But the big deal is I started working with the University of Colorado mountain bike race team!!  GO BUFFS!!  Super excited to dive in and work with an awesome group of speedy kids.  The team is packed with some superstars and I look forward to heading off this weekend to the Conference champs at Western State and then gearing up for Nationals at Angel Fire in New Mexico.  Been busy leading some group rides, attending meetings and working on getting things organized so we can wins some stars and bars this year.

Yesterday, rolled out for the group ride, though we had some high participation last week, I think this week was down due to everyone prepping for the weekend and/or couldn’t make it up to the trails.  But nonetheless Donny from CU and I had a blast riding Walker Ranch.  Even though been here all summer and lived here a few years ago, I haven’t ridden Walker Ranch since I first visited Colorado waaay back in 2004!!!  It was the very first trail I rode out here in the Red State, so it’s held a special place in my book of cool trails.  But for some odd reason, never seemed to make it back.  I remembered a few bits and pieces of it and even some of the technical features.  All together though it’s actually super fun and I need to get back there and ride it some more!  Side bonus it was 85 degrees out and felt like mid-summer!

Great High Country Views

Rolling with Donny

That’s CU down there!

I kinda remembered this hike-a-bike

Waterfalls on the way up

At least good views of the South Boulder Creek

Frig, this got long.  Hey Scheske, it’s good prep for El Reto though!

Buffed out and Rolling Singletrack

Cool view of the dam

Cross has been up and down this season.  Podium’d at Valmont then moved up to race the Open class and promptly burped my tire riding off the curb at the start (got a gracious wheel change) & then rolled the rear on the first lap.  Doh!  That’s after taking a mega digger at Wednesday Worlds on the pavement at Elks.  Hopefully things look up.  At least they are starting too for next season already. Got some big plans and will shortly have some stuff finalized and can share it all…

Here’s a cross picture thrown in just to change things up

Family Time

Went Hiking after Laramie up at Brainard Lake

Blown away by the amazing views

Even trekked across a Glacier in JULY!

Got some awesome family time and some tired legs!

Hit up Valmont Bike Park with Lake and Bridget

Lake working on his sand carry technique

Even Bridget isn’t scared of the bridges anymore and wants to go play there as much as she can

Went swimming in the Boulder Creek

Even took Lake to a Kids Cyclocross Clinic, where he had tons of fun and learned a bunch

Steel Wool

There has been some riding for sure!  Headed up to Nederland for the steel*wool ride this past thursday.  Pretty much the most fun ride I’ve had in Colorado ever.  Ripping fast and fun trails, the coolest peeps around, shredding gnar.  Stopping at the top of the mountain to drink beers and the view.  Ripping it down to the pizza shop to drink more beers and really dang good pizza!    True to form, I followed all the rules and even rode the bridge one handed.  Wicked fun and I’ll be back for more!

Stopping to regroup with Melissa, trust me the view up here was killer, but we were ripping past it and I was fumbling with my camera

Drinking in the views from up top

Drinking in the beers from the overlook

Trinket Tree, one must make offerings to the gods

FasCat Cyclocross Camp

It friggin rocked, J-Pows was awesome, everything about it was awesome.   You should read about how awesome it was on Velonews.  Better yet, you should come out to our camp next time.  There was so many people and everybody had fun.  I was pretty dang sore from all the running, dismount, remount, shouldering, etc on monday.  But dang am I excited to race cross this coming season

The happy campers

Bon Voyage to Julie

Managed to squeeze one last ride in with Julie over at Hall Ranch.  Just a short trip to grab some video and pics for her before she had to depart.  Was super great to get in one last ride with her before she had to head off to France.  She’s ‘super cool’ as she likes to say and I had a ton of fun riding with her.  Added bonus is she is so dang fast on the bike it was tough as hell to keep up with her.  Going to miss my training buddy, but she is off to bigger things.  Like the frigging World Championships on the road, the 2012 mountain bike Olympics and all those Euro XCO World Cups…

Soaking in the view before departing

Rolling through the wildflowers

I have some video of the ride that I need to work up and will post as soon as I can

Up next, some racing at Winter Park, catching the Tour of Colorado and prepping for cyclocross season!!  Damn this summer has been fun and it’s not over yet!

Probably too much for one post… But here it goes. Short simple and sweet version:

Bought a new Superfly 100 Elite. Super stoked to be back on a dualie (HUGE THANKS TO THE CREW AT GENEVA BICYCLE CENTER!!). The thing is so cushy, but as snappy as my hardtail was. Also only 8oz heavier!! I’ve only got one ride on it but as I get more under my belt I’ll do a review.

I’m back in Colorado!!! Working full time out of the new FasCat Performance Center in North Boulder. Super stoked to be back! Lotta good things to be coming soon!

Since I was here I checked out the USGP cyclocross race in Ft. Collins. Hooked up with a few athletes that I coach (thanks for the pedals Amanda!) and cheered em on.

See 2 videos below. Start if the race and check the second one, the dude crushes the post with his chest. Not as good as Todd Wells crash on the barriers, but still a good one nonetheless.

Dude crushes the post at about 20 sec into the video!

Stay tuned for more as i settle in.

Wrapped up my mountain bike race season with the Shenandoah 100 and the Liberty Classic in Northern PA.  Shenandoah went fairly well.  I was shooting for close to 8 hours, but ended up 8:30 of ride time and 8:45 total.  The soul crusher always destroys me and did so again.  Liberty Classic was a solid race.  Felt really great and was in 4th place until I double flatted on the final descent and finished 6th.

Then I focused completely on the wedding and honeymoon.. and everyone knows what happens once you get married!

Came back home and raced the Cobb’s Hill Cyclocross race…. 2 weeks completely off the bike made for me trying to not finish in last place. Rode well for first 10 minutes, but the climb killed me as 42×25 was waay to big a gear…

Will be moving back to Boulder here very quickly!! Nov 15th and I’ll be working out of the new Performance center. Cannot wait to get back, enjoy the sunshine and bang out some good rides. Look me up if you are out there, lotsa cool stuff coming down the pipeline. Till next time… (hopefully won’t be 2 months!)

It’s mountain bike season! Sprague Brook this weekend!

The past 2 editions saw warm temps and dry & dusty race course. It was only fair that this year was 50 and rain. Turning many of the long dirt road climbs into quicksand. It certainly felt like the brakes were on while climbing for sure.

The race started off with a new section this year, that I was totally unprepared for. Right off the bat we climbed rt 53 and Ramone gunned it hard. It drew out the pack and I was quickly gapped (need a better warmup) but we hit a new fun and muddy descent that I was able to use to my advantage to bring the front back to me.

Once we rolled back through town a 2nd time and started the first climb we were a small group of 6. Staffo, Ramone, Duncan, Andy August, Jonah D and myself. Staffo and Ramone turned up the heat and slowly our group split. First Jonah, then me then Andy & then Duncan. Duncan managed to rebridge & the 3 rode the rest if the race together.

I started off in pursuit of Andy & Jonah soon bridged up to me. I dropped my chain in my spokes going up the next steep climb and he slipped through my fingers and ended my chase of Andy.

For the next forever miles, I chased Jonah. Up and over Canen hill, down Ridge road descent and up Hungry Hollow climb. The whole time Rob Dietrick was chasing me just as fiercely as I was chasing Jonah. I managed to finally catch Jonah on Hungry Hollow just before the steep pitch at the end. For a moment it looked like we were a group of 3 as we were diamounted and running up the super steep and loose climb. But I managed to get a good gap and hold em off. At least until after the descent and passing by the onion fields. Jonah rebridgend and we hit the singletrack together. I led, and managed to have a great cartoon esque faceplant on the descent, but still kept my lead. I got out front at the exit of the singletrack with a small gap and less than a mile to go. But the forever tenacious Jonah continued to pull me back in setting us up for a Mano e Mano sprint showdown. It all came downtown the last 50 meters where I narrowly edged him out by about a tire width for 5th place!!

All in all it was a killer race! Conditions were truly epic and hopefully I’ll have some pics from the moto crew soon to post.

Been riding the cross bike on the snow covered roads. Much more fun with the new powertap on her. Put in 3 hours Jens factor 4, on Saturday. It was snowing pretty good all ride. Even found a super fun deep snow seasonal road to play on.

Did a whole bunch of mtb snow riding Sunday & then again Monday night. Was good to get out on the trails and ride with the GBC crew. Plus lizzy loves it.

Last night I buried myself on the snow covered roads on the cx bike once again. At one point thought I might get buried. Was riding uphill into the blowing snow, road covered about 4 inches deep & wind howling. It was only about 1k long, but felt like an eternity climbing the thing. Much better than the trainer any day!

Weather is looking to be the same as usual. Looks like more time on the cx bike.

Hit up some snow covered roads on the cross bike last night. Way more fun the rollers. Super serene & peacefull out there.

The lack of sleep & fatigued definitely sucked en route to the cross race the next morning. Short warm up was all that was needed then off for a muddy hour of racing. Legs were suprisingly good and after a rider crashed, I has moved up to 4th. A lead group of 3 had escaped and I was stuck in no mans land giving chase. Let up a bit work with local crosser J-ro and proceded to rip off my rear dérailleur immediately. Thus ending my race and making for a long bike portage back to the car.

Oh well, that’s the theme of my racing this year. En route to Guatemala, let’s hope it goes better!!

Yeah, yeah, you want to see all the cool photos of bike stuff from interbike. Well I’ll try to get those uploaded tonight. In the meantime here’s some quick video clips of cross vegas. Had a great time watching the race and hanging out. The part that sucked though was the 90 minute wait for the bus afterwards!

Video clips I took from Cross Vegas

More stuff to come later, I’m still decompressing from it all and tired from the cross race yesterday.