Pooks Canyon

Chuck Coyle literally drove away with the win today at the ICC Crit in Englewood, doing a steering wheel style salute in honor of sponsor, Groove Subaru. Chuck got away in a break of four guys with only three laps to go. Dirk Friel and Thomas Roba were in the break and Chuck said they tried attacks but he was able to stay on their wheels and outsprinted Paul Esposti for the win. This win came on the heels of many a several primes won by teammies Jon Baker, Greg Krause, Chuck himself, and Zach Davies - who got fifth after winning the field sprint. They are racing in a way we rarely see teams race around the front range: like a team. Good job guys!!!

The boys came back last night at about 2 am, following a twelve hour drive back from the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. The big story on the final Gila Monster stage was Krause's crushing attack in the valley during the cat 2 race. He came back from 8 minutes behind on GC to win the overall. That plus two stage wins and four stage podiums makes a fabulous finish for Krause's cat 2 days, which are, of course, now over. Jon said, once again, Chuck did a fabulous job of getting him to the front. This time for the Gila Monster climb - nose to the wind for over 10 k. Jon was happy with his result on the stage and feels his form is coming along well. He looks forward to Tour de Nez and the Nevada City Classic, as well as the local Morgul Bismark race over Memorial Day. At breakfast this morning, we played chess. Once Jon (a National Chessmaster - in my defense) had my position so pinned down I couldn't move a piece without weakening it, I commented how futile it w...

Tour of Gila, Stage 3, the time trial. Jon's hope of a good GC showing was crushed today after a mechanical on his time trial bike, midrace, cost him over three minutes. Bummus Majoris. He is taking it in stride, however, happy that his form is top notch as the road season is ramping up. Bike racing is a sport so loaded with potential disappointment, sometimes I don't know how those guys do it. Must be the endorphins. On the happier Groove Subaru front, Greg Krause continues to rock the cat 2's with a podium again at today's time trial, only seven seconds from the lead (3rd place was nearly a minute back, btw). He currently sits in the top 5 on GC. Tomorrow is the downtown criterium.

Strong winds were the prevailing force in today's Tour of the Gila stage. Jon was in it to win it after an arduous 120 kilometers and was actually on race leader Levi Leipheimer's wheel for a while in the final kilometers. Disaster struck when he was echelon-ed into the dirt, crashing with about 600 meters to go. He was sixth wheel at that moment, racing for the podium. "Usually I'm always suffering but I was feeling good today," Jon said in regard to his form at this year's Gila. The day started with the first Category 3 climb to Pinos Altos, where much of the field was left behind. Zach Davies, also from the Groove Subaru Squad, managed to stay in front of the split with Jon and got him into good position before they hit the crosswind section. It was a group of just 50 of the remaining riders (out of 177 starters) that made it through to Fort Bayard together, though even in this group there were gaps because of the high winds. After his crash, Jon was a...

photo from GilaWilderness.com Jon called in yesterday with his Tour of the Gila race report from the Groove Subaru Cycling Team perspective. Yesterday's stage, the Mogollon, was 150 kilometers with a mountain top finish on a Category One climb. Category One = steep or long, in this case very steep. After Stage One, Jon's about 2 minutes off of the leader Levi Leipheimer and only 16 seconds off of Lance Armstrong. Jon probably did not intend for me to blog this, but he said he couldn't ride too close to Lance lest the Fan Boy fever take over. Ok, he didn't exactly say it like that but he did say it was distracting. So maybe he gave Lance 16 seconds on purpose? Haha. Jon is at the Gila with Groove Subaru teammates Zach Davies and Chuck Coyle, as well as Greg Krause who was snubbed by the USCF upgrade people by not counting his ACA points. So it goes. Krause is racing cat 2 but I am sure he would have been in the mix had he been allowed to race yesterday. So witho...

I managed to peel myself away from work all weekend; thanks Open Salon commentators for the encouragement. Instead of work, I went to a meet-up of the Boulder Writers in which we discussed Time as an element in writing: time period, time passing, time dilation, time travel. (!) Then I went home to work on my novel, getting to chapter seventeen of nineteen of the first draft. It is good progress considering I began in January. That said, in going back and reading the draft, I see that serious revisions are in order. Entire chapters are probably in need of disposal and replacement. There is an interesting pattern at work in which my protagonist needs to be nicer and the characters surrounding her need to be meaner. The cast, as they stand now, are just being too nice. I believe Barbara Kingsolver said the first draft is a work of construction and the seventh a work of art. It is a long road, but it's not Cormac McCarthy's road, so that's good. Also in the long road depa...