Happy January

Cloudy January in Colorado last Sunday, but nice moderate weather!  This past weekend we had 23 folks out for a Sunday Stroll around Castle Rock...  Got To Love It!!!

Hope you all are out and moving too!  Hope to get everyone together soon for a gathering!

Happy Thanksgiving SCM Members!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family this year!    Hope to see you all on the trails sometime in 2012!

The New Steed!

Fellow SCM Members, I finally broke down and got a new bike. It is an Intense Tracer 2. It weighs around 32 pounds but I weigh 220 pounds so it really does not feel heavy to me. The GT CXR road/ cyclocross bike was purchased last year.

I am in Georgia now. I want to thank Dan for posting a nude picture of himself on the blog to help ease the pain of my smuggling grapes pic. Take it easy and hope to see you all next year. If you need a place to crash in Augusta, just give me a call.

Wilderness Showers and Catching Up with Old Friends!



You would think that in the middle of nowhere, a man can take a shower without someone sneaking up on you with a camera!  But I digress! - As the new year is upon us, I think it is a good time to say thank you to all your friends!  New and old!  For the New Year, I hope everyone has an opportunity to reconnect with someone special who you may have lost contact with!  And for those of you lucky enough to have a friend or someone special in your life who knows you well enough to take a pic like this, then make sure you take the time to let them know how special they are!  



If a man showers in the woods does he get wet?



And a special shout out to those from your past who helped make you who you are today! (No, I am not talking about Naked in the woods either!) Dont let another year go by without reconnecting and letting them know how special they are!

Happy New Year!  



PeaceOUT Update

Just wanted the crew to what was going on. I finished the Tomac just in time to go to the Army. Now that I'm here in Korea, and currently colder than TX people can take, I have started riding indoors. It is great to ride for an hour, go absolutely nowhere and watch a movie.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year. I can not believe this post has been going for about 6 years. My only contribution before this has been a pic of me in a banana hammock! Take it easy and lets plan something for after August next 2011.

The Hand!

Now the recovery begins.

Leadville 100 Pre-registration! Hope the best for the lottery!

OK, This is the early season form I need to have!

If I get in this year, I want to ride it as a fund raiser.  I am going to set up a paypal account and split the money 50-50 between the Wounded Warrior Project and the Leadville Trail 100 Legacy Foundation.  Check out the links and if not through my efforts, please give anyway, both are good causes!  Wish me luck!

Colorado GOP's Bicycle World Domination Conspiracy Theory - Not making this up!

Check this bone head out!  I dont care what your political affiliations are, but this guy is a minor league player and a major league bone head!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day out there to all Mafia Members! This is Chad's 1st! Wonder how much sleep he is getting???

Anyway, I climbed Mt Evans from Idaho Springs on Friday. A full 2.4 mph slower than in 2008. I am getting into shape quickly though! Here is a pic of my new Ride from the top!

The Deer Creek Challenge

Billed as the toughest Century Ride in the United States. The Deer Creek Challenge is new and has 12751 ft of climbing in 106 miles. 4200 ft in the first 16 miles. Click here for the profile and map.

I wish you were all available. The Post-Ride Part sounds fun! Free Beer, Catered Cooked Meal and Live Bands!

On a lighter note, Mark and I are putting together a Mountain Bike Ride for later this year since we didnt get into the Laramie Enduro. (Too many people signed up and we missed the cut-off). We are calling it the CRBCC. (Castle Rock Bicycle Company Classic)

The plan is to ride 100 miles of self-designated trails. the half-way point being Pine Valley Ranch for lunch picnic with families and to refuel. Initially we are looking at Indian Creek Canpground as start/finish and ride the Indian Creek Loop to Lenny's Rest and pick up the Colorado Trail. At that point we will ride the 1st 3 sections of the Colorado Trail to Buffalo Creek and up and over to Pinve Valley. I will try to get a route mapped out and send it later. Again, epic ride not gfor the faint of heart.

Congratulations Chad & Mary!

Babies Tilly Jean Savage and Brook Reilly Savage were born on April 24th! Baby Pics and Updates to come!

Mom and babies are doing well!

SCM Gathering in Colorado

Click on link for photos of the August trip here on the Front Range. Also, SOmeone sent me a link to pinkbike.com where I put a profile and also posted the pics...

The Hail was the best! - Remember, this was August!

Who are they?

I want to know who the public are that want answers. I keep reading cycling mags and it seems that every journilist is claiming the public want answers from Armstrong, Landis, Ricco, Basso, Kohl and a slew of others who have doped or who have been accused of dopping. WHO cares? Will it make you stop riding? Will it change the way you feel about lusting after a new bike? NO! Look, if these athletes want to possibly ruin their bodies let them. Work on changing the mentality of the aspiring pro's, focus your time on praising the rider who is clean (you know who is and who isn't). Stop interviewing the dopers and start interviewing the normal joe's and get thier opinion on how they feel. Cheating will never stop. We will NEVER have clean cycling, it doesn't mean you should throw your hands up and join them. Realign your focus and look to things you can influence. Cheating is part of all sports and always will be. Take a look at the Super Bowl lastnight. Some over paid, over weight player had to get oxygen after running the ball back for a touch down. While I guess it's not doping it still helped get o2 back to his fat so he could get back out there. Can you imagine if during the tour if Vande Velde pulled upto the team car and was passed a mask tehered to the bottle. Oh how the speculation would flow. I think they should let them dope, still test them and disclose what they were taking. If the riders don't care what they put into thier bodies why should we? It's just a sport, entertainment, disposable amusement. Cycling hasn't even seen the best rider that ever was, their still at home on the couch waiting to be inspired. I agree that riders who want to complete clean might feel it's impossible but that is just because most of the media coverage is all about the riders who dope. Just stop giving those retards media coverage. Simple right?

What in the Hell is the World Coming to?

Jimmy & Rosalyn Carter's Bikes Stolen!!!

What a world we live in when a guy who wins the nobel peace prize, builds homes for the poor, and works tirelessly for peace has to have his bike stolen from the Carter Center in Atlanta! Click title for the link!

Viagra on the doping list?

Will the chaperones have to check for Viagra soon?

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is currently examining whether or not the potency pill Viagra has a performance-enhancing effect in sports. The medication, which was initially developed for special heart diseases and is now mainly used to alleviate erection problems, could then be included in the list of forbidden substances.
"There have been statements to suggest that [Viagra] is performance-enhancing," said WADA president John Fahey to the press after a Foundation Board meeting on November 23. "That is being evaluated. Before any decision to put it on the prohibited list, there has to be a rigorous examination that allows the Committee to make a recommendation. No decision has been made."
The WADA president added that there was "no likelihood that there will be either a positive or a negative decision when examination is ultimately concluded."
The result of the study is expected in February 2009. The drug could be banned from use in high-level sports in September 2009.

Riders using Viagra for altitude?
By Laura Weislo
The story of Gerolsteiner rider Andrea Moletta's father being detained by the Italian anti-doping police in a car with a large amount of Viagra might have simply been the source of many dirty jokes had it not led to his son's withdrawal from the Giro d'Italia.
Natalino Moletta was stopped by the Italian Guardia Finanza as one of three passengers in a vehicle travelling from Padua to the Giro d'Italia which reportedly contained 82 packages of Viagra, along with a disposable syringe hidden in a tube of toothpaste and a refrigerator with other unidentified products. The search was reportedly part of a wider investigation into doping at gyms in Padua, but reports also indicated the car, and thus the products on board, were headed to the Giro d'Italia. However, there is no indication that the police action was aimed at the Gerolsteiner team.
"It was a targeted police action," Gerolsteiner director Christian Henn told dpa. He said Andrea Moletta could not explain why his father was caught up in the incident, and agreed to leave the Giro. "If they were looking at Moletta, why wasn't there immediately a raid in our hotel? So far everything has been quiet," Henn said.
Doping is rife in fitness clubs worldwide, and Viagra is a widely used as a recreational drug, so it is possible that the products in question have nothing to do with cycling. Still, the Gerolsteiner team deemed it serious enough to remove the rider from the race. Do we have yet another Willy Voet on our hands? Was the car bringing drugs to riders in the Giro? And if so, why Viagra?
Viagra, or sildenafil, is normally used to treat erectile dysfunction, but a 2006 study published by the Journal of Applied Physiology (JoAP) and reported in Science Daily claimed that the drug can significantly enhance performance at altitude in some cyclists. At the moment, the 'little blue pill' is not on World Anti-doping Agency's prohibited substances list.
WADA's spokesman Frédéric Donzé confirmed that Viagra is not banned in competition, but said that the agency is looking into the matter. "WADA is aware of the high altitude study presented in Science Daily. WADA monitors this substance, as it does with many other substances, and is currently funding a research project on the performance-enhancing potential of Sildenafil at various altitudes."
But is Viagra a performance enhancing drug outside of the bedroom? The JoAP study tested ten trained cyclists at sea level and in an altitude chamber simulating 12,700 feet (3870 m) above sea level (or about 1,200 metres above the Giro d'Italia's Cima Coppi). The results were remarkable: while no benefit was gained at sea level, the Viagra group improved its performance over a six kilometre time trial at altitude by 15% over the group given a placebo.
However, the average numbers were deceiving, because the Viagra group was split into "responders" and "non-responders". Four of the subjects had shown a more marked decrease in performance at altitude than the others with placebo, and when they took Viagra, the difference went away.
Another study from a group in Belgium from 2007 tested the drug on "healthy subjects" before and after acclimatization to altitude (5,000m) and saw the performance benefit of Viagra vanish once the subjects were adapted to the low oxygen environment.
The impact of altitude on exercise capacity varies widely from person to person, depending on physiology and acclimatization. Some adapt quickly at high altitude, while others can have severe reactions such as mountain sickness or pulmonary edema - which typically show up above 2,400m.
Whether or not the drug can give a benefit to riders at altitudes below this level remains to be seen. With Monday's mountain time trial from San Vigilio di Marebbe to Plan de Corones heading from 1,200 up to 2,273 metres above sea level, will we see riders popping Viagra to get up for the race? If they do - and if the drug is not banned by WADA, and only the riders who have the unfortunate physiology to have their blood vessels seize up in hypoxic conditions can get a benefit - is it doping?