Fall in the Front Range
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:46 PM
Wednesday, October 31
Tuesday, October 30
The ring of fire.
First major group ride since I have been here. Bunch of new faces....about 20 to be exact. Cool thing is this little march on the East side of town takes place over these guys lunch hour. So, we all meet up at around 11:00 and hammer for 2 hours.
The back half of the pack heads through Windsor in route to a big loop back around to the Fort.
Once we headed North out of Windsor things started to heat up a bit. Speeds in the 30's and a slight cross wind blew the group a part. I soon found myself riding in the middle...with riders in front....and behind. After some chasing I finally caught up to these guys. One of these guys is none other than TX resident and Trans-Iowa V.2 rider, Rusty. He was up this way for Veloswap and joined the ride.
The ride eventually circled back to where we started. Most folks went back to work. The rest of us headed out for another hour. Here we see Nat asking some of the riders who are heading home for the mustard.
We ended up climbing up and around horsetooth reservoir.
Henry tries to sell me his product as we climb. He lives in the Fort and basically does for Schwalbe what I do for Ergon.
Rusty takes his flat-land TX legs to the next level. Ahhhhhhh, the burrrrrrrrrrrn!
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:18 PM
SRM
I am pulling out all the stops for the 2008 season. Enter....training aid #1....the SRM Power Meter. Installation and first ride details to come.
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:15 PM
Monday, October 29
Crank it up!
It had to happen sooner or later. My current setup of Speedplay Zero's wasn't cut'n it. It wasn't the way the pedals performed....but rather the adjustment of the cleat. With the Speedplay set up I couldn't get the cleat to the position I desired. So, I went to the Crank Brothers Quattro Ti. This pedal/cleat system has the adjustment I need. So tomorrow will be the test run. More to come...
Jeff Kerkove said at 4:01 PM
Sunday, October 28
Roll'n to the Boulder CX race.
Since my CX bike has not arrived I figured I might as well get in some miles and check out the local CX flavor. So I mounted up and pedaled down to Boulder....watched some of the racing....then pedaled home. All in all...about a 85 mile round trip.
The race was held at the Boulder Reservoir. Ride down was excellent on good roads. The the last 2 miles was on some of the most buff gravel I have ever seen!
As I pulled in to the venue a category of racers assembles for their turn in the "pain cave." Based on the chit-chat around the venue....the pain cave here is very very deep.
The madness in the early stages.
The sand is what will make or break your race.
Nat Ross was the event MC. Here we see Nat gutting Tim "The Cross Father" Faia after his 6 place finish.
Hip hop bunny hop.
Rolling back to Fort Collins.
On this route there is small steep switchback downhill that has a posted speed limit of 20 mph. I decided to have a bit of fun and roll into it at 30ish mph ala moto-GP style. It was all good until gravel on said downhill sent me to the ground. I was on the ground before I even had the time to think to myself....."Ohhhhh, crap!"
Hope my frite-a-licous flavored bike shows up this week so I can get my CX on next weekend down in The Republic.
More pics!
Jeff Kerkove said at 4:04 PM
Saturday, October 27
Gloomy day
Weather took a complete 180 from the past week. Temps this past week were in the mid-70's. Today, the clouds were hanging low and temps were pushing hard to get over 45 degrees. Todays short little ride took me through part of Blue Sky...over to Horsetooth Mountain, where I rode a ton of super trails...and then to Lory State Park. After Lory I dropped back down into the Fort to head home. Since the skies were cloudy...I figured the pics on this post would be black & white to reflect the vibe given off by mother nature.
Yes, my mouth is always open. I get more air into the system. Deal with it.
Some big ring madness on a speedy trail.
Slickrock on Coyote Ridge.
Just a small sampling of the trails with in Horsetooth Mountain Park.
Up in Horsetooth Mountain Park looking to the southwest towards Masonville.
Climbing up the road along side the Reservoir from Lory State Park. Going up sucks. Going down is cheek flap'n fun!
More pictures from today posted over here.
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:34 PM
Cash money!
Clicky, clicky the picture for the 411...and for the love of God...WATCH THE VIDEO!
Jeff Kerkove said at 5:54 AM
Friday, October 26
Planning to explore.
I caught the sickness from Harris. Heck, I was only at his place back in September for few days. But, I seem to have caught the bug for epic back country rides. Two maps pretty much cover this area. Now it's time to sit down and start planning a route. 100 miles? 150 miles? 2 days? 3 days? Just have to see what options present themselves.
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:47 PM
My 2008 "A" race?
Just saw this on Velownews.com....
Colorado Epic to bring MTB stage racing to the U.S.A
The organizers of Colorado's Mountain State's Cup (www.racemsc.com) are on track to debut the first epic mountain-bike stage race on U.S. soil. The race is currently pending approval by the United States Forest Service. Called the "Colorado Epic," organizers hope to hold the five-stage race July 21-25 through Colorado's central rocky mountains, in Summit, Eagle and Lake counties.
Organizers hope to open registration by January 2008. For its inaugural year, the year will host 100 two-person teams and 25 individual participants.
"We want to showcase the riding that is important to us in Colorado," said Mike McCormack of Bigfoot Productions. "This race will be an epic backcountry experience."
Check back with velonews.com for updates about the Colorado Epic.
The "25 individual participants" has my interest. It could become an obsession as the season progresses.
Jeff Kerkove said at 7:17 AM
Thursday, October 25
Sager made me do it.
So todays little frolic through the front range hurt a hell of a lot more than it should of. Sager rode up from Boulder to get in some more miles before heading to Costa Rica for La Ruta. I decided to join him once he got up here to the Fort. The route plan was to do the Rist Canyon Loop. It was quickly clear about 1 mile into the Rist Canyon climb of doom that it would hurt. My legs were not 100% recovered from yesterdays 80 mile ride to Estes and back. It was by far my most sluggish push up that climb to date. No spunk....no spin...no snap. Ugh.
Focused.
It's the "I'm going to crush your soul" look. Oh, and by the way, nice socks!
I think after today's climb and listening to Sager talk about the compact chain ring set up....I might have to go that route. My Midwest 53x39 is a severe kick in the nuts when the legs aren't 100%.
Some leftover snow from Sunday's storm near the top.
Top'n out on Rist. Now it's downhill for 1.3 miles at 12%. Do the math...that's well over 50 mph coasting with my body mass.
Red rock cliffs on the way to Masonville. This is where Sager requested the calf-muscle-leg-flex photo for the cover shot of the December issue of Muscle and Fitness.
This is Masonville. Pretty much a country store with useless crap out in the middle of the foot hills. I wouldn't say it's 100% useless. They have food/drink....so for cyclists this is the watering/nutrition hole. If you ever get to this place....look at things closely. It's kind'a weird. Weird like the candles on the front counter. The candles were a cut off hand at the wrist holding an eyeball. Oh, and if you can make it out of leather....they have it. And per Sager....the ice cream sandwiches are to die for.
Weird like this little sign etched into the window sill. I guess there has been porch carnage in the past? And for your FYI....did you know that Sager can find a water spicket within 10 miles of his given location on this planet at any given time. Really. And I weigh 12 stone the last I checked.I wonder if Sager made it home yet?
Jeff Kerkove said at 5:43 PM
Wednesday, October 24
Out and back to Estes Park
Here is todays route. Click the map to get the interactive version. The route was an out and back....40 miles one way....then refill bottles and head back towards home. Cool thing about this ride is once you head west out of Loveland it is 22 miles up hill to Estes Park.
Here is some of the early miles outside of Loveland. The first part of the climb was through a canyon.
Road was narrow in some spots. Get to close to the white line and you had to watch your head in relationship to the low hanging rocks.
Heading up. The early parts of this climb are like Rist Canyon Rd outside of Ft. Collins. Rist is steeper and only 8 miles to the top. This climb up Hwy 34 is long and gradual. 22 miles to be exact.
High country is already covered in snow. Today I will not be heading that high.
Kudos to the CO DOT for wide shoulders on the roads.
15 mph is the going average rate right now up this climb with my fitness. Rist Canyon is closer to 9 mph. Speed tells all.
Mission accomplished!
Good views as you roll down into Estes Park.
Does it get any better? What more can you ask for on an late October day and temps pushing 75 degrees!
Good bye mountains. So you next Spring?
28 miles to Loveland....and ALL of it is downhill! Awesome!For your viewing pleasure, I am hosting all FoCo area ride photos HERE. Then I get an e-mail from Sager wanting to do this tomorrow...or something similar. Crap!
Jeff Kerkove said at 3:35 PM
Tuesday, October 23
Blue Sky recon
Today I did a full ride recon of the Blue Sky trail system that runs 15 miles one way from Ft. Collins to Loveland. Starting in the "Fort" the trail is buff and fast. Throw it in the big ring and rage.
Then the trail begins to climb up to Rimrock trail. As the name implies...things get rocky. Rocks start small, and are not really an issue.
Then you start to get into some ledges....
....and some techy stuff.
After the small rocky sections you drop down into the valley for more buff trail. Note, that the picture does not do any justice to showing the snow capped mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park in the background.
Then when you get outside Loveland things start to get pretty sketchy. Perfect for Moab training...should I ever dwell on that 24 hour event in the future. This picture shows trail that isn't too bad. The hairy stuff I didn't take pics, cause I was too busy picking my lines. Come to the "Fort"....and I'll take you there.
Some funky rocks just outside Loveland greet you when you finish the one way trip.Then I turned around and headed back to Fort Collins. Got in about 3 hours of solid techy singletrack today in the awesome 70 degree temps. I am not sure where I am heading tomorrow....weather and body fatigue will dictate that. Weather guy is calling for temps close to 80 on Wed. Might ride high and try to knock this out. But then again, Sager said something in an e-mail to me about doing something similar on Thursday. We'll see.
Jeff Kerkove said at 4:43 PM
