After a whirlwind debut at Interbike ‘09, Team Geronimo (http://www.geronimoracing.com) has ramped up to full on tornado status. The Pro racers, staff and Junior Development Team of Team Geronimo are proud to introduce their 2010 lineup:
Welcome to the new 5280 mtb.com. Elevating Frontrange mountain biking.
Riding in Bariloche, Argentina
Winter may not be receding where you’re at, but here in Bariloche, Argentina January means long Summer days and we’re taking full advantage.
Need a new wheel, stem, seat…bike? The Denver VeloSwap is tomorrow. Doors open at 9. VeloSwap is the world’s largest consumer bicycle and sports expo.
Bike Denver will be providing valet service for bikes. Usually the National Western Complex charges an arm and leg for parking so consider riding to the swap. Here is the recommended route:
This last Saturday marked thee final mountain bike race in all of Colorado for 2009. And with my race bike up on the auction block I raced the Sand Creek Fall Classic aboard my 17 year old titanium singlespeed. Yup, I still have, and regularly ride, a bike that is 17 years old. It’s a 1993 Diamond Back Axis TT.
Ultra Rob Covers the Sand Creek Fall Classic.
Saturday was the Sand Creek Fall Classic which as far as I know was the last mountain bike race of the season in Colorado. Even though it was cold and icy last weekend, this weekend was absolutely perfect fall weather at Palmer Park in Colorado Springs. There was bright blue sky with temperatures around 70 degrees.
I went out and shot some photos of the end of the 11:15 start and the Pros and Category 1 (Experts) that started at 1:00 PM. The course was about a 3 mile loop and included some great singletrack. It made me wish I was racing.
Your freedom to ride Apex will be restricted starting in the Spring of 2010.
Starting in the spring of 2010, mountain bikers will be limited to uphill rides on odd-numbered days on the Apex Park trail. On even-numbered days, mountain bikers can use the trail as they normally would. How Jeffco plans to educate and enforce this is beyond us at 5280mtb.com. Read the decision here.
There has been a lot of talk lately about Ralph Schnell’s, the Jeffco Open Space Administrator comments at the last Apex OSAC meeting. He mentioned that he is not interested in turning Jeffco into a mountain bike haven, and therefore not interested in building more trails. This is understandable considering the Jeffco Open Space mission is to “preserve,” and therefore limit humans in open space.
However, something has to give. Jeffco can’t have it both ways. You need to allow access and therefore build more trails in order to decrease user conflict and user risk, or stop access all-together in the name of preservation. Obviously, we’re for building more trails for everyone responsibly.
Although we’re not “anti-hiker” here at 5280mtb, we thought this is a sign we’d never see on the Frontrange. Congrats to Maddslacker. You just won yourself a 5280mtb t-shirt. Hopefully there will be more of these signs posted with sweet single track to rip in years to come.
Local mountain
bikers are still scratching their heads at the outcome of Thursday’s Apex meeting, which went well past midnight. OSAC members did not formally vote on the proposed plan to restrict mountain bike travel on specific trails within Apex Park on an alternating-day schedule. However, Director Schell does not need the approval from OSAC to implement this plan.
It was clear, however, that a majority of OSAC members supported the proposed management plan in some form or another, but many of the members had different caveats for their support. Some said it was dependent upon building new trails first, some wanted “tweaks” to the plan, others would support it if it was a temporary solution and still others said their support was contingent upon making sure alternating days Apex did not conflict with alternating days for bicycles at Centennial Cone, another Jefferson County park.
COMBA is asking concerned trail users to meet at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, at the lower Apex Park parking lot to demonstrate their opposition to the proposed OSAC plan. Bikers will then ride over to the Jefferson County Open Space Administrative Office, 700 Jefferson County Parkway, Suite 100, Golden, Colo., where the county’s Open Space Advisory Committee is scheduled to consider the New Apex Park management plan at 7 p.m.
“We are encouraging folks to bring their bikes and ride to the OSAC meeting in solidarity to ask the members of OSAC to reject the current proposal,” COMBA President Terry Breheny said. “Although this plan is touted a ‘compromise’ position for Jefferson County and is less restrictive than the county’s initial proposal, it remains inherently biased against a single user group, in this case mountain bikers.
