I suppose I can’t say I hadn’t been warned — even if it was at the last minute.

“You will get numb hands,” advised the other racers in the Tour Divide. Not “might,” but “will.” Continue reading »

Maybe they were just tired after the 1.5-mile Annie Walk from the library to the railroad station. Perhaps they just needed some more Scooby Snacks. But somehow I was pretty sure that none of the dogs mooseying around the animal obstacle course would qualify for the Doggie Olympics.

“Hey, these are like the dogs in Panama,” I remarked to Tori and her mom at one point. “They don’t even bark.” Continue reading »

A writer at Fort Collins Now once observed that Fort Collins seems addicted to downtown parties. There seems to be some sort of festival here every week, particularly in the summer in the downtown area. It is sad, then, that the annual New West Fest would be the first festival I’d get to go to virtually all year. That’s what happens when one seems to be traveling all the time — he misses all the good stuff at home. Continue reading »

I already had a reputation for breaking bicycle parts — and that was on the road. So before the Tour Divide, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to break during a 2,700-mile mountain bike race that was >85% off-road.

Turns out, a lot! Continue reading »

I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago that seemingly every piece of equipment I used took a beating during the 2,700-mile Tour Divide mountain bike race. This is true particularly for the components on my mountain bike. Here is one example. Continue reading »