Cycling is a hard sport. Since Jackie and I have been out here in Colorado Springs, we have been doing double track workouts along with the occasional five to six hour road ride. Still, though, that means we are training for a max of six to seven hours in a day. Don’t get me wrong – that is a long time but that also leaves us with hours of sitting around. So movies are an afternoon staple. Turn off the brain, watch a movie, and try and forget about how much your legs hurt. The latest, and definitely greatest, movie we rented was Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. While the movie itself is one of the most entertaining films I’ve watched in a long time, the best part is that Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) drives my exact car – a 1972 Chevy Nova in matte black. My car has a 350 V8 but, as if that wasn’t big enough, I had it bored out as well. The car is back at home, though, so after watching the movie I’m itching to step on the gas and test out the revamped engine. As another side note, I was riding with Friedman and Huff at the track today and Mike just got a ’67 Mustang. A date hasn’t been set yet but the drag race to end all drag races is inevitable.

Besides thinking about muscle cars, Jackie and I have been planning our final epic ride. Last week we went out for a 5 hour ride that involved two hours of straight climbing. By the time we reach the top we were just over 9000 feet. When we finally got back to the house both of us were completely exhausted and must have taken at least a couple years off of our lives. No sooner had we showered and eaten that we began planning the next, and even bigger, ride. The ride is scheduled for tomorrow and involves the same two hour climb as the original ride, but it continues over to Cripple Creek (think The Band) and cuts east back towards Colorado Springs. The ride itself is about 110 miles, but the best part is that Cripple Creek is a shade over 10,000 feet and when we turn to head back to Colorado Springs we will be riding on dirt for the last 35 miles. All in all, we will circumnavigate Pike’s Peak and ride for at least two hours at or above 10,000 feet. The best part, though, is that there is no cell phone coverage and very few people. So if I make it out alive, I’ll write in and give you all the scoop on how excruciating the ride turned out to be in the end. Hope all is well back on the East Coast!

David

www.echappeonline.com

P.S. We did a little reconnaissance of the dirt road section and these are some photos from along the route. In the one photo, you can see Colorado Springs way down below at a mere 6100 feet.