My Head Itches

Will you scratch it? At 65 km an hour? Thanks.
So, can you tell I'm back in the race scene? I haven't been updating the blog too much.

Hmm, what's been going on? Lots of training/riding. Raced at Eldora this past weekend. Last year, that was a pretty good race for me. It started off that way for me this year, but with about a lap and half to go, I imploded and seriously faded off pace. I guess all and all it wasn't too bad considering. There were some folks complaining on the series website about the amount of mud in one particular section. My question to those folks is: do you race mountain bikes. I did a national out in Wisconsin a few years ago, and the entire course was that muddy. I think the racers out here get a little too used to our dry conditions. In my opinion, it was a great course. It has a little bit of everything, including a nice gnarly fast rocky descent. Well, fast for some. Not so fast for me. I'm still working on getting the new bike dialed.

After the race, Rachel and I headed over to Grand Lake to stay at a friends cabin. I don't know if cabin is an appropriate description since it's bigger than most peoples houses. The main room has huge picture windows with a view of the Neversummer range. Sweet.

We rushed out as soon as we got there to watch Le Tour. Good opening stage. How about Big Dave taking the maillot jaune on the first day? I guess that is the biggest excitement except for Big Tex making Jan look like he was pure climber domestique during his TT. It's definitely not matching the excitement of the Giro. We'll see.

Sunday, a bunch of us headed out to Winter Park to get some riding in. Didn't turn out to be much of a ride because it started raining and the temps dropped in to the 40s after about an hour and a half. Rachel cooked us a great dinner that night, and the beer from the Grand Lake Brewery tasted way too good.

Monday was supposed to be a rest day according to the schedule, but Mattius, Woodrow, and myself headed out for a semi-epic ride. We headed out from the "cabin" and straight up to the Divide. TONS of climbing. From what I had heard of this ride, I thought it was going to be boring, but once we hit the single track, it was daaaamn fun. We got up above tree line and to the border of the Neversummer Wilderness Area, where of course, we had to turn around. The 3 hours of climbing was about to turn into about 45 minutes of some pretty rockin descending. Rocky, rooty, muddy, you name it we had it. Tight switch backs, stream crossing, baby heads, and lots of berms to catch some air. Great 4 hour ride. Especially for a day that I wasn't supposed to be on the bike at all.

It was good hanging out with everyone. I hadn't seen Moon in a while and Wood in a long while. Wood's an old racing buddy that feel out of the scene for a variety of reasons a while back. Thanks Matt and Holly for putting us up!

Time for bed.