It's hard to believe but cyclocross season is almost here. Our first cyclocross race at Bear Creek is on September 13th. The 2nd race is on November 22nd.
Some good news for this year is we'll be using the Penrose Event Center's parking. The last couple years we've spent a lot of time directing traffic to the Bear Creek parking lots. Although a little of the course will be the same as last year, a lot of it will be new as you can see if you click the course image.
If you've never given cyclocross a try, you really should. If you live in the Colorado Springs area, people are meeting informally at Bear Creek on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 PM to practice. Some barriers will be set up and there will be a 20 minute practice race at 7 PM. This isn't organized by any group and you participate at your own risk.
In addition to the informal practice sessions, Bicycle Village is putting on a cyclocross clinic on September 6th. It will be from 10 AM to 2 PM and costs $40. Registration required by 6 PM on September 4th.
This past week we had relatives staying with us. Not only was it tough with the funeral but other things kept going wrong. First the basement sink clogged. Next as we were leaving for the viewing, the panic alarm on the van went off and wouldn't stop until I disconnected the battery.
Then we started having the sewer backing up. We were ready to leave for the grave side service when my 5 year old said it was backing up again. I ran down and started vacuuming it up with the shop vac. I took out 16 gallons of water and it was still coming. It turned out one of the toilets had stuck on.
Hopefully the coming week will be a little calmer. I will be adjusting to working from home full-time. The company I work for laid off some in our local office a few weeks ago. There are now only 6 of us left here and we will be telecommuting full time. There are certainly some positives to that but also some downsides.
August 9th, 2008, Lance Armstrong competed in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Even most non-cyclists know who Lance is. Five time defending Leadville 100 champ, Dave Wiens, is less well known.
Even though Dave Wiens is less well known than Lance, he had a very successful mountain bike career. He won 2 World Cup races and numerous NORBA races. Dave was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2000.
During the early 90s, I saw Dave at many races in Colorado. Before mountain biking grew in popularity, often the Pros and Experts would start together and I'd be close to him on the start line.
Dave's wife, Susan DeMattei, was also a top pro mountain biker. In 1996 she won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Atlanta. In 1994 she won the silver medal at Worlds. She was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1997.
Here are several videos of what became a race between Dave Wiens and Lance. Course conditions were great from rain leading up to the race. With the good course conditions and by working together they shattered the course record Wiens set in 2007 when Floyd Landis raced.
Note: I've had trouble with YouTube video stopping after 2 seconds with FireFox. Upgrading to Flash 10 beta seems to have fixed it.
Lance Armstrong and David Wiens talking at the pre-race meeting.
Closer view of Lance Armstrong at the pre-race meeting.
Closer view of Dave Wiens at the pre-race meeting.
Great summary video of the 2008 Leadville 100.
Another good summary video that shows some different spots.
Good video of that start that shows just how many racers there are. The race is so popular that there's a lottery to do it.
Another video of the start.
Lead riders go through the Pipeline aid station outbound.
Dave Wiens and Lance Armstrong hike-a-bike up the "North Face".
Dave Wiens and Lance Armstrong come into the Pipeline aid station on the way back.
Dave Wiens wins his 6th Leadville 100 with a new record of 6:45:45!
Lance finishes the 2008 Leadville 100 almost 2 minutes behind Dave Wiens.
Lance after he finished. It looks like he's in the medical tent and shows his bloody elbow from his crash.
Lance calls Dave Wiens a stud at the awards ceremony and also mentions he may race Leadville again in 2009.
Lance gives a few thoughts on the race.
This video isn't of Dave Wiens or Lance Armstrong but shows more of the course from a flip video camera on one of the racers.
Even though I'm 35 lbs over my race weight and only started training 6 weeks ago, I managed to finish in 11:21. That's over 3 hours longer than my best time.
It was a long, painful day for me. It certainly wasn't fitness that got me through the race. I just kept crawling along and probably was stopped less than 5 minutes the whole race.
Usually aid station splits are updated during the race and finish times posted and racers finish. They don't seem to be posted this year except for unofficial results for the top 24.
1 Dave Wiens 6:45:45 2 Lance Armstrong 6:47:41 3 Manuel Prado 7:20:52 4 Ethan Passant 7:27:54 5 Jonathan Scholnick 7:30:16 6 Max Taam 7:32:26 7 Nate Whitman 7:39:14 8 Jim Lehman 7:39:35 9 Kevin Andrews 7:42:18 10 Kimo Seymour 7:43:31 11 Jake Rubelt 7:44:31 12 Chuck Gibson 7:44:31 13 Dax Massey 7:45:54 14 Garth Prosser 7:48:52 15 Jim Silverman 7:49:21 16 Ted MacBlane 7:49:37 17 Joel Mischke 7:51:27 18 Kent McNeill 7:56:17 19 Keith Collins 7:56:18 20 Bill MacFarlane 7:57:02 21 Yuki Saito 7:58:10 22 Paul Gorbold 7:59:03 23 Jeff Wardell 7:59:51 24 Ryan Hamilton 8:00:31
The Leadville 100 starts in the morning. I'm about to find out if I can finish when I'm 35 lbs over my race and only trained for 6 weeks. I'm still giving myself a 50/50 chance of finishing.
Both Dave Wiens and Lance Armstrong talked a bit at the racer meeting today. Dave talked about how he's been coming to Leadville since he was young. One of his first races was the Mosquito Pass race here.
Lance downplayed how well he'll do. He said he'll be happy to be within an hour of Dave. Somehow I don't believe that. He did say he'll be showered and had meal by the time Chris Carmichael finishes. He rode the Columbine climb last week and said it was really tough.
One of the Trek guys had Lance's bike out near the start. It is one sweet bike. Of course it's more the engine than the bike.
Over 100 cyclists rode from Wooglins Deli near Colorado College to where two well liked cyclist were killed Wednesday evening. Several more of us drove there. I believe over 200 were gathered to remember two great guys. They will be missed on many group rides and by family and friends.
A lady turned left in front of them on a fast downhill on 26th street. It's an intersection where I've had to hit the brakes many times. There's very little traffic coming down the hill and many motorist barely even glance up the road before making the turn.
Some good news for this year is we'll be using the Penrose Event Center's parking. The last couple years we've spent a lot of time directing traffic to the Bear Creek parking lots. Although a little of the course will be the same as last year, a lot of it will be new as you can see if you click the course image.
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