ACC Blog

Looks like all the rumors surrounding Lance Armstrong this past week were true. The greatest Tour de France rider and most accomplished American road cyclist of all time is returning to professional cycling for the coming season. A few days after proving this rumor true, Lance showed up for an Aspen Cycling Club event, which rumor had it might take place. (Apparently the rumor had leaked too as many of the local media, who we hadn’t seen almost all summer, were positioning themselves to catch Lance just in case he did show up). Thanks to this rescheduled race on our rain date of 9/10, the new Aspen homeowner was back in town and able to make it, looking fit and ready to race up Smuggler, Four Corners and down through Van Horn Park on this great mountain bike cross country course on a beautiful late summer’s eve.

An electric energy was in the air as the large field of buzzing local racers staged for the Start, taking up the entire uphill traffic lane at the base of Smuggler Road. Lance took his rightful place on the front line. It was very exciting and an honor for me to give the pre-race instructions, including a special presentation to Armstrong making him an honorary ACC member for the coming season. A club jersey and invitation to our annual banquet on Wednesday evening 9/17 (the eve of Armstong’s 37th birthday) was also extended in appreciation of Lance’s accomplishments and support of the Aspen Cycling Club. This was truly a historic night, especially since it was on the heels of his announcement to return to the pro peloton.

As expected, the pace was fast and furious after the mass start from the base of Smuggler Mountain. Armstrong led the way, flanked closely by his local team; The Hub of Aspen, several riders from Basalt Bike and Ski, endurance racer and 12 Hours of Snowmass organizer Natt Ross and Honey Stinger’s Len Zanni, who actually led Lance up Smuggler, “riding his own race” till he was passed towards the top of the climb by the LIVESTRONG man in black. By the time the climb to Four Corners began, the Texan had opened up about a 30 second lead over Zanni, who was also in a tight series points race with several other top local contenders, thus needed maximum points. But Lance was not to be seen again till Zanni popped out of the Sunnyside Plunge and onto the Hunter Creek Valley floor singletrack, where he spotted Armstrong off in the distance, with a little too much of a gap to close.

>At the Finish it was the seven time Tour Champion by a mere 14 seconds over local hero Len. As in Leadville, Lance showed he has mountain biking skills, high altitude fitness and his trademark mental toughness, enough to take on some of the strongest mountain bike racers in Colorado and perhaps the world next season.

Winners in their respective divisions for the final mountain bike and club race for the season include

Len Zanni 59:24, Cindy Morse 48:40 (5.5 mile course) Erik Skarvan 1:07:35, Alena Gauba 48:35, John Phillips 46:37, Keith Berglund 45:24, Ed Cross 52:55 and Rob Russell 1:10:06 (long course-fast on a singlespeed!).

There’s still time to “train” for the annual ACC Banquet to be held next Wednesday evening, Sept. 17th at Bumps restaurant at the base of Buttermilk. Details for this festive gathering to come. And if we’re lucky again Lance might show up, this time to celebrate another racing season with his newly adopted local bike club.

Erik Skarvanp>

The old local adage “they call it Government Trail because it rules!” was appropriate for this past Wednesday’s mountain bike cross country race, on the singletrack showcased in NORBA Nationals and years ago, for the Colorado State Championships. This race course ruled, if you like both buffed and technical singletrack on a true point to point route. Bike handlers were lovin’ it and roadies were’s able to fake it.

The late summer afternoon presented ideal weather and just the first signs of fall color, with yellow leaves beginning to blanket portions of the trail. Not only did the weather heat up that day, but so did the battle amongst the big dogs in the Senior Men A. In the end, it was Team Honey Stinger’s Len Zanni prevailing over rising star (and Lance’s local guide), Max Taam, by just over a minute. Len smoked the singletrack with a scorching time of 35:30. Local pro Kelley Cullen stormed the entire women’s field, crushing it with a time of 40:31. Alena Gauba, riding for Denver/Boulder Couriers, took the Vets with fast time of 50:24-even with the damaged hamstring that’s hampered her throughout the season. In the Men’s Vet A, yours truly was (finally) fortunate to get up and over Simon Elliott and Mike Maple, the dominators of this year’s road and mountain series. On the other end of the age spectrum, young gun Keegan Swirbul flew over the course in 43 minutes and 24 seconds. Atta boy Keegan! To round out the winners of the week, Robert Stumpus (aka Stumpy) cooked the course for the Masters in 46:48, Keith Berglund took the Vet C’s and Ed Cross won the Grand Masters in 1:01:51. In the “Uno category”-single speeds- club Prez Mike Pritchard rode a very respectable 43:23, without a frickin’ granny gear!

Thanks to all who volunteered their time for the race: Elliott Larson, Bill Boughton, Jack Ouland, Alex Feuer and Jonathon Forbes.

The club also had several hearty volunteers at this past weekend’s Adopt- a-Trail Day 2, re-routing the infamous “Root” section on Government Trail and trimming the entire lower part of the route. Showing off their trimming and trail work skills were Charlie Eckart, Mike Pritchard, Annie Gonzales, Alena Gauba, Agustin Gauba (sharing the family love), Erik Skarvan, Max Taam, Mike Maple and Jacques Houot. Thanks for giving back to our club’s adopted trail, the trail that totally rules dude!

Clear and dry conditions made for an excellent August evening of racing on Basalt Mountain last week. Turnout always begin to dwindle towards the end of the season but the racing and conditions are usually the best of the year. No other course has the Sopris views that this one does either.

Some categories raced two long parking lot/ Mill Creek/ parking lot loops while some raced one long loop with the addition of the rocky, loose singletrack descent paralelling the road with a grind back up to the main parking lot. As one of the few mountain races we host with multiple laps, the second grunt up to the Mill Creek cut off always hurts.

Congratulations to winners of their respective categories including Pam Seidler, Mike Maple (who edged out Simon Eliot by just 25 seconds!), Chris Hansen and John Phillips, Keith Berglund and Ed Cross.

With sunsets coming earlier now and hunters already marching around the local backcountry, Fall is just around the corner. Keep your eyes and ears open in coming months. The Upper Cattle Creek trail on Basalt Mountain is in great shape this time of year too (albeit with lots of overgrown sections) so get up there and ride it before it gets too wet.

Saturday August 9th:
6th-Max Taam-7:32-2nd is his age group
16th-Ted MacBlane-7:49-5th in his age group
17th-Joel Mischke-7:51-10th in his age group
25th-Kevin Wilson-8:01-1st in his age group
49th-Steve Marolt-8:17-12th is his age group
70th-Mike Marolt-8:38-21st in his age group
81st-John Callahan-8:45-26th in his age group
88th-Annie Gonzales-8:48-3rd woman, 1st in her age group
121st-Jon Gibans-9:04-38th in his age group
157th-Mike Maple-9:18-52nd is his age group
360th-Chip Chilson-10:41-27th in his age group
560th-Jill Goudie-11:34-16th in her age group

IMPRESSIVE.

Please join us for the last party before the banquet(September 17th at Bumps!) at Taster’s Pizza next to the Village Market tomorrow evening after the Rim Trail race. Chris Ryan has paid for the microbrew beer for us so we can have some pizza pies! Just show up after you finish and there will be hot pizza and beer waiting for you.
Thanks,
Virg

The weather keeps cooperating for the Road Races for some reason-this could have been a very interesting race if it was wet! For the final road race of the season, the turnout was not as great as the Bells/Ashcroft race, but maybe people were at home watching the Olympics??
It looked like the core SMA group of Wade, Max, Jason, and Len stuck together-were Charlie and Eric with you for a while or was it the four of you off the front from the get-go? Congrats Wade Newsone! Simon, Brian, Eric, and Paul battled it out for the Vet Men A-Simon pulled out front on the steep sprint.
In the C’s mixed with the SWA, Wade Smith, Danny Pierce, and pro mountain biker Kelley Cullen powered up each climb, only to leave the fastest and grayest man to win-Danny.
It seems like there was alot of mechanical carnage out there-Lo Semple was hiking backwards with a flat on the dirt-it looks like Charles and Geneva had serious technical difficulties as well-so does that mean dirt=carnage?
Anyone else have any stories???
It was safe-so that is ALWAYS good.
Thanks for reading.

PS-kudos to Max Taam and Joel Mischke for giving Lance a run for his money in Leadville-they pulled off top ten and top 20 finishes respectively!!

Hot sunny weather greeted a big crowd of 86 racers at the starting line of this year’s classic race that takes racers up & down two of Aspen’s most famous valleys: Maroon Creek & Castle Creek.

The SMA race held together all the way to the finish with 9 guys duking it out to the line.  Joel Mischke crossed the line first in the sprint, showing off the fine form he’s had this summer.  Ambre Levy continued a strong winning streak in the ACC races, while Mike Maple, Wade Smith, Nancy Pickard, Dawn Gordon, John Davis, Charles Brewer & Danny Pierce took top honors in their respective catagories.

There was some sort of road rage incident on the descent from the Bells that could have ended worse than it did.  As i was marshaling near the high school to bike path turn-off, a a big pickup truck pulled over to let me know how steaming pissed he was at two male racers… for… it was not quite clear.    It must have had something to do with his nearly running the two racers off the road.  The guy felt threatened & told me that (clean version) he desired harm upon these two racers…  Yikes, there’s no contest between an F350 and a carbon Colnago…  If i were to guess, this guy was not interested in “sharing the road”, and the racers were trying to pass him, perhaps aggressively, perhaps not.   Please let this be a reminder that we’re racing on the open roads & safety is in your own hands.  There is always going to be a few drivers out there who are not even close to being deferential to the needs or desires of cyclists.

Any more information to share from the 2 racers involved?  Please comment below… Anybody else have a crazy bike/car confrontation story to share?  Any good lessons learned?

Thanks to Jane for all her diligent work on this year’s race results!  Jane made a couple great points in her email today.  The rules clearly explain that you cannot draft off racers that you did not start with.  This is clear grounds for disqualification.  Reporting of this to race officials can be difficult… But please remember, it’s not fair to win a Citizen category if you’ve caught up to the Vets and gained the advantage of a draft off of this group.  If you find yourself in this situation, stay 2′-0″ to the side and at least 15′-0″ back from the racers you’ve caught… Since you’ve already caught them without the benefit of a draft, push on and pass the group if at all possible.  Rules & Regs here.

Lastly, please help to keep the finish line area safe.  If you hear Mouse or any other volunteer asking for racers to clear the road around the finish line, DO IT! And while doing so, please help to move the rest of the finished racers off the road while you’re at it.

Congrats & nice job to everyone, Mike.

Our scheduled mid season double-header week didn’t pan out as planned when the downpour started just before the start of Wednesday’s Smuggler-Hunter Creek race. Next up was the Missouri Heights Road Race. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and those that turned out hunting road points found generally calm winds, sun and lots of points. Jason LaPointe scored a victory in Men’s A with a nice solo breakaway on the third lap. Ambre Levy continued her winning ways with a solo victory in Women’s A. Dave Borchers scored a win with a strong sprint from the Vet A pack. Additional kudos to Chris Mckelvey, Fred Peirce, Charles Brewer and Ed Cross for wins in their respective categories.

At the risk of creating a firestorm, where was everyone? Sure, the Salida Omnium was this past weekend but was everyone there? In the spirit of open dialogue, the Board requests that members comment regarding this race or other future Saturday races. Are Saturday mornings generally bad regardless of schedule? This race too hard? Too far from the roundabout? The more we know what you’re looking for the better we can plan the 2009 schedule so fire away! 

See you on Wednesday for Highlands-Maroon Bells-Ashcroft-King Hill. Have a great race!

A large number of ACC members and other local cyclists spent much of this past 4th of July enduring the pain of the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge. Once the suffering was over though local riders had plenty of time to celebrate while wearing new jerseys marking them as USA Cycling MTB Marathon National Champions.

Sari Anderson (Women’s Pro/Open), Joel Mischke (Men’s 35-39) and Jane Finsterwald (Women’s 50+) won their respective categories and the national champion’s jersey. Sari is an elite adventure racer and recent valley transplant from the Vail Valley. Joel, owner of Basalt Bike and Ski, was gunning for this race and rumor has it that he’s already framed the jersey and put it up on the shop wall. Jane has amassed an impressive number of championships in a variety of disciplines over the years and she’s still getting after it.

Other notable local podium finishes include 2nd place finishes for both Ambre Levy (Women’s 30-39) and Anne Gonzales(Women’s 40-49). Congratulations to our new local champs, podium finishers and to everyone else from the Valley who finished.

ACC racers,

We found out yesterday that Saturday, July 26th’s Missouri Heights Road Race is taking place the same weekend as the Salida Omnium.  We’re taking an informal poll here.  Were you planning on heading to Salida?  But bummed to miss the growing classic that is Missouri Heights?  There is a chance that the club may could reschedule Missouri Heights for later in August.  Please enter your comments below to help us decide.

Thanks, Mike