It’s been a while to say the least. A long while since words meaningful enough to be shared out in the wild have swirled around in my brain but alas my experience this weekend was impactful enough to blow out the mental cobwebs and assemble something worthwhile to say out loud. And what it all relates to is….kids.

This past weekend something amazing happened. The Valmont Bike Park opened and was flooded with countless kids…and adults who want to be kids again. All were flowing through this multi-million dollar park on its amazingly designed single-track, technical features, jumps and of course the unique and insane vistas only Boulder can provide. It’s real. It rad. It’s free. My son literally kept asking: “Dad, do we have to pay to be in here???” I simply said: “It’s covered.” And that is thanks to the absolute tireless efforts of Bobby Noyes, Pete Webber, Chris Grealish, Jason Vogel and all the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance folks and the City of Boulder itself for working so cohesively with all the volunteers and committee members.

There are a TON of videos of the young guns hucking themselves but I thought I’d take the approach of showing what the little kids can experience when out there with this little brief ditty. Sorry about the sound of my Chris King hubs…

Carrying on the kid theme…Knowing how unbelievable it was last season to see my eldest son Aiden enjoy himself so thoroughly in his first cross season inspired me deeply…I’m happy to announce that I’ll be working on the Boulder Junior Cycling Team’s committee. I’ll be helping to get kids stoked on our sport and hopefully creating a new generation of cross nerds like you and I.

Short post…but I am climbing back on the blogging horse. Giddy up.

I dunno what else to say but…

Things have been out of control (in a good way) pushing hard to get our new BlipSnips product out the door. Then, maybe I can have a moment to let bikes flood back into my brain and start writing again. So, this is my public apology.

Kisses.

The past few days have been epic. Simply amazing riding thru the heart of Tuscany. We have continued our southerly course following small roads and portions of L' Eroica gran fondo course. A highlight was the day-long ride from Castlenuovo Berardenga to Pienza... both incredibly beautiful and challenging. The riding was wickedly hilly, always up or down, and usually steep. Plus, about one-third was on the dirt Strada Biancha. I must have shot a hundred photos in the first hour of riding. It was just eye popping. Soon the camera got put away as it took full concentration to pilot the bike on the twisty gravel. During one 20 k segment we saw just one car, one scooter, and one cyclist.

		Webber Family in Italy–Days 2 & 3 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

As the miles added up, some of the climbs required walking - the gravel was just too steep and loose. But many hills were topped with medieval villages of ancient stone and stunning vistas, enough to make you forget your aching legs.

Our family team has been awesome. Sally has been riding great, and she's handled the dirt roads with no problem. Ella is having fun, and keeps up a steady banter of comic one-liners from the back of our tandem. The climbs don't seem to effect her energy I guess ; ) The bikes have been flawless, and our lightweight packing choices have been on the spot. I have my new Garmin Edge 800 GPS plus a detailed map on the handlebars, and we've avoided getting lost for the most.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the posts! Thanks for reading.

Pete

Hey bike fans!

Our first two days of riding in Italy are complete, and they've been amazing! We arrived in florence without any travel snafus and amazingly our tandem box fit inside the first taxi we tried. It was a tight squeeze! Soon after I was unboxing and building bikes on the sidewalk outside our hotel. Our plan is to leave the bike boxes here and retrieve them before flying out again next week. Pizza and beer at a sidewalk cafe and we hit the sack to catch up on the jet lag.

The next morning we rode thru the center of the the city to meet John Weissenreider at his workshop. John is an old mountain bike racer from Boulder who now lives in Florence and makes his living as a Luthier, a master guitar maker. John went over the maps with us and highlighted some routes for the week ahead. He's ridden and guided on these roads for years, so his advice was key. Best of all, he jumped on his city bike and joined us for the first 10k of our ride, leading us on a twisty escape to the countryside south of the city. We followed him up cobbled alleys and secret roads we could have never found by ourselves. We pedaled thru Batoli's home village and John pointed out faded graffiti that read " viva Bartoli" from decades before. He finally turned us loose and we headed into the famed Chiante region. The next 2 hours of riding were amazing, both scenic and difficult. John had sent us off the main roads, and that meant incredible climbs, narrow lanes, and few cars. After climbing for over 30 minutes in the granny gear, I no longer doubted all the warnings about the steep Tuscan hills!

Soon we arrived in Panzano in Chianti, home for the night. A small B&B with home-cooked dinner was our reward for a hard day on the bikes.

Day 2 we kept riding south on some of the best roads I've ever enjoyed. No traffic, great pavement, awesome scenery, and plenty of steep climbs. We passed thru Radda, and rode portions of L' Eroica, an epic course and tribute to the riders of the last era. Tomorrow we ride more of the course and some famous strada bianca dirt roads.

Tonight was mixed emotions, we watched the sad Giro tribute stage, and felt very grateful for our families and many special days on the bike. We'll ride tomorrow with more appreciation for life.

Til then, Pete

In 1993, I had just begun to truly dive into mountain bike racing. It was obsessive for me. It surfaced all of the emotions I had racing BMX as a kid. It gave me goose bumps to dive back in. I looked at myself year after year becoming stronger. Leaner. Understanding that the attention I was applying on to myself and my health, made me feel better. Balanced. Happy. I rode. And rode. And rode.

Around that time I started following the exploits of Jason McRoy. A former BMX’er. An up-and-coming dual slalom and downhill rider. He was doing stuff that only a handful of folks at the time would even dare do on the primitive equipment being ridden at the time. Launching himself so gracefully. No footers. Flowing through corners. Floating. He was, and I say this unabashedly, beautiful. You couldn’t help but see this young life and smile. He radiated. You emulated his look, his moves, his style.

Jason died in 1995 riding the first cool thing he got as a sponsored rider for Specialized: a Harley.

The feeling I had was very surreal. I did not know him, but the image of him…of me…dying so tragically deeply saddened me. it was the first time in my life literally, that I could see how I could be stopped…as I felt unstoppable. How could that specimen of fitness, of life, just evaporate and stop existing? How could we never again be allowed to see his moves and flow on the mountain?

Today these feelings happened again.

Wouter Weylandts died tragically at the Giro d’Italia. Looking at this young boy, he just oozed pro cyclist. A sprinter. A prototypical Belgian powerhouse. Another example who likely was inspiring a new generation of riders with his panache as McRoy did for me. I could not bear to see the images of him on the tarmac with paramedics working frantically to try and save him. I saw myself for a moment lying there. I saw one of my friends for a moment lying there. It drove such a deep pain through me to see this life who moments before was flying, his tubulars gripping the corners of a typical Giro descent. His legs spinning. His hands in the drops. Suffering but he was suffering in a Grand Tour so the pain had to be sweeter…or so fans like us dream as we watch our heroes like Wouter do what we simply can not.

And now he is motionless here on earth.

I pray that Wouter experienced nothing when it happened. That he simply transitioned from this life to another…continuing to fly down the descent, reaching the finish line with arms up in victory. Like we all dream. I pray for his family and friends. I pray that they can harbor the feeling of his beauty and the excitement he gave us fans and not the the unspeakable fear Wouter experienced today. A fear that we all tuck into the recesses of our brains as cyclists. I pray for us, that we…our families, our teammates, ourselves…never experience this.

My sincerest thoughts are with you Wouter. Rest peacefully.

Hey everyone, another adventure is about to begin... this time a family bike tour to Italy! We'll send updates to our favorite website mudandcowbells.com and maybe it will inspire some fresh adventures for you readers!

The packing is almost complete and we're headed to the airport in a few hours. We'll fly Denver-Frankfurt-Florence and then comes the fun part: ride town-to-town for 8-days thru the bicycling nirvana of central Tuscany!!

Our plan is to make a loop south of Florence.  We don't have a specific route or towns picked out, but we have a good list of recommendations and plenty of guidebook info. Tuscany is a huge tourist destination, and perhaps the most touted bike touring place in the world, so there is plenty of info available.

We are going super-light, with a credit card and one change of clothes. After a bunch of tours over the past 15 years, we've got a system pretty dialed. Travelling light allows us to ride normal bikes, cover some miles, and not suffer too much with extra-heavy loads. If you choose the right gear, you really don't need much. Our packing list is pretty short: one set of riding kit, one set of casual clothes, and various nic-nacs, toiletries, maps, and of course a bottle opener. All our stuff, for 3 people, will fit in just one set of panniers and one rear trunk. I think it is like 15 or 20 pounds total.

Our last big tour was 2008, two years ago, in the Netherlands. We did 12 days, hitting some cool places and enjoying the fantastic bike trail systems. In that tour, I rode my cross bike with Ella on the tag-a-long behind me, and Sally on her road bike. Ella was only 6, so being on mostly flat bike paths away from busy roads was perfect. We saw the height of spring flowers, the North Sea, plenty of canals, and even took in the Amstel Gold classic and sportive ride.

Ella is now 8 years old, and she'll be riding on the back of our tandem road bike with me up front. She's too short to reach the cranks, so I installed a "kid back" or "kiddie cranks". This is an additional set of cranks mounted on the stoker seat tube, above the normal cranks, with a chain linking them together. I also installed a kid's saddle and handlebars, so it is pretty comfortable and easy to ride. Using a tandem is much more stable and easier than a tag-a-long. It is lighter, faster, and we can actually work as a team. The downside is that it is kinda tricky to set up, and travelling with a tandem is difficult.

That's all I've got time for now, gotta catch a plane!

Pete, Sally & Ella

Hello Cyclocross Fans!

Colorado Front Range Cyclocross from Celin Serbo on Vimeo.

Fruita is the ‘high desert’ as they say. Dry, typically sunny. Not so much for Webber and I as we made the 5 hour drive from Boulder to the 16th annual Fruita Fat Tire Festival p/b New Belgium Brewery. Snow spitting, wind howling, gray skies clouding what should have been epic April bluebird days. There were races to be raced this weekend both in Boulder as well as Fruita…but Webber and I thought it best to find some Zen without numbers pinned and just flow. We packed tents with the best intent to sleep outside, only to succumb to hotel camping. We’re getting old I guess.

The weekend menu was: Lunch Loops in Grand Junction Friday for some openers and to see the Free Lunch trail Webber helped design. Saturday was Monument/South I70 Classics and Sunday would be some delectable 18 Road singletrack.  Of course I Strava-ized everything so you can get a sense of the trails and rides…

Friday - Grand Junction/Lunch Loops

We literally jumped out  of the car after the long drive, chamoised up and rode for a bit in between snow/wind squalls. The trails were epic in GJ and if you are a big hit junkie, you should experience the Free Lunch trail. Webber and I did it on our cross country bikes and walked the big hucks, but it was insanely fun.

Saturday - Colorado National Monument Trails (Kokopelli, Horse Thief. Mary’s, etc, etc)

We decided on a long one today, so we linked up pretty much everything we could into a massive loop. The trails are marked super well and by now, we are pretty intimate with the trail system in Fruita. Webber was like a ‘returning son’ with all the old timers happy to see him. And yes, beers were had…especially the Fat Tire 1554. Yum.

Sunday - 18 Road Trails

I broke out the 1x1 today and had so much fun on the 18 Road trails. I ran a 32x18 which was OK…a 32x19 or better yet a 20 would have been perfect to ensure I could nail the climbs. We hooked up with our good friends Josh Harrod and a recovering Alison Powers (who was hiking for the day) and a free riding, wheelie popping Greg Frozely from SRM. He rides like me kicking just about anything with a lip…and that was fun.

We also hooked up with our good friend Steve “Seve” Bobusch who indicated he’s got a lot going on…including his new “29NSNGL” underground team. He also did what I should have done…and that was GoPro’d the favorite haunts on 18 Road:

THE OPENER from Rob Doerre on Vimeo.

Somehow, I cased a rock while ‘flowing’ on Kessel Run. Webber said I was riding like a bag of rocks…funny as he was behind me on his full suspension getting dropped while I was on a steel rigid 1 gear (Get some, Pete! I have to get it in somehow as you drop my ass regulalry…). I completely dented a Stans ZTR 255 which I am running with rim brakes. Amazing that not one ounce of air burped. The seal is still strong as hell between the rim and my WTB ExiWolf beads.

Phenomenal weekend. Phenomenal friends. Phenomenal trails. More MTB on the menu, please.

A slow, silent, out of the saddle cadence is what one gear provides. Like a metronome. You hear nothing but your tires biting into the earth and your labored breathing. You don't think about anything complicated…like changing gears. Just the metronome of your own cadence. One…two…one…two. It gives your mind this amazing latitude to wander within itself while you’re in the woods.

The thinking I do on this one speed bike has me hungry again. I went and dropped a few teeth from the rear cog simply to push harder. To know I can push the inches and feel light as I do it. It’s a substitute for training so to speak as I only have so much precious time. So make it count.

This one cog that has brought me back to center…about bikes and bringing them back to what they meant to me and my friends as we tore through the sequoias in northern California. Bringing me enjoyment when I thought it was becoming a chore. But probably even more so centering me on enjoying where I am these days in life. What I can and can not control. What my wife has accomplished this last year. How my boys are growing, thriving and seeing more of me…happy. The single-ness of my cog has in some odd way eradicated the single-ness in my often selfish thinking and existence. I want it all, I want to win, I want to fly…but the cake and eating it can’t happen without breaking so many things in balance.

It’s taught me to think about taking the long view. And I’ve already won.

It’s virtually impossible for me to think about anything else as of late. And by that, I mean simple math: adding up or taking away. I think about it in relation to the years that keep clicking off on my own human odometer…I think about it in relation to the personal and financial expenses of building a business…I think about it as it all reflects upon the goals I have as an athlete.

I add up the hours every day that I hope amount to something. Failure is in no way an option for me so I stay focused but I long to ensure I can ‘compete’. At least to the level I know I can and should be. I look at the scale some mornings and see the work I need to do to subtract the pounds away. I put the beer back in the fridge before I convince myself “Aww, another one won’t hurt, right?” I talk to myself silently that I can add-in time during my week to accommodate the things I need to feel sane…and taking away some of the stress that builds when you are scared that things will come crashing down.

It’s all getting extremely interesting, precarious and unforgettable. And the math becomes an interesting thread through it all.

Give and take. Add and subtract.

Balance.