Economics of a Retail Development

Never thought I'd hop on the blog again, but put some thoughts down on paper, and wanted everyone to check it out.  So without further adieu, please go check out this document.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B26z--v4R3fcUDVtZk00dElCcXc/edit?pli=1

Nite Rider

And we've officially transitioned from the pretty damn hot summer we've had, to a just-about-as-hot fall period.  Yes, I know "fall" doesn't technically start for another three weeks.  But up here in the high country, we're being treated to sundown at just before 8pm, and shortly thereafter, temperatures plummeting from the mid-80s it hit earlier in the day.

As darkness set in, the clouds consolidated over Steamboat, putting on quite a light show...

Wednesday, I charged up the lights - not because I particularly wanted to do a nite ride, but because I wanted to ride, and my option with getting home from work around 6pm now extends into the darkness.  Took Stumpy out for a little spin with my brand new Garmin Edge 500 and the NiteRider illumination on the front end of the bike.

I really can't pin down why I don't do more nite rides, because I had a freakin' blast.  Just looping around at the Eagle Ranch Loops - trails I've ridden a million times - and it feels so different at night.  Anyways, I caught a cool glimpse of the dark trail and the last glimmer of daylight fading away.

Enjoy.

GO RIDE!

USA Pro Cycling Challenge - Part II

Yup.  Agreed.

And just like that, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is wrapped up for 2011.  A few thoughts, after watching Stages 5 (Steamboat -> Breckenridge) and 6 (Golden -> Denver):

• Congrats to Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack), winning the USAPCC...
• Impressed with the Americans holding serve, taking all top five spots...
• Tejay Van Garderen is the future of US pro cycling.  Just hope he can harness the disappointment of failure (seen at end of Vail TT) and use it to fuel his riding...
• The Schleck brothers (Andy and Frank) already had a lot of fans here in the US.  Now they have more...
• World-famous Elgee almost got clipped by Andy Schleck (as witnessed on Versus TV) during his attack at the top of Swan Mountain...
• It was amazing seeing these guys up close and personal.  Watching the peloton up over the short kicker just outside of Wolcott, you realized just how strong, quick and powerful these riders are...
• The turnout at each stage was amazing.  The crowds at Independence Pass, the gate and finish sections of the Vail TT, the finish line at Steamboat, the mob that was Swan Mountain, and the tens of thousands that showed at the finish circuit in downtown Denver...wow.  That was just amazing, and surely there is something there that will bring this race back over and over...

Next up for me is Mountain States Cup Sol Survivor, in Granby on September 3, and Tim Mt. Pleasant and I will be holding it down for Bach Builders MTB at the 12 Hours of Snowmass on September 10.

GO RIDE!

USA Pro Cycling Challenge

GOING.

OFF.

That's the only way I can explain the reaction of the crowds at the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge, here in Colorado.

I managed to sneak away from work (more or less) for two days, finding a killer spot 1.5k from the top of the Vail Pass individual time trial and hanging the day with Skelli and Ryan and the other boys from Twenty2 Cycles, cheering on each of the riders as they slogged up the 8% straightaway.

The other day I rode up from Eagle to Wolcott, and sat on top of the corkscrew climb that starts Highway 131.  Attached some pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure.

Colorado local Tom 'Tommy D' Danielson

Previous stage (Gunnison->Aspen) winner George Hincapie

Up-and-comer (and Yellow Jersey, i.e. leader of the race) Tejay Van Garderen - watch out for this kid...

Jelly Belly Pro Cycling team bus, on the way to Steamboat

Dave Zabriskie, aka "Captain America", aka Current US Natl Time Trial Champ

Cadel Evans, aka Current Defending Tour de France Champ

Jens "SHUT UP LEGS" Voigt on course.  Consummate professional cyclist.  Catching his "minute man".

Time Flies

Well, it's been two months since I've last been slummin' around these parts.

I guess first and foremost, let's get caught up on all the racing action this summer.  I've taken part in a number of races up, down and around the mountain region of the country.

Of course, I've had to jump into the local Vail Rec District races.  I've managed to make it to three of the five races so far:  Eagle Ranch Classic, Hammer in the Hay, and Davos Dash.  Haven't had the greatest success from a pure result standpoint, but I have been holding my own, setting a PR at Davos (a three-mile hillclimb) by 40 seconds.  Pretty stoked with that one, cuz when you're 6'-6" and staring down the barrel of 200 lbs, one thing you don't do particularly well is go uphill in a hurry.

Also, I've jumped into a couple of Mountain States Cup races - Cheyenne Mountain Explosion, and Rabbit Valley Rally.  Cheyenne was a technically demanding course, but not over the top from a fitness standpoint.  Rabbit Valley Rally found me fighting some nutrient imbalance issues, and cramping out of the race.  Sucks, because I was flat out hammering in that race until I went down.

The Teva Mountain Games have also come and gone.  A lucky couple of days got the course in good prep for the race; and for only using the bottom third of Vail Mountain, my God was that a challenging track.  Steep, punchy climbs that didn't just make your legs scream - they straight up took a chainsaw to them.  Dropped the only water bottle I had with me about 5 minutes into the race...not sure why I even finished that one.  Oh well - if there's one thing I'll say for the TMG event, it's that the swag bag for athletes is stellar.  $40 entry fee, well over $50 worth of stuff in the bag.  Makes just showing up worth it.

Palisade Classic was easily my best race of the year so far.  Which is surprising, because typically I don't hang on very well in longer events.  With a 45 minute climb right out of the gate, a solid 30 minute jeep road descent immediately after, the first half of the race didn't set up well for me.  After holding it together through those two sections, the remainder of the course was flat, sandy singletrack winding all over on the mesa overlooking Colorado's wine country.  Finally - a course that had the terrain that I excel at.  Was able to keep things motoring along over the last two hours of the race, finishing up 17th in the overall standings.

The lower rock garden.  75 yards of hand-built hell.

Finally, we arrived at the USA Cycling National Championships, in Ketchum, Idaho.  First trip to Ketchum.  Definitely want to go back - the place is freaking amazing.  Beautiful vistas, a small-town feel that can't be beat (but has all the amenities you could want), and miles upon miles upon miles upon miles of singletrack.  Ironically, as good as the singletrack around Ketchum is, the race course was iffy at best.  Rock gardens had to be hand-built, the main climb of the race saw 90% of the racers walking due to a combination of steep, loose gravelly trail, large root step-ups (12-18"), and severe racer congestion.  The rest of the course wasn't bad, but didn't give you any opportunities to make up for the poorly constructed climb.  Right at the bottom of the course, in front of the entire spectator crowd to see, was the "Waterfall" - a rock garden descent (of course, hand-built) that fell away from you as you entered.  Imagine as you're riding into this section, you see rock-rock-big rock-nothing.  The trail just disappeared from you.  Interesting, but I got the better of it and crushed it on both laps.  The climb was too steep for me to hold on to the group, so I found myself dropping a lot of time on the uphill portion.  Made up for it on some flat sections - there just wasn't enough of the terrain in my wheelhouse that I could get back into the mix.  Still, I bested my target time, and hung in there with the best mountain bike racers in the country.  Great road trip, heading up with buddy Josh Whitney (took 3rd in our race) and local racer/friend Adam Plummer.  Also ran into college cohort Aaron Elwell, racing the Pro division...always a great time catching up with him.

Climbing off the start of Nat'l Champs.  Road is actually about 18% grade.

The flat rocks were actually was one of my stronger facets of the race.

VRD #1: Eagle Ranch Classic

Vail Rec District XC #1, at my 'home course' in Eagle Ranch. Warmup wasn't going so well...pretty tired still from Sunday's Palisade Classic (more on that later). 'Pizza Legs' as my coach calls them...

VRD races are possibly the hardest hour of racing in Colorado. Heavy hitters - some of the best riders in the state - ramp the pace up to unbelievable speeds on short courses, creating a "hold on or get left" tempo.

This first local race of the season proved no different. The race course sets up as a good early season test of where a racer's riding is at: checks the power with some steep but short climbing, checks the handling with fast darting singletrack, and checks the overall fitness by offering no place for recovery.

Race started with Pros and Experts in one big group. Hot right off the start, and I couldn't muster the legs to go with. Did what I could for the first two laps, just hanging onto give myself a chance.

Someone in front of me stacked it up (i.e. crashed) on the first lap, and the leaders of my race were long gone. Sucks.

Second lap had me falling further off the pace, with no juice in the legs, falling back to 11th or so. The climb up and over Bailey's reaches grades that force you up over your front wheel to keep from flipping over backward. This one REALLY hurt. Good thing it's only a couple minutes long.

Legs opened up a little for the last lap, and was able to catch up to fellow Bach'er Tim Mt. Pleasant, put a good move on him, and work my way back up for a 7th place finish, with Tim following up closely thereafter in 8th.

Next up is Teva Mountain Games race next Saturday (we all hope?), with VRD #2 the following Wednesday at 4Eagle Ranch.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4...what!

Get Out Expo

Hey Kids!

If you're in the area, come on out to Eagle Ranch Village today to the Get Out Expo!  Bike demos from local shops, group rides (one of which led by yours truly), clinics, and all sorts of other outdoor related shenannigans!

Get Out Expo

Race Report...wha???

Well now.

It's been a while since I've actually done up a proper post.  Call it laziness, or lethargy, or being busy with other things, or training, or whatever.

Anyways, I'm a solid three races into the mountain bike season, so I figured I'd spill it all and summarize how things are going so far.  Let's do this one race at a time, and since one is pretty fresh, we'll hash it out in reverse order.

This past Saturday was the Front Range 60 MTB race, put on by Warriors Cycling.  Known in the past as the "Battle of the Bear", the race is typically a early season race around Bear Creek Lake State Park in Lakewood, CO; this event always brings a number of people down out of the mountains to get some training in as well as thaw out from the long winter.

This was my first year racing the event. I signed up for the "half-marathon" - a 30-mile shorter version of the FR60.  After pre-riding the course on Wednesday evening, I knew this course set up well for my strengths: a lot of flat, fast, sandy singletrack and doubletrack trails, with 5 different punchy climbs mixed in, for a 10-mile lap that was challenging and tactical enough for pro racers, and simple enough for beginners to enjoy themselves and the competition.

Fellow Bach racer Tim also came down from Eagle to race the 30 miler, as did fellow valley residents Jerry Oliver and Tyler Eaton to race the 60 miler earlier in the day.

I realized when I was warming up for the race that there were a number of guys in my age group that actually race in the Pro field for the Mountain States Cup series...there were no "ability" categories.  Mens Half-Marathon, 30-39yrs old.  Yikes...going head to head with some of the fastest guys around.

The weather was amazing all day, with temps starting on the warm side in the morning for the 60-milers.  By the time we got lined up for the 30-mile race at 2pm, temps were pushing 90F in the direct sunlight, with very little breeze.  My body was loving the heat, thawing out from 8 months of winter.  Line up, with Elgee on the mic, and off we go...

Pace was fast and heavy right off the start.  I sat in the group to try to get comfortable and get my heart rate and breathing plateaued off as soon as possible, rather than spiking and trying to hold it.  Our group was split up within the first 10 minutes of the race - the fast Pro guys off the front, and the rest of us just left in a wake of splintered up crap after trying to hang.

About two-thirds of the way through the first lap, the largest climb on the circuit hit like a wall.  While it was only about 300 ft of vertical, and just barely had to drop into the middle ring to climb it, it was in direct sunlight, and completely protected from any breeze there was.  All of a sudden, I'm overheating...no bueno.  Only having a bottle of Infinit drink, I had nothing to effectively cool off.  Fought through being on the verge of passing out, and descended the other side to finish off the lap.

Second lap was really good effortwise - I kept a solid spin going up all the climbs, and was doing work on all the flats, hammering out in the big ring.  Third lap started off well, but heading into the big climb again, my left hamstring started to twinge a little.  By the time I was on the homestretch back to the finish line, my right quad was about ready to sieze completely.  Put the rest of the drink I had in me, limped up the last climb of the day to the finish line, and crossed the line.

Since we were so splintered up, it was difficult to tell where I placed.  I felt like I had a pretty good day on the bike.  I was losing about 5 minutes a lap to the guy who won our group, but kept it relatively close to the bunch in front of me.  Ended up finishing in 2:05:58, which was good enough for 13th in our group of 25.  Didn't quite hit my goal of a Top 5 finish, but given the pros racing in the field, I'm OK with it.  After seeing the halfway times of some of the 60-mile racers, I also set a goal for sub-2:00, which I came close to, but ultimately, the overheating on the first lap and the cramping on the third lap kept me from getting there.

Overall, the course was kind of boring but super fast, so it was fun from that regard.  Not every day you get to big-ring almost an entire race.  Lots of good competition showed, and the event overall was very well organized, run, and sponsored.  I mean, cross the finish line, pound some water, then Oskar Blues Brewery is handing out free Mama's Little Yella Pils, Gordon's, and Dale's Pale Ale?  Come on...not going to do much better than that.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4...what!

Snowpack

It's May. The snowpack up here is unreal this year.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4...what!

Finally...a Nice Day in the Rockies!

Getting the chauffeur treatment on way to Lakewood - Bear Creek Lake Park for Front Range Half-Marathon race. Should be a good day; 80s and lots of sun. Looking forward to thawing out.





Still lots of snow up here in the mountains, but warm temps and blue skies make it OK.






Ri is just illin'. She loses interest pretty quickly on road trips.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4...what!

National Tuba Day

According to a co-worker, today is National Tuba Day.

Like there's any other clip to show...

Leading Out

On the front of a group...(VRD STXC #1 - Eagle)

Twittified

Follow me on Twitter!

@BigE_29er


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tribute

Thanks, Jake.

Fear the Beard...always.

EMAW

Snow, 50 degrees. Snow, 49 degrees.

Snowing here.  Go figure - I'm less than ten minutes from some of the finer ski resorts in North America.  But still...I've got things to DO!  It was nice this past weekend, and nice this coming!

The new Specialized Epic 29er is nearly complete.  Well, technically, it could be ridden, but there's some work I'd like to do on it yet:

• Just replaced the bar with a new Easton EC70 carbon composite riser bar.  Quick shout to Tim Mt. Pleasant, for hooking me up with his one bar at factory wholesale price.  Stellar.
• Need to replace the rear tire.  I have an old S-Works Fast Trak 2Bliss on it, but it's just worn enough it's got some difficulty holding air, even with sealant.  Sorry to say, but it's time to put the stupid-light 530g tire out to pasture.  I have a Hutchison Python AirLight sitting on a wheel hook in my garage - probably getting the call-up.  Or I have a brand new Fast Trak Control 2Bliss that is unused - could go on as well.
• Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals are sitting, NIB, in my garage.  Just haven't put on the bike, cause...
• Want to replace the crankset.  I'm using a take-off Shimano LX-level crank for the time being.  BRICK.  Putting a new XT crank on there would take a quarter-pound off the bike, but takes $200 out of my pocket, too.
• Rear derailleur could use a replacement, too.  The Shimano SLX I have on there would work just fine, but considering the rest of the bike, it doesn't exactly match spec very closely.  Could drop another 1/8-pound by putting last year's XTR on it, for $100.

All considered, the Epic would be near 26.25lbs at that point - pretty damn light for a full-suspendo 29er race bike that isn't space-age drillium.

Probably (maybe?) going to Fruita on Saturday for the first mountain bike ride of the year.  Preceded Friday night by attending the Kathleen Madigan performance at Vilar (yay birthday present!), and followed up by playing in a back-to-back doubleheader for the Vail basketball league, and I might be pretty wiped out come this time next week.  If Fruita doesn't happen, a several-hour road bike ride will...

If it's nice where you're at - GO RIDE!

Tis Just A Flesh Wound...

Crash in the Keirin final at the Track World Cup in England on Saturday - only the front two did not get piled up.

After the third place finisher (Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia) got up and crossed the line, he got checked out by the medics:

 

Good thing, too.  That woulda probably got infected, yo.

Headline from CNN Sports:  "Cyclist finishes race despite splinter".  My question is this:  When does it stop being a 'splinter'?  A splinter is what gets caught under your fingernail.  This is a little, ummm, bigger.

This looks strangely similar to Link's Wooden Sword from the Legend of Zelda series...

Who REALLY Won The TdF?

Great re-post of a post from Steve Tilford over at Aaron Elwell's Blog, outlining who placed where in the Tour de France between 1999 and 2006, based on racers that have been disqualified, suspended or banned for doping since.

Of note:  if Armstrong really did do something, ahem, extracurricular, Cadel Evans, in 8th place, would technically be the "winner" of the 2005 Tour.

Wow.  Give the guy his trophy.

Coming Along Nicely

While I'm sitting here at work, starting to feel a little under the weather and staring out the window at a sunny, near 50F day, I figured I'd let you all in on how the new race bike is coming.

Answer is, its pretty darn close.  Chain, new cables/housing are all thats required for a functional bike.  I have a new Easton EC70 XC Riser bar coming for it, as well as new Ergon grips.  Then we'll take a look at replacing the crankset and rear derailleur - both currently Shimano SLX.

What I've Learned Today

Lessons I've learned in the past 24 hours:

• Do NOT sleep on a group of people that have their backs against the wall, regardless of the circumstances.  See:  K-State v. KU.

• Yes, going from 1-26 to 2-26 at home over the last 28 years isn't exactly "closing the gap".  But leaving a 0-24 streak in Manhattan, and transitioning to a 2-2 record in Bramlage Coliseum against the Jayhawks since 2008, when KU perennially comes to town ranked in the Top 10, is bordering between "putting up a helluva fight" and "holding serve".  Is it closing the historical gap?  Not really.  Is it closing the current gap?  You bet your ass it is. 

• Big games for your team are detrimental to your health, regardless of the outcome. K-State won, and I couldn't fall asleep.  If K-State loses that game, I can't fall asleep.  Either way, I'm staying up past midnight, and there's nothing I can do about it.

• Do NOT take the last chocolate in the community Valentine's Day box of chocolates.  It's probably a flavor you don't want.  Orange-creme filled milk chocolate.  Yuck.

• For every 100 great eBay transactions you may have, you'll have one that is with an unbelievable asshole.  Law of averages.  Hopefully, if karma has anything to say about it, he'll get beat to a bloody pulp with his own shoes.

• 50 deg F outside is better than -5 deg F.  Every.  Time.