Today was a very nice day in Colorado. Last night was a little late. It was nice staying with Trudi in Vail. This morning I met up with the Kansas crowd that had ridden over from Frisco and we went down the valley to the start in Avon. Like I said yesterday, I’m not big on watching bike races, especially the neutral roll out of a point to point road race. But, I saw a few more folks I hadn’t seen for a while. I saw Peter Stetina and he said that he went out way too hot in the TT, so suffered badly at the end. He finished 2:18 back in 38th, which wasn’t that bad.

We had a big group riding back and Sue and I ended up escorting the Kansas guys back up to the top of Vail Pass. Sue and I ended up with nearly 60 miles that seemed pretty easy even though there was a lot of climbing involved.

We met Keith, Catherine and Jeff Unruh in Frisco and ate at the Blue Spruce. It was definitely in the top 10 of all time best meals I’ve had in my life. And I’ve eaten at some pretty great places. Jeff treated us to dinner, which was not necessary, but super nice. He also hammered Keith and Catherine over Vail Pass, so maybe he felt badly about it.

I took Bromont out for an hour romp when I got back to Silverthorne. He came back happy, but totally covered in burrs. Catherine took her own initiative and decided to cut all the burrs out of his tail with scissors. When means she cut most of his tail hair off. Now it looks like a rat tail. Bad Catherine.

So, today we’re going to go over to Breckenridge and then ride over Loveland Pass and back before the finish of the race. Trudi still hasn’t seen Bromont since she left before Utah, so tomorrow it is a priority. Then we’re heading down to Boulder to a BBQ at my old Wheaties/Schwinn team mate, Thomas Prehn’s house. A lot of the people that were at the Coor’s reunion are coming, so that should be good again.

I’m staying out in Colorado next week and am thinking about racing a stage race in Steamboat Springs over Labor Day. I hate to miss the St. Louis Races, so I’m a bit torn. We’ll see.

Trudi, Keith, Catherine and Jeff at the start by the BMC camp.

This is Gus driving the 2nd team car for one of the Colombian teams. I like the one bike on the rack.

Nice place to dine on the stream heading back up to Vail from Avon.

This is Marianne Martin, who orgainized the Coor's reunion. She won the 1st Tour de France for women. I haven't riden with someone with downtube shifters in a long, long time.

Catherine at the top of Vail Pass, waiting for Keith, in the background.

We saw this partial rainbow coming back from walking Bromont. The photo doesn't do it justice. This might of been the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. I hope my wish comes true.

I was talking to Dave Chauner at the Coor’s reunion about when the United States is going to fully embrace the sport of cycling. I don’t think the sport can be successful until people that don’t participate in the sport, come out and spectate and acquire knowledge about the riders. The sport can not be economically successful until the masses embrace it.

I’m pretty sure that it is going to be a tough sell trying to convince Americans, year after year, to come back and watch the finishes of these Pro races in the US. Not that the people that were in Breckenridge yesterday didn’t have a great time. But, I did hear, more than once, that it was over so quickly.

And I felt the same way. The last kilometer was completely lined with spectators. It was pretty hard getting somewhere to get a view. When the field came by it was pretty exciting, for 15 seconds, then done. I think if you want to keep American spectators coming back to watch live bike racing, there needs to be finishing circuits at the end. I really don’t think that detracts from the overall race from the riders perspective and it would add a ton to the enjoyment level of the people that are watching. The reason that soccer in the US is having a hard time getting a foothold is because of the low scoring potential of the game. I believe that is the same in cycling, a once and their done finish doesn’t sit that well with non-cycling viewers.

I hate to say it, but there needs to be criteriums in stage races. Americans like to watch the race over and over again. We could lengthen courses to make the races circuits, but there needs to be opportunities to watch the event multiple times. I think the Pro race in Philadelphia has proved that it can be a successful endeavor with non-cycling spectators. So the length of the course can be up to 10 miles, an over 20 minutes span between views, and can still hold the attention of the spectators.

Watching this race, it is easy to get exciting about a resurgence in the popularity of live cycling spectating, but it is going to take a lot of tweaking the European version of road/stage races to keep Americans coming back for more.

It is going to take a lot more people at the event to match the crowds from 1981 at the Coor's Classic.

Trudi hadn't seen Bromont for over two weeks, so they were both happy.

This guy was having a good time.

The top of Swan Mountain climb two hours before the race came by.

The stream in middle of Breckenridge was a kid's paradise.

This is Keith's normal attire once we get to a hotel room.

She was having a great time too. Pretty nice old Trek.

This bike path sign is near Lake Dillon. Nothing like riding straight into a brick/stone wall dead end.