Mid-summer in the remote, high-elevation regions of Colorado is beautiful beyond description. Incredible Aspen-lined trails, 14,000-foot snow capped mountains, secluded hot springs on raging rivers. And, of course, overfull campgrounds teeming with vehicles that dwarf even our 40 feet of van and trailer. The summer population outnumbers the actual Colorado residents by more than double, resulting clogs at every inch of recreational space each weekend. This leaves us thankful for the quieter weekdays, which allow us some time to experience the open space—or at least find an open campsite.

Snowmass is a destination winter resort town near Aspen that boasts some really great skiing and some sweet high-elevation (8500 feet at the base) mountain bike trails, as well. The NORBA race venue seemed to fill the entire town. It was hectic and cramped, so Mary and I instinctively ended up 40 or so miles away, camping down a quiet dead end canyon road to keep us from getting caught up in the chaos.

The racecourse was set up in the typical alpine style: one steep long climb at the outset and a fast technical descent to the finish. And it was long, with each lap taking around 40 minutes to complete. Mary and I rode a lap the day before the race, but she decided that it would be best to sit this one out, since a huge effort at this elevation with the extra dusty conditions could set her back from her recent recovery from bronchitis—and there was still plenty of race season ahead of her.

Race day was hot and dry. The 100+ men's field went off at 3:00pm creating an enormous cloud of dust. The opening climb seemed endless: 30+ minutes of struggling even in one of the smaller gears, keeping the throttle pinned just to creep upward and stay on the wheel of the sweaty dude in font of you. The long descent to the finish brought some relief, as we railed down twisty off-camber singletrack through beautiful Aspen groves and the occasional mountain stream.

I was surprised to see the cloud cover start to roll in during the second of three laps, but there was no mistaking the cooling effect and the rain drops as they started to fall. This was without question a good thing, given the intense heat and dust. As I summited the huge climb for the final time and dove into the dark singletrack descent, the rain had started to fall in force and made things a little trickier. It took a bit more effort and a little less speed to navigate; but after the severity of the climbs that were behind me, it was still really enjoyable.

I managed to pass a few key riders on the final climb and was able hold them off on the descent to collect an 11th place finish. I was stoked to cross the line and be done for the day—especially since I noticed that the cloud cover was turning from gray to black. A stiff wind-driven rain began to pelt the large crowd that had gathered for the finish. Lightening striped the sky as thunder boomed in unison. Spectators struggled to wait for their riders to come across the line, determined to tough it out and feel a little of the pain that the riders go through. But the stone hard ice-cube size hail changed those hardy fans (and myself) into scurrying rats diving for the closest shelter. Hats off to those who struggled in and finished in that mess. Racing is always a bit painful, but I know firsthand that this one was over the top.

Mary and I spent almost a week in Basalt, CO before we knew it. Our quiet campground was surrounded by incredible roads and trails that kept us from thinking about much else. We found ourselves climbing thousands of feet on 2-hour singletracks, turning around at the top and descending for a fun-filled hour back to the trailhead. I tried in vain to do some "easy spins" on the road bike, only to be lured into a 5-hour epic to summit a 12,000' pass. It was just irresistible.

Our next move was towards Telluride, CO to contest an Inter Mountain State Cup Series race. Telluride had already played a part of both our pasts in some way. Mary learned to snowboard here, and it is where I spent a winter working a nighttime sales job to support an advanced snowboarding habit. Summer in Telluride was a first for both of us, and we were both struck by how incredible this town is. As real estate prices clearly indicate, many others feel the same way.

The racecourse began out of a mountain village at a literally breath taking 9,500', then climbed fiercely for 800' or so through a mix of painfully steep fire roads and beautiful traversing singletrack. There was no more than 1k of flat riding on the entire course and just a fraction of it at the top of the climb before we were sent down a beautiful rugged 2.5km switchback descent to the finish. Mary and I raced at the same time and we both really enjoyed the course and the well-planned venue. The promoters (Cycle Syndicate) really put on a good show for everyone.

Mary was psyched to be back racing and didn't bother to hold back from throwing down a big effort at the start. This resulted in her dropping the entire women's field and launched her solidly into the expert men, who had started 2 minutes prior. Mary took advantage of the men's field to hone her race tactics, using her climbing skills to pass as many of them as possible to get a clear, dust-free shot at the descent. Mary finished her three laps with a six-minute lead on the closest woman and an unofficial fifth position in the expert men's field. She was stoked to be back to her racing ways and seemed better off overall from her short mid-season break.

I was wondering how my big week of training would affect my race form and was thinking twice about my decision to go so big as I saw some familiar Colorado tough guys at the start. I was treating this as a training race—and good training it was. I followed a big attack that started at the gun and lasted all the way through the long climb to the top. Ouch! On the second of four laps, I had settled into a more comfortable third position. I saw throughout the race that I could make a lot of time on the second place guy on the difficult final descent. It seemed that what I needed to do to beat him was hang on to within 20 seconds at the top of the final climb. It's really more my style to push it throughout the entire race, but the elevation was forcing me to be more strategic. I used as little energy as possible on the final climb and made my attack on the descent, quickly finding the wheel of second place through the thick dust. As I applied the pressure looking for a place to pass on the impossibly narrow trail, he frantically picked up the pace, took a bad line, and kissed the ground in one of the soft corners just 1km from the finish. I was able to cruise through to a second place finish on the day.

Mary and I took some extra time for a bit of fun to the highly attended kids' race that was taking place a few hours after our finish. Mary led out a group of 12 girls ranging in age from 3 to 12 and even more widely spread in ability. It was beautiful to see the affect that she had on them. The girls loved that someone so personable was out there, and the parents were even more stoked to have their kids racing with an Olympian. Mary had a rewarding autograph session after the race with the majority of the kid racers and their families. She's genuinely stoked to inspire people—especially kids—to get out and ride their bikes.

My experience leading out the 10 or so little boys' race was an equally cool experience. It felt really good to give a little something back to the sport that has given us so much.

We were able to squeeze in a fun ride the next day out of Telluride that started with free gondola ride up past 10, 000 feet. Telluride is the only town in the states that offers a free year-round gondola service that you can use for commuting from town to the mountain village or just to get in some easy vert on the mountain. We ended up on a 2.5-hour ride mostly downhill on remote single track. For us, it doesn't get much better than that.

Mary and I are now driving from Colorado and across to southwestern Utah to stop # 6 on the NORBA National circuit in Brianhead, UT. We are really enjoying this segment of our trip, but are also looking forward to heading back to Europe in three weeks to contest the World Championships in Livigno, Italy and the final round of the world cup series in Fort William, Scotland.