First Race

Will I finally sucked it up and did a race. It was the Golden Spring Crit out in an industrial area of Golden.

I don't have much to report. It was a pretty ho hum crit. The group mostly stayed together except for a few short-lived "breaks" that got off the front. I was surprised by my fitness to be honest. Usually during the first race of the year, I feel it more than I did yesterday. I was able to stay in the front 20 guys (there were about 70 total) for most of the race. The only time I really fell back out of the front 20 was when I was in the middle of the pack and the guys in front would slow down big team. Then the whole field would come around me/us in about 10 seconds.

I did make a few attempts to get off the front and get with a few of those breaks. Those were pretty short lived and I ended up helping the group get back to the break aways. My last attempt to bridge up to a break was ill advised. It was with 5 laps to go. After the failed attempt, I got back in the group to recover. Just as I was feeling a touch fresh again, I saw the lap counter read 1 to go. I some how was not in the top 1/3 of the field this time. I tried to make my way back to the front, but that put me in a bad position going into the last turn. I was tight on the inside and made the turn with a good line, but a guy came back across me and pinched me out. At that point, I didn't see any point to sprint it out, so I gave a half-assed effort to the finish.

I was definitely on the bottom end of the results. Even if I hadn't been shut down, I doubt my result would have been anything to write home about. I got what I needed which was a good workout with a lot of accelerations. Oh yeah, and I was racing the 3s. I was happy with how things went. I felt good and was able to stay in the front with some guys that probably have a few races under their belts.

After the ride, I headed over to Lookout Mountain for some climbing with some fellow mountain bike racers. I still felt good and was climbing pretty well. It was a good day for riding.

Here are the motionbased files for the race and the ride afterwards. The numbers on the race are skewed a bit since I didn't stop the GPS for the recovery lap. I also had to stop it about 4 laps in due to a firetruck sneaking on the course. It missed the first race lap after the re-start.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2539744
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2539749

Moab Teaser

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2497505
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2497506

F a bunch of snow

I like snow, but if this system keeps me from getting to Moab, I'm going to be an unhappy mofo.

Coolio

I might have to hit both of these. No big air for me.

Crankworx Colorado
Whistler Resort, home of the Crankworx Freeride Festival, has partnered with Colorado's Winter Park Resort to produce Crankworx Colorado. The event will be held at Winter Park, Colorado July 5-7, 2007.

Like the Canadian event, the Colorado Crankworx will feature a cross-country race, a downhill event modeled after Whistler's notorious Air Downhill, a Super D and a Big Air competition. The Colorado event will also feature a Slopestyle competition, which combines dirt jumping and on-bike aerobatics. The Winter Park Slopestyle course will be designed by famous course designer John Cowan, known best for having built San Diego's Hell Track.

Winter Park Resort is located approximately 50 miles west of Denver. Whistler's 2007 Crankworx festival runs July 21-29 and is sponsored by Kokanee beer.

"Every year Whistler's Crankworx outdoes itself," said Rob McSkimming, VP of Business Development at Whistler Blackcomb. "We are committed to providing the ultimate forum for the evolution of freeride mountain biking and we are stoked to work with Winter Park's crew to bring Crankworx to Colorado. The freeride mountain bike terrain at Winter Park is gaining more and more recognition in the mountain bike community and Crankworx Colorado will introduce their epic single-track to even more riders."

For more information see www.crankworxcolorado.com.

Firecracker 50 to Host U.S. Marathon National Championships
Breckenridge, Colorado's Firecracker 50 mountain-bike race has been designated as the 2007 and 2008 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships, the national governing body announced.

The July 4 event will host national championship races for men and women in numerous categories: Pro/Open; 19+, 19-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49 and 50+ for men and 19+, 19-29, 30-39 and 40+ for women. Each category winner will take home a stars and stripes jersey. The event will be held independently of the USA Cycling Mountain-Bike National Championships, held July 17-22 at Mount Snow, Vermont. That venue could not hold the Marathon national championships due to land availability.

Athletes will complete two 25-mile laps around the event's rocky course. The event will once again begin with a neutral start through downtown Breckenridge, and will be part of the town's annual Fourth of July parade on Main Street.

In its seventh year, the Firecracker 50 will also host non-national championship bike races for juniors, beginners, sport racers and expert teams. A complete schedule of the event is available at www.mavsports.com.

What the?

So I was driving home from Bike Source last night, and I was listening to KBCO. Within a 20 minute span I heard Spoon, Son Volt, and Silversun Pickups. KBCO is a decent station, but it's hardly independent. It's one of the many local Clear Channel owned stations. You may hear songs from bands like that once or twice a week, but three of them within 20 minutes was definitely a pleasant surprise.