Course recon

Mountain bike racing is finally coming back to Colorado Springs! For three Wednesdays in June there will be some hot mtb racing in Bear Creek Park. To get all the race info, click here.

It has been over a year since I competed in a mountain bike race, and all signs are pointing to Bear Creek Park as the place I will make my return. In preparation for the recommencement of these two activities, I propose a team recon of the course, and maybe a little other single track too.

Place: Bear Creek Park Pavilions (near the soccer fields)
Day: Tuesday, June 3
Time: 6 pm
Effort: race course preride (not race day effort)
Duration: as long as it takes (or until dark)

The Stampede

Another weekend of races in the books and another two wins to go with it. Chalk Creek is my XC race of the year. I know a lot of you strongly disagree with me on how wonderful the course is. You also come in at 140lbs soak and wet. Carry another 50lbs and you’ll understand why. This course lacks all the climbing of the typical resort races that we face every other weekend on the MSC calendar.

Saturday brought on the XC with beautiful weather for the Sport racers. No wind along the fence line was something I’d never experienced. I took off from the gun in the race and built up a decent lead. One lone chaser finally caught me on the “climb” and we traded the lead for the next 2 laps. It was a lot of fun pushing that hard for so long. Finally on the last decent we got caught up behind a Durango Devo girl on the descent. She was moving so slow it caused the guy from Adventure Racing to wreck. I took that opportunity to pass and never looked back. He couldn’t keep with me down by the creek and I cruised in with a 4 second win.

Sunday’s short track was brought a lot of excitement for me. I lead out from the start and pushed the pace the whole time. With 2 ½ laps to go, Ryan from CoMotion Sports (my old team) tried making a pass just before the mountain cross section of the course. He burned a corner too fast and slid out in front of me. I ran him over and went sailing through the air. I scrambled to grab my Yeti and took off running. That crash gave me a gap that I held for the rest of the race for my second victory of the weekend.

Holding up with the CoMotion wrecking Procycling riders…Dan Le was racing the race following mine. 100 yards into the event, a CoMotion rider went down right in front of him. Their bikes got tangled and he spent the whole of the race chasing in vein to catch the lead pack. It was a good effort but fruitless when two teammates get together off the front and drive the pace.

Congrats to everyone that made it out there to enjoy the weather. I got one hell of a red neck while spinning around the cow patties. No pics this time as I forgot to charge the battery for the camera.

Mike G

Arkansas Point (Pueblo) Race Report

4.20.2008

Last year was great and this year even better racing on the trails around Pueblo Reservoir. ProCycling had a good early season turn out with Branden, Kalan, Dan, Kara, Tom, Charlie and Mike all making the trip down.

Kalan (Semi-Pro) killed it winning the overall expert category followed by Dan (Single Speed) in 5th and Branden in 10th. Branden lost considerable time dealing with some flat tire issues in the last half of the race. Kara (Single Speed) came in 2nd to Pro Lindsey Bishop after running a 15 mile trail race the day before!

In the Sport category Tom rolled a 7th place finish followed by Charlie (Single Speed) in 9th and Mike in 17th.

Intro!

Welcome!

The 2008 mountain bike racing season is off and running. Team ProCycling has had more than a few podiums already, with just a few racing having taken place.

Keep an eye on this blog for up-to-date race reports from the team members, in their own words, and up-to-the-minute ride reports throughout the 2008 season.