Fear

After another long "training" ride for Laramie,  my fear of that race does nothing but grow.  These few long rides I've done are not as long,  not the climbing,  and not the pace of Laramie,  but I've been left beaten to a pulp.  Me thinks this thing will be one of the harder things I've ever attempted.   Gulp.

Had a nice ride anyway.  Windy & long.  41 miles,  5800 feet of climbing,  >5.5 hours moving time.  Averaged 7.4 Mph for a "diesel" pace day.  Kind of windy,  but at least it was not nearly as hot as my last long one.  Riding the front range trails midweek is sure a nice change.  feels like you have the place to yourself.

Lots to see,  even on a deserted midweek day.   Strange messages in the dirt.  Who?  Went on where?

Topped out on a few little hills

Grass is REALLY tall this year.  Guess all that rain will do that.

Fake Lakes have been filled to overflowing

Even got to rail the skinny at the bike park (With no 8 year-olds around,  I was not too intimidated to get on it...)

What ride in the northern front range would be complete without paying a visit to my favorite service road from hell?  While that stupid road gets "easier",  it never gets more fun.

Got to see what "REALLY" cool is now in the mountain bike,  one-upmanship-my-ride-is-harder-than-your-ride world.  Bottom of Spring Creek Trail in Horsetooth ("kinda" technical...) run into 2 young guys repeatedly working a nasty drop.  After multiple good efforts,  one tells his buddy "you could do it if you had a freewheel..."   Yep.  FIXED GEAR single speed rigid bikes.  The new cool.  He WAS cheating though...  he did have brakes on his bike.  COULD be cooler yet.

That leads me to take a stab at the Lame to Cool cycling steed rankings.  I've shown the bikes I ride in Bold.  Hmmm..  pretty far to the LAME end of the scale.   Oh well,  too old to be cool anyway.

     LAME END OF SCALE
Hipster Fixie
Triathlon / TT Bike
Road Bike
Cross Bike
26" Dually Mountain Bike
29" Dually Mountain Bike
26" Hard Tail
29" Hard Tail
26" Fully Rigid
29" Fully Rigid
26" Hard Tail Single speed
29" Hard Tail Single speed
26" Rigid Single speed
29" Rigid Single speed
26" Rigid Fixed gear Mountain Bike
29" Rigid Fixed gear Mountain Bike
    COOL END OF SCALE

Where do you ride?

And a related philosophical question to end today...

If you ride a single speed,  alone in the woods,  and no one sees you,  is it still Cool?