218 Miles
A few weeks ago, Martyn pinged me and asked if there were any American motor sports that would be happening while they were here. He specifically mentioned flat track racing which is not something you get in the UK. As it happened, it turned out the final races of the season for the Colorado Flat Track and Speedway were happening on the first Saturday night. They were at the IMI Motorsports Complex in Dacono, which is just North of Denver. With that in mind, we built our schedule around getting there for the races.
We had breakfast at they Wycolo Lodge. Mac and Martyn were introduced to breakfast burritos, not the best, with green chili which was better. Initially, we planned to get a place in or near Dacono and take an Uber or taxi over there. When the Airbnb host did not respond, we decided to head to Highlands Ranch, stay at my house and drive up there.
For years, I have heard that Colorado 14 through Poudre Canyon is a must ride. With that in mind, we headed back to Walden from the Wycolo Lodge. There in town, you turn left on to 14 and off you go. The ride through the valley and up over Cameron Pass was great.
The ride down into Rustic was nice but from there on down to Laporte was miles of miles. Lots of lefts and rights with the smoothest tarmac that you could wish for. Our timing was pretty much perfect as the traffic did not build up until later in the morning as we got to the bottom end of the Canyon.
We stopped in Rustic and took advantage of the restaurant to get a coffee and quick rest. Mac decided he wanted to be a real American biker and ride without his helmet and sport his Macbean tartan.
As we dropped out of Poudre Canyon, we stopped in Fort Collins for lunch near downtown. We then kept on running down 287 into Longmont where we got coffees. From there, it was down to Golden around the backroad to Morrison and on to Highlands Ranch.
After a quick shower, we jumped in the truck and drove out to Dacono for the races. First race up after the national anthem was the little kids on their balance bikes.
Next up were the juniors with a bunch of girls who were killing it and having a blast wearing their tutus. There were lots of classes and lots of races. I think one of my favorites was the hooligan class. There was a Harley out there that would light up his rear tire no matter how gently he put on the power.
The views out to the west were amazing. With the motocross track still running and people practicing their table top jumps, it made for some pretty spectacular shots.
We stayed for a lot of races but not to the bitter end. There were a couple of problems. There are are no real concessions as the complex only a food truck. The bigger problem was there was no beer to be had. The lady in the food truck sent us on a wild goose chase for beer, we did see the whole paddock, but there was none to be found. We had to make do with beers when we got back home.
