Pics and Results

Follow the links to get all the action!

http://picasaweb.google.com/boulderbikes/MountainStatesCup3

http://usacycling.org/results/?permit=2007-1483

The story ends with me putting him in the wall!

Sunday started bright and early at 5:30am in Crested Butte for the always highly anticipated Super-D race. After finding a breakfast joint and chomping down some much-needed calories, I headed up to the resort. Somehow I got the schedule wrong, and my race was scheduled to start at 8:05am, rather than the 9am as I had expected... Uh oh... Not good to race on a full stomach!

After riding the Red Lady express up to the top (same lift I rode past the top of twice in the XC race the day before, and once on Friday) there was no time left for a practice run, so I just did my best to warmup and kill as many mosquitos as possible.

Not wanting to make things easy, the Super-D start at CB began with a 300 yard sprint to our bikes, near 11,000ft, wearing bike shoes... I had a horrible run with pancakes and hash browns sloshing in my gut, and got started on the bike somewhere around 10th place. Not having pre-ridden the course, I knew this was going to get interesting. The dust was immediate and THICK! I had planned to pass a few cats on the open ski run at the start, but I could barely see the trail, much less whatever obstacles lay in wait out on the open ski run.

After sucking down a few pounds of dust, we reached the first major peadaling section of the course. I put down some hate and managed to get past about 5-6 guys in a short 300 yard section, then chased onto the back of a group of 3 for the next singletrack section. Passing was impossible (or at least very very difficult) through the Aspen grove, so I was forced to sit on and eat more dust. Back onto the fire road, I passed one more guy and set off chasing the next, who I caught in short order climbing the next steep littl rise.... and now comes the exciting part!

Add in a monster cloud of dust... then let me know where you'd like to pass. Is that a huge rock in there?

Since this was the last real passing opportunity, I put in a savage 4MPH attack on the uphill side of racer-X. Not wanting to cede the position so close to the end of the race, racer-X started to get frisky and got to throwing some elbows my way. Now, normally I try to race people contact-free and respect their space, but this guy crossed the line with that elbow crap... and I was forced to defend myself... Lucky for me, I've played this game before and took the position. Racer-X hit the deck, and let out the all-too-familiar grunt of getting the his wind knocked out when he hit the turf. Sorry dude... I was faster!

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful to the finish. Since my running at the start was sooooo terrible, I felt that I had finished mid-pack somewhere and was just happy with how many people I passed. Well, turns out that I passed enough people to finish 2nd. Sweet!

Mountain States Cup #3 - Crested Butte

Well, the A4 is still under the knife, so I threw down and rented a manly PT Cruiser for the trip down to Crested Butte on Friday morning... Since I've been down HWY 285 way too many times, I decided to take I-70 out through Copper Mtn. and down through Leavdville. Much to my suprise, the route I decided to take was the same route the Ride the Rockies group was on. Although seeing several thousand cyclists is pretty cool, it got a bit old to drive so slow and constantly pull over to the side of the road and stop... Oh well, at least they were riding their bikes! Once past that mess, I rolled down into Buena Vista, and up over the imposing Cottonwood Pass.

The XC race on Saturday was brutal to say the least. 12.5 miles and about 2,000 of feet climbing per lap, with 2 laps slated for this cat. I had a bit of a slow start, but managed to come into my own on the first big climb and pass almost everyone in my class, all the women in the expert class, some single-speeders, and a few unlucky beginners. About half-way through the second lap, the baggy-short wearing, 575-riding, guy that beat me in the Angel Fire race came riding past. I hung on his wheel, drafted through the flat stuff, and passed him back before the next singletrack section. Well, as I had gathered from the previous race, this guy is fast and he quickly put on another attack to pass me, and three other straggling expert-class riders. I tried to hang on, but he was just gone.... and I came in 27 seconds back after chasing him for an additional 20-minutes or so. Somehow a guy managed to get off the front and stomped us both by 2 minutes... Oh well, 3rd ain't so bad, especially after riding flat-out for almost two hours.

Amazing scenery pics to come...

Wed. Night Boulder Short Track: Round 2

Ride it! and Brooksy rocked the sunny/hot/dust filled Boulder short track race on Wed. and came away with lungs full of dust, and less skin than they started with. Ride it! started the evening off by thrashing around in the "B" race (see heart rate data!) to a probable top-15 finish, and Brooksy rode to a solid 2nd place in the "C" race after a good dust plume inducing crash mid-way in the race... Fun indeed!

24 Hour Adventure Extreme in Durango

A Thursday new-bike build with a 10pm departure put our arrival at Durango Mountain Resort (Purgatory) just a bit behind schedule and we didn't end up getting to bed until about 5:30am on Friday morning. Friday morning was amazing and we put in a quick ride to make sure that the literally just built bikes were up to the task... follow that with a quick nap.. and you're ready to go 24 hour adventure racing.

Luckily, I was able to keep busy by replacing chains, watching chipmunks, searching for lost racers on my mid-race bike ride, driving, chatting with other support crews, and most importantly... making the guy who ruined my morning tell me to go away after a bout of caffeine fueled agression on my part.

Brooks and Tiff had a great race, loved their new bikes, and didn't accidentally kill any critters during their slog through the wilderness! More sleep please!!!

Full set of images are at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boulderbikes/200724HourAdventureExtreme

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.durangomountainresort.com/assets/images/_trailmap/summertrailmap.pdf

1st Expert Class Race

Nick T. (buddy from work) and I ventured up to the Winter Park hill climb early Saturday morning to test our climbing legs against the unreasonably fast CO locals. Nick stomped the field by about two minutes and I came in about 4 minutes after him to take 6th! Not too bad for my first expert race, but I didn't quite make my goal of beating the 40-minute mark... Guess I'll just have to try again next year!!!

http://www.epicsingletrack.com/default.asp?page=/Results2007/Race1/M2C2.html

Looks like a winner!

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1287

You can drop it (from 5ft), dunk it (to 33ft), freeze it (-10°C/14°F) or even try to crush it (up to 220lbf), and it will still take amazing photos. We shall see!

This is only a test...

First blog entry... 6/6/07