After four years of non-stop travel and being hosted by the best strangers-turned-friends, it was exciting to be the host instead of the host-ed. Most of our friends live within 5 minutes to two hours of our front door, so we tend to repeat our favorite adventures. The thought of having to come up with ‘new material’ was a little daunting at first and let’s face it, the Kehmeier winter activities are not necessarily mainstream.
Recently, I did something new for the first time. It’s been a long while coming, probably since my high school days. For whatever reason, it didn’t happen until last week. And it was well worth the wait; maybe even just the right time to start a fresh endeavor.
It’s been a few days since the first US Pro Cycling Challenge concluded and I’m still in awe. I always thought attending my first professional bike race would be chasing that yellow jersey across France, but I should now feel lucky that it happened in my home state. I’m a Colorado girl after all…
One of the most interesting aspects to the stage, and for professional road racing, was the accessibility of the team vehicles, the riders, and their bicycles. This doesn’t happen in most of the professional sports we’re used to watching in the US. Many of the spectators were forgoing their primo viewing spots for a chance to get autographs and covet the most expensive bikes you’ve ever seen. The user-friendliness of the event also very much encouraging stalking. You can bet Chris and I joined right in. It was all about finding (stalking?) Jens Voigt.
This weekend I’ll tackle a mountain bike event of a different nature, the Leadville 100 ultra endurance race. I’m anticipating it will be as equally tiring as Crankworx but in a different way. Bottom line – I’ll be busier than a one-armed paper hanger. At least the course is a 50 mile out and back and I’ll be able to capture the action and emotion in both directions.
The Wide Eyed World was featured on MountainBike.com this week after spending last weekend shooting at Crankworx Colorado. The festival took place at Winter Park Ski Area and featured a full compliment of freeride mountain bike events. Leslie was on hand for all of the events and got a front row seat for all of the action.
During the rest of my stay in Winter Park I was blown away by not only the sheer amount of people riding the Trestle Bike Park, but also by the presence of the most women I’ve ever seen riding bikes. These folks are on to something. The most obvious thing is that they’re having so much fun.
Tag: Colorado