follow another cycling adventure just getting started here. Liz's coast to coast trip starts Memorial Day weekend! Good Luck Liz!

http://kauffmel.blogspot.com/

OffRoad to Athens

yay-verily; made it to ride White Ranch today with curtis.lewis, kevin.bliss, kurnik, Kim, A-rock, and Kim. What an ass-kicker. beautiful day though, and it made for a great training lung buster. i rode fairly well, taking care to not bust anything i'll need for racing... like my collar-bone, etc.

Sat night was spent with kim's family at the Boulder Theater watching OffRoad to Athens. A great drama-documentary about the long road to the Olympics taken from the perspective of the athletes trying to make the team. The links can tell you more...
http://www.grippedfilms.com/
and
http://www.offroadtoathens.com/

Angel Fire - June 4,5

i will not be making it to the next event (in Morrison, CO), but will be getting ready for the big event in Angel Fire NM over the next few weeks. Here's a link for more info:

http://www.cyclecyndicate.com/events/angelfire/index.htm

this looks tough...

at the finish 

at the start 

Race #2 Chalk Creek Stampede - May 7 - Completed

5th - Charles Watkins - 1:35:58.43

Living and learning. It happens so subtly at times. Learning that if i would have pre-ridden the course i could have been more competitive. Learning that if i would have warmed up i could have shaved something like 10 minutes off my time... and got 4th place. Learning that truly these things though valuable to me, aren't thepoint of my racing this year. The point lies beyond these quantifialbes, these statistics, these performance enhancing notes. It lies within the experience.

I woke up at 3:15 to start race day. My family met me at my house at 3:45 and we road tripped in the blackened twighlight for 2.5 hours. Arriving at Nathrop brought a moody backlit sunrise and a near miss blizzard. After the snows passed the race began and finished in a whirlwind. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying my family's company in Beautiful Buenie. A big thanks to them for making the journey with me.

Something else important I learned: that I can do this. That I can be a mountain bike racer. Moab was so simple and straightforward that I hadn't really counted it. A 2 mile/30 minute hill climb is so quick if you just keep your balance and focus. However, in Nathrop - the 1.5 hours and group started mass of riders tumbling over all terrains, I realized this goal is attainable. That i'm not quite crazy for trying this out after all.

Race number two coming up this weekend...

5th Annual Chalk Creek Stampede
Nathrop, Colorado - May 6th thru 8th

XC :: Saturday, May 7th
8:00 a.m. Beginner wave 2 laps

Course description: 7 mile loop with a mix of double track and buttery smooth single track, be prepared for windy conditions, an occasional cactus and a bovine dropping every now and then. See the racing page for a complete description!