The climb up Cottonwood Pass was incredible. The road was in pretty good shape and thankfully the wind wasn't too bad. Photo: Nick Legan
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Editor’s Note: VeloNews tech editor Nick Legan is a former ProTour mechanic who most recently wrenched for Team RadioShack at the 2010 Tour de France and elsewhere. His column appears here every Thursday. You can submit questions to Nick at asknick@competitorgroup.com, and be sure to check out Nick’s previous columns.
After surviving a huge downpour 140 miles into the Dirty Kanza 200, Lelan Dains of Emporia, Kansas, greeted me at the last checkpoint of the day. Only 42 miles to go ... Photo: Nick Legan
ASPEN, Colo. (VN) — I’ve been on the go since last Thursday and haven’t had any spare moments to answer reader questions. Instead, I’ll offer a few photo highlights from my recent adventures. I left the VeloNews offices last week and headed to Kansas to meet five guys from Salsa Cycles for the Dirty Kanza 200. After riding for 17 hours and sleeping for four I flew back to Denver. My ever-helpful roommate/business partner Daimo met me at the airport for a bike and luggage swap.
I handed him a bag full of filthy clothes and a dust-covered Salsa and he handed me a suitcase full of fresh clothes and recovery mix and a brand new custom Harvey Cycle Works road bike. Then I headed off to find the Rapha Continental crew on the other side of the airport.
The plan was to ride the entire USA Pro Cycling Challenge course. We’ve had some hiccups (one of them was my extreme fatigue leftover from Dirty Kanza). Wednesday we tackled Cottonwood and Independence passes. Thursday we bypassed the Vail time trial stage and drove the Avon-Steamboat Springs stage. One of the crew crashed on the descent of Independence Pass and broke his scapula, so we’ve had to adjust our plans.
Here’s a gallery from the travel-riddled, fatiguing last week.
In Gunnison our host Bob took us a couple blocks from his house to watch local cowboys practice their roping. Super cool. Photo: Nick Legan
After a brutal day battling wind, Jeremy and Ryan found time to relax in Crested Butte. Photo: Nick Legan
Like the coffee shop next to it, this rental house is covered in old license plates. Photo: Nick Legan
After a ride, without laundry facilities, the Rapha Continental squad improvises, here at Garden of the Gods. Photo: Nick Legan
After one of the Rapha crew crashed on the descent of Independence Pass, plans changed and we stayed the night in Aspen instead of transferring to Vail. Photo: Nick Legan
After one of the Rapha crew crashed on the descent of Independence Pass, plans changed and we stayed the night in Aspen instead of transferring to Vail. Photo: Nick Legan
The climb up Cottonwood Pass was incredible. The road was in pretty good shape and thankfully the wind wasn’t too bad. Photo: Nick Legan
The 14-mile dirt climb up Cottonwood Pass is going to make the USA Pro Cycling Challenge interesting. The Rapha Continental squad rode it just days after it opened for the season. Photo: Nick Legan
After too many hours in the saddle, we made it to the top of the second pass of the day: Independence. The descent was good until one of our crew hit a rock, crashed and broke his scapula. Photo: Nick Legan
It’s early in this shot, 6 am early. But Phillip Benningfield, at Cafe Dawn in Salida, Colorado, was ready to pull some great shots of coffee. Photo: Nick Legan
After surviving a huge downpour 140 miles into the Dirty Kanza 200, Lelan Dains of Emporia, Kansas, greeted me at the last checkpoint of the day. Only 42 miles to go … Photo: Nick Legan
There was a huge amount of excitement at the 6 am start of the Dirty Kanza. Left to right are Tim Ek, Ryan Horkey, Joe Meiser, Jason Gaikowski and myself. Not pictured is Jason Boucher, also of Salsa Cycles. Photo: Nick Legan
