Adventure-Crew.com

The inaugural Vuelta Sudamericana is scheduled to get underway in just a few weeks time, with 23 cyclists from around the globe preparing to set out on an epic 12,000km (7456 mile) race and expedition ride across seven South American countries. Along the way they'll experience a range of environments including arid deserts, thick jungles, and mountain passes exceeding 4200 meters (13,780 feet) in height.

Brought to you be the same team that organizes the Tour d'Afrique, this race is scheduled to last 134 days, which will be broken down into 110 stages, 23 rest days, and one travel day. The riders will average more than 110km (68 miels) per day as they peddle through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The race will begin in Rio and finish four months later in Quito.

Much like the Tour d'Afrique, this is as much of a competition as the riders want it to be. Some will go all out to win stages and finish first, with the fastest overall time, and others will prefer to take it more leisurely and ride at a more moderate pace, taking in the scenery and soaking up the culture. The race is also broken down into nine sub-sections that will allow other riders to join or withdraw at various points along the way.

Speaking of scenery, the cyclists will be passing some of the most amazing sights that South America has to offer, with the route taking them by Iguazu Falls, Aconcagua, the tallest mountain on the continent, the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu. They'll also peddle along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and cross the Andes mountain range in between.

This sounds like another amazing cycling adventure. I wish I had a 134 vacation days built up so I could join them on this ride. What a way to see South America!

As expected, it was a very exciting day in the Tour de France as the race moved into the mountains for the first time on a 224km (139 miles) stage from Barcalona to Andorra that shook up the leaderboard of the race, and put a new rider in Yellow.

Heading into the day Fabian Cancellara clung to a lead of less than one second over Lance Armstrong, with Alberto Contador lurking 19 seconds back. No one expected Cancellara to hold on to the lead, as while he is an amazingly strong and fast rider, he is not a seasoned climber. The question was, who would end up in Yellow at the end of the day.

The main group of riders stayed fairly close to one another throughout the day, despite a couple of early climbs, including a Category 1, that tested their legs at the mid-way point. With 177km to go, nine riders made a break, leaving the Peloton behind, and moving as far as 11+ minutes ahead of the field. But once the riders hit the beginning of the final climb, a beyond category monster that had the stage finish at the 2240 meter (7349 feet) summit, that gap began to close, as Team Astana led the charge up the mountain.

To his credit Cancellara hung tough as long as he could, but eventually he fell off the pace, with contenders Armstrong, Contador, and Cadel Evans going on the attack. They weren't able to reel back in the breakaway, and at the end of the day the stage was won by French rider Brice Feillu who made a solo dash to the finish that was impressive to watch, and he was soon followed by Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy, who would put on the Yellow Jersey thanks to making up more than 3 minutes on the contenders in his surprising ride as part of the break today.

But Nocentini is not a contender, and his days in Yellow are already numbered. The most impressive ride of the day, in my eyes, came at the end, when Alberto Contador made it clear that he is the strongest rider in the Tour, blasting past Evans, and leaving his teammate Armstrong behind as well. For his part, Lance played the roll of a good teammate and stayed close to Evans, but the end result was that Contador moved past him in the GC standings and is now in second place, six seconds behind Nocetini. Lance is now in third, another two seconds back.

The intrigue in this year's race only continues to grow. At some point, Astana will have to choose a rider to be the one they throw the weight of the team behind, and right now that's either Contator or Armstrong. We have two more mountain stages set for tomorrow and Sunday, and I think it's highly likely that one or the other of these two riders is going to be in the Yellow Jersey when the first rest day arrives on Monday. After that, the positions aren't likely to change much until the Alps, when the tough decisions will have to be made. Or they could just duke it out, mano e mano style. Lance and Alberto for the Yellow Jersey. It's sure going to be fun to watch!

Today was the fifth stage of the Breck Epic. Epic indeed. After some singletrack climbing and descending on the Breckenridge ski hill, surprisingly good singletrack in fact, we hit the Burro Trail. This is a tennish mile rocky rooty trail that kept us working, especially given the steady rise. This was followed by some steady climbing on dirt road that brought us into a breathtaking alpine amphitheatre and the Wheeler trail. To the south was the northern face of Quandary Peak, one of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks. It’s hard to describe just how amazing this scenery is. I’ve heard talk of some killer north facing couloirs on Quandary and I saw them today. After five days of racing this god-forsaken singlespeed, a lazy early summer ski day sounds pretty damn appealing. In fact, the Jeff Carter rule of hiking states that ski descents are the only reason to hike at all. There used to be two reasons, but I’m engaged now.

So this Wheeler trail is beautiful and a great place to take your bike for a walk, because all the gears in China aren’t riding that climb. Again, the Breck Epic delivers the Big Ride in race form. Yeah these aren’t the 6 hour days of the Transalp, but it also isn’t riding a 3% grade up a paved road for two-and-a-half hours either. In fact, thus far, I’d say this race combines the beautiful high alpine riding of the Transalp with the luscious singletrack of the BC bike race into one tasty package.  I love it.

So after nearly an hour of hike-a-bike, we topped out on the East facing flanks of the Ten Mile range and rode some soggy singletrack that kept us from taking in the views.  Having ridden this trail before, the view is of the Gore range, a fairly remote range north of Summit.  Cross the service road, lots of photographers, and see my good friend Catherine cheering us all on. Then we boot up to Wheeler pass where we are greeted by a nearly fifty mile-an-hour wind. Then it’s a three thousand foot descent to Ten Mile Canyon and the bike path. Loose high alpine trail gave way to bermed turns and stream crossings.  Hit the bike path and watch the geared bikers pass me by. At one point I try and catch a draft from a fifty year old lady with a lunch box on the back of her cruiser, but she, too drops me. The singlespeed does have its limitations.

In the singlespeed category, I pretty much saw my last-day podium hopes vanish as Jake simply rode away from me today. In fact he was second on the day. I have really enjoyed this competition and will come out as strong as I can tomorrow hoping for a miracle. There has been great camaraderie amongst all the singlespeeders and they are a great bunch of guys and girl. On the eve of the final stage, I can say this has been one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life, watching this incredible event come together in the mountains where I ride whenever I get the chance. As the fatigue of the week has set in, my ability to lay down witty blogs appears to be falling off. Thanks for reading.

Today was Stage 6 of the 2009 Tour de France, and aside from some solo heroics by Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar, it was mostly a by-the-numbers affair, at least in how it played out. But it rained much of the way along the course, which caused numerous crashes, and made for cautious riding at time.

The profile for today's stage once again favored the sprinters, although there were a few challenging climbs to break things up a bit, including a a climb to the finish. Millar, a time trial specialist, tried to use that form to propel himself to a solo stage win late in the race, but he was caught by the Peloton, led by Astana, near the end, and the top sprinters went at it with "the God of Thunder" Thor Hushovd of Team Cervélo claiming the win.

In the overall standings, nothing has really changed, with Fabian Cancellara still holding on to the Yellow Jersey, with Lance Armstrong less than a second back and Alberto Contador in third, 19 seconds off the pace. Mark Cavendish kept the the Green Jersey of the top sprinter for another day as well, while french rider Stéphane Auge put on the Polka Dot Jersey as the current King of the Mountain. German Tony Martin of Team Columbia-HTC continues to wear the White Jersey given to the best newcomer to the Tour.

The slick roads, thanks to the rain, made it tough going for the Peloton, especially near the end, when there were a couple of crashes in the last few miles leading up to the finish. The biggest name to go down was Tom Boonen from QuickStep, with this crash just underscoring what has been a disappointing Tour for him so far.

Tomorrow, things get really interesting as the race moves from Barcelona to Andorre Arcalis, a distance of 224km (139 miles). But it's not the distance that will test the riders, as the Tour moves into the mountains for the first time, with a stage set in the dramatic backdrop of the Pyrenees. There will be dramatic climbs throughout the day, but final beyond category climb to the finish will be the one that will cause the most problems. Expect the sprinters to begin dropping, and most likely you'll see Cancellara relinquish the Yellow Jersey. The question will be to whom will he give it to?

Lance is the obvious guy to put it on, since he is just fractions of a second behind, but we will have to see if this is the Lance of old when it comes to the mountains, where he excelled so much in the past. Armstrong's teammate Contador is there to swoop in for the lead should Lance falter.

As for my personal predictions, I think Lance will come out of the Pyrenees in Yellow and we won't see a major showdown with his own teammate until the Alps. But, I wouldn't be shocked to see one of the pre-race contenders make a move tomorrow. Someone like Cadel Evans, who gave up time to the leaders in this first week, but will want to get himself back into contention by making up time in the mountains. Evans is currently in 35th place, nearly three minutes off the lead. If not him, look for last year's winner Carlos Sastre to make a move, he's sitting in the 29th position and 2':44" back.

It has been an exciting Tour to watch so far, in no small part because of the return of Armstrong. But it gets really interesting tomorrow and I can't wait to see how it plays out. High drama on two wheels! :)

I love living in Colorado and today is why. Stage 4 of the Breck Epic—the circumnavigation of Mt. Guyot— defines what mountain bike stage racing is supposed to be. A big committing ride at race pace. Huge alpine meadows, singletrack that spends 12 weeks NOT covered in snow, expansive views of South Park, cloudless skies and the rippingest Colorado Trail descent in the Summit County. Well, there was a downside too, about ten miles of mining road climbing and descending that nearly broke me, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  As I wrote in a few blogs back, I love the big ride, and today was it in spades.  In fact, this ride was billed as a Summit County classic big ride and I spent some time thinking about the first guys to ride to ride this twenty years ago on those heavy rigid bikes with plastic levers, the Styrofoam helmets and neon jerseys.

Now some of you may be wondering about the belt driven bike. It’s a belt, just like that found on Harleys, instead of a chain. It’s strong as hell, nearly maintenance free, super light and lasts something like five years. It takes a bit of time to get set up correctly, but once done, it’s bomber. It does require an interruption in the frame to get the belt into the rear triangle, but after riding two of these bikes, I’ve heard nary a creak from the frame.  After a couple of days of racing, I am giving it zero thought, which is exactly the point. It has generated a ton of interest here at the Breck Epic as well as everywhere else I’ve ridden it, but when I offered free test rides during the backbreaking climb up French Gulch, nobody was all that interested. Weird.

I started the day in third place in the men’s singlespeed category, but Jake Kirkpatrick put the hurt on, knocking me off my first ever podium. In fact, there were some great shakeups in the men’s singlepeed category overall making it a hotly contested category.  I didn’t give up without a fight though.  It was back and forth until the climb up French Gulch, when he pulled ahead on the steep climb, which is of course a hike-a-bike for singlespeeders. After cresting the hill, I lit up the descent as fast I could, but he was gone. I fought as hard as could all day, climbing as fast as I could, skipping aid stations, squeezing Gu’s in my face at an alarming rate, but Jake finished 5 minutes ahead. I was so shelled in the closing miles of the race that I there were tears streaming down my face. This singlespeed racing business is no picnic my friends.

My friend Cristina and I are both racing the belt drive and we are both suffering, although she seems to be holding it together a bit better as she is in second overall in women’s open. Granted she’s a mountain bike legend. In any event, we had some larger rear cogs couriered up from Spot in Golden to take the bite out of the climbs. We’ll need it, as we are climbing over Wheeler Pass tomorrow. Ouch.

Thanks for reading, I’m whipped and need some sleep, but couldn’t be happier with the inaugural Breck Epic. Like bike racing? Put it on your calendar for 2010.