Home Is Where The Coffee Is

I swear good coffee makes the world go round, at least it does mine. I made the trip back and forth from Durango to Aspen this week and saw the family. It was nice being back in the valley for a few days and seeing some good friends. Got a few bike rides in in the cold. I forgot how cold it gets there sometimes.

Once again, the warm coffee saved me on the cold days. Along with the good bike rides and coffee, I indulged in as much good food as possible. Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday when you are a poor college student who doesn't have much money to spend on stuff like food.


Some how it seems that I keep finding photos of bikes and bike accessories turned into furniture or other things. This photo comes from Jesse Swift, who used to build frames for Dean bikes back in the day. I guess after my last post about my sister's new lamp, Jesse had to show me his. And I will admit it, this lamp is pretty damn awesome, and I promise this is the last lamp I put on my blog for a long time. Today I did the next race in the Squawker Cup Series and only made it for two laps after I took a harsh fall in the opening lap on an icy sidewalk. Smacked my knee pretty hard and it's still super sore and turning colors. Unfortunately, it's not the first time I have had this happen. I hate DNF's. Oh well, I think there are two races next weekend, and I am sure it will still be muddy then. Until then I will be drinking more coffee and getting my study on!

All Crossed Up

Cyclocross man! I love it! I haven't been able to race much cross this year due to me working so much, but when I do I make it count. I love getting out there and suffering so much that you are certain you are going to pass out, but you want to catch up the guys in front of you, but still keep away from the guys behind. It doesn't hurt that most of the Durango cycling population is there either racing or yelling and shouting at you to go faster. It's really hard to get enough of something so good and so fun.

It's more fun when you are racing against a bunch of friends who you normally never get to race with. In this case it's Cody Wilderman, long time friend, big time pinner on the downhill bike. It was awesome seeing him up chasing the top guys today for most of the race until his back gave out. We had a long talk today after the race where we were trying to think of things that came close to being as awesome as bike riding/racing. We both concluded that the only things that came remotely close were coffee and burritos. Anyways, I need some dinner. Tomorrow is the official start off my week off from school and I am super excited. See you on the bike!

Saturday Rides

My Saturday's are turning into epic days for biking, last weekend White Rim, and today I went out and rode with some of the roadie population in Durango. I figured we were setting out on a typical rode ride, on pavement, but it ended up turning into an even better ride since a good portion of it was on dirt. Plus there was a decent amount of climbing, my favorite. Riding with Matt Shriver and Ben Kneller was also a really cool experience. I normally don't get to hear any stories of what its like racing on the road and it sounds really fun. Anyways, here's to awesome Saturday's! And thanks again to Ben and Matt for letting me tag along today.

Free Time

I am on Turkey Day break and could not be happier! After 14 straight weeks of classes and homework, I have one to myself. I cannot wait. Especially since the weather down here in Durango has been awesome and looks to stay this way for a while. That helps when you are supposed to be on the road a decent amount everyday, and it's also nice to be able walk around downtown and not be freezing. Really, great weather during November is one of the best gifts you can get and definitely leaves me thankful.

Another really cool gift my sister is getting back is her old fork that was recalled a while ago from Cervelo. This really cool artist, Leif Valin, offered to make this for her. Leif can be reached at lvalin1115@hotmail.com, and his Flickr can be seen here. some really cool stuff. This is probably on of the coolest lamps I have ever seen. Well I am off for a bike ride, I have a cyclocross race here on campus again. I am really loving cross season, and with most of the races being so close from my house it's even better. Take care and get out and enjoy some awesome November weather!

Epic

Wow, I am still tired from this one. Longest bike ride I have ever done, most miles I have ever done on a mountain bike and also quite possibly my most favorite ride of all time. It was Brian Smith's birthday this weekend and its been a yearly thing where him, his wife Jenny, and a bunch of friends all go out to Moab and ride the white rim in one day.


I have ridden the White Rim numerous times before, but never in one day. I didn't really know what to expect. 100 plus miles on a mountain bike is very different. But needless to say I was very excited for this ride. We set out on the trail at 6am and it was freezing!


As we rode through, it started warming up and the views became more spectacular, be sure to check out all of my pictures from this ride. The trail/road was in pretty condition, except for a few moon dusty sections that were almost unreal. But really to think about it, the whole trip was pretty unreal.

Around mile 65-70 I hit the wall and was suffering hardcore for a while. It took a lot of chocolate covered espresso beans and Cytomax to bring me back. Then once we got to the final climb I seemed to feel better and better and actually rode stronger up Shaffer's than I did most of the whole ride before. That was really cool since I felt like a drag in those last few miles leading up to the climb and didn't really know how making it back to the car was going to happen. Jesse Swift and Josh Kravetz were pulling me for a good 15-20 miles and shared some awesome food with me in hopes that I wouldn't just completely shut down. Once I did get back to the car I was DONE! I was shaking and so cold and so hungry and all I could think about was what I wanted to eat and how much of it I could shove down my throat. I can not wait to do this ride again next year, and most importantly, a huge happy birthday to Brian Smith.

Pure Fun

Here's a picture of my bike after today's ride. It was awesome, so much fun. Mud is so much fun to ride in, and today was perfect mud, nothing really tricky to ride in, but still just a bit slippery and really messy. This is another prime example of me not ever growing up, I still love raging my bike through puddles and mud bogs like a 5 year old.


It was also a really sick ride since Todd Wells showed up and taught the Fort Lewis team mounting and dismounting technique. It was ridiculous watching him do what he was doing. I have never really talked to him, but it is very easy to see that he is a super chill person. It today was cool enough then after that, I went over to Tad and Evan's house and they hooked me up with some premo burritos for dinner. Nothing like excellent for free and it seems like every time I go over there, I end up laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. Anyways, time to hit the homework and go to bed, I have another decent day tomorrow for class and biking. Maybe it will be muddy still!

Time Flying By

It snowed today. I really can't believe it, mainly because I actually was wanting some snow. The snow kind of reminds me of home and I don't even really mind the cold too much. For once this is a bit of a new thing. I usually hate snow and try and milk summer for as long as possible. But this time around I find myself looking forward to the winter. This season was a bit of a let down to me so seeing the snow is just more notification of 09 coming. It is also a bit depressing too since I have realized how fast everything is going. It honestly seems like yesterday I was riding up Sopris thinking, I wonder when all the snow will melt and all the trails will be open.

I also realized how bad I have been at updating this thing. I originally started this so I could have something to look back at and move forward from. When I looked at my blog and saw that this year I have been lacking on the updates I got really disappointed. I remember when almost everyday I have something I wanted to put down on here, and now it seems like if I get 3 posts a month I am doing well. I will definitely have to change that, as weird as it sounds, writing is one of my most favorite things to do and I miss it to be honest. Plus, I have been quite lazy lately due to the influx in school and work.

Oh well, there are worse things, at least I have still been getting out on the bike a decent amount. It seems impossible to not ride everyday here in Durango. It feels like every time I walk out of class and look out over town I can't help but get thoughts like, oh yeah test tracks looks sick! Or, hmm, I wonder how Sailing Hawks is riding? And the strangest of them all was last Saturday when I thought, huh, I feel like riding up to Purgatory and back. The cool part is that I am never disappointed. That is another thing that I am happy to see is that after all this time, looking back at all my past posts, very few things have changed. I love to ride my bike, and the more coffee the better. As long as that never changes, I have a good feeling I will be happy. And with the amount of time I am going to spending on the bike this winter, I should be plenty happy.

See you on the roads!