ride with garrett

Racing!

Garrett — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:55:40 +0000

After maybe the slowest start ever. I’m finally racing and more importantly finishing, albeit barely! I found when you race from March through the December with road and cross that I have to spend some time not racing, so this spring, I focused on riding and not much racing. I’m back at it though! This past weekend was the Superior Morgul. It’s the famous course from the Coors classic and the movie American Flyers. It’s about a 16 mile loop featuring the “wall”, which is a nasty steep climb just under a Km long. When it was all said and done, I only lasted with the main group a few laps, but hung it out in the grupetto riding a nice tempo to finish it out. Even being off the back, I still averaged 250 watts for 80 miles, so while I was one of the last finishers, I still had an ok day. Great course, great scenery and a good start to the year. Things can only get better from here!

Here I am slogging it (red and black kit with white helmet)

Filed under: Cycling, Pro Racing, Racing

Dirt.

Garrett — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:55:27 +0000

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a great relationship with the great people over at Gates Carbon Drive while racing cyclocross for them. This summer, they’ve helped open the door for me to get back to my roots racing a select calendar of mountain bike races in the rocky mountain region. It feels good to mix it up a bit and ride some dirt! I’m very thankful for the support and can’t wait for some mountain bike racing!

Big thanks to Spot Brand Bikes, Crank Brothers, TRP brakes and Gates Carbon Drive for setting me up right with some great gear!

Filed under: Cycling, equipment, Fun, Inspiration, Life, Racing

Courage.

Garrett — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:28:50 +0000

As seen at Sea Otter on the Rapha van.

Filed under: Cycling, cycling culture, Inspiration

A start!

Garrett — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:55:23 +0000

This past weekend was one of the more famous road races in Colorado, the Boulder Roubaix. Since I raced cyclocross through the end of December, I’m just now starting my build phase of my training, so while I have good base fitness, I don’t have a whole lot of top end. I figured I needed to get the season rolling, so I pinned up for the Boulder Roubaix.

With California Giant, Optum, Bissell, Competitive Cyclist fielding teams and most of the local big hitters coming out, it was sure to be fast.

Well, it was. Very fast. While I’ve had a pretty late winter and spring of riding and training, this past week, a lot of life things popped up and my training and riding was almost non-existent. Not the most confidence inspiring run up to a race. My legs felt super heavy, but I gutted it out for a while anyway. I was hanging on ok even as guys were getting dropped left and right, but I was mostly doing just that, hanging on, not racing. I made it a few laps and then pulled the plug coming through the start finish. I didn’t have much left and figured I’d cut my loses. When I did so, we had been averaging about 28, so it was fast. I was happy to get in a good workout and get some racing in my legs. Congrats to Frank Pipp, a great guy and Boulder local on the win!

Here is some race coverage. I’m somewhere hidden in the pack and no, that’s not me getting dropped, it’s my teammate.

Sunday was fun too. After Saturday, it was clear I needed more work and with Ride the Rockies coming up, my girl needed the miles too, so we went out and hammered 70 miles in the mountains. It was a great ride with great weather! Feeling pretty good going into the season, just need to tune up my top end fitness and gain some speed. The way I trained this year, I still have some time before I start firing on all cylinders, but that’s a-ok. I’ll be all good for cyclocross season. Adding some fun to the mix, I’ll also be doing some mountain bike races this year for Gates Carbon Drive, which should be awesome!

Filed under: Cycling, Fun, Pro Racing, Racing, Training

Primal-1st Bank 2012

Garrett — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:27:45 +0000

Check out this short video introducing the 2012 Primal – 1st Bank team featuring yours truly!

Filed under: Cycling, cycling culture, Fun, Inspiration, Life, Racing

Audi Q5

Garrett — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:26:38 +0000

The fine folks at McDonald Audi have been generous enough to provide the transportation for the 2012 Primal-1st Bank team. One thing I can tell you from driving this car …. WOW. This will make traveling to races a lot more fun!

Check one out at your local dealer!

Filed under: Cycling, Racing

Bikes Save Us.

Garrett — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:13:08 +0000

I take no credit for this piece, but it’s great.

It’s not all about racing for me. Seeing the world through the lens of your bike in other capacities like commuting can be a really positive, functional change in perspective. The bike isn’t just a source of joy or fun, but it’s a symbol of hope for much bigger issues in our world.

Filed under: cycling culture, Inspiration

2011 Paris-Roubaix HD

Garrett — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:47:42 +0000

Spring is coming and so is the Hell of the North: Paris-Roubaix. Great footage from last years edition.

Filed under: Cycling, cycling culture, Inspiration, Pro Racing, Racing

Winter wonderland

Garrett — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:39:54 +0000

While we’ve had fairly regular snow on the front range, it’s been a pretty mild winter here on the Front Range of Colorado. This past week, a blizzard blew into town that shut down Denver for most of Friday. When it was all said and done, we had about 2 feet of snow at our place, which is much closer to the foothills.

Interestingly enough, the massive storm missed all of the major Colorado resorts by about 40 miles by my estimates. We had 2 feet here in Denver and about 2 inches up in Vail. Since it’s already been a really bad year for snow, we decided to not go up to the mountains since we figured it would be dust on crust, so no snowboarding this week. We still managed to have a great time though! Here is what we did insted:

Enjoyed some great coffee and the view from our deck on Saturday Morning:

Drove to Nederland to drop off some parts to my Gates Carbon Drive teammate and master wheel builder Brian Hutchinson: Wow is it beautiful up there when it’s snowy!

Then we hit an AMAZING show in Boulder. The Alabama Shakes. Check them out!

On Sunday, while we still had 2 feet of snow on the ground, it was very sunny and the streets were mostly clear, so we went for a nice long ride!

Filed under: Cycling, Life, Training

Powder days!

Garrett — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:23:23 +0000

Finally, some good snow! Nothing makes a dry winter fade more than fresh tracks in fresh powder! Still was able to fit in a 5 hour ride on the road bike this past weekend too!

Filed under: Life, Snowboarding