Anyways the gist of this blog post was meant to be about my focus & motivation for 2012 & outline my goals.  Sometimes making things public can force you to never back down & push yourself to new levels.  As I posted earlier, going to be racing with Epic Pro cycling team p/b The Gear Movement.  New team, new teammates & some awesome new sponsors for 2012.  I’m excited to be back on Cannondale bikes, been a long time since I’ve ridden one, but I truly loved those bikes.  From my F2000SL (that I worked my ass off in college at Pizza Hut to pay for > Hell yes I rocked the blue Volvo logo’d frame & those crappy CODA discs, but got those swapped.  I think I only broke 2 of these frames!) to the Scalpel that took home off the demo truck, they were fast bikes.  2012, hoping to be on a Flash 29.

Flash 29

Serious team & serious goals for 2012

• PRO XCT Racing!! Texas, Colorado Springs & Missoula (will miss Wisco though as I’ll be back home for my mother’s wedding)
• Nationals!! XCO Nationals in Idaho
• Winter Park Series as I can hit them
• Steamboat Stinger (need some redemption from last years finish)

My goals are for some good finishes at the front of the pack  (race how I know I can race).  Perhaps crack the top 10 for the big races or pull some podiums up high at Winter Park/Steamboat.  Big time, hugest goal, holy crap maybe?  Get into the World Cup at Windham.  That’s not as easy as one thinks.  Need some solid UCI points for the season & not too many races will I get to hit to chase down those points, but if you’re going to dream, better dream big.  I’ll have the bike, the support & the team to do it.  I just need to bring the training into the right spots.

Yes, it’s completely true.  I’m actually training this season with a purpose & goal (see above).  The last 2-3 years have seen me mostly focused on family (getting married, moving, etc), making other people fast, & plain old having fun.  I got fit, but never truly race fit.  Did some intervals sparingly, rode my bike tons but lapsed when it came to the true dedication.  What most people call ‘soft’, didn’t push myself beyond the normal comforts of general riding.  It showed in my race results & my power numbers & even my mentality (at least according to my wife).  I would do just enough to get by & it worked for me then. It no longer will.

Not so this season, I’ve been cracking the whip at the gym.  Late evening or early morning gym sessions, crushing the core work.  Going the extra bit to get myself fit.  Riding is slowly up-ticking as well as my overall strength & general fitness.  I’m leaps & bounds ahead of the past few seasons in January & truly ready to get it on.  I’m feeling strong & it’s a great time to be alive & training hard.

Rolling with Coach Carson

First racing of the season kicks off with the Team at 24 hours of Old Pueblo.  Racing as part of a 5 person mixed team & looking to mix it up a bit. Obviously won’t be anywhere near mid-season race form, but will be nice to get some intensity in, particularly with Mellow Johnny PRO XCT only 2 weeks after.  Good chance to really integrate myself with the team & hopefully give Sam & Chris a run for their money on lap times

Clear roads & Mild temps have made for good training

That’s it for now.  Temps are looking great to load up the miles for this weekend & hopefully the snow melts.  #getsome, set some goals & get yourself focused for this season.  I am!

The team was a force to be reckoned with during the 2011 season and I bumped into the riders at nearly every race I attended.  So it was a natural fit to ride for them (can’t beat em’ join em’).  I know I’m ready to step up my game for the 2012 racing season.  And I know the riders on the team are stoked and ready to take on an awesome schedule of races for next year.

Full details of sponsors, etc are still in the works, but I know from last year the team is awesomely supported by a huge number of companies.  As soon as the details are available, you’ll hear tons about it.

I’m super stoked to be riding with the best team in Colorado and the best amateur and pro riders around.  2012 is going to be an Epic season for sure!

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It has been a good year out here and I’m more than happy to be here and having fun.  I’ve had an ok race season and I’m ready to prepare for next season and really step up my game for 2012.

Let’s play catchup for the last few weeks….

I went to Grand Junction with the CU Cycling Team.  Had a ton of fun and even got to do some extra riding afterwards in Fruita!  No complaints there as it was tons of fun!

Brian rolls through and takes an Oreo feed during the XC race

Post Race shred session on 18 mile rd

Weekly CU team practices at Valmont, Spandex & Baggies mixing it up

Mom, Grammy & Wheels (Dave) came to visit us in Colorado!!

This past week has been awesome, been filled with tons of fun stuff as my mom, her fiancé Wheels (Dave) & Grammy came to visit us in Colorado. It was awesome to have them here.

We started things off with some time on Pearl St doing some shopping and then took our travels up to Rocky Mountain National Park, tough first we kicked things off with Lake’s cross race at Xilinx

Lake shredding it at Xilinx CX

We spent the day taking a nice long drive up to Estes and enjoyed every bit of it.  Leaves were in bloom in a few spots, going up high was pretty sweet and even got to see some Elk in the meadow

Lake and Mom

Elk Meadow…. The Elk are off to the left, but I just like this picture

Lake made some friends

Wheels and our family on Trail Ridge, mom and grammy were too freaked out to get out of the car!

I just dig this view

Elk. Chilling.

The Church at the base of Longs Peak

We got had some great adventures, I even took them up to Gold Hill, but for some reason the camera didn’t work properly up there…  Family dinners, laughs and great times.  It was super nice to have them out here and having a great time and relaxing.  So nice to see my mom so happy after all the stuff she’s been through and it was even better to see Grammy out on vacation!

Riding has been mostly on the down low and will be till I return from the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Champs in Angel Fire, New Mexico.  Super excited to head out with the CU Cycling team, watch them kick some ass and support them.  After that, time to change the oil in the engine, swap some spark plugs and revv it up for 2012 Mountain Bike Season!

This past weekend the race was at Hartman Rocks in Gunnison, CO hosted by Western.  Good chance to really get in with the team, meet everybody and have some fun.  We chose to camp and found a pretty dang sweet camping spot.  Although it was behind the rocks and it got brutally cold at night.

Sunrise in Gunnison

Our team pretty much kicked some ass!  We won the Women’s B Short Track, then went 1,2,4,5 in the Women’s A Short Track.  Our Men went 1,2 in the Men’s A Short track.  The next day in XC we won the Men’s A in a sprint at the Line and in Women’s A went 2,3,5 and 2nd in Women’s B.  Gravity team rocked the house with a W in both DH and Air DH.  Super pumped for the team and looking forward to this coming weekend in Grand Junction

Women’s B Rider Ashlee Wilson shredding the field in the Short Track

The DH Crew

Women’s A Riders Abbey, Katie, Claire & Deidre ready to decimate the field

Abbey Mickey dropping the descent

The Men start the short track led by Kevin Kane

Kevin Kane working hard for Sam Morrison

Everyone was out cheering and doing the wave

Michael Larsen drops through the upper section of DH

Post race activities were load of fun.  2 nights of camping and camp fires.  There was no kumbaya singing, but we definitely had some fun and I’m looking forward to the upcoming races

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!

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!

Bike Riding

I did manage some great bike riding this past weekend.  Saturday, I pulled out the Road bike for a great climbing day.  Hooked up with Nate Brown (who worked with me well at the Bailey Hundo) and a friend of his to put ins some miles and climbing in preparation for the Inaugural Steamboat Stinger this coming weekend.  Plan was to get in some good climbing work and some miles.  Managed to do just that.  Started off with a long climb up Lefthand into Ward and then rolled over to Nederland and up the Shelf Road climb to Eldora.  Never had done that one before and was more awed by the views than chasing Jim up the climb.  We rolled down the Canyon back into Boulder and I was seeking out some more miles, so I hit it up Flagstaff and then rolled down to head to Jamestown.  Thunder boomers were moving in so I decided to go up and over Lee hill.  Problem was 5 hours into the ride and 90+ degree temps I absolutely cracked on Lee Hill.  Came damn near to a standstill and was almost walking it.  Like Phil & Paul say to the climbers who go off the front, “One Mountain too far!”

Here’s some pics of the day

Rolling through Nederland

Heading up the Shelf Climb

After the hike, wanted to really test out my new Stans ZTR 29er Race Gold Wheelset.  Even though my legs were super crushed from the previous days ride and the hike, decided to head over to Hall Ranch and sneak in a quick hour or so on the dirt.  Rolled up antelope trail at a good clip, but really drilled it all the way up the Nelson loop.  Man, I could really feel how much quicker the bike felt underneath me.  Nice and snappy and accelerates super fast on the climbs.  Got up to the Nelson loop and took 2 cracks at it, I think I even bested Von’s time on the loop though there’s 2 different KOM’s on the Strava page.  Weirdly felt really good to go out and just smash it hard.  I ended up trying another crack at Antelope but was already smashed, but still gave it a good go.

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.

I arrived in the little mountain town of Bailey in time for the packet pickup/racer meeting and was able to catch up and hang out with one of my athletes who was also participating.  Got the down low on the course and headed over to the campground to set up shop.  Camping was basically out in the middle of a field at the top of the mountain.  But it was pretty scenic and thankfully quiet.  Set up shop, downed some food and shut down for the night.

Never actually slept a wink, but that’s not unusual for me when having to get up that early.  Decided against the sleeping pills as I didn’t want to wake up groggy.  Usually wake up frustrated as I didn’t sleep, but refused to let it bother me.  Not sure if it was the fact that it was 33 degrees in the morning or I was just focused that I forgot about not sleeping and was ready to rip.  Thankfully my athlete and her husband were gracious enough to give me a ride down to the start line.  4 miles downhill in 33 degrees was not looking very exciting and even in the 5 minutes I rolled around at the start, I was freezing.

We rolled off the start with around 8 miles of dirt road with a few stout climbs before we hit the singletrack.  I stayed near the front and within my comfort zone on the first few climbs, just trying to warm my hands up.  Up and down a few times and then on one of the descents, hear the god-awful noise of a bike hitting the deck and a body sliding.  Caught a glimpse of green and black and realized it was Jeff Kerkove (click the link if you want to see the carnage).  The group kept rolling up the climb and onto one of the longer climbs and the front group started to splinter.  I was giving chase from the 3rd group in the road, the 3 of us were working together to catch the 2nd group of 5 about 30 seconds up and the front group (guessing 8-10) had rolled off.  I knew that if I didn’t make it to the 2nd group before the singletrack I likely would be stuck in dire straits for most of the day.  As we crested the top of the climb, I dispatched my 2 riders and bridged across to the 2nd group and was able to get in the mix as we headed into the singletrack.

Into the Singletrack (photo Jeff Kerkove)

Rolling into the singletrack was blazingly fast.  It was super fun and flowing trails, super dry and sandy.  Swapped around positions with a few riders here and there depending on who missed a line or crashed.  Was feeling great on the bike, kept on top of my fueling and drinking as much as I could.  My hands finally warmed up about 5 miles into the singletrack.  The first few miles with cold hands were tough, was super sluggish with shifting and braking.  Things moved around and rolled through the first few checkpoints quickly.  Jeff Kerkove came flying by in the singletrack with a look of anger and some adrenaline flowing and could tell he was on a mission to get back up to the front.

We kept rolling on the trails, in and out of the burn zones, rolling up and down the trails.  I was literally just having so much fun.  Feeling great, was jumping off of things and working the trail like it was a pump track to get that free speed.  Rolled out onto the doubletrack dirt road before we hit the Colorado trail, dug into my pockets and at as much as I could before we headed into the singletrack again.  I was in a group of 3 with Jorge Espinoza and Mike Hogan as we hit the long climbs and I let them roll ahead as I was playing conservative on the steep long slogs.  I could see them flickering ahead in the woods every now and then.

I was just watching the clock, hoping to hit the 50 mile mark in sub 4 hours.  My race goal was sub 8 and I knew if I was close to that could pull it out.  I rolled past the 50 mile mark around 3:50 and was super stoked and caught some major adrenaline knowing I could meet my goal. As we rolled out of the woods and into the burn zone again, I could see Mike in the distance and was able to catch him before the long descent into aid station #6.

One of the many burn zones (photo Jeff Kerkove)

Hit aid station #6 and didn’t need anything in my drop bag, I just took off my arm/knee warmers and rolled out.  Had plenty of food in my pockets and was feeling great and ready to rock and roll.  Mike passed me as I was changing, but I hooked up with Nate Brown in the feed zone.  We decided to roll out on the dirt and pavement and just work together.  Best move of the race.  We drilled it on the slight incline and into the headwind along the Platte River.  Just flew along at 20+ mph.  Caught Mike, but he ended up dropping off and we kept rolling.  Caught and dropped a single-speeder and just kept working.  I was doing my best to give what I could, but Nate was riding super strong on the road and I stayed tucked in as much as I could.  As we neared the long open dirt road sections, I was starting to hit a rough patch.  I told Nate to go on ahead and I would see him at the finish line.

Nate rolled up the climb and got about 500 meters ahead and something clicked over, I just started feeling really great.  Rolled up past Nate and kept charging, saw another rider and rolled past him.  The legs were feeling super and the adrenaline was flowing.  Saw Mr. Kerkove and rolled past him asking how the leg was as I could see the bloody remnants from the crash.  I rolled over the top and just kept pushing it with everything.  As the road kept getting steeper I felt like I kept getting faster going upwards.  I was finally moving forward instead of backwards at the end of the race.  Focus was there and I just kept pushing it.  I caught a Honey Stinger Rider on the next climb and kept pushing past and down the dirt road descent.  Then the nastiest part of the race, we had a gate crossing of stagnant Bison poo and no way around it.  Had to go right through it and was just covered in dirty black sludge.  Could barely even read the garmin after wiping it off a few times.

Was now within the 15 miles to go.  Random spectator told me another rider was only a few minutes up.  I continued to push it with everything on the climbs and just kept working.  Caught another Honey Stinger rider and rolled past him on the climbs and kept working hard. 10 miles to go caught the last feed zone, got a heed and kept pushing it and back onto the start road we were on.  Random rider in reverse direction yelled out I was in 10th.  10th?  Holy crap how did I get up here, I also noticed the miles were ticking away and was going to blow away my goal of 8 hours and was know shooting  for sub 7:30.  Kept pushing it hard and the last few rollers were brutal.  The legs were now starting to catch up and ache.  The sun was baking me on the exposed dirt roads, but I just kept pushing and staying as focused as I could.  I finally breached what I though was the final climb, only to drop down and realize I was at the base of 1 more monster.  Looking up, I saw 2 riders ahead.  Was there enough time to catch them?  Did I have it in the tank?

I surged for a few seconds, but knew it was futile they had rounded the corner to start the descent and I still had a little bit to go.  I stayed on point but no longer giving such a hard chase.  Just wanted to get down the final descent without crashing or flatting.  Was easier said than done as it was just a loose 4 wheel trail with no real lines.  Almost went down at full speed, but kept it under control and rolled into the finish line at 7:21 in 10th place!!

Hundo Finish (credit MtbRaceNews)

Super ecstatic to have had a great ride and just having really put out a great effort.  The winner Colin Cares of Kenda had rolled in at 6:42 and 2nd place was Brian Alders at 7:02.  Just a great day on the bike and hoping for a few more results that will match this effort!

Looking forward to heading home this coming weekend, seeing some friends, family, new family and riding some old trails!