The title of this post is sort of a joke because it really seems like since last weekend, which was Leadville (and seems like a month ago), it has been a weekend the whole time.  Nothing like being able to wake up in the mountains every morning and riding your bike, then make your way over to watch the end of a professional bike race.

Yesterday we rode over  Vail Pass and back, then made our way over to Breckenridge to watch some of the time trial.  Like I said yesterday, I’m not so big on watching time trials, but it was alright.  The spectators are so excited that it rubs off some.

There are only two days of the Pro Challenge left.  I’m skipping the race today and riding the Copper Triangle one last time.  I’ve been feeling sort of off this whole week, so have just been toddling around pretty much, even though it feels harder than that.  I finally got some tonic water yesterday, but it is probably too late to do anything about the muscle damage of the cramping I experienced in Leadville.  Man, does that stuff taste bad.  I doubt that it has enough quinine in it to really do much good.  I don’t think they actually sell quinine here in the US.  I think it might be easy to overdose on or something like that.

Brian Jensen obviously isn’t too affected by Leadville because he is racing a 150 mile gravel road race today, The Gravel World Championship.  It isn’t sanctioned of course, but that is the beauty of it.  I wish him luck.  I think I’ll go and look to see what the weather is there today.

Anyway, fall-ish weekends are the best and it’s nearly that time.  Enjoy.

We saw this guy, and friends, on the Copper side of Vail Pass.

And then again in the parking lot below on the way back down.

There was a whole herd.

Here is Davide Formolo, Garmin, who fell on the 2nd to last corner in the time trial. He is pretty ripped up and his rear disc is flat.

And Rohan Dennis in the last corner. He smeared everyone.

Trudi waiting for her guys after the finish line.

The bouquets piling up at the BMC compound. Since Rohan is winning just about every category, he receives a ton of flower everyday.

I’m a little worried about the hummingbirds when I leave. They eat nearly a whole feeder a day now.

Yesterday we did a pretty great ride.  It was the Copper Triangle except instead going down to Minturn and up through Vail to Vail Pass, we rode to Leadville, then Tennessee Pass and when we got down to Red Cliff, we turned and rode gravel up to Shrine Pass, which is just above Vail Pass.  It is shorter than the Copper Triangle by 10 miles, but climbing Shrine Pass from Red Cliff is super scenic and pretty challenging sometimes, especially on road bikes.

In Leadville, I didn’t realize that it was the Leadville 100 Trail Run.  I got sort of excited about seeing the hoopla, but Leadville seemed completely dead.  At least dead compared to the Leadville MTB race last weekend.  It was 9 1/2 hours into the race, so maybe everyone, the support, was out on the course somewhere looking after their people.  I don’t know, but I really didn’t see that many athletic-type people strolling around.

I’m heading down to Arvada to watch the last bit of the Pro Challenge.  The race is less than 5 miles from Vincent’s house, so it is easily accessible.   The women’s race starts in an hour and I’m hoping to catch the tail end of it.

Brian Jensen finished 2nd in the “Gravel World Championships” yesterday.  It was 150 miles and he said fell apart with 7 miles to go.  Neil Shirley won the race.  Brian said the heat, over 90, killed him.  He’d been staying in Colorado a month, so I’m sure it felt extreme.

Okay, here are some photos from yesterday.  I really find the mountain houses interesting, especially in the small towns.

Leadville run finish line yesterday. Pretty barren.

This house looked super Swiss. It is in Red Cliff.

A couple more houses in Red Cliff, right where the gravel starts.

Same canyon in Red Cliff.

Leadville house. Some of the houses in Leadville look barely habitable. I think it is a hard life there in the winter.