07 Kick Off

Well the 2007 mtn bike race season is officially underway here in Fountain Hills, AZ. The season kicks off with a 3 race stage race with an additional Fat Boy crit tonight. It seems like both a long and short time since i have been able to mingle with all my friends i only see during the big races. It seems like the season will never begin when your back home training but when you finally show up and see everyone again it like it was only yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, the TT went alright. I felt good, could have a gone a little faster but couldnt quite figure out how. I dont know if i would call it sandbagging, but my time i thought should have been better than 18th. The top 5 or 6 guys in semi pro would have finished in and around top 20 in pro! Oh well, i guess it just makes the competition a little more stiff. Today is the Super D at 3:30 and the downtown fat boy crit tonight under the lights. I'm a little bitter about yesterday so hopefully i can bring some time back today in those events even though the super D is really just another TT.



The Free Sager bands were out today, i saw at least 5 or six. Troy Wells was again rocking the dual Free Sager and Dopers Suck bands on each arm, nice touch.

In other news it was Bryans first pro race. While early racing and desert terrain didn't suit him, he had a solid race and hopefully enjoyed his inagural race with the big boys. Yea thats a yellow number plate!





The down time has been abundant as it always is at these races. If your not resting or sleeping, your doing what you shouldnt be doing, i.e. standing in the hot arizona sun watching the pros and your friends suffer. I must have put a solid 5 hrs in the sun yesterday. Of course living in colorado now i have to get the sun when i can. Well hopefully the racing will go a little bit better/faster than yesterday, either way it will be fun to race, especially under lights tonight.

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Shep having play time.

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Phoenix

Medalla Ultimate Dirt Challenge/ Having a Good Time 101

Well the last few days I have been down in Puerto Rico livin it up in preparation for the Ultimate Dirt Challenge. BY FAR, one of the best and most fun races i have been to in my entire time racing. Having a fun course, good weather, a smoothly run event and having a good race, laying on the beaches and by the pool are only some things that make a race great but the hospitality of all those involved are what really make this race fun. The guys at big bear really need to talk to Doel:


This guy nows how to put a badass race on!

So the time spent in PR usually consisted of sleeping a shit tone (40+ hrs in 4 nights), eating, riding, laying by the beach, and eating again. The course was awesome, lots of winding singletrack weaving in and out of the trees with the occasional short steep climbs. The first couple days my body was kind of in shock due to the heat. I dont think i have ever sweated that much in my life. Here are a few pics.

The course.


The commute to the course.


The beach. Colt you would be proud of this pic.


All me, no help!



Jefe Y H Bomb


So the race went well. There wernt alot of people but i still know i had a good race. I raced UCI U23 which only had 4 guys including me in it. We started with the pros who had a total of 10, 4 of which were gringos like Twells, JHK, Broderick and Craig, the rest were PR natives. I wont the U23 and finished 6th from what im told in the pro field. It was a hard 2+ hr race. I had 5 or 6 bottles and 5 gels. After the race I went on photograph duty, yea i laughed pretty hard at that too! But a gringo is a gringo in PR and the locals loved us!


The band got playing.


The crowd was lovin it!


Wells won the XC and celebrated with the dirt jumpers in class.


And right as everything was winding down, mother nature unleashed her rath.



Monday was spent taking a "recovery ride" up some of the steepest roads i have ever been up. Some of them were so steep i couldnt sit down as i kept popping wheelies.






That night we went to Doel and Paoela' house to celebrate J's B day. It was a good time, Paoela made the party dog themed in memory of Jason incident with the little white piece of fur. As a whole this was probably the best trip i have taken and really encourage all that can to make down to Puerto Rico next year for the race. Thanks to Doel, Paoela, Aldy, J and H as well as everyone who made this trip great for me. I'll be down next year fo sho!

Into The Record Books

Well another weekend of raing is behind me. The CU Race was put on this past weekend fully equiped with a TT, Crit and Circuit Race. The TT went ok for me even though i still dont know how i did since the uscf officials lostthe first page of results which had the first start times. It was 14 miles and i thought i did well for me but Rude Bear Took the collegiate TT with a smokin sub 23 minute effort. Oh well.....:( The crit was going really well for me. I had great legs and was puting them to work. Covering attacks from ft. lewis and pulling back people, putting a flyer in myself, however with 6 to go i hit a mysteriously hidden pot hole that caused my bars to drop to my knees. The POP was so loud i thought i had cracked my wheel or something. I was too late for my free lap since there was only 6 laps to go and 5 by the time i got back, not that i would have made it back anyway. Oh well. Fort Lewis also decided to bring something like 24 Mens A to the crit which paid off considering they won it.


B Team party Squad getting ready to rip it up.


The P/1/2 Menzies rocked it.


The next day was the circuit race and CU wanted revenge. Ft. Lewis couldnt sweep it on our home race! I had great legs and really, really wanted to be in the break today but destiny wouldnt have it... After covering and trying to get off the front I managed to miss the break that stuck. I was just recovering when the perfect combo of CU, Ft Lewis, CSU and DU got off. I was bummed. The rest of the race was boring. I chatted and butted heads (literrally) with Big N for the remainder of the race which was fun. The race teamwise couldnt have gone any better, Kiel and Brad, both of whom were in the break took 1, 2 respectively. Great racing from those two.

Completely off subject but i saw this nice little beauty on the side of the street last week.



Very NICE!


Today was a hard mtn bike ride with friends, Shep and Ranno from the Trek Squad. Up flagstaff, down the other side, rollers, down to the dam on dirt, back up, back up to the top of flagstaff and finally back down the other side. Hard efforts on all the climbs and i am pleased to say that Ranno without a blink of an eye dropped me like i was hot. I thought i was going ok and then BAM, ranno was gone. Oh well i got a few years right?
Besides getting dropped continuously, riding with the guys, on mtn bikes, on nobbies, on dirt (a lil) was a nice change of pace. It was about 73 degrees out today and i thought i was going to burn up, god help me in PR!

The Diesel:


Shep doin what he does:


Braap!!


Well thats it, i have to pack tomorrow then its off to Puerto Rico!!!

Oh and sorry to friends and hauses Robbie Robbinet and Sol Frost who both had pretty bad crashes in Tejas. Feel better and have a speedy recovery. Jason also crashed apparently, but he got nabbed by an eddy, or roscoe if you will. Feel better!

I can't Wait for PR

While being fully obsessed with going to PR, i dug up this classy picture.

Great Time are on the Horizon

This Spring break will with no doubt be one of the best series of trip and experiences of my recent existence. The new battle plans have arrived. I will now be venturing out with friends as well as those i look up to in this sport we call mowtan biking. The destination is Rincon Puerto Rico for the Ultimate Dirt Challenge.

Thanks for the pic J.

I leave next Thursday to meet these characters!


and of course don't forget


Jason has been talkin this race up since he first went a few years back and i have just never been able to fit it in. Well now I'm going ad i leave this Thursday, 10 hr travel days are not ideal but Puerto Rico is far! But that's not all! After Puerto Rico ill fly to phoenix and race the Nova National! So if i calculate correctly, that's a week plus of hot temps and sunshine! Although Boulder weather has been magnificent this past week. Well that's my good news for the week!

off to the races

Last time i blogged i was in A town soaking in the rays.


And after weeks of going local, i came back to my roots.


But it was to good to be true as i came back to this.


But that didn't last too long. This past weekend it off to New Mexico for some collegiate racin. TT, TTT and a Crit was what the weekend held.


The TT was cold but went pretty well for me. The TTT went well for CU as Kiel, Noah, Brad and Taylor took it. The crit went just as good. Brad made a gutsy call and made a move from the gun. Ended up being perfect and he, Kiel and myself made it into a break of 7 with 3 CU, 3 fort lewis and 1 DU guy. CU took it with as kiel unleashed his powerhouse sprint.

On the way home we came accross a biker bar if you will. Except this one was different as we noticed this sign. You make your interpretation...


So this weekend i have another TT and Crit down in Denver, hopefully it goes well.

In other news, Eric is here. Its nice to have a lifelong friend come into town...and better yet say hes transfering here! Boulder is just going to get better from here on out.

Yesterday eric was nice enough to let me put in a big ride. Bryan and I rode out to Ft. Collins and back. It was really windy and took us 3 hrs to get there, however we shaved 40 mins coming back! the whole ride ended up being 5.5 hrs.

While spring break is around the corner, along with the first big race of the season in Phoenix, i can't help but notice The Proffesor in every store i go to.