Today TOPS to Discuss Land East of Red Rocks Open Space

May 21st, 2008

White Acres, which is owned by the Bethany Baptist Church, adjoins the south end of Red Rock Canyon Open Space and the east side of Section 16. It is between 40 and 50 acres spanning the hogbacks and is visually prominent from the east as well as from many places in Section 16. The popular informal trail which links the Lion Trail in Red Rock Canyon Open Space to Section 16 trails crosses White Acres.

This informal trail is part of my favorite loop in Red Rock Canyon Open Space. It is a narrow trail along the top of the ridge over looking the city. I can’t get Blogger to let me add the picture I have of the trail but it’s the bottom picture in this post from November.

The Church is now interested in selling White Acres; and an application for TOPS to acquire the property has been submitted. There will be an update on White Acres at the TOPS Working Committee meeting this afternoon, Wednesday, May 21st. It would be a real bummer to lose this pieced of land to development.

The update on White Acres is scheduled for 5:15 PM and it would be a good idea to arrive earlier in case other agenda items are shorter than scheduled. The meeting is in the Parks Department building, 1401 Recreation Way, in the Palmer Room. I’m not sure I can make it out of work in time to make it to the meeting, but I’m going to try.

To get to the Parks Department building, take Uintah to Glen Street just east of I-25, go north a block on Glen, then go west a block on San Miguel. San Miguel bends to the north and becomes Recreation Way. The building is on the right an about a block. You can also get there from the I-25 Fontanero exit by heading east. You then have to turn right onto Recreation Way.

Update: I just found out that a developer is interested in that land. They want to put in 25+ lots plus town homes along the road.

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Local MTB and Road Racing This Weekend

April 16th, 2008

Colorado College Criterium 2007

Update 4/4/09: Info on 2009 Lake Pueblo Arkansas Point Challenge

I’m slow getting this posted but we have both mountain bike and road racing this weekend.

The Lake Pueblo Arkansas Point Challenge is Sunday. Once again Vance’s Bicycle World is one of the sponsors. Vance was a great sponsor for Pikes Peak Velo many years ago when I was doing the shorter mountain bike races.

On the road, there are both collegiate and USA Cycling races. Saturday morning there are individual and team time trials at the Air Force Academy. Saturday afternoon is the Colorado College criterium. The Air Force Academy road is on Sunday.

If you don’t race, the Colorado College criterium would be excellent for watching. Since the course is short, you get to see the riders come by every few minutes. I like watching on the hill just south of the Fine Arts Center. If you’re in Pueblo, there are probably some good places to watch the MTB race but I don’t know the course. Time trials generally aren’t very much fun to watch. The road race would be OK for watching but you don’t see the riders very much.

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Saltwash and Sovereign Singletracks

March 24th, 2008

View from Sovereign Singletrack

Today I spent more time working on my bike than riding it. It made the the riding I did much more enjoyable though. My bike is now working better than it has in over a year.< When I asked a few days ago for suggestions on where to ride around Moab, I got a few replies for the Sovereign singletrack. I also got a reply for the new singletrack north of town. It might have been for Sovereign but there is a new singletrack that opened very recently.

The new singletrack is called Saltwash. It starts very close to Sovereign and crosses it a couple times with a few other connectors.

I like coming to Moab because of the scenery. I love the red cliffs and big drops. I also like the weather this time of year. The thing I haven’t liked has been the lack of singletrack. To be honest, Fruita has better riding and the weather is almost as warm and dry.

Out where Sovereign and Saltwash are there aren’t the big cliffs but the riding didn’t disappoint. Saltwash is so new it’s obvious it hasn’t been ridden much and there are some soft spots. It’s also still very narrow. There are a bunch of fun sections on it.

The recommended way is to go out on Saltwash so that’s what I did. I then came back on Sovereign. I’ll definitely be riding them again when I come out in the future.

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Iditarod Trail Invitational

February 26th, 2008

Jill Homer

The Iditarod Trail Invitational started on Sunday. It follows the Iditarod sled dog route. Racers choose whether to do it by bike, ski or foot. They also choose whether to go 350 miles to McGrath or 1,100 miles to Nome.

The weather has been good and the snow conditions have been good. Although the trail conditions have been good, there have been several reports of angry moose being on the course. It sounds as thought the leaders are now also running into softer snow.

The good trail conditions had people wondering if Pete Basinger could break his record from last year of 3 days 5 hours 40 minutes. Unfortunately, one of his pedals broke and he had to wait for a new one to be brought in by plane. Amazingly he caught back up to the leaders today. I raced with him at the 2004 Fireweed 400.

A couple weeks ago, I used my cycling and outdoor gear search to raise money for Jill Homer. She is having a great race and is on pace to break the women’s record. Her boyfriend, Geoff Roes was leading the foot division but a bad ankle has forced him to turn back.

Currently the leaders are near Rohn 210 miles into the race. It’s so remote that there aren’t many updates available.

Here are several links to track the race

Also Mike Curiak is again attempting to ride to Nome without using any of the checkpoints along the way. He won’t accept any kind of outside help. He’s carrying a transmitter that allows him to be tracked. Scott is posting regular updates on Mike’s blog.

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Snow Biking

February 11th, 2008

Tennessee Pass Night Jam

Courtesy Chris Plesko

Reminder: Today and tomorrow (Feb. 11th & 12th) you can help Jill for the Iditarod Trail Invitational race by using the cycling and outdoor gear search to buy gear. Click here for more info.

Although the Alaskans and the Minnesotans may have the long snow bike races, we also have snow bike racing. Saturday night was the 2nd race in the Leadville Snow Bike Series.

Congratulations to Chris Plesko for winning! Dave Nice also had a good race. Chris has a good race report and so does Dave.

Last Friday our local paper, The Gazette, had a good write up of the first race. It mentions Chris, who got 2nd in that race. It also had a picture of Dave in the print version but it’s missing from the online version.

I keep thinking a should give snow bike racing a try. I used to ride all the time in the snow down here. It’s a lot different here than what they’re racing on up in the mountains.

I haven’t been fit enough the last 2 winters to not be worried about injury myself. The winter before that I was focused on training for the Race Across America and I didn’t want to spend the time to figure a bike set up out. I should make it a goal to do do the series next year. I think it would be a lot of fun and give me motivation to train.

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Hundreds of Mountain Bikers Want What I Got Today

February 5th, 2008

2007 Leadville 100 MTB Start

The beginning of February each year is when hundreds of mountain bikers what impatiently for a little piece of paper to come in the mail. That piece of paper means they have a lot of training to do in the next 6 months.

That little piece of paper means they made the Leadville 100 mountain bike lottery. I really didn’t expect my card for another couple days. A few others on the Colorado Front Range reported on the Yahoo Leadville 100 MTB group that they had also gotten their cards.

I’m still working on the Leadville 100 MTB FAQ. I’m working on how to train. The problem that I’m having is that I doubt people that are looking for training information will know what LT and VO2 Max intervals are without some explanation. I’m just trying to make it understandable to people that haven’t been racing for 15+ years.

Update: I guess the days of the cards slowly spreading acroos the country to notify lucky particpants is over. The preliminary Leadville 100 MTB entrant list was posted this evening.

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Floyd Landis to do 2008 National Ultra-Endurance MTB Series

January 25th, 2008

Floyd Landis Descending Powerline 2007 Leadville 100

Floyd Landis has announced he will be racing the 2008 National Ultra-Endurance MTB Series. The NUE consists of 8 100 mile mountain bike races. It starts with Cohutta 100 on April 19th and finishes with the Tahoe-Sierra 100 on September 6th.

This news created a big storm over at MTBR about letting a doper race. Others didn’t mind him racing and support him. I still don’t understand how he can race since at least some of these races are NORBA races. I believe pretty much all the top pros on the road are doping or at least have been. I’m all for the sport being cleaned up. Landis may very well have doped but the lab work was so sloppy that I have trouble with it being used.

The complete NUE schedule is:
April 19 – Cohutta 100, Tennessee
May 31 – Mohican MTB 100, Ohio
June 14 – Lumberjack 100, Michigan
July 19 – Breckenridge 100, Colorado
July 26 – Wilderness 101, Pennsylvania
August 16 – Fool’s Gold 100, Georgia
August 31 – Shenandoah Mountain 100, Virginia
September 6 – Tahoe-Sierra 100, California

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Leadville 100 MTB FAQ: How Does the Lottery Work?

January 24th, 2008

Leadville 100 MTB Legend Ricky

This post is part of the Leadville 100 MTB FAQ.

Last updated 1/31/10

Because of the popularity of the Leadville 100 mountain bike race, many more entries are received than the field limit. I wouldn’t be surprised if they receive over 10,000 entries for 2010.

It seems each year they slightly increase the limit and in 2009 they let in 1400 entrants. For a while it was in the 800 range. To get into the lottery, entries must be submitted online by 5 PM on January 31st.

In spite of what you might expect, the lottery isn’t totally straight forward. Some people are given preference in the lottery. Those that volunteered for any of the races put on by the Leadville 100 in the past year, doing both the 100 mile run and bike, doing Leadman or Leadwoman, finished 5 or more times, Leadville locals, big name pros, etc. get preference.

The best way to make sure you get in is to volunteer. I’ve only heard of 1 or 2 people that volunteered the year before and didn’t get picked in the lottery. My guess is they somehow didn’t end up on the volunteer list. I always write at the bottom of the entry form where I volunteered the year before. Of course for people that don’t live close, volunteering isn’t an easy option.

Another method people used in the past to help make the lottery was to enter as a group. Groups with up to 6 people could register together. Everyone in the group would either get in or not get in. If you could find someone that had preferential treatment for the lottery, it would increase your chance of getting in. In 2010 the race quit allowing group entries.

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The (Leadville 100) Check is in the Mail

January 23rd, 2008

2006 Leadville 100 MTB Start Line

Yesterday I put my Leadville 100 MTB entry in the mail. Now I have a couple weeks to wait to find out if I make the lottery. I expect to since I volunteered last year but there’s always the chance that I won’t get in.

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Leadville 100 MTB FAQ: How do I Enter?

January 21st, 2008

Stream at Bottom of Powerline
This post is part of the Leadville 100 MTB FAQ.

Update 12/21/09: Information on 2010 Leadville 100 entry

Anyone can enter the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race. Because it’s so popular, entries are picked in a lottery. Entry forms must be submitted by January 31st to be entered into the lottery. Entry confirmations are e-mailed about a week later and unsuccessful entries are returned.

The entry forms have been posted online the middle of December. Starting with 2010, entry is online only.

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