That made for some fun riding on the trail Saturday at Hall Ranch. I had to get out for a ride, been dying for a few weeks to test out the new Quarq quatro. Trails were dry and it was fairly warm, so a little blowing of the leaves wasn’t going to keep me at home. Though it almost put me on the ground a few times. Never did have to resort to any walking, but definitely was blown off trail more than once.

Sunday, I rolled over to Picture Rock for some more time on the dirt. Just a quick climb up to the top, around the loop and down. I’m easing back into the training with some shorter and easier rides. Plenty of time to lay down the miles soon enough.

Rolled into town in time to grab my packet and get a hotel room right across the street from the start.  The race course started right at Howleson hill, which was literally 2 blocks from downtown.  Super cool and had a great vibe for an early am start.  The course rolled right out of the gate and went uphill. I made it to the front group on the little pavement section to widen out, but then it went straight up the mountain on a loose rocky climb and I picked a bad line and fell in line with the group.  We then tucked into a few bits of singletrack and got held up behind a rider as he dabbed uphill. Things then spread into a long 2-3km doubletrack climb and I wasn’t really ripping it up the climb but was holding my own ok.  Dropped through the first of many meadows filled with wildflowers and then switchbacked its way up a long tortureous climb through the aspens/wildflowers.  You would duck into the woods and then float out through the all flowers, then back into the woods, back into the flowers.  Was kinda surreal but was also super cool.  Made the time pass easily I suffered and slogged to the top.  When I finally hit the top and the feedzone was happy to rip it down the descent.  Only problem was, we were bunched up and the guys in front weren’t very fast.  The guy behind me was yelling at me for a pass, but I was gapping him in easy sections, some griping about how he was a local, etc.  But I managed to get past the few riders and have a clear path to the bottom and ripped it solo.  What was that guy screaming about being a local and knowing the trail?  Well he shoulda practiced going down it some more as I had at leat 2 minutes on the group by the bottme!  The descent itself was awesome, just super long and super flowy and fast, lots of corners but super tachy dirt.  Crazy tall wildflowers though made it tough to see any lines and look farther than what was right in front of you.  Had to be a bit of a Jedi and anticipate what was coming up based on the flow of the terrain.  It was like descending blindfolded in a few spots.

(photo from Singletrack.com)

We kicked out onto a fire road at the bottom of the descent.  Even though I just ripped the descent my legs weren’t ready to go hard with the group in front of me so I sat up and rolled up to the next climb.  A super long singletrack climb, pockmarked by hoof prints, enough so that on the 2nd lap I opened my pro pedal valve up to get some more cush!  Felt ok going up this climb, I had to pee so bad on the first lap that I stopped and took some time.  Got passed by a few riders, but brought them back as I liked the flow of the climb.  Mostly wooded, but would have a few breaks and small descents  carrying speed into these steep uphill sections and could just sprint over the top.  Once you hit the top of the climb, the view was just epic.  I literally stopped pedalling and just was awesomely wowed by the mountains and the area.  Was amazing, reality set in when Katie Compton came ripping by at the top.  In hindsight should’ve stuck in front on the descent as we got in a small group of 4 and no one was going forward.  Would’ve been nice to have hit it alone.  Though the 2nd descent to the finish line, made the first one look sad in comparison.  Huge wildflowers lined the trail all the way down and tons of curves and berms and jumps and just FLOW, more FLOW and your cup runneth over with FLOW.  Barely needed the brakes other than when an unexpected corner came up that you couldn’t see with the height of the wildflowers.  Lots more Jedi descending tricks were utilized to make it down this descent.

Came through in our small group to the finish and went to grab drinks and food out of my cooler.  But some jackass had moved it!  Seriously who moves someones cooler when its just leaning agains the fence?  Rummaged around and finally found it and threw it back into place.  Some lady said she’d move it back (I presumed she was the one who moved it in the first place) and I told here I had riders on course that may need it.  I wasn’t lying as Anna was behind me and there was a spare tube/co2 and some food for her just in case she would need anything.

Second lap was a bit more of the same, except I was mostly alone.  I payed my toll for the heat at the top of the climbs and the legs finally showed some semblance of effort 4.5 hours into the race midway up the 2nd climb.  Ugh, was just a little too tired coming into the race as my heart rate would never creep past 150.  I ended up finishing 30th, not shabby but not like I know I can perform.  Such is racing.  Sometimes up, sometimes down

Ah well that’s racing.  The upside is, this was without a doubt one of the coolest race courses I’ve ever ridden.  My words suck in comparison to how the support, volunteers and the course itself really was.  There was so much FLOW on this course and so much fun.  Wildflowers, Aspens, MEGA climbs, MEGA descents, just awesomenesss all together.  I’ll definitely be back for this one!

On the way back home, I just lollygaged and took some photots and had some fun.

Looking down on the Valley after rolling out of town

Rabbit Ears Pass

North Park

More Mountains

Moose!!

Big honking moose

Pretty certain the moose congregate here so they can people watch

Off this afternoon to Laramie, Wyoming for the Laramie Enduro.  Hoping for much better legs and some fun this weekend!

Bike Riding

I did manage some great bike riding this past weekend.  Saturday, I pulled out the Road bike for a great climbing day.  Hooked up with Nate Brown (who worked with me well at the Bailey Hundo) and a friend of his to put ins some miles and climbing in preparation for the Inaugural Steamboat Stinger this coming weekend.  Plan was to get in some good climbing work and some miles.  Managed to do just that.  Started off with a long climb up Lefthand into Ward and then rolled over to Nederland and up the Shelf Road climb to Eldora.  Never had done that one before and was more awed by the views than chasing Jim up the climb.  We rolled down the Canyon back into Boulder and I was seeking out some more miles, so I hit it up Flagstaff and then rolled down to head to Jamestown.  Thunder boomers were moving in so I decided to go up and over Lee hill.  Problem was 5 hours into the ride and 90+ degree temps I absolutely cracked on Lee Hill.  Came damn near to a standstill and was almost walking it.  Like Phil & Paul say to the climbers who go off the front, “One Mountain too far!”

Here’s some pics of the day

Rolling through Nederland

Heading up the Shelf Climb

After the hike, wanted to really test out my new Stans ZTR 29er Race Gold Wheelset.  Even though my legs were super crushed from the previous days ride and the hike, decided to head over to Hall Ranch and sneak in a quick hour or so on the dirt.  Rolled up antelope trail at a good clip, but really drilled it all the way up the Nelson loop.  Man, I could really feel how much quicker the bike felt underneath me.  Nice and snappy and accelerates super fast on the climbs.  Got up to the Nelson loop and took 2 cracks at it, I think I even bested Von’s time on the loop though there’s 2 different KOM’s on the Strava page.  Weirdly felt really good to go out and just smash it hard.  I ended up trying another crack at Antelope but was already smashed, but still gave it a good go.

The course is a fairly short loop, although slightly changed from last year as the bridge was closed.  We got a monsoon rain show in the afternoon and left some wet spots on the course that made it tough to corner quickly and having not ridden in mud for so long, had to relearn how to slide around.  Course starts in the ball field and follows the perimeter for a few hundred meters and then dumps into some tight singletrack.  Quite tight, few sharp corners that make you scrub all your speed then re-accelerate.  Coming out of the first singletrack section, we had a two-way bridge crossing that was a mandatory run.  The downside to this was right after the bridge was a straight up loose, rooted climb meaning 7x would have to lug the bike up the steep climb while running, remount and head into the second section of singletrack.  That section was a bit more open and quick to pass through, though it got super tight just before the climb.  Literally had to come to a dead stop to corner 120 degrees around a tree, over some logs and a quick descent to the new climb section.  Brought you along the backside of the hill at high speed with some off camber bench cuts, then a tight steep switchback climb.  Once off that, quick little technical descent and then weaving through the trees along the creek.  Drop out and run back across the bridge back into the start field and then drop back into the flat singletrack.  Was really fast through here, but the corners were slick and required scrubbing speed in order to not blow them.  Then a quick off camber slippery climb that takes you back out and rolls along towards the start field.  Overall was a solid course and would be fun to race.

Got some practice laps in, and felt good and ready to go.  I knew getting into the woods first would be critical as would have first chance at the run-up (which I suck at).  No room to pass for a bit and I wanted to be out front.  I hit it hard off the line, got out front and got into the woods in the lead without issue.  But it was tight and twisty and slowed us down, I actually felt really great and wasn’t breathing hard at all (sea-level air) and was just surprised at being able to go anaerobic like that without dying.  Got up the run-up without falling on my face and was being chased hard by Andy August.  I hit the base of the switchback climb and accelerated a bit to get some separation and put a few seconds into Andy.  Rolled through the first lap with about a 5 second gap and kept moving forward.  Somehow or other I lost my rear brake, it was straight mush to the bars.  With the millions of tight corners and the mud I needed to set myself up nicely to hit the corners smoothly.  But that was no longer happening, was basically barrel rolling into corners at speed and trying to use my front brake to scrub speed, but had horrible setup coming out of the corners and basically had to soft pedal till I could get my line.  I knew that I was losing time in the singletrack so I made up for it on the climbs and out in the grassy field.  We caught some lap traffic and I think Andy got caught up, but my gap went up to around 20 seconds and from there I basically went into maintenance mode.  Conserving energy in case of a dumb crash or slide-out in a corner but just working my way through the course.

Had tons of family on hand to watch both myself and Lake race and was getting awesome splits and able to keep my pace and just have fun racing my bike around the course.  Felt great to walk away with my first Victory of the season, have some fun riding my bike and show some family a new sport.  Of which most were super excited to see and had a great time.  Thanks to everyone who came out and had fun

SoGnar

Updated with Strava Chart

Southern Greater Naples Area Ride- with the Geneva Bicycle Center Crew.  Definitely what I was looking for!  A big day on the mountain bikes with friends.  We rode up the Orange Trail backwards on the race course, down the carriage trail (past the Jayhole!) took the road over to Bristol, climbed up the backside, dropped Off the Radar, Dugway to the Stid Hill Creek bed, to some unholy steep 4 wheel trail (3 garmins confirmed 51% grade!), then dropped the switchbacks, took the long lonely road back to Cutler and back up the carriage to drop the Orange Trail

Was super awesome to ride with my greatest riding buddies, have some fun and rip some of the most fun trails ever.  Sidenote:  It’s rained a ton and these fellas have been ripping moto’s instead of dirt, which meant mega hard descending.  Friggin A they were bombing stuff, I may have gone harder downhill on some super loose, muddy trails than I did uphill!

Here’s some pics of the day:

We love our Osprey Packs

Heading to the top of that hill in Cutler

Holy Crap is everything green!

Start of the climb on the backside of Bristol Mt

Muddy, loose, rocky & uber steep

Rolling through the Hemlocks

Climbing up the creekbed, this really sucked and seemed to go on forever.  Now I know why I never went this way

Back to Cutler on the Orange Trail.  A trail I may have ridden more than any other as it was once the 24 hour course

All together some awesome riding for sure.  Was seriously amazed at how good it felt to ride back home (the humidity notwithstanding) but never really went anaerobic.  Wish I felt like that all the time on the bike.  Was quite a bit of a difference riding in the thick woods.  So much ground cover and mud, really had to be on your game to know where to put the tires.

Peak to Peak Highway

South St. Vrain… Raced the river on the way down

Strava Route

Afterwards grabbed the whole family and rolled out to the Eagle Trail in Boulder.  Even got Bridget out there on her Giant 29er.  Still learning the ropes and would be a good chance to run the dogs.  It’s one of the few trails that dogs & bikes can both be on in Boulder.  We just rolled down to the reservoir, let the dogs get in and rolled back.  Too warm to go fast for the dogs and a little too much uphill on the way back for Lake.  Poor Lulu was so cooked by the end she was running zig-zags and I don’t think she knew where she was.  Lizzy was barely panting and asking for more!

Lizzy and Lake heading out on the Eagle Trail

Wrapped up the day with some steaks on the grill and beers in the backyard,

West Magnolia

Sunday, headed out to the West Magnolia trails with Frank and Von.  Had heard about these, but never had ridden them.  Drove up to get some extra time on the dirt.  Rolled into the lot, hooked up with Scott Upton & Randall.  They were both sporting some singlespeeds and wanted to romp around a bit on the dirt and check out the SSUSA course that had occurred on the trails the prior day.

Frank was on the gas from the go

Frank took off like a rocket and we chased him around for a bit on the super dry and super fun trails and decided to make our way up to the “Toilet Bowl’, no idea what it was, but I was just following

Wonder if Chris is home?

Went up the trail known as ‘schoolbus’ and soon found out why.  So we decided to explore a bit and check things out.

Boarding the bus

Well, if it got dark we’d have shelter

Seem like we’re on the right bus

We kept chugging upwards and onwards and found some even cooler stuff.  An old abandoned mine & equipment.  I could’ve spent hours checking this stuff out and.  Was super cool to see

Frank the Tank

Built to Last, well over 100 years old I’m thinking..

No thanks, good with plain old dirt

As we went up higher, started running into snow

We kept creeping upwards and were continually running into snow drifts that were a few feet deep.  This was a first for me.  75+ degrees and deep snow on the trail.  We made a bunch of crossings and then reached a point around 9500′ ft where the snow just made the trail unpassable.  We jumped up to the road and tried to make our way up via alternate routes, but the road was just wet and muddy.  Got up a ways to where we needed to access the trails and I believe the quote was ‘There’s a waterfall on the trail there!’ so that turned us around and we just ripped around the trails down lower.  We lost Scott and Randy to a whole bunch of flat tires and rolled on for some more over to the DOT trails.

Gorgeous view of the high country were abound

Strava Route

Ended up with just shy of 3 hours of bike time.  Trails were awesome and by far some of my favorite trails I’ve ridden around locally.  I’ll definitely have to head back.  It’s a pretty intricate network and gonna have to learn those for sure!  All together was a great way to finish of a nice solid block of training and prepare for the Bailey Hundo!

 Temps were cool to roll out but plenty comfortable, been up Sunshine Canyon a bunch this year, but typically roll down Poormans. Forgot how tough that road gets after you pass Poormans, some steep sections in there. I was actually looking forward to the dirt section of the climb.

The legs felt a lil bit sluggish and took some time to bring them around. Just worked on putting down a solid tempo pace without blowing myself up. 9 miles of climbing, 2,900ft elevation at an avg grade of 6.2% to open the gates of the ride

Rolled up to Gold Hill, albeit slowly and comfortably. Grabbed some food and made my way down Lickskillet road, even on a mountain bike that thing was uber steep & almost ran it off the road at 45 mph on the dirt. 

Once off of Lickskillet, just rolled the pavement over to Heil Ranch. Must’ve passed at least 100 riders making their way up Lefthand, had to be some kind of group ride going on or something, it was just a long steady flow of riders making their way up. Heil Ranch was in great shape, I felt really good climbing up Wapiti and just ripped it coming down Wild Turkey and Picture Rock

Ripping Picture Rock was loads of fun and I was feeling great coming off that descent. Rolled over to Hall Ranch and climbed up via Antelope trail and hit the Nelson Loop, just outright shredded that descent and down the front side of Hall Ranch. I promptly flatted coming down it and I think for the record, that was my 3rd straight flat and they all occurred in the exact same spot? Just broke the bead on the tire and was able to hand pump it up and get rolling out 

Once out of Hall Ranch, made my way back up and over Picture Rock. Was feeling great, had been really staying on top of eating and hydrating nicely. Pushed it at a nice ‘Sweet Spot’ up the climb, was really just chasing a singlespeeder up the thing, but it was a nice motivator and caught him a few minutes up and just kept pushing the pace all the way up & through Wild Turkey and ready for the descent. No matter how tired I am, a ripper of a descent always seems to bring my legs back and fire up some added motivation

Once off the Wapiti descent it was onto the road, 2 miles up Lefthand and then up and over Olde Stage. It became just a fun game to chase down all the roadies on the climb with 60 miles in my legs. Was chuckling too myself as I passed each one & kinda made it fun, was feeling great and hit it hard at the end

 All in all was an awesome ride, definitely one my favorites and might have to head back and see if I can squash my time on the route. Felt great to finish strong for once!

Dbb-Blue Sky Sunday

Sunday, I rolled out to Devil’s Backbone & Blue Sky for some more mtb action. Put the right off till the afternoon to give the legs some more time to recover and to be able to spend some time with Bridget & Lake. Give the legs a little more time to recover, plus it had rained just a tad saturday eve. We ended up heading into Boulder and riding the Boulder Creek path together and had some fun.

Got home and headed over to Devil’s Backbone and just rolled it up the first steep climbs. Legs felt plenty stiff & just rolled up the climb to open the legs up. I put some gas down on the Indian summer climb as I knew it was short and wanted to open the legs up and see what I could do. I felt fairly good, but could tell I was super tired. Heart rate barely climbed into tempo and that really told me just needed to take it easy. I headed over to Blue sky and just wanted to rip that trail at speed. Dirt was so perfect. ‘Hero dirt’ is a bit of a cliche, but literally never needed to touch my brakes on the out and back. Tons of fun just to rip the trail. Back up and over Indian Summer Trail and just as I was nearing the top of the climb, quick little descent and flatted. Ended up having to tube it up, but was kinda pleasant to sit there in the late afternoon sun, quite, peaceful, no riders on the trails and just enjoy the time to myself.

The flat tire kinda took the wind out of my sails and frankly I was just pretty tired. Ended up just rolling it easy on the chunky rock and making may way out.

All together was a pretty fun weekend. I think I’ll do another one again this coming weekend as the Bailey Hundo is on the horizon!

At least I got off the start line nicely

I’ll gladly admit wasn’t ready for this race at all.  Started off with a really quick start and I got to the road on the front, but knew I shouldn’t have been there and backed off.  I really am lacking vo2 efforts at the moment and knew I’d pay for the efforts.  I rolled to the back of the group and just worked on settling into my own kinda pace.  Which for the record, didn’t have me on the front, but it was damn near the fastest I’ve averaged on a mountain bike.  The first 2-3 laps had me averaging over 15 mph on the dirt!!  Never ever left the big ring, for pretty much all 60 miles

Go big or go home

The 80 degree plus heat took it’s toll and after a few laps, I was seriously bored with the race course and just ended up rolling the last few laps.  I stopped and chatted a few times with Bridget and Lake in the pits, and probably should have taken lots more water on (2 bottles per lap instead of 1).  I flatted on the 5th lap, but was able to get the stans to take hold (that’s a first!)  Rolled it in for I think 28th place overall, hopefully some work in the future can get me up a bit closer.  Pretty certain just need some race miles and hard efforts to do so.

Gowdy Grinder

This past weekend, headed up to the Gowdy Grinder, just east of Laramie, Wyoming.  The race was 10 friggin bucks!!  That’s not a typo. 10 dollars to race, seriously $10.  No t-shirts, no big prizes, just $10 to race.  Who the eff would go to Salida for the MSC and pay $60 to race?  Pretty short trip up there, 90 minutes from Longmont.  I was hooked.

This is Wyoming… Oh the nothingness

Rolled into the venue with plenty of time.  It was crystal clear skies, but as is typical for Wyoming, blasting with wind.  Decided to roll out and pre-ride the first lap.  I took it pretty easy and followed a few of the intermediate racers around the course, careful to stay behind them.  A few times I went back and re-rode some sections to check lines, etc.  It was definitely a blast of a course.  Started out with a super tough steep climb and then onto the fire-road and into the singletrack.  Once into the rocky technical singletrack, there’d be no place to pass for sure.  Crazy tight in there and if anyone made a mistake, you would be going backwards.

The start climb, straight up right away (I’m actually right behind Webber in 6th wheel)

Had a nice front row starting spot, but somehow missed my pedal.  I got off the line ok, but really needed to get into my pedal to get up the steep hill.  Coming around the right hand bend into the straight up, I kinda got chopped and lost all of my momentum and was slowly moving down in the group.  Once we got to the top of the climb, you pretty much had to be in the group or you were just left out into the wind to fight alone.

Right off the bat the group spreads out on the fireroad.  I’m in about 10th here, at the tail end of the split

I ended up being out in the wind and had to work super hard to stay with the group.  A bunch of riders rolled past me and I managed to jump at the top of the climb and get a few key positions back and make onto the wheels of the second group into the singletrack.  We were a pretty tight knit bunch for the first lap, then slowly dudes started making mistakes.  This allowed gaps to open up here and there in the group, but with no place to pass, just not much you could do.  Picked a few riders off, and made up some spots at the start of the 2nd lap and worked my way up into the top 10 during the 2nd lap.  Was hitting it pretty good and riding strong.  Coming around for the 3rd lap, just had to maintain and ride another solid lap. Dumb, dumb, dumb, forgot to grab a water bottle.  I had set one up on the fence to grab for my 3rd lap and was pretty much on an empty bottle to start it.  I really didn’t cramp at all, but just started slowly drifting off my pace.  Never had the punch on the climbs and ended up just continually getting reeled in by dudes who had a solid grasp of the pace.  I lost about 4 minutes or so on the final lap and  that would’ve put me inside the top 10 had I held it (results here).  No complaints though, still working into my season.  Was a super fun race course and come on at 31, I was the 2nd youngest guy in the top 15, so that is a great thing to look forward to… getting faster with age!  Here’s a sweet write up from Mountain Flyer magazine and where I stole the pics from

Raced for Peyton

The bummer of the weekend, was that my nephew Peyton was in the hospital.  He’s 2 years old and was having complications with his shunt and they weren’t sure if he’d need surgery or not.  I felt helpless so far away and really wanted to be home and with family.  That’s probably the hardest part about being so far away.  I just focused on how much of a fighter he is and always will be his whole life, racing a bike is a piece of cake compared to what he’s been through.  Hopefully someday he’ll be able to ride a 2 wheel bike without help and I want to be right there alongside him when he does.  Until then, I cherish that I’m able to do so and hope to carry his strength into my races.  The suffering of legs screaming from an effort is laughable compared to what he has been through.

Next race on the calendar is the Bailey Hundo.  MEGA training block on the schedule over the next few weeks to get myself prepped and ready!

We did have some fun though and got in another great day of riding

Anna Climbs up to the top right out of the parking lot

Suzanne hits the lines on the Gunny Loop

Big Rocks, Big Views

Gorgeous Day & Awesome Views

Day 4

Headed back to hit a few trails we missed on 18mi rd.  Ended up Hitting Prime Cut, Chutes & Ladders & Kessel’s Run

Here’s a quick video (uncut & not edited from Kessel’s Run)

Only pic I got of the day

I’ve got tons of video, just haven’t imported it all and processed it yet.  Been super busy, why do you think been so behind on these!

Off went the email with a giddy and thoughts of watching Mark’s rear tires barely touch the ground on descents.  Few days later, got the reply “Tempting…very tempting. Give us a few days to think about it.  – Mark”

Damn, didn’t sell em hard enough.  Then the very next day inbox read “We’re in…although Jim may lose a bit more hair while we are gone! Thinking the 24 – 2nd. We’ll let you know after we work out airfare, fly into Denver right? We are stoked.”

That was the kicker, “stoked” I knew it then that they were gonna be here for sure and have a blast.  They arrived Sunday, which put me in a bind to kick Brendan out for a day, but he was cool with it and stayed with the Dino.

As soon as they got here, we built the bikes and headed over to Hall Ranch

Hall Ranch climbing up the rock garden

Didn’t have the best conditions to ride in as it was a little drizzly and we even got snow up on the Nelson loop, but the smiles were there and of course Mark jumped off of nearly everything sight unseen.

The very next day we headed over to Devils Backbone for an early am rip.  Temps were a bit warmer, trails were tacky and rideable all around.  It was time for some more fun.

Mark Climbing up the Ridge

Mark showing us how it’s done!

Suzanne rolls over the chunky rocks

Rolling thru the Valley near Indian Summer

I don’t have any photo’s of it, but we were gonna shortcut back and ride Blue Sky instead of looping Indian summer again.  Literally 10ft into the dirt road, we were 6 inches deep in super peanut butter mud.  My bike stopped completely and as I picked up the now 60lb machine, my feet decided to pick up the mud.  In the matter of a few steps I was now wearing snowshoes as the mud just stuck to everything and kept building.  None of us saw this coming, got off the road quickly and spent the next 30 minutes scraping mud off.  Some good laughs and back onto the eerily dry trails… And ripped off the rest of the ride.

Day 3, I had to work so I sent Mark and Suzanne off on the Heil/Hall Double.  They loved Picture Rock!  They even got snowed on!  But came back happy as clams.

The next am took them back to Heil so we could ride to the lookout (they had my Garmin file and I didn’t go near there).  Perfect morning for a ride and the trails were fast!

As Usual followed this guy around

Rolling thru the pines

Made it to the lookout for a group photo

Mark riding the skinny

They got a good taste of all the trails around Boulder/Lyons and were super ‘stoked’ to say the least bit.  After the rides we packed up our stuff and headed to Fruita!!  To be continued….

I had wrapped up the Pueblo XC and the big man, Brendan Housler was making his way to Boulder (his report here) to test his 3rd place at Battenkill Pro/1 legs at altitude.  Can his jet engine fire at 5500ft?

He did some mega miles and fared pretty well and was happy to have him come out here and ride for a bit. Even if the dogs ate his bread, I think he still had a great time.  And I certainly hope he comes back, he’s gonna be off to good things these next few seasons.

Climbing up Sunshine Canyon

Jet engines firing up 4 mile canyon

Voodoo Fire RME 70 miler

Headed back down to Pueblo for my first endurance race of the season.  Keep testing the legs and having fun.  A quick change of the course had us doing 3 x 23 mile laps instead of 2 x 35 miles.  No worries, means easier access to the on course feed zones.  Having ridden the trails the weekend before, I knew exactly what I was up against (and this time I would have the corners down).  I hit the start with the front group and just slowly went backwards over the course of the first 2 laps.  It was cold and chilly and my legs weren’t that bad, I just couldn’t ride fast.  Scratching my head, I was on the right lines, just couldn’t keep it up.  I faded a bit on the second lap and almost considered quitting the race.

Decided to just stick out the 3rd lap and have some fun and get in some good training.  Few minutes into the start of the 3rd lap, my rear tire was a little low.  Stopped to put some co2 in it.  As I was spinning the wheel to get to the valve stem, realized the wheel barely turned.  Try again, nope few inches.  Well, that’s what was slowing me down!!  Frigging disc brake was rubbing solid.  Quick fix of that and the wheel spun freely.  I ripped it apart on that final 18 miles.  Was rolling past tons of zombies on the trail who were a bit tired from the days efforts.  Felt like I was flying, guess that I was as I took 10 minutes off of my lap times….

Nothing I could do except laugh and keep on riding.  It was good to just be out there and race.  I managed 16th in my age, 33? Overall.  Not overly disappointed, but I know I can do quite a bit better.  On to the next one I guess

Up next will be the first few days riding with the GBO gang before Fruita MTB Camp (i think they changed their name from GBC at least that’s what the logo looks like