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Last nights crazy ride... Be careful out there.

bloaker

Sincerely A Dick
Nov 14, 2011
3,643
5,770
After hearing the stories of Wada Pass, I had to know for myself. I rode the 4 hours from Miura to Hadano, up and over Yabitsu on to Wada just to experience the thrill.

last night just as it was beginning to get dark (that's the most dangerous time of the day you know) I was out for a jaunt on the Ritchey through a curvy mountain road. Other riders were scared so they stayed home.

There's a spot that I come to that's a blind double S turn into a long sweeper up the foothills and then a steep drop off back into this ravine. It's a very quick left right left setup to a left right left - uphill 200 meters and drop about 500 meters. It's definitely my favorite part of this road.

I was only running about an 80 cadence through the S turns, leaning hard and using all my rear tire when it seemed like a good idea to push it, so I tucked in my knee and elbow and leaned my head over to drag the side of my helmet – that's when you know you're really working it, sparks were flying off the titanium clasp (cause it's light), I forgot to fasten it proper, LOL! I should tell you that my bibs were being tailored and having a coffee stain cleaned out from my Miura loop. I sweated so much I lost 11 kg so the bibs wouldn't fit me anyway. So I was wearing some black Joe Boxer underwears – they're like shorts you know – and a wifebeater tee shirt I got at the TDF after a bar fight with some dumb Lance apologist, that's another story.

The sweepers felt real good so I pushed harder up the sweeping crest and hit about 40kph at the top of the hill – I must have gotten 3 feet of air at the crest and this possum ran right under me while I was airborne. I nearly shyt myself. But I looked back and he gave me a thumbs up so I downshifted and upped the cadence on the downhill. I reached a top speed in the 90kph when this freakin' rhino jumps out from nowhere, right in front of me, I couldn't avoid him so I hit him at a full tuck – I split that bytch in half and hot some blood on my glasses. Doesn't rhino blood carry the Hantavirus?? I think maybe I should go to the CDC and spend some time in the hospital. Get checked out and be safe.

When I got back to my home I was covered in sweat and bugs and was a little shaken – my wife freaked out, but when we ate the rhino steaks she chilled out (I put them in the extra space in my camelbak - don't judge, I knew it would be a long night and I wanted max water.) That stupid rhino left some hair in my headset bearings I think, so now I have to go wash the bike, work work work…

Anyway, riding back home I had time to think, and I think the road bikes are just too dangerous. It's not working real well with my style of riding. I've been riding for 3 months and am really good – I have a lot of money so I'm going to buy a Yeti 303 WC Race. It's really sweet and has a lot of travel so I can take a ski lift to the top and not pedal down. Like bikign shoudl be.

Be careful out there – friggin' rhinos!!

Here is a pic from the top of the pass last night....

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Quick facts before all starts: Random guy ,cousin of an elementary school friend, randomly asks me 'if I remember anything about vg roots' .. my reply was , 'I have no idea what's that, wtf is VG? and what is roots?', I replied. I left after the question and really didn't care. Then in Ljubljana around 2002 I met Jaren Grob and Blake Dennis as they were on the Roces tour, at a point when were alone us 3, they ask me if I remember anything about 'vg roots'. At this point I was a little mindblown, I was thinking, again with this vg roots? So this time I reply the same, 'no idea what's that dudes' but since it was a question from them and really weird , I called up my then girlfriend and asked her if she knows anything about 'vg roots', because I've been just asked about it. She says 'no idea duder' Still had no idea it was actually a movie/tape.

Let's start with the thing then.

So.. where to begin. Here, In 2002 I was kind of into skating a lot. So, my then good friend Rok from Isola, tells me he knows some ex 'pro' from Austria and that he will come to Slovenia soon. That day comes finally then. This dude is called 'Markus' , we first meet at the local skate park. We have a nice skating session, I remember the first day we met pretty good. After the session we go the parking lot. Where the weirdness starts. We socialize a bit and stuff of course before this, and then at the parking lot, he just asks me this straight in the face : 'Do you remember anything about VG ROOTS?' My reply : Sorry man , no idea what's 'VG ROOTS'. (I was a bit like WTF at this point but I still didn't really care, I took it as a random question) Then I start talking to another friend who has there and I remember Markus having a chat on the phone ,right afterwards the question, going on about 'vg roots' with someone. So, to make things clearer, Markus came to Slovenia with a buddy of his, called Thomas (which I am still friends with and occasionally contact). They have a ship/yacht in the local marina. They kind of stay here for weeks and weeks and we keep skating, we keep meeting up, we're getting closer and closer. So many drunk shenanigans on that ship happened. So time flies pretty fast, we become really close, hanging out all the time, always when they're here. I have slept on that ship quite a lot of times... Markus one day mentions vg roots on the ship again, and I really didn't have a clue what is it, at this point I didn't even knew it was actually a movie. Then slowly Markus starts going on about how amazing their city is, Vienna, the capital of Austria. Him and Thomas both say I should come to visit at this point. I didn't really wanna go first. Markus keeps going on about a tape that he has and that I should really watch it. So a few months pass and they keep mentioning going to Vienna with them. Then ....bang, comes a day when I've decided. I'm visiting the city, I'm going with you two on the next trip to Austria. Thomas borrowed me money , I quickly say at home that I'm leaving for an undefined time , no one thinks it's shady as the guys met my family and were at my home few times before this. Anyway... I pack my travelling bag, put stuff in it and we go with Thomas's new car for a 500km trip from the Slo. coast. Ok this is where it starts getting really weird for me, also very exciting. Once we're in the car, Markus starts talking alot about this 'vg roots' thing he has and that we will watch it. I sent a lot of messages to my ex gf telling her all about this. Wish I conserved that phone! Ok! So we're in Vienna, I stay a bit at Markuss place and a bit at Thomass, but mostly at Markuss place. It's amazing. The city is amazing, people are amazing, everything's amazing. We go skate a bit around the city's skateparks, they show me various places. And Markus one day on the street says again 'Man, we're gonna watch VG ROOTS soon, you will see my friend' And guess what, 2-3 weeks pass by just enjoying the city and then, the day of the vg roots comes. I wake up, go a bit on Markuss computer and Markus comes from his room with a videotape in his hands. He says, here man look!, I look and realize that VG ROOTS the thing that's been going on before this day, is in fact, a videotape. I was like nice man! Still I didn't really care much. Then he says, 'you must think very much about it'. I quickly check the label before the put in the vhs player and it's clearly written 'vg roots' on the white label and some other text which I can't remember underneath it in small fonts. Ok so, I finally got to see this thing. Before this day I didn't even knew it was a video. I just didn't care. I still didn't care... Until we started watching it.. It starts off as an ordinary rollerblading video, but since the very beginning it had short weird scenes that instantly told you 'this is not your average rollerblading video you've expected' So the more we watch it the more it gets weird.. It's morphing into a weird movie. It was done a way that keeps you glued to the screen, waiting for more things to happen. Some unbelievable rollerblading tricks are thrown, my mind was blown , I was thinking, wtf? I never thought this is possible. Ok at around the 5 min mark, appears the main character of this movie, a kid named Mambo or Mamba , which is my nickname and art name since I was 13. The kid looked like in his 15's. Tape was around 97/98 I suppose. Everyone knew me as Mambo in real life, some didn't even know my real name. Anyway, the name wasn't written in the beginning, just insane tricks and weird scenes. Instantly I was like HOLY SHIT this guy looks just like me. So I start asking Markus about who's this kid !!! Super excited at this point. Markus quickly shuts me off and tells me the guy's dead and he doesn't know who he is. The movie was so chaotic and so much happening I just kept watching. More insane tricks are thrown, even today, I've never seen those anywhere.. It starts getting weird inserts. for example the Mambo kid is at the skate park chillin, and a bunch of black windowed SUVs come there and take him away furiously.. then a flash and the scene is gone. Keeps going on as nothing happened. Then at around the 15 min mark, after being completely mind blown as what the hell this incredibly good movie is, I see a 720 spin to grind by Mambo. It finally writes the name on the lower right corner in black letters. It says 'Mambo' and the the o changes into an a, Mamboa.. Ok so at this point I was pretty shocked. When doing this trick where the name was first written, I noticed he wears the same Senate brand hoodie I had ages ago. Before he does this trick , Markus says to me 'he's on drugs man! LSD!!!' but I was glued to the screen and bang this incredible hammer is thrown. This trick was in an indoor skate park which was INSANELY HUGE! Movie goes on and we're back at the starting outdoor skate park.Shows Mambo again and at this point I started yelling to Markus, fuck sake dude , this guy looks just like me and has my name, the fuck is this man??? I still couldn't believe and was denying to myself it's me, it was impossible that I'm on this movie. I never remembered anything about it, nor anything about EVER filming ANYkind of movie ever. So in a matter of minutes I start being really really really shocked. Until the final nail comes. BANG a close up to Mambo's face, and yes it shows my 2 neos on my face. At this point I couldn't escape it anymore, that Mambo kid was me. And he was the main character in this movie. This , close up of my face, is the last scene I remember, after that I fell into a huge huge shock. We watched the thing further , but I can't remember NOTHING absolutely NOTHING after those 15 minutes of the video and realizing it's me on it. I have no idea what happened after those 15 mins, when did the video finish, what we did the rest of the day.I just remember waking up next morning. I was probably the most excited person on earth that morning. My mind was very confused, since I could only remember 15 minutes from the last day. First thing I wake up I look at the TV and say to myself 'HOLY SHIT I AM IN A MOVIE!!!! WHICH I CAN'T REMEMBER'! which means 'HOLY SHIT I HAVE AMNESIA!!!!! LOSS OF MEMORY!!!' , I check the vhs player and the tape is gone. I am a complete mess in my head at this point, it was such a huge shock I can't explain. Markus wakes up! I tell him 'man can we watch the video again???' He says 'I'll make you a copy no problem man' At this point I was too excited to think brightly, I thought my life is about to completely changed. The kid in the movie/me had TONS of cash , there was a point when he had a suitcase full of dollars with some dudes in suits around him. Basically I was sooo soo fucked from all this shock from watching it and the discovery I am on it. I was thinking I can remember things, but I actually became a bit mad after waking up that morning. I've decided to go to Slovenia, I honestly thought ALL my family is against me since they didn't tell me anything about it. My mind is blown , I come to Slovenia with a train (man it was a long trip), with hopes Markus will bring the video/a copy when he comes back to Slovenia. I quickly tell my family about it and they have no idea about this movie? So WHAT THE HELL IS THIS????? At first I thought they're hiding the truth. So slowly I realized they genuinely don't know anything about it. Then how the hell can I be on that video? It looked like it was filmed in the USA and all over the world. OK, this is unbelievable at this point. My mind exploded, which lead me into psychosis...

Markus comes to Slovenia around 2 weeks after I come back from Vienna. First thing I of course ask him about the tape and he goes 'oops I forgot it man' HOW THE HELL COULD YOU FORGET IT YOU F***** IDIOT. I thought to myself. Markus and his buddy Thomas come to my flat. We go for a drink with them and my mum. Mum asks him the hell is up with me as I'm really weird and that what's this tape. Markus tells her, that we watched a video which had a guy who was very similar to me, but that it wasn't me. However I still laugh at his statement, because well, it's me 100000000000000% on that video. I would never ever even bother about it if I wasn't 1000000000000000000000% sure.

To cut the story short, he kept promising me the tape, but always came up with a new excuse, to the ultimate excuse was that he lost it.

I said, fuck this, I'm gonna go look for it on the internet. I remember so good my first 'vg roots' google in 2003. I googled and the result was 'vg 20 roots'. I was instantly very shocked to see there's no sing anywhere of the vg roots I saw. VG 20 Roots is a rollerblading movie that is completely different to vg roots and ti came out in 2002, while vg roots was from pre 2000.

There I was. Fucked in the head from this episode and with no hope to get the video ever...

Markus came up always with a new excuse until years passed and he all of sudden said we watched 'VG 6' which is an old rollerblading movie. 2007: after a trillibillion calls and begging him to give me the tape he brings me a copy of 'vg 6' .. I knew this was a massive lie but I took the tape and told him in the face he's insane and that's not what we watched in Vienna in that far 2003 november. His reply? 'it's the only video I have' (this guy is such a massive liar) I go and watch VG6 only to discover , there's no Mambo kid on it, no insane tricks, not a movie, just a shitty old rollerblading flick. I just laughed the whole way through it and though about how much of a lying prick Markus is.

Ok so at this point I tried everything to get it.

No way in hell I can get this tape, and I really HATE movies in general nothing keeps me glued and interested, but VG ROOTS was so good I was totally hooked ...

Around 2009 I decided this tape is a secret and there's no way in hell I'm getting it by myself.

It's 2012 now.

No tape.

It's still top secret.. Markus has a copy of it, but he won't give it to me.

At this point I'm asking myself, when?

I'm not wasting energy around it anymore, I don't look for it, I moved on with life , but down there, inside my mind, the thought of getting it someday is always present.

If you can somehow help me, get in touch....
 
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