The group hangs out along the trail during a regroup.
Everyone rolling out from the start.
Erik on a fully rigid while his Sugar is in the shop. Didn't shift either to try out this "singlespeed" thing :) Haha.
Beautiful double rainbow.
Chris and Marni at the top of Morrison Slide.
Marni's first race and Chris's first race as an Expert! Who's cool Element is that?
White is the new pink. Or is it brown. Oh SOB can't I ever get tan?
Marni destroying our 34 high Jenga tower after the hill climb. No one could believe the game made it that long.
Getting ready for day two of racing.
Chris and Jim before the start of Sunday's 22 mile climbfest.
Chris finishing strong in the Expert race. 
Sweet side shot action :p
Jim finishing on Sunday in Expert 40-45. Go Jim!
Erik winning beginner 25-29 on Sunday!
Scott kicking some butt on Sunday and not letting the course get the best of him. He's a *way* faster descender this year.
Danh coming back for more and racing Saturday and Sunday. 
Overall Winter Park was awesome. Two great races. Lots of friends. A couple suprise podiums. What more could you ask for?
No I am not doing this race but I'm really impressed with those who are. Maybe someday if I can get 3 weeks off but for now I'm posting this about those who have prepared and are about to embark on the journey. It's a 2500+ mile race on the Continental Divide Trail and Mike Curiak describes it as "The Great Divide Race is a self-supported, solo competition following the 2,490-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Traversing Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, the route demands over 200,000 feet of climbing along it's length. Competitors carry all equipment necessary to negotiate the backcountry, restocking on food and other supplies from the small towns along the route."
Tonight we had a big group mountain bike ride at Bear Creek, following last week's ride with Scott, Erik, Nicolette and Adam at White Ranch. Tonight we had even more people. Marni came with me along with ScottyD, Erik, Craig, Nicolette, Adam, Mike and Scott#2 and it was a blast! Sometimes among all the epic planning and hard training it's easy forget that we do this for fun. I haven't had this much fun on a ride in a while and the time and miles just flew by. Despite the busy afternoon trail traffic and the still broiling heat we all rode, laughed, talked, goofed off and had a great time. Not even a broken chain and ensuing game of "push the guy who can't pedal" (cough)ScottyD(cough) or a smashed pedal or a few small crashes could spoil the fun.
Craig looking nonchalent about being a bike stud on his huge seatposted bike.
Adam and Nicolette returning and smiling despite the torture of Belcher last week.
Marni and Erik cruising along towards the climb.
Marni bashing through the water crossing!
Craig flying through the water. Who knew I could time a picture right?
This was a really nice weekend leading up to this week's taper. I'm really feeling awesome coming down from the huge volume in the beginning of the year and all the speed workouts have been great. I can ride as long as I want and everytime I go to the tank for some speed it's there in spades. The Winter Park double header this coming weekend should be a lot of fun (Marni racing her first race at the hillclimb!) and I'm really excited about racing the singlespeed at the E100 12 hour and Firecracker 50 the following 2 weeks!
Saturday and Sunday Marni and I got to ride together, both on and off road, and I got even more comfortable on the new lighter Fuel. She's doing great on both bikes and really happy with her sweet new Sidi's we got on clearance Saturday. If she keeps riding 4 days a week the other girl racers better watch out! Lightening details on the Fuel coming as soon as the last couple pieces are here this week. Gears feel fast and snappy and climb so easy even with a 12-27 cassette. Who needs a 34?
This week I'll be keeping the workouts short and fast in the heat to continue my already great acclimation. I can use the extra time to continue my obsession with researching my ultralight backcountry racing gear...right babe? :) That and pursuading my sister to keep sewing me prototype equipment.
At the top of the first part of Belcher we regrouped and hung out at the bench. 
Erik showed us his mad trials skills while we waited.
We climbed up round up loop and started up the upper Belcher singletrack but Scott, Adam and Nicolete had enough climbing so they descended to Sawmill and were going to meet us at the intersection of Sawmill and Mustang. Erik and I continued to the top of Belcher and descended down Mustang.
We all regrouped there and were joined by Mr.Deer. There's a lot of wildlife at White Ranch and Erik almost hit 3 other deer descending Belcher later! I saw another rattlesnake too but it was just a baby. I also flatted again halfway down Belcher on the front this time which was still at 40psi. Too low for tubes and such skinny tires.
We finished Mustang and Belcher and had a great time BSing in the parking lot as darkness set in. Yesterday Marni and I took Turbo to the dog park to go swimming. He had a wonderful time swimming and fetching the tennis ball and sticks from the middle of the pond. Silly wet dog!
After swimming we took him on a bike ride on the rest of the trails to wear him out further. He looked in every prarie dog hole as usual until he got a big scare in one hole!
I don't think this rattlesnake wanted to be bothered! Turbo was good though and ran over to us and stayed away from him. Marni and Turbo didn't like the snake too much.
We had a fun rest of the ride with no more snakes and then we loaded up the Element and headed back home for Turbo to get a bath in the front yard.
What a spoiled dog!
