Dayglo back in a big way

It may be time to re-up our wedding vows just so I can see Jackie in this impressive piece of stitching.

weekend pleasures

This one is a bit 'risquee' - but hey, somebody invented this thing.

Hope your weekend rides find you on top of the world!

Thank you St Louis!!!

Back in the mountains of Colorado after a great event yesterday. St. Louis got its 1st taste of the Urban Assault Ride and I'm pretty darn sure there were just as many smiles as bicycles out there. We'll have results up tomorrow and photos of you all up soon too.

The STL Post Dispatch came out to shoot the race and here's a photo gallery.

Here are some of my favorites:
In traditional UAR style, a Le Mans start kicked off the day
Costumes were in full-effect
Nice socks, ladies
The plunger paddle race is on!
The Scouts victorious...and a bit tired perhaps?
Bike Limbo! The winner hit 2'8" - pretty impressive considering that the mini bike limbo winners are usually only a few inches lower
A Whole Foods sack lunch, New Belgium beers, and soft grass makes for a nice nap.

Thanks to all of our sponsors - especially New Belgium Brewing and Whole Foods! Our checkpoints partners ROCKED it! Thank you City Museum, Mesa Cycles, Big Shark Cycles, and the Botanical Gardens. BICYCLEworks and TrailNet - we couldn't have done it without you all. Thanks to all of great volunteers and everybody else that spent the day with us!!! We love and bike STL!!!!!

STL Mystery Clue

Alright St. Louis, here's your 1st mystery checkpoint clue:

antarctic granola limbo dens

Solve the puzzle above and you'll be on your way to victory!

Good luck and we'll see you this weekend.

The best trail in the world.

Back from the Colorado Trail trip. It was an adventure of a lifetime. The Colorado Trail runs from Denver, CO to Durango, CO - 500 miles of single track. Beautifully maintained, beautiful scenery, a beautiful adventure. Our man Bob and his Van ran support for us. Mr Swift, Daddy Matt, LongHair Bill, and myself hit the trail. We took 9 days to do the ride and here's some of what we saw....
heading out from Waterton Canyon on the 1st day (all smiles)
thanks to Clif/ Mojo for the bars, bloks, and gels!
taking a food break
our ONLY rain on the trip - 10 minutes worth coming in to Breckenridge
we all rode Mavericks - they make a killer trail bike
Mr Bill coming down above timberline
we could see a thing or two from up here
lots of streams to cross. Jesse shows how it's done.
Matt after a big climb
Pretty trail through the Aspens
say 'cheese'
Daddy Matt ripping a descent
There's Bob on the right. He was our 'trail angel' - greeting us everyday with post ride food, clothes, and a cold beer for me. We love you Bob!
AM sunshine through the trees
Matt's massive quads ripped this derailleur hanger clean off. luckily Bill brought a spare!
The Colorado Trail RACE was going on at the same time as our ride. We came across some racers doing the trail solo, self-supported, and pretty much delirious. Our hats went off to them, but they didn't really seem to be having too much fun (but we sure did ;)
A cool old barn on one of the trail detours. There were a few sections of the CO trail that were in wilderness areas that didn't allow bikes. So we had to do mandatory detours and got to take in some cool farms and county roads.
sparkling sun on the river
a curious marmot - way up high
a view from Cinnamon pass
mining relics above Silverton CO
this is the trail entrance at the top of Molas pass. What are you doing there Jesse?
Twin alpine lakes
narrow singletrack leading up to more climbing.....
...but with climbing comes downhills like this!
my favorite shot from the trip. Somehow with trail like this, 12,500' didn't seem so bad
Inbetween 12,000' passes on the last day
at the top of the trail - only 26 miles to the finish in Durango. Jesse shows the CO Trail what he's about to do to it on the DH.
Waterfall coming down section 28
AND....we made it to Durango! 3 out of 4 aint bad. Sorry about the food poisoning Bill! This day we rode 14+ hours, went over four 12K mtn passes, and climbed 10,000+ feet (and this is after 8 previous 7+ hour days on the bike). We were happy to be in Durango!
I did take a spill though....10 miles from the finish. The only real crash of the trip. This is what a bruised obilque looks like.

We had an AMAZING time. What a great way to gain some perspective on life. I highly recommend trips like this!

when we're inbetween UARs...

...we like to ride - a lot.

So on Saturday, a few of the crew are headed up into them hills for a 9 day mountain bike adventure. We riding the Colorado trail - 500 miles from Denver to Durango (99% off road).

The goal is to give high-fives to the MTB gods, ride lots of new trail, and enjoy some time with good friends. If you'd like to follow our journey, you can do so here
It's a cool site with all the techno bells and whistles: GPS tracking, Twitter, Blog...all that and then some.

We'll scope out the trail for you and give you all the info you'll need to do it yourself next year.
Wish us luck and pray for sunshine!

Denver Mystery Clue

Here you go folks....

(click to make it big)

And you may ask yourself..."what do these things have in common?" And you may tell yourself - "I shall go there for the 1st mystery checkpoint".

Good luck!