WHAT WAS I THINKING?: Double Duty Weekends Good for the Cycling Soul

The 2008 Triple Bypass was not what I would call a piece of cake but it was very manageable utilizing one of my only two cycling skills. Pacing myself. (the other one would be the tried and true tuck-n-roll over the handlebars without breaking bones maneuver). Weather was perfect, wind manageable and no need for the rain gear.

The roughest part of the ride was the 7:00am Squaw Peak descent through the frigid, bumpy turns of Hwy 103 leading into Idaho Springs past the Mt. Evans turnoff. No feeling in the fingers, wrists, arms and shoulders were numb after about 30 minutes of tense squeeze time.. PLEASE don't do that speed wobble thing...No real good place to pull off and surely this will be over soon!

The rest of the cruise was a short but noisy trek after Silver Plume up I-70 to the Loveland Ski Area rest stop, a steady crank-crank up and over Loveland Pass, enjoyable descent past Arapahoe and Keystone ski resorts and on into Dillion and Frisco.

Then the -you've-seen-it-from-the-interstate paved bike trail ride through Copper and the final climb up Vail Pass. I don't believe this is the steepest part of the ride, but by now, the 6:00am start, 90 miles in the saddle and distaste for rest stop give-away food is starting to wear.

Still another 30 miles down the scenic south backside, through Vail complete with an escort by their Saab mounted police snobs then on into Avon where the really cool cops stopped all vehicle traffic to let cyclist swoop through the round-a-bouts like Lance through the Champs-Élysées.

Nearly 10 hours from start to finish with 81/2 hours pedaling time confirmed by both the Yeti Road Project's Flight Deck and Garmin GPS. --Total mileage 119.7 miles, 14.3 average MPH and a max descent speed of 41.2 MPH. Check the Triple Bypass off the Bucket List. Thanks Team Evergreen!

Following weekend was just as memorable with dual races at Winter Park. Saturday's XC was the typical "I hate this f%$^&%$@$%ing start road, watch the pelleton disappear and then enjoy a 10% above my head ride through the single track and mountain roads to the Frasier campground finish. Yep dead last again. Still a lot of fun no mechanicals only one near disaster off the surprising creek to your right and small wooden bridge hairpin. Talkative cruise back to the base and maybe I'll win a door prize.

The hoot of the weekend wound up being the first ever Winter Park Super Downhill race on Sunday. COMotion teammate Gary Peterson wound up sharing accomodations Saturday night and talking me into a pre-ride which I would normally blow off. Your going down hill right?

We both did it and were giggling like freshmen girls at the base. What fun. The bike choice was critical here. Some showed up with full blown 40+ pounder DH rigs, most were straddling "all mountain 6-7"travel bikes.

My not-thinking clear Craig's List effort to come up with an ASX Friday night did not pan out so I plucked the 2002 ASR from the wall and started rebuilding an abused Rock Shox Psylo 125mm fork for the umpteenth time. Thank god Fox has stepped in as the premiere MTB fork supplier. But for the night, the Psylo would have to do. Where's those rebuild kits?