Bike Stuff

In the summer of 2000, my daughter Jennifer was planning her wedding. I was going nuts with all of this planning. I was talking to my brother about all of the stress. He told me that I needed to do something to relieve that stress. He asked "Do you have a bicycle?" I said, sure I do but I haven't ridden it in years. So I went and bought new tubes and tires and a helmet and I started riding. At first I just went around the block. That was all I could do because I was really out of shape. But as time progressed I rode more and more and my rides became longer and longer.

By the fall of 2000, I realized that my old Motobecane didn't have enough gears for the mountains. It had a six speed cassette where the new bikes had a 9 speed cassette. I started visiting bike shops around town and learned a great deal. In January of 2001, I brought home a new Lemond Zurich. It had a Reynolds 853 steel frame, Shimano Ultegra 9 speed with a triple crank set and Rolf Wheels. It was also setup with clipless pedals which took me a while to get used too. This bike was 6 pounds lighter than the Motobecane. So the Lemond was a lot more nimble and racy feeling than the old bike. So I started calling it "the Ferrari". The day that I brought it home it was cold. Kathy and the kids were leaving to go shopping and I told them that I was going out for a short ride to check out my new wheels. A couple of hours later Kathy returned and found me in the kitchen with a cup of hot chocolate. I really didn't for for a short ride. It wound up being more like 20 miles! From that point on, I was addicted to this new sport.

In June of 2001 I got to be part of Ride the Rockies. It was 432 miles and it went from Crested Butte to Boulder. What a ride! I'm thankful that my wife was there to support me.

I've since ridden in the 2002 Elephant Rock and Triple Bypass and LOTOJA (Logan Utah to Jackson Wyoming). In 2003 I rode in the Ride the Rockies from Cortez to Copper Mountain and the Triple Bypass. I also ridden to the top of Mount Evans (14,126 feet).

There have been so many training rides that I've forgotten where I've gone. But it wasn't unusual for me to ride from my house south of Parker and go up to Conifer. I would actually ride a few miles past Conifer to get an even 50 miles and then I ride home and make it a 100 miles or what we call a century ride. It would take me about 8 hours and I'd be exhausted. But it was all worth it as my stamina increased and I was able to stay in really good shape.

For the last 6 years or so, I have not ridden at all due to my weird schedule at work. I even had to sell my bike. But I'm looking forward to getting a new bike and hitting the roads again!