Thursday Night Ride, 11/2

How about a Thursday night ride? Who's in? There should be a bit more terrain dry by then, too.

no Tuesday Ride, 10/31

I'm going Trick or Treating. No ride this Tuesday. Maybe Thurs?

Ribbon, Andy's. Good.

I took a right turn on I70

And didn't stop for a few hours. The trails are super good out here today.

Intense VPP vs Santa Cruz VPP

I took these pictures the last time I had a Santa Cruz in the shop. The Santa Cruz is a Blur LT and the Intense is a 5.5, so this is pretty much apples to apples. I am in no way whatsoever comparing the ride of the two bikes. I am merely displaying images of both that speak to quality of design as well as quality of workmanship. Take a look.


Santa Cruz lower link:


Intense lower link:


Santa Cruz upper link:


Intense upper link:


Santa Cruz replaceable dropout:


Intense replaceable der hanger:


Santa Cruz disc tab:


Intense disc tab:


I am definitely proud to work with Intense!

1st Cross Race

The first cross race of the season always hurts. 2-3" of mud on half of the course puts the hurtin' on me.

The night before Boulder got 5" of snow. Race day was sunny and 45 degrees, just warm enough to melt the snow slowly. I was standing at the start line with Chad, he was hoping to win and I was hoping for mid-pack. With no pre-lap I was not sure what the course was like. My biggest clue was the mud covered people from the CAT4 race. I had a good start but quickly found out the semi-slick tires I was running were a poor choice. My wheels were spinning with each pedal stroke while my competition was passing by. I kept pushing anyway and felt great. This was not reflected in my results, but it was still fun. Chad ended up with the win and I ended up near the back.

When racing for Redstone Cyclery/Oskar Blues Brewery, the race MC"s love to talk about the beer every lap, even strangers are cheering for us. Next week I think I'll bring the beer.

Snow + Mud = FUN Cyclocross!

The opening weekend of the boulder county cyclocross season served us up a classic snow & mud gem. The DBC race on Saturday at the Arapahoe Ridge High school was the first (I have heard the last) race to be run at this venue. The course was mostly smooth flat grassy sections & 2 fairly steep short run ups. The few inches of snow quickly turned into a few inches of mud throughout most of the course. I joined fellow Redstoner Chris in the mud riddled Cat III race (although his heart wanted to be riding his new INTENSE SPIDER 29er-who can blame him). I sat in the top 10 for a few laps as I figured out the best lines & tried to keep the heart rate in check. My heart rate was staying pretty stable & I was glad to have done a XC MTB race the weekend before in preparation. As the race went on the group splintered a bit & we had 3 laps to go. I made a small effort to go off the front so I could ride the technical sections at my own pace. I got a small gap but with a ton of mud on the tires I crashed on a fast sweeping pavement left hander preceding a run up. The 2nd & 3rd place riders caught back on & my heart rate jumped as I bounced off the pavement. I tried to stay calm & sat 2nd wheel to let my heart rate come back down & size up the others. I was feeling pretty comfortable with 2 laps to go & on the last lap I attacked in a power sucking mud section. I created a 10 second gap & was riding the last few corners of the course much faster than the other 2 so I rolled in pretty easily for the win. Chris finished better than he will let you know but suffered mightily from a POOR/BALD tire choice. In what turned out to be great timing my front tire went flat while in the bike wash line. Saturday night I awoke to a nasty cough & had to skip the Sunday event. What a drag after spending most of Saturday cleaning & rebuilding the bike – o yeah, Dave I need some brake pads. Rumor has it that there are some pictures of Chris & I flopping around in the mud so stay tuned for those. I’m looking forward to the remaining weekends of limited travel & much racing. It looks like there will be some quality racing coming up with some big races & big names - get out there & ring those cow bells!!!

Happy Mudding - cm

change is good, right?

It's funny how things can change so quickly. One week, it's 80degrees and perfect dirt in the hills. The next week, it's already snowed a couple of times and we're into our winter routine. It had been since last winter, so I decided to pedal out to a winter only staple - Rabbit Mountain. You know, Rabbit Mountain is a pretty darn good park. If Boulder County OS were to be so bold as to make loop out of the now out and back overlook trail, Rabbit Mountain would get about 200% better. Oh well, the views are still pretty good as an out and back.


After riding the overlook trail, I went for a lap on the Eagle Wind loop. Everytime I ride it, I kick myself for not visiting more frequently. The loop rolls up and down and has some legitimately fun rocky terrain. It also provides a good view, one that's pretty unique in the area. Looking down on the front range.


Speaking of the weather and seasons changing rapidly, hows anyone feel about at Tuesday ride. Meet at the shop at 6pm and we'll go from there. Any ideas?

Good to be single.

Good to be single on a day like today. Hit the local loop a bit too late - it was warm enough to melt the snow from last night, cold enough to freeze my toes.

have a good weekend

Well, the light showers have officially turned into flurries here in Lyons. This looks lke it will be our 2nd good snow of the season. Here's a preview for tomorrow, in case anyone forgot.It should make for some fun cross racing, especially given that this is the big opener weekend for Boulder County crossin'. Chad and Chris will be out there slogging around. Good luck fellas!

Fast Pisgah Action, Jackson

Nothing like an East Coast road trip in the fall. Great colors, stellar riding, and fast action, Jackson. A few pictures here from Pisgah National Forest, NC and Whetstone Ridge, VA.

Heil Connector Planning and other things

The trail work for Heil Ranch this coming Sat (10/21) has been rescheduled. It's too muddy up there to work, according to Parks person Mary Wiener. We'll be back at it on November 4, same time, same place. We'll still plan to ride afterwards if we can.

Keep Oct 26 open. From 6:30-8:pm at the Lyons High School, Boulder County Parks and Open Space Staff and Town of Lyons Parks and Rec Commission will present the background and scope of the Heil Valley Ranch northern trailhead planning. Topics will include:
-Background on the 2005-2006 Heil Valley Ranch Planning
-New Opportunities: Olson Property Purchase
-Issues to be considered regarding the trailhead in Bohn Park

The High School is located at 100S 2nd Ave in Lyons. It's right underneath the big L on the hillside south of town. Hope to see many faces out that night!

Might get some snow tomorrow, stay warm and dry...

Intense Cycles News

I just got an email from Intense. It was short but outlined a couple of pretty cool things. First, check out the Uzzi VPX. It's, um, a pretty cool bike. yeah. The Uzzie VPX has over 7 inches of sweet VPP travel.


Due to overwhelming response on Intense's camo paint jobs on prototype bikes, they have decided to offer, for a very limted amount this super sweet digital camo paint scheme. Yes, there is an upcharge. Kind of goes in that "if you have to ask" category...




And I bailed on riding Tues, too. Something about the 35 degrees and slushy snow. I waited, but no one came down. I wasn't too upset about it. Not motivated enough to ride on my own, I went home played with the kids, and enjoyed an Old Chubb. No riding, but Tues ended up just fine.

WORS

My last weekend in Wisconsin provided me an opportunity to participate in one of my favorite mountain bike races. The Wigwam Ultimax classic is the 12th & final stop on the WORS series calendar. WORS is one of the best run state mountain bike series anywhere, sometimes drawing 1000 racers. The hometown race has a great course & is actually located in the city of Sheboygan, so spectators are in high numbers. It was good to catch up with all the old racing buddies. It was the first cross country race in a few years so it hurt pretty bad. I went as fast as my legs would go, i never really got tired b/c my legs just had one speed with 2 laps of the 5 remaining. The results were less than stellar, but hey i finished. The stone finished 27th out of 75 in the Expert/Elite class. Nothing to write home about but as i said, it's a great series & event. Trek/VW buddy Tristan Schouten out gunned MN homeboy Doug Swanson for the big $1000 payday. Keep an eye for these guys during the cross season, they will surprise some folks. Cheers to Don for running a quality series & the Fat Kats for the quality event.

CM


Thanks to my buddy Jay for feeding me all day, not sure i would have made otherwise.

Tuesday Night Ride 10/17

Weather looks questionable so we'll have to play it by ear. Let's meet up at the shop at 6pm and we'll make the call at that time. Be prepared to drive and have a light that's good for over an hour, at least.

Karl showed me what's what today.

And I liked it.

Underdressed

The weather babes said it would be 70 today, so I thought I'd head west and enjoy the mountains since it was bound to be a great day. It was pretty great, but it sure wasn't 70! I stopped a couple times coming down to warm up my fingers.

speaking of new head badges

I finally got some of the new head badge kits from Turner. $20 and it's a drillbit, headbadge, screws, and a torx wrench to snug them down. Pretty slick!





Then there's this one. I have no explanation other than that I received it via email. wow.

29er Time

First, the On One Inbred 29er 1x9





The Intense Spider 29








And the Turner Sultan




real head badges for Turner!

Moab II

Ah, finally time for some more bloggin. I've been wanting to get these up since I got back. How about some more Moab pics? These are all from day 2 of riding. We climbed Amasa Back, the back down Rockstacker and Jackson's Trail. It was a fun day. I took the Flux out. I figured I might as well ride it since I brought it. In retrospect, though, I should have taken out one of DT's demo RFXs...

Check out the petroglyphs


The road ahead, looking up Kane Creek Road

Shaheeb hitting the sweet quarter pipe step up. Sorry for the crappy photo, it's the only one I got.

Towards the top, Amasa starts to feel like a long, hot climb.


The quintessential view from Amasa Back

Dave Turner near the edge of Jackson's Hole

Again, that's a lot of Turners.

Colorado River floating downstream. Canyon Country.

MYL finds the end of his travel

Dave Turner. Same place, different angle.

That's all the ride photos I have. I did snap a few scenery shots on the way out of town, though.

Most times that I leave Moab, I've had my fill. This trip, I couldn't get enough. I can't wait to get back out to the desert, but I think it may be a while.