Mountain Flyer Number 13 by Secret Agent Publishing

DEFINING THE ROCKY MOUnTAIN CYCLIST

KEN CHLOUBER’S LEADVILLE

The Man Behind the 100 Miles

number 13 $6.95 www.mountainflyer.com

THE SWISS DIARIES

One Teen’s Trip into Euro Racing

BIKING IN BOISE

Pedal Mashing in Potato Paradise

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editor/publisher brian riepe publisher steve mabry managing editor caroline spaeth art director chris hanna creative editor james e. rickman roving artist gloria sharp copy editor trina ortega writers Mary Burt Devon Balet Marty Caivano Carrie Dittmer Erin English Adam Hunt

Jill Janov Kevin Kane Jessica Kisiel Erinn Morgan Trina Ortega Riley Polumbus

James E Rickman Lizzy Scully Mark Sevenoff Kurt Smith Matt Wiebe Jim Williams

Eddie Clark Mitchell Clinton Xavi Fane Alex Fenlon Joshua Lawton Trina Ortega

Tom Purvis James E Rickman Mark Sevenoff Anthony Sloan

photographers Mike Alden Laurence Alvarez-Roos Jonathon Bailey Devon Balet Mary Burt

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2009 © Xavier Fane Rider: Bryan Wickenhauser Location: Scarps Ridge Trail, Crested Butte, Colo.

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[what’sinside]

twenty-two Ken Chlouber

twenty-seven Riders Journal

eighty-three Paraphernalia

one hundred five Community Pages

Mountain Flyer Magazine (ISSN 1944-6101) July 2009 is published quarterly by Secret Agent Publishing, LLC, 309 South Main Street, Gunnison, Colo. Periodicals postage paid in Gunnison CO and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Mountain Flyer, PO Box 272, Gunnison, CO 81230

number thirteen 12 Editor’s Note 14 Anthony Sloan – Larger than Life by Carrie Dittmer 22 Ken Chlouber’s Leadville by Lizzy Scully 28 The Swiss Diaries by Kevin Kane 34 Tour of the Gila 40 12 Hours of Mesa Verde 44 Chile Challenge 52 Fat Tire 40 54 La Tierra Torture 60 Glenwood Springs Criterium 62 Alien Run 66 Pajarito Punishment 68 Teva Games 72 Mashing Pedals by James E. Rickman 78 Pedaling, Posture and Pain by Jessica Kisiel 83 Paraphernalia 84 A Profile of Roxy Lo by Adam Hunt 94 Cargo Bikes Come of Age by Matt Wiebe 105 Community Pages 130 Tailwind by Marty Caivano

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[editor’snote]

Searching for a State of Weary Bliss My socks and chamois are muddy and wet, and I feel mud between my toes and other regions. I have dirt in my ears and my hair, my legs are toast, and I’ve got a spot of dried blood on my arm—the result of a brush with a tree. I’m exhausted but in a comfortable state of weary bliss that always follows a good day of racing bikes. It’s Monday the sixth of July and I’m lying on my back in a hotel room in Breckenridge, Colo., after finishing the 37-mile stage two of the inaugural Breck Epic—a six-day off-road stage race. The Breck Epic website states that if the event were a person, it would be dressed in black leather and brandishing something nasty. That’s a fair warning. As I lie here, I reflect on the day. My oxygen-deprived mind wanders and leads me to speculate on why people like myself would be attracted to an event that likens itself to a mean-spirited, leather-bound symbol of maliciousness you’d find bouncing scooter trash in a roadhouse. The popularity of stage races, 24-hour races and ultradistance events continues to grow and not just with the hardcore racers hooked up to power meters and wired to 10-step training programs—it’s across the entire range of categories and age classes. To get an amusing and moving perspective of two committed mothers, who decided to face the Breck Epic’s six daunting stages, read the blog posted by Heather Szabo and Mary Monroe on www. mountainflyer.com. Coming up to the event, you can sense their doubt and trepidation but once the racing begins, the challenges of each day are clearly outweighed by their sense of satisfaction gained with the success of finishing and the exhilaration of being a part of it all. In this issue, we cover the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde—known for its fast and flowy singletrack (12 blissful hours of it), and the Tour of the Gila, which gives amateur road racers a rare opportunity to complete a five-day stage race on the mountainous, scenic roads surrounding Silver City, N.M. You can read about these events and others in the Riders Journal section, starting on page 27. As this issue goes to press, riders will be finishing the Breck Epic—we’ll have a photo spread in the next issue—and four weeks later, the Leadville 100 will be upon us. In this issue, you can read the story about how the Leadville 100 came to be and a profile of the event’s founder, Ken Chlouber, on page 22. These races all have one thing in common: they offer more than a race. They offer a high quality riding experience in a format that will push you farther than you thought you could go. They are not only challenging to win, but more importantly they are both demanding and satisfying just to complete. That’s why they’re so popular, and that’s why we want to feature them on our pages. Whether you are a competitor in these events or sitting safely at the coffee table reading about them, we think you can find them inspirational and, just as important, like Heather and Mary, get encouraged to join the fun—even if winning isn’t your goal. Appreciating these events may require you to develop a taste for hours of suffering, intermixed with moments of ecstasy, but it’s almost guaranteed to leave you in the above-mentioned state of delightful, weary, contented bliss. Here’s to mud in your chamois, 12

Continental bicycle tire production plant, Korbach, Germany. Continental employee: Ulf G端nzel. Team Ergon members f.l.t.r.: David Keith Wiens (USA: 1st, 2006 World Championship Adventure Racing, 1st, 2008 Leadville Trail 100); Irina Kalentieva (Russia: 1st, 2007 World Championship Cross Country); Sally Bigham (UK: 1st, 2008 British Marathon Championship); Wolfram Kurschat (Germany: 1st, 2007 German Cross Country Championship)

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All Images Courtesy of the Estate of Anthony Vail Sloan 14

North Rim of the Grand Canyon 15

Morocco The photos in this issue’s gallery section are placed to honor the life and work of Anthony Vail Sloan, a skilled photographer and talented wordsmith who recently passed away. When looking through Anthony’s extensive photo collection, we found so many photos that it was nearly impossible to narrow our selection down to just six photos, and I found myself getting caught up in the story told by each one. Anthony’s travels took him through the Rockies and all over the globe. He chronicled his journeys through his lens in a way that captures the essence of what draws many of us to cycling: good friends, good rides and good adventures. His friends and co-workers will sorely miss Anthony, but his spirit lives on in his work. The collection can be viewed on his website, www.anthonysloan.com. –Editor 16

Continental Divide Trail, Dumont Lake to Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Anthony

Sloan was larger than life. He passed away in his sleep on May 7, 2009, and the preliminary autopsy showed he had an enlarged heart. The doctor said his passing was likely quick and painless, which is comforting, but still he was so young; he was 38 years old. He was my boyfriend, mountain bike partner and soulmate. Growing up the way he did, traveling around the Southwest and beyond, shaped him into an amazingly sweet boy. As an adult, he traveled and roamed the world freely. Finding beauty in everything, he aspired to capture through a lens what most people only dream about. Anthony captured his audience with his descriptive words and enticing 17

North Rim of the Grand Canyon/Kaibab Plateau, Ariz. photos. He lived his life to the fullest. His avatar on mtbr.com said A Guy Going Places, a name he lived up to. Anthony started mountain biking in Austin, Texas, in 1982. It was a way for some autonomy, some control, and a distraction from the things that bothered him. He was the Yeti Demo guy, which meant driving the Yeti truck and trailer, attending festivals and hosting demos to help get people on Yeti bikes. He was able to share his passion of mountain biking, traveling and taking photos. We met on a mountain bike ride in my former home town of Los Alamos on his birthday. He struck me as dark and mysterious but when he spoke, he was witty and charming. Introverted and a tad shy, I was enthralled by this guy. I recall one of our first rides we 18

Continental Divide Trail, Monarch Crest to Boss Lake did in Fruita, Colo. We headed out to Kokopelli and made some nice, longish loops. Finishing four hours later, I said dang, you better be glad I know how to ride. We chuckled and enjoyed a cold one. I think he was really happy going out with someone he was so compatible with; I sure was. Our time with Anthony was too short; but he taught us to be independent thinkers, to not focus on the little stuff and enjoy a good beer. Remember, there is nothing wrong with just being sweet, he said. One of the last cards he wrote to me said, I can’t imagine a life without you. I’m glad I was there for him. If you are ever in the Front Range area, feel free to contact me at carrie@dittmerdesign.com for a ride or an IPA. –Carrie Dittmer 19

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’

Leadville Ken Chlouber s by Lizzy Scully

Alex Fenlon

Above: This scene from the start line at the 2008 Leadville 100 speaks for itself as to the enormity of the phenomenon that Ken Chlouber has created in Leadville. Right: Chlouber in his earlier days as a politician, relaxes at his office at the Colorado state capitol.

The Man Behind the 100 Miles With long hair a flyin’, bronco-bustin’ boots and a lanky, muscular build, Ken Chlouber looks more like a tall, 40-something cowboy than a 70+-year-old former Republican state senator from Leadville, Colo. It’s really only his wrinkles that give his age away; they crinkle like a Ruffles potato chip when he smiles, which is often. “Girl, we need to get you a cowboy hat,” he exclaims with friendly laughter as we sit down in a Boulder café to chat. It’s pouring rain outside, and he’s trekked down from Leadville to meet me. He doesn’t do email because he doesn’t trust it, and when he meets someone for an interview, he says, pointing to his heart, “I want to look you in the eye and tell you what’s in here and what’s important to me.” Over the next hour and a half he does just that. He discusses burro racing, climbing mountains, working as a miner and his greatest passion, the Leadville Trail 100 Race Across the 22

Chlouber Collection

Laurence Alvarez-Roos

The same tenacity that helped Ken Chlouber bring Leadville to the forefront of American cycling also landed him on the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas at 22,841 feet.

Sky. The event he created is the lifeblood of his community. It includes two of the most grueling 100-mile races in the world for mountain bikers and runners, as well as some shorter races. Chlouber started the first event in 1983 specifically for runners as a way to revive the high mountain town of Leadville. The town was quickly dying after the town’s main employer, the Climax Molybdenum Mine, closed, leaving him and 3,200 other residents out of work and thoroughly dejected. “Overnight we were the town with the highest unemployment in the nation,” he recalls. “We had to do something to save our town.” He took it upon himself as a county commissioner to brainstorm options to save Leadville from certain demise. The idea for an ultra-distance running race stemmed from his whimsical participation in the Boom Days burro race, which he started doing because “it sounded like fun.” The only athletic event in the town at the time, the burro race celebrates Leadville’s 150-year mining history. Burros are laden with 33 pounds of mining equipment, and they and their caretakers quickly climb the 22 miles up and down Mosquito Pass, simulating the miners’ sprint to sell their gold. A few years into racing burros, Chlouber realized he’d have an advantage over the other racers if he bought good running shoes. So he paid a visit to a Denver shoe store, where he struck up a friendship with a fellow named Jim Butera. Butera had the notion to start an endurance running race from Vail to Aspen. The men kept in touch, and soon after their fortuitous meeting,

Chlouber suggested to Butera that he might use his political clout to help Butera get permits for an endurance race if the event was held in Leadville. Butera thought the idea was great and signed on to help. However, Chlouber had no experience organizing races, and the townsfolk were doubtful. The local doctor, John Purna, even lamented, “People will die at that altitude!” Chlouber’s response: “Good, at least that will make us famous.” Chlouber then convinced Purna and numerous other locals to become involved. And from 1983 on, the race grew steadily and gained media attention for its arduous nature in which hardcore athletes run 100 miles over some of the country’s roughest, steepest mountain terrain. Around that same time, Chlouber began to develop his political career. Despite the growth of the race, the town was still having economic troubles. “I said somebody’s gotta go to Denver and tell the State these mountains need help,” Chlouber says. “We needed economic development.” So he ran for office despite not knowing beans about what he was doing. “My intention was to go down there and serve one or two terms at most and tell them about Leadville. Apparently I had somewhat of a talent for that.” He spent 10 years in the state House of Representatives and then eight in the state Senate. The same time his political career began to flourish, new opportunities to help the town arose with the Leadville 100. 23

In 1994, the main sponsor of the event, Rockport Shoe Company, suggested Chlouber add a mountain biking component to the Leadville 100. At first he said, “Hell, no,” but quickly realized it would be a boon to the community because it would bring even more people to town. Rockport said they would put three weeks’ worth of the Trail 100 events on network television, including the 100 milers on consecutive weekends followed by a combo run and bike the third. “That was too big of an offer and too huge a benefit for our community,” Chlouber says. And although he didn’t know anything about mountain biking, inexperience never stopped him before. Back in his mining days, on his first day at the local mine, he didn’t hesitate to blow up a five-pound stick of dynamite. More significantly, Leadville’s residents inspired him to give it a try. “The people who just live here on a day-to-day basis have more strength, courage and determination in their daily lives than most people,” he explains. “They are tough, resilient people.” So he and numerous volunteers set the 100-mile mountain bike course. The out-and-back race started in downtown Leadville at 10,200 feet. It gained more than 14,000 feet of elevation and climbed up and over various passes, along dirt roads and two-track trails, to the turnaround point at the Columbine Mine Aid Station, which lay at 12,600 feet. That first mountain bike race in 1994 was a huge success with 150 entrants. It quickly grew. In 2008, 900 cyclists raced, and this year, 15 years after the first biking event, 1,400 riders plan to race. The event now draws the likes of Tour De France winners Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, who both lost to local hero 45-year-old David Wiens. Armstrong and Landis are expected to return to challenge Wiens. The numerous world-class female and male competitors who compete, says Chlouber, embody the essence of the Leadville 100. They don’t give up, and they are driven. “Our motto is, ‘You are better than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can,’” says Chlouber. “People shouldn’t be able to bike or run 100 miles at such high altitudes, but we bring them to Leadville and get them to believe they can be more and do more.” 24

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009 ary 2 u r b 13 Fe

ges d Ima e n a s Word Kevin Kan by

[Editor’s Note: This article is the first of a two-part series on one Colorado teenager’s chance of a lifetime to train with the Swiss Junior National Team this spring. Look for Part 2 in the fall issue of Mountain Flyer.] 28

ny e as a m o t n of my foreig as as e confines with w g n i ld c th ike ra de of year-o tain b king outsi verage 11- nce. n u o m e ta ra innoc under t s you other ence. I wa ows—only he furthes ond t c r ey s r adole ries, no so ago, when r strayed b s r e r ve o no w en summe reams nev r could ha d v e a e v y S lities of m eway, I ne a career as i v i e b r i poss e of my d e to pursu c g years the ed d of a chan . at 18 s a d e e n t a e m l , na ne drea ional ath in Ka first seaso , I sit on v s e s K e f e is pro my oday ver y nam cer. T ng on M m embarki ain bike ra ., moving e ome. t h a C old, I ional moun ington, D. Colorado e h s v s s i t a e f c y o e W ot pr of gm n my pr t out ceivin self o a fligh away from hs after re , I find my m a e r nt farthe t a few mo cing licens literally. I ke e a i s t r i b u Ju ional bike de,” q e mountain bly the i r o s t s profe ay “ticket erland, th e of argua e m tz th -w a one way to Swi world, ho g team in as e n i h y l t Thom ld cyc l on m apital of d a n n e o g i or c le at racing estigious n tain biking -Country W been n pr ve ss most From mou 2008 Cro e Swiss ha and e . h t h d l t p , i r r to se sh s Wo necht istoph Sau Champion k h c s hr Fri rld pion C in Wo Cham ant team ce 1990. in n a dom ic events si p m y l O

[the swiss diaries] reasons for traveling here are many, but they all lead to the same end: one dream, my Olympic dream. The plan, as I furtively scribbled into my leather-bound journal one late night, would be as follows: Fly out mid-February for Zurich. Live with the Family Stirnemann from Gränichen, Switzerland: Beat (Swiss national coach), his wife Regula and their kids 17-year-old Matthias (9th in the 2008 World Championship) and 19-year-old Kathrin (European Champion 2007). Goals: Race in World Cup races in Offenburg and Houffalize, maybe Madrid. Learn as much as possible about the Swiss training methods. Make US U-23 team by 2010. Olympics in London 2012.

If there is one thing to learn from the Swiss, it is this: the offseason is a myth for a professional racer. Training is constant.

14 February 2009 I arrive in Zürich, groggy and disoriented, to find the ground frosted by a sloppy snow-rain mixture. All of my visions from the nine-hour flight—of sunshine, rolling green hills, and the rich smell of chocolate—are grounded with the first steps off the airplane. How ignorant of me to dream so stereotypically. Ill weather seeps into my thoughts as I stand at baggage claim, waiting impatiently for a bike box, a pair of Mavic wheels and two duffel bags full of everything I’ll need for two to four months of training. Twenty minutes later, I am face to face with two people I have never met, never seen even a picture of and, yet, the same people who have opened their home to me as a training base for my Swiss adventure. Beat Stirnemann is shorter than me but has an air of authority about him that comes from many years in the Swiss Army and, more importantly, as the head of the prestigious junior mountain biking program at Swiss Cycling. Regula is kind and gentle and quickly breaks the language barrier with almost perfect English. With my arrival at Rainweg 4, I meet Matthias and Kathrin. There is a saying here that the better cyclist you become, the worse you get at everything else. This is the way Matthias appears to me…very kind but incomplete without his bike. But we quickly overcome the differences of our languages and start making jokes. Kathrin is more serious and quiet but always goes out of her way to be friendly to me. I quickly realize the gravity of what I’ve gotten into. The four-story home is filled to the breaking point with cycling equipment and memorabilia. In the “cellar” is a training-room and another room filled with bikes—mostly Merida, since Kathrin and Matthias are the top riders for the Merida Suisse Team. The house is built on a foundation of cycling. The structure of the family and the house represent something that from my short time here I can already tell is fundamentally simple: eat, sleep, train, live mountain biking. 21 February 2009 I wake up in the morning each day to a dull pain in my legs that only means one thing: the Colorado winter was too long. If there is one thing to learn from the Swiss, it is this: the off-season is a myth for a professional racer. There is a time where you are “off” the race circuit, but there is never a time to be “off” the training. Training is constant. When you are not on 29

[the swiss diaries] the bike, you are still training. Everything that you do must be for the good of the “motor,” as Beat calls it. After one week in Switzerland, I feel like I have been here only 12 hours. I have been immediately thrown into the mix of Swiss training that differs greatly from my home routine. The Swiss have always been known for their precision, and their training methods follow the trend. Technical training falls into one of the top tiers of importance. I am quick to learn that my

All of my training can be found on a slip of paper hanging on my wall. My training schedules run for one month before Beat sits down with me and discusses the next month’s racing and training. Oftentimes, while at weekend training camps or otherwise, we train two times a day. In the morning, I may head out on the road bike, and in the evening on the mountain bike. On top of that, Tuesdays we head to the weight room in the evening and Fridays to the gym for “circuit”—a painful

“skills” from the U.S. have no application here. I am used to beautifully smooth Colorado singletrack, and I find myself in a constant mental battle against the muddy, technical terrain of northern Switzerland. In this soggy environment, the Swiss riders are right at home. Training with the junior team from Gränichen is a little bit like entering a classroom full of genius fifth-graders. Riders learn from a young age that technical skills yield success, and it shows in their technique. The Swiss are powerful in many sports, but cycling seems to be their obvious strong point. The reason is simple. Take a group of young riders, teach them all the skills of the sport, and eventually, they will form into an elite group of athletes. Why? It is common knowledge that a child learns more easily than an adult. From a young age, if you form the rider into a technical machine, strength will come later.

Swiss core workout consisting of two hours of squats, pushups, leg lifts and a variety of other exercises interrupted only by an occasional jog. On the bright side, we get to take Mondays off from training and head to the local sauna for a good soak (called “recovery” in this household) and often a soothing massage. To drive the point home, training is continuous and starts at a young age. I have heard from some American riders that “those Euros” have so many obscure training practices, but everything that you do here is for the sake of fitness on the bike and in the races. The difference between American riders and Swiss riders is not dedication to training, but dedication to a training system that works. The method is seemingly simple— and infuriatingly hard to overcome when competing against it—but it comes down to this: start with the youth. I have been racing competitively for eight years, but there are 11-year-old girls in Gränichen that can show me a thing or two on technical downhill. The youth cycling program in Switzerland fuels a rapidly spreading fire of Swiss Cycling success.

28 February 2009 A typical Swiss day for me looks like this: Wake up at seven. Sit for a meal of fresh bread and muesli, both of which are well-known delicacies in this area of the world. Take the train to German class—a simple endeavor, since the Swiss train systems are always on time. Come home in time for a hot lunch of the three essentials: protein, carbohydrates and fruits/ vegetables. (Europeans in general eat a hot meal for lunch instead of dinner.) In the afternoon, I train based on my plan that Beat makes for me. Come home. Eat some cheese, bread, sliced meat, or some muesli again. Go to bed. It’s a simple and effective training lifestyle. Training varies from day to day, but for the most part, everything else remains the same. Some of my earlier predictions about life here were understandably correct—life is constant training for the upcoming race season. Living with Beat, the national coach, requires a constant dedication to training. Training is nutrition, sleep, recovery and, of course, time on the bike. With spring race season just around the corner, training has quickly moved from base to structured training. A structured training day might include a series of 10-minute hill sprints, 100-meter finish-sprints, practice starts or race simulations on the Swiss Racer Bikes Cup course in Gränichen. For continued endurance training purposes, these activities are always tacked on to a two to three-hour ride. My cycling over the past two weeks has taken me far from Gränichen—sometimes I take a long ride down to Luzern, a 100-kilometer, three-hour training; other times I stick to the trails around the area called Canton Aargau—practicing technique and working on form. 30

Training in Europe can be a long, lonely road for an upcoming racer from the United States.

[the swiss diaries] myself on the bad end of this Swiss Cycling maxim. After a week of training in Spain, the riding has taken its toll on my body, and with two days left, I lose my concentration in the worst of areas. An unexpected encounter with a tree leaves me sprawled out on the trail with a quickly blooming black eye. Then on our last day here, I take a false line on a steep switchback and plant my face into a large rock about 10 feet off the trail. The second blow to the head in two days leaves me concussive and unable to sleep on the nightlong journey back to Switzerland. I sit now, on a crowded Car Rouge Bus, surrounded by snoring cyclists, tapping away at a glowing keyboard. My body aches, and my head throbs. I spent nine days in Spain and only once made it to the beach. I continue to suffer through the training thinking if I don’t come out of this a better rider, at least it builds character. Mr. Miyagi would be proud.

kevin kane training in swiss

Kevin Kane’s Swiss coach told him, ‘If you crash during a technical training, then it was a good training.’ He soon found himself on the bad end of this Swiss cycling maxim.

8 March 2009 Early yesterday morning, I arrived in Giverola, Spain, 50 miles north of Barcelona on the Costa Brava with the rest of the Swiss Junior National Team for a nine-day technical training camp. After a 12-hour bus ride, we thankfully escaped a spring snowstorm that struck central Europe earlier this week. Spain, like Switzerland, offers the unknown—an unknown language and culture but more importantly, an unknown training ground, the likes of which require a different type of rider. Out of their element, the Swiss are a little more hesitant, and it excites me to find that the Swiss are not omniscient in regards to cycling. The Swiss have their rooty, wet terrain, and I have my singletrack climbs and smooth descents. Unfortunately for me, the Swiss are built for a World Cup race and I for a Mountain States Cup race. The terrain here is much like Colorado Springs—loose, ball-bearing dirt on hard rock and soil. For those who have ever ripped down Captain Jack’s in the Springs, you know what I mean. The dry climate here hosts a broad variety of merciless vegetation—the kind that leaves deep gashes on a passing cyclist’s uncovered arms and legs. We ride twice a day, in the morning on the road, in the afternoon on the mountain. On mountain bikes, we practice on exaggerated terrain so that in the races, the technical sections seem easier. The climbs are steeper, the descents looser, the corners sharper. When I comment to one of the national team riders about the contrasts between the training methods I have learned at home and the Swiss training, he replies in a rich accent, “If the Americans had a hill to train on, they would bomb it flat.” In the small world of cycling, political and cultural differences persist. 15 March 2009 Beat says, “If you crash during a technical training, then it was a good training.” This sounds like the same advice I would receive from Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, and I soon find

25 March 2009 I am midway through week five when I realize that my trip is far from over. I am a week and a half away from my first race in Schaan, Liechtenstein—my first professional race, my first race of the season, my first race in Europe, my first UCI C1 race—many firsts. I am a month away from my first World Cup, though USA Cycling has not granted me permission to race for the United States yet. And when I realize I am still two months away from going home, I face another first: the pangs of homesickness. I miss Colorado bluebird days and the singletrack that stretches for hundreds of miles out my back door. Nothing can replace my love for Colorado. Plus, with an eight-hour time difference between here and back home and my extremely busy schedule, I find it impossible to connect with my family and my girlfriend back home. And so the training continues. We work in four-week blocks—three weeks hard training, one week recovery. Not that I notice much of a difference. I never look more than two days ahead on my training schedule—too much focus on the future can distract me from the training at hand. However, I cannot help but ponder over the upcoming race when I will line up next to one of my cycling heroes, Ralph Näf, a Swiss mountain biking hero and a strong contender for the World Championships in 2009. The reality of this fact hits me hard as we prepare for race week. Despite my training with the Junior National Team here, I am no longer a junior—I am an “elite,” the next level up—a scary and exciting realization. If the juniors are this fast, how will I ever compare to the professional ranks? 5 April 2009 Then the worst: the week before the Schaan race I get the stomach flu. I am forced to spend several days on a diet of cooked carrots and black tea, most of which seems to pass right through me. On Friday before the race, I finally feel my stomach returning to normal. On Sunday, I feel a humming of energy return as I await my 4 o’clock call-up. Sitting in the Stirnemann’s camper, I think of all the preparation that has led to this day and all the consequences that could result from my finish. USA Cycling has informed me that, in my absence from the U-23 race at Sea Otter Classic bike race in California, they will give me 31

[the swiss diaries]

Deviating from a typical Swiss training diet, Kevin Kane celebrates with the other aspiring young riders at a camp in Giverola, Spain.

permission to race World Cup races based on my results from Schaan. This fact does little to hinder my nerves. The future of my time here in Europe appears to cling to my success or failure in this race. I am called up 46th out of 70 riders. Pain beyond pain. From the deafening shot of the gun on the line at Schaan, the physical pain is immediate: the start is like a slingshot of power and adrenaline as 70 racers from various nationalities vie for a chance as the new contender. The course begins steeply on a paved road, climbs for a kilometer, then joins a double-track climb. Immediately following the feed at two kilometers, and giving no time for relief, is a 500-meter wall of mud and roots. This “Euro” climb, on the first lap, is where I first found myself in the grasps of fatigue. It is evident I’m still fighting off the remnants of the flu; feeling lethargic after two kilometers of racing is not normal. The climb crests out onto a flat road section leading down to the final climb of the loop. The entire climb is a mere three kilometers, followed by two kilometers of rooty, muddy, grassy singletrack. Ride 10 of those loops back to back, and you’ve got a 31-mile suffer-fest. The course takes its toll on me, and I finish the race, relieved, two laps down from the leaders… 50th out of 52 finishers. I tell myself later that I was sick and did my best to finish the race. I was racing against the best in the world. (Ironically, I 32

found out later that Ralph Näf was there but dropped out of the race because he was sick the previous week.) But I continue to doubt myself, saying that “good enough” was not going to cut it for the World Cup races in Offenburg and Houffalize, the first of which is in less than two weeks time. USA Cycling would send an email, “We are sorry to inform you….” etc. Following the race, I stumble into the camper and sleep the entire way home to Gränichen. 10 April 2009 After staring at my glowing computer screen for what seems like hours, I open the email from Marc Gullickson, USA Cycling’s mountain biking coordinator. I hold my breath as I read the terse note. Skimming the words quickly, I find the sentence I am looking for: “I have decided to get you registered for Offenburg and Houffalize.” Joy beyond all joy. In my heart, I feel like my 11-year-old self again, with no worries or sorrows. The most important goals of my trip are completed, and I feel the motivation inside me expand immensely. There is only one thing to do in a time like this… keep training.

[Coming in Mountain Flyer’s fall issue: The Swiss Diaries, Part 2]

[tour of the gila] Riders on the Trek Livestrong team chase down a breakaway and string out the peloton in the early miles of the Gila Monster Road Race, stage five in the Tour of the Gila.

Mitchell Clinton

Everyone Suffers Happily Together at Gila SILVER CITY, N.M.—The way Tour of the Gila stage race organizer Jack Brennan sees it, the formula for a successful race is fairly straightforward—cater to the needs of each cyclist, whether that cyclist is Lance Armstrong or a newbie female racer. “We bust our butts to make sure a national champion is experiencing the same thing as a Category 4 woman,” Brennan said about the SRAM Tour of the Gila, now in its 23rd year. “We want every racer to leave Silver City and say, ‘that was a firstclass experience.’” Covering up to 370 miles in five days with 22,000 feet of climbing, the Gila is regarded as one of the toughest road races in North America, annually attracting 450 to 550 cyclists to Silver City’s high desert community in southwestern New Mexico. Most stage races that draw the pros do not accommodate amateurs, but the Gila is different. This year’s race drew 510 racers with a roster including hundreds of amateurs riding the 34

same routes as the world’s top cycling celebs Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Kristin Armstrong, Floyd Landis and Taylor Phinney. This mix of cycling superstars and average Joe racers from across the country makes the Gila unique. “It’s pretty cool just being in a race against that level of talent,” said Josh Liberles, a Category 1 racer for the TenSpeed Drive team. “Listening to Lance riding along next to me, conversing with (Astana team manager) Johan (Bruyneel) over the race radio. Watching Chris Horner’s constant smile as he pulls out of the middle of the peloton and says nonchalantly, ‘it’s time to go to work,’ revs up the pace and makes us all suffer.” Racers traveled from 36 states and 10 foreign countries including Mexico, Northern Ireland, Australia, Israel, England and New Zealand to take part in the Gila this year. “You look at the roster and you see not a lot of the racers are from New Mexico,” Brennan said. “People go out of their way to travel to Silver City for this event.” continued on page 38

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[tour of the gila] Ruth Clemence (Newport Beach, Calif., Touchstone) grits her way up the final, rough and narrow miles of the 73-mile Mogollon Road Race, the first stage in the Tour of the Gila.

[tour of the gila]

Mitchell Clinton

[tour of the gila]

With a hard and decisive attack—most likely an attempt to wear down race favorite Kristin Armstrong—team Lip Smackers’ Amanda Miller separates herself from the pro women’s peloton halfway through stage one of the Mogollon Road Race. Mitchell Clinton

continued from page 34

Brennan and his team succeed in making the Gila a “racer’s race” in large part because of its reputation as a well-organized sufferfest wholeheartedly supported by the town of Silver City, an artsy community of 10,000 residents. In Silver City, more than 400 local volunteers donate their time for the race. They house hundreds of individual racers, drive support vehicles, direct traffic, erect barricades and minister to injured racers. “This is the biggest thing in town and we want to make sure all the racers feel appreciated,” Brennan said. As a result, the race has developed somewhat of a cult following. And with its long miles, vertical gradients and hairraising descents, the race is alluring to all levels of racers, many of whom simply take pride in finishing. “I fully expected to get my ass kicked and not just because of the altitude,” said Robin Zimmerly, a Washington D.C.-area government attorney, who raced in the women’s 3/4 peloton. “I had no indications that it would be easy. And that’s why I 38

came out.” And this year, with the Lance factor, Olympic medalist Kristin Armstrong in the race and the daily coverage in national broadcast and print media, the race emerged with an even higher repute. The men’s field of 150-plus riders obviously had better drafting opportunities than the women’s Category 3/4 peloton of 31 women. But both categories had the same level of support: wheel cars, a lead vehicle, follow cars, neutral feed zones, prizes, award ceremonies and medical support. Even when only 12 women signed up for Category 3/4 a few years ago, organizers provided as much support as they did for every other group. And it’s especially true that Silver City residents bust their butts for every racer. “Welcome to Silver,” a friendly resident said to one racer walking into a restaurant for dinner. “Thanks for coming to our little town and doing our race.” –Jill Janov

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[12 hours of mesa verde]

12 Hours of Mesa Verde Doubles the Enjoyment CORTEZ, Colo.—It might be hard to imagine a better venue for a 12-hour endurance mountain bike race than Phil’s World, the amazing trail system built in the shadow of Mesa Verde National Monument, the well-preserved home to ancient cliff dwellers. Attendance at this year’s 12 Hours of Mesa Verde race doubled over previous years. More than 400 riders participated, a testament to the excellence of the course and to how well run the race is. For those who haven’t heard, Phil’s World is a 16.5-mile trail that winds around and over several mesas just outside of Cortez. The trail throws out buff singletrack, whoop-de-doos, rocky ledges, treacherous technical sections and some of the finest overall flow of any trail in the region. Modest elevation gains and losses make Phil’s World a singlespeed playground and an ideal racing spot for the “Geezers,” the over-50 race category that was rife with participants this year. Solo Geezer Jim Nichols of Durango, Colo., pounded out seven laps, making him Geezer King for the year and putting some serious performance anxiety on many of the youngsters, who he easily matched or trounced in speed and distance. It wouldn’t be a Southern Colorado race without Travis Brown, and this year the big man from Trek (sans the beard) clocked the fastest lap, completing the circuit in a blistering 1:08:41. Riders from Massachusetts, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah and other points near and far converged to race in benefit of Montezuma Partners, a local nonprofit dedicated to mentoring at-risk youth. A luau party theme this year encouraged racers to pedal in grass skirts or wear colorful Hawaiian Leis. Team members in the transition area could keep tabs on their mates on a big-screen television, thanks to a live video feed from the course. As the sun set and the post-race festivities began, many racers vowed to return, ensuring that the popularity of the endurance race will continue to swell. –J. Rickman 40

[12 hours of mesa verde]

Brent Sites, left, of the Dangerous Dudes team from Salida, Colo., passes Blake Ward of Durango, Colo., near the edge of a mesa at Philâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s World during the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde while Stanley Hawks of Utahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Two Fat Guys team stays in hot pursuit. James E. Rickman

[12 hours of mesa verde] Standing on the pedals and hammering hard through the scrub, Travis Brown (Trek) of the J and S Reunion team from Durango, Colo., demonstrates what it takes to capture the fastest lap of the day on Philâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s World.

James E. Rickman

3/5/09

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Fourth-place Mountain Cross finisher Erik Nelson (Commencal USA) is still riding in his mind as his bike goes down in front of fifth-place finisher Jake Kinney (Avent/Bombshell/Maxxis/Shimano) during the semi-finals at the 2009 Chile Challenge. James E. Rickman

[chile challenge] Honey Stinger/Trek rider Ben Portilla lays it all out at the Chile Challenge. Portilla raged to a sixth-place finish in the short track but was forced out of Sundayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cross-country race after opening up his knee in a crash.

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[chile challenge]

Rob Way (Transition Bikes) of Tucson finds the air in Angel Fire to be suitable to his style of riding during the 2009 Chile Challenge.

James E. Rickman

Chile Challenge Turns Up the Heat ANGEL FIRE, N.M.—The Chile Challenge in May is always a spicy venue for gravity and cross-country racers, but this year the course got even hotter, thanks to a peppering of rains that made the dirt super fast. The three-day race menu takes full advantage of the rocky, rooty landscape, and lung-burning altitude of Angel Fire resort. Young racers from small towns mix it up with some of the bigger names in the sport. And because the conditions at Angel Fire can be unpredictable, it’s usually anyone’s guess who’s going to come out on top. Chris Heath, Chris Boice (Yeti/Fox National Team) and Kain Leonard (Crested Butte Academy/TLD/Maxxis) were top finishers in the men’s downhill, which was in great condition thanks to intermittent rains throughout the weekend and bluebird conditions on race day. Rachel Bauer (Banshee/Poison Spider Bikes), Darian Harvey (Cannondale Factory Racing) and Jacqueline Harmony (Vixen 48

Racing/Loeka/All Mountain Cyclery/Hayes) took the top spots in women’s downhill, with Harmony and Harvey obviously stoked from their second- and third-place finishes under Leana Gerrard (Mona Vie/Cannondale) in the Mountain Cross the previous day. Top honors in men’s Mountain Cross went to Mitch Ropelato, the baby-faced rider from Ogden, Utah, who took advantage of a crash by Erik Nelson (Commencal USA) in the finals to sneak ahead of Tim Sharp (Yeti/Fox National Team), Boice and Nelson. Colin Cares (Kenda/Tomac/Hayes) and Kelli Emmett (Giant Bicycles) won the men’s and women’s cross-country races, Macky Franklin (Team Devo) and Catherine Compton (Spike Shooter) earned victory in the short track, while Open Male rider Mike West (Maverick) and Women’s 19+ rider Eden Sierra of Austin, Texas, turned in the fastest times on the Super D trail. –J. Rickman

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[fat tire 40]

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With the Strand Bonus trail snaking off behind him and Teocalli Mountain in the distance, Travis Scheefer (Brick Oven/CB Builders) can’t help but enjoy himself at the Fat Tire 40. Scheefer reeled in an early break by Brian Smith (Trek) and Jeff Irwin (Brick Oven/CB Builders) to win the inaugural event in Crested Butte, Colo.

Crested Butte Restores Epic Racing with Inaugural Fat Tire 40 CRESTED BUTTE, Colo.—On the morning of June 27, exactly 100 riders lined up in front of the cattle guard on the south end of Crested Butte’s Elk Avenue—a point where the Butte’s casual main drag turns to dirt and, for many, where the fun begins. The crowd gathered to participate in a historical restoration of sorts: Fat Tire Bike Week’s return to the epic racing that once made it famous. The last time Fat Tire Bike Week hosted a true epic mountain bike race was before disc brakes and full suspension. From the cattle guard, the 4252

mile racecourse followed a dirt road to Tony’s Trail, a relatively new singletrack connector trail from town. And then the real journey would begin as racers pushed up the technical nightmare of the Upper Upper Trail to back-to-back loops on Ferris Creek Trail and Strand Hill Trail before climbing north to the steeps of Deer Creek Trail and finally finishing with a climb over Mt. Crested Butte on the Prospect Trail, back to the Upper Loop and Tony’s and on to the finish back in town. Local youngster Travis Scheefer (Brick Oven/CB Builders) played it smart,

hanging back for the first two hours before taking the lead from Brian Smith (Trek) and narrowly winning, completing the course in 3 hours and 46 minutes. Jenny Smith (Trek) and Laura Anderson (Brick Oven/CB Builders) pushed each other hard for the entire route. Smith prevailed, finishing in 4 hours and 44 minutes. The goal of the race was simple: Give racers a mind-and leg-blowing course that would represent the true essence of riding in Crested Butte. Mission accomplished. Don’t miss it next year. –B. Riepe

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[la tierra torture] With the Sangre De Cristo mountains above Santa Fe socked in with thick rain clouds, riders in the 2009 La Tierra Torture short track race get close to completing another lap.

James E. Rickman

La Tierra Tortures with New Short Track Event SANTA FE, N.M.—Riders have gathered in New Mexico’s capital city for the past four years in May to partake in some first-rate suffering. But this year’s La Tierra Torture mountain bike race added an additional day of pain. In a perverse spirit of cooperation, the weather decided to pile on as well—rewarding some participants in the new event with a cold spring shower. The event’s name is actually a misnomer. The La Tierra trails, located northwest of the City Different in sage-scented high-desert scrub, are smooth and fun, conducive to riding as fast as your legs can spin. And that’s the rub: people wear themselves to a frazzle racing in the event. Many riders the next day feel as though they’ve had an appointment with the Spanish Inquisition—insight, perhaps, into the origin of the event’s name. The new short track race began with a tedious climb. The rest of the two-mile course featured fast-banked corners, 54

sections of loose sand and a prolonged, mild downhill section that couldn’t help but induce a smile, despite the dreary weather. Category 2 riders and singlespeeders had to endure most of the spring squall during their 25-minute turn on the torture track. Cat 2 Junior Ian Oliver (Active Knowledge) of Albuquerque, N.M., won his class and turned in the fastest time among Cat 2 riders. Meanwhile, Devi Schmidt of Santa Fe’s Spokettes Racing Team turned in the fastest time among Cat 2 women. In the Short Track singlespeed category, 10 men and one woman were crazy enough to enter. Jennifer Albright from Albuquerque was alone in her class and of course took first place. Travis Coleman, also of the Duke City, emerged victorious among gearless men. Shortly after completion of the Cat 2 race, the weather dried up and the La Tierra trails efficiently absorbed the moisture,

[la tierra torture] Kele McDaniel of Santa Fe, N.M., weaves through the serpentine banked corners on the downhill section of the course during the 2009 La Tierra Torture short track race ahead of Carl Gable, racing in the Cat 2 Men’s 50+ category.

James E. Rickman

making the course unexpectedly perfect. In the Pro Men’s category, Macky Franklin of Taos, N.M., led a fierce game of follow-the-leader, remaining just out of reach of Santa Fe rider Cameron Brenneman for most of the race. Brenneman eventually fell off of the pace like a worn-out coyote outwitted by a desert hare. In the Cat 1 women’s categories, Santa Fe racers Rachel Friedman and the ever-grinning Kristin Edwards took first place in the 30-39 age group and the 40-49 age group, respectively. Sunday’s race was a good old-fashioned cross-country brawl on a nine-mile loop of delicious dirt. Cat 3 riders were in for one lap, while Cat 2 riders and the Pros suffered through two and three laps each. Many riders in the cross-country race had toughed it out

the day before on the short track, but several fresh-legged carpetbaggers wandered into the fray on Sunday, swelling the ranks of the competition and keeping the races honest. In many categories, previous-day victors remained on top, but in others, short track winners slipped into second place behind their unwearied adversaries. A notable exception was in the highly competitive Cat 2 Men’s 40-49 category, which nearly doubled in riders from one event to the next. Todd Resch, a principal at Desert Ridge Middle School in Albuquerque, reversed his fortunes, moving from the previous day’s second place standing to a solid first place in the cross-country race— proving to his pupils that he rules! The Pro Men had a case of déjà vu in the cross-country event, with the top five positions coming in as a carbon copy of Saturday’s short track results. –J. Rickman 55

[the original growler]

Dax Massey (Bach Builders) powers his rigid singlespeed through the final slippery miles of the 64-mile Original Growler. Massey survived multiple flat tires and a mid-race downpour to win the singlespeed title, finishing the journey in 6 hours, 26 minutes and 49 seconds. 56

Brian Riepe

[the original growler]

As a steady rain rolls in from the west, Travis Brown (left) and Travis Scheefer appear out of their depths on lap number one. Scheefer would pull out to win the 32-mile Half Growler division while Brown was left to continue on alone for another cold wet lap to win the 64-mile race in 5 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds. 58

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[glenwood springs criterium]

A young gun learns firsthand the consequences of getting too deep into a turn while pedaling. In crit racing, the price of going fast sometimes comes with more pain and less skin than what you started the day with. His misfortune took down two other riders, but luckily everyone walked away from the crash.

All images by Devon Balet

Twisting Course Keeps Riders on Edge Glenwood Springs, Colo.—American criterium racing is almost like a gladiator sport. The courses are typically contrived from city streets and potholes, curbs and drainage dips. Degraded asphalt is standard. The speeds are so high and racers are pushing so hard that every once in a while you will hear the clink of a pedal scraping the ground as the riders lean through a turn while pedaling hard. Hitting your pedal can toss your back wheel like a piece of popcorn popping and make your heart skip a beat. Most times it is a harmless sound, but other times it can turn into a catastrophic crash. One rider crashing causes a domino effect of crashes and usually ends up with a lot of flesh left on the pavement. The obvious danger of crashing is quite high for crit racers. When entering some turns you won’t even see where you are going. You will simply follow the wheel of the rider in front of you. The train of racers will come into a turn so fast that they look like one solid string of riders going down a track. The twisting, 7/10-mile lap of the Glenwood Criterium course made for a fast lap with lots of opportunities for riders to escape the grasping reaches of the peloton. But also a lot of opportunities for trouble. The Glenwood course opened up with a short two-block climb that led into a weaving series of turns. One of the most exciting turns was the chicane, a quick left to right S-turn. When the riders entered the right turn, they had to deal with a big dip in the road. This dip later proved to be a wheel eater, 60

sending one rider over the bars. With 16 of the 17 riders in the Pro Women’s race representing three teams (Natural Grocers/XP, ColoBikeLaw. com and DFT/Treads), team tactics played a huge role. Each team tried to send at least one rider off the front, but it was ColoBikeLaw.com that made a play at the right moment and led Susannah Gordon off for the win. Natural Grocers’ Beth Fisk fought through for second with ColoBikeLaw.com’s Terrie Clouse and Kate Scheider following close behind. The Pro Men’s race was furious from the outset when Natural Grocers/XP rider Jonathan Baker used the twisty course to his advantage by attacking and getting out in front right away. Riding by himself, he was absolutely flying through the turns, taking risks and steadily gaining time on the peloton with every lap. It soon became apparent that Baker was going to lap the entire field but just as he was about to reconnect with the tail of the main pack his rear wheel popped while pushing a bit too hard through a downhill corner. Riding on the flat, he cautiously made his way back to the pits and made a wheel change. Criterium racing allows a free lap for mechanicals or crashes and Baker had to use this rule. He was able to get back in right where he had flatted, caught the peloton and quickly moved to the front to control the pace for two teammates— Christian McCarthy and Jon Tarkington—who were now also off the front. In that order, Natural Grocers/XP clinched the top three spots. –D. Balet

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[alien run]

Less than 50 yards from the site of a mysterious 1948 UFO crash, riders Billy Schaaphole, left, and Steve Koller take a roller coaster ride past the point of no return during the 9th Annual Alien Run race near Aztec, N.M. 62

James E. Rickman

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[alien run]

The Truth is Out There: Alien Run Transports Riders to New Dimension of Fun AZTEC, N.M.—The Alien Run crosscountry race is as off-the-radar as the alleged UFO crash that inspired it. The race is neither big nor well known, but for the past nine years it has been drawing a highly competitive and ever-growing group of racers looking for bragging rights and a taste of some extremely fun singletrack. Like the rumored Men in Black who keep details of paranormal occurrences under wraps, Aztec hides in plain sight— nestled on a back road between Durango, Colo., and Bloomfield, N.M. Few are aware that the community is home to a wicked little trail named the Alien Run, which incorporates fast smooth dirt, stretches of slickrock and the cobble-laden landscape of shallow prehistoric seas. The most noteworthy feature of the trail, however, is a flat area near Hart Canyon, where a flying saucer is rumored to have crashed back in 1948. The trail and the race named after it are about as well known outside of the immediate vicinity as the circumstances surrounding the alleged crash. Still, the race draws nearly 100 participants of all ages, partially because the course is equally fun to ride on a singlespeed or geared bike, and moderate climbing and just enough technical challenges keep the race interesting to professionals and novices alike. The race breeds rivalries among regulars who show up year after year, intent on reaching new warp speeds for completing the 26-mile course. This year Fort Lewis College’s Ben Sonntag (MonaVie/Cannondale) battled fiercely with Trek’s Travis Brown, besting Brown by just three-one-hundredths of a second and nailing a new course record of 1:35:50. Tina Dominic of the Fort Lewis College Racing Team took top honors among women, finishing in 2:03:25—a full four minutes ahead of the second-place finisher. The race is a fundraiser for the Aztec Public Library, meaning that the Alien Run probably will be around a lot longer than the UFO crash debris at Hart Canyon. –J. Rickman

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[sunshine hill climb]

[sunshine hill climb] The Sunshine Hill Climb in Boulder, Colo., was anything but sunny this year. Chris Case (Feedback Sports) rolls out of the fog and battles the final miles of dirt road to earn ninth place in the Pro field.

Eddie Clark

[pajarito punishment] Robbie Brooks of Los Alamos, N.M., goes airborne on the new Pajarito Punishment downhill course during his run toward a second-place finish for Sport Junior Men.

James E. Rickman

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M.—The annual Pajarito Punishment cross-country mountain bike race, held May 30 this year at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, has been revered in recent years for its brutal climbing and challenging singletrack—all above 9,000 feet in elevation. Now it has officially earned a reputation for brutal descending as well. Fledgling Punishment events of the past once included a downhill race. But that had a stake driven through its heart due to logistical and practical challenges that were more hassle than they were worth. But this year, thanks to enthusiasm for gravity riding by a local Los Alamos, N.M., resident Neal Pederson, downhill racing was resurrected like a zombie staggering from a dirty grave wearing body armor. This year’s race date was bumped up a couple months and Pajarito Mountain still was under a healthy amount of snow until early May, so Pederson had his work cut out for him. He and a group of volunteers had just weeks to design, prepare and ride in the new course. Working with Chris Boice of the Yeti/Fox National Team and New Mexico gravity guru Rich Strang, Pederson mapped out a steep, fast, loose descent. Almost 60 riders, from seasoned professionals to rank amateurs, signed up. The quickest riders completed the course in just over three minutes. Chris Heath, formerly of Fort Lewis College, Colo., sewed up victory in the Professional Men’s category, while Lindi Martin claimed victory as one of two women downhill participants. Local standout Peter Schulze, wearing a Mesa State College kit, hammered home victory for Expert Men. On the cross-country side of the mountain, Albuquerque, N.M., powerhouse Damian Calvert (Sports Systems Mountain Top Cycling) claimed victory for the third year in a row, while Nina Baum (Cannondale Factory Racing) took top honors among women. Like previous years, many riders were simply happy to finish. –J. Rickman

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[teva games]

Cam McCaul lays out a smooth 270 table off one of the opening features at the Teva Games. McCaul turned the nearly silent crowd into a screaming freak show when he tossed a massive front flip over the ending double at the end of this run.

Devon Balet

Teva Games Slopestyle Wows the Crowd VAIL, Colo.—The slopestyle competition at the Teva Mountain Games was mind-blowing. With the cancellation of a major event in Europe, Vail found itself hosting the top riders in the world in June. As a cycling event, the Teva Games are an anomaly. The weekend is packed with multi-sports competitions, including kayaking, adventure racing, paragliding and rock climbing and its huge cash purse draws top athletes. In the gravity events, simply watching these riders do what they are great at is a pleasure but lingo for slopestyle is like a foreign language to most cyclists. Someone who knows the language can spit out endless lists of tricks, leaving most of us scratching our heads. One of greatest tricks of the weekend was a turn down 360. This trick is essentially your basic 360, but the riders drop the front wheel during the turn, making it look as though they are pointed straight for the ground in the rotation. The trick looks so unnatural, it is stupefying that a rider is capable of pulling it off. The first double jump of the course quickly became the focus of spectators with riders pulling off turn down 360s and superman back flips. Although these features are relatively small, that didn’t keep guys like Paul Basagoitia from throwing down a flare-off axis flip (360 with a flip) and staking big points from the start. The highlights though came at some of the most unexpected times. Greg Watts wowed the crowd with his truck 68

driver (360 with a bar spin) off the wooden step-down. As if a simple 360 wasn’t enough, Watts figured adding in the bar spin would launch him up the ranks. Another crowd favorite was when Geoff Gulevich made several front flip attempts in a row. He never came up with a land, but he also walked away at the end of the day. The biggest trick of the day, by far, was 23-year-old Cam McCaul’s massive front flip at the end of the course. It was as if he was hiding the trick for the very end. “I still didn’t feel comfortable doing the flip, but it was a personal goal of mine to land it. I just had to remember I could do it,” said McCaul. “The landing was fine, but I was so excited I flipped out and blew a couple gaskets and ended up in the fence.” Once he landed the trick, he was mobbed by his crew and sent the crowd into a cheering frenzy. But it was Basagoitia who impressed the judges and took top honors after an especially smooth final run. McCaul’s consistent riding topped with the front flip landed him second overall in the while Watts, 22, of California took third place, getting huge cheers and probably points from the judges after executing a back flip, then doing a “truck driver drop,” spinning the handlebars while dropping off the highest box on the course. “I wanted to try it all weekend,” Watts said. “I was probably thinking, ‘Please land; be all right.’” –D. Balet

[teva games] Rocky Mountain Bikes team freerider Andrew Sherry twists up a fully clicked shoulder buzz on the first hip jump at the 2009 Teva Games slopestyle competition.

Eddie Clark

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mashing pedals Potato Paradise in

story & photos by James E. Rickman In the foothills above Boise, Idaho, the singletrack trails flow like sweet rivulets of butter emanating from the crest of a hot, split, baked potato. Cycling in this southwestern Idaho city of nearly a quarter million people is as big as the plump, tasty taters that are the state’s claim to fame. In downtown Boise on Wednesday nights in the summer, or during the first Thursday of the month, bikes stack up in racks along the streets like a bumper crop of tubers in an Idaho root cellar. The words ‘couch’ and ‘potato’ don’t appear side-by-side much around here. Boise is an active community. The number of bikes and infrastructure related to them gives Boise a bit of the same vibe as you might find in Portland, Ore.—a sense that bikes are not only welcome and revered, but a necessary part of daily life.

Downtown Boise, Idaho, bustles with bikes and nightlife during the summer.

As we rolled into Boise on the cusp of the Independence Day weekend, we found ourselves a little confused that the Potato Capitol of the World wasn’t inhabited by throngs of portly farmer-types clad in dusty bib overalls. Instead, Boise’s streets are alive with hipsters, technogeeks, urban professionals, migrant laborers, Mormons, agnostics and, yes, potato farmers. All are disarmingly friendly. Although Boise (pronounced BOY-see; no Z) was built on the potato, times have changed, and the city is now home to major industry spanning from agriculture to high technology. Residents joke that Boise evolved from the potato chip to the microchip. Boise’s recent fortunes revolve around J.R. “Jack” Simplot, a Boise potato magnate who invented the frozen French fry in the 1940s and patented his invention in the early 1950s. On a handshake deal a decade later, Simplot and McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray Kroc agreed that Simplot would supply the fast-food chain with its famous fries. Simplot became a billionaire as a result. His wealth provided the start-up capital for Boise’s next most-famous industry: Micron Technology, a leading manufacturer of computer memory chips and devices. Finding that the Boise area was fertile for more than just potatoes, other industry giants moved in. The H.J. Heinz Company, the original catsup people, was a logical fit in a community built on French fries. Paper manufacturer BoiseCascade and printer giant Hewlett Packard also set up shop, along with lumber and timber companies, technology firms and call centers for icons like Apple and AT&T.

The business boom led to a population boom. Soon Boise became one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities and consistently scored high in those “Best-Places-to-Live” rankings that Chambers of Commerce get so excited about. What had started as the region’s major economic center back in the days of the Oregon Trail has flourished during the past century and a half into a cosmopolitan center of art and culture. Boise’s potential leisure activities stack up like toppings in some kind of deranged potato bar. The city is home to museums honoring everything from fine art to black history to Anne Frank. A downtown microdistillery morphs tater juice into artisan vodka and gin. And the downtown is a vortex of entertainment in the summer, with free concerts every Wednesday night and a festive gallery stroll with food and drink on the first Thursday of the month. Many residents travel to the festivities by bike using Boise’s Greenbelt, a 25-mile multi-user paved trail for non-motorized travel that follows the Boise River from one end of town to the other. The Greenbelt is the key to Boise’s bike-friendly gestalt and is the main artery responsible for the proliferation of bikes downtown. The variety and diversity of bicycles in Boise is in itself astounding. Shiny contemporary models share rack space with beautifully restored Schwinn Black Phantoms or originalcondition Ross Apollos. Old 10 speeds sit alongside newer cruiser bikes or dirt-caked mountain bikes; skinny tires, fat tires and balloon tires are equally welcome. Perusing the collection of bikes downtown while enjoying 73

David Thomas of the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association takes advantage of a rare technical feature while riding on the usually smooth trails of the Bogus Basin area in the mountains above Boise.

a chunk of astoundingly delicious homemade chocolate I’ve found at a downtown shop called The Chocolat Bar, I stumble across an old J.C. Higgins locked to a lamppost near a popular deli. I don’t know which is sweeter, the bike or the chocolate. You know all is right with the world when you find yourself coveting a two-wheeled anachronism dating back to the salad days of the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog. Boise has about 130 miles of singletrack, most of it accessible from the downtown area. The city itself sits at 2,700 feet above sea level at the base of a series of grassy foothills known as the Boise Front, sometimes referred to as the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Above the foothills, 16 miles north of downtown, sits Bogus Basin ski resort, towering nearly a mile higher in elevation than downtown Boise. Both areas are rife with trails, though the lion’s share of Boise singletrack is located in the foothills. “For as long as I can remember, there’s always been trails here,” said David Thomas, outgoing president of the Southwest Idaho Mountain Biking Association (SWIMBA) and our riding guide for the day. As a boy growing up in Boise, David’s first introduction to the trails was through his father, an enduro motorcycle racer. “A number of the trails in the Boise area were motorcycle trails and cattle trails before that. Once Boise started expanding, people didn’t want motos so close to residential areas, so now only about eight to 10 miles on the Front are motorized.” These days, David prefers mountain bikes over motorcycles. He’s eager to show us the trails with friend and fellow SWIMBA member Al Casile, who spends as much time during the winter 74

building singletrack as he does the rest of the year riding it. Like everyone else in Boise, the two are affable and laid back. Temperatures on this early July afternoon are above 100 when we meet David and Al. In addition to the oppressive heat, the foothills are enveloped in thick haze, which settles into the area from elsewhere. The conditions have spurred an air-quality yellow alert and I’m already drenched with sweat just from standing around in the parking lot during our initial meeting. Al and David make a wise decision and opt for a ride up at Bogus Basin, where the air will be cooler and cleaner. On our way up the steep road to the top, we pass the palatial mansion that was once home to J.R. “Jack” Simplot himself. In a fit of generosity in 2005, the eighth-grade dropout who became a French fry billionaire and Boise’s most famous resident donated the hilltop residence to the state of Idaho for use as the Governor’s estate. The ostentatious structure has remained empty ever since, while Simplot and his wife moved into a downtown Boise hotel until Simplot’s death in May 2008 at the ripe old age of 99. A few minutes after passing the mansion, we park near the base of the ski area and begin our ride. Al, who has legs as large as the trunks of mighty oak trees, tells us he normally rides the steep narrow trails from town to this trailhead instead of driving. It suddenly dawns on me that my riding skills are small potatoes compared to the skills of these guys. The forest is lush, dense and dark—much cooler than the town below. We are riding Eastside, a super-fun trail that’s still primitive enough to give it a bit of a bootleg feel. It turns out that my instincts are somewhat correct. As Al floats over the

few obstacles on his rigid 29er, David explains that the trails up here in Bogus Basin gained legitimacy thanks to cooperation between SWIMBA and the U.S. Forest Service. “The Eastside area was a pirated trail system when the Forest Service noticed,” David said. “Instead of closing it down, the Forest Service asked SWIMBA to work with them. We worked really closely together and legitimized the trails. It was a very positive experience. The Forest Service has been a best friend to SWIMBA ever since.” The cooperation improved the trails and re-routed some portions of the bootleg trails off of private property. Al and David steer us toward some of the latest re-routing handiwork. The section has a nice line and flow, but it’s not yet fully ridden in. As I start to hammer a little bit to keep up with Al, I can feel my pedal catch the remnants of a sawed-off stick. Fate had lined up my crank arm with a one-in-a-million chance for disaster. As my bike begins to skid and I struggle for control, the front tire slams broadside into another stump nubbin. I am hurled violently to the ground, but I retain the presence of mind to snag my bike with the tip of my index finger before it plummets over the edge of the exposed trail and into the abyss far below us. Fiery pain radiates from my forearm down my side. I venture a peek at my arm and see the spreading crimson reminder that mountain biking can be inherently dangerous. I try to shake off the pain and laugh off the crash, but as the adrenaline wears off and the pain and stiffness set in, I grow quiet for the remainder of the ride. Despite the mishap, I’m still enjoying the flow of the trail—until we pass the carcass of an elk that reportedly has been killed and partially devoured by a wolf that haunts the area. Soft golden light filtering through the treetops suddenly makes me acutely aware that dusk has set in. I can smell my own blood oozing from my injured arm as we begin the slow upward grind back to the trailhead past the ragged carcass. I realize sheepishly that I have become potential prey at prime feeding time. My father always told me that if wildlife attacks you, you don’t need to be the fastest person in the group, just faster than the guy behind you. Being the last guy, and chumming the air with the smell of wounded prey to boot, I recite a list of wolf survival strategies to help distract me from the misery of the climb. Thankfully I never needed to test the efficacy of a multitool against a marauding canis lupus, though later that evening, after enjoying chicken wings and hearty dark beers with our host back in town, I do let out a pretty good imitation of a wolf howl as I debride my injured forearm in the shower. The next day we find bikes are only part of the fun to be had in the Boise area. During our visit we travel a short distance to Horseshoe Bend to ride above the forest canopy on zip lines. Zip Idaho (www.zipidaho.com) reportedly offers the longest zip lines in Idaho, but I’m sorry the cable spanning 1,700 feet isn’t longer as I scream above the forest canopy at close to 50 miles per hour. A half-hour north of Horseshoe Bend we decide there are worse things than not keeping my new wound dry. We sign up with Cascade Raft Company (www.cascaderaft.com) for a halfday rafting trip down the South Fork of the Payette River. The float through mild rapids provided thrills for novice boatmen

The Eastside Trail at Bogus Basin is a great place to escape Boise’s summer heat.

Al Casile and his Vizslas, Ty and Teia, enjoy some trail time together on the rippin’ trails of the Boise Front, minutes from downtown Boise.

like us and beat back the Boise summer heat. But there’s more riding in store. A day later we meet Al at sunrise a stone’s throw from downtown for a ride in the foothills. Al has brought his canine companions, Ty and Teia, a pair of Hungarian Vizslas—short, squat reddish-colored missiles of dogs with floppy ears and a peculiar lust for speed. The foothills trails are perfect. We soon find ourselves ripping around the insanely smooth trails, trying in vain to keep up with the dogs. The trails are so smooth and the flow is so good that they are reminiscent of trails in Fruita, Colo., except for the high-rise buildings visible a short distance away and the everpresent haze in the air. By the time we finish our ride a couple hours later, the trails start to become crowded. And why wouldn’t they? The riding is excellent. Strangely enough, having such trails available every day makes people long for something else. “There’s some debate in the community about whether the trails are technical enough,” David admits. “The geology of the area is not conducive to having a lot of technical features, so that’s not something we choose. We have so many trails that are smooth and buff that now we specifically design trails to hit every rock we find.” With just over 100 miles of trails to serve a bike-crazy population the size of Boise’s, trail crowding and user conflict has become the biggest problem for trail advocates, said Dave Gordon, coordinator of the Ridge to Rivers Trail System organization—a consortium of local, state and federal government entities responsible for building and maintaining all the trails in the Boise area. 76

Conflicts routinely crop up between dog walkers, joggers and mountain bikers. Groups of runners insistent against jogging single file are widening the trails, turning singletrack into doubletrack, while the city of Boise has had to dispatch undercover officers into the foothills to ticket dog owners who don’t pick up pet poop. Downhill cyclists aren’t yielding to uphill riders and in some cases aren’t yielding to anyone at all. Gordon and other members of Ridge to Rivers receive dozens of email complaints each week about user conflicts. To ease the tension, the group has organized summit meetings among user groups and regularly hosts trail awareness days—setting up tables at key spots along the trail system to educate trail users about keeping singletrack single. Some of the trails have been damaged so extensively that those buttery rivulets of trail have become more like globs of sour cream. “I guess if I could say one thing to anyone who uses the Boise trail system, it would be to respect other users and keep it single,” said Gordon. Late last year Al moved away from Boise in pursuit of romance. In addition to his fiancé, Al has a new love affair with the trails in his new home. However, he still visits Boise routinely, seldom without a bike. “Unlike when I lived there, I can see Boise now as a visitor,” he said. “I guess I’d say the one thing that makes Boise a great place is that you can go hammer a great six-hour ride, go back to town on your bike, get sushi, microdistillery vodka, microbrewery beer, coffee—I mean there are coffee shops on every friggin corner—have some phenomenal food, go back to your hotel room, crash, lather, rinse and repeat the next day.”

by Jessica Kisiel

Our bodies

are incredibly clever and will compensate in any way possible to allow us to continue doing what we want. And I wanted to keep riding my bike. It took nine years of competitive cycling, giving up running and three knee surgeries for my dysfunctional hip to take hold and keep me off my bike. I tried several approaches to reduce my constant pain: rest, heat, ice, anti-inflammatories, physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractics, massage therapy, Bikram yoga and finally exploratory hip surgery. None of them worked. It wasn’t until I focused on changing my posture that my pain began to improve. Like many cyclists, my posture had been altered from long hours on the bike combined with long hours at a desk job. With all this continuous sitting and forward flexion my upper body—head, back and shoulders—all took on a forward, rounded appearance. Prior to having my posture analyzed by an 78

Egoscue Method therapist, it had never occurred to me that the changes happening in my upper body could be causing pain in my lower body. Pete Egoscue, founder of the first Egoscue Method Clinic in 1987, realized the link between immobilization and loss of function while wounded in a military hospital in Vietnam. Through his personal experience and 20 years of studying anatomical physiology, he determined that bones, muscles and nerves develop and are maintained through motion. And that optimal functioning without pain results from diverse movements and “design posture.” Although my daily routine included plenty of movement, it was too much of the same repetitive motion. “Design posture” is where the load-bearing joints of the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles are at 90-degree angles to each other in the standing position. In addition to my rounding upper body, I had one hip that was higher and rotated forward.

Deviation from “design posture” can lead to pain as a result of musculoskeletal system compensations, which is when muscles perform movements for which they are not intended. My compensations were so ingrained that when I started the Egoscue Method I could not isolate activation of my hip flexors, which should be natural for a cyclist. The hip flexor muscles engage when the thigh is brought towards the trunk during the pulling phase of the pedal stroke. These muscles add power during steep climbs and sprints. Through my therapy, I realized my strength discrepancies and was humbled by my inability to perform simple movements efficiently without pain. Consequently, I came to understand with my therapist’s help that my left hip could not provide the same power as the right while pedaling, and I’d compensate by moving my upper body to enable my knees and back to do the work. As my pelvis rocked, the alignment and mechanics of my knee and ankle changed, creating friction and damage in my knee joint. Once my overworked knee had taken all it could, the pain settled in my hip and lower back. The Egoscue Method uses stretching and strengthening exercises called E-cises that remind the body of proper posture and function. Unlike stretching or yoga, E-cises retrain muscles to perform their designed role. Compensating muscles return to their original tasks and atrophied muscles are strengthened and used again. To balance out the hours you spend in your riding position and to help you get or stay out of pain caused by hours in the saddle, try the following E-cises recommended for cyclists.

Static Extension

Static Extension Purpose: Eliminate hip rotation and increase lumbar and thoracic extension. Downward Instructions: Kneel on a large block or chair with your hips about six to eight inches forward of your knees and hands on the floor directly under your shoulders with the elbows straight and locked. Relax your head, back, and stomach, allowing the shoulder blades to come together. Your back should be arched. If this causes pain in your back move your hips back toward your knees. Hold the position for one to three minutes.

Dog

Downward Dog Purpose: Full body extension and linkage from wrists to feet. Instructions: Assume a hands and knees position, knees are hip width and hands are shoulder width apart. Turn your toes under and pointed straight forward. Lift your knees and hips into a piked position with your weight supported by your hands and feet. Straighten your knees and contract your thighs tight. Press the upper body through your arms towards the floor. Push your hips back and heels toward the floor; don’t force them down; this will come in time. Maintain an arch in your lower back and hold the position for one minute.

Squat Purpose: Proper lower-body demand with the upper body under appropriate vertical load. Instructions: Use a door handle, pole or rail for support. Stand facing the support with your feet six inches apart and pointed forward. Grasp the object with both hands at hip level with the elbows straight. Roll your hips forward to create an arch in the lower back. Bend your knees until they are parallel with your hips/butt. Keep your torso vertical and hold the position for one to three minutes.

Squat 79

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THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE PRIMARY LOGOTYPE USED AS SIGNAGE:

TAKE CARE TO LEAVE AMPLE BREATHING ROOM AROUND THE LOGOTYPE AS SO IT DOES NOT FEEL CONSTRAINED OR PINCHED ON THE TOP, BOTTOM OR SIDES. AS SHOWN THE TYPE SHOULD BE ALL ONE COLOR TO AID IN READABILITY. THE SECONDARY ELEMENTS CAN BE A DIFFERENT COLOR FROM THE LOGOTYPE COLOR

MAKE DESIGN STUDIO

CLIENT: THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE

PROJECT: TFC IDENTITY AND VISUAL CENTER

DATE: 02.07.09

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New

THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE COLOR PALLETTE:

Framebuilders’ Collective

AS OF NOW NO COLOR PALLETTE HAS BEEN DEFINED.

MAKE DESIGN STUDIO

CLIENT: THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE

PROJECT: TFC IDENTITY AND VISUAL CENTER

DATE: 02.07.09

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THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE SECONDARY LOGOTYPES:

Works to Sustain Custom Bike Trade by Riley Polumbus

oday’s cyclists are luckier than ever. They can choose from an international list of bike brands, an assortment of building M a variety of designs. But first, a materials and cyclist has to decide between either a custom-built bike or one from the rest of the field. More and more consumers are investing their hard-earned cash in handmade bikes, custom fit to their body and riding preferences. Thanks to the Internet, consumers have a vehicle for finding their two-wheeled vehicle. However, the Internet is also responsible for a new generation of amateur framebuilders, many of whom garner their knowledge from “how to” websites, podcasts and online video, resources that may not always be reliable. Unfortunately for the consumer there is no board certification or specialized college degree to designate the title of framebuilder. To address this issue, some concerned custom framebuilders have taken a stand, forming a group that they hope will guide novices while preserving the integrity of their trade and providing transparency to the consumer. Last February at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS), eight handmade framebuilders announced their existence as a group called The Framebuilders’ Collective (TFC). THE HORISONTAL LOGOTYPE CAN BE USED IN SITUATIONS WHERE A TEXT ONLY SOLUTION IS NEEDED. ** THIS LOGOTYPE SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY AS TO NOT DILUTE THE MEANING OF THE PRIMARY LOGOTYPE.

MAKE DESIGN STUDIO

CLIENT: THE FRAMEBUILDER’S COLLECTIVE

THE “TFC” LOGO CAN BE USED WHERE NEEDED AND IT’S USE CAN INCREASE AS BRAND AWARENESS GROWS. IN THE SHORT TERM THE “TFC” SHOULD BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRIMARY LOGOTYPE AND ON TAGS AND APPAREL AS AN AUTHENTICATING MARK.

PROJECT: TFC IDENTITY AND VISUAL CENTER

Images courtesy of TFC

DATE: 02.07.09

8/8

www.makedesignstudio.com

[framebuilders’ collective] Self-described on their website framebuilders.org as “a group of like-minded, career craftspeople,” the members view themselves as equals and each has experience to bring to the table in a quest to protect and honor the heritage and profession of custom framebuilding. Founding TFC members include Nick Crumpton, Curt Goodrich, Dave Kirk, Darrell McCulloch, Dario Pegoretti, Richard Sachs, Carl Strong and Sacha White. Pegoretti is from Italy and McCulloch from Australia, and the other members hail from across the United States, including Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and Texas. Between email, online forums and networking face-toface at NAHBS, the group spent two years talking about issues affecting their trade before going public with their ideas. Their timing coincides with a decision by NAHBS to allow only the more accomplished framebuilders into its national show. NAHBS exhibitors are now expected to have been in business for at least two years by the time of the show, have built at least 200 frames and hold product liability insurance. “Making frames is one thing, and making frames responsibly and running a business doing so is another. I think that’s where TFC is,” Richard Sachs said. “We want to set a standard for ourselves and have that rub off on people.” Sachs thinks of a bicycle as a vehicle, and because a bike is on the road with traffic, framebuilders have a certain responsibility to create a reliable frame. “You can’t just go to YouTube and become a framebuilder,” Sachs said. “The integrity of the finished piece is really where TFC will be focused.” Sacha White thinks the group can act like a “beacon” for integrity and “hopefully bring other people who care about it like us into the fold so that we can start to gain more momentum and band with other builders. “All of us feel really passionately about preserving framebuilding as a trade and also looking after its integrity,” White added. Carl Strong believes that going public as a group creates an environment of accountability. “Custom framebuilding is suffering from the consequence of radical popularity right now,” Strong said. “The idea behind The Collective is to provide guidance, mentoring—a clearinghouse for accurate information.” Strong said most of the information available on the Internet is provided by the less experienced framebuilders. “People are flooding in, they are trying it and there is no clear avenue to success so most are failing,” Strong said. “In the interim, there’s a lot of marginal work out there.” Strong believes there is a gap between the experienced framebuilder, who can make enough quality frames in a shorter time to make money, and the inexperienced framebuilder, who struggles with every frame. He hopes TFC will help close that gap and create experienced framebuilders out of inexperienced framebuilders. “We want to promote the craft as a viable profession,” Strong said. “We want them to earn a living so they can get good at building frames.” Strong teaches the business of custom framebuilding seminar at NAHBS every year. He said each of the eight founders has his own niche of expertise.

With eight experienced framebuilders also comes unique personalities and at least eight ideas of what TFC will evolve into. But together they can communicate the importance of their craft. “As a group we can communicate the deeper value of handmade bicycles to the general public,” White said, comparing the trade to the coffee roasting industry, which has improved through an effort by coffee companies to better educate the public. The TFC vision addresses sustaining the trade by preserving and obtaining quality building materials. Before TFC came about, Sachs had already become his own materials supplier. When builders started experimenting with aluminum, titanium and other materials, he feared his precious metal would dry up. So he began to buy his own stock. He not only supplies himself, but he sells to other builders. “It would be mighty fine if TFC as a group or just a few of its members eventually undertook projects of a similar nature,” Sachs said. “We all have to deal with that looming over our collective—no pun intended—heads.” Aside from its announcement issued at NAHBS and creating the website, the group has not done much yet. They have spoken to a few framebuilders who are interested in joining TFC. According to the website, potential members are expected to have a five-year run as an independent, full-time professional framebuilder. Interested framebuilders can contact TFC and fill out an application. Although a handful of builders have done this, the founders have not announced any new memberships yet. Currently they are working out how to meet regularly. Strong said once they establish the infrastructure, they will take new members, and TFC will begin to take on more life. For now, he said they are in no hurry and are “letting it grow organically.” “What people ask from us is going to define what we can provide,” Strong said. “We all learned through the benevolence of some other builders, and now we owe it to the people who are coming in to share what was shared with us.” “We are more of a peer group than anything else,” Sachs said. “If one framebuilder’s life as a commercial entity is improved as a result of something we did for that person, whether it’s advice or nurturing or mentoring, it’s a success.”

The Framebuilders’ Collective vision includes • Support and promote ethical professional framebuilder practices. • Mentor and preserve proven framebuilding techniques and business practices. • Pursue continued development and supply of quality raw materials used by professional framebuilders. • Define our craft. • Guidance for bicycle framebuilders entering the framebuilding trade. • Act as a resource for dissemination of information and resources bringing positive attention to the profession of framebuilding. 81

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[paraphernalia]

Roxy Lo by Adam Hunt

some years Ago,

Roxy Lo found herself boxed in and frustrated. An experienced industrial designer, she wondered if her future would be filled with only bunny sprinklers and diaper bags. “My most memorable year of consulting was when there was absolutely slim pickings for industrial design work,” Lo said. That year, Lo was moving back from a year working in Hong Kong and decided to partner with a polyresin manufacturer. With Target as a client, the manufacturer asked Lo if she could design an animal-shaped lawn sprinkler for the department store. “I drew a bunny with an opening for the hose to enter under its bottom and a series of holes on top of its head for water to come out,” she said. “I am proud of this design because it was funny as hell and I was humbled as a designer.” She knew then there were only so many hose sprinkler toys a department store could sell. But little did she know then that 84

Mike Alden

years later she would be designing a highly successful carbon bike for a top boutique bike brand. That bike is Ibis Cycle’s flagship carbon Mojo, the radical redesign of the company’s full suspension bike. More recently, she worked on the Ibis Tranny, the company’s monocoque carbon fiber hardtail. Lo’s varied design experience outside the bike industry involved projects ranging from diaper bags for Pottery Barn, consumer electronics for Hewlett Packard and purses for Nooworks. Inside the bike industry, she was designing hydration packs for CamelBak and lighting systems for Light and Motion. She first gained experience in industrial design overseas. After finishing school and working two internships at design consultancies, she got disillusioned with consultants and moved to Hong Kong where she secured a job as a marketing manager for a ceramics company. “Target then subsequently stole me, when I did a product pitch to them, to be a technical design manager for their Asian manufacturers,” she said. But working for a big company wasn’t the right fit for her either. “I was further disillusioned from working with a large machine, so I returned to the States,” she said. Back home, she worked with Taiwanese manufacturers as a design liaison to their U.S. customers. From designing sprinklers, dinnerware and diaper bags, Lo’s career as an industrial designer made as about as dramatic a change as could be imagined. In 2003, she received a professional tap on the shoulder from a former coworker, who

was an engineer for Santa Cruz Bicycles. Her former coworker introduced her to Hans Heim who had worked for Santa Cruz as president and general manager for about 10 years. Heim had begun to feel hemmed in while at Santa Cruz and wanted to explore new opportunities. After Ibis’ bankruptcy in 2002, Heim, along with partner Tom Morgan and former owner Scot Nicol, decided to bring Ibis Bicycles back from the dead. “When Hans left Santa Cruz, he thought it would be cool to try working with me on the new Ibis Mojo Carbon. Then at 27, I designed my first mountain bike,” said Lo. Not only did Lo redesign the Ibis Mojo, she also became a partner in the newly revitalized company, too. Spend any time with Lo and one of the first things that becomes readily apparent is her infectious enthusiasm and cando attitude. “I don’t always travel the prescribed route,” Lo confessed. One particular story describes this persistence. When Lo was 10, her mother took her to a Chinese dessert shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The store served fried ice cream in the form of a little crunchy ball with icecold vanilla ice cream inside. “The next day after school, I came home, took out the frying pan and a gallon of vanilla ice cream and set out to make fried ice cream,” she said. She turned

the stove up to medium-high and threw in a scoop of vanilla. It melted immediately. “I thought that maybe the stove wasn’t hot enough and then recalled there was some liquid that made the ice cream balls sort of bubble and float. So, I poured a half cup of vegetable oil and turned the burner on high.” Little did she know that there was a missing ingredient called batter coating the ice cream. “My mom came home to a sugary mess on the stovetop and an empty gallon of ice cream,” she said. “She didn’t get too mad at me when I told her that I was just trying to make her dessert before dinner.” Lo carried this sense of fun and confidence to her design of the new carbon fiber, full suspension Ibis Mojo. Her challenge was to design the bike around the well-regarded Weagle DW-Link rear suspension system. David Weagle’s DW-Link system was initially designed for his own Evil Bikes but later adopted by some of the industry’s biggest hitters such as Turner, Independent Fabrication, Pivot Cycles and Iron Horse. What were her thoughts when she was given task of designing a carbon fiber frame around a pre-existing suspension design? “My first thought? That it was like playing the most difficult connect the dots game ever,” she said. “I was given four points in space for the linkage, then two points where the center of the wheels existed, then a point where the bottom bracket was. It was pretty intimidating but exciting because

there were no constraints or expectations.” “The DW linkage and other similar suspension designs were oriented differently on different frames,” said Lo. “My approach was to use design to demystify how the suspension worked within the frame geometry. “I wanted the frame to express forward momentum and strength. The shock alignment flows directly into the bridge between the top and bottom tube, which gives both structural and visual integrity where the bike needs it most,” she said. A quick look at the new Ibis Mojo Carbon and its overall design suggests forward motion rather than the “grasshopper pump” look of some other bikes on the market. “The bike design is focused on complementing the engineering,” she added. “I was mostly excited by the fact that we were going all carbon, which pulled our path away from the legacy of metals.” Lo speculated on what the future may hold for other frame materials that may be introduced to the riding public. “Ten years in the future I can see new polymers coming into our horizon. Perhaps we can one day grow our bike frames to custom body metrics. I think that the future of the bike is in the way we ride, our ergonomic fit and component integration with the bicycle frame.”

Mike Alden

Soaking rain and slippery singletrack at the Wildflower Rush cross-country race make for a perfect test track. The Blur XC Carbon excelled on the steep rooty trails and the frame handled the conditions without excessive mud buildup or creaking pivots.

Devon Balet

[santa cruz]

Price (XTR complete as tested): $5,999 Weight (Medium) : 22.4 lbs. www.SantaCruzBicycles.com

blur xc carbon

Bridging the Gap from Trail Bike to Race Bike The start zone for the men’s pro race at the Wildflower Rush in Crested Butte, Colo., was like a cattle shoot. Forty-six of us were lined up 10 riders wide on an eroded incline, shuffling and snorting, and when the gun went off, riders were madly elbowing for a good position. The track narrowed to an eightfoot wide path and then dove straight into a singletrack climb. Surviving the stampede, I settled in until we hit the singletrack where I was forced out into the grass, which was fine since I could easily pedal through the grass clumps and passed a string of 20 riders. When Santa Cruz’s Mike Ferrentino told me about the Blur XC Carbon, he pitched it as the company’s bid for the ultimate Rocky Mountain cross-country race rig. Having one in 86

hand was a great motivator for me to line up at a few races this summer. There’s just no way to get a feel for a race bike without subjecting yourself to the chase. The Blur has made for a popular trail bike since its introduction, but Santa Cruz’s aluminum Blur never caught on as a race bike. So for ’09 Santa Cruz went with carbon, which was uncharted territory for the Nor-Cal bike manufacturer. The carbon fiber frame weighs nearly a full pound less, and a complete bike with medium frame weighs in at 22.4 lbs or less, even without tubeless tires or other lightweight goodies. Santa Cruz was so paranoid about diving into carbon that the company doubled its testing standards, leading to the strongest, stiffest and lightest frame it has ever made.

Subtle but cool graphics accentuate the flared down tube on the new Blur XC Carbon frame.

The Blur XC carbon is not just a carbon copy of last year’s Blur. Making it a full-on race bike was the goal; other changes were needed. The new Blur has shorter chainstays, 105 mm of travel (10 mm less), a lower and flatter shock rate (rate of compression vs. rear wheel travel) for better bump absorption and angular contact bearings at the pivots. Think stiffer, shorter, snappier and more responsive. Bikes like the Blur with Virtual Pivot Point (VPP) suspension use a patented link configuration and rear axle path to apply force from the chain to counteract motion caused by pedaling. The VPP design doesn’t require a manual lockout. Instead, VPP balances pedaling forces to eliminate unwanted compression (a.k.a. bob) and effectively absorb bumps when pedaling. If you want a techie explanation deeper than the financial hole Madhoff created, you can visit www.santacruzbicycles.com/ tech and go to Joe’s Corner. So the race continued climbing up a beautiful narrow track through a thick aspen grove. It was difficult because the trail was strewn with roots and chatter bumps. This couldn’t have been a better trail to see where the Blur really shines. On the rooty ascent, the Blur climbed better than my hardtail. Standing or sitting, the suspension does not bob, but it’s there when you want it—like when you slam into a root trying to pedal through a switchback. Setting up the suspension initially was tricky though. My first few rides were disappointing until Ferrentino gave

me some advice, with the key words, sweet spot. On this suspension, you need to find a perfect balance between air pressure and rebound damping. So much so that my standard shock pump gauge is not accurate enough to find it every time I check the air pressure. But when I had it dialed, it was money. Halfway up the climb, it started to rain. By the time we hit the descent, the trail was turning to slime. That mixed with more roots and a few haphazard rock gardens made for dicey descending. The Blur danced through this stuff like a trail rig, sucking up the slime-covered rocks, but ripped out of the corners like a race bike without sagging out at the apex. The rain never stopped until the race was over. I faded a bit on the final climb—demoralized by the mud—but held on for 10th place. Any places I gave away were not the fault of the bike. I raced it again the following weekend at the Fat Tire 40 (42 miles of epic singletrack in Crested Butte)—and loved it— and it will be my bike of choice for the Breck Epic as well. I rode the Blur XC Carbon with a complete XTR spec. It’s available with a variety of build kits and shock options, including a 21.5 lb SL kit if you throw down extra cash. Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with the new SRAM XX. With a 69.5 degree head tube (70 degrees is common on race bikes) and frame specs designed to accommodate a 100 mm or 120 mm fork, Santa Cruz didn’t completely sell the Blur’s trail-bike soul. The Blur XC Carbon can bridge the gaps from race bike to marathon bike to simply a light, fast and fun trail bike. –B. Riepe 87

[specialized] langster

Price: $830-$880 Weight: 18.5 lbs. www.strongframes.com

Geared for Trackies to Commuters I often emerge from my house in the morning all kitted up and ready to ride my road bike to work. This morning is different. Today, I’m festooned in rolled-up trousers, a cycling cap and slip-on Vans. As I blast out the front door shouting ‘gears smears,’ I wrap my messenger bag around me like a toga and hop on my shiny Specialized Langster. All I need is one speed. After a steady track stand in my driveway and a fancy skid stop at the corner light, I’m certain my college-aged neighbors are convinced some hipster cyclist moved into our urban hood. The Langster is geared for everyone from competitive trackies to hard-core commuters. With track handlebars, the bike is evidently the hobbyhorse of both fixie enthusiasts and track stars, including Don Langley, the bike’s namesake. Langley, a long-time Specialized employee, is a former national champion and world record holder on the velodrome. Langley was instrumental in creating a fun style and personality for the project; each model is named after a great city of the world. I test rode the Langster Tokyo. Other models represent London, Chicago, Seattle, New York, Boston and Monaco. The New York version has a classic yellow cab checkerboard design and writing on the chainstay that reads, “Driver carries less than $20 cash.” “The graphic treatments make the bikes unique,” Langley said. “I think our bikes first of all serve the rider’s purpose and secondly bring some style and uniqueness to the family.” The Langster is a good choice for the rider who wants a 88

singlespeed setup without having to rig up a fixie from a used ’90s frame. The bike’s flip-flop hub also allows riders to easily swap between free wheel and fixed-gear riding. But the bike is not just for commuters. Roadies, like myself, train on fixies to develop improved efficiency and power. The bike comes with a 42-tooth chainring and a 16-tooth cog or freewheel, amounting to 70 gear inches, which Langley said he chose for versatility. This ratio was a bit big for me. I swapped the 16 for an 18-tooth cog, which allowed me to enjoy my uphill commute to work and spin like a washing machine on the way home. The bike is spunky with quick acceleration, a smooth ride and steady handling on the corners. It took me a while to get accustomed to the ergonomic shape and short drop of the track bars. Riding this fine-looking bike that exudes coolness spurred a sort of cycling renaissance in me. I’ll never be an alley cat racer or trick-riding messenger, but in the process I’ve learned a few things about the lifestyle, for example, how to calculate gear ratios and speak fixese. Suddenly I’m at ease tooling around campus and stopping at the coffee shop to let the urban youth ogle at my Langster. “Cool ride. What kind of gear ratio are you cranking?” one guy asks. “Sixty-one,” I say. Then the dudes start a lively conversation about cadence, bullhorn vs. riser handlebars and some treasure hunt race that takes off later that night…well after my bedtime. I’m clearly out of league. –J. Janov

Crossing Spring Creek and heading for Dr. Park Trail—Kent Eriksen’s custom titanium bikes are built precisely for classic Rocky Mountain rides like this one.

Brian Riepe

[kent eriksen cycles] custom ti 29er

Price (frame only): $3,000 Weight (complete): 25.5lbs. www.KentEriksen.com

Long Live the Hardtail There I was again, looking ahead a couple of switchbacks at the rider in front of me. This particular climb has always kicked my ass. It’s tough because it’s relentless. It comes about 10 miles into a dirt road climb then it spikes up. It’s rough and super steep, making it difficult to get in a groove. In the past, I‘ve either lost traction and spun out or simply given up and walked the burdensome section. It has defeated me every time, but not this day; I finally rode it. I cleaned it on my new bike: a custom titanium 29er hardtail, made for me by Eriksen Cycles in Steamboat Springs, Colo. I have always preferred a hardtail. It’s basic yet beautiful, 90

fast and particular. And despite the push of engineers to complicate things, for me, a hardtail simplifies the overall performance and experience of mountain biking. My mission on the trail is to pick good lines and ride smoothly, and nothing will teach you to do so better than a hardtail. I chose Eriksen Cycles because of Kent Eriksen. He is a phenomenal framebuilder and recently won the award for best titanium framebuilder at this year’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Eriksen founded Moots Cycles and helped deliver titanium bikes to the masses. He has been building titanium bikes under his own label since 2006 and will build you

Eriksen’s Chris Moore is known for precise, meticulous welds like those you see here.

anything from full-suspension mountain bikes to cyclocross and road bikes. Every frame Eriksen builds is custom. His ways are precise and perfect, and it shows in the way he builds bikes. It also shows in the way he and his wife and business partner, Katie, have built a top-tier organization with some of the industry’s best supporting cast members. Before ordering the frame, my conversation with Eriksen Cycles started with Katie. She is an important part of the Eriksen experience and great to work with. Together we ironed out the basics of my riding abilities, my riding style and my frame preferences. Kent followed up quickly with complete CAD drawings and comments. It’s pretty unique for a builder to send CAD drawings prior to building. These details in the framebuilding process separate Eriksen Cycles from so many other builders. Analyzing the CAD drawings of my bike-to-be was fascinating. I took the measurements of my current bike to try and create a tangible comparison. Based on these comparisons, coupled with Kent’s suggestions, we made a few minor tweaks to the original drawings, such as lengthening the head tube to 163 mm and increasing the tube diameters on the top tube to 1.625 in., the seat tube to 1.5 in. and down tube to 1.75 in., all to make a stiffer ride. Because I’m 6-foot-5, and to match the new seat tube diameter, Eriksen suggested that he build me a prototype 30.9 mm Eriksen “Sweetpost” (one of the company’s own seatposts) to go with the frame. How can you say no to that? I received my frame and marveled at the clean lines and

Chris Moore’s superb welds that are Eriksen Cycles. I built the bike up with a complete XTR drive train, a 2010 Fox F29 with a 15 mm quick release (more on that on page 101), hand-built DT Swiss wheels and Magura Marta SL disc brakes with a 205 mm rotor up front and a 180 mm rotor in back. Because of my size, I have never been too concerned with weight, but let’s face it, going uphill for more than an hour is easier on a lighter bike, and the Eriksen (the circus bike as my friends call it) weighs in at about 25.5 lbs. Pretty sweet for a doit-all 29er of its size without tubeless wheels. This bike does do it all. It is very responsive and comfortable on the climbs. On singletrack, it’s tight, nimble and easy to move around. Going downhill, the bike rides like a short-travel, cross-country bike. It is easy to lean in the tight corners and cheerfully handles the quickly changing rocky, rooty mountain landscape at high speeds. I am extremely comfortable and confident on this bike. A longer head tube helps keep my position upright and a slightly elevated bottom bracket keeps me pedaling through the chunky stuff. The best thing about a custom frame from Eriksen Cycles is the bike is made by people who want you to love it. Without question, a frame at this price has to perform, and mine does. The crew at Eriksen brought together all of the qualities I wanted in a bike and delivered it in the form of functional, ridable art. With this new bike under me, there’s no telling how many more climbs will fall victim to my ti 29er. Long live the hardtail! –C. Hanna 91

The m81’s stiff frame lets a rider waste no energy getting up short, steep hills.

James E. Rickman

[one cycles] M81

Price (frame only): $1,099 Complete Bike: $2,699 Weight: 21.6 lbs. www.OneCycles.com

One Bike, One Speed If you went into the bike business and could only build one bike, what would it be? Of all the frame materials, tire and frame sizes and suspension/no-suspension designs to choose from, the guys at One Cycles had a simple answer: a singlespeed. After years of riding left them unsatisfied with the singlespeed options, Steve Nowak and Carmen Scala, co-owners of the relatively new One Cycles based in Manitowoc, Wisc., chose to start a bike company focused on building a singlespeed bike. “The way it started, we were riding singlespeeds that felt like they were either a singlespeed in a company’s lineup that fills the gap in their production, or we were riding stuff people were cutting corners with to save money on production,” said 92

Nowak. “We wanted to build a performance singlespeed.” For three years, the two friends tossed around ideas over beers, debated the best design elements, fretted about product testing and tempted friends by letting them try out early frame designs. A singlespeed, they believed, should above all be light so it doesn’t sap your energy, and it should be stiff so when you pedal, your effort translates immediately into forward motion. And finally, it should exude simplicity, both in setup and look. Aluminum was a natural choice for its combined light and stiff material properties. The m81 uses a large diameter down tube but a tapered top tube and seat tube, giving the frame a little compliance. The down tube’s bigger weld area at the bottom bracket fit in nicely with the choice of a Bushnell

eccentric bottom bracket, giving even more stiffness when pedaling. The single-allen-wrench adjustability of the Bushnell bottom bracket eases the fine-tuning of chain length. As it is, you can switch out the stock 32x16 gear setup on the full build up to a 32x19 without adding links to the chain. For a dropout, Nowak and Scala stayed with the stiffness theme, designing the frame with a custom vertical dropout (hence the eccentric bottom bracket), engineered to match the seat and chainstays. The dropout has a larger diameter with more weld area, keeping the degree of flex in that notoriously flexy area to a minimum. They also liked the simplicity of being able to change your gear without changing wheel alignment or disc brake caliper alignment. The lightness theme plays out in a frame weighing just over three pounds; built with company specs, a full bike weighs 21.6 pounds. And as a tribute to simpler times, the entire thing is made in the United States, the frame handmade in Portland, Ore., the bottom bracket machined in Seattle, the seat post clamp machined by DKG in San Francisco, among other U.S.-made parts. Finally, the graphics are kept uncomplicated with just a company logo, a small model name on the frame and the distinctive One Cycles head badge. (In case you were wondering, the m81 model name stems from Nowak’s interest in astronomy. That’s the only hint he gave.) Overall, these well-thought-out design elements culminate in a simple, quick-feeling bike with clean lines. I found the bike’s stiff handling excelled at top speeds, when you could lay it into twisting singletrack and it would snap back to your line, or you could launch it crisply off of small ledges or whoop-deedoos. For climbing, at first I thought these guys must be

One Cycles designed a custom vertical dropout for the m81, the company’s one and only bike (as the logo on the seatstay bridge reminds those behind you).

pathological to spec a 32x16 for singlespeed riding in Nowak’s mountainous hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colo. But I discovered that the frame’s stiffness qualities actually did convert my less-than-ideal spring strength into direct forward motion when I pointed it uphill. Seriously doubting my ability on steep hills with that gear ratio, I surprised myself by nearly cleaning a local, two-mile-long uphill grunt that usually demands smaller gears. You don’t want any nonsense in a singlespeed, and that sentiment is what makes the m81 ideal. With this new singlespeed on the scene, you get a well-built, two-wheeled, one-gear machine intent on the simple task at hand: a great ride. And with no plans by One Cycles to branch out into biggerwheeled or extra-geared bikes, you can count on continued sharp attention given to their one singlespeed bike. –C. Spaeth 93

Further Contributing to Car Makers’ Woes,

Cargo Bikes Come of Age by Matt Wiebe

I’ll get this out of the way early: these bikes are the future of non-motorized transportation. They haul kids, groceries and two-by-fours with aplomb. These are true car replacements. I did the car-less thing for six years going to school in the U.K., but that sucked. Even loaded up with four touring panniers and a backup backpack, I had to limit my shopping because I ran out of space or some items were too big to fit. My panniers were large enough for weeks of touring, but they were way too small to hold enough food even for a small party. I also did the trailer thing for 11 years, hauling three kids to daycare and tugging groceries home. But bike trailers are clumsy, hard to weave around traffic and really add a lot of drag when fully loaded. Their wide two-wheel stance means I superman’d over my handlebars more than I care to admit, snagging a wheel full-tilt around a parking meter or parked car. I like parking my car—not to save the world; I just don’t like driving—so I was looking for a bike that wouldn’t keep reminding me it was a bike. Long-tail cargo bikes promise car-like trunk space for groceries and plenty of real estate to put a kid or two on back. As the name suggests, they are just like normal bikes, only longer in the back. Is this simple difference enough to make them better than a normal bike with racks or a trailer? To see if long-tails lived up to their promise, I put together a test of a Rans Dynamik Duo, a tandem long-tail, and two singles, an Xtracycle Radish and the Kona Ute. Last Thanksgiving, my daughter and I headed out to do the turkey day grocery shopping on the Rans Dynamik Duo, and it was immediately clear these bikes deliver on their promises. We exited Trader Joe’s with a case of beer, eight bottles 94

of wine, cheese, bread, veggies, milk, chips and other Thanksgiving must-haves, ending up with six bags of groceries. All the groceries and wine went in one pannier, the case of beer in the other. (The beer and wine we were carrying were just to put the Duo through its paces.) We made one more stop at Whole Foods, adding three more bags of groceries to our load. Everything was neatly zipped up inside. Nothing was sticking out Grapes-of-Wrathstyle. I expect we had over 120 pounds of stuff in the back. I would have killed for such a bike when I was car-less going to school. Given the high cost of gas and global warming, no wonder bike shops and bike makers reported that sales of cargo bikes heated up last year. Expect bikes similar to these tested turning up on roads and in shops near you. Xtracycle arguably launched the long-tail category 10 years ago with its FreeRadical, a cargo-carrying extension that replaces any bike’s rear wheel, but few riders were interested. Last year things changed. Xtracycle sold out of its entire year of FreeRadicals in the spring, and other long-tails went fast. Surley’s Big Dummy, a frameset pre-built with a FreeRadical long-tail sold out. Kona’s Ute sold out. Everyone wanted cargo bikes, seemingly overnight. “Our customers are families looking to replace the minivan. It was women who got excited about having a bike to haul kids and groceries, not the dudes we imagined,” said Nate Byerley, Xtracycle’s president. In addition to the three long-tails tested here, similar bikes are available from Surley, Yuba and Ritchey’s Project Rwanda. Box-type cargo carriers are available from ANT, Bilenky, Fraser Cycles, Lightfoot Cycles, Madsen, Worksman and others.

Xtracycle may have the longest history, but the Radish is its first complete long-tail bike. Customers looking for a car replacement bike were looking for a turnkey solution from Xtracycle—they didn’t want to futz around converting an old bike. The $1,199 Radish tested includes a rear cargo rack and two panniers, fenders, kickstand, front V-brake, rear mechanical disc brake, a one-by-eight speed drivetrain and 26 by 2.125-inch tires. Radish’s standover height is low—to make the bike womanfriendly—fitting riders from five to six-feet tall. I’m 6-foot-2, and with a longer stem and 410 mm seatpost, I found the Radish very comfortable. I’m used to three-by-nine speed drivetrains on my mountain bikes, so I was a little skeptical of Radish’s oneby-eight. I live up a short, steep, dirt road, but even with my 75-pound daughter and 55-pound boy horsing around on back, the low gear always got me home. Radish’s FreeLoader panniers are the best of the bunch. It’s clear the company has listened to years of customer feedback as the bags and straps easily adjust to carry anything, from lumber to groceries. They are also permanently attached to the rear rack so I never worried about them when I went shopping. Xtracycle kept the rear FreeRadical portion of the Radish separable to allow the bike to be broken down for transport. This convenience compromises frame stiffness, and the company may make the Radish, or a new model, one piece in the future. That said, the chromoly steel Radish was no more or less flexible than the 7075 aluminum one-piece Kona. My 75-pound daughter preferred sitting sidesaddle on the rear deck when I picked her up from school. Riding over broken pavement caused rear-wheel steering on both bikes. As this is Xtracycle’s first entry into the complete bike market, there were some minor component and design issues. Rear shifting was occasionally vague—also a problem on the Kona—and a sidesaddle daughter on a potholed dirt road led to a few chain derailments. And the front brake took some massaging to work.

Xtracycle Radish

Kona got into the long-tail market last year with the Ute, though the company has long provided rugged load-carrying bikes to aid projects like Bike Town and Africa Bike. Given the Ute’s sellout last year, the company is back with two Utes this season, 18-inch and 20-inch versions (model tested), both selling for $899. Utes come with integral rear rack, one quick-release pannier, fenders, center stand, mechanical discs front and rear, two-by-eight drivetrain and 700c by 47 mm tires. The Ute is a few hundred dollars less then the Radish, but the buff leather saddle, cork grips, twin disc brakes and generally higher spec give it the look of

the more expensive model. Other than vague shifting, everything else worked perfectly and the chain never derailed. The Ute is one-piece and in theory this should make for a stiffer bike. But it was not notably stiffer, maybe because the Ute’s larger 700c wheels are more flexible then the 26-inch wheels on the other bikes. Kona’s Ute was designed as a short long-tail with designers trying to fit as much cargo-carrying space in a bike not much longer than a normal bike. The wheelbase on my 20-inch version was a little over 51 inches, an inch shorter then the Radish—the 18-inch Ute is even shorter. Surprisingly the rear deck on the Ute was 33 inches,

Kona ute

seven inches longer than the Radish, something my kids readily noted when toting two at a time. A major downside to the compact Ute is a more upright seatpost, which puts the rider over the bottom bracket, making toe plants at intersections sketchy. I’m not sure why the Kona ships with just one pannier. With three bags of groceries and two gallons of milk on one side, it rode okay in a “one side has 40 more pounds” sort of way. Buy two panniers with the bike. Kona’s panniers are quick-release with a fabric handle on the top. But given the bags’ 26-inch length, I don’t see myself pulling one off to shop with. And I’m not sure why they are quick-release; I was always apprehensive one would go missing.

The folks at Rans wanted me to test their Hammer Truck, which is its $1,995 crank-forward long-tail. Knowing I would be riding with kids, either picking them up from school or grocery shopping, I opted for its crank-forward long-tail tandem, the $4,220 Dynamik Duo. The Dynamik Duo comes with a huge add-on cargo rack, two giant panniers, front V-brake and rear mechanical disc, a three-by-nine speed drive train and 26 by 1.5-inch tires. Even with its 80-inch wheelbase and nine-speed drivetrain, the Rans shifted and braked flawlessly throughout the test. This was clearly the kids’ favorite bike of the group. Sitting on a Ute or Radish back deck is fun, but pedaling and being part of the action is even better. Rans is an aircraft and bicycle maker based in Hayes, Kan., and the same Kansas welders who make

the airplanes make the Dynamik Duo, partly explaining its high cost. Rans’ panniers mounted easily and very securely. Though they are not permanently attached to the rack like those on the Radish, it would take a while to get them off. I never worried about them shopping. The Dynamik Duo’s 40-spoke rear wheel disappeared under my 120-pound Thanksgiving shopping, no flex detected. Even though a heavily loaded Dynamik Duo felt stiffer than the shorter Radish and Ute, Rans is planning a redesign to increase the lateral stiffness further. The crank-forward design puts the rider so far behind the crank that it is easy to rest a foot at stops. My 4-foot-3 boy found the lowest saddle setting not quite low enough though he could still pedal. My 4-foot-10 daughter found her best position easily. The potential

Rans Dynamik Duo

full seatpost extension will fit a rider much taller than me so this design has quite the range. The downside of the bike for me was its length. Duh, it’s a tandem. It was noticeably harder to maneuver than the shorter Radish and Ute, and it was heavier. But it was still much easier to maneuver than a bike towing a trailer. I never got used to the crank-forward design, but given the thousands of crank-forward bikes sold, I think my experience is not the norm. Overall, these cargo bikes will replace the car when you’re ready. The only things they really need are fulltime LED dynamo lighting, better child seating and a little electric assist to get two kids and groceries up a hill. But they’ll definitely get you to the store with all your holiday groceries, kids and more.

sports optics:rx lenses $229 (lens only) | www.SportsOptics.com

My first experience with Rx sunglass lenses was disappointing. In short, they messed with my depth perception and made me dizzy. Wearing them while riding a mountain bike was out of the question. I could hardly walk. When I asked my optometrist what was wrong, the doctor explained it was because I had an astigmatism, an irregularly shaped cornea, and the lenses corrected it in a way I would need to adapt to. “You’ll get used to it,” the optometrist assured me. I didn’t. Generally with Rx, customers are limited to certain styles with full frames, not necessarily great for sports, or to using an awkward insert that attaches Rx lenses beneath the existing lens. After blowing money on the first set, I wasn’t too interested in trying it again. But when I explained this to Bret Hunter at Sports Optics, he assured me that his custom lenses would not wreak havoc on my depth perception, so I agreed to give it another go. Sports Optics spent a decade developing a proprietary formula they call Direct Lenz Technology, which accommodates the close fit and wrap of sports frames. As Hunter explains it, without the correct formula, the prism is flawed and power is increased, which leads to eye strain and poor depth perception. The formula allows them to create custom polycarbonate Rx lenses to fit directly into most open frame styles with interchangeable lenses. I tried three sets of Sports Optics lenses: polarized carbon-gray and clear in a lightweight Rooly Partial frame and a red tinted set for my Rudy Project Noyz. I was truly skeptical, so much so I put off trying them on the trail. But when I did, I was blown away. The clarity is amazing. The best thing was I couldn’t detect any difference in my depth perception. Sports Optics offers Rx lenses for a large variety of sports or fashion frames and can meet a wide range of prescriptions. Order online or visit their storefront in Denver, Colo. –B. Riepe

gore-tex:alp-x

$269 | www.GoreBikeWear.com I love all-day, high-country rides in the summer. The only problem with these excursions can be Colorado’s predictably unreliable summer weather. All you need to know to get a job as a meteorologist is how to spell afternoon thundershowers likely. When my buddies and I head out on a clear sunny day, we inevitably get hammered by these afternoon electrical soakers. These rides can quickly turn into hypothermic epics unless you have packed thoughtfully. In my pack, I carry the Alp-X jacket and shorts by Gore Bike Wear. The jacket and shorts are made with Gore-Tex’s Paclite Material, which W.L. Gore says is designed and tested to withstand extended wind-driven horizontal rain. (Hmm, that sounds pleasantly familiar if you’ve ever been caught in a typical alpine summer thunderstorm; just mix a little hail in while you’re at it.) This is a slim and lightweight, packable set that is heavy on features. On the jacket, full overlapping flaps to cover the zippers ensure no water entry. The full Velcro rain hood attachment is convenient, and a fold-away shirt tail protects your rear. The jacket also has a zippered pocket in back and Napoleon pocket up front, along with an adjustable collar and hem. The thoughtfully designed shell-style shorts are meant to be pulled over your cycling shorts when the rain starts, and both jacket and shorts can be folded tightly and left in the pack for the season, ready to be used when the weather demands. The Alp-X shorts and jacket combo were designed to provide complete rain protection during the worst of conditions, and they fully deliver on this promise. –Kurt Smith

chain condom

$20 | www.ChainCondom.com If you’re like me and prefer stuffing your bike into the back of your vehicle rather than exposing it to the elements at 70-plus mph—even if it means exposing your new leather seats and all of your luggage to SDTs (soiled drive trains)—then you probably have chainring marks on your back seat. I know I do. Here’s a simple but effective solution to eliminate those embarrassing chainring marks: the Chain Condom. Made from heavy-duty nylon, the Chain Condom easily wraps around your drive train and closes at the top with a Velcro strip. The universal size will cover standard mountain bike or road bike drive trains and works with or without the rear wheel in place. Even if you do choose to subject your bike to a roof rack, the Chain Condom will keep your drive train clean from the top down. –O. Mattox

paceline:chamois butt’r $19.99 | www.PacelineProducts.com

Chamois Butt’r was created based on two simple premises: 1) long hours in the saddle are good, and 2) friction between your butt and your saddle is very bad and can negate benefits of No. 1 If you liked Chamois Butt’r before, you’ll love the new Eurostyle. It’s just as slippery and longlasting as before and contains a traditional Euro cooling formula gained from menthol, witch hazel and Brazilian peppertree. Eurostyle is served in a handy new 8 oz. tub so you can easily grab big gobs of it and smear it…wherever you like. I only wish it came with an applicator. Preferably something made of feathers. –O. Mattox

zero goo:bladder dryer $29.99 | www.ZeroGoo.com

A few years back, a fellow rider in Crested Butte began experiencing digestive issues. Upset stomach, diarrhea, gas. Pepto did nothing. He routinely rode in remote areas, sometimes filtering water from streams so he began to suspect Giardia but tests were negative. After many trips to the doc, he finally narrowed it down to bacteria in his hydration bladder. He rinsed it after rides but never thoroughly dried it, so it was always wet and harbored a healthy bacteria culture. This handy, electric bladder dryer could have saved him lots of trouble. The simple fan fits most bladders (adapters are available) and blows air through the bladder, drying it quickly. No wetness, no bacteria, no goo. –B. Riepe 99

magura:durin md100sl fork $868 | www.Magura.com

Most high-level, cross-country racers are willing to sacrifice some performance to save a few ounces. But when it comes to a suspension fork, it’s not always worth it. Lightweight race forks have a reputation for feeling flim-flamy, and when you’re tearing down a rocky singletrack, the last thing you want to worry about is saving a few more ounces. When they designed the Durin SL—available with 80 mm or 100 mm travel—Magura chose to cut weight in frills rather than sacrificing the fork’s handling. The 32 mm upper legs, dual-arch stabilized lower legs, steerer tube and crown are all the same as other models in the über stiff Durin fork line. For this fork, though, Magura’s engineers cut the fork’s weight down to the sub-3-lb level by simply keeping it simple. You won’t find a remote lockout—or any lockout—or any extra levers or knobs, only an air valve for adjusting preload and a knob to set rebound damping. The fork’s compression damping is fixed using Magura’s Albert SL cartridge, which has a self-adjusting, race-optimized platform setting. It feels less reactive over small bumps but it becomes very compliant over larger hits. I don’t tend to use lockouts very often because I like to have a little give when climbing anyway, especially on bumpy terrain, so it’s not something I missed. Another thing I didn’t miss when racing on the SL was that squirrelly, out of control feeling in the rough sections. The SL is a nice, low hassle fork that, to me, is the perfect race fork. You’ll notice it on a lot of elite race bikes like Dave Wiens’ 2008 Leadville winner and World Champion Irena Kalentieva’s and Olympic Gold Medalist Sabine Spitz’s World Cup bikes. –B. Riepe

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fox racing shox:2010 32 f29 $875 | www.FoxRacingShox.com

It’s time to come out of the closet. I have been living a lie and feel compelled to admit I did some “experimenting” in college. I didn’t really know what I wanted and was a little confused so I played both sides. I owned a carbon ProFlex/Girvin fork. Don’t ask me its name; it was a one-night stand, but it kind of left me with a burning feeling. The thing is, that monstrosity tracked like a frat boy to a keg party. I could press the hell out of that fork into the corners, and it wouldn’t deviate its course. It’s been a long time since I felt anything like it, that is, until I rode the new 2010 Fox F29 with a 15 mm thru axle. The bigger wheels and proportionally larger frames of a 29er are great for me, but I will admit that the bigger wheels can be flexy and can sacrifice performance. Fox’s magic remedy to combat the sloppy handling of the bigger wheels is a fork with a 15 mm tool-free thru axle. Slide the axle in, tighten to a preset tension and you’re cookin’ with gas. The 15 mm axle brings incredible stiffness to the front-end dance and was immediately noticeable, no joke. The F29 is available in 80, 100 and 120 mm models. There have been a few changes to the 2010 F29 like the new FIT RLC damper, which Fox claims offers a more sensitive rebound, increased steering precision and better overall control. I would agree that this fork handles with increased steering precision and better overall control, but I would argue it’s because of the larger axle. The adjustability and the lock-out features on this fork are supreme. The fork also has a remote option for those who don’t like to take their hands off the bars, but too much clutter on my bar makes me crazy. Everything said, the 15 mm thru axle upgrade warrants the most praise, and in my opinion this is the future for cross-country bikes. The difference in weight from a traditional 9 mm open dropout is a microscopic 104 grams for a 100 mm version, and there are great options for hubs from manufacturers like Hope, Shimano, Chris King and DT Swiss. If you want to improve your skills and your overall experience on your bike, do yourself a favor and consider this fork. Once you ride it, you’ll realize that after all of this time you’ve been shooting pool with a rope. –C. Hanna

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uvex:supersonic rs helmet

caffélatex:tubeless kit

Aesthetics aside, what differentiates a good helmet from bad is how well it fits, and that’s related to its adjustability. Uvex’s fit adjustment system is one of the best. Uvex calls the fit adjustment system the IAS 3D adjustment system. That’s Three-Dimensional Individual Adaptation System (Just go with it. The helmets are designed and made in Germany, and the engineers needed a name for it). What’s great about it is the internal retention system is adjustable in length, width and height. To really get it, you’ll just need to try one on at a bike shop. But, more or less, a padded plastic retainer ring wraps around your entire skull. The height of the helmet is easily adjusted by moving the ring up or down the notches on either side. Length and width are adjusted with a simple ratcheting knob on the back of your head. Since the strap wraps all the way around your skull, it doesn’t create pressure points, and the helmet is very comfortable when snuggly in place. Additional noteworthy features are ample venting, including temple vents, bug netting in the front vents, an adjustable, on-the-fly ratcheting chinstrap and an available helmet LED light. The Supersonic is lightweight, very comfortable and meets U.S. and European safety standards. –B. Riepe

The CafféLatex Tubeless kit is designed to convert a standard rim into a tubeless system using a special rim strip, valve stem and latex sealant. What makes CafféLatex distinctive is the foaming agent added to the sealant. Shake it up and it foams up like a good beer from the tap. This foamy goodness is key because instead of puddling up, it quickly coats the inside of the tire, giving an improved seal and better puncture protection. My first attempt at setting up a new rim and tire went smoothly. I nearly got it to air up with a floor pump—which is a miracle—but I couldn’t quite get the bead to lock. A quick shot with the air compressor did the trick. CafféLatex sealant is synthetic and does not contain ammonia like other latex sealants. Ammonia is corrosive and can damage aluminum rims. While many racers and tech savvy riders are using these tubeless conversions successfully, it’s not for everyone. The initial setup is advanced and requires experience and a bit of luck. The advantages are significant weight savings—even over Universal Standard Tubeless rims—and a greater resistance to pinch flats and punctures. Note that it’s still necessary to use UST compatible tires, which have sturdy sidewalls specifically designed to be used without tubes. Effeto Mariposa offers CafféLatex as a complete kit or à la carte. The kit is similar to others but has some nice, wellthought-out elements like a nicely designed syringe injector for refilling through the valve stem. I also liked the valve stem design, which has a rectangular rubber seal on the inside that leaves ample room for the tire bead. The fiberglass-reinforced rim tape is minimalist and ultra lightweight but did its job without fault. I’ve had great luck using tubeless conversion kits and this one was no different. Once set up correctly, they tend to be bombproof. I raced two weekends in a row using the CafféLatex kit with no problems at all. –B. Riepe

$110 | www.UvexSports.com

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$59.95 (complete kit) | www.CantitoeRoad.com

RAPTORSHORT

Stretch back yoke panel for increased mobility

100% Nylon outer shell with Poly/Spandex liner and interior clip out 3D seamless chamois Innovative seamless quad panel

Ergonomic back leg edge for pedaling comfort Two zippered cargo pockets sewn into side panel for secure and stable storage Dual waist adjustable system for optimum fit

www.jettmtb.com Zippered front and rear vents provide superior cooling

Product Designed in Colorado, USA

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PurE funâ&#x20AC;Ś simple life.

Rob Strickland

Xavier Fane

Rob Strickland

This summer recharge in our bike friendly communities! Crested Butte, home to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is known for its great alpine single track riding. Hartman Rocks in Gunnison gives you a taste of granite slick rock and high quality buff single track that goes on for miles, and miles and miles...if you are looking for a weekend get away or a lifetime of trail riding see for yourself why we believe we are the mountain biking mecca.

Photos, video, information and FREE brochures at GunnisonCrestedButte.com or call 877-369-7635 104

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colorado

carbondale Students at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colo., wrench bikes for credit in their school-run bike shop.

by Trina Ortega Nestled in a shady grove of cottonwood on the banks of the Crystal River in Carbondale, Colo., is a cottagestyle building surrounded by grass and flower gardens. The swirling shush of the water and chirping finches greet visitors as they walk toward the quaint building. This unlikely spot is home to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) Bike Shop, where high school students learn about and repair bikes for the school and the Carbondale community. The private day and boarding school sits in the shadow of 13,000foot Mount Sopris in the coal mining and ranching town that for decades was also a bedroom community for Aspen ski resort. Carbondale is now regarded for its eclectic mix of 6,000 residents who pride themselves on their unwavering commitment to alternative transportation, clean energy and outdoor recreation. The school itself is a fine match 106

Trina Ortega

for the town. For its 150 students, the school combines college preparatory academics with community service and outdoor education. The bike program enrolls more than a dozen students each semester, equipping them with skills for the trail and road or teaching them about bike maintenance. “The premise of the bike shop is to teach kids how to work on bikes and mechanical systems,” says Darryl Fuller, director of the overarching Outdoor Program. “For the kids who are passionate about biking, we’re providing them with skills for their whole life.” The spokes of wheels hanging in a west-facing window inside the shop carve sunrays into triangles and diamonds like stained glass in a church. The bike shop is a sanctuary for the teenagers who don’t have the space or tools to work on their bikes and for teachers, as well, who are looking for a break from their lesson plans. “It’s really exciting to be part of [communitypages]

this,” says Michael Hayes, bike program manager. “I like the combination of community service, for both the students and the faculty, and obviously the biking part of it.” Throughout the year, the students repair bikes for fellow students and faculty. The bike shop is open four days a week, with students working two of them. In the spring, they fix donated bikes that are sold for cheap to the greater Carbondale community at the school’s annual spring bike swap. “We don’t make any money. We focus on being able to provide inexpensive, reliable bicycles for folks to get around town,” Fuller says. “I think the kids enjoy the ‘project bikes,’ bringing them back to life, eventually getting them back out there for somebody to ride.” Hayes is also proud to be part of a system that promotes biking as a lifestyle and provides “car independence” for Americans. “I don’t know if a lot of the students get what it provides. For me,

in terms of working on somebody else’s bike, you don’t know who the bike will go to, but you know it’s going to provide transportation,” he explains. Freshman Alex Henderson, 15, gets it. He was in the bike program in spring 2009 and loved fixing up bikes. “I’d never fixed up a bike before, and within the last quarter of school I went from not knowing anything about bikes to making one work for somebody else. That was an awesome feeling,” Henderson says. Although he’s ridden since he was little, Henderson would always rely on his dad to fix his flat tires. Now he can take apart an entire bike and put it back together. From brakes to derailleurs, working on bikes has given Henderson a set of skills he can use as he heads into a summer of mountain bike racing. The program’s curriculum includes riding technique and training tips, regular outings on the singletrack near town and trips to cycling destinations, such as the White Rim, Moab and Fruita. And the school usually has enough riders to race as a team. Accident-prone sophomore Johnny Wilcox, 16, stops by the shop in late spring to do some general tuning on his Cannondale. The soft-spoken boy leans in to true his wheels, and his straight blonde locks fall across his eyes. He bears some bright strawberry patches along his right forearm and elbow. His hand is bandaged from a fall he’d taken “just messing around” on his bike on campus. On the walls around him are wrenches,

A Colorado Rocky Mountain School student does his homework in the school’s bike shop.

Trina Ortega

screwdrivers, compressors, trail maps, jerseys, racing bibs, banners and posters of biking deities. Wilcox enrolled in the program in fall 2008 to learn about bike mechanics. “There’s always stuff wrong with my bike, ’cause I’m always crashing. But other people’s bikes I’ve worked on run well,” he says, listing the upgrades he’s made to his mountain bike: changed out his V-brakes for disc brakes, removed the front ones altogether, replaced his rear and front derailleurs, put on a new stem, bars and grips and more. His riding has improved tremendously because of the program, and he plans to race downhill this summer, so long as he stays healthy and injury-free.

“I definitely know more than when I started,” he says. “I love working on ’em but my favorite part is when you get to go riding, and you know that it’s working well. You kinda gotta trust that you did a good job working on it so it’ll get you down the mountain.”

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colorado

crested butte

by Erin English It is the evening before the 2nd Annual Original Gunnison Growler mountain bike race, and professional mountain bike/adventure racer and XTERRA triathlete Jari (pronounced “Yari”) Kirkland is sitting at her dining room table snacking on chips and salsa while her boyfriend, Travis Scheefer, prepares a pre-race feast consisting of colorful veggies, pasta and a meat marinara sauce. The two have just returned to Crested Butte from race registration in Gunnison, though Kirkland won’t actually compete the next day. Instead, she’ll be on the sidelines crewing for Scheefer. She is on a self-proclaimed “racing diet” this year, focusing on a select few competitions—rather than overindulging on race after race—to avoid late-season burnout. Furthermore, she is nursing a nasty head cold. “I haven’t worked out since Tuesday,” laments Kirkland, who, despite sniffling, looks like the picture of health. “I am getting surlier as the day goes on.” Technically, Kirkland put in an hour on her road bike that day, which would count as a workout for most of us. But when you are a professional athlete training for 600-mile adventure races or 24-hour mountain bike competitions, ‘working out’ means an entirely different thing altogether. A typical training day for Kirkland may consist of two hours of mountain running followed by two hours of mountain biking or a full morning of grueling intervals on her bike and an afternoon of paddling at nearby Blue Mesa Reservoir. Some days, Kirkland focuses solely on her biking, logging a good seven hours in the saddle. Determination and innate athletic ability have paid off for Kirkland, who boasts a half dozen sponsors and has charted an impressive list of accomplishments since her first mountain bike race at age 24. Among them: four-time winner of 24 Hours of Moab with a course record in 2005, a Crested Butte Classic win in 2008, a 108

Jari Kirkland gets ready for another long day at the Adventure Xstream Adventure Race Series near Moab, Utah. [communitypages]

Xavi Fane

NE IN RN ON NE UP

A serious competitor at heart, Kirkland cracks a smile after winning the 2008 24 Hours of Moab.

Xavi Fane

Montezuma’s Revenge 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race win in 2004, and a course record/win at 24 Hours of Grand Targhee in 2008. Kirkland counts among her career highlights a course record for females for the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, a rugged 40-mile, springtime cross-country ski race starting in Crested Butte and ending in Aspen. “Most people think a two-hour mountain bike race is an endurance race. For me, that is like a short, sprint race,” says Kirkland, now 33. “The longer it is, the better I get.” Though clearly talented in many physical pursuits—starting in childhood with soccer and swimming—it is biking, and especially mountain biking, that captures Kirkland’s imagination. Tooling around on her Scott Contessa (just one of her seven bikes, including a road bike, singlespeed and townie, not to mention two additional frames) is how she spends the majority of her time. “I don’t think there has ever been a day that I have gone for a ride that I haven’t been challenged by a rock in the trail or a climb or something. I like the challenge. I’m not disappointed or mad;

222 North Main Street Gunnison, Colorado www.tuneupskiandbike.com 970.641.0285 tuneup@westelk.com

it’s something to look forward to,” she says. Kirkland is a force to be reckoned with by both female and male athletes. She admits there still exists a range of attitudes from the male population toward her successes, many of whom don’t do well with “being chicked.” Case in point: two years ago she placed second overall in 24 Hours of Moab, beating all but one of the 65 men who raced. After some coaxing from Kirkland, Scheefer, a top tier athlete himself, takes a break from browning hamburger meat to weigh in on this phenomenon. “There are three different types of men that perceive you,” Scheefer says. “There are the more recreational types who look up to you and just think you are really fast. Then there are the middleof-the-road guys who are sort of fast and they want to beat you because they don’t like to be ‘chicked’…and then there are other pro athletes; they have a lot of respect for you.” Despite this, Kirkland says she doesn’t see herself as a “hard-core” athlete, and claims to be “soft around the edges.” With classic good looks— [communitypages]

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Taking time to enjoy her local training ground in Crested Butte, Colo., Kirkland trains hard but still enjoys where she lives.

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[communitypages]

Xavi Fane

Kirkland gets ready for a tough night lap during her victorious solo run at the 2008 24 Hours of Moab.

sunny, blonde waves tumbling over her shoulders, almond-shaped blue eyes and golden-brown skin—Kirkland is unmistakably all girl, and she celebrates her feminine side as often as possible. “Tuesday nights I am like this regular girl…I get together with my girlfriends and we watch the Biggest Loser and paint our toenails and we drink wine; you can’t give that up,” she says. This racing season, Kirkland will add to her already extensive list of travels, competing throughout the United States and heading as far away as Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge toward the end of the year. The hectic schedule, random meals and nights spent in hotels are [communitypages]

Xavi Fane

demanding, but worth it. Crested Butte, though, with its myriad outdoor opportunities, is a place Kirkland loves returning to time and time again. This particular weekend, it’s a fine place to recover from a cold, mentally recharge from a race in Michigan the weekend before and soon—before she gets impossibly surly—ramp up her training in the days to come. “It’s the perfect playground. I don’t think I’ll be able to live here forever because I don’t know what kind of job I’m going to have that is going to afford me my rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle,” she laughs. “At some point I will look back and say I was unbelievably lucky to be able to do this.” 111

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salida by Jim Williams Suddenly, somehow, an hour and the weather changed. The tart summer mountain sky had taunted me all day. But hey, one can’t get in a ride in such time? Right? Or could I? Riders in this occasionally humble mountain town of Salida, Colo., are lucky. Access to a variety of rides, both challenging and benign, usually begins from our front doors. With the hard work and organization of the Salida Mountain Trails (SMT) group, a chapter of the Arkansas River Trust, the new trails behind Tenderfoot Hill are less extreme, more organized, designed to be environmentally friendly and less prone to rutting and erosion. Working with the City of Salida, the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and plenty of red tape, the group has completed most of the planning for Tenderfoot (mistakenly called ‘S Mountain’ too often) and has begun building new trails and rehabilitating existing trails. The new trails, titled the Arkansas Hills Trail System, are but one of three SMT projects in the Salida area. SMT is also working on the Methodist Mountain Trail System and the Salida Bike Park, to be built near the town’s new soccer fields. Using the existing bike, foot and game trails and a few old jeep tracks, the group plans to base the trail system on the “stacked loop” method where virtually all trails are loops and vertically orientated to each other. This lets users of differing skills and goals ride—and hike, as most trails are multi-use— without disturbing vast areas of terrain. In this case, less is more. Stacked looping has been incorporated into the Arkansas Hills and Methodist Mountain trail designs. The bike park is a bit different. The Salida Bike Park will feature a pumptrack. Simply put, a pumptrack is much like a BMX or motocross track, only considerably smaller, with rollers, berms and a few jumps. Like many similar tracks, riders of modest skills will be able to ride like the big ’uns and have a blast, too. Think of it as a terrain park for

colorado

Bike tracks in the sand speak for the popularity of Salida’s Arkansas Hills Trail System. The new trails are easily accessed from town and offer great year-round riding.

Tom Purvis

cyclists. The SMT group thinks and dreams big, bless their pea-pickin’ hearts. When a village pulls together, with the direction of focused citizens, dreams happen. An hour and a half later, I pulled across my little yard a little sweaty, a

[communitypages]

little dusty and thoroughly satisfied. The sky was clouding, rain threatening and I needed to get back to work. Ah, another day in cycling paradise. For more info, go to salidamountaintrails.org and arkrivertrust.org.

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durango A midnight snack and piles and piles of coloring-contest themed race entries litter the floor at the Single Speed World Championship Headquarters in Durango, Colo.

Jonathan Bailey

by Erinn Morgan Travis Brown smells a hint of burning flesh and concedes it is his own. He has just won the 2002 Single Speed World Championships (SSWC) in Downieville, Calif., and his coveted trophy is one scalding brand delivered efficiently to the arm. “The thing I recall is the smell of flesh on fire and the fact that you continue to allow someone to work on you,” says the Durango, Colo.-based Brown, a former Olympian and two-time SSWC winner. “As far as I know that was the only brand year.” Mercifully, previous and subsequent SSWC years have rendered a much more civilized tattoo to the winners. This year’s winners will receive their fleshy trophies in the bike-centric hamlet of Durango, where the SSWC this year will take place Sept. 18–20. Gearing Down How did this raucous revelry 114

involving all things singlespeed get its start? The SSWC launched in 1999 in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with about 50 participants just as the singlespeed movement was getting some legs. “I had gotten into riding a singlespeed when I thought it would be a good off-season training tool because it reaches the ends of power and the RPM spectrum,” says Brown, who today spins out on a new prototype of the singlespeed 69er bike he developed for Trek. “As a side effect, I decided I just loved the simplicity of it.” Others agreed. And as singlespeed bikes grew in popularity, the SSWC continued to be the Mecca of ungoverned cycling fun, roaming in locale from places like Aviemore, Scotland, and Berlin to State College, Penn. Despite the unconventional tattoo “trophies,” the wacky costumes and the over-the-top stages (like the previous year’s Ms. Pac-Man, bowling and beer [communitypages]

drinking competitions), Brown contends the SSWC is not as crazy as the public may think. A real singlespeed race is involved. But the subculture vibe prevails, exuding an atmosphere closely akin to when mountain bike racing was launched in a freer and wilder format than road bike racing. “There is a lot more creativity allowed in this type of race format,” says Brown. Amping Up This unconventional competition is rolling into Southwest Colorado for 2009 because a crew of solo-gear Durangoans (including Brown) made it a point to win the “hosting team” honors at last year’s SSWC held in Napa, Calif., an outcome they believed was manifest destiny. Even before they won, and dreaming the dream, they printed up posters touting the 2009 event in Durango, along with

spoke cards for 200 participants. Separate from the main race, the SSWC has a hosting competition for teams from different locales. Arizona, New Zealand, France and Durango were in the mix for the honors. The hosting competition included such rigorous stages as a Ms. Pac-Man shootout and a bowling extravaganza. With the winning hand, they deemed that Durango would, in fact, become the next sacred singlespeed spot. “We were going against good friends from France,” says Jon Bailey, one of the winning team members and a partner in Passion Productions, the Durango-based race/events organizer putting on this year’s competition. “But we shook on it and had a fun, harmless rivalry.” Durango kicked off registration immediately with a requisite coloring contest, which yielded hundreds of “rad pieces and goofy colorings,” according to Bailey. Several hundred singlespeeders are signed up for this year’s SSWC mayhem, including 300 women. “Less than 100 riders are from overseas, but we have someone from almost every state

including Alaska,” says Chad Cheeney, another SSWC08 winning team member and partner in Passion Productions. While registration is unofficially full, interested participants can check the website (see sidebar) for further details or contact the organizers. True to form, this bold crew of winners plans to serve up a roundup of fitting events, including the kickoff 1×1 Film Festival, a black tie BBQ and showcase of singlespeed shorts complete with sides of performance art and a stage for the hosting competition. The main event is the 22-mile singlespeed race, which will have a police-escorted parade start from Durango Cyclery. According to Cheeney, the course includes a 15- to 20-minute hike-a-bike and a plethora of technical rock riding. “It’s definitely an all-around bike course,” he says. Also on tap is an art show and auction of handpicked registration coloring contest artwork—proceeds will go back to the artists—and final stage for the hosting competition held at Durango’s Ska Brewery.

[communitypages]

While this race event is definitely not the norm, Bailey insists singlespeeds and the SSWC are not “elitist.” Brown adds, “There is a surprisingly broad spectrum of people that show up here. Sure, there are some aspects of counter-culture to it, but it’s not associated with any governing body. That’s what has allowed the freedom to maintain something unique. The singlespeed culture just embraces that.”

SSWC09 Lowdown Friday, Sept. 18: 5pm 1×1 Film Festival and first stage of hosting competition at the Smiley Building Saturday: Time TBD SSWC race leaving from Durango Cyclery (check website for details) Saturday: Time TBD Art auction and final hosting stage at Ska Brewery Sunday: Time TBD Impromptu bike polo match

Website: sswc09.wordpress.com

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los alamos

by Caroline Spaeth

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[communitypages]

Tucked away in the mountains of northern New Mexico is a bike race that’s older than many of the racers who show up to race on the mesa top. At almost 40 years in the running, the Tour de Los Alamos is still going strong. “To give credit to the folks in Durango, we say our race is ‘one of the oldest’ in the Southwest,” said Bruce Letellier, the race’s co-director, referring to Durango’s Iron Horse Classic, also 37 years in the running. “Certainly no one in New Mexico has had a race this long.” The race’s longevity can probably be attributed to the town’s Roadrunner Cycling Club, a “loose knit group of cyclists who respect the history of cycling in our community,” said Letellier, a former racer who says he’s now “moved into management.” Not to mention that after so many years in the running, the race has a good supply of knowledgeable volunteers. “There are 37 years of past race directors, and they’re always willing to help,” said Letellier, who returned

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after a five-year break to help organize the Tour again. “The week before the race, I can call any one of them and I know they’ll be there.” The Tour de Los Alamos, held in July, has expanded and contracted over the years in its offerings, but the standard race continues this year with the Tour’s Bandelier Road Race. The road race takes cyclists on an up-and-down 28-mile loop of mountainous terrain, climbing 2,000 feet overall on a winding road with little traffic. Pros ride the loop three times for 84 miles. Category 3, 4 and 5 men, junior and master men and women’s Cat 1, 2 and 3 racers loop around twice for 56 miles. Category 3/4 women, junior women and all citizens ride one loop. “It’s one of the most beautiful race courses and fairly complex” said Carolyn Zerkle, race co-director with Letellier this year. “What I like is the range of ages in the race, from 12-year-olds to 80-yearolds.” The race encourages new younger racers by allowing those less than 18 years old in the citizen category to race for free. And because of an increasing participation of those older than the race itself, they may consider allowing cyclists 70 years and older to race for free, too. The race typically attracts up to 200 racers, and this year has an overall purse of nearly $1,200. Last year seven-time Olympian and women’s road racing phenom Jeannie Longo raced for her preparation for the Olympics in Beijing. Co-director Zerkle has been talking to big name pro teams, like Team Ouch, to try to see if they could fit it into their schedule for this season or next. Next year, Zerkle and Letellier have their sights set on adding a criterium in downtown Los Alamos, both to offer more racing and attract more participants and also to give the town a fun downtown event to watch. Letellier helped organize a downtown crit 10 years ago around the pond in the center of downtown Los Alamos. He’d love to share that excitement again with the residents. “Next year we’ll go around the pond. I’d love to have a crit at night with lights on the corners,” he said. “That would be classic.” For more information on the race, go to http://tour-de-los-alamos.org.

Every year for the past three and a half decades, the Tour de Los Alamos has served up beautiful scenery and tough climbs for racers of every level.

James E. Rickman

isit our historic town in the foothills of the Jemez Mountains and enjoy clear blue skies, extraordinary views in all directions, and an exciting variety of outdoor recreation opportunities. Visitor information: visit.losalamos.com

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Small town, mountain living: locate.losalamos.com

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lyons Brandon Turman sucks it up and pumps all the way to second place in the Lyons Outdoor Games pump track competition.

by Lizzy Scully

Eddie Clark

With significant help from local sponsors, designers and plenty of volunteers, the town of Lyons, Colo., built Boulder County’s first public pumptrack in Bohn Park. A continuous loop of turns, berms and bumps that mountain bikers and BMXers ride without pedaling, the new Lyons Bike Park will teach cyclists new skills and help them hone existing ones. “When you practice hard moves on flat ground in isolation, you can really get your skills dialed in,” stated the park’s designer, Lee McCormack. “Then you can go out on the trails more confident and skilled and have more fun.” The Lyons park is unique because it packs a lot into just under one acre of space, and because it imitates the natural terrain and two popular trails in Lyons. “It has a little bit of everything, plus more,” said key project organizer and Bitterbrush Cycles owner Glenn Bell. “We wanted to make the lines similar to Hall Ranch trail and the new Picture Rock trail.” To do this, McCormack incorporated a plethora of natural stone, donated by Lyons-based Blue Mountain Stone, into 122

the layout. He also recreated some of the key, technically difficult moves found on the local trails by measuring the most difficult sections. Despite some tough terrain, the park was designed for riders of all skill levels and styles. “We want to cater to the full spectrum of mountain bikers, from cross-country to more new school dirt jumpers, pump track or flow style riders,” McCormack explained. “I really want all riders to ride this track. I hope cross-country people learn the pumping and jumping skills. Their riding will improve, and they will have more fun on the more technical rides.” The idea for the Lyons Bike Park, Bell said, stemmed from his desire to add something to the community’s annual multi-sport competition, the Lyons Outdoor Games. “The dirt jump competition brought a whole new element to the Games last year,” Bell said. “It became a true multisport event.” This year, the two additional huge jumps that were built, with the help of the Denver-based Yellow Designs Stunt team, were an even bigger boon to the [communitypages]

Games. Bell hopes the bike park will bring more people to town and become a regular site for bike-related competitions. Lyons is following a nationwide trend. Various industry reports say mountain park courses are starting to go mainstream in municipalities. However, added McCormack, riders are unlikely to see a park as unique as this one. “This kind of park hasn’t been done,” McCormack said. “The inclusion of natural terrain and materials makes it unique and rideable year-round.” Parks in other areas of the country often use bridges, but in Colorado riders must contend with riding over rocks. “If you don’t want to ride on rocks in the Lyons park, then you’re going to be doing a lot of turning to avoid them,” McCormack added. “Slaloming in and out of them can be a lot of fun, but part of becoming an accomplished mountain biker is realizing rocks can be used. They are fun to ride over, and you can use the surfaces to gain control and speed. This park is the perfect place to learn how to do that. You can pump a dirt roller and then go straight over to the trails to apply that skill.”

Chad Melis plays on the technical rock features at the new Lyons Bike Park. These features were built to mimic the nearby trails of Hall Ranch, giving beginner mountain bikers a place to practice before attempting more challenging trails near town.

Eddie Clark

Bueno Bikes. Bueno Times. 324 Main St Across from Oskar Blues

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[communitypages]

Phone: 303.823.8100

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steamboat

by Riley Polumbus

Courtesy of SSWSC

Despite the unlikely name of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, Steamboat’s youth cycling club has done its local sponsors proud by winning state and national championships.

The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club is not just for winter anymore. Established in 1914, the club is the oldest winter sports club west of the Mississippi. In 95 years, it has taught thousands of local kids to ski, encouraged hundreds to race competitively and produced more than 70 Olympians. However, fabricating Olympians is not part of its mission, which is to give kids the chance to be “successful individuals and to achieve their personal goals” through winter sports. But after 90 years of offering programs for kids (more than 1,000 this year) in every winter sport, someone finally asked, “What about cycling?” Cycling emerged in 2004 when former pro cyclist Tom Davis, an alpine ski coach, started the cycling program with seven kids as an opportunity to cross train, build self-confidence in the kids and instill a life-long enthusiasm for biking. The program soon added competitive 124

and non-competitive programs. Within a couple years, mountain biking evolved as its primary focus. In 2007 Davis stepped down as program director and handed the reins to the capable hands of Ben Clark. “It grew into its own two-headed beast,” Clark said. Athletes wanted to hone their skills on and off the bike. They wanted to learn race technique, improve their endurance and take on bike mechanics and trail maintenance. Finding enough coaches for an expanding program was the number one challenge. So coach Clark looked to an unlikely group to help out: the kids. “I want the kids to develop camaraderie, sportsmanship, and help each other and the younger kids,” Clark said. So in addition to training six days a week, the older kids on the elite and development teams help out the younger kids. “It’s good to promote the sport we love to the younger generation,” elite team member Linnea Dixson said. [communitypages]

Sam Chovan, a graduate of SSWSC Cycling, competes with the University of Denver’s cycling team and credits his former coaches for his racing success. When he returns to Steamboat in the summer, he helps coach the development team. “It’s kind of fun to give back and spread what I’ve learned,” Chovan said. The development team, with kids 11 to 15 years old, receives an introduction to racing. They compete in local Town Challenge Mountain Bike Series and SSWSC’s Road Race Challenge Series. “[The development team] taught me a lot of new skills, helped me on mountain and road bikes and helped me grow as a cyclist,” Sarah Dixson said. “The elite team teaches you to really love the sport because you really get into it.” The club’s competitive teams are modeled after pro teams. Fortunately Steamboat is well endowed with generous businesses that just happen to know a little about the sport. Like local framebuilder Moots Cycles.

“With its history of developing winter athletes, the cycling program is an extremely good extension of the club,” said Jon Cariveau, marketing/dealer relations at Moots Cycles. “As a part of the community, we want to help them along in their endeavor.” Since the team’s inception, Moots has donated $5,000 annually, which can be used toward frames or parts at cost through their vendors. Bikes are built up by Orange Peel, a local shop that donates its time. Fittings are performed through SportsMed at Yampa Valley Medical Center, and Aspire Osteopathy provides lactic acid testing. SmartWool and Honey Stinger, both headquartered in Steamboat Springs, provide apparel and product to the team. Several other local bike shops help out, and local businesses donate to the team. Steamboat’s local bike advocacy group, Routt County Riders, also pitches in with scholarships for kids who need them. “People are so generous with their support,” Clark said. “It embodies the Steamboat mentality, a whole community coming together to allow kids to shine.” The elite team will compete in the

Riding Steamboat’s world-class singletrack is just one benefit kids get from joining the club.

Courtesy of SSWSC

[communitypages]

Mountain States Cup races and set its sights on qualifying for USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships, which will be held this July at Sol Vista Bike Park in Granby. If the club crowns a national champion, it will not be its first. SSCWC Cycling has two national champion alumni: Bo Randolph (2004 Criterium) and Adam Park (2005 MTB). Additionally club riders have stood on the podium at Colorado State Championships; last year, elite girls claimed all three spots on the podium: Linnea Dixson (1st), Jamie Gay (2nd) and Sarah Dixson (3rd). The future looks very bright. More than 75 kids ages 7 to 15 will participate in the non-competitive programs this summer. They are also adding two Gravity teams, a Junior race team for 11to 18-year-olds and a more competitive Race team for 14- to 18-year-olds. SSWSC is woven deeply into the fabric of the community, and so far, the cycling programs are following its successful model. Who knows where SSWSC cycling could be in another 90 years?

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taos

by Mary Burt

Mary Burt

Six-year-old Alden and his father Matt Burt take a break from riding Taos’ West Rim Trail to take in a view of the Rio Grande Gorge.

Full Service Bike Shop

ELLSWORTH EPIPHANY

www.taoscyclery.com 126

Road Mountain BMX Cruisers Comfort & Children [A] Enchanted Plaza 1027 Salazar Taos · New Mexico 87571 575.758.5551 [communitypages]

To an avid mountain biker, parenting presents a challenge not unlike navigating miles of twisty singletrack. On epic days, when you think you cannot survive, you dig deeper into the shadows of your soul to endure and find that mountain biking, much like parenting, is never bad. Although the thoughts were lurking of how I could be riding the epic South Boundary Trail in Taos, N.M., this family ride in Taos on the West Rim Trail turned out to be just as good. On the trail, smooth singletrack snakes across the sage plateau sprinkled with yellow cactus flowers and red explosions of paintbrush wildflowers. A six-year-old boy laughs deep belly laughs as he discovers the gleeful feeling of soaring down a narrow trail, his laugh making a delightful chorus with the cicadas’ constant clicking. The Taos Gorge Bridge suspends 650 feet above the Rio Grande River and is a sight to see. The seemingly flat landscape speckled with funky Teletubbie-like abodes called earthships among the sage and piñon pine interrupted by this deep gorge is breathtaking. Parking at the nice rest area off New Mexico Highway 68 puts you right at the trailhead, which goes south and allows access to some adjoining trails: The Taos Valley Overlook and Horse Thief Trail. Old jeep road has been replaced by singletrack in places, estimated to be 20 miles round trip with just enough rocks to learn easy technical lines. I did not anticipate chasing my son who was happily shouting out, “Did you see that butterfly” and “I feel so free.” My braking abilities were tested when he would stop abruptly to point out a giant bug. And he had to push his bike up a few short sections of technical uphill on the way back. But with scenic views all along the gorge, there were few complaints. After our one-hour ride, sitting on the overlook bench and watching rafters navigate mellow rapids way below, we headed back. An unsurelooking, older female cyclist asked me, “Is this how rocky it is the whole way?” I did not notice the rockiness, but assured her it was do-able. She looked at my son and said, “Well I guess if he can, I can!”

moab utah

Shawn Hanka rides by the beautiful Warner Lake with spring snow still clinging to the north face of Haystack Mountain near Moab, Utah.

by Mark Sevenoff

Mark Sevenoff

[communitypages]

If you want the truth, The Whole Enchilada actually refers to a bachelor party quadrathalon a bunch of us held for a buddy years ago. We did a spring ski descent to a mountain bike ride to a canyoneering rappel/hike, followed up with a booze cruise down the Colorado River to town. But for some reason, the mountain bike ride that encompasses no fewer than seven different trails has also adopted the name of that party. The Whole Enchilada is best done with a shuttle, from any of the half dozen local companies that can take you up the La Sal Loop road and finally up to Geyser Pass (elevation 10,600), where you’ll arrive fresh and about 20 degrees cooler. You’ll also be out $20/person, but consider it money well spent. So you’ve heard “it’s all downhill,” right? Well, my friend, how many times have you heard that one, only to be shifting down to the granny ring, cursing your buddies while trying to breathe? The good news is the route does indeed start with a fast fire road descent (No. 071) before coming to your first big climb up to Burro Pass. On this steep doubletrack to the trailhead, you get warmed up pretty quickly. If you still have some layers on here, you can shed a few, since it’s all uphill to the 11,000-foot pass. With views east to the not-toodistant San Juan Mountains and Mt. Tomasaki in the foreground, you can don your armor or at least a shell. From here, you’ll drop a solid 7,000 feet back to town. So check your rig out, lower your saddle and prepare to qualify. To give you the details, both sides of the Burro Pass uphill and downhill were reworked by the Manti-La Sal 127

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Mark Sevenoff

Taking full advantage of her day off, Western Spirit guide Angela Houghton rides the Burro Pass section of The Whole Enchilada.

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Forest Service a number of years ago to make it much more rideable. Previously the trail was a bit rutted. Now there are no excuses. The initial descent down the Deep Creek section (trail No. 315) will take you to the junction with the actual Burro Pass Trail (No. 033) where you stay left and continue down to the picturesque Warner Lake. Warner Lake and the Hazard Trail Head (just down the road) are the next logical drop-off points for early/late season when the upper north-facing slopes of Burro are still snowed in. After your second significant, but much shorter, climb you’re ready to drop into the new Hazard Trail. While a bit different from the original route, it’s still a great ride. In fact it’s the first trail with legally constructed features (jumps) built in conjunction with the Manti-La Sal National Forest. After the countless turns on Hazard, you cross the Loop Road and keep descending on the high-speed doubletrack of the Kokopelli Trail. A large forest fire swept through this area in the summer of 2008, and the barren moonscape has sprung to life with above

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average rains in June. More new trail awaits you on the Upper Porcupine singletrack section that had some rerouting to avoid raptor nesting and archeological sites, and before you know it you flow right into Lower Porcupine Singletrack section and the classic Porcupine Rim. From the high peaks of the La Sals to the banks of the Colorado River, The Whole Enchilada is finally complete. Although most of the route is well marked, the second edition Moab East map by Latitude 40 is a great addition, and the entire route is now on there. Don’t underestimate this “all downhill” ride because it’s still a lot of pedaling, and pack a few extra tubes. With the 2,000 feet of ascending, you have just bagged 9,000 feet of downhill and 30-plus miles of trail. Some might say you’ve only done The Half Enchilada, and The Whole Enchilada can only be accomplished by riding the loop from town. Food for thought, I guess. Mark Sevenoff owns and operates Western Spirit Cycling and can be contacted at 800.845.2453 or www.westernspirit.com.

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tailwind

by Marty Caivano

In my neck of the woods, there’s a trail that is part of the fabric of my life. Sounds funny, I know. Maybe I’ve lived here too long, where one great trail becomes a close friend because there aren’t hundreds of others like it. But as helplessly as falling in love, I have become devoted to this particular circuit of dirt. It sits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, but it feels

Joshua Lawton

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like the desert, with dry red soil surrounded by cinnamoncolored cliffs. Pine trees march up the edges of the trail, and the top loop provides a dazzling view of Mt. Meeker and Longs Peak. But to reach this nirvana, one must conquer the rock garden. It’s about a mile long and starts with a stiff climb right from the parking lot. As it ascends, it rears up in lumps and bulges and ripples of imbedded rock, with occasional strips of earth in between. These challenges come one after another, in a parade of technical moves that demand ever more from a rider’s already-taxed aerobic system. In a word, it’s rad. I learned about the trail when I was such a raw beginner that I had no hope of riding it. Yet it captured my imagination immediately. I got it in my head that anyone fit and skilled enough to clean the whole thing in one nonstop effort had reached the pinnacle of mountain biking. This is the real deal, I thought. I gotta make this happen. It became the church, and I the devout. As I improved my skills, I climbed the trail many times— sometimes just seeing what I could clean on a trip through; other times spending hours on that mile, working on different obstacles. Sometimes I’d ride it with friends, us egging each other on to clean the hardest spots. The days when I struggled, crashed and gasped for breath vanished forever behind those incredible days when it felt easy, when mind and body came together in an effortless union. Even when I wasn’t on the bike, that trail was with me. I’d ride sections of it in my mind while I was falling asleep, standing in lines, sitting in traffic. But each year it eroded and the climb became a touch more difficult, often just enough, it seemed, to equal my gains in skill. It was a yearly renegotiation, with me trying to bring more to the table as Mother Nature kept upping the ante. As time passed, it seemed that I could only reliably clean about 85 percent of that section, either due to poor fitness, fluctuating skill or just plain bad days. I got down on myself about it, thinking, “I should be able to do this by now.” But then I’d watch the majority of the other riders out there, and they weren’t mastering it either. And then, almost three years ago, I hurt my back. I ruptured a disc, and coming back from that particular injury is a long, hard road. Aggressive climbing is definitely off limits for months. Being away from mountain biking, and especially from the challenging trails that I loved, was like a little death. And discs become forever weakened. As I struggled to heal, I kept reinjuring it—about once a year, it seemed. The one thing that kept me connected to my trail was another little strip of dirt, which climbs gently to meet the main trail from another direction. This option at least allowed me to descend the rock garden, a grin-inducing experience in its own right. Today, I’m still coming back from the third re-injury last September. I’ve learned a lot about my back, and how to keep it strong and balanced. I’ve also learned a lot about being tough where it really counts—in the mind. And I know I will ride that rock garden again someday. I don’t know if I will ever completely master it. But at least I know it’s there, waiting for me.

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