Ride Reports

We had a great turnout for Tuesday gravel with JimmyDot, John Jamison, Tessa Muir, Nao Nozawa, Kevin Percy, Sarah Roueche, Robin Schroyer, Kim Trogdon and myself.  The ride was from our great sponsor, Criterium Bike Shop heading North on the Santa Fe.   I pushed the pace a little heading out and was accompanied by John who always rides super strong.  We regrouped at around 45 minutes of riding and stuck together (for the most part) on the return.  Beautiful weather and a great group of cyclists.  

This past Tuesday a couple of us (John Jamison and I) tried out a proposed gravel route from Jimmy Dot.  Jimmy modified the existing Red Rocks gravel ride to connect/include some of Bear Creek Regional Park.  John and I ran into Jimmy outside of Garden of the Gods and he rode with us briefly before turning back.  John and I continued at a brisk pace and tackled some somewhat technical steep downhills in Bear Creek before working our way back to the Sinton Trail and home.  I really enjoyed the route as it was very challenging and John kept me on my toes as usual with a competitive pace.   Total distance was 29 miles, 2,434ft of climbing at a 13.2mph pace (Note:  I added four miles to/from home).  

Our Tuesday Gravel ride went up Rampart Range Rd.  Nao Nozawa, Al Marshall, LeeAnn Perea and Kimberly Trogdon joined me on the ride and we stuck together through Garden of the Gods up to Rampart Range Rd.  Everyone rode their own pace up, but typically within eyesight of each other.  After about 45 minutes, we decided to turn around and enjoy our hard work by descending back into the Garden.  Nao led the way with some impressive bike handling skills.  

Kimberly and I had a couple of extra miles as we road from home.  Ending stats were 22 miles, 2,280ft of climbing with an average speed of 12.1mph.  

What a beautiful day to be on a bicycle!  This was quite the interesting ride with diverse ride options.  Keith Hofreiter and I rode from our homes in Colorado Springs to the start in Monument via the Santa Fe trail.  We arrived early and linked up with Robin Schroyer, John Jamison, Julie Glenn and Matt Coble.  After a brief discussion regarding which direction we were going to tackle the planned route, we decided counter-clockwise would be interesting.  This meant the first several miles had some very steep hills (thinking of changing the route name to Rude Awakening).  Once we regrouped at the junction of Best and Andrews Rd., Julie and Robin decided to alter their plans and go explore Spruce Mountain Open Space.  The rest of us stayed to plan and rode the scheduled route at an ambitious pace.  It was a very hot day and once we reached Greenland Open Space we rode the top path which includes more climbing before exiting and continuing to Palmer Lake.  Keith showed John and I the new Sante Fe Open Space which included even more climbing and single track while Matt kept going towards Monument.  We all arrived at the Trails End Taproom and enjoyed some stories of how the ride went for everyone and had a cold beverage before departing.  I ended up riding home solo via the Santa Fe with a total of 84 miles and 5,289ft of climbing.  Average speed for the ride ranged from 13.5 to 14.4mph.  

What I love about this club is that everyone shows up with a positive attitude and we adjust on the fly as needed.  It was a great day and I hope to see more of you out there in the near future! 

We had a smaller turnout for our Tuesday Gravel ride through Garden of the Gods to Red Rocks.  John Beckman, Al Marshal, Curtis Potter, Robin Schroyer, Kimberly Trogdon, and our newest member Gaer Sandager joined me on the ride. 

As usual, the group split going up the hill into Garden of the Gods, but we regrouped for a picture at the typical scenic spot.  Afterwards we climbed up Crystal Hills Blvd where everyone rode their preferred pace and regrouped at the Sand Canyon Upper Trailhead before descending the flowing single track down into Red Rocks.  This ride is very manageable and fun on a gravel bike, although it does require a little bit of confidence and skill to navigate some of the sections.  One of our members had a minor spill at low speed, but no injuries or damage to the bike.

We returned back to Red Leg Brewery via a scenic ride along Monument Creek to the Sinton Trail.  Gaer, Kimberly and I enjoyed a well earned cold beverage before heading home. 

Official distance for this ride was 21.5 miles with 1,706ft of climbing at an average of around 12mph.  

Thanks to everyone for coming out and enjoying the great SOCO Velo company, weather and stunning scenery.