L'Alpe D'Guez:
Just surfing the web and came across this cool arial shot of L'Alpe D'Huez climb.

SRM US HQ-
Thought you'd enjoy these pics of SRM founder Uli at his Colorado Springs headquarters. In the top photo Uli is analyzing Vinokourov's TT position. Uli and Vino were on the track the day after Vino won last year's Liege-B-Liege classic to work on his TT position.

The other photo is from L-R Dr. Lothat Heinrich (head T-mobile team doc), Gear Fisher (My TrainingPeaks co-founder and CTO) and Uli.

You never know what you'll learn when hanging out with these three "minds" of cycling.
Dirk

Going for the Gusto at Stazio...
Here I am with one to go off the front at Stazio last weekend. I averaged 405watts the last five minutes of the race and probably needed an additional 20 watts to win. O well at least I had my teammates backig me up to take the victory when I got caught with 200m to go.

Koppenberg Recon Ride
This Saturday is the famous Koppenberg RR just outside of Boulder. I happen to be the defending champion and I also won the event in 2003. Will Frishkorn won it in 2004.

So today was th recon day as we only ride this road twice a year-- race day and recon day. This is a nasty road and no one needs to ever train on it. But this year it does seem to be about 10 times better than year's past. The dirt is very hard pack and there are no ruts which is very unusual. This will make for a much faster race and less of a cyclocross event this year.

This photo above was taken on the approach to the Koppenberg climb on the dirt run-in. From left to right is Coyle, Frishkorn, Tyler, Baldwin (2n din redlands last week), Stockburger of team Toyota, and Pat Brown. After one lap of the course we headed back to Boulder and rode up Flagstaff. Great fun ride on a super warm March day.

I also had to include a photo taken last night at Jake Rosenbarger's and Kim Budde's place. Jake is a past teammate of mine at Jittery Joe's and now races for the Rio/Sports Garage. From left to right: Kim, Jake, Deb, me and my daughter Keara.

Kim and Deb are soigneurs for Health Net and they just got back from a 5-week trip. Their hands are still sore from doing the hundreds of hours of massage. Thanks for dinner last night guys!

Vitamin Cottage takes 2nd win in Two days!
Stazio Criterium, Boulder...Jon Baker won with Chuck Coyle 2nd. I led the sprint out and finished 5th. Great ride guys! Also our new teammate Scott Tietzel won the field sprint with ease!

This week Tyler decided to remain a spectator after all the hype between the UCI and the fact that Tyler raced the first Stazio three weeks ago. This allowed the pros to race, although there weren't many in Boulder this weekend as most were in Redlands.

Chuck finished top 10 at the Ft Collins, CSU crit a few hours after the Stazio race (where he placed 2nd). He raced three separate races in two days in two states. This sets new standards..Go Chuck

This just in.. Chuck Coyle notches Vitamin Cottage's first win of the season down in Sante Fe, NM! He flew down this morning will be here to race both the CSU and Stazio crits tomorrow..Nice Chuck...3 races in two days in two states with air travel.
Go check out Chuck's site at www.theprosstuff.com
DF

Bernie's memorial ride March 25th, 2006

Here is Kerstin and Tyler. The red hat is the hat Tyler traded with Bernie the last time they rode together. Bernie ended up with a new crisp Phonak hat. How cool is that!

Great group shot too. Thanks for everyone for coming!

Listen to my short sweet Audio blog above.

The Bernie Memorial Ride!
What a perfect day for the Bernie ride. Clear, sunny and high 50's in Boulder. Bernie was a dear friend of many cyclists around the world who passed away a few weeks ago. He always loved the bike and the cycling and triathlon communities.

We met this morning at Pro-Peleton at 9:30am and what a great turnout with about 30 people. Tyler showed up and presented Kerstin with Bernie's cycling cap. It seems the last time Tyler saw Bernie he grabbed Bernie's hat and gave Bernie his own new crisp Phonak cap. Bernie always wore an old red cap so I know Bernie always treasured the Phonak hat give to him by Ty. What a great gift for Kerstin too. I think the hat will be placed on Bernie's bike which is hanging up in the shop.

The guys at Pro Peleton hung Bernie's bike just above the entrance and will also hang a photo of Bernie they had framed and enlarged. It will look very good hanging just below his bike. Thanks guys!

The group headed out to Lyons and then myself, Pat Brown, Peter Horn, Tyler and a few others headed up North St Vrain climb towards Estes Park. I had to head back early to get home so I just did the first climb. The rest kept going on up to Estes on a beautiful Colorado day.

From my Power file that climb out of Lyons took 17' at 312 avg watts. I was hurting a lot with a higher than normal HR due to my allergies. Glad i had a good excuse to turn back:)

I'll post photos soon when Kim gets back and I can download the photos from this morning.

See Ya
DF

3/24/06

<=Jim "CSC" Mohan at Descente HQ

I hit the road again today with Allen McCormack and we both rode the fixed gear. I had a horrible day though with some allergies hitting me pretty hard. My HR was super high and I was never comfortable on the bike. My head was also a bit stuffy so I only rode 1.5hrs.

I did hit the Lyons-BDR TT course on the way back in and it looks like it will be about 11 miles long. This is a TT series managed by Clark Sheehan and should start in May think. I'm going to use a fixed gear set up one of the weeks and am thinking of using a 48 x 16. This will be a very hard gear for the first 2 miles and a few of the early climbs, but I figure with the majority of the course being downhill the 48 should be good. I'm riding a 42 x16 right now by the way.

After the ride I had to go bug Jim "CSC" Mohan over at the Descente HQ. Those guys worked hard to wrap up the whole CSC sponsorship deal and deliver on the goods in less than three months.

Tomorrow is the Bernie ride a Pro Peleton at 9:30. Bernie was a great friend of a lot of local cyclists here who passed away due to cancer a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to connecting to other riders that shared tim ewith him on the roads.

C Ya later
Dirk

3/23/06- Forgot to mention I ran into Alan "Mac Gormack" McCormack out on his fixed gear today too. Man that guy is a stud at age 50! He rides daily 2+hrs on his fixed gear with a 39 x 15 up and down the hills of Boulder. Glad that guy is on my team (Vitamin Cottage).

Feel free to visit my first ever Podcast and listen to last week's racing adventures at
http://www.clickcaster.com/ultrafit

The details of my training can be seen within my Daily Log at www.trainingpeaks.com/dirk

If you like that then you'll love Chuck Coyle's Podcast at http://www.clickcaster.com/theprosstuff

C Ya
Dirk

Finally got out on the road bike today after all the recent snow in Boulder. As you can see Chuck, Tyler and I had a bit of fun on skis earlier this week at North BDR park. Those guys wooped my butt in the "no poling" races.

Well, today I felt I had to make up for lost time so I resorted to a 3.5hr ride with an hour at 295 avg watts (jst above my IM pace/CP300). I thought this would provide a bit of muscular endurance and accelerated aerobic fitness just prior to the weekend Stazio race. Stazio should give me much needed power and anaerobic work.
See ya--Dirk