Just a few more ToC pics

Zabriskie's wife, as promised..




Here some more from Sunday.

The guy on the right in this one is Saul Raisin, not sure who the other guy is.


Leipheimer talking to his mom....

This was the final lead out of the sprint where Olaf Pollack two his second victory in a row.


Bobby J coming out of the trailer - what a nice guy he is.


The 05 Giro champ himself.

Tueday Ride 2/28

Last ride of February! 7pm - Let's meet up at the S Boulder trailhead off of Baseline, just east of Foothills. It's about 2 blocks west of Cherryvale. We'll ride out the S Boulder Trail and we will meander over to the Cowdry Draw/Doudy Draw/Community Ditch neihborhood. This is a pretty chill ride, nothing technical and a lot of road/flat type of stuff. I'll be on the hardtail! See you there.

More ToC pic

Here are a couple of more photos from the race.

By the way, the photo of the Cervelo bike was the bike that Zabriskie crashed on during the team time trial in last years tour. If you look close, you can see the damage on the drops....

Tour of California

Hola Amigas,

Myself and a couple of buddies are out here in California checkin out the race and wow what an incredible event these guys are putting on. Thanks to Dave "Thunder" Bergman, we scored some VIP passes as a result from his top time in the Herbalife sprint race. Dave got a time of 26 seconds in a 1/4 mile. The 3rd best out of 1000 contestants. You ride a road bike on a trainer against another guy and Dave put the thunder down. He races for Rocky Mountain Spine and Sport. I could only muster 30 seconds but tomorrow during the Redondo Circuit, I plan on redeeming myself.

Here are some photos from the day. I forgot to mention that thanks to the VIP passes, I managed to sneak out into the front of the podium for some great photos.

One other note, is we spent a little time with Michael Aisner, one of theee promoters of the Coors Classic and the Red Zinger classic. He is staying in our hotel so he shared some cool stories with us.

Cheers and I'll post again after tomorrows Redondo Beach Circuit race.

argggh!

wrong size! Anyone looking for a smallish XO-1

Tuesday Night Ride 2/21

How's the Neva Rd parking lot at 7pm sound? Keep your fingers crossed that it stays frozen! I'm game for going a little later if the ground will be firmer...

Anyway, sorry to stick down on the flats. We've only got a handfull of days left before the baby due date so I'm limited to areas with the best cell phone reception!

Banana Belt

The wife and I had a three day weekend, so we headed out for a one gastank road trip. Friday was spent at Copper Mountain (thumbs down for icyness and lift lines), followed by a pretty drive through Leadville and Buena Vista down to Salida. After a slice of pizza, we rested up for Saturday at Monarch Mountain. Yeah! With a run called Skywalker running along the Continental Divide how could it be bad? It wasn't! It was great snow and no lines. After playing in the snow we headed back to Salida and walked to a Mexican restautant to refuel for Sunday.





Sunday we got up and headed north from Salida toward home. Here's riding in Buena Vista. A touch over 2 hours from BV to our house. It's close! And while temps were just above 20 on the front range, we were basking in nearly 45 when we got done playing, me riding and the wife hiking. I didn't know what to expect ride wise, so I packed the Intense for the trip. While this ride was mostly flatish, I wasn't bummed at all to be riding the 5+" travel bike. I was floored at how well it pedals on flats - it's as feels as quick as a low travel xc bike. And then when things get twisty or rocky, it pulls out the long legs and soaks it up. I simply can't imagine being happier with this bike!

every dog...

Wow, what an interesting last couple of days. Starts off by the battery light going off in sedanster. Several hun' later and I'm out the door with new belts, alternator, front tie rods and a few other things. Feels good to have a breath of fresh air back in the car. The new tie rods make a huge difference, too, kind of like you don't know how worn your tires are until you get new tires? right...

Next day (today) I go into the bike shop thinking that I'd be surprised if I even saw just a few folks in the door. Surprise! Seemed like there were a bunch of cyclists out just driving around. We're all junkies enough that it feels good to put some miles beneath our wheels, no matter what the wheels are. No objections here, some days it feels good just to cover some ground. Literally and figuratively, I guess. Anyway, some of the regulars were out today from as far away as Denver. Thanks for coming out and keeping me company, fellas.

It was so damn cold outside today. At least the sun came out. For the first day in the last several, hwy 36 in front of the house wasn't a snowy doubletrack snaking up the hill. The snow finally melted enough that there's only a snow divider between lanes now. Brrr, it hasn't been this cold in a long time. I'm still trying to convice myself to ride tomorrow morning. It will be early and cold. We'll see how ambitious I am when the alarm goes off.

Thursday Night Ride is still TNR...

OK, let's meet up this Thursday due to Tuesday being Valentines. Same time/plans etc, just a different night.

That is:
7pm South Boulder Trailhead The trailhead is just east of Foothills on Baseline. The lot is on the S side of the street about a block W of Cherryvale. From there, we can ride S Boulder trail to the 93 access road then down to the Marshall Mesa trailhead, where we can hit Cowdrey Draw and Doudy Draw. Then back. Good ride, 22ish miles.

IF IT'S SNOWING check the blog here. I'll put up any cancellations or changes.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

As of yesterday evening, I was fairly committed to my Sunday ride being a quick tour de Hall after close. Luckily enough, friend Scott rang asking what I had kicking for a ride on Sunday am? Want to come up and ride some ranch roads? You bet! This wasn't an oppornity to pass up, as Scott lives in a private neighborhood where he is surrounded by multi acre wooded ranches. Rides there are a mix of open sun and forested patches, sometime 1 car narrow dirt roads, great scenery and a lot of tough climbing. We logged a couple thousand on our 26 mile jaunt through the hood.


There was still a lot of packed snow in the shade. I was glad to have had an aggressive sideknob on the hardtail's 2.1s.


When I showed up at Scott's at 8am, we got talking about how much or little we've been riding. I mentioned that after close rides were now a possibility since there's more daylight now. "Man, isn't it pretty cold after work?" I hear despite the fact that we're standing outside ready to roll out in 15degree weather. Too funny.

Ok, so let's change gears and talk Tuesday ride! How about riding some South Boulder dirt? We can meet up at the S Boulder Trailhead just east of Foothills on Baseline. Ride that over to 93, access road to Marshall Mesa trailhead, then on to Dowdy Draw and Community Ditch. Not exactly technical terrain, but a good xc route with some good mileage (25ish, I think).

S Boulder Trailhead at 7pm?

Check out the new Maverick Speedball height adjustable seatpost. I like the bar mount on the Gravity Dropper, but this Speedball is clean!

Embracing My Inner Redneck

After a few great rides on the 29'er (rigid and all), I could jut tell the 5.5 was itching for some time in the woods. I headed up to Left Hand for a spin, hopng the snow wasn't too bad. Snow wasn't a problem heading up the singletrack, and I still had first tracks today!




The little snow leftover was good. The ice in Carnage Canyon was something else. Some sections were an ice skating rink with powered snow applied to the top. I was able to ride most of the way, and managed to fall pretty hard once while I was hiking though a particularly steep icy section. There were about 8 trucks headed up the canyon too - here's one guy, all throttle, no finese, making it through (and creating more) ice.

tyler

wow - big news for Tyler today. Looks like there's no escaping the USADA decision on his 2 year suspension. He's now sanctioned until the '07 season from the UCI. His professional cycling career is over. Here's the official write up.

A local doctor here has been testifying in court on behalf of Tyler. Here's the deal - Tyler has a mixed blood cell population that occurs naturally in his blood. The test is too hyper sensitive so it picked up on this. He had such a low amount of mixed blood cell population that it would be the equivalent of 100cc injection every couple of weeks. Which is to say - not much. For an athlete to have any sort of positive effect from blood doping more than 10% of red blood cells have to be effected. Tylers was more like .7%. Weird and it sucks. Shitty deal. Sorry Tyler.

It was a good day today. Heck, it was a 2 Maverick day and fun projects abounded. We wrapped up the day with beers all around at close. Much was consumed before we all had to return to our honey do's. It'll be a while before Greg can use the "going to take recycling" excuse again! Thanks for the beers, though! On to Sunday, now and I'm glad this hectic week is over. Arn was stoked with the new Flux, Jason's new Dean Super Vador is about one of the baddest assed road bikes ever, and Karl's front end remodel turned out great.

Another beer, please!

See you all on the trails,
redstone

Thursday at Marshall Mesa

A good little night ride last night, from Superior to Marshall Mesa and back. It's always fun to head out with somebody that's not seen trails at night before, and Scot seemed pretty happy out there with the Redstone loaner light. He may be hooked.



Also had the pleasure of riding with Jason from BMA, who's not seen the gravel part of the ride before. It's my cross bike commute between Boulder and Louisville, and I'm pretty lucky to have it (and more lucky to have the new trail at Mashall Mesa that makes for a good connection). It feels mighty remote to be riding on the plains and see only 2 cars and 1 bike over the course of 2 hours!

bring on the night

After a "we might have our baby today" incident and several hours at the hostpital, it was definitely good to get out tonight to relieve the pressure. The Tuesday night ride was a blast from the get go. We had about every type of bike representing, too. From full squish to full rigid as well as singlespeed to full gears. 29 and 26, too, come to think about it. We met near the bottom of Left Hand Canyon and headed up to some fully steep and rocky terrain known as the Left Hand Canyon OHV area. The ride was definitely more freeridey than xc. What we had lacking in xc groove and flow we made up for with steeps, boulders, and rocks. We hiked a little and rode a little. The elusive and wiley migz even made the trek out. He still manages to make it look easy, even on a fully rigid singlespeed!

Thanks for coming out everyone! Already thinking of next week. We'll head down to the flats near Boulder for some full moon riding. Hopefully the skies will be clear enough for a no lights ride!

Tues 2/7 night ride

Meet up at the little pull off on Left Hand Canyon Rd just across the street from the Greenbriar. Destination - Left Hand Canyon OHV. Big, big climb/hike up for one of the least known sweetest downhills around.

7pm.

Another reason to like riding...

I've been in NYC working for a solid week, Saturday morning I rolled into the 'Stone and after some prodding, headed out to Hall on the coveted Intense 5.5. I was really surprised that after living at sea level for a week I felt pretty good. Maybe it was all that walking I did through Manhattan, maybe it was riding up the easy side of Hall...



Anyway, riding for the first time in ten days was great, I was sitting down at the top of the loop and a dude rolls up on a Super Sasquatch 5 Spot. We started talking, turns out he's from Telluride, in Boulder following his wife's work, and getting out for his first ride. He sat down, pulled out his map, and I gave hm the low-down on the local trails. He went from "There's not much riding in Boulder" to "I can't wait to ride all these trails you're talking about!"

Riding bikes is good.

BOA (now bma) Banquet

Just got back from the schwing dinging first ever BOA Banquet. In the biggest news of the night, once we sat down for dinner, we were informed that we were at the BMA banquet. BMA is the new name for BOA. The powers that be thought that Boulder Off Road Alliance was too wide of a brush to paint with and that many folks associated BOA with motorized off road. Now, motorized is not inherently a bad thing, but it can be detrimental when you're lobbying for mtb trails in tree huggin' Boulder County. Enter BMA, the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance. Kudos to the BMA officers - I think the name change is definitely a switch for the better. It tells what we are at the onset. No explanation required.

Redstone kicked in enough donation to acquire some complimentary drink tickets. That was a good thing, especially with 2 peoples worth of drink tickets and a pregnant designated driver! I felt right at home as soon as I walked up to the bar. Some forward thinking individual had brought in a boatload of Dales Pale and Old Chubb specific for the event. Thank you beer gods, no need to drink Coors Extra Gold!

A silent auction was there to raise a little dough for the BMA. I was happy to see that a few bike shops stepped up and donated to the cause. I'd like to personally thank the Fix, Performance Boulder, High Gear in Longmont, Sports Garage, and of course Redstone for stepping up. Good job, y'all.

There were some big dog names there as special guests. Andy Hampsten, Juli Furtado, Paul Turner, Jeremy H-K and Heather Irminger (can we call here Heather H-K now?) all had to do time behind the mic, which was wielded by Dave Townley, race announcer at large. It was definitely an interesting show. Picture an interview/talk show setting with Dave on one side interviewing his 2 guests on the other. First up were Juli and Paul Turner. Juli, humble and shy as ever, requested that long term friend and cohort Pual Turner get up on stage with her. It was comical. On the one hand is the super cheesy announcer guy asking all sorts of questions. On the other hand was the shy Furtado, with very limited short answers, and Paul T, industry illuminary that very obviously did not want to be there and could not care less. It actually made me feel not too proud to run a Maverick fork, really. Oh well, I grew up riding Manitou...

Next into the fire was Jeremy H-K and his wife Heather. They both had some good insight into the present situation at NORBA, the Olympics in Greece, and general feelings about the racing environment. Andy Hampsten was up after that, but we had to bail - the baby sitter was racking up too big of a bill and we had to get home!

Anyway, it was a fun night. BMA made about $15 per ticket and there were just over 100 folks in attendance. A good showing but not quite what it could be. I was pleased with the overall turnout for the inagural event, though.

Props also to BMA member and BATCO president, Eric Vogelsberg. Keep up the great work, Eric!

quick fix

Check out the fixed gear gallery. All you ever wanted to know. Look for 2891. That is legit craziness right there. Stand back and watch the explosion.