Firecracker

For the Fourth of July, Dan, Nicole, and I went up to Breckenridge to race the Firecracker 50. John Shippey's family all got together to spend the week in Breck as well. He had a bunch of us over for a wicked dinner the night before the race: spaghetti, meatballs, Ben & Jerry's, etc. It was great to meet the family.

It was an awesome race as usual. Jeff Wescott is the man behind the race and always does a stellar job. This year I did the team relay with Jilayne. The weather was perfect, the trails muddy and dusty, resulting in a dirty day. Nicole completed her first mountain bike race, doing the Sparkler, quickly learning that her abilities and mad-skills are way beyond that of a beginner. Sandbagger! Dan caught the burn-out bug that is going around, and ended up riding the rest of it with Nicoleee. It was Brandon's first race back after fighting some blood-clotting problems. Good to hang with him at races again. Kerry and I rode a good part of the course together before handing the baton off to our teammates to complete the second leg of the 50. Erin and her beloved bicycle, Beyonce had a blast; even after wrapping herself around a tree! She is now converting to a mountain bike and 'cross chickie.

Shippensdorf was the only one in our little crew who completed the whole 50 miles. Here he is finishing, before taking a beer feed.
For the second year in a row, we shut the race down, finishing off the food and kegs with the race promoters. Man this race is awesome. Pretty much the best race ever.