Reset

The weekend brought high hopes and big let downs, followed by more high hopes and a mental and physical reset. Ya, i hit the wall this weekend. In an attempt to qualify for mt snow, one of my favorite venues, i went to crested butte in pursuit of a top 10 finish. Well, the air (or lack there of), my legs and every other part of my body wasn't having any of it. I finished back in the pack, 30th to be exact. I really don't know what drove me to finish the race but DNF'ing wasn't an option. I suffered a lot. I gave it all she had and just didn't have anything in me......wow, this sounds like a familiar post huh? I finished the race completely bummed. While out on course i really did go through the though process of saying to myself i wasn't going to race the rest of the year. After crossing the finish line i rode to the car with my tail between my legs. Instead of going home sunday i decided i was going to leave saturday back to boulder. However I'm lucky to have those who have been through what i am going through and convinced me to stay, i mean who goes to crested butte to only race and get their ass kicked? Jason kept me in line and told me to stay for the fun single track that sunday would bring.

Turned out that was exactly what i needed. The ride was a kick in the pants. Fun, hard climbs with some of the most fun, rippin 1 track i have ever ridden.




Following Jason allowed me to ride so fast. I swear i learn something new about riding a bike when i ride with him. The descents were so fast i felt like a just needed to touch the breaks, of course that wasn't allowed.


Sunday's ride was awesome. Like martini said a few weeks ago, it was one of those rides that just allows you to remember why you ride mtn bikes in the first place. Well Since i had officially pushed the reset button i decided to do a nice ride in the mtns on monday. Me and Rolf headed up sunshine canyon to gold hill. Again the the views are always worth the effort.



We then descended and head back up toward ward where water from the natural spring was desperately needed.


Today I took off riding. I spent most of the my time searching the web and boulder for a 50cc scooter. Oh yea, im getting one. Soon. I hope. Ill post picks whenever i get one. The past few days have been rough in terms of riding but i think a little rest will cure anything really hindering me. I'm really lucky to be surrounded by people that both encourage and support me. It's these last few weeks that I have really realized that racing isn't everything. Balance is in order. So after some time off and a little reset ill be back with a new spark. In the meantime i'll be spending my time with my friends who live it up Boulder style...eh.....white trashy style?

Back Home

It's really nice to be back home. This whole traveling thing is starting to catch up to me. Unfortunately I'll be heading up to Crested Butte Friday for the mountain states cup. I really need a top 10 to qualify for mt snow. Keep your fingers crossed!


Where those free sager bands as much as possible, only 17 days left as i write this! Woohoo! The Pro STXC was awesome on Sunday. If you were ever in doubt of yourself or where you could potentially end up in this bike racing scene, Sammy J's ride should have been proof that you can do anything you set your mind to.


Sam rode his way to a 2nd place finish after attacking JHK, Wells and Decker! Way to go man i was root'n for ya!

Ok, well not much else has happened since i got home except for kinda getting re-situated and organized again. eh..lame post.

PRO XC and Post Race Shenanigans

This was my view for the majority of the Pro XC race. The Pro's looked like they hurt'n for certain. The front of the race was pretty exciting with JB, JHK and K bomb throwing down for 2 plus hours. I was really routing for Sammy J who was in Podi position going into the 4th lap. Maybe next time, it was a valiant fight. Bart had a decent ride coming in 27th. Thomas Spannring and Bryan both had tough races but hey you can't win'em all. The guys afterwards looked like they had either come out of a mine, or escaped form a concentration camp, in that order.






Zach was in the feed zone showing off his official team support gear.



At the end of the torture test Bart got called to doping control.


This year i think the guys learned a thing or two and decided to put the whiteboard up.


After the race it was BBQ time at Bart and Rossie's. It turned out to be quite a hit.


A lot of people showed up including the whole Devo team. Of course what Utah party would be a party without Chris Fox?



The new fire pit was also christened.


Today is the short track. Eh, we'll see what happens. I might try to make it fun to watch.

The long road to success

Yesterdays effort left me with mixed emotions. Out of the 50 or 60 guys that lined up on the start line, 28 of them finished in front of me. The race was long, dusty, hot and needless to say really really hard. I paced myself almost to perfection for the 4 lap 2 hours and 45 minute ordeal but that just wasn't really good enough, or was it? I was great that i ran my body to the max, felt good about my effort, raced smart and better yet didn't crack. However, with all that said, thinking i couldn't have gone any faster, i still finished 29th. Maybe everyone else was just having a killer day but i highly doubt it. I think this is just a wake up call that even though i wake up and train everyday, pretty much without much thought to the weather, its still going to take some time to be up there with the big boys. Weather its just more time i need, or maybe I'm just waiting for something between my bike and my body to click. While it might seem like a bad thing to feel, I have found it unusually hard to watch those around me continue to excel. Almost like I'm getting left behind. Its not that I'm really that jealous of them but more frustrated as to why i can't be doing the same. But if its one thing i have learned during this whole bike racing lifestyle, its that everyone excels at their own speed. One day I'll be in the pro ranks bump'n elbows, but I'll just have to wait a little longer. Congrats to Tyler Jewell, long time friend who just received his Cat1 upgrade! Thats a huge success that many don't achieve. Also keep your fingures crossed for kiel who is over in Europe mixin it up with the top dawgs. I know he is over there supporting John Devine. Can't wait till your home buddy! Today is the Pro race. Same distance as we did yesterday but the course has to be worse and the temp will be hotter. Good luck to Bart the yardman, Bryan and all my friends racing in the big leagues. I'll be out there in the feedzone, cya out there.

ALSO!!!! BBQ at Bart's house tonight. I think it starts around 6pm. Everyone is invited, bring your own drinks. Call me or something to find the directions.

It's Wednesday, and tomorrow is Thursday!

Today was just another day here at Bart's house. Did the whole sleep in thing, another 10.5 hrs logged. Had a big breakfast before heading down toward SLC to shred some 1 track as sly would say. It as pretty clear down there with minimal inversion going on. The trails were pretty fun. Had some good flow to them, except for the ridiculously steep roller coaster section.



Today i got super pissed off. I have been watching the Versus website to see when they were covering the Dauphiné. I have been waiting since sunday for more coverage. Today at 2:00pm was the set time. I planned my ride around it and was pretty damn excited for the easy 2hrs of entertainment. After my ride i freshened up, ate and relaxed on the couch. Everything was going to plan until i hear, "Hello, and Welcome Versus where we will be covering the 2007 Dauphiné Libéré. Today we will be covering stage 1 the Prologue where the big guns with come and ........blah blah" Re-runs!!!!!!!!! you have to be kidding me! sunday was the prologue and now they show it again? WTF screw cycling on tv, its completely worthless. Man o Man am i pissed, especially when i read velonews and see that vino won the TT!!!! man i hope that guy does well at the tour. Any who, tomorrow is my last ride before the XC, and the waiting time is nearly at an end.

In my down time today i stumbled across THIS boy i hope i never get a girl like that! poor guy.

Kill'n Time

Today i woke up after a nice 10.5 hrs of sleep. After doing the usual shower, eating, watching some TV, eating and catching up on reading material i decided it was time for a ride. The weather here has been off the charts. Not too hot, windy, or cloudy just NICE. After reaching the trail head i headed up but soon captured the view as familiar.


HHHHMMmmmmm.....? Oh now i remember. In my down time yesterday i read a book The History of Emigration Canyon.



Its so crazy how things change over relatively short periods of time. Anyway my ride today was pretty good. Great views and nice weather. Bart got a new moto, a KTM SXC 625. Its pretty sweet, kinda a touring/ dirt bike. We finished moving the rest of the flagstone up to the pit today. Also finished laying it down, its looking really nice! BBQ is set for sat night, everyones invited! Anyway, not much to report today. Between sleeping in, riding, the pit and watching the 1.5 hr presentation from Steve Jobs on Apple's new OS (which by the way is awesome in every way, shape and form) I didn't do much else today. Alright, time to watch some tv. Also if you have a blog, UPDATE! People need to take note of professional bloggers such as Brian and Primetime who either A) update when i ask or B) update at least twice a day on their own.

And now for some pics to make you jealous, since i know its been crappy in Boulder.

Deer Valley and such.

So Deer Valley wen pretty well. It was really great to be:
A) Racing on Dirt
B) Finish a race in its entirety without any huge mishaps (minus people stealing my bottles in the feed zone for my self feed)
C) actually being able to race the entire race without having to do damage control after bonking midway through.
D) actually having a decent race.

The race was 3 laps on the usual course plus a 12 and under lap, so basically they wanted us to go up little stick 4 times. I started out and tried not to get too far into the red. Mission accomplished. I was on a train with mitch and some other devo guy plus some other locals. I was feeling great and the pace wasn't too high. Although the one little mishap occurred in the feed zone. We, (Jason, Thomas and I) had put our bottles on the fence posts for out self feeds. Well as i come through for lap two only 1 of Jason's bottles is left. i didn't take it because i figured he was battling for the win and i was just racing, plus it was his bottle. So i slow down, let the train go and almost come to a stop trying to find my bottles on the ground, well i didn't find them and went into the feed zone looking for some water. I took what was equal to a shot of water form the neutral feed and continued on...without water. Blake (not me) had fallen off the train on the climb and i passed him, when he later caught me i asked him for his bottle since he had two. He gave it to me which basically saved me. The traffic on the course was pretty bad as there were probably 400 people on the course all at once ranging from beginners to experts. Passing was hit or miss, you either went right bye without a hitch or got caught behind someone on a downhill and they didn't want to pull over. The class was Pro open and i ended up finishing 19th out of 30+ starters. While i wanted a little better result, looking at the times i realized the race was pretty close. I only lost 11mins to Alan Obi the winner and had i finished 2:40mins faster i would have cracked the top ten! So now in retrospect I'm pretty pleased. J$ got 3rd and the Yardman got 4th!


The next day Me and the local heroes/idiots which consisted of Bart, J, Fox, Orand and myself went on a 3hr mtn bike ride.

Man do i miss the trails here. Up Spiro to mid mountain all the way across to pinebrook. The trails are in supreme condition. I truly think that Park city has some of the best mtn biking in the world and i haven't even been everywhere in the world!
Barts fat ass go tin the way of my single track pic.




While i don't exactly fit into Fox's image circle of no socks, road shoes, no helmet, and might as well say no water, i have to say hes fun as hell to ride with. Pantani was riding too fast through the school zone and broke his cleat right out of his shoe. While i don't approve of the whole road shoe on a mtn bike thing ill give him props for keeping up relatively well for the rest of the time he spent riding with us peg legged.

I was the only casualty today. While trying to capture the beauty:


I almost dropped my camera, and well of course i tried to catch it while cruising at 15mph on a ledge. DOH!


You might or might not remember this bird from last summer. Its a mother Grouse i believe and it is a vicious carnivore patrolling a small section of mid mountain and it certainly is not afraid to start shit with the local riders.



Look at those devil eyes of hers!

Boy do i miss this.



So now instead of driving back to boulder today then coming back sometime wed for the NORBA, Ive decided to chill with the Yardman Bart. And you might ask yourself why Bart called the yardman, well lets just look at my first day here alone with Bart. After waking up and eating Bart and I hauled 350 lbs of sand each up the 15yrd climb up the stairs.


Then we laid down flagstone around his new homemade fire ring. After working for about 3hrs we were tired, well actually we ran out of flagstone but its coming along really nice! I never thought manual labor could be this fun (minus the sand).




SWEET!!!!!!!!

So ill be spending the next few days here. Its gonna be hard not to ride and just rest with 400+ miles of sweet single track lying around but oh well. Maybe ill play around with the BMX bike, or just enjoy friends company and of course the views.

It just keeps getting better and better

Today the boulder bubble just got that much more badass. The only thing that makes boulder better than what it is right now is better weather and of course more firends. Boulder is now the home to long time friend J$ Sager. Today we hit up one of my favorite rides, Lyons, up St. Vrain, Peak to Peak, Ward, Ward general store, down and up over Lee Hill to Boulder. This ride is usually pretty quite and tame but with no iPod and Jason throwing down the ride was a little more painfull than last time i did it. Of course J started whinning when we hit 9,000ft.


Jason was privelaged to meet "that guy" whom everyone in Boulder knows of but nobody in boulder knows his name.


The weather was nice all day and shorts and jerseys were all that was needed fortunately.


Its good to have you around again J!

Yesterday was my first time up to Ned. My "day off" consisted of 3.5hrs of rippin single track. The group consisted of the usual suspects.


While my legs were tired from the day before i couldnt help but smile and be happy the whole ride. Its been awhile since i was on sweet trails.Recently Shep scored a pair of the highly limited baller status Nike shoes. Bryan and i both caught him in a blogging moment, "I have these shoes and I have to let the world know". For me Boulder just keeps getting better, i mean really what is there to complain about?

A Day of Harmony

Today was either spent leisurely around the house, sleeping or riding. I woke up today and ended up riding around 11. I took myself up Magnolia. Man that thing really is steep. The ride was really nice with sweet views, nice temps and no traffic.



At the top it started to rain, but at that time i was sweating so bad it actually felt good.


After the ride up magnolia i rode home, got some grub and went for a 2hr nap. After that i woke up, did some stuff around and the house and headed out again, this time up and over flgstaff. The weather was threatening until i left the house when the sun decided to show. Again, sweet views and nothin but me, music and fellow bike.





I don't think I'll ever get enough of this.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Sorry for the lack of updates. Time spent in Austin was spent well visiting with friends and family. Not only did I get to revisit the world of Austinite bums,


But I also got to visit family, best friends, old rides and old memories. Mom never lets a visit home go unnoticed. Home cooked meals every night I was home was really nice. The last night I was there she cooked something extra nice. Artichoke, crab, lemon butter, and fruit salad with homemade whipped creme....mmmmmmmmm.


The greatest Mom in the World!


It’s always nice to see the friends you never get to see anymore, and while many people change over time, these guys don’t. They're still the same good ol people they were when I left em.




Eric tried to steal some fashion from dad; I think dad pulls it off a little better.


The second to last day I was in Austin I felt I needed to do my ride. The ride to JC, it always makes me pretty happy and being Memorial Day, I knew the traffic would be low. But when I stepped out the door I wasn’t too sure if I should ride or go back to sleep.


I ended up riding and got sprinkled on for 15 mins but after that it was clear sailing and the weather got real nice like.


I hit the low water Xing and found it to be about bottom bracket deep. Knowing from experience, I knew that the bottom was slicker than shit with a thin film of algae and moss making this trip across the bridge most treacherous. I decided to go for it and made it across.


On the way back I decided to stop there again and freshen up before the hot ride back home.


After doing the Tuesday nighter and staying up all night with saying last goodbyes, it was time to make the 15hr trek back to Boulder. Dad being the great dad that he is offered to help me drive. The drive was long and pretty uneventful.

We saw weird helicopters:


A small windmill:


Big windmills (these things give me the eebbee jeebees):


Traffic:


And some cool clouds:


The next day was spent running errands and taking dad to the airport. But since I was chomping at the bit to ride the mtn bike the next morning me and Bryan Alders Bryan Alders went for a 2.5 hr ride which was a nice change of pace.


Yesterday was the Teva Mountain Bike Challenge. Coming up from 3 weeks at sea level I wasn’t expecting much out of the 8,500ft elevation Vail had to offer. During the pre ride we got hailed on, but the course was pretty fun minus the fire roads.


When race time hit I was ready to suffer. I had a good start and after about a mile trains were starting to form. I was about 50ft back from the front train of about 5 guys. I was breathing like an asthmatic but the legs were there. Right before we entered the single track I tried to pass a guy who was going pretty slow but as soon as I got alongside of him he stood up to sprint me. In doing so the moron put his handle bar right into my rip. I rode another 500 yards and had to pull over. I had the worst pain in my side ever. I thought for sure I broke a rib. I hobbled down back to the EMT's and then to the Hospital. The people at Vail hospital are the biggest pricks ever and said I couldn’t see a doctor I had to go to the ER. The Doctors there couldn’t care less about me and I ended up saving the $500 and went back. At first sharp movements hurt but now after icing it twice, its only coughing that really hurts, I’m pretty sure it’s just bruised. This whole not being able to have a good mtn bike race is really starting to get to me. I'm officially declaring war on everything that stands in my way. Hopefully the burning, raging inferno of fiery passion within me will lead me to something better than a DNF. Ok well time to go eat and whatever else I do today.