Classic Front Range Weekend - Left Turns, Dirt Roads, and Scones

Saturday
After getting my butt kicked by both the competition and my allergies and asthma last weekend in Glenwood, I need a solid weekend of riding to clean my head.  It started Tuesday when Carol (my wife) got her new custom Tiemeyer track bike.  Hmm, I guess we need to go to the Springs on Saturday to check this thing out.  Our friend Ingrid was game to go as well, so we loaded up the sled.  With two custom bikes on top, my bike felt, well sort of ordinary.




It was raining part of the way down, but a quick call to Mike Dancel assured us it was still "ridable". We finally arrived, filled out the appropriate paperwork, and set about getting our left turn on. For those that have ridden at Boulder Indoor Cycling and only BIC, you have to hit the Springs. It is like a whole new sport at 333m in length with concrete surface and 30 degree banking. It was so much fun to be able to open it up and be able to only worry about going fast vs. staying low and going fast. It rained off and on, so the locals all headed home and left only 7 of us, 6 from Boulder (with Dancel the lone local). Of those 6, 4 were on the custom Tiemeyers. Boulderites are everywhere and it is great to see the impact of BIC!


Eventually the rain went away, the track dried and we had a great time riding around and turning left. Mike showed us the line for 200m flying laps and explained a few of the finer points in going fast. Cari Higgins, multi discipline national track champ was there as well, so the pointers were flying left and right. It was great. I was finally able to beat my wife in some time trials, no doubt due to the straight aways, which allowed the use of a pretty big gear (48X14 for the geeks amongst us). Normally I can't beat Carol, so it was fun. However, it was short lived when Cari suggested that well, "Carol can just corner faster, hence she beats you at BIC". Wow, way to bring me down from a high :)

We finally beat ourselves in to a pulp and headed home. We timed it perfect, as soon as we got out of Colorado Springs, it rained most of the way home. Huge thanks to Mike for showing us the ropes and teaching Carol how to change out her rear gear between warmups and hard efforts.



Sunday
After spending Saturday at the velodrome and gaining a whopping 171 feet in elevation throughout the day, I needed to go climb up something. Colby was game after a week at sea level, so we headed up Sugarloaf to Ned, to the Coop, to Ward, and down over Lee Hill, just to make sure the butt kicking was complete.

It was a great day with loads of climbing, a lot of it steep, dirt roads, and a visit to one of my favorite places, the Mountain Peoples Coop in Ned. The scones here are unbelievable. It is worth the climbing just to go get a scone. Nothing fuels you for the trip up to Ward like one of these.

Here are a few pics. I took them with my phone and even attempted some on the bike shots, but alas, I am not quite the master of some of you on here. However, they give you a good idea of the terrain. This is a great ride and I recommend everyone do it. From my house in East Boulder, it was 55 miles with 5500 feet of climbing. There are lots of options to make it harder for those inclined.





Mmm, nothing like post ride left over pizza.

Blue Sky takes the podium in BMX

Quick update from Dacono BMX land...
In his third outing at the BMX track, Beck Farrell took 1st, 1st and 2nd in three motos to claim 1st overall in the 6-and-under novice division.
I'm just a wee bit proud of how hard he rocked it today. BIG thanks to 'Mr. Rob' for settin' him up with the smokin' cool full face helmet
GiddyUP!

warmin' up...

Lookin' for the hole shot...

sprintin' for the line...

Rockin' the 1st place trophy...

i like mountain biking

hey kids:

this past Saturday Marty and I headed to the hills to do a little riding. Here's what we came across, enjoy!

Marty took most of these photo's--the ones of her were taken by Chupacabra. Also, for your listening and viewing pleasure, I give you this:

dropping out of the first trail section of the day

All this rain sure does have the flowers in bloom

more of the spectacular wildflowers the high-country is known for

Marty gettin' radical

Marty gettin' beautiful

Yours truly on cruise control.

Paying the price for a sunny ride with a little hail

Fluffy white hard pellets of hail.

Rainbow from Marty's commute home yesterday.

Core for Cross

Yep boys and girls it's that time of year. Time to start thinking about cyclocross and laying a strong foundation for the battles to come later this fall. Tonight we had our first core for cross class put on by our good friends and teammates Dr. Jenny and Dr. Andy. Here's the hot action.

Don't be left behind come cross season. There's still time to sign up for next weeks class to be held on Wednesday, June 17th!

sunday, sunday, sunday!

hey kids:

yesterday was a pretty rockin day of bike riding--i thought i would share it with everyone on a cloudy monday morning.

the day started too darn early as i met my friend Scott in Boulder to head down to City Park Crit/Circuit. Race time was 8:45, so leaving boulder at 7 meant leaving longmont at 6:30, which meant waking up at 5:45...ugh.

lookin hard at the start is a pretty imporant skill to have.

but, it was totally worth it as we dropped into denver and the itch to start racing my road bike again came back. i think gila last year was the last time i had a number on in a crit. Scott and i got our numbers, and marty was there as soigneur to get us pinned. we took a scenic tour through downtown denver as a warm-up, then took to the line with 60 other cat4's.

the race went well... neither scott or i left any skin on the course, and that was quite a feat in itself. There was the normal sketchiness associated with a cat4 crit, and more than a few times guys directly in front of me grazed pedals in the corners. The course was rad, though, and quite a bit longer than i remembered the city park loop being. I think it was almost 2 miles long? whatever it was, it was good. I lurked at the front of the field, and had decent position all race. my legs felt like they had good speed from the track workouts, but the lack of actual riding meant that strength was noticeably absent from my arsenal.

Scott in the white and yeller, and me taking it to the outside.

Cornering on the SLR's & Schwalbe Ultremo R tires is pretty righteous

Scott and i had good position coming out of the last corner, and i wound out the cannondale to about 36mph... paltry in comparison to the punx who rocketed the final 200 meters to the line. it was good enough for 19th place, though.

We cooled down briefly, packed up the truck and headed out of town on 285 for buffalo creek for some mountain biking, the real fun of the day. Scott called the other group that was meeting us there, and the race was on... they left the cars about half an hour before us. Marty, Scott and I suited up and put the hammer down to catch up. Actually, there was some sort of equestrian event happening, so we had to stop every couple of minutes to let horses pass. The benefit of this was that we got to work on our technical skills by trying to miss the copius amounts of horseshoit on the trail. mmm, tasty.

Marty looking resplendent in full Dirt Coalition regalia

Yours truly smilin' thru the pain as my legs remember what pedaling feels like

Marty with the hammer down

We caught the group at the lunch spot just as they were getting ready to take off again. no rest for the weary. My game-plan of cramming 2 weeks worth of training into a single day was taking it's toll on my legs.

The ride back to the trailhead was pretty rippin, and it was good to have some friends to ride with. Also, those friends brought a cooler of cokes, gatorade's, and snax for everyone, so amen to that.

Thanks as always to Marty, who tirelessly rocked out helping at the crit, taking pics, providing great color commentary on the transfers, and cranking the knob to shred mode to catch up on the buff creek ride.

over&out

shorttrack update

hey kids:

just thought i would sit down and bang out a shorttrack update from the races i did a couple of weeks ago... considering the rain has canceled tonight's event. (big thanks for Bryan grace for catching me on the diagonal to give me the news as i was riding to boulder). it's kind of a bummer the race was cancelled, but hey--we need the moisture! alright, so who else is sick of hearing that??!? actually, this just in... we don't need the moisture! we have 12 inches YTD of precip in Boulder, and that is 1.5 times more than in the previous 4 years. so i think we are good on the moisture front. mother nature can chill out on the rain--at least on wednesdays, saturdays, and sundays.

alright, enuf tirade... time for the pics! Marty was on hand with the camera, so you know it's gonna be good!

Andy Harmon gettin' after it in his first race on the new steed.

Pete Galt showed up with the home-brewed Klein... nice!

Pete continues to suffer as Lee, Bryan, and I socialize for our warm-up

Lee brought the pain to himself, all in the name of being strong for cross this fall.

Yours truly trying to move up after a hectic start.

just a quick video for those that don't remember what Boulder looks like in the sunlight.


So, the take-away from these pics is that shorttrack is rad this year... the CU kids know what's up, and as long as Mother Nature gets the memo, the racing will good fun for all.