Friday Fun

The Lizard has wanted to participate in the Colorado Trail Race (CTR) for many, many years, since before we met. The CTR is a 500-mile unsupported point-to-point race along the trail that runs from Denver to Durango. Cyclists are not allowed to have any help from family or friends as they race around the clock and through the night, often sleeping only a couple of hours once or twice along the way. There is no registration fee and no waiting list. But it takes huge preparation and training to complete this trail even when not racing.

This year, the race went in the opposite direction, starting in Durango and winding through the Rockies to Denver. Jefe Branham won with a time of four days, four hours and 17 minutes. (WOW!) Aaron Johnson participated (five days, 19 hours and 5 minutes!) and somehow found enough battery power and umph to make this incredible video of the journey.

2013 Colorado Trail Race from Aaron Johnson on Vimeo.

Tweet

Over the Edge

Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis is familiar with my Pikes Peak obsession. I had realized during Ride the Rockies this year I could not push my bike to 14,110 feet in three hours or less, so I had already decided to save my money this year and not participate. And then my back put the final kibosh on any afterthoughts just a few days later.

Nevertheless, my heart was there the day of the bike ride, even though I was drugged and mostly motionless in bed. Even though fires had scorched the forest north of the peak, the Pikes Peak Cycling Hillclimb saw more than 150 cyclists reaching for the summit. The entire road is paved this year, and record times were expected.

Thirty-seven-year-old pro Leroy Poposki ascended Pikes Peak in an hour and eight minutes. Ironically, his optometry business was threatened by the Waldo Canyon fire just a week earlier.

Pro Katie Compton of New Zealand won the women's division with a time of 1.5 hours. She opened her home to Colorado Springs friends who were evacuated due to the fire, and they took her up on the offer.

Last Sunday was the rescheduled 90th annual International Hill Climb, initially slated for June 27 and postponed due to the Waldo Canyon fire. Car and motorcycle speeds were expected to smash all motor-powered records on the all-paved course. Rhys Millen took top honors with a time of nine minutes and 46 seconds.

Not every vehicle made it to the top, though. Jeremy Foley missed one of the 154 turns and rolled his Mitsubishi Evolution 10 times. Fortunately, he and his co-driver were not seriously injured. Foley later posted on Facebook, "...a little beaten up, but nothing major..." No, I was not there; the video below came from Youtube.

Regardless, the motorized event has become so popular with the new pavement, the Race to the Clouds is under consideration for expansion to two days next year.

Maybe one day they'll let bicycles go up at their own pace.

Tweet

Someone needs to say it

I didn't like the name, either. I thought it should be Tour of Colorado. I have, tongue in cheek, called it that anyway, even though it's not the official name.

Then I learned when the 2012 route was leaked and subsequently officially announced five days early, the name Tour of Colorado already belongs to someone else, and the name isn't for sale.

So USA Pro Cycling Challenge it is, and man, what a route 2012 will be!!!

However, not all are pleased with the new route. Heck, some even wish the cyclists would take their two-wheelers and go elsewhere. Some even express rude joy their town was not selected.


Leeches? (Look up the word before you use the wrong one, please.) Freeloaders? Really? Is this how you feel about recreational tours like Ride the Rockies and Bicycle Tour of Colorado, too? What about softball tournaments and rodeos and annual conventions? Is this attitude really the way you want Colorado to be remembered on a global scale???

The event includes more than pro-cyclists, who are by no means leeches or freeloaders. This event includes more than managers, directors, trainers, coaches, families and sometimes even sponsors. In each town (and in surrounding towns), hotel rooms are already booked up. Restaurants will be full. After pedaling up and over a mountain pass, believe me, cyclists, pro and fans alike, are going to be very hungry.

Gas will be pumping. Grocery stores will have to stock up. Coffee and water will be premium everywhere along the route. Little kids will set up lemonade stands. Teenagers and college kids will sell granola bars and pop tailgate-style. Young entrepreneurs will make a summer's worth of wages in one week. Volunteers will be plentiful in each of the host cities. Local souvenirs are going to sell like crazy. Fans will drive, bike and even hire tour guides and/or tour vans/buses to watch. Some will rent bikes. Many will wear outrageous costumes. Reporters and photographers from about 165 countries (plus all over the US) will be here the whole week. Some athletes will train here, and that will require more of the above.

Cyclists, professional and recreational, have cars, and some even have houses. They work. They pay for insurance. They pay taxes. They have families. Likely the only real difference between people such as above and cyclists is a cyclist's couch isn't as worn.


This is what it's all about. Fans, old and young alike, will plan their entire summer vacation around this event.

One seemingly bitter comment (which thankfully I can't find now) expressed, "I've never been a big fan of cycling, and now that you've skipped my town, I'm not going to support this at all."

The Tour de France doesn't stay in Paris. It doesn't even stay just in France anymore. The Giro doesn't stay in Rome. A new route is offered every year, and that's what makes each bicycle tour magical. Participants (and viewers, when televised coverage actually works) get to see more than just one place. They see places they might not see any other way. The whole world opens up when hidden getaways are shared.

I, for one, am VERY thankful to live in a place that couldn't be fully explored even with a three-week bicycle tour. I've lived here since 1988, and I still haven't seen everything on my list.


How fun would that be?!? What if the Tour de France stayed within a hundred miles of Paris? What if the Tour of California stayed within a hundred miles of... LA? San Francisco? Whichever town put up the most money to host it?

I meet a lot of people who've never been more than an hour outside of Denver. They have no clue what they are missing. And that's fine, because I enjoy the best of the state without crowds.


Would be nice. So would Colorado National Monument (Tour of the Moon), Grand Mesa, Trail Ridge Road and Mount Evans. But I don't think they will happen.


Well, yes...


Bottom line to anti-cyclists:
Take your vacation and ride a bike up this mountain. Then summon the energy to smile when you reach the top.

Tweet

Woohoo!

The stages of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (aka Tour of Colorado) have been announced!

They're doing TWO 12,000-foot stages in ONE day. !!!

I did DIRT ROAD Cottonwood Pass on my first Ride the Rockies. I try to do Independence Pass before it opens to traffic every spring.

I've never done both passes in a day and confess it would take a lot more than I could ever muster to be able to RACE this Queen Stage!

Tweet