Today didn’t go as planned (an Adventure is born)
February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Travel | 3 Comments
I was planning on staying home today, resting my foot, and catching up on some computer time. I needed my morning pastry fix, so I set out to go to the shop on the corner. I was walking out and I left the door in the apt building ajar, as the locks are a pain in the butt. Nah, don’t be lazy, pull the door shut . . .
When I came back in I realized I had picked up the wrong set of keys, and only had the key to the building, not the apartment. LOCKED OUT . . . ! I only had 2.55 Euro, no train ticket, no passport, and I didn’t know Debby’s cell or where she worked. I had a whole day to kill and no where to go . . . Read more
Schone Donnerstag! (Happy Thursday Berlin Bike Action)
February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Travel | Leave a Comment
OK so the truth is that I injured my foot a little bit jumping off the pier in England. It was fine until I did a full day of walking on it. Now walking is a bit uncomfortable. So I got the bright idea to rent a town bike to cruise around Berlin, thereby saving my foot for Poland and also seeing more of the city and maybe even getting a bit of exercise in to boot.
Berlin has bike lanes and paths everywhere; it is very bike commuter friendly. Many places there are brick paths on the sidewalks, and in other places there are lanes in the street.
I found a bit of singletrack in the city!
I rented the bike at the base of the TV tower. It was brilliant, because I could ride anywhere and not get lost! OK click the READ MORE for the rest of the pics and story from my day of biking in Berlin! Read more
BMA Banquet and Silent Auction Tonight at the St. Julian in Boulder!
February 8, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Event | Leave a Comment
I hope to see you tonight at the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance 3rd Annual Gala Banquet and Silent Auction. If you don’t have tickets, sorry, it’s sold out! It’s gonna be fun! Also, as stated in an earlier blog post, I’ll be auctioning off some Moab mountain bike photography. I hope someone buys it!
Tom Hornyak - Crazy Guy on a Bike
January 31, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling | 1 Comment
I came across the web diary entries of a 21 year old kid who is going to ride around the country on a bike. His entries are pretty funny. The trip is called ‘Around the United States on a Budget’, and he basically has no money and very minimal gear. He comes off as naive, it’s kinda cute. The first entry has a detailed itinerary of his route so you can see if he is planning on sleeping on your couch and mooching your food. The Day Two entry is an entertaining sample. I think I’m going to follow this one. He’s bound to get in some trouble sooner or later! After all he is Horny … ak.
First ride of the year
January 27, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Phone Pics | 1 Comment
The temperature hit 65 in Boulder today and the roadies were out in force. It has been pretty cold since I’ve been back from Florida, and I haven’t ventured out from behind the computer too much. I couldn’t deny a day this nice in January, especially on a Sunday. I ventured out on the road bike up Lee Hill and back down Old Stage. It was definitely good to get out there and sweat out some of my sins. Mid-ride I decided to take a couple pics for the blog with the ol’ cell phone. Check out the sun flare!
Win this photo printed on art canvas at the BMA silent auction
January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Event, Photos | 1 Comment
OK I’ve made a decision on which picture I am going to donate to the BMA silent auction. This is the Bartlett Wash slickrock outside of Moab Utah. I really like the lines in this photo, hopefully someone else will too. This photo will be printed 16×24 on art canvas and stretched over a 1.625″ thick wood frame. The sides of the image will wrap around the frame, so it can be displayed without any additional framing. Hope to see you there!
Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance’s (BMA) Third Annual Gala Banquet
January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Bicycling, Event | Leave a Comment
BMA’s Third Annual Gala Banquet
February 8, 2008
St Julien Hotel
This event sold out the last two years, so put it on your calendar, and get your tickets early! Once a year, the BMA crew puts on their finest threads and gathers in the finest room they can find with City Council members, County Commissioners, land managers, our business members, riders, and a hip crowd to enjoy each other’s company and a tasty dinner prepared by Chef Jason, Head chef at the St Julien and BMA member. I will be there covering the event and making sure everyone stays out of trouble. Or causing trouble, it depends on who’s there.
This year’s Auction is already shaping up nicely. The silent and live Auction will benefit the Better Trails Fund, BMA’s program to capitalize on the opportunities coming our way in the next 12 to 18 months. The items being gathered are amazing; there’s totally cool bikes and schwag in the mix. I’m going to be donating some kind of photographic work, stayed tuned for that. They’ll also have a door prize of a one night stay at the St Julien. Your favorite liquids from Oskar Blues will be available as a part of your admission; other beverages will be available at the cash bar. Tickets are $75 per person and can be securely purchased online via Paypal or in person at Rocky Mounts. Be sure to make your meal selection when you buy your ticket! A sneak peek of our auction items? Sure! Click here to take a look at the cool items they are gathering. If you have something special you would like to donate to the auction, please contact the Auction Coordinator Andria Bilich at boulderfuzz@gmail.com.
Below is a cool picture of a ranger cutting the ‘no mountain bikes’ sign off a trail that BMA opened this year.
Christmas Mountain Biking Photos at Morris Bridge / Flatwoods
December 25, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos, Sports | Leave a Comment
No, I don’t feel bad at all that I’m missing out on skiing. Holiday tourists, lines, icy highways … or flip flops, shorts, and short sleeves … hmmmmm. Do I look sad? How do you like my leftover helmet from my 1996 race team? I like it, it matches the 1995 Stumpjumper I’m on.
Some people have asked me, “How can you mountain bike in Florida?” I say it’s kindof like mountain biking in two dimensions instead of three, on an X-Y coordinate system instead of an X-Y-Z, for the math geeks amongst us. Which basically means, yeah, it’s flat. But twisty.
The ironic thing is that no one down here rides singlespeeds. We ride singlespeeds on mountainous terrain where the gear you are in is rarely the right one for the job. But down here I’ve been just picking one gear and sticking to it all day. I’ve been using the 42×20. Big ring fun! I could have used a little harder one, but the next option is the 17 which is too hard. This was the biggest climb I did all day.
There can be some technical challenges even more frightening than the log hop, however. One time I had to turn around because there was an alligator on the trail. This guy really likes this spot, he has been here all three times that I’ve ridden so far this trip. The reason he looks so happy is because I was scratching his belly just a minute before. Alligators like their bellies scratched, FYI.
But the most horrible technical challenge occurs if you ride early in the morning. If you are the first one to ride the trails, you have to break trail. See, the banana spiders build webs across the trails at night. They build them precisely at head height. So you are riding along and all of a sudden you have a face full of web. And you know that somewhere there is a spider with a body about the size of the last segment of your pinky finger.
The trails are in perfect shape right now, as it hasn’t rained much this fall. The trails border on the Hillsborough River, and the water levels normally vary cyclically. So the low trails like this one get flooded certain times of the year and are unrideable.
Most of the higher sandy trails are rideable all year long. This is the perfect time of year to ride, it has been in the low 70s all week. It gets cold enough here that leaves do fall off some of the trees, although not completely.
So this is Steve Z Sr., and this is how the Steve Z’s spent their Christmas Eve, under the canopy of the cypress swamp!
2007 Colorado State Cyclocross Championship Photos and Slideshow
December 11, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos, Slideshows, Sports | 2 Comments
This year’s ACA Colorado State Cyclocross Championship was held at a brand new venue in Lyons, Colorado, which is about 20 minutes north of Boulder. All the local cross freaks were undoubtedly excited to see piles of snow falling from the heavens on Saturday. The cross gods were smiling on Colorado, and ensuring that a ‘real’ cross race would go down, and not one of Colorado’s famous sunny and dry events.
The temperatures were extremely cold on Sunday, which made sure that the course stayed frozen and icy. I was a little disappointed; I was hoping for an energy sucking slop-fest. But you can’t have everything, and I’ll take any sort of adverse conditions that I can get. What we did get at our new Lyons event was sponsorship by local brewery Oskar Blues. There were generous amounts of free Dale’s Pale Ale and Old Chub Scottish Ale available, which ensured that the fans would be rowdy.
And that’s the beard of Dave from Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. He’s a classic eccentric distiller type, who took the bus from Denver to Boulder, then rode his fixed gear bike to Lyons, then raced, then hung out and gave out samples of his awesome whiskey. I’m a whiskey on the rocks man, and Stranahan’s is some of the best that I’ve ever had. With all of these fine local beverages and a fire pit present, the fans kept warm and happy. Here is a shot of Greg from Mud and Cowbells Blogspot having about the most fun he’s ever had. He did a good job, but I could have used a little more cowbell!
And there was some racing going on too, although I had a hard time focusing. The pro men’s race was an awesome throw-down dogfight between Brandon Dwight, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Danny Summerhill and Matt Pacocha.
JHK was trying to obtain a frozen beard as good as Dave’s, but I don’t think he quite did it.
And in the end it was young blood Danny S. taking the win over the veterans!
I’ve put together a slideshow of all my photos. You can view the slideshow on it’s own page by clicking HERE. Or watch it in the video window below, and enjoy the generous helping of cowbell right here in the comfort of the home page. There will be a gallery at the end where you can view individual photos, just in case I’ve captured you in all your frozen glory.
Riding bikes in the snow is fun
December 10, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling | Leave a Comment
We had our first big snowstorm of the year in Boulder this past weekend. It provided me a chance to pull The Snow Bike out of the garage. It’s main feature is studded Nokian Extreme tires. They are a lot of fun. I was ripping around town drifting in the snow and people were generally looking at me like I was nuts. It made me want to go ride my bike on some trails in the snow. One of these day’s I’ll put the tires on the Curtlo and take them out for a real mountain bike ride. I would have gone Sunday, but I went up to the Colorado State Cyclocross Championships in Lyons. Look for those photos to come next.
The picture below is just a picture of a bike that was left out on the street in front of the bar. I guess the owner doesn’t think riding bikes in the snow is as fun as I do.
The glorious mountain biking continues
November 19, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos | Leave a Comment
It was 75.8 degrees today at the NCAR weather facility. I’m really liking this never ending summer thing. Well, never say never, the wind is picking up and they are calling for snow by the morning.
Yet everyone is completely freaking out because there is no snow in the mountains yet. Relax people, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. It almost never snows solidly the entire season here in CO, and I’ll take a snowless and balmy November where I can ride in shorts over a snowless, cold and boring January any day.
Boulder Cup Cyclocross Race Photos
November 11, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos, Sports | Leave a Comment
You gotta love the crazy cross fans that come out to support this little ol’ fringe sport of cycling. You also gotta love Boulder in November; sunny dry and 70 degrees. Not exactly your hard core ‘cross weather, but it sure made for a fine day to drink beer in the park.
Ryan Trebon and Katie Compton flat out rode away from the Pro Men’s and Women’s fields, which made the races a bit anti-climactic. Here they are, throwin’ down.
There were a couple guys who were bunnyhopping the barrier sections again. I didn’t catch any carnage on this day however.
Chris Horner was out enjoying his off season, and placed solidly in the top 10 on this non-technical course. He always looks like he is having a great time!
Hall Ranch - 29, Single, and Clean
November 8, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling | Leave a Comment
Sometimes I look at my site statistics to see what articles keep people coming back over time. Last year’s “Fall Riding Kicks Ass” article resonated in the Google-sphere and has been a solid performer. This year I have been guilty of letting my career drive get in the way of one of my loves, that same fall mountain bike riding that I gushed about. I did not go on a single ride in the mountains beneath the fall foliage. In fact, I went two months without riding at all. On one hand, starting a business takes some sacrifice on the front end, but on the other hand, I haven’t been living my life in the way that I ultimately want it to be.
That single minded drive was put on hold this past week. I’ve been having some more big wins happen in my life, even extending out beyond the photography arena. As a result I’ve taken some time this week to smell the flowers, and enjoy this absolutely stellar weather we’ve been having here in Boulder, Colorado.
Personally, I think the flowers (or scrub grass) smell best at 25 mph, so Justin and I set out for some Front Range MTB action. On Tuesday we rode the new trail up at Heil Ranch for the first time. It’s a pretty sweet addition, although it is more of the same rocky-ness that pervades the rest of the trails up there. It will make a nice addition to the new Hall-Heil connector that is purportedly going to be built next year. I rode the On-One 1×9 on that day, since I still hadn’t put the finishing touches on my new ride that I picked up at Veloswap a couple weeks ago.
Tuesday’s ride in shorts and short sleeves was so satisfying that we decided to hit Hall Ranch on Wednesday. And this time I was ready to christen my new ride, the Bianchi Rita 29er singlespeed. I was very pleased with the ride. This is the first aluminum hardtail that I’ve owned since I quit racing mountain bikes in 2001, and I was curious to see how the ride felt. With the big wheels smoothing out the desert-like rock features, I was totally happy with the ride. I’ll be interested to give it a go in rougher conditions like Heil Ranch, since Hall is pretty buff for the most part. But on this day, with my marginal fitness, I was able to clean the entire rocky ascent without any dabs for the first time ever on a single speed. Was it the 29 inch wheels? Or was it just another win for me as a result of my new and improved outlook?
Redline Cup Cyclocross Race Boulder Colorado Photo Gallery
November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos, Sports | 3 Comments
Colorado was left off of the Crank Brothers US Gran Prix of Cyclocross this year, but that didn’t stop world class racing action to come to the cycling hotbed. Most of the top racers in the country came to duke it out on two different courses this past Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s Redline Cup was held at the Boulder Reservoir under windy conditions. Katie Compton and Ryan Trebon destroyed their respective fields and rode away by large margins.
Here is Tree-farm running away from everyone.
Not only was it windy, but it was DUSTY!
My favorite racer of the weekend was Pink Hat. GO PINK HAT! If you are going to get smoked than it can be a wise strategy to wear pink argyle socks to show that you really didn’t give a shit anyway, because there are clearly some Dale’s to drink at the finish line!
So, in order to get this photo with a fisheye lens I was laying on the ground just inside of the post at the apex of the corner. Which means guys were passing roughly 4 inches from my camera. They probably thought I was an idiot. Maybe I am.
And finally we have Todd Wells showing how a bunnyhop sequence looks when done right. This is of course opposed to Jeremy Powers’ fine display of aerial acrobatics shown in the previous blog entry!
Jeremy Powers Crashing over the Cyclocross Barriers
November 4, 2007 | Filed Under Bicycling, Photos, Sports | 3 Comments
Well I didn’t make it to Moab, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t have any new bicycling related photos to post from this weekend. UCI cyclocross racing is in Boulder this weekend. On Saturday I went to the Redline Cup out at the Boulder Reservoir. I will post some more photos later, but first I wanted to throw out this money shot of Jeremy Powers stacking it over the barriers! It was looking pretty ugly when he didn’t get up, dragging himself under the tape and off the course. But he went on to finish and apparently just got the wind knocked out of him. Click on the pic for a larger one. Come out today to Fairview High School to see the Boulder Cup race.
