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Robbie

@shiftay_robbay

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Try to smile, it's good for you.
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97.8% of this is bikes.

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On to the next one. Cheers 🍻 #2025
#itsnotaboutyou by @shiftay_robbay

The last 12-ish months on replay 🎥

What a wild year… Did a bunch of things and met a lot of people. First full calendar year in my little apartment. Many fires were had. Got hurt, actually went to a wedding. And somehow spent more time on the road than I ever have in a summer. Was a little confused here and there but got going in the right direction eventually, and had to learn a hard lesson or two that I’d rather forget (but that would probably be missing the point.)
Too many things to talk about and too many people to tag, and a lot more things I wish I recorded, but to everyone who was a part of 2023 in some way, thank you. Seriously.
*All fire footage done on private property by expertly trained fire maestros* *do not attempt* (Or do so anyway, I’m not your mom.)
All rage going ahead! ⚔️ 🍻 (In a good way) by @shiftay_robbay

This is probably one of the things I wind up missing the most about summer after it’s come and gone. Those long-ish, uneventful, quiet, and importantly (to me) solo drives back from somewhere after an event or race or long weekend away.
It’s comfortable inside the car, there’s probably some enjoyable music playing not too loudly, and my back is probably sore but driving along whatever tree-lined road I’m on is just enough to keep me engaged while my mind drifts around to different things. You’re in your own little bubble.
I always wind up reminiscing or reflecting on whatever it was I just doing. Things that were great, probably a couple more things that could’ve gone better, and even more things I think about and tell myself I’m going to start doing to better those things. Sometimes just why I decided to do it.
I’ve noticed that for me personally, leaving for the handful-of-hours drive back in the middle of the evening is usually my favorite. The light is starting to dim a little bit with that gold-ish orange glow and traffic is less chaotic and I don’t have to worry about stopping and going frequently, I just get to cruise. It’s incredibly grounding and makes me feel calm, albeit a bit melancholy or wistful at times. But that depends.
The funniest thing about these drives is that I’ve stumbled across some of the best music during them, and I end up having to be quick to save the songs for later because they’ll come on at just the right time in the right place and suddenly everything feels magical. Half the time I still forget about them don’t find them again until later.
I don’t remember if I came across this song on a drive or at work sometime, but I do know that it very closely mirrors that feeling I get during the drive home when things are feeling just right.
It’s worth going the long way home if you have time to. I hate the rush. by @shiftay_robbay

Did some biking yesterday and saw a penny on the ground 👍 by @shiftay_robbay

Heck Of The North 2026 🍂🍁

Got to play in pretty much perfect conditions for Jeremy’s special 18th edition of the race (I’ve been here 6 times now, so I guess I’ve done 1/3 of them?) Rolled out of town with some nice morning sun which quickly changed to heavy fog up in the woods for the first 2ish hours of the race before the sun broke through again for the day. I yelled out at one point “This is fuckin’ epic” and some people I was with agreed. Even the infamous snowmobile trail was mowed and dry (?!) and had a sweet new bridge installed. Never seen that before!

My race went alright I’d say. Had one of those days where I kinda just feel a little awkward on the bike and spent a lot of time bouncing between feeling okay and kinda meh. Not for nothing though, despite feeling like I wasn’t really moving at times I still PR’d a few parts by a good margin.

Wound up 27th again like last year, I dunno how I feel about it though because I wound up missing a turn and cut like a mile off the route, so I’m kinda whatever on counting it. I’d rather do things right, Y’know?

Lots of things to wonder about and consider for how I felt, but maybe I just need to remember how damn hard this race is first. Having the chance to see the front is still new territory for me and I’m trying to find my feet. Finish times were taken a little ways out of town, and thinking about it I remember thinking being able to ride 90+ miles that fast seemed impossible at one point, especially with rough terrain thrown in, so trying to keep some perspective there. Just gotta keep working at it.

I believe that’s the last endurance goal for the year. The leaves are starting to change a lot and I’m more than ready to wind it back a smidge. But there’s still plenty of fun to have. 😉

Always great to hang with so many friends as well. Thanks @bethanynoellemeister for the sweet photo at the finish! by @shiftay_robbay

I 🖤 @cheqmtb

Another super fun day of rippin’ around for the 40 with just enough mud to make things a little more interesting.
This one’s always tough for me 🤣 I always get absolutely zero freebies riding up here, but I did manage to match my best time save for ~2 seconds (literally) on what I thought was a slower course so that’s cool. Those 2 seconds cost me like 20 spots this year though 🧐 whatever. 🤷

As tricky as it is, I did feel like I was a lot more aware of the race around and me was able to manage it instead of just pedaling away and hoping to get somewhere like previous times, so I think we’re starting to figure things out a bit more.

Good weekend with the team 🤙 Got one more big goal coming up quick.

And come on, perfect weather for shorts and sleeves? Yes please 🤌 by @shiftay_robbay

I was gifted a @campsnapcamera for Christmas, don’t know much about cameras in general but it’s been fun seeing what this little toy can do. It’s for the archives more than anything by @shiftay_robbay

@lutsen_99er #6 in the books, and probably the best one yet. Absolutely perfect weather and I had my best finishing time + placing by a lot. Excited for how this translates to later this year

I do tend to wonder how many more of these I’ll do, but after how much fun we had I think I’ll be back again 😉 by @shiftay_robbay

Gems from a pretty sweet patch collection @ridewithfroth by @shiftay_robbay

Rolling through the rest of spring with another race-your-face-off edition of May 🤠
Granny’s Gravel Grinder + Hungry Bear + The Heywood back-to-back-to-back 😵‍💫

Having fun and seeing where the ol’ fitness is at so far this year. People are still so dang fast but I’ve been able to sniff the front of these a bit more so I’ll take that as another sign of progress. Still trying a couple new things and working on the basics here and there.

Also happy to string together a good block of 3-4 weeks of 10ish hours of riding with doing the shorter/middle distances for these and some other hammer rides thrown in. (Shoutout The Beef Train 🥩🚂) Even though we definitely got a little carried away in the process, the fuse ran out at the end there and I spent probably 1/2 of Heywood losing my mind 🫠🧨😵 At least there were friendly dogs on course.

Taking this for what it is and now I have to figure out what all else I’m doing this summer. More mountain biking sounds fun. by @shiftay_robbay

The number one goal in every race, first and foremost, is to mess with @_dmga_ and his camera 🎥 by @shiftay_robbay

“You picked a hell of a first year” -Kyle, about 2 miles in to the ride. And quite frankly, I agree.

Was told I got a proper introduction to Ragnarok this year. We had temps in the 30s, misty rain, gale force headwinds, sleet (yeah), and a lot of soul sucking stupidly steep and slow going hills. But, I actually had a really good time overall.

I see this one as a bit of a rite of passage and have been wanting to try tackling it for a few years.

I was fully prepared to bail, but leading up to Saturday the forecast improved just enough to “not actively raining” during the day which got me thinking I’d still at least start and see how it is. (as per the “old rules” I’ve heard about.) Texted a few people Friday night who were still in and that tipped me over the edge.

Once we got going the gravel surprisingly wasn’t actually that wet/sloppy so my thought process turned to into “Effit, let’s try” and off we went, things started to dry out decently as the day went on. I managed to ride every climb as well, more out of pride than anything. I wasn’t gonna let a little wet sand and mud make me get off my bike.

I got to see and chat with a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a while during the ride, mostly @poorlemmy as we passed each other a few times and kept the mood fairly light. He still beat me in the end. Guy has got legs of steel.

I finished up in just under 8 hours which was also good enough for 12th with the amount of people brave(silly?) enough to line up for this. Not bad after eating half a breakfast and almost missing the start. (Classic Robbie move… I fell back asleep that morning 🤦) I’ll take it.

It’s been a while since I lined up for something I was unsure about, although this one was more based around the conditions than the route itself. Not to say it isn’t a doozy. There was some self talk going on that went “how badly do you really want it?” while I was waffling and eventually I decided I hate not trying more than almost anything. And I’m glad I tried. Overcoming that uncertainty is always an amazing feeling, and I just want to know.

That’s enough of a rant, excited to get my teeth into the summer 🌊 ⚔️ by @shiftay_robbay