High Altitude and Durango Crit

Ivan "The Tool" Uncovsky dominating the B Crit, B????
Sean Peck leads the A race on the first lap.
Mike Carrol turns the screw up the climb on the leaders.
Mike Carrol still leading and in the gutter.

I took it really easy today after yesterdays ride in the passes. My legs have just felt flat the last week so I decided to rest up a bit. I went down to Rivergate to check out the last of the local crit series put on by the Durango Wheel club. The B race was exciting with a good field. The A race was hurting a bit with most of the local fast guys out of town at races. I did a couple of laps on the course and it is a brutal one. No time for resting because it is so short. There is one super sketchy downhill corner to the finish as well across some concrete cobbles. DANGER!

Yesterday I hit up the passes with my teammates Andy Guptil and Josh Bezecny. Phil Zajicek from Navigators is in town as well for the Iron Horse and some altitude training before heading up to Mount Hood. We were planning on riding into Silverton and back from Durango but the weather wasn't great. It was raining a bit and some riders even got snowed on. We opted for plan B. A capital B for Bail out now or get stuck in a blizzard at 10,000 feet. We mad it back to Durango sunshine avoiding blizzards and the extreme possibility of coming down with the Valley Fever. Whew! After the ride we all met up at Tequilas for some greasy gut bomb Mexican food. I haven't eaten there in a long time and after my morning coffee and visit to the bathroom, it was very clear why I hadn't been there in a while. Destroyed! After dinner I topped of my 10,000 calorie meal with some Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Pecan Bear. I know what you are thinking. It is o.k. as long as you drip it in, right? Take a bite, wait five minutes, take a bite, wait five minutes. It is 4:1 ratio of Fat-Fat! Whatever, then I cracked again and topped it all off with some ice cream. No wonder I am dragging on the climbs and raging the descents. It's good for the CNS though.

This coming Friday I leave to head back east to race with the rest of the team in some big events. I am super excited to do some new racing. I hope the legs feel better than they did this week out east. I have been pretty tired because I am working a bit again trying to get a little bit of cash flow before heading out. You have to have the skills to pay the bills and right now I don't have the skills. I have been sweeping chimneys with Ashes Away. It is tough and dirty work but it flexible and pays well. I am bummed that we are leaving before the Iron Horse. I wish we could stay one more day and hit up the best local race around. The ride to Silverton is sweet! Good luck to all of the locals hitting it up this weekend. All I can say is follow Overend, he knows how to win it!