197 dirty, epic miles and 19,302 brutal feet of climbing from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with Niner Bikes and the Ralleye Riders.
Our own Timothy Fegel was along for the ride on his beta Flaanimal on what was no doubt an amazing adventure.
Music: Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Dirty Laundry
We are in the beginning planning stages of a Rodeo trip to Belgium in 2016 and we want to open up the invite to the larger Rodeo family.
The idea is to make what might be a complicated trip full of unknown for the uninitiated into a fun and much less stressful opportunity to meet up with other Rodeoers, watch some epic spring classics (Flanders and Roubaix) and do a whole lot of riding and hanging out in between.
The prototype for this trip happened this year and before going much further you should at least scan these two journal entries to get a sense of the trip:
It is a funny and rare thing when everything converges. This year cyclocross season started a bit early with a season opener at Oskar Blues farm in Longmont. We’ve been a little bit quicker on our toes than last year so we already had our kits in-hand a few days before race day. On a lark I decided that I wanted to race the prototype Traildonkey as well. I’ve actually had this bike in storage since April because as a very early prototype it had a lot of imperfections in the design (which we’ve since revised and refined). I’ve been riding the Flaanimal prototype a lot lately and while I do love the bike and the feel of steel I wanted to go back and get re-antiquated with our first bike project, the one born at almost exactly the same time the team was in January 2014.
Live in Colorado?
This is not just a Rodeo thing. It’s a time to ride with cyclists from any team or non-team. Invite your friends if you like.
Fall. A time of fading light and dying trees, or dying leaves anyway. Mark your calendars for the evening of September 29th. We are going to ride up into the hills above Denver and seek out the answers to life’s deepest questions. If we don’t find the answers we will have at least caught some sweet sunset action whist riding through groves of changing Assssspen™. We will ride back down to Denver in the dark and perhaps imbibe some refreshing cold ones as we recount memories not yet an hour old.
#Crossishere twelve months out of the year for us. Playing around on local trails and bike parks is a pretty great way to mix up the rhythm of the summer months between road riding and mountain biking. It is also a great way to experience familiar terrain in a new way. It is also just fun! A lot of people spend time doing cyclcoross drills to build skills and that is very useful, but we think that people should see cyclocross bikes as everyday bikes, not race day bikes. If you spend time on the bike regularly and just go out and have fun it’ll fit and ride with perfect familiarity on race day. You might just be surprised at how tame a cyclocross course is as well after you’ve finished a summer of shred on your local trails.Continue reading
Photos by Rufus Ryan Cathrall, Reid Neureiter, Jenn Hines, and Stephen Fitzgerald
Mt. Evans Chill Climb: August 9, 2014 One Year Anniversary It was one of those mornings when your alarm goes off and it takes a few blinks to realize that although it feels as if your soul has been separate from your body for the last eight hours, you’re indeed still alive. And your covers are really warm so you don’t want to move. And you’re a bit annoyed and momentarily confused as to why you’ve been woken up when the sun clearly has not. Is that the moon? Yeah, definitely annoyed. But as your mind catches up to the best of your body, a smirk finds its way to your face as you remember why you’re awake before the rest of the world; it’s the morning of the Mt. Evans Chill Climb.
PROLOGUEBear with me, this could take awhile.
Epic is such an overused word anymore. It’s hard not to think of it and roll your eyes at its virtual meaninglessness, among hashtags and internet memes and over-exaggeration. Too often, it’s an unearned descriptor. So there is a certain audacity in naming your mountain bike race the Breck Epic – even if it is six days and 240-something miles of gnarly backcountry singletrack, with 40,000 feet climbing and descending, mostly above 10,000 feet in elevation.
But here, in those six days, epic cannot simply be claimed. It must be earned.
Rampart Rally was one of the most difficult, most incredible rides we’ve ever done. Patrick, Chris, Peder, Jacob, Tim, Michael, myself. All the usuals were there, the guys who show up time and again for the biggest things that we do as a team. It strikes me that, when boiled down, this is the group that casts the mold for Rodeo. Not everyone will ride bikes the way we do or do the things we do and that is okay, but at the end of the day when it comes to telling the story of who we are as a team, you couldn’t ask for a better crew.
Rampart Rally covered 80-100 miles each of the two days, but through conditions that we ourselves would admit were often over the top. We were each equipped with bikes that had fairly skinny, fairly slick tires, but that is where the similarities ended. Steel, carbon, road, MTB, CX, everything was represented. We aren’t biased towards Traildonkeys and Flaanimals, we love each of the bikes that showed up to tackle the course. At the end of the day on a ride like this, just showing up and pedaling until you arrive at your destination is the most important requirement. Everything else is gravy.
I couldn’t be more happy to call these men team mates. It is an honor to call them friends as well.
-Stephen
Last night was all about chasing the sunset, Team Dream Team style. I wanted to get up to Raptor Point to see the sun dip behind the hills. 5000 feet of climbing and a late start stood between me and my goal but somehow it all worked out and I got up there with a few minutes to spare. The sky is so dynamic at sunset. In the matter of a minute everything can change. Watching it all evolve while on a bike on my current favorite road was a pretty special thing. The realization hit me that being high up in the Rockies at sunset meant being high up in the Rockies after dark, alone, and without even an extra vest. Thankfully last night was a trophy summer night. Warm breezes and clear skies were my companions. Sunset was beautiful, but the light right after sunset was, to my surprise, even better. The colors became electric, the shadows were at their softest. I had nobody to share what I was seeing with, but as always I had my camera. This is why I started taking photos of my rides in the first place. I want to relate to people what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced. Photos rarely capture the true feel of a place, but that is always the goal to aspire to. I’m still buzzing from the experience.
We took a different type of route on Sunday morning. We just weren’t feeling the normal ruts we sometimes ride in. A figure 8 course way up high gave us about 10 miles of gravel, 10 miles of pavement, and 10 miles of singletrack. This is my favorite type of riding. It feels less like routine and more like adventure.
https://www.strava.com/activities/360013948
