January 8th - Today I Missed Colorado

USAC Cyclocross Nationals is going on in Boulder this week - CX Mag has the full coverage you seek - and after looking at some results I wish I was racing! Not that I should be racing...I shouldn't, but racing - specifically Single Speed CX - is really really fun! Congratulations to Mo Bruno Roy on her win (she's a TRP Brakes sponsored athlete and an all around great person). Scott Chapin, Ibis Buy Cell team, Tim Cannard and a host of riders from NorCal threw down some results, as did those Colorado speedsters...which got me both wishing I was racing and feeling a little sentimental too.

If NorCal is my home now, Colorado is where I'm from. I was born in Denver and lived in the fabulous suburb of Arvada through Junior High. Arvada was the site of the first Gold discovery in the Rocky Mountains. It's also the home of Dirk Pitt creator Clive Cussler and, according to Wikipedia, is the birthplace of one Karl Rove. Things you didn't know!

From there I lived for a year in the little town of La Veta Colorado - very small (600 people at the time) with something like 11 in my Freshman class. So small we played 8-man football, had no stoplights. It sits at the base of the Huajatolla (wah ha toy ya) Mountains (Ute translation: "Breasts of the Earth"), also known as the Spanish Peaks in the Southern part of the state:

Spanish Peaks - via wikipedia - just over 13,000 feet

High School was spent in Colorado Springs - home of the Olympic Training Center, Pikes Peak, and more conservative Christian organizations than any other city! I locked into cycling in the Springs and the 1986 World Championships, held there, played a substantive role. I remember running into various teams trying to acclimate - most were cool enough to let us tag along, but alas we never saw the Italians (Moreno Argentin won on a freezing day). The closed my high school earlier this year.

I graduated from CU Boulder (Go Buffs!), but started school in Ft Collins (CSU) for the first year and a half.  I remember chasing Randy Whicker and a bunch of his AC Pinarello team around on the Wednesday ride - so hard and fast! Ft Fun hosted a finish of the Tour of Colorado last year - Sagan won...

Boulder....ahhh, Boulder. I spent a lot of time in Boulder in my early riding days...it was the place to go. We'd shoot up and do the Saturday ride - a sweet little jaunt that heads north to Carter Lake at unreasonable speeds, often including a longer loop out to the Frontage road of I-70.

strava offline - map coming!

Hard riders lived in Boulder, still do of course. It was an honor to be in the mix on the BusStop Ride, The Saturday Ride and many others. Great road riding was largely lost in the floods this fall...but I know Boulder County will be back. As to CX Nats - the course looks pretty good, the scenery amazing, and the talent about as far up the food chain as you'd expect. If Boulder wasn't so impressed with itself it would probably elicit a little bit less of a "hurl" response in me...but then again I was never one of the cool kids anyway. I do miss the riding though.