It might still be spring and the snow might still be flying - or at least the weatherman is calling for snow and rain in Sunday - but it's never too early to start planning for a summer of fun. Our local racing series will be back again and it's looking like an awesome way to spend Wednesday nights. There's five races in the series again and there sill be something for everyone. We kick off the summer on June 4 in Palmer Park (race #92!) This is different from prior years, where the first race has been on the dizzying singletrack of Bear Creek. It's gonna be an honest starting point - tackling the harder course first. Then come race # 2 in the series - and we return to Bear Creek. Spectator friendly and just plain hard due to the speed of the course, Bear Creek tests everyone when ridden hard. I'm not looking forward to that one this year for a variety of reasons...

A short break in the Ascent Cycling Series for the US Pro Cup and CO State Championships on June 28th and 29th. This is a big race, with world champions and Olympic Medalists all anticipated to compete. It's the final race in a four race series and will be held at a new venue for Sand Creek Sports - Pulpit Rock. The UCI Race with all the big guns will be on Saturday and most of the state championship races will be held Sunday. This will be a great opportunity to showcase our city and the plethora of local talent trolling the Pikes Peak area trails. Even if racing isn't on the plate for that weekend, come out and volunteer. It's going to be a great weekend of mountain biking. It's not every day that we are lucky enough to be able to race with some of big names of our sport and I hope everyone takes advantage of this. There's a lot of hard work going on to make this a successful weekend of racing.

Take a breath from that weekend and it's right back to Palmer Park for Ascent Cycling Series race #3 on July 9th. I'm sure Andy with have someone up his sleeve with the course designers and we'll get something completely different then the first race at Palmer Park. Either way, it's still going to be a trip with plenty of rocks, roots and challenges. On July 19th, there's something a little different planned. Last year, we had a longer cross country race at Cheyenne Mountain State Park - very different from the hour of pain the Wednesday races provide. This year, the rumor is a 50 mile race for the senior riders. I can't confirm that, but if so... Talk about a fun weekend of riding! The final race of the series this year is back at Bear Creek on July 30th. Series awards and hopefully chocolate milk will follow that final race.

So there you have it. The Ascent Cycling Series is coming up fast and will provide fun and quality racing for the entire summer. I'll be writing about the races and some other random thoughts again this year.