ride report: Kent Eriksen's Tour de Steamboat

at the start with Kent, founder of Moots Cycles, Mountain Bike Hall of Fame resident, proprietor of Eriksen Cycles

he's also pretty darn fit for an older guy who spends all day in the shop building some of the finest bikes anywhere


at the east summit of the passage d'oreilles de lapin (rabbit ears pass for y'all in English). nothing like 1000 meters straight up a 1st category climb right after morning coffee. i was the first chaser of a solo rider at this point.


ditch the warm clothes with the support team (Danny and Jen) and take off in pursuit of the leader.


i rode with my friend Ian Pritchard for the last 90 kilometers, from the top of the Passage de Fuseau (Gore Pass). he's an old bro from back in the more serious racing days and he was a solid top 10 to 20 rider in pretty much all of the races he entered. i was usually a bit further down the pile being as i am sized too small to produce a lot of power in the time trial. we're approaching Toponas (in the distance) on S.H. 134 and about to turn north towards a 25 to 30 kilometer per hour headwind for the last 70 kilometers of the ride. the altitude here is right at about 3000 meters and it's a long, long way to anything that even remotely looks like a tree. Ian was a good person to be riding with at this point.


it feels good to head for the barn after 6 hour ride.


images courtesy of Danny Rietz (with the exception of the image of Ian Pritchard)