Thursday, September 1, 2011

A European Colorado


It's no secret that Colorado is an athletic state. When the US Pro Cycling Challenge rolled through the high Rocky Mountain passes and finished up in downtown Denver via Speer Blvd - we all saw that these weren't just your local road criterium crowds. This, my friends, was the realist deal there is in the world of cycling. Watching Cadel Evans, the Schleck brothers, Levi Leipheimer, the Garmin team, and many others suffer up our local training road, Lookout Mountain, I was covered in goosebumps. The crowds (and speed of the team cars!) were reminiscent of a European road race.



I'm actually not sure why I love cycling so much, but whatever it is, the grip it has on me is tightly locked. Over the last couple years, I've lost more of the tech gadgets - and a watch and ipod are about the only gadgets I ride with these days. I'm out to enjoy the quaint mountains and push myself to my limits. Pure fun.



After a 3-week hiatus from racing to shoot some Music Voyager episodes...




...I'm about to get a rude awakening in Park City, UT followed by a kick in the shin in Spearfish, SD. These two races are made up of incredible trails and terrain. I think the total mileage and altitude gain with the races on Saturday and Sunday weigh in at 128 miles with 19,000 ft of climbing. I guess I can chalk it up to training and experience with the latter being more important. I'm looking forward to seeing a huge group of my cheering family out on course in SD followed by homemade banana splits from my uncle Pat.

It's going to be a good weekend on the bike... and off - when I have some ice cream in my hands!

1 comment:

Mom said...

Congrats on a great race in Spearfish! It was hard to believe you had done the point to point the day before...awesome! Hope your legs are feeling better. Take care-I'll get your warmers out to you this week.