Very Nice

I tried to ride most of the Gold Dust trail stage today. There are so many trails and with my lack of where they all are it's tough for me to find the correct route even with a map. I do know that the trails I was on were Sweet! The Blue River trail was really fast and flowed really well. If your not grinning at the end of that it's probably due to some head trauma earlier in the stage. Baker's Tank was also really fun.
I ran into a dude at the ice rink that new the Curtes Bro's. Their fame is spreading quite rapidly. I rode down Barney's Ford and Moonstone (acquired my first flat) and then down the switchbacks to Carter Park. A great way to end the ride, other than the flat. More time in the hot tub after eating some food. I'm beginning to really dig the hot tub. My back has felt pretty good so far.
I'm still trying to dial in the hydration. Getting up to pee sucks. I guess maybe cramping is worse though. Tonight we're hitting up the pizza joint recommended by Mr. Larson. Another tongue in the ear hot day.

Good Morning

So here are a few random pictures. When we were in Idaho Springs we saw this unusual fountain. The charebs look so real.



The prologue climbs up most of this mountain. We stop right about where the chimney is except we're actually on the mountain, not in Breckenridge.


Vacation Mode is in full effect. I don't even know what day it is anymore. Ahh, to be independently wealthy and live this lifestyle wouldn't be so bad. Well, I guess I'll go ride now.

Relaxation

Spent the day lounging around. A little bike maintenance here, family walk there, tried to nap but 2 little girls would have none of that. I did ride around Breck for a while with Kylie, ended the ride with ice cream and some playtime at the park. I guess this is how most people spend their whole vacations. Back to riding tomorrow. I think I'll try and get hopelessly lost. Actually I can probably do that without trying.

Re-con

So I prerode the prologue today. It involved some climbing. Topped out at an advertised 11,800 ft. It was cold up there. Saw a few other folks out preriding, too. Holy crap. I'll be dreaming of that climb until the prologue is over. Dreams can be scary, right?
So when I got back down to the Firecracker course part of the prologue there were a whole bunch of people preriding that course. I ended up riding with some other folks for the next 3 hours. We were supposed to be riding the Firecracker course but ended up not on the course after French's Gulch. It was still a lot of fun. 2 of the guys are doing the duo for the Breck Epic as well so we chatted about that for a while. Jeff saved me and shared some water as I was all out. I guess 90 oz wasn't enough for me. We found a couple other lost souls and one of them had an IPhone. He had GPS on it and it showed him his exact location and which direction he was facing. Amazing. That saved us a lot of suffering. Another good day on the bike.

It's been too long

since I was mountain biking in Colorado. We got settled into the condo (which is AWESOME) and then I set out for a ride. Breck is kinda' tore up at the bottom but after about 10 minutes of riding around I found Gametrail. So I rode that up to the top and then continued climbing up to where the lift stops. Elevation was 11,200 feet. Nice. Took Pioneer trail down to Dwight's back to the bottom. So fun. I had the first tracks through the snow going up Gametrail, I couldn't believe it! I've had first tracks skiing or boarding before, but never on the mountain bike. I really need to get a camera. At the bottom I met up with some locals who took me on some trail that goes from Breck to Frisco. Rocky, rooty sweetness. The hardest part of this first week is going to be to not ride too much! Got back to find supper made and chocolate milk waiting for me. I'm not sure what I do to deserve such royal treatment from my lovely wife. She's amazing. So I gave her the lowdown on the trails and she headed out for her ride. I sent her up Dwights and down Gametrail. I hope she likes it as much as I did. The girls and I hit the hot tub and then we plopped down in front of the tube so far. They love it here, too. We may not come back. Gramma could use some more dogs.

Did that really happen?

So we're traveling with the whole family to Breckenridge and as most of you know, that includes 5 and 3 year old girls. Sounds like it could be the trip from heck, no? It was pretty amazing, actually. We made it 3.5 hours before we had to make the first stop. Lisa's walnut sized bladder was seemingly much larger today. We got some food and made it another 3 hours before stop number 2. 3 more to stop 3 and then we got to the Colorado/Nebraska border and the tornado warnings and severe weather. It was pretty sweet. The lacal radio station DJ was taking calls from people about what they were seeing. We laughed a lot at all the contradictory calls. One lady said the wind was blowing so hard she couldn't see. Another kid called and said he saw "a million funnel clouds." Josh the DJ said "We're getting some heavy wet rain right now." We missed most of the heavy stuff and unfortunately didn't get to see a tornado. So we ended up in a motel in Idaho Springs. 14.5 hours of driving and only 1.5 hours of not driving. Pretty solid. Eat us some Beaujo's Pizza tomorrow and then head into Breck. The acclimitization has begun. We're all anxious to get on our bikes and get into the mountains.

Oh Crap!

I was that guy. You know, the idiot that caused the crash. Believe me, it was no good for me either. Not only did I pay for a race I got to be in for 2 seconds, the extra points for the stage race don't happen if you DNF or get DQ'd which I did since the chainring that gashed (I said "gashed") my tires sidewall and gave me 5 little punctures in my back caused me to have to go to the car to get a tube gave me an automatic DQ. Nice run on sentence, I know. So that made Sunday a little less meaningful. I did do 2 laps of the course because it is super cool riding at Mt. Morris and who did I run into but my Lovely Bride Lisa who had crashed out and was just riding to ride as well. Great weekend. Kylie crashed twice in the kids race and swore she would never race there again. We'll see.
Sunday was a little better. I managed to get just over 18 minutes into the 20 minutes plus 2 laps of the shortrack before being lapped by the leaders. The course was fast and fun with the laps being about a minute and a half long. I'm not sure why I like that event but I do. All in all not a great weekend but I did get to race my bike and I can still ride tomorrow so it's not all bad.
Friday we leave for Colorado. Should be sweet!

Lookin' good

just comes natural for some people.



I'm pretty sure the Milk Marketing board will be knockin' on the door soon.

Lisa,Bryan and I did the Time Trial at Blackhawk last night. Great course! Lots of fun. I got to ride singletrack with Kylie. Roots are tough on a 10" wheel bike.

Good times

It's been a good run for biking lately. Saturday I got to ride new roads down by Mazomanie and I would like to get back in that area again soon. Lots of good riding there. Sunday was our 2nd Brefixt ride. The response was overwhelmingly good. We had 20 people show up to ride from Baraboo to Lyndon Station where we ate at Martha's. The pace was low and the chatter was high there and back. The food was great and Sam and I scammed everbody's extra toast or anything else they couldn't eat. Lunch legs were in full effect after the gorge session. We are going to try and have this ride on the non WORS weekends and we're going to visit a new diner each ride. Again, the pace is easy and everyone starts and ends together is the goal. Then on Monday I got my first massage ever. Although Lee is a fine figure of a man there was no "movement" or "happy ending". Whew. Schedule for the Breck Epic is getting dialed in. Mark Meir is going to wrench for Jerry and I and I can't thank him enough. Sounds like Kristi and Tori are coming out, too. Should be Epic.

Double flat?

Wausau is my kind of course. Long stretches of gravel double track and fast flowy singletrack. In the past I've done pretty ok here when I can keep my tires inflated. Last year at this race I was well into the top 10 and I flatted. For 24/9 we were in first place by a lot when I flatted. 2 years ago I was doing pretty well and I flatted. So this year I did my best to prevent that from happening and put 38 psi in front and back to give myself a fighting chance at not flatting and it worked. No flat tires, just flat legs. Very disappointing. Oh well, at least I had a kit to wear. We got to the race and I was out socializing when I happened across Lisa and she says " you better work on finding something to wear." Huh? This comes as no surprise to those who know me, but we left our duffel bag at home with all our stuff in it. I did have shoes and a helmet so I coulda' rocked the jeans and t-shirt like I used to. However, after a bunch of pleading and soft caressing, Melcher finally let me get into his shorts and I flew the Pedal Moraine colors. It was tongue in the ear hot for sure. The race itself was pretty fun, mud like peanut butter, sweet singletrack, just not the result I had hoped for. At least I made it through the race with all the air in my tires. I'll use that to build on for next year. Baby steps.
Thanks again to Melcher for the kit. I wasn't looking forward to wearing jeans.

Still no time

The days are absolutely flying by. A lot has happened since my last post. Lots of riding last week capped off by the Crystal lake Classic on Sunday. I was really happy with my 10th place finish. The race started off bad with a crash at the front on the first corner. I was just off to the side of it and got ran into a little bit, but the gap was formed and I chased for the whole lengthy lead out. Managed to catch on at the base of the first climb and got shelled again. Oh well. It still turned out OK. Brian ended up 3rd overall in his 2nd Sport race. That's amazing. Lisa was rockin' as well sitting in 2nd place halfway through the last lap when she cut the sidewall on the back tire. Very unforutnate. She wasn't very happy. Niki had a great start in her race and d finished pretty well. We took my 8 year old cousin up and he did his first race. I think he's hooked. His name is TJ so his biking future could be bright. Jordan finished better than ever as well.
We hit Levy road last night for another 25 minute all out effort. The power is coming around, now I have to figure out how to use it in a race.