Fall is here, hear the elk.

Today was one of those perfect weather days in Colorado. It's the reason we live in here. The leaves are starting to change and the nights are in the low 40's. When this time of year comes, Jackie sings, "Fall is here, hear the elk". It's from the White Stripes song "We are gonna be friends" - you know...the one at the beginning of Napolean Dynamite. You see, we had this debate. Jackie was sure Jack White was singing about Elk - as they mate in the Fall and make lots of calls to attract Lady Elk. I couldn't tell what he was saying, but I was pretty sure it was not about mating elk. Turns out I was right, but it still makes for a great little laugh nonetheless.

So, on this lovely fall day, Hans (our man of course direction and biodiesel truck maneuvering) left for Minneapolis. It's a two day drive and it's the last big trip of the season. We wished 'bon voyage', bright and early this AM.
I again felt like a Dad watching my kid head off to school. Happy driving Hans.
Then, after spending way too much time in front of the computer, I headed out on a ride. Into Lyons for some 'frodin' at Hall. The colors were starting to show...

But, it was one of those days when I wasn't feeling 100%. I hit the dirt for a bit, then decided to head back to Longmont. It felt good to be out, but I thought rest was more important before a big weekend (MPLS will be our biggest 1st year event ever!).
I almost got a ride home, but decided to tough it out. And it's a good thing too. I saw this little guy heading towards the busy highway 66.
I've turned more than a couple turtles around in my day. I suppose they look for better waters, or perhaps are sowing their turtle oats. But I hate to see cracked turtle shells on the highway. So despite this fellow's large talons, I turned him around towards the closest body of water (which was about 10' away). He snapped at me a couple times, but I was behind him. Silly little guy. Then I saw his tail.
He must have been of the prehistoric crocodialian turtle genus. It was a scary tail indeed. I hope he wasn't escaping the lake due to embarrassment over his enormous tail.

So, you know... just another adventure on the bike. Saving turtles, looking at leaves. That's how we roll out here. Lots of fun.

Tomorrow is the last ride until we head out of town. I'm thinking about heading up to Ward - a classic Boulder County ride. I gotta train for the ride with GeneO from One on One on Friday. Anybody in MPLS want to come along for a MTB ride in the AM?

What can I say...

....it was a great weekend!The fun began on Friday getting ready to head of of town. I was packing my knee warmers when I realized that they would make a great halter top for our chubby and cranky cat, Olive. And I added some patriotic flair as well. She didn't like it so much.
Then it was off to help out the TDF crew set up in Denver. They had a great venue - City Park -and I hope it was a Killer event! Here's the main man, Chris Winn, kicking back after setting up way ahead of schedule (which was very impressive considering it rain 1/2 the day).
Then we stopped by Red Rocks for a G Love show. (sorry for the bad concert photo)

Then it was off to Breckenridge for a perfect fall mountain weekend (it was also Octoberfest). Kurtie, Chad, and I hit some sweet trails. Jackie kicked back and got a massage, read a new book, and enjoyed the weather.The trails we rode were awesome. The only other riding I've done in Breck are the trails from the Firecracker 50 - which are STEEP and just so-so fun. But we rode some rolling tight singletrack that was never too hard. Unlike Crested Butte where the climbs are epic in length, Breck's riding was just fun. Real mountain biking for sure. I can see why folks are willing to endure 7 months of snow to live there. There is one problem that really gets my attention: the amount of pine beetle kill. For those of you who don't know, the pine beetle is quickly killing a large portion of the lodgepole pines in summit county. Instead of a sea of lush green trees, many hillsides are rusty red - the color of dead pine trees that have been killed by the pine beetle.
These are the holes that the beetle burrows into the trees, then over takes them. It's really sad to see and it doesn't seem there's much that can be done. The beetles have always been there, but the cold winters usually kill them off. Now it's too warm. Global warming is heavily effecting the rocky mountains and this is one very visible sign. It's really tough to see such beautiful areas getting hit so hard.
There were some dirt jumps and a pump track behind where we stayed. I hit the pump track and Jackie and I took the dogs for a run. They loved the trails. I wish there were more local no-leash trails in Longmont!

So yeah...a great weekend. We take off for MPLS on Thursday and we're so excited for our two new races! Our biggest 1st year events ever.

It's official...

I guess it's a good thing for American cycling and cycling overall. I'm sure UAR sponsor, Trek, is happy about this announcement. So now the question is - will he be able to take an 8th Tour de France victory?

Lance has always been an inspiration to every rider I've known. I went to college in Austin right when the name Lance Armstrong was 1st floating around. I have the "Winning" magazine (old-school road racing rag) when Lance was on the cover for winning the World Championship Road Race. He was 21 and it was before he had cancer. I was a fan after that - esp since he lived in the same town I did. One year, before the Ride for the Roses, he had an autograph signing at an Austin mall. Actually he was at Radio Shack - believe it or not. I went down to meet him and ask him his advice on places to ride in Europe, as I was about to embark on a European bike journey. When I arrived, there was nobody there. He was sitting at a table with his now ex-wife Kristin. I asked him if he could recommend some good cities for riding and how easy it is to get a bike on the trains. He pretty much blew me off. I looked behind me - I thought perhaps a line had developed and he wanted to hurry me along. No, he just wanted to kick it at Radio Shack and not be pestered by a silly young cycling fan like me. It was a bummer...to say the least. I also ran into him a few more times in Austin. Twice at mountain bike races and once outside Pure Austin. I asked him to participate in the King of Jester, a hill climb I was putting on. Guess what...he blew me off.
But my best story about Lance was my 1st ever encounter. He showed up to a mountain bike race and raced in the expert field. My friend John and I were on the start line waiting for the gun to go off, when Lance rolls up to the start - literally 10 seconds before the gun. I told John that he was lined up next to the current world champ. John had never heard of him. So the gun goes off, we all race for the holeshot into the trees. John and Lance are neck and neck...so John nudges Lance's elbow and sends him off the trail. I laughed pretty hard at that one. Seems that John didn't really care who he was racing. "Racing's racing", he said. I love Johnny Boy. He's a good man. Lance on the other hand...well he can certainly ride a road bike. I'll give him that.
I wish "Juan Pelota" the best of luck in his return to racing. There will be a lot of eyes on him, that's for sure.

What is TDF?

A photo essay...
Tour de Fat is a chance to be yourself (on a bike). Whether you're Hunter S. Thompson...
Or if you're 'riding dirty'....
Or if you're riding high...
Or if you're riding low.
Here's Hans - riding in Swobo style.
Here's Chris - the party's MC - looking over his little shin dig from his crow's nest. (you know you're throwing a big party when you need a cherry picker to see all of your friends). There were like 600,000 people there or something close to that.
Some folks rode in chilled out style...
While others watched in chilled out style.
Once inside the fairgrounds, I rode some 'ridable articles'
..with moderate success.
There were plenty of creative costumes to view from afront
...or behind. (Don't ask me what this dude was going for...but it was eye-catching)
Here's the best costume by far.
Bikes R Coffins
I was a pallbearer for a young lady who traded in her car for a new way of life.
She took home this beautiful Black Sheep and it will be her new best friend.
Without these three ladies, there would be no TDF. These are some of the creative jewels at the mothership of New Belgium Brewing. Thanks for a wonderful day NBB! You know how to throw down!

Show me how smart you are.

Friend and UAR racer, Jesse Swift, sent us this little online game - it's called Fantastic Contraption.
Jackie and I have both been playing with it as it kept us entertained during the RNC speeches last night. For about 45 minutes we were stuck on the "mission to Mars" level. Jesse says he figured out a solution, but let's see yours.

The best design wins a pair of UAR socks. Bring it. Send us a screen shot of your intelligence.

Tour de Fat

New Belgium's Tour de Fat is coming up in Ft Collins this weekend. If you don't know, it's New Belgium's very unique way of spreading the gospel of bikes and beer. It starts with a costume cruise, where it's not just costumes - rather alter-egos that are on display. Then there's plenty of entertainment - bands, art bikes, and of course lots of cold New Belgium beer. It's your chance to ask yourself - "who am I really" - then let your freak flag fly. Since everybody is getting all freaky, those who don't are the odd balls. So Jackie and I were working on ideas today. We originally thought about a Rasta couple, using old bike tubes as dreads. But then, we're not Rastafarian, so that didn't make sense. We thought about some cool costume themes, but then there's a possibility that other would have the same idea. So..no go. In the past, I wore a baby blue leisure suit and my party glasses. Another time I wore a onesy...an old gas station suit, with an afro wig and headband. No real theme for either one, just getting on some comfortable crazy clothes for the festivities. We're still working on it and we'll be sure to post what we come up with. One thing's for sure, Jackie's going to look hotter than me.

Here's one of my favorite costumes ever...
1st check out this video:


Now check this out:

I'm sure not a lot of people got this costume. But those that did must have thought this guy was brilliant.

And something off the topic of this post...but about bike racks.
David Byrne (Talking Heads fame) has put together an art project with bike racks in NYC. Great idea. Useful art, promoting bike transportation. Love it.

Lessons learned

This post will be a combination things: experiences from Madison that need some explaining, a lesson that my bike taught me yesterday, and a little something about impressive creativity...but not in that order.

First, check these out:
We had a bunch of banners left over from the Subaru UAR series and thought we'd be resourceful. Becky Gould, a participant from Austin, wrote us about using some of her past race shirts as shopping bags. I asked her what she could do with banners. She came up with some SWEEET tote bags. I don't often find myself getting excited about tote bags, but I can't wait to use these! She even added some cool details like cut-out stars on the handle junction. I can't wait to see what she can do with our old billboards! Thanks Becky!!!! If you want one of these for your own uses, let me know and I'll see if Becky wants to get into the bag business.
Here's Rasta modeling one.
In Madison, we went out after the staff meeting. This is Thomas and Hans. Thomas rounded up the troops to work the Madison event. He runs a boat rental joint called Supreme Water Sports. You can check out dolphins and some sweet steel drum music on his website here. He took us out for a night on the town. Here's Hans experiencing a 'boot' from Essen Haus. It was definetly an experience. You can only imagine what the men's bathrooms were like considering that most folks were drinking out of two liter containers.
We polished off a couple boots and listened to polka.
Hans showed off his Van Halen tatoo (he says it's not a Van Halen tatoo, but don't believe him). Thomas proudly displayed this lovely homage to his favorite tennis shoe manufacturer.
My camera is waterproof, so I wanted to see if it was beer proof (It is). So this is actually what it is like to look through beer goggles. This can only be done in a glass the size of a boot, you see. We also used the camera to record some inebriated banter that I can't post on this blog as it's not quite family-friendly. But let's just say that if you ever want to be embarrassed, record you and your friends after drinking from footwear. Wow - it was quite the night. Thankfully, Jackie doesn't drink much beer and she got everybody home safe and sound.
The next morning, Brian took me a on a lovely ride to Paoli. I was not quite recovered and not my converstational self, but it was a nice ride nonetheless. Brian's rocking and rolling with Death's Door Distillery. He's all about using local wheat to make these beverages which 1st began with Capital Brewery (our Madison beer sponsor) Island Wheat Beer. He's a great guy and he's all about bikes, booze, keeping it local. We like those things - a lot. He also won the Madison race last year (the epic one in 50 degree rain) - but this year he came out to cheer everybody on - and let his little boy Otto enjoy the big wheels. Brian is one of those people that we meet in our line of work that makes it all so much fun.
Then is was business as usual. You know, like hauling 4 very large rubber ducks across town. I wanted to roll down the windows and blast some Sword of Doom - just b/c so many people were looking at us all strange...I figured that some metal might just be the icing on the cake. But I didn't want to embarass Hans. Always looking out for 'Hansy'.

The Madison race went great. You can see the photos in the previous posts.
We had a day to recover, so Jackie and I enjoyed the East Side of Milwuakee. We saw these crazy upright-bike-paddleboat-float-things - and took a couple out for a spin. Pretty silly, but at least you can pedal them.
In the airport, we spent some time in the "Recombobulation Area". Seriously? Somebody paid to have that sign made? 1st off, how many people have ever heard that word. I hadn't... I just figured it was the opposite of 'discombobulation'. I suppose I felt a little discombobulated after the airport security charade. And it was really reassuring to know there was place for people like myself to recombobulate. From now on, if I don't see one of these signs after the security screening, I'm going to run around waving my arms in the air shouting "Please help me! Where do I recombobulate?!" I'm pretty sure no TSA personel will know what the hell I'm talking about - unless I'm in the Milwuakee airport. Then they can just point to the sign.
Now on to the lesson that my bike taught me yesterday. This photo is of the "Link Trail" which links Boulder Canyon to Betasso Preserve (Boulder's closest MTB trail). It's a very steep, loose climb, and I've never made it up completely before. But yesterday I told myself it would be different. My friend Ben told me the other day that he made it and so did his friend Jim. You can just hear the peer pressure, right? So I told myself that I was going to make it. At 1st attempt, my rear wheel spun out about 1/2 way up. I turned around and headed back down. I hit it with a bit more speed, keep looking ahead about 15 feet, and.....had to touch once when my wheel spun again. But then I finished it off. Doing way better than ever before. Next time, I KNOW that I will make it up. So what's the lesson? Once you see/hear/read about something being done, then you know it can be done. Just that knowledge made it a lot easier for me to climb this hill. But what's really cool is to be a 'trail blazer' and do something for the 1st time. And that's what I took away from it all. I'm going to work hard to do something new and different each day. Maybe it's a new sustainability idea, or a new way to get more people on bikes more often, or just maybe a new physical feat to be proud of. Just something new - to keep things moving forward.
And when you do make it up the climb, this is the type of trail that rewards you. Buffed out, swoopy, and a great place to reflect on this crazy life.

Ok...off to the Farmer's Market. Jackie wants to get a bushel of peaches for making preserves. We're taking the BOB trailer. Then we're taking the pups for a nice long hike. It's Labor Day weekend!!!