Fruita's Redemption
After today's ride, I regret what I said about Fruita earlier this week. Runaway horses and redneck pickup drivers give the town its unique character. But as I mentioned before, it's the mountain biking that makes the area so amazing. This morning I went and picked up one of my collegiate teammates, Rana Schnell, and we headed out to Fruita.
To be politically correct, we actually passed up Fruita and ended up in Loma, Colorado. This is the home of the Kokopelli trailhead, one of my favorite mountain biking areas. And, to judge by the amount of cars, bikes and people in the parking lot, I'm not the only one who likes it.
We started out on Rustler's, which is generally considered to be the practice, or beginner's loop. In about half an hour, I must have seen at least fifteen people. I couldn't really blame them, though, the weather was perfect and the trails were even better.
After Rustler's, we started on Mary's loop. Suddenly, about halfway through the loop, we stopped seeing people. I'm not sure what happened to everyone, but somehow that section of trail was ours alone. And we were out there, all alone, stuck with Rana's gearing deficiencies.
Maybe "deficiency" is the wrong word. It's not that the gears don't work. But that bike is definitely lacking something, namely a small chainring. She's been struggling with it for a while now, but today I got the whole story. It happens to sum up quite nicely. Basically, she's riding one of Adam Craig's old bikes, complete with his gearing setup. The bike was courtesy of her brother, Ross, who's riding for Trek-VW this year. As much confidence as he may have in Rana, I honestly can't think of a single chick who can ride that bike up a long climb. So Ross, if you ever read this, she's not a wus for wanting a lower gear, and you might want to help her out. Oh, and kudos on this weekend. Ross Schnell, ladies and gentlemen, finished eighth at this weekend's Norba National in North Carolina. For those of you who follow some of our local pros, Nick Martin, also of Trek-VW, took 28th and Noel Weddle of Velo Bella-Kona took 36th.
Anyways, with more work than should have been necessary on Rana's part, we managed to ride Steve's loop, and finish up on Mary's. We got back to the parking lot to find it as full as when we left, but somehow we'd managed to find our own piece of Fruita singletrack.
To be politically correct, we actually passed up Fruita and ended up in Loma, Colorado. This is the home of the Kokopelli trailhead, one of my favorite mountain biking areas. And, to judge by the amount of cars, bikes and people in the parking lot, I'm not the only one who likes it.
We started out on Rustler's, which is generally considered to be the practice, or beginner's loop. In about half an hour, I must have seen at least fifteen people. I couldn't really blame them, though, the weather was perfect and the trails were even better.
After Rustler's, we started on Mary's loop. Suddenly, about halfway through the loop, we stopped seeing people. I'm not sure what happened to everyone, but somehow that section of trail was ours alone. And we were out there, all alone, stuck with Rana's gearing deficiencies.
Maybe "deficiency" is the wrong word. It's not that the gears don't work. But that bike is definitely lacking something, namely a small chainring. She's been struggling with it for a while now, but today I got the whole story. It happens to sum up quite nicely. Basically, she's riding one of Adam Craig's old bikes, complete with his gearing setup. The bike was courtesy of her brother, Ross, who's riding for Trek-VW this year. As much confidence as he may have in Rana, I honestly can't think of a single chick who can ride that bike up a long climb. So Ross, if you ever read this, she's not a wus for wanting a lower gear, and you might want to help her out. Oh, and kudos on this weekend. Ross Schnell, ladies and gentlemen, finished eighth at this weekend's Norba National in North Carolina. For those of you who follow some of our local pros, Nick Martin, also of Trek-VW, took 28th and Noel Weddle of Velo Bella-Kona took 36th.
Anyways, with more work than should have been necessary on Rana's part, we managed to ride Steve's loop, and finish up on Mary's. We got back to the parking lot to find it as full as when we left, but somehow we'd managed to find our own piece of Fruita singletrack.
posted by Netana Hotimsky at 7:23 PM
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