My name is Thomas Raney, I am an incoming Junior at the University of Colorado Boulder and I am on the triathlon team. I have been competing in triathlons since I was in high school. Something that I love about triathlons is that I can consider myself a swimmer, a cyclist, and a runner independently as well as a triathlete.

I don’t have a favorite of the three, but cycling certainly holds a special place for me.

This is a blog about riding my bike in and around Boulder. I made my decision on where to go to college very carefully based on how the cycling was. Boulder was the obvious choice. Boulder is known around the world as the place to be a cyclist. Boulder features an incredible quantity and variety of roads: flat, lumpy, and climbs fit for the pros. On top of all of that Boulder is located over a mile in elevation, providing excellent low oxygen training, which teaches your body to be more efficient when supplying oxygenated blood to itself.

I will be riding and reviewing local routes. I will include pictures, maps, local insight, and my personal experience on each route.

Today I got on my bike and climbed Boulder’s queen climb: Flagstaff Mountain.

This is a roughly 5 mile climb (depending on how far up you go) that ascends Flagstaff Mountain, which rises right above the center of Boulder. The route takes you zig-zagging up the face of it, treating you to incredible views of Boulder Valley, and since today was especially clear I could even see Denver.

I started with a little loop around my neighborhood to get some flat in before the climbing. It is good to get that little warm up in because there are no downhills at all up Flagstaff. Living in Boulder is amazing for cycling but when climbing it can be a lot all at the beginning of the ride.

After my little warm up, I headed towards Baseline. Baseline and Flagstaff are the same road, it becomes Flagstaff Road right at the base of the mountain.

The ride from Baseline and Broadway up to the base of the climb is quite tedious, and already quite steep. It is a long straight uphill road with lots of traffic. I always get some heckling and honks from aggressive drivers on this stretch of road.

After a couple minutes grinding up Baseline the environment suddenly opens up and you are treated with a gorgeous view of Chautauqua hiking area.

This is a beautiful welcome to the climb and an indication that you are leaving the urban environment of Boulder for a place more rugged and natural.

The weather was looking a bit sketchy at the time I was going out for this ride, it looked like I might get rained or thundered on. The dark clouds forming above the gothic towers of the flatirons seemed a bit foreboding, but also quite exciting.

The Climb

Just up the road a bit from Chautauqua the climb begins, and it holds nothing back from the start. You bike around a quick corner, over a small creek and suddenly the road whips up to a 16% grade, enough to get even the strongest cyclist out of the saddle.

Since you have already done the prerequisite climbing on the initial Broadway to Flag stretch of road, the views are amazing immediately as you start this part of the climb.

If you look to the right, you can see all of Boulder, the university, Pearl St. 29th St, you can see the Willvill towers and the 36 highway as it climbs out of Boulder Valley. If you look to your left you see Incredible rock formations and healthy pine trees lining the sheer face of the mountain. And if you look forward you see the road seeming to ascend straight into the sky, leaving you wondering what is around the next corner.

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There is nothing like the feeling of being on a light road bike, climbing up a steep grade. It feels like dancing and jumping, and running all together. I believe everyone should climb up mountains in this way, it gives a new perspective and a new appreciation that you cannot get from just driving up in a car.

After the initial extreme in grade that the road gives you, it starts to calm down to a more manageable slope, averaging around 10% grade. The road tosses and turns, zigs and zaggs up and it feels like and adventure the whole way up. You will make a turn and be looking out at a view that seemingly stretches out as far as the Mississippi, then you will turn again and be immersed in an alpine forest.

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At one point there is a threshold that you cross. It is the point at which you are no longer looking up at the mountains around you, because you are now among the tops of them. At this point you are at the top of the sheer beginning and are now ascending a more gentile slope, navigating through the tops of the peaks.

From there it was just a couple more minutes of riding before I decided to turn around due to time.

In the final mile of my ride today, I got to the real monster part of the climb. If you though the beginning was brutal, and that you had finally scaled the beast and were in for an easy float among the clouds, you would be wrong. The road again kicks up and it heads towards Gross Reservoir. This kick is more unforgiving, the air is thinner and has a cold bite to it. The roads are steeper and switchbacks more extreme. I got to my final switchback and hit it with everything I had, just for a few seconds. My hands were sweaty and it was almost hard to hold on to the bike. I was out of gears and out of time, so I stopped and took some quick pictures.

The Descent

On my way down I made a quick detour up Flagstaff Summit rd. This is a super quick road that takes you to the Sunrise Amphitheater, a popular place to get married.

I have always been a cautious descender. I made my way down the mountain slowly and safely, but still enjoyed some of the sensation of speed and excitement, Like being on a roller coaster perfectly suited for my comfort level. I soaked in the magnificent views as they were presented to me around every turn.

I love to know that there is a place I can go, up above Boulder, among the clouds and the mountains. This place contains challenge, excitement, discovery, and adventure.

Thanks for reading!

For my first blog post, I will detail a shorter bike workout I did on Wednesday that took me over a brutal climb, up a canyon, and to a quiet little mountain town called Jamestown.

All good rides in Boulder start from Amante Coffee shop in North Boulder. Any establishment that puts racks for outside for cyclists to put their bikes on is a good place, not to mention it sells every cyclists favorite caffeinated beverage.

From there I headed up Lee Hill towards the first climb of the afternoon: Olde Stage. Olde Stage is a brutal two mile long climb. Where it lacks in length it makes up for in gradient. With not much in the way of pretty views it demands your full attention and physical strength as you putter your way up in the easiest gear the bike can provide.

For my workout I had to do the climb 3 times at a moderate to hard effort. I did the front side of the climb for the first one, and did the back side, which is about the same distance and grade twice.

After my efforts, it was time for a change in pace and I headed over to Lefthand Canyon for some longer 8 Minute intervals. Named after Southern Arapaho Chief Niwot (Chief Lefthand), this is a much longer, much less steep at the bottom of a canyon along Lefthand Creek.

Olde stage is a fast, sheer climb up a steep straight road, Left Hand is isn’t like that, its like a slow crawl up to the mountain.

The views and the feeling of riding on this road are stunning. The creek is constantly roaring beside you and it cools the bottom of the canyon. The dark green pine blanketed mountains rise beside you abbreviated by the exposed iron colored rock walls cut through to build the road.

I made my way up, completing four sets of 8 minutes at 95% of my threshold power output with two minutes rest between each effort.

A bit of the way up I took a turn onto James Canyon Road. Every road seems to have its own personality, and it’s own way of daring me as a cyclists to see what it has to offer. James road was a bit steeper and more rugged.

Finally I made it to Jamestown, a quaint and rustic mountain town of 250. The buildings are scattered and children play in the road as the creek rushes by. The idea of living up there is attractive, it screams adventure, the roads are unpaved and the people are strong. I took a look at one of the best breakfast spots in Boulder County, The Mercantile. Unfortunately it was closed at that hour of the day, but go there any morning and it’s buzzing with activity, cyclists and non cyclists alike. This route takes roughly and hour and a half to two hours to complete and is stunning from the get go, I would recommend anyone in the area consider it as a weekend activity.

Thanks for reading!

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