UltraRob's Adventures

Every time I ride to Elbert, I notice a big house on top of one of the bluffs. It was built just a few years ago. It's noticeable for both it's size and design. It must have a great view of the mountains. It also must get some brutal winds especially in the winter.

When I did my century ride on Sunday, I saw that it was for sale. There was a box of flyers and I stopped because I was curious. Just the garage is almost as big as my house including the basement! It's described as a 10+ car garage. The garage is 2132 square feet and the house is 6225 square feet. It will only set you back $4.9 million. The realtor has more pictures online.

Labels: Colorado, cycling

Since the month is nearly over and I hadn't done a century ride yet this month for the UMCA Year Rounder, I headed out yesterday to get a long ride in. Since I was ready about the time the Acacia Ride comes by my house, I decided I'd try riding with them at least up to the Air Force Academy. I was still tying the our new dog up when I head the whirl of bikes. I rushed to grab my stuff and start riding. By then they were out of sight. I knew my only change of riding with the group was if the timing of light at Garden of the Gods Road was just right. Sure enough as I got close I could see the group waiting. The light turned green just before I got there and I was able to catch onto the back of the group.

I was debating about going into the Air Force Academy and riding up to the bomber at least with other OTB riders. When we cut through the neighborhood behind the retail on Academy, I was having trouble staying on the back of the pack. I decided my best option was to go ride by myself.

I headed out across the south edge of the Black Forest. Even though it was before noon, there was an ugly thunderstorm to the south near Falcon. I headed north to Elbert and was a bit concerned about the weather. I enjoyed partly cloudy skies and hoped that I wouldn't get caught in lightning later in the ride. Even after the hot weather the last couple weeks, it's still green and looked like there's been a lot of hay making.

I took a break at the convenience store in Elbert and then headed back south. Once I got back near the Palmer Divide, I could see there were still storms to the south. Once I got to the top of the hill, it looked good to the west and the thunderstorms appeared to be south of my planned route back on US 24. Although there were a few wet spots near Falcon, the sun was shinning.

From my house out to Elbert and back is just over 80 miles. I generally add some extra miles out on the plains but I wanted to get back close to home since clouds were building again to the west. I rode through Manitou and did a loop around my neighborhood to bring my ride to 100.4 miles. I did 3570 feet of climbing. My ride time was 6:42 for an average speed of 15.0 mph.

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Labels: century ride, cycling, UMCA Year Rounder

Today Fritz over at Cyclelicious posted about CycleCluster which looks pretty much like Digg but it's just cycling related. It could become a cool way to get cycling news.

I added a CycleCluster submit link to the bottom of my posts. While I was at it I also added links to Digg, StumpleUpon and Del.icio.us.

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Labels: blog design, cycling, mountain biking

Yesterday morning I went and worked on the new Bear Creek Park Singletrack A few people showed up after we started working so I'm not sure everybody was in the same place at once but I think there were 10 of us working. We were working on a section that didn't have too many rocks or bushes. Everybody worked hard and I think we got a lot done.

We were working on what is marked as section B on the map. We got the trail done up to where it will cross the Bear Creek Main trail. We hadn't walked very far back down the trail before a mountain biker came down. He had been riding the Bear Creek Main trail and noticed the new trail.

Trail building will continue next Saturday, August 4th. I'll be out at the Air Force Academy helping with registration for the road race at the State Games of America instead.

Section before the trail was cut in

Same section as above after the trail was cut in

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Labels: Colorado Springs, mountain biking, trail work

I've been in a rut the last few weeks with my riding. Normally I like variety but doing the same thing seems to have allowed me to do more riding the last couple weeks. I still haven't been riding as much as I have in the past.

At lunch time I've been riding from work to the Tucker's Tie In trailhead for the Santa Fe Trail. Then I've been riding up the Santa Fe Trail to the drainage under I-25 near the Blue Cross building. Then I take some single track and double track that parallels I-25 until I get to Old Ranch Road. Then I take some quiet back streets and cut through the Pine Creek Golf Course to get back to work.

I actually go a little after lunch because the Santa Fe Trail is popular with runners during lunch time. The ride takes me just over an hour which is about as long as I have time for at lunch. Riding on the Santa Fe Trail is quiet and peaceful especially the section along the creek. There's only a couple traffic lights close to work and the rest of the time there's nothing to make me stop. Mentally it's been what I've needed to get a bit of a break from work. Riding on the road just has been appealing.

On Wednesday my co-worker Matt, that I also used to work with at Agilent, said he was going over to Agilent to meet a couple people and ride the 26th Street climb. Actually only the lower part is 26th street and then it turns onto Gold Camp until it turns to dirt. Even at the old Fluke Networks location, we could go do it if we took a long lunch. Now it pretty much requires driving to go do it at lunch. I don't like driving to ride unless it's out of town but I'll occasionally make an exception.

It was one of our favorite rides when we worked closer. We also almost always rode it hard. It's not steep since Gold Camp Road is an old railroad grade but it's a good steady grade.

I wore my heart rate monitor for about the 5th time this year. In the past I've used it to track my riding and always wore it but this year I haven't been keeping track. The good news I was able to hold my heart rate near 180 pretty much all the way up the climb and push it up to 190 at the top. Earlier this year I wasn't fit enough to hold a high heart rate. The bad news was even though I was able to keep my heart high, I didn't go very fast.

I was just happy doing a ride that I really like. You're right at the edge of the city but it feels like you're in the mountains. There's very little traffic and the views are great.

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Labels: Colorado Springs, cycling

I just couldn't take my blog template any more. I haven't liked it for a long time and the last few days it has been really bugging me. A while ago I had started doing a complete redesign including layout. It was just taking too long to get the layout right in IE and in Firefox. I also was thinking I was moving to the new Blogger Layouts but discovered they aren't supported when you do your own hosting.

At least with changing the colors it looks more like the rest of my website and I like the look better. You may disagree and that's fine. You are welcome to tell me how you'd like and I may consider doing it.

It's simple without any 3D graphics to give cool borders, etc. In some cases I do like them and may add a few but I do like simple in web design. Maybe that's why some corporate branding person has to help get our apps to look they way they want them.

Let me know if you see something that looks funny or doesn't display correctly. I've done a quick glance on several pages but I'm falling asleep so I'm calling it a night.

Labels: blog design, Blogger

Medicine Wheel will be working on the new Bear Creek Park Singletrack the next 2 Saturday mornings, July 28 and August 4, from 8:30 am to whenever you want to quit. I plan to head over there this Saturday. The following Saturday I'll be at the State Games of America instead.

There's more info on the Bear Creek Park Singletrack page or I wrote a post about the new trail a little over a month ago.

There's also some great news on money for the trail building. REI has awarded both Medicine Wheel and the El Paso County $5,000 grants for a total of $10,000. It is expected that about $25,000 will be needed to complete the construction.

The following have also given generous donations to the project:

Criterium Bike Shop
Pro Cycling Bike Shop
Trails and Open Space Coalition
Dan and Sherry Rundgren
Kris and Jessie Korteum
The Wachovia Foundation

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Primal Wear US Air Force Jersey Price: $69.99

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Labels: Colorado Springs, mountain biking

Michael Rasmussen has been sacked by Rabobank and kicked out of the Tour. Rabobank sacked him when they found out that he was in Italy during June when he claimed he was in Mexico training. His wife is from Mexico.

I can understand not letting the UCI know every day where you're going to be. It does seem it would be a pain but lying about where you are that's just wrong. I could look past him not keeping his whereabouts up to date and I think it's not uncommon. It doesn't look good but doesn't mean it's intentional. Lying where he was says to me he was up to no good.

Looks like the current Top 5 in the Tour is:

1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery 76 hours 18 mins 25 secs
2. Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto @ 1 min 57 secs
3. Levi Leipheimer (US) Discovery @ 2 mins 49 secs
4. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC @ 6 mins 2 secs
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel @ 6 mins 29 secs

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Labels: cycling, doping, Tour de France

The State Games of America is August 2nd - 5th here in Colorado Springs. There will be a road race and time trial and mountain bike race. Pikes Peak Velo is helping out with the cycling events and I'll be helping with registration for the road race on Saturday the 4th.

Normally you have to qualify to do participate in the State Games of America but Colorado residents don't have to qualify.

Here's the eligibility details. In order to qualify for the State Games of America, participants must have won a gold, silver or bronze medal in a SGA sport in their local State Games in a qualifying year (2005 or 2006 Summer, 2006 or 2007 Winter), won a medal in the 2005 State Games of America or be residents of Colorado for at least 30 days prior to competition. College students, U.S. military personnel and their families who are stationed in Colorado, are also eligible to participate.

Related Links: Road Race pictures and link to results

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Labels: Colorado Springs, cycling, mountain biking, State Games of America

I've liked Alexandre Vinokourov riding style for a few years. He's does a lot of attacking. Some of his attacks didn't make sense when he was riding for Ulrich on T-Mobile but at least it made for interesting racing.

He was the favorite to win the Tour de France this year. A crash during Stage 5 left him banged up and he needed a lot of stitches. He limped through the Alps but came back to win the time trial on Saturday. Then yesterday on a brutal stage in the Pyrenees he won another stage.

It's just been announced that he tested positive for homologous blood doping after his time trial win on Saturday. Of course he can ask to have his B sample tested. So what is homologous blood doping? It's using someone else's blood. Riders don't like using their own blood for doping because they can't train as hard for a few weeks after blood is drawn. What was he thinking? At least when Tyler Hamilton got caught he didn't know a test had been developed to detect homologous blood doping and was the first to be caught. The report is that the whole Astana team has withdrawn from the Tour de France.

In other doping news, Pat McQuaid, UCI president has said he doesn't want Michael Rasmussen to win the Tour. Rasmussen has failed a drug test but has missed 2 random out of competition tests. It doesn't look good but it takes 3 missed tests to be considered a positive test.

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Labels: cycling, doping, Tour de France

Here are the results for the Race Across Oregon. Tom Letsinger, who crewed for me in the Race Across America last year, didn't finish but I haven't found out why.

Al Smudz	35:30
Glenn Johnson	39:05
Robert Buntrock	40:12
Ryan Correy	41:31
Bruce Carroll	42:19
Adam Garmon	44:22
Hugh Gapay	DNF
Tom Letsinger	DNF
Ross Muecke	DNF
Brian Cushing	DNF

When I did the Race Across Oregon in 2004 my time was 41:42. That was on a slightly shortened race because we finished at Government Camp instead of doing the last 6 miles up to Timberline Lodge. Actually a few miles have been taken out in other places but they were mostly flat. When the leaders we close to finishing, it was snowing so hard that George and Terri, the race organizers, felt it was unsafe to ride in. It would have been still rideable but it was a white-out and they were afraid someone would get hit by a car. I don't know what it was like up higher when I finished but it was barely above freezing and pouring down rain down lower.

Although I finished fast enough to qualify for RAAM for my 3rd time, I certainly didn't feel the race went well for me. We started in drizzle that turned into cold rain as we climbed near Mount Hood. I got a little chilled and apparently burned extra calories and started bonking a little over 100 miles into the race. I did recover from that fairly quickly as I got to where it was warm and dry. Then during the night I had sleep issues from some nasal spray. Trying to stay awake I created GI issues and several quick trips to the bushes. It then became too painful to sit on my saddle and I spent some crying by the road side of the road. My crew got me going again but I felt I was out of the race and I wasn't going very fast.

Near dark of the 2nd day I felt better and kicked it up a notch after Kelly Hegar passed me late in the race. I was able to pass him back and finished 11 minutes ahead of him. Coming off the last pass it was very dark and pouring down rain. It was in the mid 30s and I had on neoprene booties, winter tights and jacket, Gore-Tex helmet cover and winter gloves and I was still cold. Water was running everywhere but I didn't let it keep me from still going close to 50 mph.

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Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, Race Across Oregon, ultra cycling

The Race Across Oregon started this morning in Portland. It is a brutal 535 mile Race Across America qualifier. It's more a loop around Oregon than it is just across Oregon. After Chris Grealish did it in 2004, he said it should be called the Race up Every Climb in Oregon. It climbs over 40,000 feet in those 535 miles. I also raced it in 2004 and quite honestly it felt like more than 40,000 feet. A month before the race, I had ridden the course in 4 days and even then it felt like more than 40,000 feet of climbing. Not only does it have that much climbing but it finishes with a brutal climb to Timberline Lodge.

Standings at the time stations and some information about how the racers are doing is being posted on the website. A few pictures have also been posted.

Tom Letsinger from GVH Bikes is racing this year. He crewed for me in RAAM last year. Tom finished 3rd in the Ring of Fire last year with 342.2 miles in 24 hours. I believe that's the longest he's ridden before. Right now he's toward the back of the pack but it's still early in the race. In any case, just finishing the Race Across Oregon is a very tough task.

In 2004 I motioned my follow vehicle beside me around mile 340. I stopped and leaned against the vehicle and told my crew I couldn't continue. I then sat down and cried from the emotion of dropping out and the pain I was in.

I had some GI issues brought on by too much caffeine and sugar in an attempt to stay awake after some nasal spray made me sleepy. Several trips to the bushes had made it unbearable to sit on my saddle. After my crew let me cry beside the road for a few minutes, they coaxed me the 60 miles to Prineville which is the only town of any size on the course. There they were able to get some medicine that helped but I was still in pain. I did make it to the finish and qualified for RAAM for the 3rd consecutive year. I have now qualified 4 times and the Race Across Oregon was by far the toughest qualifier for me.

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Labels: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, Race Across Oregon, ultra cycling

This year's Tour de France may be the cleanest Tour in recent history but that still hasn't kept doping from being in the headlines. During the early stages, Versus had to adjust their programming schedule because the stages were taking longer than expected. There was talk that maybe the riders didn't feel right without their drugs.

First it was that T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz had failed a doping test while during a training camp before the Tour. Just like Floyd Landis, he had elevated testosterone. Only the A sample has been tested and Sinkewitz has asked for the B sample to be tested. Before the positive had been announced he had crashed and was out of the Tour from hitting a spectator.

This week the doping news was that yellow jersey wearer, Michael Rasmussen, had failed to keep anti-doping officials informed of his whereabouts and they couldn't find him for 2 random drug tests. He hasn't failed any tests but missing 3 tests is considered a positive.

Also on Friday he was accused of trying to get Whitney Richards, a former mountain bike racer from Boulder, to take a Biopure to Italy for him. Whitney had been told it was a box of shoes but he opened it because he was having trouble getting everything to fit in his suitcase. Cyclelicious posted an article with more about Biopure including a link that says it isn't performance enhancing.

I've long believed that the top pro cyclists were doping. I also think doping is a problem in other sports. How about Barry Bonds and the giant football players? It doesn't seem people care so much about them though. Maybe it's because in the US cycling isn't as well understood.

I'm all for cleaning up cycling and other sports but there seems to be an attempt to attack the Tour de France. With Floyd Landis there were leaks to the press and mistakes by the lab. Throughout his whole case it has seemed that anti-doping authorities and the UCI have wanted to take him down no matter what.

Now with Rasmussen, the timing seems to an attempt to make the Tour de France look bad. The random tests that Rasmussen missed were on May 8th and June 28th (I've also seen a couple other dates close to those). Rasmussen was warned on June 29th by the UCI. Why was it not announced until July 19th while he was wearing the yellow jersey? It's not like they had to wait for tests results. They just couldn't find him. The Danish Cycling Federation says it announced that he was off the national team because he incorrectly stated he had only missed one drug test. He has been given blood tests on June 30, July 5th and 17th and he has given urine samples on July 15th, 17th, 18th and 19th. The UCI hasn't released the results of those tests.

The UCI should be promoting cycling but instead it seems intent on destroying a part of it. Tennis and soccer players were also involved with Operation Puerto but the governing bodies haven't allowed names to be released. The UCI and ASO that puts on the Tour de France have been involved in a power struggle the last couple of years. The UCI wants their ProTour to have the prestige and power instead of the Tour de France. Let's clean cycling up but let's not destroy riders because of a power struggle.

Labels: cycling, doping, Tour de France

Just because a bike or component has a company's logo on it doesn't mean that's who made it. Over the years top pro riders have used custom bikes painted to look like bikes from the team bike sponsor. Lance Armstrong at times used a Litespeed painted to look like a Trek. There's a good article on cyclingnews.com that details some of the customized bikes or re-labeled components at this year's Tour de France.

Even when I was on the Schwinn/Grand West Outfitters mountain bike development team, we had bikes that weren't what they appeared to be. When Schwinn came out with their Homegrown frame, they wanted us racing it but demand was greater than their production capacity. The had the .1 frame that had the same geometry but I believe was made in Taiwan instead of the US. It also was a different aluminum and the frame weighed slightly more than the Homegrown. The color was also different.

As I remember they shipped the frames unpainted to the US where they were painted like a Homegrown. When we got them the decals weren't even on. We spent an evening at Grand West applying decals and building up the bikes. Some of us considered putting the decals on in unique ways but I think they all ended up where they were supposed to. I got asked several times at races how I liked my Homegrown.

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Labels: cycling, Lance Armstrong, Tour de France

I have uploaded pictures from my Alaska trip. There's no ultra cycling or backcountry adventures but a lot of cool outdoor pictures.

I went back to using a JavaScript slide show and a page with all of the pictures on it. I had asked a while back how do you like to look at pictures? I have pictures 3 different ways. Fonk had said he liked the slide show the best. That is also my favorite way but it was too time consuming to create so I tried some other options. I've only tried the page in Internet Explorer but I'll try at least FireFox.

I have since tried out Picasa and ended up creating a custom template for exporting to HTML. Creating the template took less time than it would have taken to create the slide show the way I had been. Now if I decide to add a picture or fix a caption, I can just run the export again. It will also make future pictures slide shows easier to create.

Michelin Pro 3 Race Road Bike Tires 700x23mm