2007 April | UltraRob's Adventures

Trans Iowa is this Weekend

April 27th, 2007

The 3rd Trans Iowa Race is this weekend. It starts 4 AM Saturday morning. I can’t say it’s a race that I’m currently interested in but it’s already a lottery for the 100 starting spots. It’s one of the growing number of long distance mountain bike races that must be done self supported. The big daddy of this type of race is the Great Divide Race.

Shorter mountain bike races used to be really strict about outside support. In the early 90s one of my friends won a race after having a flat tire. The problem was he didn’t have a tube and somebody had handed him one. He changed it himself but an official saw him get the tube and he ended up getting DQ’d.

This year’s Trans Iowa is 322.3 miles of dirt roads. The racers will get the cue sheets for the first 127.7 miles in tonight’s racer meeting. They will get the cue sheets for the rest of the race once they complete the first section. I guess that helps keep them from arranging outside plus they have to stay on course.

Chris, Dave and Mike from the Denver area are there. Chris’s wife may be able to post some updates if she hears from Chris during the race. Chris also posted a few other options for getting updates during the race.

Technorati Tags: mountain biking | Trans Iowa

Tags: mountain biking, Trans Iowa
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Pictures from Pueblo Reservoir Race

April 26th, 2007

Vance’s Bicycle World has posted a photo gallery of last Sunday’s mountain bike race at Pueblo Reservoir. The pictures are courtesy of the Pueblo Chieftain and are copyrighted.

Technorati Tags: mountain biking | Pueblo Reservoir

Tags: mountain biking, Pueblo Reservoir
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Lance Armstrong Might Still Race Leadville 100

April 22nd, 2007

Update: he didn’t race in 2007 but Lance Armstrong has entered for 2008.

In November Lance Armstrong said he was going to race the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race this year. Then in mid December Floyd Landis said he was also doing the Leadville 100. The end of December Lance claimed to have a scheduling conflict and wasn’t going to be able to race the Leadville 100.

When the entrant list for this year’s Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race was released in February, neither Floyd nor Lance were on the list. Floyd has the Leadville 100 logo on his blog (no longer active). The April 16th VeloNews has an article about Floyd and it says he is still doing the Leadville 100.

Friday I went in to my doctor because my back was hurting from the SI join in my hip being locked up. He has a place in Leadville and goes up there quite a bit. The last time he was up there he was talking to his friend that lives there and is racing the Leadville 100 this year. His friend said that Lance is planning to race the Leadville 100 this year. Trek has some new bike that they want him to ride. My doctor didn’t know what bike it is and whether it’s one that’s already available.

I still think it would be really cool if both Floyd and Lance would race this year. There’s the issue of Floyd’s doping case and I haven’t been able to find anything anywhere else to confirm that Lance is planning to race. Also having two big names there could certainly impact the great atmosphere of the race.

Update: Lance didn’t race but Floyd Landis finished 2nd

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Adidas AX2 Mid GTX Hiking Boots

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Salomon X Alp Pro GTX Hiking Boots

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Tags: cycling, Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong, Leadville 100, mountain biking
Posted in Bike, Mountain Bike | No Comments »

How Do You Like to Look at Pictures?

April 22nd, 2007

For the pictures I took of the Colorado College Criterium, I used a different software tool to create the gallery. This makes three different ways I have pictures on my website.

For a while I was using a JavaScript slide show and I’d also create a separate page so all the pictures could be scanned quickly. Some of the pictures I did this way were my 2006 Eiseman Hut Ski Trip and 2006 Texas Hell Week.

After that I went to using the Copermine Photo Gallery. Pictures that I published that way included the 2006 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race and the 2006 Pikes Peak Velo SuperCross cyclocross race.

Which of these three ways do you like best for looking at pictures? I have my opinions both from the way to look at the pictures and how easy it is to add the pictures and caption them. I’m not going to share my opinions now because I don’t want to influence what you think. Please post a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know your thoughts. You can also give me your opinion on the layout of my web pages and blog template. I think my blog template is really ugly. I plan to change it but I never seem to find the time to work on it.

Technorati Tags: cycling | mountain biking | pictures | skiing

Tags: cycling, mountain biking, pictures, skiing
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Hiking Manitou Incline the Hard Way

April 21st, 2007

The last few times I’ve done the Manitou Incline, I’ve taken Danielle along. She just turned 4 a couple weeks ago. Sometimes she hikes quite a long ways and other times she doesn’t make it very far. The best she’s done going up is to the Barr Trail cut-off which is about 2/3 of the way. I think that’s quite impressive since that’s a ways up the steep section. She might have made it a little farther but she cut her leg on a stake trying to pull herself up one of the really big steps. She has hiked all the way down Barr Trail from the top of the Incline but that time she had slept most of the way up.

As hard as it is, I’d rather carry her up in the Kelty pack than going down the trail. Between her and the pack, it’s about 45 pounds and my knees get hammered on the way down. Last week she slept for a while on the way down. She was bouncing all over even though I was trying to walk carefully which strained my knees more than normal. See my post from a month ago to see her fast asleep in the pack.

The middle part of the Manitou Incline is owned by the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and they have a No Trespassing sign. They used to have it where it somewhat blocked the way but somebody kept destroying it.

Danielle stops for lots of drinks and snacks.

Some of the steps where ties are missing are nearly as high as Danielle.

The pasque flower is one of the sure signs of spring in the Pikes Peak region even though we still get snow storms. Each week we’ve been seeing flowers higher up Barr Trail.

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Price: $38.73

Adidas AX2 Mid GTX Hiking Boots

Price: $135.00

Salomon X Alp Pro GTX Hiking Boots

Regular Price: $280.00
$209.95 on sale

Tags: Barr Trail, hiking, Manitou Incline
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Mountain Bike Race Sunday at Pueblo Reservoir

April 20th, 2007

2008 Pueblo Reservoir Mountain Bike Race Info

I must be really out of touch with the mountain biking scene. I just found out today from the out there blog that there’s a mountain bike race at Pueblo Reservoir this Sunday April 22nd. It’s being put on in part by Vance’s Bicycle World. Vance used to sponsor Pikes Peak Velo back when we used to have several members in Pueblo. Actually we were called Rainbow Racing but this being Colorado Springs some members had a problem with rainbow being in our name.

Vance is a really cool guy and rides out at Pueblo Reservoir all the time so he knows all the cool trails. We used to put on a race there and it had some really cool sections. I expect this course won’t disappoint. You can check out some great pictures of the area and Vance to see what it’s like down there.

The entry form says that there won’t be any race day registration. I talked to the guys at Vance’s Bicycle World and they said they are going to go ahead and let people register on Sunday. They said just to arrive extra early and print out the entry form and bring it with you. You may want to confirm this information with them at 719-566-6925.

Technorati Tags: mountain biking | Pueblo Reservoir

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Colorado College Criterium

April 16th, 2007

On Saturday I went and watched some of the Colorado College Criterium. I watched the Men’s Cat 3/4 race and part of the Women’s and Men’s Pro 1/2 race. We had one Pikes Peak Velo member in each of those races. I heard there were more in the Men’s Cat 4/5 race. The fields were small in the races I watched but I expected that with the Boulder Roubaix being rescheduled to the same day because of bad weather on the original date.

I hung out most of the time on the climb on the south side of the Fine Arts Center. The climb is less than a block long but it has a pretty good grade to it. I raced the same course when I was in college and that hill certainly hurt after 30 minutes of racing. I took several pictures with my auto everything point and click camera. It takes pretty good scenery pictures but action shots are tricky.

Hi Tec Penrith Mid Jr. WP Hiking Boots

Price: $38.73

Adidas AX2 Mid GTX Hiking Boots

Price: $135.00

Salomon X Alp Pro GTX Hiking Boots

Regular Price: $280.00
$209.95 on sale

Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, photos
Posted in Bike, Road Bike | No Comments »

Beautiful Weekend

April 14th, 2007

After the snow the last couple days, it’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend. The forecast is for 50’s today and 60’s tomorrow. The main part of the snow storm was to the south of us with Colorado City getting 14 inches of snow.

The local races this weekend shouldn’t have any problems with the weather. I’m going to try to ride down to Colorado College later today and see a little of the criterium. It’s less than a mile from my house.

The picture above is basically the view I get from my living room window although I did walk part way down the block to set the picture up better. The Manitou Incline is the line that runs down the mountain behind the street light.

Technorati Tags: cycling | Colorado Springs | weather

Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, weather
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Tomorrow’s Cheyenne Canon Time Trial Canceled

April 13th, 2007

Melissa from Pikes Peak Velo just sent an e-mail saying the Cheyenne Canon Time Trial tomorrow morning has been canceled. It snowed most of yesterday and off and on today. The snow has stopped now and the clouds have lifted some. The streets in town are just wet but there are a few inches of snow on bushes and grass in places. I’m sure there could be some icy areas up in the canyon early in the morning.

The word Melissa heard from Steve McCauley at USA Cycling is that the other 2 races are still on. The Colorado College criterium tomorrow is at low enough elevation that ice shouldn’t be a problem. The Air Force Academy road race on Sunday is at a little higher but by then the weather shouldn’t be a problem.

Hi Tec Penrith Mid Jr. WP Hiking Boots

Price: $38.73

Adidas AX2 Mid GTX Hiking Boots

Price: $135.00

Salomon X Alp Pro GTX Hiking Boots

Regular Price: $280.00
$209.95 on sale

Technorati Tags: cycling | Colorado Springs | weather

Tags: Colorado Springs, cycling, weather
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »