Taking a Break

I've been on the road bike a bit, taking a break from the mtb. Our local Durango Wheel Club road rides have been very fast and competitive and it's been great to catch up with my friends. When you live in Durango and race...you usually have to drive 7 hrs to any of the big races in the state. So I've done a lot of driving since April... and now am appreciating staying at home. I have noticed that the suffering I did at all the mountain bike races has really helped. I am looking forward to The Road Apple Rally..which is one of the oldest on going mountain bike races in the U.S. will be on October 3rd....it's in Farmington New Mexico and is just over 30 miles of high desert racing. Until then I will take a week off and then go back to the weight room for legs and start (easy does it) running a bit for 'cross. My son starts his jr year at Fort Lewis college so we plan on riding our KTM's a little too.

I am meeting Dan Rivard from GT tomorrow. I arranged a meeting with him and one of the bigger shops in Durango. I think they'll put a deal together so we can have local GT dealer.
I am pretty jazzed about that!

Broken Chain but still a fun time

"That's racing" is all I could say after breaking a chain that was not repairable while in 5th place at the Colorado State Championship Race in Snowmass Village, Co . I must have tweaked it while shifting the front deraileur is all I could figure. The high light was that Lance Armstrong was there and won the pro class by 3 minutes. There were so many spectators who you could tell have never been to a bike race but heard LANCE was there! He was doing some last minute racing before he competes in the Leadville 100 MTB race this weekend. I hear he has enlisted Travis Brown and Matt Shriver (Fort Lewis Collegiate Cycling Coach and Pro MTB) to help pace him during the race. Anyway my wife and I had a great time going to Aspen for dinner and just walking around. Tonite was a club ride in Durango so I vowed to work myself and all others since I didn't get to complete my race..I succeded and went off the front for a long while..by the end of the ride the last hill was not real popular with my quads..I sat down and spun home easily!!

Lance racing by my GT Dirt Coalition Tent!

Lance in Snowmass!

Lance Armstrong to compete for Colorado State Championship
in Mountain States Cup #5 Blast the Mass
The icon of cycling, Lance Armstrong, will be competing for the Cross Country Colorado State Championship in Snowmass Village, Colorado this weekend, August 7-9, 2009. Blast the Mass is the fifth stop on the Mountain States Cup tour, the Rocky Mountain Regional Championship Series, and will have regional, national and World Cup pros battling it out for state championship titles in cross country, four cross, downhill and super d.
Should be a great event.
Leadville 100 will be spectacular as Lance will be racing Wiens again..plus I hear Lance "may" be accompanied by some "pacers"....
I've been resting more this week as a taper than in the previous races this season...still riding with some efforts but low volume... I am feeling a long hard mtb summer...but it's been fun.
I plan on getting on the podium for this Colorado Championship race. We will see.

Hermosa Off Road Classic

As more of regional race, Hermosa drew plenty from the surrounding towns.
It's a woodstock style bike race where we all eat lunch after awards and many camp
over night. Russell from Durango Cyclery brings the retro mtb movies for night time entertainment. Watching Ned race a totally rigid Schwinn in the late 80's is funny.
Two racers in that particular race broke frames....doesn't happen nowadays!

There were 2 distances...38 and 21 miles. I always do the shorter as it
is less time..and distance than the usual Mountain States Cup races.
It allows me to really ride hard the entire race and not hold back a bit for fear of finishing in the "limp mode". At the start I took the hole shot from the fire road to the single track. I placed 2nd and was almost 7 minutes faster than last year. Partly due to less mud and better fitness. My Zaskar was awesome as always.
Next weekend I travel to Snowmass/Aspen for "Blast in the Mass".
It's a climb a thon.
I'll be posting some pictures today......