As I mentioned a few days ago, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is underway in Colorado where some of the best bike riders in the world are squaring off on a course that offers plenty of climbing at altitude. It has been a solid week of riding already, but yesterday's stage was one that put the real contenders out front and ready to duel for the win.

Heading into the weekend there is a familiar name at the top of the leaderboard as American Tejay van Garderen holds a 4 second lead over his teammate on Team BMC Mathias Frank. In third place sits Janier Alexis Acevedo Calle, 30 seconds of the pace, while Tom Danielson and Lachlan Morton, both of Garmin-Sharp are further back in 4th and 5th place respectively.

Tejay has been riding well this week and he looked very strong and confidant on yesterday's leg during which he took over the Yellow Jersey. It'll be tough to beat him as the riders turn towards Denver, which will host the final leg of the race on Sunday. That one is designed for the sprinters to take center stage, which means if anyone is going to crack van Garderen, they had better do it today or tomorrow.

Today's stage is a short one. It a 16 km (10 mile) time trial that is tougher than it sounds. The first half of the ride will be fairly flat and fast, while the second half is all uphill. In fact, it climbs about 516 meters (1694 ft) in the last 8 km (5 miles). Considering the fact that Tejay is viewed as the best time trialist amongst the top contenders and he's a strong climber, he shouldn't give up much ground today.


That leaves Saturdays 185 km (115 mile) stage 6 between Loveland and Fort Collins as the place for someone to make a move. It features plenty of climbing (more than 3657 meters/12,000 ft) but potential headwinds could make the riders feel the pain even more than those numbers indicate. It also happens to be a down-hill finish, which would allow any potential contenders to be easily swept up. In short, it's tough to see anyone catching van Garderen as this point, but it isn't over until it's over.

In the race for the other jerseys, Cannonadale's Peter Sagan is the current leader in the Sprint category while Matt Cooke is the King of the Mountain and Morton is the Best Young Rider. Whether or not any of them will be able to hold on to those honors will also be learned this weekend.

It has been another exciting race this far. Great to know that the event continues to get great crowds lining the roads and plenty of fans following along at home. Lets hope this race stays healthy for years to come.

No, I haven't forgotten that the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is currently going on in Colorado, it has just been a busy week at Adventure Blog world headquarters and I haven't had a chance to really mention the race yet. It has been a spirited couple of days to say the least with the riders battling each other out on the course while struggling to adapt to the altitude, which is a hallmark of the event, which has become the premiere bike race in North America.

Heading into today's third stage Lachlan Morton of Team Garmin-Sharp is the current leader. He holds down a two second lead over Mathias Frank of BMC and an 11 second lead over Peter Sagan of Cannondale. Sagan sprinted to a victory in Stage 1 while Frank rode to a solo victory in yesterday's second stage.

The third stage of the race will take place today with a 170 km (105 mile) ride from Breckenridge to Steamboat Sprigs. It features a long tough climb up Rabbit Ears Pass but it will mostly be a fast and furious down hill affair with the sprint teams looking for a victory at the end of the day. This is one of the few stages that actually drops in elevation as the riders go on.

Morton isn't just in the Yellow Jersey of the overall leader but he is currently at the top of the Best Young Rider category as well. Sagan leads the points category that traditionally goes to the top sprinter, while the King of the Mountain Jersey is currently on the back of American Matt Cooke who rides for Team Jamis/Hagens Berman presented by Sutter Home (How's that for a mouthful?). Team BMC leads the way in the team competition.

There are five more stages to go, including today's Stage 3. The race will wrap up on Sunday with a fast 116 km (72  mile) flat finale on the streets of Denver that will favor the sprinters.

Mountaineer turned ultrarunner Ben Clark has set an impressive goal for himself this summer. The man who has climbed multiple Himalayan peaks, including Everest, will be facing an entirely different kind of challenge when he sets out to complete Nolan's 14 – a 100-mile long route in Colorado that features 90,000 feet of vertical gain, linking 14 different mountains of 14,000 feet (4267 meters) in height or more. If he can complete the route in less than 60 hours, he'll add his name to a short, but distinguished, list of other runners who have managed to finish the grueling run as well. 

The state of Colorado has 54 mountains that rise above 14,000 feet. Locally they are known as the "14'ers" and many climbers take great pride in adding some or all of those peaks to their resume. One of those climbers was a man named Jim Nolan who discovered that the highest number of those 14'ers that a person could bag in a 100-mile stretch was 14. Thus the idea of Nolan's 14 was born with the challenge of completing a 100-mile long run up and over all 14 peaks in a quick of a time as possible. 

The concept of Nolan's 14 was strong enough to attract a field of ultrarunners for an unofficial race that ran between 1999 and 2001. Since that time, only seven runners have managed to complete the full course, navigating between Mt. Massive and Mt. Shavano along a path of their own choosing. This freedom of route finding allows the runner look for the most efficient way to cover the 100 miles while still topping out on as many of the 14'ers along the way as they possibly can. Ben hopes to get all 14 and still finish in under 60 hours.

Training for such an event is no small feat and last week in a post to the Osprey Packs Blog, Ben shared some thoughts on what he has been doing for the past two months to prepare for this epic run. He has spent a great deal of time in recent weeks scouting the route and picking the lines that will work best for him so that he can cover the distance in as fast of a time as possible. The best part? He isn't doing this to raise funds for a charity or to draw attention to one of his sponsors. He's taking on the Nolan's 14 strictly for the challenge of it. He wants to see if he can do it in under 60 hours with no other motivations other than just pushing himself to test the limits of his own endurance. 

Ben will begin his Nolan's 14 run next Sunday, August 25 and with any luck, he'll wrap it up two-and-a-half day later. I'll keep you posted on his results. Good luck Ben! 

One of the most popular and well known adventure film festivals in the world will kick off on Friday when the 35th annual MountainFilm Festival gets under way in Telluride, Colorado. As usual, the fest will be four days packed with great outdoor films, plenty of activities and a healthy dose of social awareness.

It is a tradition at MountainFilm to start the festival with the Moving Mountains Symposium, a special event that always focuses on an important social topic. Typically, experts on the subject are brought in to discuss it in detail and those attending the symposium are able to have meaningful dialogs on what ever the issue is. This year's topic is "Climate Solutions" and will feature notable guests such as environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, journalist John Hockenberry and scientists Daniel Nocera and Terry Roort. The Moving Mountains Symposium begins 9:00 AM local time on Friday and runs until 3:30 PM.

After that, the schedule jumps right into the film premieres, art events, parties and live music. It is a very packed few days with guest speakers and all kinds of interesting seminars and sessions. Tickets for MountainFilm are still available, although today is the last day that you can actually buy them online. Throughout the rest of the weekend you'll need to buy them on site.

If you're anywhere near Telluride this weekend and you're looking for something to do, then I definitely recommend you hit up MountainFilm. Here in the states this is a three-day weekend, so you don't have any excuse for not taking in some of these amazing films. I'm looking forward to finding out who the winners are next week once the judging is complete. Then of course, we can look forward to the MountainFilm World Tour later this year.

The 142-mile long Kokopelli Trail stretches from Moab, Utah to Fruita, Colorado and is a popular with both backpackers and mountain bikers. Recently, the Queen of Pain herself, Rebecca Rusch took to the trail in an attempt to set a new speed record. If you're familiar with Rebecca's body of work, you already know she is one of the best endurance mountain bikers on the planet. She demonstrated that once again on this ride as she managed to complete the entire trail in 13 hours, 32 minutes, 46 seconds. That shaved more than an hour and a half off the old record.

But that isn't the entire story. Two hours into her ride, Rebecca crashed hard and dislocated the index finger on her left hand. She continued riding for another 11 hours with that pain. And to make matters worse, as she rode through the night, her headlamp died, leaving her to ride in darkness from 4:00 AM to about 6:00 AM. Despite these difficulties she still managed to set the new record anyway.

The spectacular video below helps us all to appreciate that impressive ride, and the more impressive rider, all the more. Well done to all involved. Beautiful stuff.

Earlier today, American Rivers, an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the waterways of the U.S., released its 2013 list of America's Most Endangered Rivers. The report, which has been released annually for the past 30 years, serves to raise awareness to the challenges that these rivers face, which includes poor water management plans, excessive pollution and climate change.

All told, there are ten rivers that receive "Most Endangered" status this year. Some of those rivers include the Kootenai River in Montana and Idaho, the Catawba in North and South Carolina and San Saba River here in Texas. But perhaps the most alarming waterway to make the list is the iconic Colorado River, which stretches across the Western United States and has a dramatic impact on the entire region.

The Colorado tops the list for endangered rivers with the report citing "outdated water management" as the biggest concern. The situation has gotten so dire in fact that American Rivers says that "there is not enough water in the Colorado River to meet the Basin’s current water demands, let alone to support future demand increases from growing populations." The river is already amongst the most controlled and dammed waterways on the planet, with plans for more in the future. Considering how important the river is to the states it passes through (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming), the lack of water is a serious cause for concern as we head deeper into the 21st century.

So how can this trend be changed and the Colorado be saved? Well for starters, we can urge Congress to fund the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSmart and Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse programs. Both of those initiatives are going to be very important as we head forward, not just on the future of the Colorado, but numerous other rivers across the U.S. Particularly as climate change make drought more common and weather patterns more unpredictable.

The video below was put together to help explain the situation on the Colorado more fully and give us a visual idea of what we are dealing with here. It is a sobering piece piece that will definitely have a lasting impression.

In October 2011, paddler Will Stauffer-Norris, along with some friends, set off to make a source-to-sea journey down the Colorado River. They launched their adventure on the Green River in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and then followed the waterway south, ending in the Sea of Cortez three months later. Their entire journey has now been condensed down to a three-and-a-half minute video, which you can watch below. You can also find out more about this amazing expedition at DownTheColorado.org.

While the timelapse images used in this video get a little herkey-jerkey at times, it still conveys a great sense of what it must have been like to paddle this impressive waterway. A fantastic adventure to say the least. Well done Will and Company!


Mirror River // source to sea in 3 minutes from Will Stauffer-Norris on Vimeo.

The Ouray Ice Park, located in Ouray, Colorado, is one of the premiere ice climbing destinations in the entire world. It is so good in fact that climbers from around the globe descend on the park each winter to test their skills on its mostly-man made routes. What makes it so special? Have a look at this excellent video below to find out.


"Ice" presented by the Ouray Ice Park from Outside Adventure Media on Vimeo.