Justin Simoni speaks of the challenges of riding the Tour Divide mountain bike race as he works on his bike at The Outdoorsman in Butte, MT. Kelley Mattingly and I did a fairly casual interview about the Tour Divide, training, etc while I was at the Outdoorsman, outfitting my bike for some drier terrain, with Continue reading…
Surprise! About… 10 days? before the start of the 2012 Tour Divide, I decided to look at plane tickets and found one affordable enough to get to Banff, Alberta and give ‘er another go, this time on a Single Speed. To my complete surprise, I not only finished, but was the first one-speed-wonder over the Continue reading…
I sit here, late at night, with sore knees, having hoped to do this little write up a lot earlier, but so it goes. This small trip I’m about to describe, I estimated hazily as, “around, uh, 2 days”, with only mentally plodding out the mileage hastily in my head. The idea though, was Continue reading…
Loveland Pass I am perpetually amazed at what adventures lay so close to home, taken on by just strapping on some clothes, tools, food and a sleeping bag to a cobbled together bicycle and just going for it. Last weekend saw me ride from Del Norte, along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, with the Continue reading…
On top of Grays Peak. This weeks plan was to ride to the Summer Trailhead of Grays/Torreys, hike up both, and ride back, all in one fell swoop. I mean, why not? It’s ~55 miles and 9,000 feet of elevation to the Winter Trailhead, 3 miles of hike-a-biking on the dirt road to the Continue reading…
I certainly don’t like living a life that contains much nostalgia. I’m far more interested in the here and now, or the coming soon, than what’s past. I don’t hold onto many things material. So, it’s always a surprise to me, when nostalgia hits me in the face and I feel an intense Continue reading…
Wednesday, I got myself up relatively early, with the goal of riding up Squaw Mountain Pass, to Echo Lake. The ride is a big batch of gentle uphill roads, starting in Golden as you go up HW 40, cross over into Evergreen and take Squaw Pass Road to Echo Lake. This line is comprised of Continue reading…
There’s a network of roads that make a N to S corridor, just West of the plains of Denver/Boulder and just inside the mountains of the Front Range. The cycling on these roads is, for the most part, spectacular. Most of my more, “serious” rides are rides into this corridor, until bailing at some convenient Continue reading…
One of the magical things about the Tour Divide is the MTBCast call-in service. If you can find a pay phone on the route – which are actually still, “plentiful” in the areas the GDMBR wanders through, you can call a 800 number and leave a message, that will then be posted up by MTBCast Continue reading…
Sunday’s ride proved to be a nice loop ’round the neighborhood, starting in Denver at around 5:50am. Starting with a swift ride to Golden with little traffic and summiting the top of Lookout Mountain Road to see the sunrise and then, somewhat disappear as the bright start of the day seemed to starve itself into Continue reading…
Packing along a bike, just in case… The Arizona Trail Race 750 is a race across Arizona, from the Mexican/Arizona border to the Arizona/Utah border, with a portage, down, across and back up the Grand Canyon. Being a Nation Park, no bike riding is allowed on the trail, so you need to somehow carry your Continue reading…
This is Tom Danielson, a pro road cyclist, height: 5’10”, weight: 130lbs: In this photo (found here), he’s breaking the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb record at an incredible 16 minutes, 3 seconds. Super light bike, skin suit, shoe covers. That’s really fast. Lookout Mountain Road is the closest hill to climb as the crow Continue reading…
This past week, I rode a paltry 104 miles in total, went to the gym once and, uh, snowshoed for 11 1/2 hours. Plus the usual bicycle commuting. And I’m a masked vigilante in the wee hours. Ok, the last part isn’t true. The only ride I did was around Cherry Creek. Made it from Continue reading…
This week’s of bicycle riding was interrupted by some snow falling in the Front Range, much to the chagrin of the rest of the thirsty state, which hasn’t seen as much snowfall as is anticipated. Snow didn’t let up until around Saturday, so I got out of bed as early as possible, waited for the Continue reading…
Biker Jims – a well deserved reward after a 100 mile ride This week was filled with personal disappointment as I only really got in one solid ride on Saturday – a 100 miler up High Grade, to Evergreen, N on Kerr Gultch and down Lookout Mountain Road, back home via the Clear Creek Trail Continue reading…
June 22nd, 2011, between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park on the Ashton-Flagg Ranch Road with a considerable amount of snowpack still lingering. At around 9:00pm last night, I was rolling through downtown, when a drunk dude threw something at me. I’m not into this. I quickly locked my brakes and came to a screeching Continue reading…
Yesterday, I was researching untested terrain to ride my bike up to. I was looking for mountain roads I have yet to try out, which is slim pickin’s in the winter time, as road conditions are going to suck anywhere with surprise! ice on the roads and inclement weather means a snowstorm, not Continue reading…
Mon: ~35 miles ride around Cherry Creek Res. Wed: ~15 mile hike up Sobo/Bear/Green in a snow storm The rest of the week was quite a wash. Had a trip planned for Winter Park and a hike, perhaps even up to Parry Peak (which would have meant doing James and Bancroft – and again on Continue reading…
Forecast was for snow on Wednesday and as much as I wanted to have a bike-heavy week, it wasn’t going to happen with a snowstorm in the middle. I’m not even close to the point of riding a trainer inside at the moment, as I have nowhere to put something like that and well, no Continue reading…
Plans to take on Sniktau -> Cupid -> Grizzly were defeated before they started – my ride fell through, sadly. Thems the breaks when you go carless and rely on the kindness of other people to get you to pokier parts of town. Like I wrote before, it seems the rule, rather than the exception Continue reading…
Currently, hanging out in Breckenridge, enjoying a quiet Christmas, getting my leftover mimosa on – getting up early tomorrow to hike a few mountains. Perhaps something like this: Sniktau -> Cupid -> Grizzly (with a very small chance of Torreys, but time is a factor). The trailhead starts at ~12,000 feet, which feels altogether cheating! Continue reading…
“So where did you come up from?”, the lone other person on Bear Peak inquired. I thought for a minute, but I had no real good answer. “Hmm. Over… uh, there”. I pointed basically North of us, which points to a rocky outcrop called Nebal Horn. “When you go back down, you’ll see my footsteps Continue reading…
My most awesome and patient LBS was helping me with an out-of-true wheel the other week. We sort of went overboard on the thing and the mechanic decided to overhaul the whole damn thing. Once we tuned up the White Industries Dos ENO freewheel, replaced the bearings and replaced the track nuts, talked about adventures Continue reading…
It’s been about 5? months since the 2011 running of the Tour Divide and I’ve been quite quiet here this site. Kind of want to apologize, as my intention wasn’t to show you how I trained, do the race and then: disappear. 5 months is a long time to recap, so I will barely try Continue reading…