Waking up at 2:00am on the Sunday of the weekend St. Patrick’s Day festivities in a drinkin’ city seemed a strange way to begin a trip. I needed to go from the North side of Denver, through the South side, without incident – and then far beyond. Plan: ride the bicycle from the back door Continue reading…

Part 1 of an 8,000 word essay by Bryan Schatz (with illustrations by Matthew Burton) on my riding/art/tom-foolery leading up to and through the Tour Divide can be found in the latest issue of Switchback Magazine #10: Pitch black and frozen in the snow- choked Rockies north of the border, and all Justin Simoni could Continue reading…

Cross racing season ended for me around December with the State Championships, where I managed to do fairly OK, as I did for most of the races I entered. 45 minutes of racing is certainly not my sweet spot. I felt like a marathon runner, doing a 100 meter dash, which is somewhat close to Continue reading…

I’ve lived in Colorado for almost 14 years straight; and Denver for most of those years. I could move anywhere, but for over a decade, I’ve been here. What keeps me around? Happy to be able to help Randal Bellows III with this photo shoot, doing something I simply love to do: riding around on Continue reading…

Denver finally hosted its own CX race, in my old neighborhood, even – I’ve lived on both 36th/Marion and 35/Brighton. I got to the scene late – even though my race was at 1:20pm or something (1: I can’t count, and 2: I sleep in), and found myself sprinting to the start line still in Continue reading…

If you’re in Denver, find yourself a Westword and check out the cover story! It’s also online for your reading pleasure.  We’re packing up the short bus as we speak for the West Coast! Denver! I’ll see you in a few weeks. West Coast, I’ll see you tomorrow!  The list of people I have to Continue reading…

Twenty-Five days since finishing up the Tour Divide, I’m happy to report, I’ve done really nothing sensationally physical or demanding to my body. All too often, I – like many people who have an extra surplus of energy and stubbornly high pain tolerances, rush much too quickly right into another foolish test of strength, endurance Continue reading…

Justin Simoni speaks of the challenges of riding the Tour Divide mountain bike race as he works on his bike at The Outdoorsman in Butte, MT. Kelley Mattingly and I did a fairly casual interview about the Tour Divide, training, etc while I was at the Outdoorsman, outfitting my bike for some drier terrain, with Continue reading…

Surprise! About… 10 days? before the start of the 2012 Tour Divide, I decided to look at plane tickets and found one affordable enough to get to Banff, Alberta and give ‘er another go, this time on a Single Speed. To my complete surprise, I not only finished, but was the first one-speed-wonder over the Continue reading…

Loveland Pass I am perpetually amazed at what adventures lay so close to home, taken on by just strapping on some clothes, tools, food and a sleeping bag to a cobbled together bicycle and just going for it. Last weekend saw me ride from Del Norte, along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, with the Continue reading…

On top of Grays Peak.    This weeks plan was to ride to the Summer Trailhead of Grays/Torreys, hike up both, and ride back, all in one fell swoop. I mean, why not? It’s ~55 miles and 9,000 feet of elevation to the Winter Trailhead, 3 miles of hike-a-biking on the dirt road to the Continue reading…

    I certainly don’t like living a life that contains much nostalgia. I’m far more interested in the here and now, or the coming soon, than what’s past. I don’t hold onto many things material. So, it’s always a surprise to me, when nostalgia hits me in the face and I feel an intense Continue reading…

There’s a network of roads that make a N to S corridor, just West of the plains of Denver/Boulder and just inside the mountains of the Front Range. The cycling on these roads is, for the most part, spectacular. Most of my more, “serious” rides are rides into this corridor, until bailing at some convenient Continue reading…

One of the magical things about the Tour Divide is the MTBCast call-in service. If you can find a pay phone on the route – which are actually still, “plentiful” in the areas the GDMBR wanders through, you can call a 800 number and leave a message, that will then be posted up by MTBCast Continue reading…

Sunday’s ride proved to be a nice loop ’round the neighborhood, starting in Denver at around 5:50am. Starting with a swift ride to Golden with little traffic and summiting  the top of Lookout Mountain Road to see the sunrise and then, somewhat disappear as the bright start of the day seemed to starve itself into Continue reading…

Packing along a bike, just in case… The Arizona Trail Race 750 is a race across Arizona, from the Mexican/Arizona border to the Arizona/Utah border, with a portage, down, across and back up the Grand Canyon. Being a Nation Park, no bike riding is allowed on the trail, so you need to somehow carry your Continue reading…

This is Tom Danielson, a pro road cyclist, height: 5’10”, weight: 130lbs:  In this photo (found here), he’s breaking the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb record at an incredible 16 minutes, 3 seconds. Super light bike, skin suit, shoe covers.   That’s really fast. Lookout Mountain Road is the closest hill to climb as the crow Continue reading…

This past week, I rode a paltry 104 miles in total, went to the gym once and, uh, snowshoed for 11 1/2 hours. Plus the usual bicycle commuting. And I’m a masked vigilante in the wee hours. Ok, the last part isn’t true.  The only ride I did was around Cherry Creek. Made it from Continue reading…

This week’s of bicycle riding was interrupted by some snow falling in the Front Range, much to the chagrin of the rest of the thirsty state, which hasn’t seen as much snowfall as is anticipated. Snow didn’t let up until around Saturday, so I got out of bed as early as possible, waited for the Continue reading…