Paycheck, Baby!

The weekend brought a lot of success for me in Telluride, and a few firsts. Rain was in the forecast for the weekend, and boy did it deliver....

Saturday:

Cross Country - 26 miles, 5600ft of climbing total, race time 3 hours flat

The Pro and Semi-Pro race started at 1pm, which is prime time for afternoon thunderstorms. As we staged in the starting area the clouds were starting to organize themselves and after a lap and a half it began to pour.

Start/Finish area- the rain begins.

The course was already muddy from recent rains and this just added insult to injury. Imagine trying to pedal uphill through 3-inches of extra chunky peanut butter as hard as you can....and that was before the rain started. By lap 2 of 4 the drenching rain had turned the singletrack sections in the forest into babbling brooks and made the tree-root-laden course a slippery challenge just to stay upright. It was guh-narly. Two separate waves of storms rolled through and left their mark on the course and the racers. By lap 3 the rear dereilluer wouldn't move.

Post-Cross-Country race. No brakey brakey...

no shifty-shifty...

Typically, when it rains and gets chilly (the course topped out at 10,260ft elev.) my muscles turn in to whimpering twigs ready to limp home--but not this day. A steady training regimen of Barr Trail in recent months dictated that. Feeling strong throughout, I managed to finish with a grueling 3-hour-flat time and passed more than a few people in the process. Saturday I overcame a number of personal challenges and ended up in 5th place, only a minute 45 seconds out of the top-three. That's among my top finishes in Semi-Pro, EVER...........................well, until Sunday's hillclimb that is.

In a mud-filled, wet and chilled daze, elated from my 5th place finish...

Sunday:

HillClimb - 3+ miles from the bottom to the top of the ski resort asfastasyoucanpossiblygoandthenfaster

If I'm going to go for broke, it's going to be in a hillclimb. I'm light, I'm strong, and I can put up with the pain for the relatively short heart-exploding races. The skies cleared overnight and let the course firm up a little (there was no "drying out" for the course though as I even had to put on cold and soggy Sidi shoes at 7am to warm up.) The Pro's and Semi-Pro's started together and I already knew who my target was: the current win-every-race-he-enter's Pro Jay Henry. Jay and I go way back when we raced as Juniors together. We used to duke it out in the Colorado Off-Road Points Series for a number of seasons in the early 90's, each of us getting our share of Junior victories. These days, Jay is racing as a full-time professional and is the newly crowned Elite Men's Marathon National Champion (mountain bike races over 3 hours.)

I managed a decent starting position at the gun sitting in about 6th or 7th place, and then methodically climbed up in to second place, which is ultimately where I ended up, only 18 seconds behind Jay. That is to say, 2nd place in the PRO MEN's field.....that is also to say I beat all the Semi-Pro's......that is also to say, second person to cross the finish line out of however many hundreds of competitors who showed up.......!

Yes I am tooting my own horn a bit here, but it's tough to be modest after racing mountain bikes for over a decade-and-a-half and reaching a new milestone at such a level. I was ecstatic to be on the podium with Jay again after 13 or so years, and he was equally as excited (maybe not equally, but you get the idea).

I've been on my share of podiums over the years, but I've never been on the Pro podium before.....

I've never gotten a paycheck for racing my bike.............................This weekend, I did both.

It's a Lot Harder When You're Clean...

Road List:
Vino
Landis
Millar
Ullrich
Basso
Hamilton
Pantani
Petacchi
T-Mobile
Astana
Riis
Operation Puerto
Sinkowitz
Heras
Liberty Seguros
Zabel
Aldag
Mazzolenni
Kessler
Rassmussen
Moreni
Cofidis
Rabobank

MTB List:
Chiotti
Mearheaghe
Pezzo
Sheppard

A little lopsided, yeah?

I'm glad cycling isn't as popular in the States as it is in Europe. The mountain bike racers I grew up watching, and still watch today don't seem to be compelled to go down the cheating road and for that, I'm proud to be a part of this sport. The above lists are more than likely not complete, but I'm fortunate that my cycling heroes' integrity is solid. Because here, it's not about the money. And for most, it's not about the victory- it's about a passion for the sport of mountain biking which was born and raised in the Colorado mountains.

Overend, Tomac, Juarez, Brown, Price, Furtado, Ballantyne, Dunlap, Weins, Herbold, Grewal, Sydor, Henry, are a few of the names. You didn't see these folks retire early with a boat load of cash- heck Dave Weins still works at the Mountain States Cup. More than a couple of the aforementioned I'll probably see in Telluride this weekend!

I haven't given up on the Tour. It's still my sport and it's the one tv show that keeps me on the edge of my seat because on some level I can relate to that competitiveness and that drive. But I have given up on believing in the winners in the European peloton.

See you after Telluride!

SUPER LOOP rides again

I rode my bike 14 hours since Friday afternoon. That's a lot of saddle time. Sunday was particularly joyful because I returned to the Super Loop with a couple of old friends, Eric L and Eric C who also grew up on mountain bikes.

The Super Loop is a ride introduced to me many moons ago by a good friend Alan. He was a Pro riding for Manitou at the time he showed me this ride in the early 90's (and on a Manitou fork BEFORE Johny Tomac, I might add) and I was an underdeveloped junior racer. He basically taught me how to suffer for hours on end on a mountain bike and I'd bonk just about every ride. Like, melt snow in your water bottle type bonk. I had no idea where we were I'd just follow him. I try to ride this loop at least once a year, but it had been 3 years since I'd done it last.

This Super Loop is extremely secretive and also extremely obscure. So I can't tell you where it is....but the pictures below, for those who are local to the Springs, might recognize some of the scenes.

You also might gather that there's a lot of climbing in this ride: 5 hours 15 minutes, and we only went 20 miles. Daaayymmnnn!!!

Looking downhill, towards the east. This track is actually really really steep.

This is a section of the trail........................seriously.

This is another section of the trail. There are literally miles of this.

At this point it's pretty much all downhill-- from about 10,000ft down to Manitou Springs all on trails. We didn't drive at all today.

Tag the beer drinkin cat (yes, OUR cat)

Bristol Helps The MTB Cause

As early as 11:45 in the AM this morning my Blazer could be seen at the liquor store. I had to pick up some of Bristol Brewery's special edition Cheyenne Canyon Ale. The brewery's mountain bikers made a batch and all proceeds go to Friends of Cheyenne Canyon. I have spent countless hours in the canyon over the past decade and a half. What better way to help support a cause (my drinking habit that is) than to pick up some beer. Britsol's great!

Today I rode a vintage ride-- Ute Valley to Santa Fe Trail to the AFA border trail, west to Peregrine, over to Blodgett Open Space, and back. We got some serious rain over the past couple days so it was nice and tacky. And MUGGY. But I stayed dry and snapped a few pictures.

I swapped in a Rock Shox Revelation as a test fork. I think I'm testing some new seals. It's great fork-- had one on the Yeti last year as a tester also. You can see the Revelation ever so excited - look at that singletrack! And within minutes of home......

AFA border trail from Ice Lake up to Peregrine. Didn't see a soul out there today!

Holy Climbers Course Batman

Snowmass....words can't describe it- but I'll try. 2300ft of climbing per lap, 12 mile lap X 2. At altitude.

Two and a half hours (if you're lucky) as hard as you can possibly turn the pedals; and my kind of course! Being a climber it is always one of my favorite venues. It's in the middle of summer and always the turning point to where my fitness starts to really be there.

The stage is set......my hotel room. Primed, fueled, and rested. (Me-- not the hotel room)

This year was no acception and I clocked my personal fastest time ever-- 2:29. That was good enough for 11th place in the SemiPro field, and within 3 minutes of top 5. That's pretty big news for me - within the top ten, or with reach of top ten is a huge result. AAaaaand I recovered well enough to drive home without puking.

The section of the course that traverses the Government Trail heading towards Aspen...

It was friggin dusty. I was mistaken for an Ewok after it was over.

Next race: Telluride. XC and Hillclimb- yeehah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FASTER!!!

I feel pretty lucky. This spring and summer I've been spearheading a Tuesday night ride for my team, ProCycling. We meet at the shop at 5:30pm on Tuesdays and alternate road/mountain rides every other week. Well, what started out in week one, way back in March, as an easy spin designed to get some newer folks out with some faster folks quickly turned into one of a couple of the Springs's "Weekly Worlds" or Tuesday Night Worlds, or Wednesday Night Worlds, or whatever you want to call it. Soon some of the fastest people in the cycling WORLD, past and present, started showing up and it's really been fun.

Move over Boulder, move over Durango, Colorado Springs is where the fast folks live and train. Among the recent, occassional, and regular riders in attendance are:


-former National XC Champ and newly crowned 50+ Marathon National Champion Russ Asleson,

-former World XC Champ, National XC Champ, multi-time National CycloCross Champ, World Cup MTB winner, and two time Olympian Alison Dunlap,

-former U-23 World Time Trial Champ and multi-time National road champ Danny Pate,

-former 7-Eleven pro team member, pro team Motorola member, former National Time Trial Champion, former World 1-hour Record holder and Olympian Norm Alvis,

-current MTB Pro JJ Clark,

-former MTB Pro and Cyclocross honch Greg Frozely,

-multi-time National Cyclocross Champion, World Cyclocross silver medalist and current Pro Katie Compton,

-former MTB Pro and new dad Doug Ryden.


These are just the people who are lucky enough to have made a living for a time doing what they love. So many other of Colorado Springs fastest cyclists often show up and thanks to everyone who has so far this summer! Doug, Joe, Larry, Bruce, Seth, Sharon, Ron, Dan, Greg, Jurgen, Damon, Kalan, Ken, Bob, Mike, Eric and others.


These are all people I'm lucky enough to ride with! Thanks for making Tuesday evenings something to really look forrward to!

Snowmass looms large....

Today's stats:

The mountain bike from home, thru Garden of the Gods, up Barr Trail to Barr Camp, down Barr Trail to Longs Ranch Rd, down Longs Ranch Rd, cross Hwy24, Waldo Canyon Trail, down to Manitou, through Garden of the Gods, home.

5 hours 25 minutes
6250 feet of climbing
4100 (approx) calories burned.

Tonite: MEXICAN FOOD

The two aspects of my Friday...

My Friday morning view...

My Friday afternoon view...

My bike's Friday afternoon view...
This is up on the Air Force Academy. Every time I ride here I am reminded of teenage years. Cause back then, I rode here quite literally every day in the summer. Hey, I didn't work at the time, and school was out, so I cut my teeth riding the trails there! The smell of hot pine trees and scrub oak; narrow, lonely singletrack winding through the Ponderosa Pines.....it's still one of my favorite rides in town and I still ride it often. MW might even get teary-eyed reminiscing of our early days riding the Nishiki's up there.

Mmmm summer....

I was able to sling a leg over my bike today and the gang and I headed up to Rampart Reservoir for some hot 4th of July trail action. What's better than a holiday smack in the middle of summer?? Today's agenda:

Sleep in,
Ride some singletrack,
Grill in the backyard,
Remove some stitches.
The pictures tell it all:

Heading down Backdoor to the dam
Haven't seen water this high at the Res in yeeeeeaaars.

Stitches

Minor Surgury...

To summarize...

I finally thought I'd join in on the blogging world. Will anybody want to read it regulary? Who knows. Hopefully some family and friends will find some of my experiences pretty interesting, I know I find my friends' blogs a way to keep tabs on what their doing.
Well, I find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands this weekend because I'm all stitched up following a goofy crash that resulted in 5 stitches across the knee.

That means I can't ride for 7-10 days.....borrrrrring.......it's not so much the missed training that I'm worried about, although that does weigh on my mind somewhat, but more the fact that I really like riding my bike!
So I feel my "Two Wheeled World" needs no intro because everyone who wil see this pretty much knows what I've been up to, but here are a few recent pictures to get things rolling...

Crested Butte last weekend-- 14th place out of 46 in the SemiPro's amid BEAUTIFUL weather and great course conditions...

Off Barr Trail on Pikes Peak up near timberline, maybe 3 weeks ago. Still 3ft snow drifts up there at the time. That was a tall day with 5500ft of climbing...
One of Limbaugh Canyon in late May with Jess, Eric and Stacee. Ribbon thin singletrack...mmmmm..... Rampart Reservoir afew weeks back with the same group, plus Jeff and Hillary. Summer is finally here!!!
Moab....Slickrock Trail in mid-May. Brutally hot for a bunch of Coloradans used to cold and snow!
More to come...