Getting some Free Time Back

Often in the life of a professional cyclist, particularly on the mountain bike racing side of the sport, we have to juggle family, training, work, and whatever else is thrown our way. Resulting in limited free time to do anything other than sleep and eat. The past couple of days have been like that. With the training hours jumping up in intensity and volume to prepare for my next big string of racing the time has dwindled. Since my last post I have done some great rides covering lots of miles and exploring some new places to ride. Here are some photos from these ventures.

This is from the "top" of Heil Ranch overlooking the canyon that leads in Lyons, CO. Pretty sweet view! and well worth the technical climb to get there.

Here I am attempting to take a photo from the top of the climb of myself. Pretty hard when you are trying to get the background in a bit too with a cell phone camera! Notice the green. CO won't look like this for much longer, sadly!


My ride today was an epic adventure from my house in Longmont, CO to Left Hand Canyon via a few dirt back roads that are much more enjoyable to ride on the knobbies than the paved ones. Up Left Hand with a brutal head wind and then following the Switzerland Trail to Gold Hill. Down Sunshine Canyon to Rowena Rd (which turns into a crazy road!) Into Lefthand and home. 65 miles all in all, what a blast! Here is some of the singletrack I found that definitely is typical Colorado meadow singletrack, (sadly it ends at a private property fence about 2 minutes past this):
Cheers and happy riding as summer is coming quicker than ever!