I haven’t raced in my home state of Colorado for more than a month, so it was nice to not have the weekend hassles of traffic, parking, shuttle buses, security checks, disgruntled airline employees, crappy airport food, rental cars and long drives to races. This time, it was just down the road. Unfortunately, I had some heavy – and unrelated – work to do before race day.

As a bike shop owner in Colorado, one thing I couldn’t avoid this past weekend was VeloSwap. VeloSwap is a massive annual swap meet for all things related to cycling. If you are looking for a deal on a new bike, a professional racer’s used bike shorts or a limit screw to a 1961 Campagnolo Gran Sport rear derailleur, you’ll probably find it at VeloSwap.

Years ago, as a consumer and a racer, I thought the VeloSwap was great. I found stuff cheap and I unloaded tons of gear, too. As a shop owner, the VeloSwap seems like a necessary evil. Bike shops have to set up a booth because chances are all of our potential customers are going to be there anyway. Plus, it gives us a chance to unload excess inventory. Sounds great, huh? Well the evil part is renting a U-Haul van, driving it to Denver on Friday evening in rush hour traffic, unloading a van full of bikes, clothes, shoes, socks and water bottles, driving back to Boulder, sleeping and getting up at the crack of dawn the next day to drive back to Denver and try to sell all your stuff. The worst part is packing up all the stuff you didn’t sell and bringing it back to the shop. Sounds like great pre-race day prep, eh?

Even with the shenanigans of VeloSwap on Saturday, it was quite nice to sleep in my own bed and wake up to a warm and sunny fall day in Boulder knowing that a UCI-sanctioned race was less than five miles from my door step.

Local promoter, Brian Hludzinski of Boulderracing.com has been hosting races in and around the Colorado Front Range for several years now and has earned a reputation for putting on well-organized events with fun and challenging courses. Sunday’s race at the Boulder Reservoir was no exception.

The course has a mix of pavement, sand, gravel, more sand, grass, water, mud and a little more sand. The tricky terrain got the best of me on the first lap, so I played catch up all day, but it was nice to see my fellow teammates, Colby Pearce, (yes, the track Olympian) and Pete Webber, (yes, the former NORBA pro mountain biker) finish in the top ten.

I am often asked if I get nervous or stressed while racing and what I think about on the course. The truth is when racing I am at the lowest stress point of my week. While competing, I don’t think about anything except the race at hand. I remember reading about basketball star Michael Jordan years ago and he said the same thing about playing basketball. When he was on the court, he was untouchable. No one could cross the court boundary line and get near him. Not the fans, the media and all the daily stresses of life and work. Now I am not trying to compare myself to Michael Jordan. For one thing I can’t dunk, but I feel the same way when racing cyclo-cross. It’s one hour where I am completely focused on the course, my bike, how my body feels and the tactics of the race. Usually, I feel this way from the time I am on the start line until I cross the finish, but wouldn’t know it, I lined up next to Whitey DeBroux who owns and sells Whitey's Crash andBurn Medical Kit.

He politely asked me at the start line, “Hey Brandon, do you think I could get a check for that last delivery?” We sell his product in our bike shop and apparently we owe him a check from a past-due invoice! As they say, work never ends for the small business owner. At least I have a race scheduled every weekend from now until cyclo-cross nationals in mid-December to relieve some stress.

Speaking of races, if you live in and around the Rocky Mountain regionswing by and check out the CrankBrothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross this weekend. Saturday’s race,the Xilinx Cup, willbe in Longmont, Colorado and Sunday’s event, the BoulderCup, will be held in Boulder, Colorado. Hope to see you there!

Happy Halloween!

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Brandon Dwight lives in Boulder, Colorado and is part owner of BoulderCycle Sport. He is also the founder of Doperssuck.com.Sponsors include: Scott Bicycles, Shimano, Zipp, Cycle-Ops, Crank Brothers, Clif Bar, Fizik, Challenge, Chris King and Ritchey.