CTR prep

The Colorado Trail Race presented many challenges including: ride time per day on a mtn bike with lots of extra weight/gear, gear choices with weight of gear in mind, caloric intake, sleep deprivation, and weather. To take this race seriously I decided to try to ride 300 miles per week on either my mtn or road bike during the end of May, June and July and also race in some of the longer races that I usually do during my summer of mtn bike racing including: Crested Butte Fat tire 40, Firecracker 50 (singlespeed), and Breckenridge 100 (my 6th time finishing).  I asked other people who have done this race what it takes to do well.  I asked my buddy James Lindenblatt about gear choices including water treatment as I would have to drink the water out of the Colorado streams. I had worked on the night shift for over 7 years in the hospitals in Vail and Greeley so I think (think haaha) I knew what it would take to stay up all night and keep a positive attitude during the race.

Colorado Trail Race

I wanted to do a long cross country bike road tour this summer from Colorado to Pittsburgh for the pinball world championships PAPA 14 on Aug. 11-14  2011.  I had previously rode from Breckenridge,CO. to Amarillo TX. in March of 2009 for the Texas Pinball Festival... trying to make it to Dallas.  The weather and time (I would of missed the festival) stopped me from getting to my original destination Dallas. My pinball buddies DNO, Gooch, and Steve ended up picking me up in Amarillo.  I really enjoyed my time out there alone on the road even though some of it was super tough with the crazy wind.  At the beginning of the 2011 mtn bike race season I spent my usual time training/riding with my friend/buddy James Lindenblatt.  He always had talked about the Colorado Trail Race (CTR) and how it was maybe the ultimate race/test in mtn bike touring.  We had done lots of 24 mtn bike races including Montezuma's Revenge in 2005 for him and 2006 for me.  I decided that to reach Pittsburgh in a timely manner I would need at least 3 weeks and also a week to spend in Pittsburgh to play pinball and hang out fixing games at the barn in Normalville, PA at Ron Shuster's home. So that is a month off of work.  Also it was the middle of the summer in the middle of the USA. That meant hot humid days which I am really not fond of living up at 9000ft in Breckenridge all summer with 70-80 degree days and little to no humdity.  So I changed my original plan and decided to do the CTR. This was the end of May 2011.

Rick Stetta Chicago Expo 2011

I haven't seen Rick Stetta since I was in Las Vegas at the IFPA Pinball Tournament.  Rick Stetta will always be the best and most stylish player I have ever met to date. I wish him the best in his life and pinball.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a5GRaCIDRU