NAV Freakin’-Ferocious-Dogged-Tenacity and Best Teammate Award
One of us has raced 36 times this year. I’ve seen him hit an unthinkable 50 races before, but remember, 2021 was still kind of pandemicish.
A quick (not so quick) tally of his results required the building of a fancy Excel spreadsheet with sumif formulas and pivot tables:
2 wins
5 seconds
5 thirds
6 fourths
3 fifths
And so on and so forth…
The results include one FSH which stands for finished. There are no DNFs. There’s one 71st place, but I think that may have been the race where a bear ate some of him, or that rattlesnake, wildfire, sinkhole race.
If you’re wondering who this refers to, then I’m not sure who you are or where you’ve been.
Thierry Blanchet has been the most tenacious member of NAV since inception. The character of the team has his DNA all over it. He’s raced every surface, ridden every trail, and remembered every root, rock, victory, and defeat — his and everyone else’s.
Thierry is the one posting the ride reports when a teammate excels. He gives us the copious photo evidence of all the races he gets anywhere near.
His garage is littered with little piles of metal shavings and carbon crumbs from the bikes he’s ridden, not until they break, but until they’ve disintegrated. He has a warehouse of new NAV kits to hand out to new members, preserved by riding and racing in his own high-mileage, years-old clothing.
He has beaten me in a mountain bike race where I’d passed him on the side of the trail with a broken chain. He’s used rocks to tighten spoke nipples. I’m sure he’s stuffed leaves into a slashed tire. I’ve seen him pull beer from a mountain stream like some King Midas of Busch. And, I’d bet he’s made it through at least one night in the woods on “venison sushi.”
Congrats on the award, Thierry. Riding and racing with you over the past decade has been an inspirational blast. Thanks for everything you do and have done for NAV.