Ride Reports

A beautiful day to display the new kits on these brave souls. Great group with lots of lactate produced!

Beautiful day for a 50 miler. 

Congrats to all the survivors of the Northwest Climbfest. We all finished with the rubber side down. Good all around and a perfect day for a ride. 

5 brave souls climbed almost 3000 feet on this beautiful day. Awesome.

We had a super morning exploring the various gradients of the west side hills.  Everyone kept the rubber side down, got to enjoy the "balmy" weather and checked the cycling workout box for the day. Good time had by all. 

An awesome group of 18 riders came out to ride from Trails End Monument. We started with a warmup on the Santa Fe to Palmer Lake, then tested our skills in Greenland Open Space as it was incredibly sandy. The headwind in what seemed like every direction didn't stop us. We were rewarded with a rainbow. Then we did some climbing on Furrow road and had a nice descent back into Monument on Woodmoor to end with a beer at Trails End Taproom. I was so happy with the turnout!

It was a great night for a mountain bike ride in Palmer Park. After a very hot day, it looked like it would rain and it held out for us to have a beautiful evening to ride. We ended up splitting the group up in two so that the more advanced riders could get a longer ride in while the beginner riders could work on skills. The group really pushed the pace and we were able to cover a lot of the park. We sessioned a few spots and it was a lot of fun. Most of the group had never ridden at Palmer Park and I was glad to show everyone around! I hope to continue to have regular MTB rides moving forward. 

We had a great turnout for our weekly Tuesday Gravel ride. Twelve riders came out to explore Stratton Open Space and Cheyenne Canon Park. They tackled a bunch of single track and some steep ascents and descents on gravel roads. The group did great pushing out of their comfort zone and gaining some new skills on the gravel bike! We had great weather and even better company. 

Fourteen club members ventured out for a chilly 1st outdoor gravel ride of 2024 up to Palmer Lake and back.  The temperatures were much colder than anticipated with a start in the high 30s.  We stopped at Ice Lake for a quick nature break and then proceeded up to Palmer Lake regrouping on several occasions.  At Palmer Lake, several members expressed interest in stopping at a local cafe while others wished to make the return trip back to Criterium Bike Shop so we split the group to accommodate everyone's wishes.  The trail was in pretty good shape with the exception of some ruts between Monument and Palmer Lake.  Unfortunately, this caught one of our riders off-guard and they had a tumble.  Luckily, the rider's spouse was in the area and picked up the rider to ensure proper medical checks were conducted.  The rest of us proceeded back to Colorado Springs on the Santa Fe (fighting the wind the whole way).  

It was a great group of riders and, as always, it was nice catching up with everyone's stories, checking out new bikes and gear, and just sharing laughs along the way.  I can't wait for many more of these rides in 2024!  

I'll start by stating this is a very challenging ride that I typically like to do once a year (one and done).  I was joined by a great group, Chris F., Austin, Al, Anthony, Curtis, Robin, Helen, Kimberly and a guest Cindi B.  We regrouped often and at one point going up Rampart, Helen decided to ride solo to the overlook and back while Curtis and Robin turned around at the radio towers.  The rest of us continued the relentless climb up Rampart Range and descended down into Monument where we had a quick refill at Trails End Taproom before heading back on the Santa Fe to Criterium.  

Could not have asked for better weather or company and l'm already looking forward to this epic ride next year.