Cycling culture invades Aspen with delicious meals and unique lingo

Cycling chef serves up good eats

The winner of the queen stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge from Gunnison to Aspen says food played a role in his victory. During a post-win press conference in Aspen Wednesday, George Hincapie of the BMC racing team credited good eating:

“I thought I was in pretty good shape coming into this race and yesterday I pretty much fully bonked coming into the finish and didn’t eat enough and so, today, I ate as much as I would do for a world cup and it ended up helping out because I felt a lot better today,” Hincapie said.

Indeed, food does play and integral part of an athlete’s performance. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen visited with the chef for Team Radio Shack as he cooked for the team’s cyclists following yesterday’s stage of the race.




Who or what is a peloton?

A large scale bike race barreling through a town’s main street, like Colorado’s ProCycling Challenge, can be a headache for people who couldn’t care less about cycling. But for diehard bike fans this race is what the Super Bowl is for football fans or the World Series to baseball fans. As with any sport with a large enough following a certain culture forms around it complete with its own clothing, tools and lingo. Aspen Public Radio’s Luke Runyon met up with some of those fans and gives us a peek into the world of pro cycling.

Natural gas drilling expansion sparks debate in Garfield County

Part One

Drive west on Interstate 70 and a change in the landscape is evident almost as soon as you pull out of Glenwood Springs. Natural gas wells dot the highway. Their prevalence is not new, but the industry is growing and with that growth comes serious public policy debates. Aspen Public Radio's Luke Runyon looked into what’s at stake for the industry and for residents who fear for their health. In part one of his report he has one example of what happens when oil and gas operations attempt to coexist in a densely populated neighborhood.

Part Two

Fracking. The word is powerful enough in Western Colorado to elicit gut reactions. The spreading use of the drilling practice is touted as a way to wean the United States off foreign oil. Critics, who say their air is being polluted with noxious fumes, believe fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a health hazard. There still is no definitive science to back up the claim. One of the only studies to consider the issue was recently halted before completion. Now, residents of the small retirement community of Battlement Mesa in Garfield County have taken matters into their own hands; they are doing their own testing. In the second of our reports on the debate over natural gas drilling in Garfield County, Aspen Public Radio’s Luke Runyon explores whether this citizen sampling is political action or sound science.

Part Three

Colorado’s natural gas industry is growing...fast. Drilling companies are seeking permits to open more wells at a furious pace. And the requests are no longer limited to just the western part of the state, the region generally thought of as Colorado’s natural gas mecca. Now parts of northern and eastern Colorado could be on the brink of a drilling boom as companies are scooping up mineral rights to a massive shale formation. Nationally, demand for gas is growing and that has companies aggressively exploring in the state. In the final part of our report on natural gas drilling in Colorado, Aspen Public Radio’s Luke Runyon explains that changes in drilling technology will likely have the biggest impact on the future of energy development here.