Colorado Here I Come.

Next event up is the MTB National Marathon Championships out in Breckenridge, Colorado. For the second year, the Firecracker 50 will host the Marathon Championships.

Eric Tiffany and I are heading out together and will meet Good Ben for a fun weekend of riding/racing in Colorado. I am looking forward to a couple of days in the mountains. It has been about 6 years since my last visit to Colorado to ride. I am looking forward to the views and trails of the Firecracker 50.

Am I ready for 50 miles of racing at altitude? Heck no, but I plan to have fun and enjoy the event anyway. I have ridden at high altitudes before, but never at race pace. We will see how I handle it. I hear that if you do not have time to acclimate yourself to altitude that it is best to just arrive the day before your planned event. That is what Eric and I will do. Hopefully it works out well for both of us. Gerard says I am going to suffer like dog at altitude. Heck, I do that at any elevation...

Mullet Ride

Today was the annual Mullet Ride hosted by Gerard Arantowicz of Jewel Cartoons. He lives in Baldwin City, Kansas which has miles and miles of gravel roads and plenty of hills. Apparently there are a lot of riders out there with Mullets hence the name...

A group of eager riders including Damian Almanza, Jeff Arnaud and Randy Rasa of Kansas Cyclist assembled at the start ready to enjoy a day of gravel road riding. After some last minute supplies were gathered we headed off for our little 25 mile journey.

Pictures are posted on http://www.flickr.com/photos/clocke/

Cross Planning

This past week I've been very busy working on the upcoming (only 90 days left) cyclo-cross season. More specifically, the De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series.

Expect some great things out of this series this year. We have added two events from last years and have two new (maybe three) locations. We have some new sponsors for 08' and some new classes that I am sure will be a hit with the racers.

First event of the series will be the Diamond Blackfan Cyclocross Challenge on 9/28/08. This event will benefit the Diamond Blackfan Anemia Foundation. My good friend and teammate Tige Lamb and I came up with this new event as a way to both raise money for the foundation and to raise awareness. We are working on getting a very cool location in Lenexa, Kansas for this opening round of the series. Special Thank You to Eric Tiffany for help with the artwork for the event.

Hero

This dude can paint....

Summer Begins

Summer is here. Time to take a welcomed break from any structured training. Time to visit some friends. Time to enjoy life with Carolynn without any kids. Time to hit the lake...

Carolynn and I loaded up the kayaks redneck style and headed to Smithville Lake this weekend. We had a great time paddling along the many miles of shoreline that SL has. Weather was near perfect on both days.


Friday we met Damian and Anita for dinner the Legends at Village West. We settled on eating at Stix - I do love that Japanese cuisine.....That Aidan is sure growing fast. I have tried to talk Carolynn into trying to have another one ourselves, but she says she is way to old to have any more children.