Off to the races

well one race actually. In Telluride. then comes four days of backpacking around the Weminuche wilderness outside of durango. Should be fun. I wonder if backpacking counts as rest days.

Fun ride today with the smba crew. for now, geocaching sucks. I can think of much better ways to spend time outside. Nice views from caribou and beyond with a bit of brush whacking and ghost riding.

Leadville Silver Rush

Yesterday was, as a fellow rider called it, a constant beatdown. 50 miles of rugged mining roads. The wonderful joy of the Leadville silver rush. It was a fairly good race for me. I dropped a ton of time from last year, and placed inside the top 40. which was cool. I also got to witness some really impressive riding. Brae Patten, at sixteen years of age, brought out the big guns and came across the line in second. Another junior rider coming in top twenty. And Brae's younger sister, Ellen completing her first 50 miler in high style.

Although I managed to do alright, there was a serious lack of something going on. The race course, scenery, and weather were, as usual, spectacular. But there was no vibe with my ride. Granted, I hadn't ridden the Orbea since CB, so that probably has something to do with it. But a vibration in the rear wheel prevented any flow on the descents. It was super fun, dont get me wrong, it just felt like there was something in the way of the connection between me and my bike. Something like 26 extra gears.

Cenntenial Cone

Rode with the smba crew today down outside of golden gate on some very sweet, and relatively new singletrack. There has been a lot of hard feelings between the two junior biking programs in boulder. A lot of bs in my opinion that doesn't belong on here, but for whatever reason, I havent ridden with this particular group since mid-august last year. Anyways. It was cool to ride with them. A nice chill day to spin the legs out and get the heart beating. The trail was excellent. miles upon miles of smooth, twisty, rolling goodness.

Colorado weather was at its finest today. Started out looking like the storm of the century was about to befall us. And ended up with very hot, blue skies. Tortellinis and iced coffee made a terrific lunch. A good compliment to the trail, the views, and the ride in general.

West (and East) Mag

Spent the majority of yesterday wandering around the trails of west mag. Compared to the ridiculous heat of late, some cool (relatively) singletrack was a welcome change. Now, i realize that there are definitely way cooler places to ride up yonder, but habit trails were just about right yesterday. And if that makes me a stupid flatlander, then let that happen. I'm sure that the local force does not appreciate 9 people in spandex, 7 of which with 27 times more gears than i. But sure as hell its nicer than eagle fucking trail.

We eventually made our way out along some techy stuff east of freak to freak, and ended up at some very nice lunch rocks. Strawberry cheesecake and perrier, courtesy of b&f made lunch quite enjoyable.
However the food induced stupor settled in and made the spin out on mag feel like I was trying to ride up Aconcagua. Hurt so good.
Hagen-daz back in boulder helped to cool off.

They say that time flies when you are having fun. But it sure seems to drag when you are pulling up sagebrush. or hauling logs. or moving rocks. or any other type of pointless, very difficult labor. For this reason, the last 72 hours felt a lot longer than that. At least it was outside, and the pay was good.

Get to go up to ned the next two days in a row. shwing. then the silver rush on saturday. that will hurt, no doubt. but fun never the less.

A ride in ned

Quite a solid ride yesterday with dv8 up in Ned. On the bus up it hit me that this was the first time in over six months that I have ridden up there. Which is far too long. Last summer, I was ridding up there at least three days a week sometimes more. Circumstances changed, not really for the better, and now, well... not a whole lot of riding in the highlands. I think yesterday kinda rekindled my interest in the whole deal. I would like to try and ride up there at least twice a week from now till school starts.

I was a bit worried about whether or not I would remember anything more than the high school trail, but as I started riding, things came back. That is until the second climb of the day. I somehow managed to completely forget the pain that particular jeep road inflicts. That combined with the lack of life in my legs made it feel like i was riding a 53x11 rather than a thirtytwoseventeen. But, it was still fun, and burritos a the top was well worth it.

I got some new tires, a karma and a small block eight. Heading up to SC for the weekend, but no riding in the schedule. A report on that when i get back.

So when we were in CB a week or so back, during the pro race, there was this guy on the trek vw team who hit the deck hard right where we were standing. And i mean hard. When the first aid team got there we got him on oxygen and a backboard within ten minutes. While holding him down to put the neck brace on, something told me it was bad. But, we got him out of there, and down to the base were he was flown out to junction. He had some kind of severe head and/or neck injuries, and was loosing consciousness as he was being loaded into the van. Yesterday, I was surfing around, and came across his site. Looks to be quite an ordeal this dudes been through. When he was down in the grass, my mom did some quick field evaluations, but we had no idea of the extent of the damage that he incurred from his fall. After 14 days in the hospital, hes home with a long time to spend in recovery and therapy. But he's doing better, relatively, and I encourage all of you to send positive vibes his way, as well as visit his site to wish him a speedy recovery. A very inspiring fight if I may say so.

Not a ton of great news This week. Asides from the above mentioned. A jr. racer from steamboat was hit by a semi-truck while riding on the road. Spent a week or so in the hospital with a shattered pelvis and a broken femur. Stupid cars. Also to continue with the dreary news... three people lost their lives this weekend while enjoying the mountains. A constant reminder that while Mother Nature is beautiful and serene, negligence and disrespect will leave you in a less than optimal position, with you more often than not the looser.

ofs

A weekend of fun singlespeeding in winter park. Didn't put any effort into the race and finished only two spots down on my previous standing. Go figure. It was still fun though. A nice break from the pain of the Firecracker and some fun riding yesterday as well. Good time on the bianchi. I still dont have any snap in my legs, but I'm feeling stronger, so thats good. Leadville silver rush in less than two weeks time.

There have been some rumors of late mentioning the "death" of singlespeeding. The idea that riding a bicycle with one gear is perishing before our very eyes. I think not. Maybe some day it will be, but not right now anyways. My argument is the twenty riders who showed up last saturday for the Winter Park race. Sure, some may say "psssh. only twenty riders" or "those guys aren't real singlespeeders any ways". But when the shit hits the fan, those guys were out there riding, ofs. I dont know if the "death" of such riding is a bad thing, or in my opinion a good thing. But 1x1'ers are a hardy bunch, and they're not going down without a fight.

Firecracker 50

27° C, cloudy and hot. Its been a bit of a rough week so far, not for any particular reason, especially considering the fact that I havent done much more than ride my bike. I'm feeling more tired now than I usually do, I think because its so hot. I stayed inside all day today, just trying to avoid the blistering heat. But, the days are getting shorter, and ski seasons getting nearer. Trailers for all the new movies are out. Check out Trailertime07 on the Free skier site. Get pumped for the coming snow. I know its a long ways off, but its a comin.

Yesterday I was up in Breck for the Firecracker Fifty bike race. Normally I would have done the whole thing, but opted instead for a team shot. 25 miles each, which was plenty enough for me. Since i went second, I had a chance to watch the likes of Jay henry and Ryan Trebon come through. The amount of power those guys can put out is insane. Any ways. The course was sweet, not quite as cool as the silver rush, but way more singletrack. We ended up in second, right behind another junior team from SC in the Expert men Teams. Which was sweet because the total age of all four people in the top two teams was around 60.

I just started reading Desert Solitaire, which I have no doubts will be good. And Mr. Abbey will be accompanying me for a weekend in Winter Park for racing and riding. Also, something completely unrelated, does anyone know if hard hats are safety approved for bicycle riding?