Lots of MTB miles and elevation gained over the 5 day event but just as important was the time spent around camp meeting new members and sharing goals for the upcoming race season.
Speed coach Todd Carver was impressed with new team member's skills and fitness levels. He's a butt man and always quick to suggest raising or lowering you saddle with a glance...
With the exception of a Thursday afternoon snow and ice packed Vail pass descent, (details of the jack-knifed trailer withheld until the cops loose the blood trail) weather was as good as it gets the entire weekend.
Friday's ride was easy Kokopelli Trailhead loops letting everyone get their singletrack rhythm back and trail tuning a few new bikes .
Saturday was filled with an epic trek up the infamous Ribbon Trail just outside Grand Junction. The view from the top of The Ribbon reveals views of the Book Cliffs, Colorado National M
onument, and Grand Mesa. Published stats state 3.6 miles on singletrack; 4.8 miles on doubletrack with a short road side connector jaunt. What they don't tell you is the upper body work out you'll get hoisting bikes over impassable boulders, cliffs and stair-stepped passage ways. There's a thru-cave to explore on the way up. Pay dirt or rock is a series of 20% grade slickrock avenues disappearing in the sky ahead of you. Crank..crank...crank.
Sunday most racers rode the abundant trails right out of camp or headed over to Rabbit Valley to pre-ride the 1st MSC course of the year. I played camp bum most of the day enjoying the scenery and geriatric induced "recovery" time.The bean based Taco Soup was ready by afternoon and disappeared in about 15 minutes. By Sunday evening, the group had pretty well disbursed and headed east. Probably best for the ozone layer above Fruita as the bean soup conversion really kicks in about dark.
Monday was mine wrapping up camp details and heading in to town to begin the road ride up Colorado Monument at 9:00 am. Beginning at the Fruita end, the 40 mile out and back was pure climbing for the first hour and twenty minutes. Screw the TT bar critics. Laying nearly flat, chest open with a slight up-pull on the bars, the cranking was steady and worked the gluts well. The original plan was to head stra
ight to the high point of the rim road at 6,640 ft. and head back. As I later discovered, that point is clearly marked on the map but not evident on the road. By the time I descended into Cold Shivers Point, it was obvious the top was behind me so I hooked a u-turn and headed back to Fruita. Devorah Peterson had started about a 1/2 hour behind me and we passes each other somewhere around Upper Ute Canyon.The day was cool but beautiful and a total of 4 or 5 cars passed on the 2 1/2 hour ride. Ending to a super weekend.
Special thanks to Chris Butler and Ryan Schultz for doing the camp scout and food prep. Autumn Schultz and Holly for the awesome pasta feed Saturday night and Kelly Emich (Pearl Izumi) and Scott Gordon (IMBA) for their generous donations to the team "goodie bags". Chris Taylor for the photos.
First task is to get bikes ready. Teamies poked fun at me last year for having a clean "brand new bike" every race. Fact is I love to work on them and spend hours each week in the fully equipped basement work shop checking every detail. Not a single DNF in 5 years racing is the pay off.
