Wildflower Rush by Melt Swanepoel

My second week in the US had me feeling a bit like a tourist. We started off by driving across most of the country, leaving Michigan behind and heading to Colorado. The 2000km journey took us away from the big lakes, past Chicago, through the farmlands of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska. As the miles passed, so we gained altitude eventually reaching our first stop in Boulder, Colorado after 2 days in the car and several stops at Subway (fast food).

We spent 2 very interesting nights in Boulder where X-Terra man, Dan Hugo was kind enough to guide us around his home base in the US despite his recent injuries (http://www.dghugo.com/). We even made time to savour some of the fine local coffees and wine – in no particular order or quantity.

Then it was on to Vail for one night, before heading off to Crested Butte for the Fat Tyre Festival which included The Chainless World Championships where riders free-wheel raced each other from the top of Kebler pass into town. As you can imagine this event drew a free spirited crowd where a costume was mandatory, beer was the norm and brakes were optional.

Crested Butte is a beautiful little town littered with old wooden buildings where town bikes loyally wait outside on bike racks as their owners go about their daily business. The fact that no chain stores are allowed certainly adds to the old world authenticity the town is attempting to maintain.

Crested Butte sits at 2500m above sea level, so the first challenge was just to do everyday things without being completely out of breath. On Friday Dewet and I headed out for our usual recon of the course and did some really nice singletrack riding despite the lack of oxygen. The trail network in the area is something out of a magazine and begs a return visit.

Saturday morning greeted us with crisp, clear mountain air as we set off on our 40 mile (64km) race. It was really dusty on the trails as Colorado hasn't seen much snow this winter nor rain since Spring. Despite the high altitude which seemed to act as a speed governor forcing everyone to go a bit slower, I soon found a good rhythm.
I worked my way up the field whenever I had a chance to pass in the tight singletrack and when the race route spilled on to open roads (which wasn’t often!) There was a lot of proper mountain biking with very little time to eat or drink and it took constant concentration just to stay upright.

After 3h27 I rolled in to the finish in 7th place which was probably a fair reflection of my ability on the day. I was just happy that the altitude wasn’t that big a problem as a lot of my racing here in the States will be in the high country.

Our home stay for the weekend was with one of the last cowboys, John Davis and his partner Martha Warburton. Their hospitality will make it hard to move on, but easy to come back to Crested Butte.

Next up is a race called the Firecracker on the 4th of July. I hope to keep improving and adapting until then (and avoiding too many stops at Subway!).

Until next time, happy trails!
Melt