Wednesday MTB Rides

That is a pic looking down on Clear Creek and US-6 from Centennial Cone - one of the Wednesday MTB Ride locations.

I mentioned the Wednesday MTB group that I have ridden with several times. Scott D maintains a web page with details (http://www.rideagainstthemachine.com/). As we get towards the end of summer now, and the available light after work becomes more limited, we have begun to use headlights now. Last week we rode Marshall Mesa up near Boulder, and finished off with about 60-minutes of total night-riding, out of a total two-hours. Erik, Chris, Chris' wife Marni, and I were the only ones that rode last Wednesday which was a smaller group than usual. Typically there are 7 to 8 or more people. Chris is probably the fastest guy in the Wednesday group....hi is a very good cyclist, knows all kinds of places and cool stuff. He races Expert, so he certainly is no slow-poke. He also has done Leadville, and is doing Moab 24-Hour solo, among other things. He also has a great blog about lots of cool junk -- http://slipangles.blogspot.com/

As much all-around cycling experiance as I have, and as much road and track racing as I've done over the last 25 years, I'm a basic rookie to real MTB riding and racing and the group pretty much crushes me each time. I've gotten better this summer no doubt, but MTBing has so many factors to it.....I still have a lot of work to do. I've ridden both road and offroad motorcycles all my life, and raced motocross a bit when I was younger, and have decent natural technical skills, but my downhilling is still suspect to say the least, and I can't clear most of the tech sections that some good riders have no trouble with. Erik and Chris are both very good technical riders and I watch them when I can. Most of the ride group members are better downhillers that I am and so I have much work to do there. I am working on it, and I am not afraid to push the envelope a bit...even though I have paid the blood price for my rookie skills a few times.

Plus, as I mentioned, I have a pathetic amount of aerobic power right now. Its embarrassing really. I peaked out last season at maybe only 225 watts at threshold. That should be over 250 in early season. That sad fact, coupled with my tremendous 190-pound fat ass slows me down a bit. In any case, MTBing with the Wednesday crowd is so fun, I pretty much could give a rats ass right now about getting shelled - its just about the fun.

So this week, today, we are meeting at Green Mountain, which is located on the very west side of Denver metro, in Lakewood. It's a sort of beginners area, and its not near as nice as the other parks we've ridden this summer. We start near the Zorro trailhead at the Rooney Road parking lot, ride up and over the C-470 bike path bridge, and then into Green Mountain park. We can ride there at night legally, unlike many of the other places we ride, and so as we get into fall we are limited to where we can ride mid-week.

Scott D is taking some time off the bike now to fully recover from some soft-tissue injuries so he won't be there. He has a great blog about all kinds of funny stuff...check it out. http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/

Mike Brevoort wont be there...he is still recovering from a nasty crash at Winter Park King of the Rockies and subsequent surgery to repair a shattered clav. He has some pics on his blog
http://mike.brevoort.com/ I was bummed when Mike crashed at KOTR. He was training well, he was consistent and I was hoping he would have a good race. But, he is a good athlete and in great shape, and I'm sure he'll recover soon enough.

Someone usually brings a camera...I need to post some pics.

Thanks for reading.