Rabbit Valley Rally....mountain bike race.

My good friend Matt Simmons talked me into racing in the first Mountain States Cup race near Fruita, Colorado last Sunday.

The drive over the mountain passes was a bit snowy.

We had a cool view of the Colorado National Monument from our Hotel window.

Had some fun with a giant Corona bottle.

Checked out some of the fun trails off of 18 road.

Kessel's Run is highly recommended. I dragged Matt over there after he raced the time-trial. He's a good sport!

Here is a view of the race parking lot.

The race went pretty well. My goal was top 15 and I managed 11th which qualified me for the National Championship race in July. Not bad for someone who doesn't actually train to race bikes any more!

Oh, I tossed the tiny GPS in my jersey pocket for the race and here is the sweet interactive map for you to toy with:

Urban Assault- Spring Classic Edition.

Stick a fork in my legs...they are cooked!
Yesterday we headed out for the long version of the Urban Assault. It was much the same as the last Urban Assault with the addition of more Palmer Park trail time and a trip up Columbine and Buckhorn trails in the Cheyenne Canon area.

Here are some of the stats:

Dist: 47 miles

Ride time: 4:31

Vertical gain: 7600' (according to my super accurate TopoFusion program). Russ got around 5500'.

Climbing time: 2:13

Climbing distance: 19.25 mi.

Here is another interactive map for you to play with:



I kept asking myself: "Why am I doing this?". The answer is: Fun Bank surplus!

Fun Bank

Today, while riding with "Team Stunt Double", I created a new way to be positive about completely coming apart half-way through a ride.
First, let's back up to yesterday's lunch-ride in Palmer Park. I had been well rested and well fed and the hills were like speed bumps. I call it "light legs". I felt like a fit racer dude and it was awesome!
Today rolls around and I'm thinking I am gonna rock this ride. Felt pretty good against the crushing headwind and on the first few climbs and then we hit a bigger climb with Pro biker Matt leading the way. Not so good. Now I am faking it but it's becoming transparent. Maybe I need more food. Didn't work. Maybe I will cut this short and recover like a smart person. I'm not that smart.
Now Team Stunt 2x is pulling away and I can do nothing but watch. Like a car accident in slow-motion. Except I am the one who is crashing.
This is where you either get really grumpy or come up with something to entertain your lactic-acid infused brain. I came up with the "Fun Bank".  It's pretty simple. When  you are having a great ride and you are feeling invincible, you are making big withdrawls from the Fun Bank. Soon, you will be getting overdraft charges. Today was the day I needed to make some deposits. I made so many deposits into the Fun Bank today that I may be able to drop Contador on my next ride.
Give your riding buddies a break and give it a try because nobody likes to ride on sweet, sweet single-track with a grumpy bastard.

Here is the route we rode today. Climbing total was just over 5000' and ride time was just under 3:45. Gotta love the interactive web.

@trip - Falcon trail 4-3-10

Tuesday Night Rat Ride.

Spring is here and it was over 70 degrees today. That means it's time for the Pro Cycling group ride. Every Tuesday at 5:30 we all meet at the new Pro Cycling location and set out to suffer for about 1.5 hours. No holding back since the ride is so short. And that means pain is going to be a reality. Ummm, I had a grim realization that I haven't been riding hard too much this winter. Ouch!

Here is the sawtooth profile of this evening's adventure:

The huge wind gusts added to the fun. Nothing like descending a pot-hole filled road and having side wind gusts trying to steer you into said pot-holes. Good times!

My lovely wife coined the term "rat ride" and I like it. Just in case you were wondering.

Hiking with new toys

I just received my new i-gotU GPS (http://www.amazon.com/GT-200-i-gotU-Bluetooth-Version-Chipset/dp/B001ADEIQI/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t#moreAboutThisProduct) in the mail the other day so I decided to try it out on the Manitou Incline today with Cindy.

The snow from yesterday is already starting to melt but not before I could snap these cool pics:

Here is the interactive map of the hike. The easiest thing to do is click on the little play button on the upper left side of the page. You can also click on the faster button to speed things up.

 http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/45294

Everything old is new again (part 2).

One of my favorite things about being a mountain biker and having knowledge of a vast amount of fun trails and routes is taking my friends on a trail that they've never been on. I look at that same old trail as if I am the one who has never seen it before and it becomes new to me again.
Today it was Scott's turn to experience the 1000 turns of Lake Pueblo State Park:

2 feet behind him is a 30 foot drop into some cold reservoir water.

Matt was there to join the fun.

We also had an unexpected visitor.

Bald is cool!

Mission accomplished. Scott had a great time. Spring is growing ever closer and that means epic season is closing fast. Are you ready?

Sometimes you don't know what you're missing.

I'm sitting here on a Sunday night, reflecting on Saturday's activities and thought I'd pass it on.

Saturday started with the idea of driving down to Pueblo and riding at the State Park. That is a fun time but I have been recovering from a pretty nasty cold-like virus and didn't want to get there only to feel bad and have less fun. Plan B was to ride with Cindy (my wife) around Garden of the Gods and then part ways with her and just pedal around, trying to remember how after so much time on the sofa.
Thus, the inspiration for this post was born. After riding a few laps in the Garden with Cindy, I headed into Manitou to visit and drink from the 7 Minute Spring (the sacred place of our wedding almost 16 years ago!). After that, I made my way towards the Norris Penrose Events Center to visit the Bike show. On the way, I decided to detour up 26th street to Gold Camp road. I stumbled on a Pikes Peak Velo group ride and shadowed them for a while and chatted with an older gentleman who was rapidly getting dropped. He was so nice and really seemed to enjoy the ride despite being dropped by his much younger team-mates. I rolled past the other riders as they were stopped to wait for him. Continuing on the climb I saw several more cyclists and others headed towards the hills for various reasons. There sure are many ways to enjoy being outdoors in Colorado Springs on an early spring day.
Soon, I was turning around at the point where Gold Camp Road turns to dirt and coasting back down into the city. Got to the bike show and surprise, they had valet bike parking. Pure class! I saw many friends, old and new and even a former in-law (although he will always be my 'bro!). The legs were beginning to stiffen up, so I figured it was time to bail on the bike show. I wanted to get some more ride time so I headed south and then dropped back into downtown Colorado Springs, riding close to cars and pretending I was a NYC bike messenger.
It was about this time I started having deja vu feelings. When I was younger, I was always training to be a bike racer and I lived on my bike. I did rides like this all of the time and thought nothing of it. Now that I'm older, I am seeing the streets and trails from a different perspective. I found myself noticing more about the homes, the other cyclists, the huge potholes all over the streets and the traffic. It's kind of hard to explain the feeling of viewing the world from the seat of a bicycle, especially to people who's cycling experiences ended when they got a driver's license. For some reason on Saturday I was a teenager on a BMX bike, a twenty-something on a mountain bike, a thirty-something on a beach cruiser and a forty-something on a road bike.

All of those experiences added up to the indescribably unique feeling I got on a simple road bike ride around town. Pretty cool day.

Go ride your bike. Take the back roads and bike paths. Don't sweat the stop signs or lights. Stop and drink some spring water. Talk to people along the way. You never know what you are missing if you don't.