Last Winter Park race

The King of the Rockies is the 6th and last race in the Winter Park series. It is a 25 mile point to point race that includes a good mix of what the area has to offer. We started the nearly 4 mile lead out at a pretty relaxed pace for a group. After about 2 miles the attacks came. Two riders sprinted off from the group, and then there was a second attack. I was able to cover both of them. After the second attack, there was a 200 yard or so gap between about 12 riders and the main group. I was hanging on to the back of the lead group knowing we had a good climb in front of us. We hit the climb and caught a bunch of riders in the group before us. I felt pretty good and snaked through some of both of the groups up the climb. Even though it was my first race in quite a while without my heart rate monitor (died this week, sweet) I found a good tempo that I could push without cracking. The backside of the climb is an equivalent distance and elevation change. I did not ride it well last year. This year I bombed down and felt great descending. We ducked into some single track that reminded me quite a bit of north central WI. Twisty, turny, rooty trails with pine trees. I stayed on it here. A long gravel road climb lead to the most technical part of the trail, and we got to climb that. WTB has a lot of rocks and roots and really saps the energy out of every rider. From here, I knew all of the trails except the very last part. I did not make the main creek crossing as two riders dismounted in front of me. I was forced to get off and run my bike through freezing cold water. I rode the rest of the trail pretty fluently and felt good until the finish. I hit the last section and sprinted to the finish passing a couple riders and dropping two riders I worked with in the final section of the race. I felt pretty good from start to finish and I think I am going to be in good form for Chequamegon if I can get two more good weeks of training in.

Saturday night a few of us camped. Jeremy and I got up and rode the race coarse backwards from Vazquez road to the start and back to the car. It was a good ride. I felt pretty good for the day after the race. It was nice to finally ride Winter Park for the fun of it. There are a ton of really good trails there and I need to ride it more often. The ride was fun and the weather was really good. Surprisingly, hardly anyone was out. I noticed as I was going down Tipperary, my front tire was a little squirley. About halfway down the trail, I hit a root and got thrown off of my bike. I landed in a puddle of goopy mud. My left arm looked like I dipped it in Hersey's chocolate, though I doubt it would have tasted as good. 60 miles of mountain biking between Saturdays race and Sundays ride. Relaxing by the camp fire both Friday night and Saturday night was great.

Mt. Evans Hill Climb

For August, Jeremy, Chris P., Erik, and I decided we would climb Mt. Evans. For a century. From Morrison. The elevation at the start of the bike ride is somewhere near 6,300 ft. The elevation of Mt. Evans is 14,130 ft. That is a lot of climbing. 10.900 ft counting all the ups and downs on the way to and from the car. We started a little after 7:30. Ouride started up from the beginning. It took about 18 miles to get to Idaho Springs, and we had to ride on I-70 for about two miles. We got maybe a few miles of downhill in the first 18 miles. My max speed was 49 mph during the second short descent. From Idaho Springs, it is 28 miles to the top. Though we restocked as we had some cars with food and water waiting for us. We started the next leg of our climb which took us from 7,600 ft to 10,500 ft. I started to set the tempo here, and due to the elevation and constant climbing, the conversation and screwing around ceased. It was time to work. We rotated through a bit and took a few breaks along the way. At Echo lake, we resupplied and took off again. It is 14.2 miles to the summit, and there are mile markers every mile. We thought it would be great fun with 3,500 ft. of elevation in front of us to sprint at every mile. I think Chris won the first mile. Chris and Erik crashed the second mile, and the fun continued. It took us 4:51 of ride time to reach the summit, which was really cold. Fortunately for me, Erik brought along more warm clothes than he needed, because I did just the opposite. The first leg of the descent is really bumpy with a lot of cars, really narrow roads, and tight switchbacks. It is ok, but really rough. The ride from Echo lake to Idaho Springs is just the opposite. We could carry a ton of speed through turns, keeping speeds of 30 to mid 40s. We had two climbs left once we left Idaho Springs, and they were not big, but they were painful by the time we got this far. The second hill climb was at the end of a stretch on the freeway. Erik and Chris started to sprint. I joined in shortly after. Erik won, and I was able to gap Chris a bit. After this, it was all downhill to cars and pizza. The weather was perfect. It was sunny, and warm at lower elevations, and we did not really ever get threatened by rain. There was a little headwind, but not bad. Michelle and Marni climbed from Echo lake to the summit. Thanks to Kim who drove the car the whole way bringing food and warm clothes.

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The weekend

This past weekend I did something I'd been kicking around for a while. I looked at and bought a new car. Actually, an SUV. I got a 2009 Honda Element EX AWD black. I liked my Vibe a lot, but I had been cursing its inability to go the speed limit over the mountains. The E provides more power and a heck of a lot more cargo space and functionality. I will miss the gas mileage of the Vibe, but living in Colorado my needs out grew what it is and could do. Funny thing too, I got 5 speed manual transmission, which I am not very good at driving. I am still learning how to drive it, though after a couple days, I am getting better.

Saturday night I hung out with Erik, Chris P. James, and Scott. Scott is getting married on July 25th, so we took him out for some fun. We went go carting in Littleton. It has been a few years since I've gone, and I've never been in go carts that were this ridiculous. The attendant said they had a top speed of about 45-50 mph! It took me about three laps to feel comfortable. Then I spun the car.

Sunday I did my monthly century. This time because of a few things that came up, I rode all but the first 9 miles by myself. Scott joined me for a bit, then I was off by myself. I rode to Golden and up Lookout Mtn, which is 4.5 miles and about 1,700 ft. Then I went down the C-470 trail to ride Deer Creek Canyon, which is about 7 miles and I am not sure of the elevation gain. On my ride home along the Platte I noticed a bunch of tubers in the river. At one point while I was crossing a bridge, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a body floating face down in the river. I had my mobile phone on my, so I quickly stopped, hopped off my bike and ran as best I could with carbon soled road shoes back to where I could see the body. At about this time an older couple was crossing the bridge opposite me on a tandem bike. I told them what I saw and they got off of their bike to see what I was talking about. The guy on the tandem was first to view, and he noticed the body in the river had a snorkel and was searching for something in the water as he had some sort of sucking contraption. We all got quite a kick out of this, but it startled me quite a bit at first. I ended up with a shade over 100 miles in just under 6 hours by myself with two big climbs, a coffee break at mile 50 and a Coke break at mile 85. 7 for 7 for centuries done in a month this year!

WP race 3 and the weekend

Friday as soon as I was out of work I took off for Winter Park to camp the night before the race. Angela and her roommate found a site off of Vasquez road that was not to far from the river but a nice distance from the road so we would not here traffic. We relaxed after dinner and had a campfire that lasted about two hours.

Saturday's race was 24 miles of mostly double and single track with some fire roads thrown in occasionally. It starts off with the same 1.5 mile gravel road climb that I like so much (sarcasm). I was about 10th going into the trails and got stuck behind some riders that were not good descenders. I had to ride the brakes more than usual until I could find a safe place to pass. Good starts seem key with all of the tight trails, and because of being stuck behind slower people, I lost a lot of time. There were a couple crashes in front of me and I was able to pass some others on a tricky climb. I worked pretty hard to try to catch some people, maybe too hard. My race heart rate was 175-183 for most of the 2:07 it took to finish. The climbs were not difficult, but the single track was. The course did not present much recovery. Most of the trails were very rough consisting of a lot of roots, rocks, and other obstacles. I felt pretty good until about mile 19 or so. I knew the race was about 24 miles, so I kept as hard of a pace as I could. At about mile 22 a rider along side me looked equally crushed. We exchanged a few glances and realized we were in the same age category. I stood up and attacked to gap him. At this point, my hands were so sore I could barely shift and there were a lot of tight turns meaning accelerating in and out of corners would be key. I crossed two tight bridges and sprinted to the finish putting 17 seconds on him. 12/32 in my age category. I rode hard, but my heart rate and legs were not in agreement as they were in two different zones I think. I am not surprised as I did not have two good weeks of training. I was completely cooked at the finish. After the race I rode back to town adding another 8.5 miles. In the post race raffle I won 4 rockies tickets for late September, which was pretty sweet. My team, Angela, and I went out to Lime for supper. I then went back to Denver shortly there after. Its funny, in WI. I thought 2,500 ft of climbing would kill me. Now that amount in a 24 mile race is not to bad

Sunday I woke up and did a 21 mile recovery ride. It was probably the slowest I've ridden 21 miles not doing a crazy climb. Chris P. and I went rock climbing in Boulder canyon. It felt really good to get out again. I was a little awkward the first time up, but fine really. Each time Chris and I go out teaches me new things. I cleaned the line he set removing multiple nuts and cams.

Recently he finished the Tour Divide race 3rd overall and set a new single speed record. 2745 miles in 19 days from Banff Canada to Antelope Wells NM. He and Marni had a party Sunday night.

FINALLY!!!!!

Today was the second bike race of the Winter Park series, and it was a course I liked last year with some changes.  It is about 18 miles with about 2,700 ft of elevation gain.  The race starts off with an annoying 1.5 mile gravel hill climb.  After about 200 yards, I was maybe 15th.  But then things changed.  I got a really good rhythm and kept a steady effort.  Most of the people in front of me started coming back to me.  We hit the single track and I was 5th.  The first couple miles are pretty tight with limited room for passing, and it is a rocky gradual downhill.  I let it rip and was attacking as soon as I got to the trail.  After maybe 1/4 mile I passed the 4th place rider.  I was feeling really good uphill and downhill-which is normally a weakness of mine.  I rode a really clean race for the most part.  There were some wet areas with roots that I got caught up in with some other people and had to run my bike until I found a good spot to get back on.  A little bit later there was a fast tight rocky downhill that made a 120 degree turn and went uphill.  I was screaming downhill into it and had to lock up the rear brake to do a controlled skid and was able to point my bike in the right direction without skipping a beat and in doing so I passed a rider in my age category.  There is a stream crossing on the course that we were warned was tire deep, unrideable, and pretty strong.  I came around a corner and hit the crossing pretty fast and managed to make it 3/4 of the way through before being knocked over by the current.  The water was most likely snowmelt and it was freezing.  I was alone for a while to make the final push to the last real climb of the race.  I knew were I was and for the most part what was in front of me.  I had about 4 miles of switch back single track to the finish and knew without any major mistakes I had a good position locked up.  My new Continental Mountain King 2.2 run with Stans @ 28 psi hooked up amazing on all the downhills.  I could not believe the control of the bike.  I entered the last section of single track to the finish by myself, and quickly caught and passed a few riders.  The raced ended with a 200 yard long  gravel road.  As soon as I was dumped out to the bottom, I sprinted against no one.  I was 4th out of 30, which is my best race since moving to Colorado.  I felt strong the whole ride and was able to maintain a high heart rate.  I even talked to JHK before the race and saw his new GF Superfly 100.  It is HOT.  Oh, and he beat me by 30 minutes!  JHK rolled in for the win 4 minutes up on the next fastest pro.  I finally put together a strong race from start to finish.  I was beginning to wonder if this would ever happen in Colorado.  

Squaw Pass Hill Climb

Today I wanted to redeem and punish myself for what I thought was an unimpressive first mountain bike race.  Jeremy (I think I punished him more!) and I went to Evergreen to try Squaw pass.  The road starts at 7,800 ft. and summits at 11,200 ft.  I thought it would be about 8-10 miles.  I was wrong, it was 15.  It is a really nice and steady climb.  The two of us started out about the same time as some other random dude.  We latched onto his wheel and followed him for a mile or so not knowing what to expect.  It was time for my pull, and I was starting to warm up.  Every time I looked back I noticed they were a few bike lengths behind.  I tried to keep a good rhythm and not redline but the tempo was a bit much for the others.  The sun was out and it was a really nice day, not to mention we saw snow capped mountains all around us, so I sat up a bit and enjoyed the view as much as the company and effort.  At a decent effort, it took me 1.5 hours to reach the summit.  We rested for a moment, ate cliff bars, and put on arm warmers for the descent down the winding road.  There were quite a few switch backs and blind corners.  It was a really fun descent, and we were able to haul down, except for the times when a few cars slowed us down.  We had to pass them to keep  from riding the brakes.  The reward for the tough climb was a 30 minute downhill with speeds ranging from mid twenties up to forty miles per hour.