2026 Race reports: Ft.Collins

As with any race reports, and this blog in general, I'm running behind once again. I didn't even post a follow up to my first race back in 2024 or anything from 2025! I think I'm going to try to get more organized, not only for anyone who may be interested, but maily for my own personal referance as the older you get, things become less sharp in the memory aspect, and things have been coming fast and wild this year so far! 

 Anyway, I'll make some kind of post about how I got to this point in the last few years, but the point of this post is Ft. Collins 2026. Saturday would be the CSU oval criterium and Sunday was the Cobb Lake road race. These would be my first race of the season. Some important factors to consider: I just turned 60. yep, I said it. It happens, and it happens to be true. Anyway, races in the masters catagory (the one I race in nowadays) seem to be all over the place. Last year it was in ten year age incraments (40+ category or 50+ category, then 60+ open and 70+ open). 

This year it's changed a little. I don't believe there is a Rocky Mountain Road Cup, rankings statewide for each age group to no Rocky Moumtain Road Cup this year. I was looking forward to it since I would be turning 60, but I guess it's not all bad. Some of the races this year are the same format as last year, but nothing in the masters category over 50. Others are 55+ and 65+, but I'll get to that later. This particular weekend, the criterium would be a 40+ 1-2-3 and 50+ 1-2-3 (combined, but scored seperately). The 1-2-3 is category as in race level - Cat 1 being the highest level of an amateur cyclist, like a black belt in karate, 2's are almost the same, and category 3's anr generally very strong, and smart as well. 

Anyway, onto the CSU Oval Criterium! It was tough! My nerves were shot leading up to this day. I'm sure my partner Tina would agree. I did a handful of races last year, but the first one is always a cause of much anxiousness for me. Once the race actually starts though, it's not a big deal.I knew the criterium would be tough, but going into it, I figured if I could hang and not get dropped, I'd be going pretty good fitness wise. 

The weather was cool but sunny. I got a pretty short warm up, and actually got a couple of laps on the course. It was pretty technical with lots of corners, very narrow sections, and the iconic oval on the end. I had a pretty lousy starting position due to getting that one last warm up lap, but after I got a few laps at speed, it wasn't too difficult to move up. We would be racing for 50 minutes, so I was looking at my timer now and again. Somewhere around 40 minutes in, I knew the 5 laps to go sign would be coming soon. Several guys tried to get away, but at this point, we were all still together. I was in a good position, probably 6th or 7th coming out of the oval, when a guy attacked, another guy went with him, so I was in the perfect position to go as well, so I made a go of it.

 We had a gap, but I was on my limit. The second guy counter attacked and I just didn't have anything to go with him. The first guy sat up, so I found myself winded and in no man's land. I was trying to keepmy momentum, but got swarmed by the main group and came very close to getting dropped. I hung in barely, and the next time through the start/finish line, we had 5 laps to go. It took me a couple of laps to recover, butafter that I was able to move back up into the top 10 oe so. I was trying to move up into a better position with 2 to go when I got caught up with another rider, had to unclip while trying not to crash and basically lost all my spots I had moved up. By this point, it was going super fast and I was only able to move up a couple more spots and finished 19th. I felt like I could have done better, but I was pretty satisfied overall. I'd rather take some chances and gamble on getting into a break and winning or getting a podium spot than racing super conservative and getting 15th or something.

Getting ready to race! All photos by Tina.

Racing along...Sitting behind Norm Alvis, The eventual winner of the 50+ group

The point where I was attempting to go with a late race move...

Another angle50+ race results
I don't have any photos of the Cobb Lake road race the next day, but it was pretty wild. I ended up 26th. almost got dropped several times, but stayed in it. Guys were getting dropped and getting flats like crazy! Going into the last half mile, everything was still together. There's a left hander following few miles on a dirt/gravel road, then it's maybe a kilometer to the finish. As we were turning, I could see the front of the group. Many years ago, this would have been a perfect set up as it was uphill to the finish line. I went as hard as I could, but both my legs started cramping, nooooooo!All in all, I felt pretty good for the weekend. I've still got work to do, but I'm glad to feel like I can go out and compete and not just be in survival mode all race. Next weekend, the infamous Boulder Roubaix!

Colorado 2024

To the 3 or 4 people who might happen to come across this, it's been a while. A LONG while since I've written any blog postings, but I've been on a pretty epic journey, and I finally feel like I have a few updates to talk about without being overly emotionally influenced. I've officially been living in and around Denver Colorado for almost 6 years now. 10% of my life. I don't really know where to begin than at the present date I guess. I havent done an actual road race, criterium, Etc. since June of 2018. Anyway, I guess the main point here is that I've registered for my first road race in forever (at least that's how it feels)! Next weekend, April 6, the day after I turn 58, I'm going to be participating in the Boulder Roubaix "rough" road race! I say participating because I have no idea how things are going to go. I went and pre rode the course last weekend. It's a great course! It's been going on since 1992, so there's a bit of history with it. I'm sure lot's of iconic battles have gone down there that I have no idea about. The thing is, here in Colorado, compared to Oklahoma, from what I've found is that for every 1 elite bike racer there, there are 100 here, so I have no idea how things are going to shake out. But, you've gotta start somewhere to find out, right? Anyway, I've known about this event for a few years, but I'm finally excited to give it a go. I'm still riding my old rim brake road bike. I'd planned on getting a new bike at the beginning of the year, but that didn't pan out just yet, so I'm just going to roll with what I've got. I put the widest tires I've got that would fit on the bike, some Challange Paris Roubaix 27mm wide tires that are being borrowed from my old Rossin. There's a chance of rain the day of the race, so just in case, I,ve got my gravel bike set up with some wider gravel tires.

My green Garneau road bike is what I'm planning on riding, but the yellow bike is my back up. I'll definitely post an update with how things go down...

My latest project...

I recently acquired a bike a while back that I'm currently in the process of restoring. A little backstory first, I've always had a thing for older Italian road bikes. I cobbled together my first road bike in 1984 or so. It was a pink Tommasini with a random mix of parts I scraped up or got donated. I really loved that bike, but I ended up selling it around 1988ish to buy my first mountain bike.

The last few years, I'd been on the lookout for that bike or something similar. It seemed like everything was pretty expensive and way more than I was comfortable spending. Anyway, long story short, I ended up with a bike that was gifted to me.

The bike is either a 1983 or 84 Rossin Record.

I've purchased some replacement parts here and there. So far I have new tires and handlebar tape. Overall the bike is in really good condition. I basically stripped the bike down to the bare frame and disassembled the wheels as well. I didn't like the way the wheels were built, so I rebuilt them as well.

The bike is starting to come together really nicely!

I've got 4 videos so far with more detailed information about the whole process!
Be sure and check them out if you get a chance:

My old Webco

So, I picked up my bikes from being painted and they both look pretty sweet! I have the 650b klunker bike 99% finished, but I realized in building it up that the bottom bracket I have isn't going to fit, so I'm a few more days out till it's complete.

 These are a couple shots of the klunker bike mocked up before painting. I had just purchased tires and I wanted to see how it would look and fit .

The story of my Webco is pretty crazy. Around 1977 or so, I had been seeing kids riding around on these motocross type bikes. I previously had an AMF Superbee that was kind of a muscle type bike like a Schwinn stingray. It had the high rise bars and banana seat. At some point in the mid 70's, kids started modifying the bikes to a more BMX style. My AMF got stolen, and so after a year or so of not having a bike, I really wanted a BMX bike, preferably a Mongoose.
I remember my dad taking us around to some different bike shops. I saw lots of bikes I really liked, but everything was out of our price range.
One day, my dad came home with a used bike he bought from someone he worked with. I think it was my birthday, but I'm not 100% sure. The bike was a kind of rough, but it had been tricked out a little. It had Redline forks and Skyway tuff wheels! I thought it was awesome! It was the bike I learned how turn a wrench on. I tore it down to the bare frame at least 3 times to repaint it. It was also the bike I learned how to jump on, and start racing with.
Over the next few years I tricked it out even more adding Redline V-bars, Redline stem, Araya alloy wheels, MX-1000 brake, Takagi alloy cranks, KKT lightning pedals and a Kashimax seat. Eventually after we got more into racing, I got a Redline proline frame set and retired the old Webco. Honestly, it was beyond time. I had broken the frame and had it re-welded, as well as it looked like it had been broken and repaired twice before I got it.
We ended up selling it at our bike shop probably around 1983-84, but it was one of those sentimental things that I kind of wished I had held onto.

Anyway, fast forward to 2016. A friend of mine sent me some blurry photos of some frames he had just acquired, and wanted to know if I knew what kind of bikes they were.

 I told him the chrome one looked like an old Team Murray and the other was an old Webco. I asked if he could send some more pictures and if he would be interested in selling it. I had been somewhat looking to find an old Webco, mainly as a template to build a modern day cruiser type klunker frame that I had planned on building next. Upon looking at more pics, I thought there was a good chance this was my ACTUAL old bike due to the colors of the paint layers.I ended up trading him some old parts for the frame.

The bike was in pretty poor condition, but this is my old bike!

 I have no idea how this frame survived this long.

I found some reproduction decals on ebay that were just like the originals. I removed a seatpost that was broken off and stuck inside the frame, straightened and aligned the back end, welded the hole I drilled in the brake bridge, and cleaned up some of the ugly welds. After I got the Klunker build finished, I took both bikes in to my buddy Brent to be painted. He painted both frames the same color, which is very close to the original red that was on the Webco to start with.

I think it came out really nice! 

I may end up building it up as a complete someday, but for now it's just going to hang on the wall and look cool.

This is a short video I made. It's part 3 of the restoration process.

I've done a handful of the Wheeler crits so far this year. I finally got on the podium a couple of weeks ago in the masters category. This year has been all over the place as far as my fitness goes, but I'm trying to peak for the ProAm coming up in a few weeks.  

2018 updates and such...

Wow, I guess it's been over 2 years since I've added anything on here. Sorry about that. I've been mainly focused on my YouTube stuff for the most part, but let's do an update.

I've been working on building another bike frame. I guess I started it last summer, and the goal was to have it finished by the fall of 2017, but obviously that didn't happen.

Super sweet frame tubing kit!

The plan was for a bike that would essentially be like an adult sized version of my first BMX bike. Something to ride around the local mountain bike trails - pump track, or just cruise around the neighborhood with my kids. I actually found my first bike when I was planning out this build, and made a video about it...

Fast forward to today, I've got a frame and a fork built. I'm going to take the new frameset, and the old webco to get painted next week. I didn't get to build the new frame exactly as I had had envisioned, mainly because I had to rush the completion somewhat, but I still think it's going to be a really fun bike to ride and stuff.

The main reason I had to rush it along was the other latest big news...

We're moving!!

Yes we're moving to Colorado. Coatney was accepted to graduate school in Denver, so we're relocating in June of 2018. The past several months have been pretty crazy. A combination of getting our house ready to sell, selling it, finding a place to live, finding room for all our "stuff", getting rid of a lot of it, and finding a new job. So far, everything seems to be falling in place day by day. 

I'll try real hard to update this as it's all going down. If you're interested in the build up of my frame project, I have a playlist series on YouTube...

650b frame build series

Otherwise, until next time...

Tis the season..

Well, spring and the race season is definitely here. So far I've gotten a road race and a couple of practice crits in. It hasn't gone great results wise, but not horrible either. It feels like things are headed in the right direction. My overall fitness seems ok, but the higher intensity power from say 30 seconds to 5 minutes needs improvement. It's pretty much the same thing every year. Everything seems great until you get into an actual race situation and the painful truth comes out.

I've been playing around with the onboard video a little.  These are the last couple videos from the Wheeler crits-

I was planning on doing the crit yesterday, but I cut my finger pretty good, so I had to miss it. Chad had a helmet cam and I put the camera I was going to use on Andys bars. The race was pretty entertaining to watch, so it should make for a pretty sweet video! Hopefully I'll have it finished tonight or tomorrow this weekend is the NWA road race in Arkansas. We've got 5 or 6 of us going, so it should be fun. 

Turning the corner..

 Every time I start into a new season, it seems like the progress, for me anyway, is super slow. It's been months of getting up early, riding in the cold and dark sometimes, wondering if it's worth it, not seeing much improvement. It seems like lots of things go that way sometimes. You're in a dark place ready to give up, but you gotta keep plugging away. Just take it day by day, then BAM! You go out one day and notice the change. I think it's happened twice so far this season.

I'm not sure when it happens, but for me, it seems to be a noticeable difference the Tuesday or Wednesday after a recovery week. What I'm talking about is more of less a rise in fitness.

It's not something that occurs after every training block and recovery week, but if its going to happen, that's usually when it comes around. It happened on one of my last rides on my commuter bike, and yesterday.

 It's not necessarily something that's accompanied by high power numbers, although usually so, it's more a feeling of well being or feeling like you can keep punching it indefinitely or you're impervious to fatigue or something like that. 

Maybe it's just because the weather is getting nicer? Well, I'm sure it helps at least.

It's been a while since I've updated any data in my WKO software. I've been working on it, but I have a couple months worth of rides to manually estimate the power numbers and add to the calendar.

Anyhow, I have about an hour each Wednesday while my daughter is at an after school activity to work on this blog thing, but enough rambling for this week. Until next week..