. We've come a long way this year but aren't done yet. Two races left to wreck house...


-Schlutzer