Night riding

I rode 1.5 hours tonight in the fog. With my Night Rider TriNewt headlamp there were no worries. It's so bright that cars dim their lights now for me.
I find it humorous when a car waits before pulling onto the road when I'm approaching because he thinks that I am a motorcycle or car.
It's 480 lumens on the high mode which I rarely use because it if so bright. The SPecialized rep was telling me today about a new Light in Motion light that puts out over 700 lumens in a lighter package. If I can get it for a good discount price I'll be adding this to my lighting arsenal for riding trails at night.

Memorial day weekend

Loaded up the Bambi Thursday for an early Friday afternoon departure from work. I ended up working an hour longer than I wanted and got on the road at 2pm head for Buffalo Creek (en route thru Denver traffic). Stopping for gas at the Flying J before crossing into Colorado I was stuck behind some yahoo that must have been filling 100 gal side tanks of diesel before having to pay by cash at the register causing a longer delay.

This was my view for 20 minutes

Nice view huh?

150 miles later I arrived at the group campground. Not a bad drive after the gas line wait.

Being early I was able to setup near Chuck, the organizer of the weekend's camper. This put me near the keg.

Setting up the Stream I had endless encounters with the others already there on wanting to tour the living quarters. I left the door open intentionally for the rest of the arrivals to check out Bambi. I felt like an Airstream rep showing off all the features. Everyone loved it.

There where plenty of other dogs and dog lovers to keep Nikki and Axel occupied. They also got to run the trails as we did parts of the Colorado Trail and Gashouse trail to keep them in energetic check.

Saturday, after the girls group ride, Matt (a Skins teammate and my inviter in this shindig) and I took off for a ride on the Colorado trail. We went from the camp to the wilderness boundary, back to camp, to the parking area at the highway, and back to camp. Somewhere around 30 miles of single track and lots (LOTS) of climbing.

Matt is a climbing phenom. He came close to a stage win at the Tour of the Gila this year and was the highest placed Skins rider at the Dead Dog road race last year.

I don't try to compete with him when the road turns up. For the most part this is what I saw.

It was usually on singletrack but you get the picture.

\On Sunday, Matt, his wife Kat, friends Joe and ?, and I headed out and rode the course for next weeks mountain bike time trial race that would be held there.

It will be a fairly entertaining (and hard) course and I would love to do it if I wasn't committed to a friends B-Day party that day.

Here is a pic of Kat and friend behind Matt, Joe and I.

Fun stuff came to an end when I had to pack up and head back home.

Work was calling for Monday.

Matt's family accomodations

Tornados!

You may have seen TWC, CNN, or a major networks news talking about the bad weather that hit northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Many tornadoes and funnel clouds later I (my dogs, cats, and property too) can breath a sigh of relief. We were missed. Others nearby were not so lucky.
ride obn

Wheels of Thunder/ Coal Miners Classic

after a week of hardly any riding due to weather and other stuff I had a weekend of races. I lasted only 42 minutes of a 60 min race on Saturday. It was to be expected. Then with much thought I decided to race Sunday even if I get shelled off the back early (a costly race given that it's $30 and gas is $3.65 and it's 200 miles round trip)
I did better than expected even though I couldn't hold a position near the front of the race for more than 1/4 a lap and even thought about dropping 20 minutes into the 60 minute affair. I had a last lap adrenaline surge that found me move up to 4th wheel through the first corner that I maintained til just before the last corner. I finished 13th which was 9th in the field sprint to the line as there was a breakaway that finished right before us. Not bad for not being in prime form yet.

To maintain the intesity it may be hard as there are no races that I'm planning on doing in the next 6 weeks
31 May Hugo: Drive all that way (410 milesround trip) for an 80 mile training race? I don’t think so
1 June City Park: 7:30 start time for Masters? Maybe the Pro-1-2 painfest at 12:30
7&8 June State TT and a Hill Climb? Nope good luck to the rest of the team
14&15 June Glenwood Springs: If I can get time off to travel I would like to do these otherwise another dead weekend
21&22 Rist Canyon RR and Hill Climb: Probably not unless my power to weight ratio is >4
and 6 weeks later…
28&29 Dead Dog SR: FINALLY this race I will do

Then July at last. Almost a race every weekend for me.
Bring on July!!

Celebrity status

I'm driving into work and I get a phone call. It's a friend telling me I looked good in the newspaper.
"Oh yeah, I was wondering when that was going to run. Where's it posted?"
"On the front page, large photo of you and a wheel"
Great, I'd better get a copy so I can prepare for the ribbing I'm going to recieve.

The day before I was entertaining the news/camera man while working away on some bikes. The paper was going to run an article on the the high price of gas driving people to seek alternative modes of transportation.
I had no idea when this was going to show. I thought maybe next week or the weekend.

Throughout the day at work people would come in and say things like "I saw you in the paper" "sign any autographs copies yet" "you represented the shop well"
and my favorite "you're that guy in the paper"

I didn't think Cheyenne was that small that I'd see that kind of reaction, guess I was wrong.

From what I can tell about the photo, I think I won the stare down match between the wheel and me.

Ouch!

Working late hours means you have to train when you can. Tonight meant an hour training ride on the Mtn bike with the new lighting system. I decided to get the dogs out for a few miles first. this meant riding a loop that we normally do in the daylight. Unfortunatly I decided to change the loop up without telling the dogs. Approaching an inersection at near 20mph I decided to go straight. I remember a blur as Nikki streaked into my lighting area. Next thing was me rolling on the ground after I hit my head and hip. So much for an evening ride. Riding home on adrenaline, I made it home where I assessed damages.
Abbrasions to the left hip, lump on the back of my head, arm sore and back a bit sore but sure to be worse tomorrow.
Oh, and the bike suffered a scratch on the pedal cap and grip. Otherwise no worse for wear.

time to heal

Snow on Saturday

It's Saturday. It's one of the days I get to spend all day doing whatever I want.

I wanted to hit the trails on my new Stumpjumper.

It's 30 degreees, 30 mph winds, and it's SNOWING.

Tomorrow is going to be in the upper 60's. I'll have to go to bed early and wake up early to enjoy the weather.

Bikes and Maintenance

Work has been busy. I like it but it has its drawbacks. Long hours, minimal break time, arriving home in the dark with a dead headlamp having switched to the backup, emergency, single LED light that is kept in my pocket.

The positives. Working at a job I enjoy, helping other cyclists make purchases based on actual user experiences, and employee discounts.

After waiting over a week for my new Stumjumper to arrive I found out that the order had been canceled by the higher ups due to the fact that there were less than 10 available in the US. Once we found that out I started to look at the Trek Fuel 9.5 ( a sweet ride with full XTR). It only took one call from the general manager to say that I was going to go with a Trek since the Specialized wasn't available to get the regional sales manager involved and release a bike to me. Not just any bike, but one of only 200 produced in a special edition "raw" paint scheme. It must be only available to UK and foreign markets for the most part because that is where I found pics of it. Raw nude carbon frame with gold accents

I've been told by our Specialized rep that it is much nicer looking than the standard issued color. From what I can tell I will not see another bike in this color in the states.

This morning I sent off my order to Night Rider for their TriNewt lighting system. With all the darkness riding I've been doing I can easily justify the expense (employee discount helps). At almost 500 lumens I hope to make those cars that refuse to dim their lights pay the price. I'll be able to ride trails with the dogs at night also with this level of lighting.

My brother Pat in Chicago dealt with my over phone maintenance of his Mtn Bike that wasn't shifting. after about an hour on the phone I thinks he's got it. I'll find out the first time he goes out for a ride or reads this blog.

first weekend in may

Got through a weekend of good weather and no races cleaning house.
I started my Saturday early, 6:30am, when I found out that Nikki couldn't control her bladder while lying on the bed. After stripping off all my linens and comforter covers and throwing them in the wash I went back to bed and slept until 9:30. After breakfast I spent some time putting up a new ceiling fan to replace an ugly chandelier light that was hanging in the area that would be the dining area if I ever wanted it to be. Set up sprinklers for the dry grass and trees and Got out the Specialized Stumpjumper Test Bike that I took from the shop since my bike hadn't arrived yet. I tired the dogs out with a fast hour ride. That was my Saturday.
Sunday was cleanup day for all the stuff that had been accumulating over the past 2 weeks on my counters and bedroom floor. But not before I had loaded the dogs up and drove up the road to Curt Gowdy state park for some mtn biking with the test bike. This time it was a fast 2 hours on single track and climbs tiring the dogs and me out. Then it was back to town to gas up and return the bike as I would be commuting by bike most of the week and it's kinda hard to carry a bike on my shoulders while riding 20 miles. Got back home and cleaned up the rest of the house.
Now it's time for bed and the start of another week of work.