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It’s been nearly a week since the Battle the Bear race at Bear Creek Reservoir.  Not a whole lot to report other than… ME NO RACE IN HEAT!

I’ve lived at 9,000 feet for the past eight years – here we rarely see temps over 75°.  So when I tried to race in +85°, I felt as though I my head was in a pressure cooker and I had the power of famine stricken 90 year old.  The all black kit didn’t help either, but I like the way it looks in the photos.

I ended up with a sub-par mid pack finish; In fact, my worst finish in a mountain bike race ever.  Oh well.. next year.

I finally got in my first race of 2011.  Yes, it was only a small local short track over in Eagle, CO, but it was still fun and I got to push nice and hard.  The short track format reminded me a lot of racing cross… minus the barriers.  Without the barriers, it doesn’t hurt quite as bad. It’s interesting how hoping of the bike for 5-10 seconds per lap really pushes you to your limits.

Next race in the series is this Wedsnesday (5/4/2011), and I’m contemplating upgrading and getting spanked in the expert field.  The only problem is that there is no Pro field, so I will seriously get spanked. Maybe it’ll make me faster in the long run.

Photo by Vail Photographer Rich Vossler.

Made it over to Eagle’s Bellyache Road trails for 2.5 hours of serious fun.  After weeks on nothing other than the road bike, it felt amazing to ride some high quality singletrack!

Title says it all. Here’s a photo….

Photo was taken around 1pm.

I’ve become aware that people are actually visiting this blog (probably from my twitter bio). So, I should probably make an attempt to add a post now and again.

This is my latest addiction, Strava. It’s been described as social media for competitive cyclists. Check out the site for details http://www.strava.com/tour.

This is a 52cm frame with a 53.5cm top tube.  The complete bike weighs at about 18lbs and would make a great first road bike or light weight commuter. Because this bike is used, it does have the normal scuffs and cable rub associated with a used bike.  There are no dents or dings in the frame.

This bike is about 6 years old comes equipped with a complete Shimano Ultegra drive train.  I originally purchased this bike for about $1400 – since then I have upgraded the wheels, stem, saddle, bars and added a Shimano Flightdeck computer.  I’m asking $535.

Specs are as follows:

• Frame – 52cm Leader LD 715R 6061 T6 aluminum (Check out the reviews)
• Fork – Leader Carbon fork with carbon steer and integrated headset
• Headset - Aheadset integrated
• Derailleurs – Ultegra front and rear
• Shifters/Levers – Ultegra (shifts flawlessly)
• Brakes – Ultegra
• Wheels – FSA RD400 (wheels are true and bearings are completely smooth)
• Crank/BottomBracket – Ultegra 170mm with octalink bb
• Cassette – Ultegra 12-25
• Saddle – Selle Italia Fokus
• Seatpost – 27.2 carbon
• Stem – Ritchey WCS 110mm
• Handlebars – Bontrager Race 42cm
• Tires – Continental Grand Prix
• Computer – Shimano Flightdeck

Photos

I flew back to San Francisco in early March to visit my dear friend Conny from Switzerland–and our dear friend Eric drove down from Tahoe with his wife Lissy to meet up with us as well.  Conny, Eric, and I all used to work together at PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn back in 2000 — and neither Eric nor myself had seen Conny since then.  It had been a full decade.

It was so nice to hang out with them again.
Even if only for a very short period of time.
They’re awesome.

While browsing through my usual list of bike related websites this morning, I was surprised to find one my photos featured in SingleTrack.com‘s  ‘The First Phatties of 2010‘ photo gallery.

I did send the photo in, but hadn’t heard anything and assumed that in the event that it was published to the site I would get some kind of notification.  Oh well, no big deal. 

Check out the gallery here (left colum, third from the top).  Singletrack.com has pulled all of the reader submitted gallerys.