Crankworx Colorado Super-D

After my late night, post-Firecracker 50 arrival into Winter Park, I get up bright and early for the Super-D, pull my bike out of the Saunders storage unit, and get my bike ready for racin'. After pre-riding the course and finding the starting location, I know this is going to be a bad day.
On any other day, this would have been a great course for me... a long climb up the fireroad to start, some ripping singletrack descent, and a few tough pedaling sections thrown in. But today, after the 50 the day before, I've got no power, very little motivation, and a bad starting spot.

We get the call to start, run to the bikes, and start mashing up the fireroad. In my depleted state, I'm getting passed by little kids, guys on downhill bikes, people on stretchers, a few snails, and pretty much everybody on the course. After they all blow up in the first few hundred yards, I begin to pass a few people, and put in a tough dig right before the singletrack begins. Immediately, I get stuck behind some guy that won't let me by... follow... ask to get by... follow... anger building.... and then he goes down and takes me with him.

After picking myself up, remounting the steed, and getting back under way, I've lost a few more spots... number plate torn and dragging on the front tire, I work my way back up to the group and hammer past them on the short climb up to 5-points. Finally, I have some room to go fast!


Unfortunately, I was so amped up from the whole ordeal, I accidentally clipped a pedal on a rock, rode the stem for a little while, and crashed... again! Not only that, but the same guy I was stuck behind before was now in front of me again. Damn that guy is slow! I follow him for a little while, and finally he lets me pass.... rock down the 300yd. bypass, through the lower part of the downhill, and through the finish line in 18th out of 39... not the best showing, but still a great race after 2 crashes! Hopefully WP will start doing more of these!!!

Firecracker 50 Baby!!!

Nicole kindly invited me up to stay with her parents in Silverthorne on Tues. night before the race... after a great breakfast, we headed up to the race venue, waited in a huge line, and eventually got through about 20 minutes before the races was supposed to start. After a poor excuse for a warmup, I staged up for the race in Open Men 19-29, right behind the Open Pros. No semi-pro, no expert classes in between... Sweet!

The start for the 50 is by far the most exciting way I've ever started a race. Rolling down Main St. right before the start of the town's 4th of July parade was amazing. Riding at a nice slow pace, high-fiving little kids, and almost completely forgetting about the suffering to come... almost!

The race started with a monster climb up a paved road, then up the old Boreas Pass railroad grade, and finally over to some singletrack. The singletrack was great, had plenty of places to pass, and took us back to more dirt road.... followed by a steep, loose, and rock climb up French Creek and back down, up, and down to the finish. My first lap was tons of fun and although I was trying to take it easy, I still managed a laptime of 2hrs, and 16 minutes.

On the second lap, things were still going well, although at a much slower pace.... After about hour number 3, I just didn't have any power left, and couldn't get my HR up over 140 without some major effort.... no cramping, no puking, just no power...

Rolling in to the finish at 4hrs and 57 minutes, I just barely made my sub-5hr finishing goal. I felt reasonably well after the race, ate some tasty BBQ, and rolled back to my car with dreams of a nice cold shower and some non-chamios-havin' clothing. Get back to the car, reach in by the rear tire to get my keys.... and.... they're not there!!! Great, no keys to be found under the car, on top of the car, in the bushes, or even in the storm drain.


So, I snag a passer-by to use their cell, call the cops, and then proceed to sit around and wait... the cops finally show up, tell me that they didn't receive any lost keys, and give me the numbers of a few local locksmiths... more waiting... and finally the locksmith shows up. Now, I didn't think that I had locked my keys in the car, and we proved it after the locksmith opened the car and no keys were inside... oh well, at least I got to put on some regular clothes.

This was bad... and just got worse. I now need to drive back, get my spare key, drive back up to breck, get my car, and drive back to Winter Park for the Super-D on the following day... no big deal... should only take three or 4 hours total! What could go wrong?

After a quick shower, I borrow Nicole's car, and head to Golden to meet my roommate with the spare key. Done... 1 hour saved by having my roommate come down to Golden and $20 for his trouble. Back onto I-70 and on my way back up to Breck right on schedule... Exit at Frisco, fill up Nicole's car with gas, and immediately get stuck in traffic from people leaving the fireworks display... now what did I do to deserve this?

After finally getting to Breck, picking up Amy D. and heading to my car, I notice a piece of paper under my windshield wiper... I found your keys... call me at Xxx... So, I dial her up, get my keys (which I have not idea why she took them in the first place), put the fuses back in, pack everything up, and head to Winter Park after midnight! Just the way to finish the day after a 5 hr race!!!

Boulder to Winter Park? Why not?

Well, if you stick to the main trails or things you've done before, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.... on the other hand, if you ride for 5 hours then try some new trail, you may end up slogging through the woods, hauling your bike up over rocks, through streams, and over fallen masses of trees.

I'd love to have some pictures to share, but during the process of thrashing my way back to civilization, I managed to lose my two-week-old digital camera somewhere along the way... sweet!

For those interested in repeating the journey, I took the creekpath up to Canyon, up Magnolia Rd., then down to the roundabout in Ned. to re-stock on water. After that, I rode back up past Eldora, on to the Jenny Creek trail (which gets damn rocky), up Rollins Pass Rd., and over the top. Now, if you've made it that far, you may want to just enjoy the easy ride down the road. If your in for some punishment, go down the road for about a mile, and hang a right on the sweet singletrack that is Ranch Creek trail.... Let me know how it goes from there. And look for my damn digital camera while you're making your way down.










Why go all the way around when you can just go right over the top....