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I guess I have to call it training, even though I despise formal training. Yesterday we went to ride the passes in preparation for the Iron Horse road race and crit. It was 40F at Purgatory with wet roads, Coal Bank and Molas passes were covered in clouds with fresh snow at about 9300 ft. We bailed and instead did a mountain bike tour of Durango including Animas Mountain, Test Tracks and Horse Gulch / Telegraph.  Sunday was a different story with great beautiful spring weather. The Durango Wheel Club hosted training criteriums at the new Mercy Medical Center Regional hospital.  

The 2008 Durango South Rim Duathlon is hosted by Durango Parks and Rec. This year it consisted of a kids race, short course and  long course.

The short course included a 2.5 mile run and a 6 mile bike section. The long course consisted of a 6 mile run and 18 miles of mountain biking (3 laps of the 6 mile run course).

The course was along the South Rim trail, a part of the greater Telegraph Trail System built by Trails 2000 and included fun twisty singletrack, short climbs (longest at 4 minutes) and one long muddy downhill down the Big Canyon trail.

We finished up 2nd in the 35 under team category with a 2:12, about 3.5 minutes out of first.

Overall Race Results:

Dan Ourada won the 19-34 age group (2:01.17).

Shonny Vanlandingham won the women’s (2:07:23). Kristin Danielson was second (2:29:30).

I survived the 2008 super sandy Alien Run, ended up 6th. It was not pretty. i ended up with a flat tire on the back side of the Alien course, caused by running over a few too many cacti in a dizzy anaerobic state. My Big Air cartridge came through and allowed me to fill up 3X to make it home.  Travis B took the pro class win with Zach Shriver in a close 2nd. $30 still gets you a race entry, t-shirt and a bar-b-que lunch, old school mountain bike style. More races should be managed like the Alien Run. ms

http://www.aztecufo.com/bike/ 

The “Alien Run at Hart Canyon” is a mountain bike trail that was developed by private citizens, Al & Deral Saiz along with two other brothers and various friends, all residents of Aztec. The trail was designed in response to the Friends of the Aztec Library’s call for a mountain bike rally as a possible fund-raiser during Aztec UFO99. These brothers responded to that call and designed the trail that circles the “alleged” crash site in Hart Canyon and is located on BLM Land . A special use permit was applied for but the proper studies that needed to be done for BLM clearance had not been done.  The July 2000 issue of New Mexico Magazine, featured a story on the trail as well as the local paper, The Daily Times. There have been inquiries from as far away as Hawaii , New York , and Montana , who accessed this information via the Aztec Library’s Web Page

Race Results are posted with Team BikeParts.com fielding 6 pro and semi-pro riders for the first MSC event in Fruita. Thanks to all the guys that made the trip over Fruita!

BikeParts.com team rider Jesse Swift mapped the Fruita Rabbit Valley Mountain Bike Race Cross Country Course with his Garmin Edge 205 and posted it here for everyone to view. Check it out!
MAP: MSC #1- Rabbit Valley XC | Mountain Biking | Fruita, Mesa, Colorado, United States

The new 2008 Maverick Durance bikes are starting to arrive at the shop!  

Team bikeparts.com Pro Ride, Colin Osborn got his 2008 Maverick DURANCE on Monday!  Look for him on the trails in Durango and in the startline at the NORBA Nationals this season!

Alien Run is a 25+- MTB single-track and oil-field road mountain bike ride in Aztec, New Mexico.

The ride is named after the fabled Hart Canyon UFO Crash site. Little green men - or women, whomever you prefer.

The ride / race course is accessed through Aztec New Mexico. We started at the Aztec Motocross track for about 8 miles of Mountain View trail before we got to the Alien run trailhead. From there it was an 8 mile loop. Sandy, twisty singletrack with some slickrock then back to the moto track via Mtn View.  Total ride time about 2.75 hrs easy with breaks.

Alien Run MTB ride Photo Album
 

So Tyler and I spent 5 days of our spring break riding in the Fruita/Grand Junction area.  We rode Rabbit Valley, 18Road, Ribbon Trail, Free Lunch, Moore Fun, Horsethief and Gunny Loop.  Check out some of the photos here and some of the video too!  Props to Ross Schnell for letting us invade his house during the trip!

So, I took my new Garmin EDGE 205 GPS out for a ride today. Check out the map and this link to all the ride details! - swift

It’s finally spring time, at least in AZ. After 3 months of  cold weather riding I headed down to Fountain Hills, AZ for a week of MTB. McDowell Mountain Park is a great local trail system, and former home of the Cactus Cup. In fact, the last time I had ridden there was the 1998 Cactus Cup. Ride you bike to the park from Rio Verde or Fountain Hills and pay $1 to get into the park. Drive and pay $6 for a car.

I vividly remember my buddy Will making monkey sounds at Gert-Jan Theunisse during the crit. We all use to think that Gert hit the sauce a little too hard in his career and ended up with a Neanderthal forehead. At the time Gert was coaching Bart Brentjens and Filip Meirhaeghe. Filip was later popped for epo.

I rode a new Giant 2007 Anthem 0, stock OTB with mavic crossmax wheelset XTR pedals and Ron Andrews custom Titanium King Cages.

McDowell has a sweet trail system, directional and clearly marked. The “competitive track” area is composed of three main loops, the long loop ,sport loop and technical loop. All are fairly wide open and fast. The sandy, gravelly trail surface is slippery at high speeds. Drifting corners while navigating cactus is a necessary skill. I ran about 160lb in my Fox front and rp23 rear shox. A little high but ok due to high speed, rocky conditions.

Corners can be very slippery.

Click here for more Pics.

So, the closest “mountain bike” race to Denver is the Battle of the Bear in Lakewood at Bear Creek Reservoir. This course is flat and fast with 7-8 laps. One year it snowed 6″ the day before the race, only to have 90 degree temperatures the next year. I always enjoy the race because its a good time for the family and friends to come out and cheer at a course that doesn’t send me 30 miles into the lonely wilderness. I was excited to see that this year they have lengthen the course so you dont get dizzy racing it! Check out the map of the new course and the race website! See you on the dirt! - swift

Garmin Edge 205 GPS Unit - used to make this map!

So, Matt, Tate, Colin, Josh and I headed west for the weekend and spent a relaxing weekend riding some new trails in Moab. On Saturday, we climbed Amasa Back and looked for the RockStacker trail. After Josh slipped on the sandstone, we found the killer trail. Click here for more photos of the days adventure!

Then, while it was snowing 12″ inches in Denver, we went for a ride up Porcupine and down the Portal Trail! It was a little chilly but much better then the Front Range! Click here for some photos of Sundays ride!

As much as I love riding outdoors, its that time of year when you look out the window and it looks beautiful. Sunny and blue skies but the temperature is only 18deg! Tyler and I beat the cold and ended up getting some “indoor training” at the Woodward Indoor Park here in Golden! - Swift

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funksphotos/2111737144/in/photostream/

Jon Watt sent me this link to a Velonews article about the Colorado Epic MTB Endurance Stage Race. Its nice to see that racers on a budget dont have travel to Costa Rica or BC to get a chance at an Epic-multi day-brutal stage race! What are your thoughts? Would you do a 5 day MTB stage race in CO? Would you only train and race big races that season? Would you race Solo or Team? - Swift

The 2008 Mountain States Cup series just got posted on their website. It looks like they came back with the classic races like Angel Fire, Crested Butte, Snow Mass, Telluride and Keystone. But I am REALLY excited to hear about the new race venues in Fruita and Sol Vista! I always love new courses! - Swift