I did it.

I survived my first cross race of the season.  It's always fun breaking in the season at almost 10,000 feet above sea level in Breckenridge.  I managed top 20, which is my best result in a few years and left a lot in the reserves.  My back was killing me by the end, so I have my work cut out this year.  

I went to Winter Park this weekend for Stephanie's Birthday.  Todd let us stay at his place and it was beautiful.  I rode my cross bike on trails that were not made for cross bikes.  It was fun none the less.  

Easton finally came through and I got my hands on some great wheels.  I had no interest in carbon wheels, and there isn't a ton of other choices.  The EA70x is a new alloy tubular with cross/crit racing in mind.  Durable before light, I am stoked to race on them.  The glue is drying as I type and I am going to play around with the glue/tufo tape combo.  I have some Tufo Elite LPS that have been hanging around in my basement waiting to be glued.  Next weekend, they'll be ready.  

Almost Time...

Wow, the cross season is among us!  Less than a week from the first race, I am still sitting on a basement full of tubular tires with no wheels to glue them to.  If Easton shows me mercy, maybe some of the their new EA70X Cross Specific wheels will shop up on my door step.  Otherwise, I am waiting for the perfect pair...  

The bike is dialed.  I rode all of last year on a touring carbon fork that look horrible on my bike and weighed 800 grams (I sent the Easton back cause you could wobble the crown race around by hand and it creaked like a mother).  The replacement is on it and working.  My rear King wheel has been built twice and still has some weird mojo about it.  Third times a charm?  I guess that's what the Hugi/Open Pros are for!

In mountain bike news, I bombed the last Winter Park race ("bombed" is 10th place, 10 minutes faster than last year and 5 minutes faster than my best time) and it dropped me to third overall for the series.  I am pleased.  We'll see what happens when I try to keep it redlined for 45 minutes...  I am trying to do it right and ease into the high intensity.  I hate crits, so I usually start cross season with very little high end and hope that I can race into shape.  This year, I am actually training for it and will use the first month to "get it".  We'll see...

Anyone have any tubie wheels laying around? 

DNC

We spent the night out on the town...

Where has the time gone?

Lots of mountain biking. Lots of work.

Stphanie did a her first triantlon today. WOW. Great job. It was HOT.

Swing Thai rocked at Winter Park Yesterday. Kevin won, and I took 3rd, so we ruled the podium. Maybe some pictures of that to come??

I have so many great rides to post about. Mountain. Mountain Single Speed. And some HOT hiking.

Beautiful Mountain Bike Ride
































Great 100+ miler with Steven
















The Road is up THERE!?!
















This ones for Steve.

Firecracker 50

Ouch

View Larger Map

For all the nitty-gritty, click here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6168183#

Almost home....

Post ride haze...

This race certainly doesn't get much easier for me. I have been driving towards breaking the 5 hour mark, and came in this year at 5:11. Last year was really bad, at 5:38, so it's an improvement. Maybe it was the Wild Turkey challenge on the second lap... The pros can break 4 hours, so maybe I should quit my job.....

Camping!

We went camping at Grand Lake last weekend. I had a race in Winter Park and we packed up the kids and camping gear and left the hot front range. It was beautiful. We camped just below the Continental Divide.

Does this tent look familiar? This is our family tent that is approaching 20 years old. The bags for the tent and in shambles, but the tent is still perfect. Thanks Mom & Dad for buying a nice tent when you did! Check out the scenery!

We had a not-so-close encounter with a moose. He was about 15 yards away from us (we were by the pine trees in the picture). He growled (loudly exhaled) and we left him alone. I waiting until we were away to snap a bigfoot-like quality photo. I guess they hate dogs, since wolves are their natural predators. We weren't going to stick around to settle the feud.

Sunset. The winding river in front of our site led to the lake. Pretty.

Job Well Done.

As we were leaving, we said "goodbye" to Beauregard, but he wasn't too keen on staying alone... Of course we took him with us. Although...

Bike of the Day

My cyclocross bike. I like it. Seven Mudhoney Ti. Easton EC90SLX Fork. Sram Force. Hugi/Open Pro Wheels. Bontrager bits and pieces. She's a beauty. If I actually take racing seriously, I'll do her up with some real wheels. Something blingy.

Good ridin'

I hate posts with no pictures, but whatever. I had some good mountain bike rides this week. Wednesday, we hit up Apex after work. To avoid the clusterpoop, we rode to the base of Chimney Gulch and up Apex. There were no less than 6 teammate for the ride. You would almost think that we were a mountain bike team. I like it that way. Yesterday, we did the White Ranch-Golden Gate Superloop. Man, I love that ride. The decent from Golden Gate is unreal. 4 miles or so of crazy descending with rocks, roots, mud, tons of hike-a-bikes. It's unlike anything out here. Plus, you get to climb up the back road to White Ranch from Golden Gate, which is 12-15% for a few miles. And dirt. I was pretty please to throw my chain in the spokes at almost the very top. As it turns out, it's helpful to check the suspension bolts on a new bike. Duh. It'll only cost me a derailleur hanger. And a chain, just to be safe. I was wrenching on it pretty hard, since shimano put those LOVELY tabs on the back of their new cassettes to prevent this from happening in the first place. They REALLY get jammed in there now. I had to pop a pin out of the chain to get it out. Ouch. But, what a great ride. This was a pseudo-off week. I don't have anything in the ole leg and it seems like every week is an off week. Oh well. I enjoy riding. Hopefully, I'll get some commuting miles in this week.

Until next time, check out this crazy cloud from a few weeks back...

Seriously...

Bike of the day.

Joe at primusmootry.com does such a fantastic job. I absolutely love this bike. Very little carbon on it. Sram Force. Chris King/Open Pro wheels. Yummy.

I have worms.

Seriously. Who doesn't love moldy apples?

Yes. We have worm compost bin.

The Cheese

Fruita in April

So, instead of racing in Fruita, I decided a 5+ hour ride on the Kokopelli would be much better. I took out the trusty new steed, and by new, I had really never ridden it before. Seriously.

This trail was unreal. It runs between Loma (Mary's Loop et al.) and Rabbit Valley. Check out this trail...

And if you ever take the Amtrak west out of Denver, this is part of the view... The trail passed under the tracks. You can see it winding around the other side, on the ridge.

Lots of amazing hike as much as you ride singletrack. Even on the new 5" travel bike...

And back home (or 10 miles of fire road back to the car)

Don't be fooled...

Look at the dates of the others. They are recent. I am going to post lots of random, short things for my entertainment and yours!
For example, my eldest child: