Sunday Ride for 6/8

Consensus opinion suggests that we now start our Sunday rides at 9:00 AM.

For the sake of clarification, typically, the Summer Sunday Ride heads up river to Fish Creek and back. The Sunday Ride proceeds at a pace that averages 17-19 mph. We teach group riding and pacelining skills. Mr. Bill, who's 61 years old, calls it the friendliest group ride he's ridden in some time. Incidently, we've only left one rider behind, and he had a hangover, a bad hangover.

Finally, with the Summer racing season upon us, there will be weekends when some of the regulars may be out of town. So please leave a comment indicating your plans for Sunday.

(Liquigas and CdR -- we have so much in common.)

Iron Horse Report

Ciclistas del Rio's regional rider, Eric Strong, made the trip to Durango from Amarillo, TX. And on lap 5, Eric begins wondering "where's the air?"

The LaMunyon family watches the Master's 35-39 race start from Main Street.

Linnie wants to know why Michael Carter is racing, and ultimately winning, back to back crits.

Group of 4 getting together to chase former Saturn Pro Scott Mercier who is up the road with another rider. Mercier would come back, and the Master's 40-44 finish would come to a sprint.

10AM!!!!!!!

Sunday Ride at 10am, not 9

Sunday Ride - May 25th

Iron Horse RR Cancelled - Bummer!

Well, for those not doing the criterium, you ought to have fresh legs for a ride today. I and my friends who had hoped to do the Iron Horse are thinking about a West Fork / Fish Creek ride, leaving Flanders Park at 9am. Rec pace, no-drop, social ride - come join us!

One More Shoutout from the 12Hrs of MV

I just wanted to give a shoutout to another Ciclista who wasn't mentioned in the blog. Mr. Tom Miller finished fourth in the Duo Male riding with Wayne Nadolsky from Lotsa Pasta. They did 8 laps in 12:28:47 and were only nine minutes out of second. Great riding Tom! I also wanted to wish all the Ciclistas the best of luck on Saturday in the Iron Horse RR. Give Em Hell Boys! I am going to have ride from Cortez to Hesperus and back so I can feel like I am suffering with you. When we get back to our regular Sunday rides again we should have lot's of stories to share! Well until then.......

What Are Your Iron Horse Weekend Plans?

Friday's Registration and/or Velo Swap?

Saturday's RR or Tour

Sunday's Crit?

Monday's Time Trial?

Leave a comment and perhaps we can coordinate a bit of the travel, etc.

Sunday's Rec Ride (May 18th)

Coal Bank and Molas Pass

Meet at 8:30 at Flanders Park, Dolores to carpool over to Needles
or
Be ready to ride at 10am at the Needles store (couple miles before Purgatory on the west side of Hwy 550).

This will be at recreational, not racing, pace, so please come along to enjoy these passes - a must for those in the Iron Horse! We'll re-group at the tops of all the climbs, and I'll patrol up and down the group to pace people if they need and generally provide support. The weather is going to be great, but, this is Spring in the San Juans, so be prepared with at least a wind jacket, maybe arm warmers, too. Bring enough food and water - this is about a 35 mile ride with 3 climbs.

It's going to be a great ride, I can't wait! See you there,
Michael

12 Hours of Suffering at Mesa Verde

The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde was a blast this year. Temps were more reasonable than last year which kept the dehydration cramps at bay. The course was in great shape and there was a huge turnout. The last number I heard was approximately 250 riders!! The first lap was kind of a mess with so much traffic on the singletrack. The run and short road section did not seem to be near long enough to spread out the crowd. Unfortunately, I was more concerned with saving some energy for the long days ride ahead and did not get out front at the gun. This meant I followed a line of about 30 riders (or more) at a leisurely pace for the first 1/2 lap before finally working around and getting a chance to open it up a little. After the first lap everything spread out and traffic was only a minor issue.

All of the Ciclistas that participated were in the solo class so we didn't get much chance to see each other except for the occassional "refill" in the pit area. I can't speak for Steve or Scott, but I was again questioning the sanity of the whole thing by noon. Each lap became a harder test of the mental will to keep going. I almost quit at 2 laps, thought real serious about dropping out at 3 laps, don't really remember the 4th or 5th lap, and spent most of the 6th lap just trying to get to each of the next mile markers. There was a reasonable chance that I was going to make the 6:30 p.m. cutoff time to head out for lap 7 until my deraileur cable broke leaving me in a gear that forced me to walk all of the steeps. At least it waited until close to the end to break and still allowed me to ride the flats and downhill in a big gear. At the end, I told Cat (my fiancee) that I was done racing (which is what I say at the end of every endurance race that I have ever done), but by Sunday afternoon I was already bumming that I didn't get a chance to go for the 7th lap and plotting for next year.

Final results for the Ciclistas:

Steve Wayman (Solo Geezer Class) 5 laps in 10:16:51 ; 5th place (awesome job Steve)
Scott Clow (Solo Class) 5 laps in 11:40:39 ; 22nd place (congrats on reaching your goal Scott)
Jeff Fox (Solo Class) 6 laps in 11:42:50 ; 15th place

Deadline May 15: Clothing Order

The order form at Sol Cycles has reached ten items. Racing level members have until end of business on May 15 to add an item to the order. We will send our order to Champ-Sys on Friday the 16th. If you need to submit an order via email, please email me and I will add you to the list: dlamunyon@gmail.com

50% of your order will be due May 22.

Thanks,
Doug

Rec. Ride for May 11th

Iron Horse training ride: Rico-Telluride-Rico. Meet at 9AM at Flanders Park, Dolores, to carpool to Rico. Post a comment if you want details, I'll respond to any posts by the end of the day, Friday.