Cyclocross comes to Lyons for some Ghetto Singletrack Lovin

The last stop of the Boulder Cyclocross Series came to Lyons on Sunday 12/11.  With the exception of maybe 1 year, Lyons has played host to an annual cross race since the State Champ Cross race in 2007.  The original course was in the middle of Bohn Park.  It would've been blazing fast and flat, but the big dump of snow a couple of days before the event set the park up for some great racing.  Since then, promoters have moved the course to the high school allow for a better course, more parking, and better spectating.  It was a good move.

Crossin on the Peak to Peak

If you didn't hit up the cross race today at Aspen Lodge just south of Estes on the Peak to Peak, you missed out!

Twin Sisters provided quite the backdrop for this fantastic venue.

So did Long's and Mt Meeker. The course was a techy mountain biker style course, too.

Pro men's field was great spectating.


Hup Hup!

lyons cross recap

This is what lucky night time travelers on I76 can look forward to during holiday season.

Back in Lyons for the post cross season recapper race. Attendance wasn't too bad given the bitter temps and the fact that this race was a post season for fun race. Good times were had by all. Here's a few images.

Up and back down the start ramp in the dirt jump park.


And a run up behind the school on classic LGS terrain. Beautiful.
Our good buddies at Oskar Blues threw down after the race. Pulled pork sammiches, Dale's on tap, and a season recapper slide show from master photog, Eddie Clark.


It was a great way to spend a chilly January Saturday.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years everyone. It was such a great New Years Day, too. I hope everyone got out to ride at least a little today. A little was all I got. I was kinda hangin and I'm still nursing a cold so an hour or less was the plan. I snuck out to Picture Rock to see for myself how this new trail is holding up in the winter. I was impressed.

I rode the singletrack all the way to "where the bench is going to go," the first man made switchback at the top of the valley right before you get into the trees. Other trail users coming down said that tree section was the sloppiest up there. From the Quarry up, PR was all good to go. There was slime on top of the trail in the shaded areas, but no real mud. After another day or so of hurricane style Chinook winds, PR should be all good to go.

Preperations are starting to be made for Saturday's Lyons Cyclocross race, too. I will be in and out at both the shop and the race - hope to see some of you around.

Lyons Oskar Blues Cross - January 3rd

Hey all, just an FYI for a good day on & off the bike.

**ride tonight, 6pm, bring squish and gears :)**

Come & ride the 2009 hangover outta your legs on January 3rd at Lyons High School with www.boulderracing.com
The plan is a shortned day of just a few races during the "warm" part of the day. We're following that up with a 2008 cycling bust up party at Oskar Blues' new Banquet Barn. We'll have a simple cheap lunch and a FREE BEER with your race number. We'll also have a pictoral review of the 2008 season by www.photo-cycle.com & possibly a few other photographers as well.

Check out the flyer HERE for all the details.

Tell your friend & have a good time on the bike...come one, come all for a fun day on the bike.

75 and Sunny, lets ride

I'm on my second day of nice break from work and I have a plan to see if i can't work myself into some level of fitness. I woke up this morning with somewhat big plans of getting some time on the bike around the dirt roads and farmlands east of Lyons and Boulder. As it would be when you have kids, you can kiss any schedule you have bye bye. Graham was up late, napped early, Mom and Makenna needed to make a run to town to do who knows what (hopefully a gift for Dad). So I waited, and I waited and watched the clouds roll in but it was still lookin good. Finally, 2pm and their home and I'm standin in the house all dressed and ready, sweating because I had just about every piece of warm weather gear I owned on.

Quick stop at Redstone to say hey, place an order and I was off. Heading out east on 66, got to about the Diamond Shamrock and smack...snow. And this wasn't the nice pleasant light fluffy snowflakes that can be fun to ride in, this was like BB's out of a 12 gauge. I sucked it up and kept charging, had to go down 36 towards Boulder knowing there were a couple of good warmup climbs, which was a good idea. However, the snow kept coming and got worse. I kept telling myself, I'll get used to it, I've been in worse. I got to the valley in between Hygeine road and St. Vrain road and the wind gust damn near pushed the wheels right out from under me. Now I was like, ok I like ridin but I don't like dyin. Cars whippin by and the visibility was not ideal. So I turned east down St. Vrain, left on the dirt road, down Hygeine, left on the dirt road, by the big cowboy, left on 66 and time trialed my sorry ass back to Lyons and the comfort of Redstone Cycerly. I will say if I would have had my ski goggles, I would have been golden. My face, even what little was exposed was just gettin peppered. It wasn't the best ride I've ever had but it was a ride.

Sorry for the long boring story but I got nothin better to do right now.

Photos...

Boulder Res CX #1

Redstone & I Made our way to the Boulder Res for the the 3rd stop on the Boulder Racing Cyclocross series. The weather was amazing, to good for cyclocross & that amount of sand. A little moisture is always welcome on this course. This baby doesn't fit my strengths & is basically a glorified road crit. Again, I didn't get called up & had to fight my way through the 3's field. The size of the field was smaller than the last round but still took a lot out of me to fight through. I was able to work my way up to the 3 leaders. I saw the leader make his move with a guy between us. Homeboy didn't respond & by the time i figured out he wasn't going to I had let the leader get away. I was unable to close the gap but cruised in 2nd for the first podium of the new season. Hopefully this race will up the high end with the BIG weekend coming.

One down & lots of fitness to go

I made it to interlocken for the 2nd race of the Boulder Cyclocross series. To be honest my first dismount of the year came earlier that day so I was unsure what to expect. One thing was obvious, cyclocross is taking off on the front range. As I tried to jump into the cat 4 race for a pre-ride of the course it was nearly impossible, over 100 racers covered the course end to end. The 3's was a bit smaller & only had 70 finishers, not sure how many starters. They called up every individual, first by points & then by order of registration. Ouch, yep I registered only less than an hour before the race. The course was in great shape, tons of thick, well cut grass & one mud hole into a slippery mud run climb. I rode a pretty consistent race since I wasn't sure what to expect. I can't be sure, but it felt as if i passed 50+ people through the first few laps. The race started to come to me as the laps ticked off & with 2 laps to go I had only a 6 second deficit to the lead group of 4. Not sure why i couldn't close it down but it remained the same the last few laps I rode in for a solo 5th place, pretty happy considering the tough start & lack of preparation. I'm looking forward to the next month of racing. Here are the dates i plan to race, get your cow bells out & catch the fever. I needed that first race to remind me how fun CX is. see you out there.
Thanks for getting the bike dialed Dave, O yeah I may as well buy some more brake pads.10/28/2007 CX Boulder CX Series (BOULDER RES)
11/3/2007 CX Redline Cup (UCI/ACA) DBC
11/4/2007 CX Boulder Cup (UCI/ACA) DBC
11/10/2007 CX Mountaineer Cross (UCI/ACA) Gunnison
11/11/2007 Fort Leiws College SquawkerCross, Durango, CO
11/17/2007 CX Red Rocks Velo Cross Series – Golden
11/24/2007 CX Boulder CX Series – Boulder
11/25/2007 CX Gcross GMSV Littleton
12/2/2007 CX Red Rocks Velo Cross Series RRV Golden
12/9/2007 CX Boulder CX Series Colorado CX Championships BR