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!!

After having spent some time there and loving every minute of time with family and friends.  I realized I truly miss people and the special quality of brightness that each one brought into my life.  That part is hard to realize is now few and far between.  But I don’t really feel like Waterloo is truly my home any more.  It’s weird to say.  I spent the majority of my life there.  But, out here in Colorado now truly feels like the place where I belong.  Back East, felt like a visitor.  The places I recognized, even the street I grew up on seemed a bit foreign.  Hard to explain for sure and I still enjoyed being there for every minute.

Hilimire Hilton-13 Maple Lane

I did manage to rope some time in on the bikes…. Friday am before the Geneva Bicycle Center Crew had to turn wrenches, I was able to get out to the MPH for a ride.  It was awesome, to put it succinctly. first thing through their doors, Cadence dog immediately recognized me and was so excited that she barrel rolled into me and about took me out.  This caused Ryder dog to get thoroughly excited and start jumping and the new pup Tread (whom I’ve never met) wanted in also.  3 dogs, 1 happy camper and I was taken down to the ground in the excitement.  So naturally it was off to a good start.

They’ve been gardening a bit

It was great to get out in the woods, the tight twisty trails.  Feel the mud underneath the tires (What is mud?).  Slid around on the bike and just smile and have fun.  My skills were definitely a bit rusty and riding a borrowed bike had a different feel to it for sure.  Every second was enjoyment though, struggling up the steep climbs, sliding through off-camber corners, staring in awe as Mark hits a 15 foot booter.  All the enjoyable things of riding bikes with the GBC Crew have never disappeared.

Suzanne is always all smiles, wouldn’t you be if the trails were right outside your door

The C-Dog and Tread (on tread)

Afterwards I rolled out on the road bike for a short lil ride on my old stomping grounds.  A route nicknamed “the wheelman route”, after an old team I belonged to that had long trained on the roads even before I joined them.  It was great to go ride the quiet country roads.  I could remember sprinting against sold friends to imaginary finish lines, chasing down riders across the flow of the farm land and racing back to town every week with a small group.  It was good to be out there stretching the legs.

Quiet Country roads on the wheelman’s route

Sunday I was able to rope in a few GVCC riders and some of the athletes that I work with for a nice ride down in Naples.  It was cold en route and snowing and raining and wasn’t even sure if anyone would show.  I barely had clothes for the temp, but it was dry down there and a few brave souls showed up to tackle some hills.

Grey and Dreary skies, but always enjoyable terrain

We departed and rolled south to town.  Up and over a few fun, but brutally steep climbs.  Was able to tackle some old favorites while I was there.  I threw in some efforts agains the fellas and definitely was humbled on a few climbs, but the thick air felt great to climb in.  The 20% constant grades, not so much.  I never blew up or smashed myself but there was some suffering had for sure.  While it was dry to start with, it was not upon our return.  The rain came, then the snow came and then both at the same time.  I was so cold riding back, I literally couldn’t feel anything below my elbows.  We were all pretty much in survival mode when we got back to the cars.  Our small group was shattered rolling along 64 as it was literally everyman for themselves just to get back to warmth of our vehicles.  I definitely don’t miss rain and cold and crappy rides like that!

Removed from the area, I still had to provide directions!

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent hanging around Peyton and Reagan as much as I possibly could.  Peyton is growing up so fast.  He’s definitely inspirational.  A fighter in every sense of the word with all that he’s been through.  Leaving him was actually the saddest part of departing.  I do wish I could be there every day with him to help him fight and give him strength.  But I know he has his own and it’s far greater than the strength of most anybody.  For the things that have been taken him, he has made up for with courage.

Peyton showing me how he gets around

Peyton and Reagan playing in the kitchen

Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go

I’ll be back ‘home’ in August for more and already looking forward to it.  Plus my sister’s baby ‘Oliver’ will be born.  Can’t wait to get back!

We fielded 2 teams, a 4 person open and a 5 person mixed.  With some awesome support by The Gear Movement, Cannondale, NoTubes, Schwalbe, Lazer, Mix 1, Honey Stinger & CarboRocket we were by far the best set up team around.  Huge Thanks to our Support crew: Jim Fu, Nancy Feagans, James Keller for keeping us running and dialed all night long.

Camp Setup

We flew into town Thursday evening and arrived at the course Friday morning.  A few had come down earlier to set up and all we had to do was pre-ride the course and rip some laps and get things dialed in.  Was my first experience riding in the desert.  Things are not friendly in the desert by any means.  Everything has thorns, spikes, prickers.  It will eat you alive if you go off trail.

Don’t let them fool you, they aren’t friendly when a number plate is on the front of those bars

The affectionately titled “Bitches” Section

Sunshine and cactus, both are dangerous in February

Dangerous Deidre? Nah, she was just happy to rip trail and pull cholla out of my armpit

Race day came along and our 5 person team was dialed.  Brian Sells went out and burned a super fast first lap and I went out in second.  I was fortunate enough to borrow his 18lb 26″ Scalpel for the race.  So speed was on my side.  Though getting used to such small tires at high speeds took some adjusting to for sure.  I burned a first lap just over an hour 1:00:47 (few seconds faster than Brian) and our team was off.  Deidre pulled a super fast lap, then Bill & Kelly.  By the time things wheeled around for my turn it was time for a night lap.

Traffic on the course was horrendous, but managed to rip out a solid dusk lap and we were fighting for 2nd the entirety of the race.  Midnight lap came around and fatigue was setting in for everyone.  Though the course got slightly damp and was more fun to ride.  I had some lighting issues due to improper assembly and had to stop a few times to fix, but otherwise we were still ripping things open.

Felt pretty good, but definitely fatigued for my dawn lap and lap times were creeping upwards for us.  We were in a tough fight to hold second place.  Bill decided to forego his turn and send Brian out to not lose anymore time.  It was decided that I would ride again another lap and possibly ride 2 in a row if it came down to the wire.

Sam Ripping up his 1st lap

Cholla, it hurts

I was dialed to ride a super fast 5th lap on the course & I did.  I ripped it nearly as fast as my first lap, but lost a bit of time when I made contact with a cholla cactus.  I had to stop and find something to help me pull ti out of me.  It was embedded in my shoulder, arms, leg, etc.  I had not choice but to stop for a bit and work on puling it out.

I did manage to get back up to pace and rolling and when I realized I was turning a pretty good lap time, I pulled it back on the final climb to conserve some energy for the next lap.  After being awake all night, I knew it was useless to charge the climb and better to rythmn it and pull a good 2nd lap.  I finished at 1:05:00 and headed out for my 2nd lap.  It was tough to race an xc race at the end of 24 hours, but I was fueled up, pumped and motivated.  I did not want to get passed.  Once I realized I wasn’t going to get passed I settled in and held onto our 2nd place for the event.

Podium Party in February

The 4 person went on to spank Kona Factory on their home turf.  They lapped them, which was huge.  Congrats to them for an excellent race.

It was an awesome event.  Super pumped to get out on the dirt and ride my bike hard in February.  I still have loads of work to do for this upcoming season for sure.  But this was an awesome way to kick it off with some fun and good friends.  I’m super excited for the future and can’t wait for more.  Now, need to keep catching up on that sleep.

Last year I spent thanksgiving on the trails at Heil Ranch. Great day on the bike and some Clif bars to feast on. Thankfully this year, in had the family here and would at least get some turkey in my belly.

sunshine, sunshine

Still, was nice to be back out on the same trails and was a gorgeous morning for a ride. Leaving home it was 21 degrees, but when I hit the trails it was 45/50 and would warm up to 65/70 ish. As quick as I hit the trails I was stripping down to shorts and a jersey.

this years thanksgiving trail food was much tastier

Managed to tack off a few hours on the dirt and get back home in time to catch some football and enjoy the day with the family. Couldn’t be thankful for more.

Black Friday, wtf is that? A big group of us decided to brave the cooler temps and the (un)crowded trails around Golden. No need to pepper spray anyone to get what you were after. It was found in the pain and suffering up the long climb to kick off White Ranch.

up, up, up

It was nice to meet some of the Epic teammates & ride some trails that I’ve never been on before. Long climb up to the top & then some fun swoopy stuff. Kept it easy and never fired the pistons, knew I still had plenty more days of riding ahead.

great views from up top

All together was a super fun few hours on the bike. We rolled back to the parking lot and a few brave soldiers decided to keep rolling and hit up some more trail. I peeled it back and went home to put some more time in with the ol ball and chain.

After some time on the dirt, pulled out the road bike for some easy base miles. Wsnted to just keep on trucking & racking up the weekend hours both saturday and Sunday. Managed to spill over. On the road bike making u turn on the road. Could only laugh at myself for that one. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve crashed on the roadie. Included countless races where seemingly everyone played a game of “pockets full of rosy, ashes, ashes we all fall down” except me. I always found it funny that everyone would crash when someone breathed on them on the pavement…something to be said for all those days spent flying through the woods.

naturally went looking for dirt

Wrapped up a great weekend of riding & rolling forward with the training plan. Bit of snow out there, especially up high and looking to bust out the snowshoes & have some fun.

how I felt after the long weekend

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!

They took the term ‘Skinsuit’ in France a bit to literally (From Cyclepassion calendar)

Having fun at Hall Ranch

I hope we’ll get out for a few more rides before she departs…

Laramie Enduro

Rolled up to Laramie this past Saturday night with Scott Upton and Randy.  Got there plenty early to find a nice lil camping spot by the creek, set up shop and relax some.  Ate some food, got eaten up by mosquitos and failed miseralbly at sleeping the night before.  Not really anything new, just have learned to accomodate not being able to sleep the night before the race.

Home for the night

Gorgeous sunset over the sagebrush

Woke up and rolled over to the venue feeling good and ready to rip for the day.  Race started off with a fairly steep dirt road climb into some singletrack, I had made the front group onto the turn of hte singletrack, but immediately had to back the throttle off.  Tons of dust was kicked up in the launch off the line and I was starting to have a bit of a coughing fit.  As I soft pedalled a few mintues into the race, was getting passed left and right.  Was able to keep moving forward but mostly at a tempo pace.  I was coughing so hard a few times in that first hour that I almost blacked out from choking.  Was seriously frustrated, I used to carry an inhaler for when this would happen in the past, but it’s been so long I no longer carry it.  I basically rolled it the first hour or so, trying to get breathing and effort back under control.  Everytime I went hard I would start coughing as my breathing rate picked up.  Finally I was able to pull it together around aid station 2 or so.  I started to feel fairly ok and wasn’t coughing anywhere near as much and able to push myself forward.  I started picking riders off quickly and moving forward, no idea where I was.  Was quite a bit near the rear, but felt like I was moving up nicely.  I felt really rippingly fast on the singletrack sections, but still felt dogged on the climbs.  I just worked on flipping my mind and focusing on moving forward and getting to the end of the race.

Somewhere past aid station 3, I was told I was in 28th.  Right on the heels of the eventual female winner Gretchen Reeves.  I saw a few riders up the trail and focused on moving into the top 25, I easily picked them off on the next climb and got some distance between myself and Gretchen.  We’d been yoyoing for a bunch of the race, she would fly up the climbs and I’d bring it all back in on the singletrack.  This time though, I got some distance and kept at it.  The last 20 miles of the race was pretty heavy with singletrack and I was feeling great.  I kept my focus and kept pushing forward, I was slowly picking off riders here and there throughout the final miles.

Catching some air on the way down the HeadQuarters Trail descent (Cool photos by Action Photographic)

The final up and downs were defintiely starting to hurt, but I knew I was so close to the finish line, just needed to keep moving forward.  At the top of the final descent on the flats, made a rookie mistake.  Took a drink from my bottle and looked around at the scenery and managed to hook a tree with my bar with my hand off it.  Down goes Igby, in a cloud of dust.  Got up quickly, but was caught by the rider behind me.  He pipped me heading into the final descent.  Was able to hold his wheel without issue, but on a little rise a gap grew up and was held till we hit the dirt road that we originally climbed up for the start.  I gave it some gas and was flying down the washboarded dirt and closing the gap super quick.  Pretty sure I was doing 150 rpm as I was spun out just trying to close the gap as the meters to the finish line ticked off.  As we hit the corner to the line with a few hundred to go, I launched an all out sprint, closed the gap, but simply ran out of room.  Both of us in our haste almost took out the poor girls trying to take our number.  Ended up losing by half a bike length.  Ah well, I definitely finished the race strong.

After a crappy start and continuing to move forward through the end, I was pumped to have finished 15th.  I know I can do alot better than that, so the chances are pretty solid that I’ll be back next season to make some improvments on my time/finish from this year.

It’s wednesday and I’m still hacking my lungs up and waking the wife up at night with coughing attacks.  I’m either going to fix it tonight or be in far worse shape tonight after the short track!  Ah well, will have some fun…

Rolled into town in time to grab my packet and get a hotel room right across the street from the start.  The race course started right at Howleson hill, which was literally 2 blocks from downtown.  Super cool and had a great vibe for an early am start.  The course rolled right out of the gate and went uphill. I made it to the front group on the little pavement section to widen out, but then it went straight up the mountain on a loose rocky climb and I picked a bad line and fell in line with the group.  We then tucked into a few bits of singletrack and got held up behind a rider as he dabbed uphill. Things then spread into a long 2-3km doubletrack climb and I wasn’t really ripping it up the climb but was holding my own ok.  Dropped through the first of many meadows filled with wildflowers and then switchbacked its way up a long tortureous climb through the aspens/wildflowers.  You would duck into the woods and then float out through the all flowers, then back into the woods, back into the flowers.  Was kinda surreal but was also super cool.  Made the time pass easily I suffered and slogged to the top.  When I finally hit the top and the feedzone was happy to rip it down the descent.  Only problem was, we were bunched up and the guys in front weren’t very fast.  The guy behind me was yelling at me for a pass, but I was gapping him in easy sections, some griping about how he was a local, etc.  But I managed to get past the few riders and have a clear path to the bottom and ripped it solo.  What was that guy screaming about being a local and knowing the trail?  Well he shoulda practiced going down it some more as I had at leat 2 minutes on the group by the bottme!  The descent itself was awesome, just super long and super flowy and fast, lots of corners but super tachy dirt.  Crazy tall wildflowers though made it tough to see any lines and look farther than what was right in front of you.  Had to be a bit of a Jedi and anticipate what was coming up based on the flow of the terrain.  It was like descending blindfolded in a few spots.

(photo from Singletrack.com)

We kicked out onto a fire road at the bottom of the descent.  Even though I just ripped the descent my legs weren’t ready to go hard with the group in front of me so I sat up and rolled up to the next climb.  A super long singletrack climb, pockmarked by hoof prints, enough so that on the 2nd lap I opened my pro pedal valve up to get some more cush!  Felt ok going up this climb, I had to pee so bad on the first lap that I stopped and took some time.  Got passed by a few riders, but brought them back as I liked the flow of the climb.  Mostly wooded, but would have a few breaks and small descents  carrying speed into these steep uphill sections and could just sprint over the top.  Once you hit the top of the climb, the view was just epic.  I literally stopped pedalling and just was awesomely wowed by the mountains and the area.  Was amazing, reality set in when Katie Compton came ripping by at the top.  In hindsight should’ve stuck in front on the descent as we got in a small group of 4 and no one was going forward.  Would’ve been nice to have hit it alone.  Though the 2nd descent to the finish line, made the first one look sad in comparison.  Huge wildflowers lined the trail all the way down and tons of curves and berms and jumps and just FLOW, more FLOW and your cup runneth over with FLOW.  Barely needed the brakes other than when an unexpected corner came up that you couldn’t see with the height of the wildflowers.  Lots more Jedi descending tricks were utilized to make it down this descent.

Came through in our small group to the finish and went to grab drinks and food out of my cooler.  But some jackass had moved it!  Seriously who moves someones cooler when its just leaning agains the fence?  Rummaged around and finally found it and threw it back into place.  Some lady said she’d move it back (I presumed she was the one who moved it in the first place) and I told here I had riders on course that may need it.  I wasn’t lying as Anna was behind me and there was a spare tube/co2 and some food for her just in case she would need anything.

Second lap was a bit more of the same, except I was mostly alone.  I payed my toll for the heat at the top of the climbs and the legs finally showed some semblance of effort 4.5 hours into the race midway up the 2nd climb.  Ugh, was just a little too tired coming into the race as my heart rate would never creep past 150.  I ended up finishing 30th, not shabby but not like I know I can perform.  Such is racing.  Sometimes up, sometimes down

Ah well that’s racing.  The upside is, this was without a doubt one of the coolest race courses I’ve ever ridden.  My words suck in comparison to how the support, volunteers and the course itself really was.  There was so much FLOW on this course and so much fun.  Wildflowers, Aspens, MEGA climbs, MEGA descents, just awesomenesss all together.  I’ll definitely be back for this one!

On the way back home, I just lollygaged and took some photots and had some fun.

Looking down on the Valley after rolling out of town

Rabbit Ears Pass

North Park

More Mountains

Moose!!

Big honking moose

Pretty certain the moose congregate here so they can people watch

Off this afternoon to Laramie, Wyoming for the Laramie Enduro.  Hoping for much better legs and some fun this weekend!

Made it to and back home from Upstate New York and had an awesome time

Met My Niece/God-daughter Reagan

Hung with my favorite Buddy Peyton

Raced my bike Tuesday night at the Park Ave Arrowhead race; the whole family came out and I walked away with the W.  Thick air felt good, slip sliding around on the muddy trails with no rear brakes did not, but happy to have a good race.

Rolled out with the GBC crew for a Naples SoGnar Ride

Yup I remember these muddy, wet, rocky, steep (3 garmins confirmed 51% grades) super fun trails

Went out on the boat on Seneca Lake

Played some more with Peyton in the Pool (yeah yeah I know take the t-shirt off!)

More to come later…. Including a full write-up on the race and what it’s like to go back to wet muddy trails.

We did have some fun though and got in another great day of riding

Anna Climbs up to the top right out of the parking lot

Suzanne hits the lines on the Gunny Loop

Big Rocks, Big Views

Gorgeous Day & Awesome Views

Day 4

Headed back to hit a few trails we missed on 18mi rd.  Ended up Hitting Prime Cut, Chutes & Ladders & Kessel’s Run

Here’s a quick video (uncut & not edited from Kessel’s Run)

Only pic I got of the day

I’ve got tons of video, just haven’t imported it all and processed it yet.  Been super busy, why do you think been so behind on these!

Day 1: Edge Loop

Apparently we rode this completely ass-backwards but still managed to have hella fun!

The Gang is ready to Roll Out! (From Left to Right; Anna Fortner, Ray Fortner, Brad Shields,

Mark Hartman, Suzanne Hartman, Jason Hilimire)

We’re heading up there!

Rolling through the creekbed

Hey Guys, the trail ends here!  I wonder what those ropes are for?

Ahh now I see how to get up there

After the rope climb was a brutal singletrack climb, just went up forever

But it led us to some spectacular views on top!

And then onto the hike-a-bikes

… And more hike-a-bikes…

But Suzanne was smiling up top!

We ripped it down the dirt road and then jumped onto Zippety-do-da and just blasted the super fun trail.  Awesome wrap to day 1

Day 2: Kokopelli Trails

Not quite as warm but gorgeous scenery

What’s over this edge?

Some awesome and buff trails to really rip on

Don’t look left!

Big chunky rocks on the Lions Loop

Father-Daughter Bonding time!

Suzanne the Shredder on the ridge

Now that we are up here we get to go back down there to those trails!!

I’ll catch up with Days 3 & 4 tomorrow for sure…