March 16, 2009

  • Coyote Ridge.. etc

    Another Sunday and too my surprise,  Dave Newman has decided to join in some of the fun!   It should be a good day to ride and I am looking forward to catching up with Dave.

    Well as luck would have it,  Dave and I had a slight communication error about time and place, but we ended up good as we did meet at ~9:00 at the Ridge.

    Dave has been following his training plan and this was to be ~ a 4hour ride.  I am all good with that, since that's pretty much what I do anyways.  

    So we take off at a leisurely pace.  We climb the big climb at Coyote and make our way to Blue Sky.  We did have some trouble on some of the technical climbs for some reason, but after a few do-overs, managed to clean enough of the stuff to make ourselves feel good about the effort. 

    On to the Blue Sky trail and we decided to head to Horsetooth Park and the Tower road climb.  Our pace was pretty mellow on the way over and I was happy it was that way.   I should mention that Dave noticed my rear wheel wasn't strait and it looks like I may have a bent axel or something.   I have to stop a few times today to retighten and align the wheel.  Oh well,  it's rideable,  but I'll need to check this out before I ride that bike again...

    We make our way to the climb and this is where we had to put in some effort.  I seem to always forget how steep this thing is until I am on the steeps and then I remember....  Dave and I were keeping a solid tempo until some gut on a  Hard tail passed us.   After this guy got about 12 yards on us or so,  Dave increased the pace.   It wasn't until later that Dave realized he had switched in to chase mode.   I was not able or willing to try and go with that early surge that Dave made but I was able to keep him pretty close and eventually caught him after he eased up a bit.  Dave definitely has a competitive side, despite his relatively mild demeanor.    After this point we keep a more civil pace but it's still pretty hard for me.    I had thought Dave said his legs were tired, but if this is tired,  then notice has been served  ....

    Dave and I get split up as I was starting to get some chainsuck and need to stop to lube the chain.   I finally arrive at the  Millcreek/Springcreek trail crossing where some other guys are  waiting.   We chat for a bit and then it's time to head down the Millcreek trail.    We didn't get far when Dave's front derailleur wouldn't shift, and we found a rock that had been wedged into it which we removed  and were good to go.

    The Millcreek Descent was fun.   Dave was a bit rusty, but cleaned alot of challenging stuff.    I am getting more used to the Yeti, and found myself cleaning things with more of a comfort level, even though there were some sections that did trigger some adrenaline.   I am really enjoying this trail, and this one will be on my list of one's to do more often.   My goal being to be able to hold my own on a 4:50 club ride. 
     
    With the descent over, we head to the Pump trak and do a couple of laps before we decide to head over to the Peloton to checkout the sales and get some food.  We take the roads... Centennial and descend the Maxwell trail.   Dave is finally showing some signs of fatigue as he is picking some questionable lines...  I am still good for the most part, but I've been spending a lot more time on the MTB compared to Dave so even though I am getting tired, life is still good.

    With all of the MTBing done, we take the roads over to the Peloton.   At this point Dave's  GPS tells us he has done 41 miles and I assume that I've got a similar tally.    The food that Peloton provided, tasted so good!   While we were there we checked out some of the deals.  There were some sweet bikes on big discount, but  we didn't' get anything although we were tempted by some of the tires. We hang out for a bit and  talk to Jay Park who happened to see us and decided to stop and chat.   Roy took a quick look at my rear wheel and said it could need re-dishing... 

    Well, it's was a long day but a good time was had by all.