Ethan

Like many people in the Gunnison/Crested Butte area we have become glued to the live spot tracking of the Tour divide race.
www.tourdivide.org
With three Gunnison/Crested Butte riders in the top four overall its addicting and very inspiring to watch their progress southward.
Last night we saw that team Alpine Ortho rider Ethan Passant was riding over the Continental divide via Marshall pass to Sargents, CO.
Bryan Wickenhauser loaded Brian Smith, Myself, and Jarral Ryter into his truck and took us on a late night tiki tour up to cheer on Ethan. We ran into him at 1800 miles into his race high on Marshall pass.  Pretty cool close to 11pm at close to 11,000 ft we saw one lonely set of lights coming down the mountain toward us.

its never too late, dark, cold, or early to geek out over someones bike and equipment choices. Brian and Jarral checking out Ethans rig.

Self admittedly a little delirious and sporting  a sore knee he was otherwise in good spirits and ready for some desert warmth. The night before had been spent in a prefab post office building in Como to hide from the snow. Bonus it was open double bonus it was heated.
Have to say the legend of Ethan is Growing!
Good luck for the next week we'll all be following.

SSUSA

After the Growler last week, I decided to go for a change of pace with racing.  I gave up 20 of my 21 gears and any form of suspension and headed to the Front Range to race Single Speed USA.  It's 4th addition was run in my former hometown of Boulder, so I couldn't resist heading back to see what the race was all about.

All we knew headed into the race was to meet at a park in Boulder on Friday night for a cruiser ride and round one of the hosting competition, a series of contests to decide who got to host the event in 2012. Round one was a tube race down the kayak course in Boulder Creek.  With run-off in full force, I can't imagine the water was warm.

The motley crew of single speeders than proceeded to various Boulder watering-holes to receive a map to the race start, ride mechanical bulls, and to pre-race carbo load with some of the fine micro-brews available in Boulder.

Saturday morning brought a race start at an altitude which favored the mountain dwellers.  Shawn Lortie did a nice write-up of the actual race over at Mountain Flyer which I highly recommend checking out.  To sum-up, everyone got at least a little lost.  Even I, who learned how to ride on these trails, got turned around a time or two.  It was a rollicking good time with a happy combination of dirt roads, trails, and post-holing through snow.  Winning the race was just an added bonus.

The post-race party was also the venue for the infamous foot-down bike-derby competition and the last round of the hosting competition.  I took a non-violent approach to the derby and was able to outlast all the boys who took great joy in running into each other with their bikes.

Vermont won the hosting competition.  Guess I'll have to travel out there next summer to defend my belt and title.

Dana Allen Photos from Growler

Thanks Dana! - Some sweet shots.

Sick Job Smithy! You friggin CRUSHED that race! What a great showing for team AO and thanks so much for all the support out there! Lisa, Missy, Stew, Doc G, Travis and the whole Alpine Ortho Crew that was out there - you were stellar support. Thanks to Rob and the Acli-mate crew for their on course support both in the water bottle and at the base. Our sponsors RULE! And one of them slayed a 14th place - Yeah JB and Go To Guide! Paul Pike was also out there smilin' as always - nice work Paul!