Fruita / Creste Butte

I rocked into Friuta a couple of days ago, bought some maps and went out for a sneaky ride. The hype of this area is amazing, the pictures, stories, wifes tales all lend me to believe that this place was going to be awesome. It didn't dissappoint, the before I was riding in high alpine single track with killer climbs, but Friuta was completely different, within a 2hr drive I was in a semi arid desert, I guess Friuta is a lot like Moab, and you have all seen pictures of the Moab landscape. Another way to describe it would be like the Alice Springs stage race on steriods! Any way I rode the best areas I could in the time I had, in particular one trail, 'Horse Theif' at Kopelli was probably my favourite.  I need to return, with a crew and stay for a week, even Jo would love it there!

Next up, I arrived in Creste Butte yesterday afternoon, after a quick ride in Friuta in the morning. I went to a cool looking B and B, only to find them booked out, (summer is super busy, hiking, biking and wildflower watching?) so I moved onto the next one, while checking in I thought I knew the girl working behind the desk, turns out it is Jari Kirkland ( 2nd at the WSC in Canmore) so she hooked me up with some of her favourites, 3 day of wicked rides await! Also went up to the local twilight race, race a format called, 'up, down, up, down, so you ride up the ski hill on a narrow single track, bomb down the DH track, up another ST and back down a different DH track, although still suffering from the altitude a bit I thought I might go ok. So I start with the leaders, held him to the top, he smashed me on the DH, held the same distance on the climb, then smashed me on the DH. 1:02, a couple minutes down on the leader, so yeah, number 2 again!

I better kit up, about to do a big ride, will keep you posted.