Rolled out of town with Kelly, Greg & Bill from Epic Endurance.  Wasn’t looking for a hard day by any means, just a chance to enjoy the weather and have some fun.  Bill broke a spoke rolling north on 36 and ended his day… The rest of us trudged onwards towards Estes Park.

Below is the ride in pictures…

Rolling up Big Thompson Canyon, Massive Canyon walls surround for most of the trip

Busting out of the Canyon and Heading to Glenn Haven then to those white peaks

Glen Haven General Store, time for some world class cinnamon rolls

Mother f@ck$ng, son of b*t(h, this was the sole reason for riding up here

Ah well, the views into Estes Park made up for it

Food and Fuel while enjoying the sunshine in Estes Park

Greg and Kelly Climbing out of Estes

Not sure what mountain this is, but looks like a photo from the 1800′s

Looking back on Estes Park

All in all it was a grand day for a trip to the park.  117 miles of riding and we even caught back up with Bill as he rolled up South St. Vrain Canyon on his mountain bike to catch us.

Sunday ended up being crazy windy, and I managed a short quick trip over to the famous Morgul-Bismarck course for a trip up the wall.  Never fell over or had to carry my bike to secure the final spot in the race, I probably didn’t even impress Marcus with my climbing.  It was crazy damn windy though and decided to bail on the ride after I stretched my legs.

This weekend is looking great again, another perfect one and thus some more time on the road bike is in the forecast, but all likely to be a lil bit short in the end compared to the last few weeks.  But nonetheless will still be some good fun.

Then…. Drumroll… Coming home from 3-29 to 4-2.  Plans are to hook up with the GBC crew on Friday am for some Hartman Ranch shredding and then get MEGA on saturday down in Naples with the MtnJet and a few others.  Will be nice to bring some high altitude lungs to sea level and maybe take some of those Strava KOM’s from a few of the locals . The main focus of the trip will be to see my sister and her big ol preggo belly and Peyton and Reagan; but since it was unplanned I’ve got lots of leeway to have some fun on my bike.  It just better not rain or snow!!

Like the title implies, training has been going well.  That good feeling that you have from being exhausted from long rides, but can feel the efforts area working in your favor is starting to appear.  The longer harder rides aren’t as long and as hard anymore.  The little sprints still hurt but not as much.  The spring time hack at the top of the climbs is still there, but at least its not there too much when I’m heading down.

Friday afternoon spin on the dirt roads

The weekend was full of awesomeness. Got out Saturday with my Epic Pro teammmates again (except for Alders who was slaying it at Mellow Johnny’s PRO XCT) and hooked up with the CU team and just went big on the climbing.  Up and over everything we could squeeze in.  Haven’t climbed that much in forever, but it was good sensations to get those into the legs.

Rolling out to Carter Lake with the Epic Crew on Sunday

Sunday was a ‘Sam Morrison Zone 2′ ride out to Carter Lake.  Had a good size group to roll with and I surprisingly felt really really good.  The plan for the day was to go big and get some time in on the bike.

Great views of Carter

Did manage to get in a great ride with Carson, rolled up South St. Vrain Canyon to Raymond and back down.  The legs felt really really good with all the mileage in them and it was a nice day to finally crack 100 miles on the road.  Can’t believe I never broke that number 1x last season on the road!

Flipping around at Raymond

Today, as I type this is just gorgeous outside.  70+ and just had fun on the bike.  I got myself a new Quarq and loving it.  No more weight penalty and I finally have a solid road bike that I really really like to ride.  While the Cannondale Flash is here, it’s a few weeks out on the SRAM XX parts.  I miss the dirt, I miss the dirt, I miss the dirt.  But…. I’m really having fun on the road bike and hell, I think I may even sign up for Boulder Roubaix next month!!

Lee Hill-How many ProTour riders will hit the deck in the next switchbacks this summer?

Warm in the shade climbing up Bow Mountain

Snow maybe coming tomorrow after 70 today, but I plan on keeping my momentum up.

Enthusiasm is the energy and force that build literal momentum of the human soul and mind -Bryant H. McGill

Rossetti Vertigo

Now, I realize, it’s not quite all that in the road cycling world, I mean look at it, where’s the carbon deep dish wheels?!  But it’s new to me and it’s been about 3 years since I’ve had a new road bike.  My road bikes tend to stick around on average about 3 years and are more workhorses than anything for me.  It would take me a while to list all the mountain bikes I’ve had but only a few lines to list the road bikes.

The bike isn’t anything special, open-mold Taiwanese frame, but it does have an integrated seat post.  Built up with SRAM Rival and currently some crappy shimano wheels (hopefully to be replaced with NoTubes soon).  I’ve also got a Quarq on it’s way, so for first time in a while I’m without power for a bit.  But with the low end gruppo, it comes in about 16.8 lbs  I’ll drop some weight swapping to the Quarq & also lose about a pound swapping wheels.

Not that the parts, name brand, etc are the big deal.  The fact is it just makes me excited to ride my bike again and get out there and train.  Now, this might be common place, but after riding a 7 model years old trek 5200; this thing just jumps when I pedal.  It actually feels like it goes forward and 1 out of every 3 pedal strokes aren’t wasted just pushing through the drivetrain.  So it makes me excited to climb hills, go on group rides, go for long MEGA* rides (*trademark/copyright of HeyoBH).

In fact got out this weekend with my Epic Teammates for the Gateway ride.  It was pretty much a regular NRC race this past weekend on the front group.  All the famous colors of teams and riders you see at the front of the big races were on the front of the group ride.  With the warmer weather it brought out loads of riders to test themselves against them up the infamous Carter Lake climb.

Regrouping at the top

It was good fun hard race to the top and I straggled in not too far behind, at least better than I have been.  So fitness is slowly climbing.  Aftereward turned around with Chris, Sam & Bryan and headed out on our own.  Our small group fought the wind to Lefthhand Canyon, then fought our fatigue and selves up to the top of Jamestown.

Bryan, Sam & Chris

I was dispatched about mile 7 of 9 and just couldn’t hold the pace any longer uphill.  By the time we rode up Lee Hill, I considered walking as it seemed a bit faster.  But all together it was a good ride with teamies.  The bad news is I found out why I was struggling and came down with a full blown cold.  Thought I had salvaged myself and fought it off, but ah well.  Nothing to do now but pop pills and try to recover in time to do it all over again this weekend.

Hopefully can get out today before the 80 mph gusts come and keep logging some new miles on the Newness!

I’ve been hitting the rollers steadily this past week.  Steady diet of Sweet Spot Bursts, Tempo work.  Even a few Sufferfest videos to mix in some intensity to prep of the upcoming race.  Coupla days here and there on the skate skis & even ran into Mr. Baddick on Saturday at South Boulder park turning some laps.  I ‘attempted’ to follow on the skinny skis as much as I could, but don’t let him fool you he’s pretty quick on them.  I only managed to catch up to him when he took a tumble down the big hill , but naturally I fell flat on my face on the flats when I was trying to put some time into him.  It was all in good fun and is still hard as shit no matter how many times I try to get out there and practice.  I still need to get up to Eldora and take a lesson from Peter.

After a week on the rollers and the only outside time on the skis, today I’d had enough.  Dry Roads was all that was needed to motivate me.  20 degree temps, dealt with them plenty.  I’ve got all the gear, didn’t even have to really HTFU.  It was just due time to get outside and ride.  I mean if I didn’t know how can I justify myself when B-House is pulling off 6 hour rides in those temps and laughing his way to the top of the podium.  Gotten a little soft out here in the 45 degree winter temps.  Manned up, layered up, sent out the texts and was joined by Carson and fellow Epic teammate Brian Sells.

21 degrees, been a while

In a way it was kinda nice and exhilarating.  It was peaceful for sure.  My legs were blown from the skiing and hitting the rollers hard the past few.  But it was all damn worthwhile. …..And I figured out why I was struggling so hard to catch up and go forward > my damn bottom bracket is hosed/was frozen.  Would barely turn 1/12 of a stroke when I pushed it forward.  200 watts felt like 400 as all my energy was being wasted pushing through.  Whoopsie, should’ve fixed that a bit ago, but no need a new road bike is en route (tomorrow/tuesday??).

It was as cold as it looks

In the end, was far better to be outside than inside.  Here’s to 70 degree temps, dodging cacti and kicking some ass next weekend at OP!

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.

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!

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

Saturday, hooked up with Von for a little rip at Hall Ranch

As you can see there are some achievements listed on the ride

Ended up not being a very good ride by any means. As soon as we started climbing antelope trail, something that has never happened, my head, eyes, ears, nose started just killing me. Some kind of crazy allergy flare up that pretty much shut me down. Couldn’t even give it any efforts, decided to just spin an extra lap on nelson and head home…. All she wrote not much I could do

Mead Roubaix Recon

Sunday was the FasCat WBL, went out and reconned the upcoming Mead Roubaix race course.

Race course is brutal!

We pretty much just rolled together as a nice group until we hit the race course and then just unload on each other.  Only problem was Frank was the only one who new the course! Thankfully this let us regroup together a few times.

The first dirt section wasn’t that bad, fairly flat some fast corners though but a good fun section of riding.  The next couple of sections got progressively harder.  Super washboarded, rocky and some deep dry sandy sections.

The final section comes after a decent climb that’ll for sure break the group up, but then it is a high speed dump onto some seriously deep and loose dirt.  Rider crashed in front of me and I had to unclip and pretty much walk the uphill section and wasn’t the only one.   It keeps rolling for a bit including having to navigate this sand on the descents.

Getting off and walking makes for a good chase on the sand…

We rolled together back to FasCat as a small group and I my front wheel detonated on a rock on the road.  Luckily Mahtin had the follow car, jumped in the car, booted up the tire and got back in with the group.  Had some more fun racing down past the Res and back to FasCat.  All in all a great day on the bike and tons of fun!

Oh… and still on the fence about racing the Mead-Roubaix as the first Mountain States Cup is the day prior down in Colorado Springs, all depends on how that goes and cash-flow……

Started off Saturday with a gorgeous morning ride with Lake at Eagle Trail.  We spun the dirt road to the trail head and then did a nice lil out and back.  Nice and easy hour ride with him and we covered 5 solid miles of terrain.  Having fun jumping off the rocks and learning to ride the bike

Using his new bar-ends to climb the road

Rolling across the Mesa

After the ride with Lake, I head over to Heil Ranch to pull off the Heil/Hall Double.  While rolling in the lot, hooked up with Matt-o, Batey & Weber and we ripped the trails.  Good to hook up with a group & rail some trails.  With the exception of Weber who was on an Epic 29er, we were all on Superfly 100′s and there’s a good reason for that, they are damn fast bikes! Trail were in primo condition and we rolled up and over to Hall, up Antelope, where Weber turned the screws to us before he departed.  Around the loop and back down the frontside.  Back up and over Picture Rock and ripped it coming down to the lot.  All in all a great day of riding.

Sunday

Sunday decided to go big & go up. Took a route I’ve not been up before. Headed out past Carter Lake, then up Big Thompson Canyon.  I was super hosed from Saturday’s ride.  But Sunday was mostly to just log some time in the saddle.  Rolled it as easy as I could as the next 30 miles was pretty much all climbing up to Estes and beyond (6200ft total on the ride).

Entering Big Thompson Canyon- The Cliff Walls were insane

The Switchbacks going up Devils Gulch

Dropping into Estes Park

Looking back at Estes Park as I Climb out

Climbing out on South St. Vrain

Rolling Past Long’s Peak

All together it was a great route.  I was completely blown and just used it as an experience to take in the sights.  All the pics are up on facebook here.  It was predominately a gorgeous day of riding, but damn it was freezing rolling up on the Peak to Peak.  I didn’t pack any gloves and my hands went numb more than once.  Thankfully was able to get off the road without going hypothermic.  Though descending for 22 miles didn’t do me any favors.  Thankfully it got warmer as I got down lower.  Rolled it to Lyons and limped it home.  Nicely wiped out and ready to reset and rest up for another great week of riding….

Just digging this photo, Plains/Mountains/Big Sky/Horses

Look back on Left Hand Canyon as I climb to Olde Stage

Heil Ranch

Today, needed some good dirt fixin’!  Busted out the Superfly 100 and rolled from the base of Lefthand to the trails for a little warmup.  I put the original Bontrager rims back on the Superfly and needed to break em in a bit.  Couldn’t ask for a better day & place to do it.

Rolling to the trailhead

Climbing up Wapiti, they don’t call it the Rocky Mountains for nothing!

Finally had some legs climbing up Wapiti, though I kept it tame and really wanted to have fun on the downhills.  Shredded it around Wild Turkey and just had fun ripping it up on the trails and enjoying the day.

Overlook from Wild Turkey Trail

Rolled back down the Wapiti, then back up again and looped it on the Ponderosa trail.  I absolutely lvoe the Superfly 100.  The bike just seems to be a natural extension of myself.  Flying down the Ponderosa, was completely on the wrong line heading into a nice chunky sections of rocks.  Just aired it out over the rocks, landed right in the midst and let the bike take it all in.  Chewed it up and spit it out without issue.  On the hardtail would have had to scrub tons of speed as the bike would have easily bucked around off the rocks.

The rocky Ponderosa Trail

After Ponderosa trail, rolled it back down the Wapiti trail.  Super fun descent to finish the ride on.  Just rolling it down the trail and having some fun, even hit a few of the jumps on the way down to keep it fun.

No Complaints when a ride ends with a view like this!

Weather look crazy next few days, hoping that the snow keeps away as some of the trails are a still a few days from being fully open & could use some more time drying out.