My Wheels are Bigger than Your Wheels!

29 vs. 26

While still basking in the glow of our VIP action from the night before...Matt and I got up on Sunday to go out for a ride along the foothills west of Ft. Collins. After some lounging around and riding into Old Towne for a burrito at Lulos, we loaded the bikes and headed for Lory State Park.

Blue Sky Trail Singletrack

I have some experience riding in Lory from my time living in Ft. Collins as well as some races back in the early 90's as part of the Rock Around the Parks series. These trails are super fun and have enough of everything to keep everyone interested.

Today our goal was to ride from Ft. Collins to Loveland via trails in Lory, the Blue Sky Trail, and the Devil's Backbone. At the start it seemed like a perfect day for a ride other than a chill in the air and a haze in my head from the night before.

Devil's Backbone in the Distance

Another amazing thing about this trail is that of the 32 or so miles on the route that we took, I'd guess that 30 of it is on single track. Not just any old hack single track, but awesome wanna ride it all the time single track.

We made decent time on our 16 miles to Loveland. A rider should always be skeptical of making decent time and not feeling any breeze, it surely means that the ride home is going to be a bitch.



Scoping the view of the Backbone

Sure enough we turned around and bore into some pretty significant winds. It definitely got to the point where the mental impact of the wind was at least as challenging as the muscle fatigue from the ride. Its one thing to power into a killer headwind...which we did miles and miles of...but to be also fighting killer crosswinds that are conspiring to run you off of the trail is another. Places along the Devil's Backbone trail require some concentration to pick a line and power along, the wind certainly compromised performance on this section.

Matt Climbing to the 'bone

Anyway, we railed along and enjoyed the ride as best we could. We were both cooked at the end. Usually wind isn't a huge factor on my mountain bike rides...at least not in the same way that it is on the road. Sunday was a different story...serious mental fatigue from the wind.

Matt is a great rider and I always have to work hard to keep up. He was also an instrumental part of my finishing the Leadville 100 this year (story still to come). He knows how and when to kick me in the ass and keep me going. I wish we could ride and share Skittles more often.

Last epic of the year....I keep saying so, but its not snowing yet. Ordered some warm baselayers planning on the possibility of riding all year. Over 30 miles, tough wind, plenty of vertical, most on single track...love it!

Shadow Riding v.2

Rubbing Elbows

WARNING: This is not a riding story...rather it is a story about riders. Those who be, and those who wannabe.

This weekend I drove down to the Front Range to hang with my friend Matt, take in a ride, and be a lookie loo at the Garmin Slipstream kick-off party in Boulder.

We weren't sure what to expect from the party, but we were pleasantly surprised. Over 800 fans like us and VIP's gathered at the Boulder Theater for an hour and a half cycling kick-off party. This must be what midnight madness is like at the beginning of the college basketball season.....alright it was Boulder, so all of that with a pretentious uppity feel to it!

We got the last two seats in the balcony (thanks Matt) and settled in for some video presentations and speeches from the Mayor of Boulder, CEO's of primary sponsor companies, and a representative of the Children's Hospital. I give the team big props for donating all proceeds to the Hospital.

My goal for the evening was to capture a picture of team manager Jonathan Vaughters in his trademark turtleneck for my wife....he wasn't wearing one that evening, but I got this one for you sweetie....

After all of the presentations, JV introduced the team and had them come on stage for brief bios and a short audience Q&A. It was impressive to see the whole team on stage. It was also fun to listen to the trash talking and the promises of performance, we'll see.

After the show appeared to be breaking up, I made a break for it. I dragged Matt with me and made a bee line for the VIP area. On the way we ran into time trailing stud David Millar....

David has won three stages of the Tour and is the only Brit to have worn all three Jerseys at the Tour.

This only further fueled my desire to crack the secret VIP zone. We tried and were denied, but waited patiently. I saw another opportunity and we made a run for it. This is what waited on the other side!

Drew with Magnus Backstedt 2004 Paris Roubaix champion

With Mike Friedman, multiple time and discipline national champion on the track.

With Bradley Wiggins four time Olympic Gold medalist, multiple time world track champion, and flamboyant Brit about town!

David Towle the "Voice of American Racing" was the emcee

Slipstream Director Sportif Jonathan Vaughters (sans turtleneck)

Drew with 2008 Tour de France 4th place, Christian Vandevelde

I was really glad that we got down into the "pits." The guys were all really nice and I hope that they do great this coming season....I could add to the list of TDF champions who I've been photographed with....

Matt and I cruised back home and hit the bars in Fort Collins to tell all of the ladies about our evening. Actually we had some wings, fries, and PBR's and went back home to bed.

Part two of the weekend called for an early rise to hit about 30 miles of single track the next day. More to come.

Lunch Ride...

The weather has been so great lately, that I thought I'd take advantage and get out for a quick lunch ride. I've been working in Salida a lot lately and don't know much about the trails from town. This ride I'd done as a night ride before Moab so I knew I could knock it out in an hour or less.





This view looks west down "F" Street in Salida. This ride goes up to just below the "S" on the hill and then rolls (steeply at times) south through several drainages before coming back down into town. The ride is characterized by great single track, steep climbs, and some sketchy descents. Great for a quick lunch ride.





This is a shot of some of the single track that you find when you get off the dirt road climb to the top. Salida Mountain Trails is doing great work down here on a network of killer riding. I stuck to what I knew because I was on the 1x. I didn't want to spend any more time than I had to walking!




A shot of the valley below as seen through the frame of the Rig. I'm really enjoying learning to ride this bike. I had a 20 put on the back yesterday and I think that I can tell the diference. I'm working on not getting so stressed out about walking, etc. on this bike!


Anyway, if we have a winter like last year, I'll be savoring these rides in a few weeks. Fighting the peer preasure to skate ski this winter...time will tell. For now 7 miles and 1200 vert. makes for a nice quick lunch!

32 X 18....

Dana got home from her long run around noon today and I thought I'd take the 1x out for a quick spin around one of our new standard loops. The ride is only about 7 miles, but its mostly singletrack, with a nice variety of technical challenge.

I tell you what...this isn't a bad way to begin each ride. This is the view from my driveway back to Mt. Princeton, 14,197, in the background. Sporting the new 29 & Single jersey courtesy of Mr. Sunderlage (http://www.ride29.blogspot.com/).

Main Street Buena Vista, Colorado, USA!!! The Midland area is the western most portion of the Fourmile area, east of town. Its amazing in this valley....desert on one side and high alpine on the other. This ride goes between 1/4 to 1/2 way up the hill.

This bridge crosses the Arkansas River and is the beginning of the Whipple Trail. Great singletrack with several options. Unlimited BLM access to miles and miles of trails (including some great singletrack) can be accessed from here.

This is one of the fun technical sections on the north fork of the Whipple system. I've never cleaned the portion right after the big rock on the left. Close on the geared bike, no where near on the 1x.



This is a view to the south from the Broken Boyfriend trail. This trail has some gnarly parts to it if ridden north to south...not sure why I didn't take pictures of those parts! Anyway also a nice variety of buff and fast singletrack. It used to be a pirate trail, our local bike club Ark Valley Velo was able to work with the BLM to get it opened to all non-motorized users this spring.


I'd say this ride is 80% singletrack. Its all really fun, but a bit of a beast in parts on my Rig. I may be going to a 32x20 for a while to see how that goes for me. I really enjoy the current set up on the rollers and flats, but the hills are killing me. This ride has about 800 vertical in its 7 miles...when it goes up, it goes up. The Rig is mostly stock right now, I'll upgrade as I wear stuff out.


Fun day on the bike after over a week off. I'm going to get myself in mental mode for this length of ride through the winter. If I can bang one or two of these loops between 7 & 13 miles and do a roller night during the winter, I'll be alright.

The Journey....

I set out this summer to accomplish A goal. While I didn't achieve my goal, I learned a lot, especially about setting goals.

My goal this summer was to ride the Leadville 100 bike race in under 9 hours. You know...big buckle, elite level time, hot chicks on both arms, etc.

Along the way I met tons of new friends, networked into the "on-line" cycling scene, and got into as good of shape as I've been in a decade. I still have many blogs to write about my experiences this year....running into cool folks on the Leadville course while pre-riding which turned into lifelong friendships, doing rides which have been on my life checklist forever (Leadville, Triple Bypass, etc.), and revisiting a great race from my past and sharing it with others (Moab).

I'll try to get caught up as we head into the winter. I think what got me thinking about all of this was the arrival of a new jersey in the mail today. I've been lurking about on many web blogs this summer...the enjoyment of this voyeristic pursuit is what inspired me to get this one going again. Its really interesting to read about others adventures and be reminded about the community that we belong to as cyclists.

The jersey is sweet...even my wife likes it. Its from Rick in Utah. 29 and single...my wife pointed out to me tonight that I'm not single and I had to bring her up to speed...so to speak! I found Rick's blog through Fatty's and even though I've never met any of these folks, I know that we'll get along when we finally get a chance to ride. You can check his blog out at... http://www.ride29er.blogspot.com/. I've also been to the Twin6 Website to order some Fatty arm warmers to help out Elden and his situation. It'll be my Utah tribute attire for my 1x rides.

If you aren't familiar with Elden's situation, I won't try and explain, get over to his blog to catch up. Seems like a great guy and there is no doubt that his mission is just. Check his story out at http://www.fatcyclist.com/.

Anyway, lots of fun events this summer, and posts to describe on the way....for now, I'm savoring the abstract of the journey.