Been a while, what's new?

Consistency!

I am consistently not consistent!  No updates lately, after Rico/Telluride 100 I was tired, however I didn't stop riding, oddly I ended up riding my bike a lot, nothing exciting, just town loops and such-really enjoying the RUMBLEFISH with a 140mm up front (party up front biz in da rear)!!

I have been cock-a-poo sitting, I am more like Goose Man's chauffeur:

"Where to James??"



Remember "My Little Buddy Dolls", "wherever I go he goes"-it's like having a real life "My Little Buddy Doll"-only he bites!!

Non bike related, we did manage to get up into the Weminuche last weekend with the ladies; to Silverton, over Stoney Pass to Hunchback pass, 4 hour hike into where the headwaters of the Vallecito Crick meets the Trinity Crick, puts "gold medal" waters to shame.

El Guardian:

Camp

Fishin' hole

Lindsay is a proud supporter of KDUR



V P one, two, five (Vapor Trail 125)-This race is defo on my radar!  Gould went up to do it (good on ya fella), however it sounds like his light situation was less than optimal and he needed warmer clothes!  Next year guy, next year! 
VP 125 results

Chris and Eszter have some good weblog of the race, congrats to Chris for finishing and Congrats to Eszter for setting the SS record, haunches: Gooney Riders

Devo has taken over the dirt lover's rally here in Durango, I really wanted to do it but I had some friends come back to town (always good to see Josh C and Mary D-they were up in the Northwest giving mountain bike lessons all summer!  You know when they come back the snow is soon to fall), anyway I drank one too many cocktails and slept in!  Looks like a pretty good turn out, results!

Seems to be some racing coming up in Pagosa the weekend of the 24th:

I wonder if they have that guys permission to use that pic??

I have one more bike race on my radar before the rando season starts up, CB 100!  It's a late one, better check the weather!

Gersbach and I are off to Powell for some chillaxin!  Should be splendid!

Happy Wednesday!!

652,897 pedal revolutions-Rico/Telluride 100

......................and the beat goes on and on and on..................................................................

Friday night at the Dolores River Brewery (DRB)

(da Gould is forever enamored with his tele)

In retro spec eating an entire pizza the night before the Rico Telluride 100 was probably a bad decision; the Hefe Wezen however, was a great idea!!!

Again, cold za for B-fast the next morning; bad, bad, bad idea!!

10-12 hearty souls embarking out of Dolores at 6:30 am for the climb up Scotch Creek to the CT, the first summit was that of Blackhawk pass around 8:30

(That has never looked like a "Lizard's head" to me)

(The uber strong, super mighty Robin G. cresting the Blackhawk summit on his SS; 34/22 I believe-what a HAAASS)

I was having some major "pizza stomach" and "lead legs" on the first climb, thankfully I made the top with the group

From Black Hawk we rode the CT to East Fork Trail, this trail cuts off at Bolam and is wicked; dropping out on top of LH pass.

Jeff Hemperley along with Matt T. made up this ridiculous route, luckily Jeff's wife was kind enough to leave a jeep with all kinds of goodies at the top of Lizard Head; Muchas Gracia's:



They even had a sign in sheet in case you didn't make it back to Rico that night, this way they at least had an idea of where to start looking for your body:

Galloping Goose to Alta Lakes road to Boomerang to Prospect Trail to Mountain Village Trail to "Mountain Village" where we had "a liter of Cola" and a couple of Turkey/Bacon/Avo sandy's at "Tracks"-6 hours 30 minutes at this point:

Alright, "pizza stomach" gone, food in, going to come around for the 2nd half of this slog; off of Mt. Village down to the T-Ride Valley Floor, over to Society Turn, up the Galloping Goose to the small town of Illiam.  Big, Black Boomer's lie ahead, perhaps it will un leash a fiery and we can hitch a ride back to Rico where the car is and be done with this march??  Nope, up the hwy, back to the jeep for one last Cola, some Oreo's, water, gel, fig newtons, potato chips!  I vaguely remember Jeff saying we are 3-4 hours from finishing at this point, let's hope so.  Ryan says to Gould in Mt. Village "the 2nd half of this race/ride/march is much easier than the first half, oh and you are going to love the hike-a-bike up the "East Fork of the Fall Creek"!!hahahahahahahaha; Ryan shouldn't have used words such as "easier" and "love"!

(6 miles north of Dunton-"God's Country"-Bow Hunter's as well)

At the top of Lizard Head is a trail called "cross creek" which goes to the Lizard Head Wilderness boundary, upon which we skirt over to the "groundhog Stock Trail" over to Dunton Road (some super choice single if you ever get the urge).  FS Road 471 to "East Fork" of "Fall Creek" (at least that is what last year's directions said-we come to find out after the fact that we should have hike-a-biked up the "West Fork" of the "Fall Creek").  Quick Honey Stinger waffle before what we believe to be a 40 minute hike-a-bike, yeah it ends up being a 2 hour "death march" to 11.9k, at least it was all down hill from here:

 Fuel EX's on da top

We got back to Rico about 12 hours and 27 minutes after we started and I swore I would never do that ride again, looking back on it now (2 days later), I probably will!! 

Here's the file:
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/g_aVCbiR0ik

Sometimes you eat the "Pig Baby" and sometimes the "Pig Baby" eats you; I was chewed up pretty good on Saturday!!

Cheers,

Happy Monday!!

Hermosa Cliffs

The past two weekends have taken me onto the Hermosa Cliffs for some sweet mountain riding. Riding the Gulch is fun, but getting up high is where it's at! Perfect temps, moisture controlled trails, roots, rocks and plenty of stream crossings to get your toes wet; not to mention the views.

Last Sunday I joined up with FLC Cycling fast-man Griffin Easter and Devo Sweet Elite members Colton Andersen and Teal Stetson-Lee for a shred session on Dutch creek trail. We started at the base of Purgatory and climbed up the 1990 Worlds course.

Spud and the Needles are distracting when you are climbing

Last year Trails 2000 did some remodeling of the Worlds course. The new sections of single track are an awesome change from the dirt roads that they replaced. Its worth going to check out.

We made a quick pit stop on the top of the cliff overlooking Electra Lake.  2000 ft below us, HWY 500 looked flat.

Electra Lake (left) and Haviland Lake (right)

The descent down Dutch Creek into Hermosa Creek was in great shape after a good rain the night before. We made good time even with a flat after one of the dozen creek crossings.

Notice that the Conti Tires on the EX still have air in them!

This weekend I rode Big Lick Canyon into Hermosa Creek. Basically, it drops you into Hermosa drainage directly above Needles store and Elbert Creek and ends up connecting at the northern footbridge. The trail gets very little traffic of any kind. It is overgrown and rough kind of like Coral Draw. It makes for some entertaining riding though.

View of the La Platas

Epic Puff Ball Mushroom!

Check out this Sram Video of Trek athlete and badass mountain biker Ross Schnell...

Peace-

GJ

Back to work & US Pro Cycling Challenge

All last week Jen and I were living a "Ground hog day" (like the movie, everyday feels like the same) and I loved it: up at 6, eat, ride down to the start, race, finish, eat chips/pretzels/cokes/bananas with Nutela on them, Gondola back to condo, eat, shower, nap, down to awards, back to condo, eat, sleep and repeat.

Stage 6 went well, Jen had a great start and it was our best finish of the tour.  Coming back over Boreas from Como Jen was absolutely drilling it, literally riding dudes off of her wheel, good times!!  Here is some video Kerkove took, check us out drinkin' PBR on the top of the climb: http://www.vimeo.com/27920812

We hit stage 7 Friday night (dance party at some salty breck bar) and I wouldn't say we "podium ed" in that event, although we were "right up in the mix"!! 

Down to the big D (that place never ceases to amaze me-where do all those people come from??) on Saturday for some R&R, thanks mom and dad-we were so worked from the race we couldn't muster up the energy to drive home on Sunday so we made a quick exit Monday morning-Jen to the "Moose" (booooo) and me to the little D!

Getting back to "normal" life has been quite the adjustment, however it was totally worth it and I would highly recommend doing the Breck Epic!

How about that US Pro Cycling Challenge stage yesterday? I thought it was pretty cool to hear Ligget and Sherwin talking about Salida, Monarch, Gunni, CB and then to see all of those familiar places!  It's going over Cottonwood Pass, thru BV over Independance Pass today, it has started so check it here: live coverage

Check out the new 160 bike from trek, this is what you want 2012 Trek Slash!  Look for more of the Enduro races next year as well, awesome events!!

If anyone is looking for an epic this weekend, check out the Rico-Telluride 100, should be a long day in the saddle!!

Day 4-Keystone, Day 5-Wheeler

Yesterday (Day 4) was the Keystone/CT Trail stage-No Flats, No Mechanical and Jen and I flew by peeps on the climb out of Keystone to the CT trail; then I bonked..........hard-Aide station 3 I hammered 2 bananas and PBJ and barely, I mean barely caught back up to Gersbach!  We finished strong and retained our leaders jersey (Jen, again was the first women through).

Today(Day 5-wheeler)-man, the start today was hard as we just went straight up for an hour and a half.  This trail has an AWESOME false summit, I think that is when I started cussing like a sailor as I saw the small ants hiking their bikes on the far ridge, what seemed like miles away.  In my "suffery" state of delusion I vaguely remember being in the same state of mind on this exact mountain once before, it dawned on me- "4 peaks rando race"!  Man, today was great Rando training!

I stopped to take some pics at the top (I have been using my phone so the quality isn't that quality), these are actually good representations of what I saw in my "foggy" mindset (I must have had some sweat, gel or PB&J remnants on my lens!

Anyway, we hit the bike path at Copper Mt. and me and a Costa Rican (he wears arm warmers and vest everyday as I have my jersey completely unzipped, chest hair in the wind, sweating like a pig-I guess when you are used to it "Costa Rican hot", these mts. seem cold) TT'd the Gersbach into Frisco to connect with the "Peaks trail"(sick techieness in some deep timber with wooden bridges over the swamp land-perfect for the Trek EX).  Jen was ahead of me as I stopped at Aide 3 for water, and for the life of me I could not catch her, she was flying.  She slowed up right at the end (phew, thanks babe) and we finished together in 3 hours 15 minutes or so, shortest day yet!!

Because we spend 4+ hours a day on our bikes (day after day) I have a lot of time to think.  In particular, what I was thinking yesterday as we ripped along an irrigation canal (complete with wooden bridges, rock outcroppings and wicked fast banked turns) was this;  Places like Crested Butte, Durango, Fruita, GJ etc. have reputations for being mt. bike "meccas", not saying they aren't because they do have choice single, however, you never hear people say "brah, I am headin' to summit county to rip the nar nar", at least I don't.  I can see the attraction to Fruita, Moab, GJ etc. in the spring and fall as the high country has snow/cold and the desert is delightful that time of year.  But I will tell you what, this place can compete with the best of them, just remember, bring your climbing legs!!

Cheers!!!  

Eat, Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat-Day 3 of the Epic

"Georgia on my mind", the pass that is:

"little up and over"

Jennifer Gersbach is an animal, pure and simple. She kills it on all aspects; bikes, life, relationships, school, work-whatever she does.   Especially when life, as it will, throws an uber steep climb in front of her, that's when she excels!  Pretty much unbelievable!!!

Here she is gettin' her RANDOO on, only a 3 1/2 months away you know!!

FYI-she was puttin' the wood to that dude!

(photo courtesy of Devon Balet-www.devonbaletphoto.com)

Today, like all the days, was HARD!  About 1/2 way through Jen had a bit of trouble with her front derailleur (wrapped around the cranks, it involved taking the rear wheel off so as to not break the rear derailleur.), a bit of a delay but we still managed to finish in 4 hours 39 minutes (I think), that puts us 2 minutes over the 13 hour mark on the week.   She would never say this but Jen was the first women's finisher today (she was on Sunday as well).

We saw 5-6  people flat just on the nasty "Little French" decent, however no flats for us today because we were running the Continental's XKing tires, thanks guys-that tire rules!!

We saw the new Mountain Flyer Mag, thanks Jordan; check it out, some super sweet pics of the "Tour Divide" and of course all the other regional races from earlier this summer!!

Cheers from Breck!!!

Breck Epic, Oh What a Feelin'

Jen and I started the Breck Epic yesterday, if I had to sum it up with several words:
-sick
-single
-climb, climb, climb, climb-just when you think you are headed back to town, nope, go F$%&'in climb some more!!  I am gonna be all fit with nowhere to go!haha!!
-do it

When racing a duo category you have to finish with your partner; not to say Gersbach isn't fast (she was the fastest girl so far, until Pua showed up for the 3 day race-and we all know that chic is "fast man fast").   However, I have had to tone it down a bit as we ride together, this has given me a completely different racing perspective (racing pro I usually just get blown out the back and ride by myself for most of the races).  We ride/race with the top ss and expert fellas and I tell you what, it is a fricken blast.  These individuals are all kinds of "passionate" and as most all of them are super polite, there are a couple of them that will not, under any circumstances move over-not gonna do it, hell no!!  I absolutely love the enthusiasm fellas!!  It's also a lot of fun to get to know a whole new group of peeps (Oregonians, Irish, Brits, Canadians eh, etc.)

First day-since neither of us trained for the event we decided to start slow and "work into it", which we did.  Apparently they had a storm of biblical proportions (9" in 2 hours, or something stupid like that), anyway, if you did Firecracker you know "Little French", yeah, flash flood that blew out a good portion of the trail.  I think we finished in 4 hours and both felt relieved to head back to the condo for some eating, sleeping and "screen time"!!

Speaking of lodging, we owe a huge thank you to Min and Nina (Josh's sis and bro) for letting us use/stay at their condo.  Let me tell you, we are not roughing it on peak 8!  Thanks soooo much guys!

yup, that espresso machine is built in and hard wired!

The condo also has a panini grill machine thingy dohickey-I have had a panini everyday since we've been here and I will probably have one everyday until we leave!

"oh panini"!!

Day two-some of the most "choice" single I have ridden and there was hours upon hours of it.  I couldn't tell you specifics on where we were, all I know is we hit a section of the CT trail and twas scary faaaaassssstttt! Today we ran into a bit of luck going against us as I ended up with a nail in my rear tire 20 minutes into the race.  After a 10 or so minute flat change (I had to suck down some Honey Stinger Gel so that I could use the wrapper as a patch-the nail did a number on my tire) we were DFL.  We got back up with the other folks in our CAT and proceeded to finish alright, I think we were around 4 hours 25 minutes.  Jen has been having some bike fit issues so we did some adjusting out on course as well.  Definitely not where we should be but that is the beauty of stage races, we get 4 more goes at it!

Sorry, too much talk, not enough pics, just been hard to take them.  We opted not to ride our bikes back up the 1,000 or so vert to the condo after stage 2, who said there are no free rides??

Happy Monday!!