Rodeo Rally Series: May

The planning for the May Rodeo Rally began serendipitously back in January, when, as you might recall, I took advantage of a warm winter Colorado day and set out on a solo dirt adventure south of Denver. The beautiful route and photos must of stuck in the craw of one Matt Deviney to such a degree that he worked tirelessly on finding a way back to Denver so as to avoid the treacherous no-shoulder/pucker-inducing-death-ride segment of Santa Fe north of Sedalia, between the small town of Louviers and Titan Road. We both recon’d different routes over the ensuing months, but neither could completely pre-ride the route and were skeptical we could find a better way back to Denver.

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The Story of Traildonkey

make them hurt

Traildonkey.

We all laughed when the name popped out of my mouth over a morning coffee. I was describing to Chris and Peder that I wanted to build a new cyclocross bike. My 2001 Bianchi Axis, though still a worthy steed, is showing signs of age. It still gets the job done in a standard cyclocross race, but over the last year I’ve been taking the bike places it just wasn’t built to go, and it’s struggled to keep up with my demands. I am, to a fault, loyal to my beat up old warhorse bikes. My stable includes a 2001 Yeti AS-R MTB, the 2001 Bianchi Axis, and my 2007 Felt FA road bike. I recently added the Cannondale SuperSix (which I won), but it is the exception to my miserly bike ownership. When I was a bit younger (and single) I wanted bikes that were the lightest, fastest things out there, but now I’m more pragmatic about the hardware and the true performance gains it affords. Only when I come to the end of what I think one of my bikes can do do I start looking around for a new bike.

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GA > FL: Brawner Family Rally

Words by Bo Brawner. Photos by Bo and Taylor Brawner.

Rodeo Mates,

It is difficult to put into words having your brother and your dad on the bike next to you. Some of you may get to experience this – some may not. But in his late 50’s my dad saw my brother and I complete the ride from ATL to PCB FL and asked at the victory dinner, “you guys think I can do this?” 50 pounds overweight and with some heart issues, we said, “of course! It’s just gonna take some work.”

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Rodeo Kokopelli

By Chris Joseph

Kokopelli Trail May 1-3 2014

  • 136 total miles (218 km) in 22 hours ride time, 50 hours Total time
  • Lessons learned:
  • Good people and water are very, very valuable
  • Bike shoes are not made for hiking
  • Garmin doesn’t always know the way
  • Cliff bars make a good adhesive for gluing teeth back in
  • Taking photos requires energy. Less energy = less photos
  • The comfort of sleeping on the ground increases exponentially depending on how tired you are
  • When very dehydrated and hallucinating rocks can sometimes look like boxes stacked neatly on the trail in front of you
  • The words “man up” can be humorous or humiliating depending on the point of origin
  • Chainring wounds look similar to shark bites, only with a little grease mixed into the blood

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