I’ve been to Fruita 2x over the last few weekends.  First time was with my Epic Pro teammates.  Got in some great riding, dodged some shoddy weather and I attempted to race.  I say attempted as I had an asthma attack about a few minutes due to the dust and efforts.  I backed it off and basically rode at zone 2 for the majority of the race.  But Chris took a solid 4th place finish at the race.

Check out that sweet stuff out there

Alders and Baddick Strava Hunting on I-70

Round 2 was back at Fruita, this time with the FasCat camp.  An Awesome gang and some super fun low-key skills riding.  Got to rip so much cool trail and ride lots of stuff that missed the 1st weekend.  Doyle and Hanggi even made it out for year 2.  Super fun to get to ride with them.  I wonder who gets to come next year?  Props to Hanggi, rode all 4 days he was here with a BROKEN THUMB and never complained.  Just got it done and railed the trails.

Western Rim

 Gorgeous but long day out there

Props to Lauren Andre, 16 years old and showing us how it gets done 

 Hanggi showing us how to climb properly in bike shoes

Strava hunting on the Horsethief Bench Trail

Round 3 was the Whiskey 50.  14 hours down there with Baddick, Blake Harlan and Tammy Sadle.  Long drive but worth every minute.  North America’s best pros were on hand to contest for the $30,000 on the line.  Rolled into town, pre rode, raced the crit, chilled saturday, then got to work Sunday.  MORE HERE on Epic Blog.  It was just a great weekend to be out and play pro bike racer against so many other great racers.  I’m really stoked with my result.  Everyone always feels they can do better when it’s over, and I’m sure I could have.  But in the end the result happens when you cross the line and not when you rethink about what you could have or should have done during the race.  41st against a stacked field for first real event of the season.  I set a goal time and smashed it and that makes me happy.  Props though to Baddick who took an awesome 13th place!

Rolling out with team Jamis for a pre-ride

Uh! Chris, there’s a snake coming for your snake?!

Whiskey Fat Tire Crit, that shit was hard

In search of trails for some fun on saturday 

 Found Yuki from Ergon out there and got to shred some super fun stuff

Finishing the Whiskey 50

All in all had a boatload of fun the past few weekends, gotta to see some old friends, make new friends and just have a blast riding the bike. Now it’s time to spend some time with the Family though!!

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!

Saturday, hooked up with Von for a little rip at Hall Ranch

As you can see there are some achievements listed on the ride

Ended up not being a very good ride by any means. As soon as we started climbing antelope trail, something that has never happened, my head, eyes, ears, nose started just killing me. Some kind of crazy allergy flare up that pretty much shut me down. Couldn’t even give it any efforts, decided to just spin an extra lap on nelson and head home…. All she wrote not much I could do

Mead Roubaix Recon

Sunday was the FasCat WBL, went out and reconned the upcoming Mead Roubaix race course.

Race course is brutal!

We pretty much just rolled together as a nice group until we hit the race course and then just unload on each other.  Only problem was Frank was the only one who new the course! Thankfully this let us regroup together a few times.

The first dirt section wasn’t that bad, fairly flat some fast corners though but a good fun section of riding.  The next couple of sections got progressively harder.  Super washboarded, rocky and some deep dry sandy sections.

The final section comes after a decent climb that’ll for sure break the group up, but then it is a high speed dump onto some seriously deep and loose dirt.  Rider crashed in front of me and I had to unclip and pretty much walk the uphill section and wasn’t the only one.   It keeps rolling for a bit including having to navigate this sand on the descents.

Getting off and walking makes for a good chase on the sand…

We rolled together back to FasCat as a small group and I my front wheel detonated on a rock on the road.  Luckily Mahtin had the follow car, jumped in the car, booted up the tire and got back in with the group.  Had some more fun racing down past the Res and back to FasCat.  All in all a great day on the bike and tons of fun!

Oh… and still on the fence about racing the Mead-Roubaix as the first Mountain States Cup is the day prior down in Colorado Springs, all depends on how that goes and cash-flow……

With the moderate temps and winds, decided to stay down low and head around Carter Lake.  It was once my go to route last time I was out here and this was only the 1st time I’ve ridden it!

Looking back South from the end of the Lake

Managed to run into Mr. Kerkove near the marina.  He flipped it and rolled around the backside of Carter lake with me.  It was sopping wet from all the melting snow, but still enjoyable to have some company for a short bit before I fought the winds heading back to Boulder

FasCat Winter Bike League

Sunday was another FasCat Winter Bike League ride.  Our way of showing thanks to the community as we invite FasCat clients and friends for a good ride.  Had a huge headcount of around 60/70 or so when we rolled out.  Unfortunately the pace was a bit high heading north and we lost a few for sure, but it heated up even more on the climbs.

We climbed up South St. Vrain for a ways.  Held onto the front group for as long as I could until it just shattered as everyone wanted to race Zirbel to the top

Slowly picked off a few after getting dropped from the initial surges

The front group makes it way up the climb as I slobbered on my stem

Didn’t feel too bad getting dropped, such is life…

After St. Vrain we rolled up Rabbit mt, where again I was one of the first chasers off the front group

Front group is a little closer this time!

And again after we all regrouped we decided to keep on climbing and headed up LeftHand Canyon to the Ward/Jamestown split.  Not too many people left on the ride at this point and I hung on for dear life for the first mile and half or two and then picked off a few stragglers but always seemed out of reach of the front group on Sunday.  Not too bad as it was really my first true hard efforts of the season within a group setting and nothing like trying to hang onto some fit dudes who can climb in order to jumpstart your fitness!  All in all pretty happy and set some new power numbers for this season at the end of a pretty solid block.

Naturally this week is a rest week and the weather is 60′s all week!  But should be good as I’ll be doing an MLSS test on Thursday, excited to see where I stand! Hopefully not on the bottom!

In other news, got Bridget a new car!!  Having 1 vehicle was getting to be a pain in the arse and she needed something for her commute to her new job in Broomfield

Friday, we had some FasCat fun.  Little 4 coach shootout up to Jamestown.  Zirbel was talking smack as soon as he rolled into the office.  Which of course he should, simply cause he can.  The rest of us had to attempt to back up our claims that we could drop him.  Naturally, somehow I got paired up with Zirbel on the front and that pretty much meant riding at threshold for the 8 miles up to Jamestown.  I’m pretty sure he was riding in Zone 1, I did manage to get the jump on everyone for the sprint to the stop sign, but Zirbel came around and won by a tire width.  Not sure, but that might be his first sprint victory ever?  I promptly got dropped going up and over backside of Lee Hill on the way back.  Little too much riding and not enough eating inbetween.  Gorgeous 65 degree day, so no complaints!

Saturday, managed to hook up with my Sonya Looney, my CO mountain bike buddy.  Good to be back and hitting the trails with her again.  We decided to head down to JeffCo and ride Red Rocks, Dakota Ridge and Green Mountain.  Short Sleeves and Shorts in January!!  Looking forward to bunches of more rides (& more homemade cookies)!

Super Awesome Day.  Had So much fun on the bike and a permagrin all day long!

Sunday was the Inaugural FasCat Winter Bike League!

Mid 40 degree day, with light wind, we had 75 some-odd riders show up for a nice 3.5+ hour cruise up to Carter Lake and back

PreRace Meeting at FasCat

Rolling North

Hit up Some fun new dirt roads on the way to Carter Lake

Rolling Past Carter Lake

Rolling Back to Boulder

Awesome week-weekend of riding.  Good to get some great hours back on the bike again and legs are finally coming around.  This week might be lil tougher to match up with last week’s hours, but looking forward to keeping on rolling!

If you’ve not seen on twitter/facebook, found a nice home in Longmont!!  Super excited

Nice Lil duplex, 4 bedrooms, huge kitchen, fenced in backyard and a big ol park next door!  Can’t wait to start the move in process here in a few weeks.

I have been training and riding a bunch.  I’ve been in the gym a bunch gettting pumped up.  But it’s not your typical gym, it’s the Boulder rec center.  No meatheads, but there is older dudes and the issue with older dudes is…. well see the graphics below

Young guys keep to themselves, get in and get out…

It’s pretty much exactly like above in the locker room with the older dudes……  I wear blinders in the locker room.

Been doing a bunch of mountain biking.  Lots of miles on the dirt.  It’s perfect out there right now.  Bone freakin dry and rippingly fast.  I love the new Superfly 100 and keeping on tearing up the trails is the only thing to do.  I have hit the road a bit, but riding the road bike right now is like mowing the lawn.  You can’t really skip it, just something you have to do.

Saturday and Sunday I was at Heil & Hall Ranch.  Saturday was a nice short one and felt good.  Sunday I decided to pull off the Heil/Hall double.  I was vastly underprepared!!  Ran out of water and ran out of food and just massively bonked so freakin hard.  I pretty much crawled it back up and over Heil and the only reason I was moving fast was cause it was dusk and I was afraid of being eaten by a mountain lion!  No joke, that time of dusk is mountain lion eating time!

The fun part definitely was ripping down Wapiti Trail in the dark, nothing like dodging wheel exploding/bust a shin if you hit em big-ass rocks in the dark!  Maybe next time I’ll do it in the daylight, maybe again this weekend!

If you’ve ridden Hall, you know it has all kinds of things.  Super low speed technical climbing to super fast whoopy bermed corners.  The 100 ate every inch of the place up.  Climbing through the rock garden, I managed to make it all the way to the top with only 1 dab.  I had passed a few fellow riders in a tight section and messed it up.  But I did manage to clean the ‘keyhole’ section for the first time ever.  I just put here where I needed and she went.

Gorgeous Day on the Trails

I suffered quite a bit from the altitude and some lack of fitness, but it’s now or never to start changing things around.  No more power meter, but I did sync up a Wahoo Fitness cadence/speed sensor to the Joule.  Can still capture rides with hr/speed/distance/elevation, etc.  Shouldn’t be too much longer and the mtb Quarq will be out hopefully!

Trust me the trail is technical, this is just a bench overlook

Seriously will be upping my game this season.  Rolling down the Bitterbrush I was definitely flying faster than I can ever think of on the hardtail.  Hell, I was catching air off of everything and just landing the bike in some of the worst lines possible just for fun to see if I could dig my way out.  Every bit of the trail was chewed up and spit out.  Drops, drop-ins, off camber, big-hits, even pulling some Marky-Mark style big jump, turning in mid-air stuff.  Never felt like the rear end was flexy or the bike was beyond it’s limits.  Pro-pedal going up and full-squish coming down was the ticket.  Only downside is I outran my Kenda Small Block 8 on the front.  Was wishing for a little bigger tire with some more tread.  I’m gonna quickly swap back to the stock tires and then it’s gonna be fun!!  Can you tell I’m gushing a bit here?  Don’t tell the wifey, but I’m going to have to spend quite a bit more time with this girl for a bit

Swoop, swoop, swoopy fast stuff

Going to hit up the Cyclo X race tomorrow with the FasCat warmup tent.  If you’re out there swing in and say hey or even get your cross warmup game on!

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!)

Back to bike racing:

After the 24 hour, decided to don my Minerva Design kit and head over and hit up the GVCC Crit.  Legs were still a bit cooked, but managed to jump in and stay in the main break for 30 minutes or so out of 40.  Pack pulled us back in, was able to work my way to the front and challenge for the sprint.  Coming up the hill, had a solid jump, 2nd place was starting to move up.  Dropped another gear and still had some in the tank, and then ‘schlecked’ it as the chain jumped on the cassette.  Sat up as I saw Zito had 2nd wrapped up, then realized I still had a bit to go and raced to the line for 3rd, but was nipped and will settle for 4th.  Been a while since I earned some GVCC points but was super fun to race.

This past weekend went out and did a pretty good size ride from home around Canadaigua Lake.

Great View around that lake for sure. I slogged and suffered like hell on the ride as I didn’t get much sleep the night before, but still managed a pretty solid ride.

Farmall XC Summer Series #1

Farmall Summer series kicked off this past tuesday night.  Good to get back in the flow and get back to some hard racing again.  Managed to botch my start and mis my pedal and dropped into 4th, gasp!  I pushed my way up to 3rd and then followed Staffo into the woods in 2nd place.  He was ripping it up the climbs, but I fought the good fight, and even though he got a slight gap out of the woods, I managed to pull him back in before the end of the lap.  A hard charging Tim Pilato was hot on my heels and we managed to both get past Staffo around the start of the 3rd lap.  Got some separation from Tim after a few laps and held a steady gap to the line for the W!

But enough about the racing!  It’s about the post-ride I did with Lake!

Right after this, we were ripping down the grass, and at high speed, just before the 180 turn, it gets a bit choppy. Well, he grapped a wee bit too much front brake and did a massive high speed endo. Hit the ground face first, and the bike slammed him hard in the back of the head. I think if he did have any teeth he would have lost em in this crash! After a few minutes of tears (I think I would have cried had I crashed that hard), he was back on the bike and ripping it

Up this weekend is Sprague Brook: Singletrack Stampede! Looking forward to this one, gonna be a ton of fun!