Last week I had the opportunity to catch the Colorado Pro Challenge and get in some mountain biking near Salt Lake Utah making for one of the better bike weeks of the year. The highlight was riding the penultimate stage of the CO Pro Challenge with my buddy Ed Stroup who recently moved to Boulder. We started the day riding up Boulder Canyon to Nederland despite my concerns of heavy traffic. Given that there were plenty of other folks doing the same thing it wasn't too bad. Once we hit Ned we scooted up the Peak to =Peak highway and manged to watch the riders go by just past the feed zone near the town of Ward. Little did I know that this was the place to collect water bottles if you wanted any. The only one I kept was thrown a few feet away by either G. Hincappie ..... or was that C. Evans. We then headed toward Boulder down Left-Hand Canyon with many other bikers until we intersected the race course. We felt a little bit like rock stars since the course was closed to cars and there were literally 1000s of (drunk?)people waiting along the course. I was bit surprised that so many people would turn out to watch the riders zip by over a period of about 10 seconds. Boulder is even more bike-crazed than Madison.
The following day we headed to Salt Lake City, Utah where my brother and nephew tortured me with some mountain biking. I forgot that it actually takes some skill and fitness to ride a mountain bike at altitude...... something that I've been lacking this year due to a newborn child. The highlight was doing a 27 mile ride near Park City where we climbed nearly 3500 feet over three hours. This probably doesn't seem like a lot but it felt difficult for roadie like myself. Hmmmmm - I wonder what 10,000 vertical in a day feels like? Hopefully I'll never know.
For the first time in many years I'll miss the WI cross scene since I'm residing in CA through the new year. Hopefully I can do a few races out here to keep the skills sharp for nationals.
t. hooyer
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