Two weeks ago I raced the 24 hour National Championships with a four man team composed of Brady Kappius, Kalan Beisel and JJ Clark. Brady races the National Mountain Bike calendar and crushes cross races all over the world so it was good to have him and his power. Kalan and JJ are both locals who can rip and have raced in Palmer Park (the race venue) many times and have the course pretty dialed in! I was the 4th man to the team and having the race in the Springs racing with close friends was pretty exciting for me.
I took the first lap of the race and had to do the Le Mans start. Something I've never done but It was fun. I came in the top 10 after the run and moved up pretty quick once on the bike and immediately went to the front and started going all out race pace. After the first climb I'd dropped everyone else which was good because I had the advantage in the technical sections so people couldn't see or follow my lines. After a small 30 second detour (Ooops!) near the finish I still came through in first with a couple minute lead. Kalan, Brady and JJ just kept the gap growing and before I knew it it was my turn again. This lap was my hardest for sure. Halfway through, I wasn't sure how I could keep riding at my pace without throwing up. Ha! I kept it going and came in with the fasest lap time, a 53:12. 15 seconds faster than my first one. I was the only one to go under 55 minutes and got a sweet new headset as my prize for that! Throughout the rest of the night we kept racing hard keeping lap times right around an hour and extending the gap to second. By noon the next day we we're 24 hour National Championships with a lap ad some change to spare! Pretty cool to win on the home course.
Racing hard on lap 1
Kalan Beisel and I exchange our team timing chip
National Champions!
After 24 hours of C Springs, I continued doing a lot of high country rides (Get it while you can!!). Boy the trails are ripping right now, it was hard to leave them yesterday after an awesome ride with Kalan, Pate and Hinkens, but now I'm on a 10+ hour flight from Seattle to Tokyo. Once I land that's not it! 3 hour layover, 7 hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore(12am arrival), spend the night in Singapore and board an AM flight to Langkawi, Malaysia where I will be doing a 5 day stage race along with Brady Kappius. I already know this going to be my favorite trip of the year for many reasons. We're staying in a baller 4 star resort, it's a big race with no pressure, I've never been to Asia, get to travel with Brady, lot's of money to be won. Just some of the many reasons I'm extremely pumped for it. Big thanks to the guys at SRAM for getting me all dialed in with a fresh groupo and fork rebuild for the race. Bike's rolling better than ever, legs are feeling better than they have all season. It's going to be a good trip.
Only 8 more hours on this flight. It's going quick though with my Westone 5 series custom ear buds in. You can't hear any engine noise, crying babies. It's just you enjoying your tunes as if you were in a studio. Check out the sweet carbon design the did for me below. I'll be checking in quite frequently throughout the stage race so be sure to check back for more!
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