Roughing it in the Rockies..

With my Elephant Rock Century bike ride tomorrow that rides 100 miles from Castle Rock down to Colorado Springs and back, through the Black Forest, I decided to get the Ducati out today and ride up to Estes Park. I rode up through Boulder to Lyons and then hopped on Colorado 7 through the canyon up to Allens Park where I was not only treated to great roads for a motorcycle ride, but also some fantastic views of Mount Meeker and Longs Peak. I also saw some Elk in a meadow near Rocky Mtn National Park. They were grazing and watching me take their picture. It was a beautiful day here in Colorado. I am looking forward to a nice carb load dinner tonight of pasta and getting some rest before my long bike race tomorrow. I will check in tomorrow and let everyone know how my wife and I fared and what type of times we achieved in riding the 100 miles.

Longs Peak, Rocky Mtn. National Park with a view of "The Diamond"

VT

A mild Thursday night on Colorado's Front Range

Well it has been a couple of fun weeks here in Colorado. It is starting to finally get warm here in Colorado on a consistant basis. I am looking forward to continue my quest to climb all 58 fourteeners. I will climb my first 2008 fourteeners next weekend. I hopefully will have climbed 5 more by the end of June. Culebra is on the list for June.

My wife Suzanne has been training for her first century ride, getting on her road bike just about every night and mountain biking on the weekends. She will ride the Elephant Rock, Sunrise Century and the Triple Bypass within 5 weeks time. She is starting to scare me. She is getting very strong. Last weekend she did a training ride from Washington Park where we live out to 32nd Ave to Golden, climbed Lookout and rode nearly to Evergreen and back. Those training rides were exclusively for me. Not now.. My wife is quickly becoming the next Juli Furtado/Paola Pezzo. She drops many men on her rides. I myself had a great ski season, tele skiing in Colorado and Utah to my hearts content. The most epic day coming the first week of February 2008. Waist deep powder at Snowbird, Utah. What a great snow year for the Rocky Mountains.

I put my "pins" away for the year and starting training myself. The 125 mile Triple Bypass looms large on the horizon in early July . 125 miles and almost 10,500 feet of climbing..Lots of road riding and mountain biking to be had.

I just returned from the Yeti Tribe Gathering, where Yeti Bicycle fanatics from all over converge on Colorado for a weekend filled with sweet singletrack, beers, bbq's and most of all Yeti's. Joe Henderson, Anthony Sloan and Sarah Rawley of Yeti should be commended. They and the rest of the Yeti crew did a fantastic job.

The 2008 Tribe Gathering was in Fruita, Colorado. Yes.. Tasty! We rode all of the trails in Loma, like Mary's and Horsethief, but also went to Grand Junction for a day to ride the fabled Ribbon Trail. Some of the best riding I have done since I moved to Colorado.


Photo Credit: Anthony Sloan http://www.anthonysloan.com/


The Ribbon, Grand Junction, CO


Well, I guess I will sign off for today. My two struggling NY baseball teams both have small little win streaks. The Mets beat the Dodgers 8-4, while the NY Yankees were idle tonight after beating the Orioles yesterday. We will soon see if Joba Chamberlain is the new Yankees ace as he is scheduled to start his first game this weekend. As far as the Giro D'Italia is concerned, Alberto Contador of Astana has a 41 second lead going into Stage 19. Stage 19 has a huge climb over the Passo Del Vivione. Look for the two Italians, Ricco and Simoni to attack on this stage and put in one last fight to claim the GC and the Maglia Rosa.

My First Blog entry...

Photo Credit: Rob Waterman

Preamble:

I will chat about many things in my blog. My life, sports, politics, mountaineering, telemarking, cycling, Ducatisti and everything there is to know about the Rocky Mountains and the amazing lifestyle you can grow accustomed to here on the "front range" of Colorado.. The home turf it you will.

Stay Tuned..

Vince. VT. Enzo.