the spring classics

racing season is now.

the big guys have been going off for over a month now in the ProTour. the hair gels, the tweets, the silly finish line and podium getures have all begun in earnest. there has been some awesome racing somewhere in the mix as well.

things get rolling a bit later on this side of the pond. here in western Colorado we are still shaking off the effects of a winter of epic proportions. today was the first really nice, sunny day this year that featured what i would call warm temperatures. i'm almost thinking about doing a ride on my singlespeed pretty soon. no big hurry on that one, though.

coming up on the 27th and 28th of March, we have the Mad Cow Classic p/b the Mesa State College cycling team. this two-day, three event series features a brilliant, uphill ITT starting at the west gate of the Colorado National Monument and finishes at the visitor's center about 7 kms distant and 325 meters straight up the road. here's a sampling of the parcours from mapmyride.com- be sure to get a witness on the profile as well.

anyone out there remember Kevin Costner's finest hour when he starred in the all-time classic cycling film American Flyers? better put it on your Netflix queue if ya don't. there are a lot of great views of the Monument in this often overlooked cinematic jewel.




saturday afternoon brings the obligatory office park criterium to appease the non-grimpeurs in the pelican. i suppose i can be put upon to suffer through that for an hour or so.

then on sunday, the weekend is finished off with a fine road race for all categories. more climbing... i like it.
this event reminds me something of the old Criterium International format, which we will also see later this summer here in the U.S. of A at the Dead Dog Classic, held in and near the town of Laramie in the Wyoming Territories.

i would also like once again to remind everyone on the western slope (and elsewhere, for that matter) of the LiveTrainrace.com spring criterium series beginning on wednesday, March 31st and held on the following 5 wednesday evenings in April.

and of course, what would the month of April be without the spring classics. kicking things off we have the 11th edition of the Boulder Roubaix, presented by my homeboys at DBC EVENTS aka/Denver-Boulder couriers. big props to Chris Grealish for hosting this great event (as well as the Boulder spring training crits and a UCI cyclocross event...) again in 2010.
there has also been an additional segment added to the parcours this year, bringing each lap to right around 30 kms. mostly dirt on the new sections, by the way, with a couple of extra sharp rises thrown in for good measure.
Chris doesn't put on races to coddle the whiners and softies, that's for sure.

bonus question for the ancient history buffs:

as a sort of "where's Waldo" kind of fun search, can anyone spot yours truly in the video of the 1999 edition? (hint: Rocky Mounts, and not the one that's almost crashing)