#hunt5

[youcantbuyland]

Repost from @deuxnorth - Rally vibes in Spain #Hunt5 (ph: @jeredgruber)

[thespecializeddigest]

I have been off the bike for 3 weeks now. And it is killing me! Not by choice, but because I have to. I have a bad knee and I was told to take some time off for now.

I did want some time off after cyclocross season, but I wanted to do some casual coffee rides (good old base mile) in the meantime. That will have to wait. To brighten my week, I just got 3 old 35mm films developed and will be uploading a selection soon. This photo of Chris if from Deux North’s Hunt 5 trip in Spain, October 2014. - @RudyMelo

[dylannord]

Read the whole story, “Hunting in Spain with Deux North” on Strava

[dylannord]

For Deux North's Hunt 5, we teamed up with Specialized Bicycles to take a group of 7 hunters to Spain on their new Diverge. The hunt opens in Salou, a sleepy beach town just outside of Barcelona. Just a few miles from the coast the WRC, World Rally Championship, has set up headquarters and the air is vibrating with engine noise. The Rally de Catalunya is in town. Our group is fitting in fairly well, european motorsports are slightly different than American. It doesn’t take long for us to rendezvous with our hosts, two Irishmen who have dedicated their lives to the sport of rally racing. They kindly and patiently show us to the Citreon team tent, explaining navigation, team cars, and the frenzied pit crew to us along the way. Calmly waiting for us inside his trailer was champion driver, Kris Meeke. We spent the next hour leaning forward, hanging on every word as Kris casually described through a thick Irish accent hairpin turns on dirt at breakneck speeds, and how his job allowed him to continuously skate a fine line between chaos and control. For him, comfort came as the edge neared. He had a self-awareness, a  way of explaining it all that seemed to suggest, “I know, I’m different.” Kris was the kind of guy you left and couldn’t help but wonder what it was he had that you didn’t. The rigth question might be--why do some people push the boundaries set by other people, while others are content to accept the normal and avoid risk? Maybe, we should ask--what makes some people look at one thing and see something else, something different than everyone else? To some, Kris and his fellow sportsmen are simply adrenaline junkies fiending in between races then riding the high offered by every new course and record breaking ride. But the hunter sees something else. In the spirit on every rally driver is the dreamer, explorer, inventor, and yes, adventurer. Their burden is the urge to push forward, to go into the darkness, to chase a future only they can see or one they can’t imagine. For these special few, these masters of moving forward, the weight of every unkown night, untouched gravel road, and spinning wheel is felt in the pit of their stomach. From the first rally driver who looked at the automobile to the hunters that inspire us today. Kris’ words, the thoughts they provoked, and the feats we saw performed by him and his fellow drivers propelled our hunters along our 300 mile route with plenty to live up to. Most of our trip was perfect. New roads led to breathtaking vistas, shared between laughs and revelations with new and old friends. But if that was our whole story, we would have fallen short of a memorable experience or a story worth telling.  More than the beautiful views, pristine pavement, and good company, it is every unknown road, wrong turn, fall, and misstep that makes every Hunt. On hunt 5, Kris’ prologue helped us revel in the opportunity to be brought closer to the unknown, to the adventure, lost somewhere in a foreign country. It wasn’t always fun in the traditional “recess” sense. Truth is, in the middle of being lost, or falling, or at the end of a 140 mile day when you’re riding in the dark, morale can drop and it can be difficult to stay positive. Unless you are Rudy Melo, in which case you have never frowned or complained in your life, but not everyone can be a legend. As Chris Riekert puts it, “that’s the adventure, it’s the stuff that goes wrong.” And he’s right. It’s the hardships, the wrong, the tough, the “oh shit,” the “that’s not how this ends,” or the “we’re riding it” that makes the adventure. That’s the stuff that makes the memory, that makes friends, and that makes the ride. Not everyone can become a championship rally driver, but everyone of us was a born a dreamer, an adventurer, an explorer, and a hunter.

[aaronisnotcool]

rally car super driver, Kris Meeke.

[therivet]

Hunt 5, Day One.

[therivet]

Shoe/Sock game was strong on Hunt 5