July

Where did summer go?  Am I really starting grad school in a week?

I took a little break after Europe in hopes of getting some rest for the month of July.  Lots of racing ahead.  It started on the 4th, with the Firecracker 50.  Won this race last year in the open category, my time would have put me in the top 10 in the pro’s.  I had some pretty high expectations. Under 4 hours ideally.  Top 10 for sure.  Podium would be a dream.  Well how did it go?  Nothing like my expectations.  Lets just say getting dropped by the women’s leaders is humbling.  And quite a reason to save yourself for the 6 days of racing to come.  Well that was my excuse.  To make it worse, I get a picture of myself drafting the girls on the climb on VeloNews…

But hey, I get to redeem myself the next day in the Breck Epic stage race.  214 miles, 20 hours, 32,000 ft of climbing.  All with my dad.  After hearing about this race last fall, it was pretty much a dream.  A 6 day mountain bike stage race in Colorado?! Couldn’t imagine anything better.  Except doing it as a team with my dad. So thats what we did.  The team aspect was pretty sweet.  We had to stay within 30 seconds of each other the whole race.

Stage 1: Hill Climb TT. 5 miles, 1600 ft of climbing, 40 min.  I had some good legs today.  Blasted it out of the gates, the old man was hurting.  Toned it back.  Took is water bottle to lighten it up.  The whole stage we were watching another team breathing down our necks.  I would look back and try to time the gap.  I knew they were close by the end.  I crossed the line and started the timer…. we beat them by 20 seconds.  We got a race on our hands!

Stage 2: Colorado Trail. 35 miles, 4500 ft of climbing, 3 hours.  Wearing the black leaders jersey’s, we had a target on our back.  Awesome day on the bike.  Amazing trails, so much fun.  They just bring a smile to your face.  My dad and I rode in the top 10 all day.  Never saw 2nd place once.  Thats how we like it.

Stage 3:  25 miles, 2:30.  Well it started well.  My dad and I dropped into the singletrack 2nd and 3rd.  Then about 2 min in to the decent I flat.  Wow, great timing.  By the time we get it patched almost the whole field has passed us.  And we have narrow singletrack for the next 5 miles.  That made for some seriously sketchy passing.  I am pretty sure we pissed a few people off.  We spent the whole day chasing. In the last 5 miles we caught, passed and dropped the guys in 2nd.  Came in a slim minute ahead.  Close call
Stage 4: The Queen Stage: 40 miles, 4 hours, 6700 ft of climbing.  Got all the back luck out yesterday right? Wrong.  Things went from bad to worse.  Real quick.  Again, sitting in the top 10, riding smooth.  Come down French gulch, which you go up in the Firecracker.  Right at the bottom my dad flats.  Not just a little one, a complete sidewall tear.  Take out the patch kit.  Take out the tire boot.  Boot it.  Tube it.  Air it up, bulging like none other.  No way we can ride it 30 more miles.  Luckily we were right at the first feed zone.  Thane Wright asks if we need anything.  Ya, a 29er tire.  Some dude watching has one in his car a mile and a half down the road.  I haul butt down there, grab it, ride back up at 180 bpm, and we put a tube in it.  Time lost, 20 min.  There goes the lead.  We spend the rest of the day chasing.  Never catch them.  Somehow we hold on to the jersey, but its a slim margin.

Stage 5: The King Stage. 4hrs, 36 miles, 6200 ft of climbing.  If you thought the 10 min hike a bike yesterday sucked, wait until today.  30 min hiking at 12000 feet.  My heart rate was in the 150’s walking.  Lets just say my attitude was pretty poor up there.  My dad was truly stronger today and I had to tell him slow down a few times.  When crossing the finish line I truly didnt want to ride my bike anymore for a while.  Most of us were in the same boat.  But we put a good 15 min into 2nd.  Finally some breathing room…

Stage 6:  Days like this make me forget the pain from yesterday.  Awesome singletrack.  Awesome legs.  Cap the overall win with a final stage win.

The race was awesome.  Put on very well.  Gotta give Mike McCormack props for that.  If it wasnt during school next year I’d be there.

Nationals:  Either I was gonna come into Nationals flying after the breck epic a week before or I would come with no top end.  Sadly it was the latter.  Somehow I pulled out the hole shot.  My cross skills were coming through.  I settled in on the first lap, trying not to kill myself.  I was riding decently.  Making up all my time on the descents and suffering up the climbs.  Coming into the last lap I was sitting in the top  10.  I would have been satisfied with that.  But I managed to lose 7 spots and finish in 17th.  Quite a bummer.  At least it is in CO again next year.

After nationals I took a bit of time off.  Did an epic 10 hour ride on the CO trail with my dad.  That was a serious bonk.  He is gonna write a book about riding the whole trail, it should be cool.

Did the Winter Park Crankworks at the end of the month.  Somehow I rallied from 13th at the top of the first climb to 4th at the end.  I was 20 seconds out of a big check too!  I was still pretty happy with it.

Swiss Racer Bike Cup – Granichen, Switzerland

First big race of the camp, Swiss Racer Bike Cup in Granichen, Switzerland.  This is the new name for the Swisspower series.  It’s the big times, some of the biggest races in Europe.

The Course:

Tough, real tough.  ~1km paved climb start into a super steep drop section with 2 lines, one off the 3 foot log drop and another more round about (aka – slower) line.  I never manned up and did the big boy line.  Thats not a good name actually cause 70% of the women rode it.  That is a serious blow to the ego when you can’t do something like that.  It wasn’t just me, most of the guys from the US were sketched out by it.  If I could go back I would do it right now.  Its killing me.  After the decent we took off over a scaffolding bridge and into a field.  Couple S turns and a log barrier jump, then into a climb in a quarry.  The next major climb has 5 or 6 switchbacks in some tight trees followed by another technical downhill.  Then back to the finish.  It was only 4.5km, but it had all major elements of a good XC course.  Such a short lap meant lots of laps though.  10 of them to be exact.

The Race:

No UCI points puts you at the back.  And with this field of guys its not like the start is easy.  It helped that it was on a road for a while, but moving up at all burned some matches for sure.  I still stood at the top of the technical downhill for a good 20 seconds waiting for things to go single file.  After the first lap, just like last week, I could tell the legs weren’t feeling it.  I might be starting too hard.  I’m gonna take the next race a little easier at the start and see if that helps.  The next 5 laps I struggled.  Then I got lapped.  Great for the moral, but somewhat expected.  Finally about 50 min in I started feeling better.  The last lap was my fastest ?! I guess thats a good thing.  I’m hoping things go a little better this weekend.

Up Next: Albstadt City Sprints on Saturday, and Albstadt XC Sunday. I hear there are 10,000 spectators expected…

Arnon Bike – Bonvillars, Switzerland

Last weekend was the first race of the euro camp in Bonvillars, Switzerland. It was a smaller race but thats for euro standards. I dont know the exact number of starters but there were a few hundred. Given there wern’t half year age groups like there is in the US, with categories 1-10, but it was a good size field.

The start was interesting. We did a “2 km” roll out to the other town. It was way longer than that, ended up being a 20 min spin behind a Smart Car to the other town. Where we sat for another 10 min before we started again. The euro’s take the starts a little too easy, so I decided to do my usual off the blocks start and but in a good 30 meter gap within the first 30 seconds. Fellow American Russell Finsterwald bridged up to me and then the rest of the group followed. By the time we hit the first climb I knew it wasnt gonna be a good day. I lost contact with the main group and my legs felt like bricks. I dont think it was my start because I always do that. I’m sure the 8 hour flight over a couple days before and the lack of any hard efforts before the race didnt help. For the first hour I was breathing through my nose looking at my legs and waiting for them to start working. By the time they felt alright it was too late. Not a big deal though, the last 2 races are the big ones I care about and want to do well at.

Here is the GPS track of the race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6452980

Germany photo dump

So, I kinda slacked on updating the blog for a while.  Here is my life summary since the last post in bullet points:

• Cross Nationals:  Not up to par.  Just didn’t have the snap in my legs.   The course was very selective.  There was no hiding on it, that was for sure.  12th or something in the U23.  Couldn’t defend the title in the Collegiate race.  Ended up 4th, but some of my best buds beat me so I couldnt be too mad.
• Met an amazing new friend in Kansas City, her name is Lauren
• Had a chill winter break at my parents new house, went skiing, rode a little bit.  Built a single speed cx bike
• Finished my last semester at Mines.  I had projects/presentations/papers in 5 out of my 6 classes.  It wasn’t super hard, but it was so time consuming.  Really took away from the riding time.  I was able to get in some good riding in February and March though.
• Almost pulled a 4.0, missed it by 3% in my graduate level Failure Analysis class.
• Went to St. George, UT for spring break with my dad.  We got in some awesome mountain bike rides.
• Did the US Cup in Fontana, CA.  It was hot.  I had  a solid race, finishing in the 30’s.  Chilled with Troy and Todd and Meg Wells the whole weekend.
• Went to Sea Otter with the parents.  Had a good time there.  I should have done that race a long time ago.  It’s super cool.  Not literally though, it was like 90 degrees for the XC.  I got toasted on the 2nd lap, and they even shortened it.  Didn’t finish too well, but oh well.  Short track was hard, especially starting on the second to last row.  Burped my tire then got pulled.  On well.
• Did a couple collegiate road races.  Got taken out in the first one and destroyed my front wheel.  Somehow I didn’t get hurt nor did any other part of my bike.  Put a new wheel in and rode home from Fort Collins.
• Graduated.  Most satisfying day of my life.
• Did the TTT at collegiate nationals.  Froze my butt off.  I dont know why they thought it was necessary to start racing at 8 am when they had all day.  The team ended up 5th, so that was pretty solid given our situation.
• 2nd place in the Front Range 50.  Bryan Alders dropped me on the last half lap.  Strong dude.  Still made $150, which is good for a mountain bike race.
• Had a grad party for my sis and I
• Now I’m going to Germany for 2.5 weeks to race

Here are some sweet pictures from my buddy Nick Salazar www.nicksalazar.com

This seasons ride

My main ride for this season.  Cant blame it on the bike, thats for sure.

Red is right

I swear I’m gonna update this at some point…

I’m Lazy / Busy

So, where did I leave off….

After Boulder UCI, I did some local races.  The 11th was down at Chatfield St. Park.  Fast course, lots of swoopy single track.  Big front group ~ 8 of us.  3 laps in, I hastily put my bike down and dropped my chain.  It was just my training bike and it didnt have a chain watcher so I had to stop and put it back on.  Burned a few matches catching back on and was a little spent when Baker and Paco went.  Ended up getting 3rd out sprinting Greg Krause.  Sunday wasnt too good.  South table mtn.  Goathead-ville.  I had the Stans tires so I was good there.  My chain kept coming off my lower pulley and draging against the cage.  So I stopped like 4 times during the race to push it over and fix it.  Just kept riding for a workout.  

 

Nov 20-21: NJ Grand Prix.  Muddy, real muddy.  Not good mud either.  Peanut butter mud.  It was nasty.  Came into it wearing the leaders jersey so I had some big shoes to fill.  I didnt fill them too well.  I think I ended up 32nd both days.  I didnt feel spectacular either day.  Not having my own 2nd bike didnt help either (long story…).  I was just happy to get out of there.  Now I’m 3rd in the USGP standings.  Solid.  Gotta have some good races in Portland.  

 

Nov 22-23.  On Saturday my dad and I went on a nice MTB ride on the trails behind the new house.  It was fun to rip up some sweet single track.  Sunday was my last race in CO for the season, back in Golden, where ironically the first race of the season was.  Fast, dry course.  Typical CO.  Paco was there.  Dubba came out of his temporary marriage retirement.  The man Pete Webber was ripping too.  Had a solid start, rollin 2nd wheel, then went out in front.  I let Paco pass.  90 degree right hander, come into it with speed, burp the front tubeless wheel.   Sweet.  Guys are passing left and right.  Get the new wheel.  In like 15th.  Demoralized.  Should have tried harder, probably could have made it up to 4th.  My legs felt like poo though.  Oh well, I blamed it on the flat and pulled out.  Wimpy, I know.

 

Past Weekend (29-30): Jingle Cross, Iowa.  Cool race, not the coolest place.  Two UCI C2’s out there.  It was a sweet course setup.  Sand pit, spiral of death, huge run ups.  Fun cross racing.  More spectators than I expected for Iowa.  Saturday I had a decent day.  Got screwed up on the start like most guys.  Ended up racing with Tilley and Sam Kreig.  Tilley was trying to mess with us, but I know his style and didnt let it phase me.  With about 400 meters to go, there was a 180 with two hop-able logs.  I put in an effort to snake Tilley on the inside.  He sees me coming and surges ahead.  I dont know if it was early onset alzheimer’s but the dude forgot about the 180 coming and t-boned Kreig.  They took each other out and I sprinted away for 6th place.  8 UCI points and $120.  Score.  Sunday was not too good.  Slipped my pedal at the start.  Then put my chain into my spokes at the bottom of the climb and had to stop and fix it.  Proceeded to do that again, then drop my chain.  Its really hard to put it on wearing fatty gloves.  So I put my jacket on and rode around playing the mud.  I even rode the whole muddy climb, it was fun. I think I ended like 26th or something stupid.  I seem to have bad luck on Sundays.  Oh well….

 

Up next is Portland, then Nationals.  Time to get serious.  I’m skipping on the Euro camp this year.  I’m excited to go skiing and prepping for MTB season.  On that topic, I’m gonna be riding for Clif Bar next season.  Should be fun, the team is Troy and I.  

Not the smoothest handoff...

Boulder UCI

For the one time this year, I get to stay in state for some UCI races.  Its kinda nice to be able to get home Sunday night and study for the test on Monday.  Not that studying or taking tests is nice, but I’m just saying…

 

Boulder Res-  I (used to) hate this place.  Goat heads, sand, the kind of stuff that makes races I don’t like. Goat heads – they were there.  Luckily I rocked some tubeless tires and got one on the 3rd lap, but it sealed itself.  I love technology. Sand – plenty of it.  One straight deep section and a fast downhill one with a corner.  I hated this part from years past.  The call up was ridiculous. Top 15 UCI called up.  Then I realize they arent going to do anything for the rest.  Open the gates and we all race 10 feet to the line.  Luckily I snuck up onto the 3rd row.  Whistle blows, Wicks misses his pedal.  Amateur.  Into the first corner around 20th.  Not bad.  Just trying to stay calm till things shake out.  I’m feeling good, closing gaps that open up easily.  Find myself riding with Matt Pachoca, like usual.  I steadily keep picking off guys.  20 min in, into the top 15.  Damn, didnt really think I had a shot at UCI points this weekend, especially given that Sat. was a C2, only going 10 deep.  I dropped Paco, riding with Tonkin, Wicks and Joey Thompson, fighting for 10th.  Pass Anthony.  I see my homie Troy Wells up ahead.  Wicks puts in a late race surge and I didnt even have a chance to get on it.  I reel in Troy with 3 to go.  Got a gap on Tonkin and Thompson.  I’m feeling good in the sand somehow.  I would rest up into it, spin 100 rpm and float it.  It was like butter.  One time I blew past Troy, it was crazy.  T-dub and I ride the last 3 laps together, he says he will give me the sprint because he new I needed the points bad (I owe you man…).  We did just enough to hold of Tonkin and not make any stupid mistakes.  8th place.  Best UCI result ever.  Even better considering the field.  Just about as deep as a USGP.  I was super stoked.  My legs felt awesome the whole race.  I even rode 5.5 hrs Thursday as my last big training block.  Crazy.

Sunday – Harlow Platts Park.  Similar to past courses.  Much more twisty though.  Bordering on ridiculous in my mind.  I know we all love our crits here in the US, but I have never seen a course like this in Europe.  There was probably like 15 180’s.  Again, a sand pit.  Callup was different today.  After UCI points, it was based on alphabetical order.  Thats stupid.  I cheated my way onto the 3rd row and pissed some guys off.  Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do.  Start was easy.  Given that it was uphill, it made it harder for other guys.  I wove my way through into 3rd by the top!  Seemed like nothing to me…. I should be a sprinter or something.  First lap felt alright.  I could tell I was lacking the snap out of the corners and would get gapped, then tried too hard on the straights to get back on.  It put me over the edge. I wasnt feeling the sand either.  I guess some of the guys were just running it so it must have been a little hard.  Frusterated and expecting more after Sat., I pulled out like 4 laps in.  It was kind of a bummer given all of the people there watching.  Oh well.  I was happy with 1 out of 2.  Too bad it isnt that easy in school.  Looking back on my training, I understand.  I havent put in any type of hard, short intervals yet, but its coming. So watch out.

This weekend, I have got a race out at Chatfield on Sat. by my parents new house.  Nationals was there back in the 90’s I think.  Then the CSP track on Sunday.  Not the best course, but its like 2 miles from my place so I guess I will go.  Good training.

Kentucky

Well the 1st USGP in Kentucky went much better than I had expected. Headed out on Thursday and Ms. McShane was awesome and got me some dinner and dropped me off at the hotel. T-dub came in later that night. Friday it rained all day and I was a little worried about it being muddy, and I only brought 1 bike (I know, not pro). Troy Todd and I put in an hour and a half in the rain. The course was still ok because it was so grassy. Sure enough the sky broke clear that evening.

Saturday the sun came out and it was nice. Got some of the amazing continental breakfast and took a little nap. Race time came at 3. I had a pretty poor start position (no uci points yet) I was on like the 4th row. I got a good start though and put myself into the top 25. I rode steady the entire race and just picked people off. I ate it in the sand with 3 to go which was a bummer. Ended getting 3rd in U23. Newt won and keough was 2nd, like 5 seconds up on me. He got a gap when I fell. I was satisfied though.

Sat. night SRAM took some of their racers out to dinner at Mortons Steakhouse. It was higheroller for sure. I got the $40 fillet mignon. It was gooood. Thanks guys!

Sunday was downright nice. I raced in short sleeves. Both days the courses ended up being perfectly tacky and fast. It was fun. Same callup pretty much. Good start again. Ended up settling into the 3rd group. Will duggan and keough were in the 2nd group. Newt had bad luck and got ran over on the first lap. Mitch Peterson was in my group along with a couple of other u23s. Again, I just rode steady and watched the other guys blow up. Mitch got a gap. Keough blew hard and I rode past him like he was standing. With 1.5 laps left I caught mitch and put myself at 2nd. Dugan blew too but I couldn’t catch him at the end. I ended up in the leaders jersey by 1pt in front of dugan.