Russell Finsterwald

The desert life.

2012-01-26T15:28:00.002-07:00

It seems like just yesterday I was leaving class in Boulder to make a quick trip down to Tucson to get in some warm weather training. I found myself in Tucson again this winter but instead of coming down for two weeks, I'll be down here for two weeks. This will be my third year coming down to Tucson and I've grown to like it. Prior to making the migration south I was in Colorado Springs where I was able to get in some good quality rides, all on my Single Speed for the most part! I really like riding the single speed because it always makes it tough. 90% of the time you're either riding hard just to keep moving or working on your leg speed because you are spun out. You're very rarely in what feels what the "right" gear. I think it's a good way to keep the fitness up and just works on your pedaling efficiency quite a bit.

Another nice day in Colorado with my rockstar training partner, Kalan Beisel

I decided to head to Tucson a couple days before the New Year. After 10 hours of driving I found myself cruising with the AC on, I knew I was getting close! If I'm already traveling to a new location for winter in pursuit of warm weather does that make me a snowbird at the age of 20?! Haha. Things have been going good down here. I just wrapped up a really solid 3 week training block and after a week of rest will be back at it again. As of last night, I got word that I will for sure be doing the Tour of the Dominican Republic with Kerry, Jack, Grotts, roommate Rob Bush and one other roadie. It's a 8 day stage race from February 20-27. Should be some good training and hard racing to get me ready for the first few races in March. I'm really looking forward to getting back into racing and making 2012 my best yet!

Other than training not too much has been going down here at the house. We've got a pool so I've been spending some quality time out there. Whether it's waking wiffle balls into it or just relaxing it's nice to have. We have a Foosball table as well so we can get into some pretty intense tournaments going on. I've got plenty of room to improve in that area. Other than that it's a lot of riding, recovering, core and hanging out. It's the perfect set up for having a successful 2012. I recently partnered up with Strava so be sure to give me a follow and check out some of the rides I've been doing! I hope you're as excited for the racing to start as I am; 2012 is going to be a great year!

Sam, Emily and Adam are in Tucson as well so we took a trip to visit team sponsor Genuine Innovations. Great company and great products. Thanks for the tour!

One of my roommates here Rob Squire poses in the pool, a typical afternoon activity.

The foosball score board. I've got some catching up to do.

Good friend Rich Weis lives just outside Phoenix, AZ so I took the trip up there to visit and ride.

New team bike! Can you say baller?!

Group rides here start at 7:30 AM so I've been able to catch a few sunrises.

Stage 5. Doneskies!

2011-10-23T21:07:00.001-06:00

Stage 5 was only a 40 minute race but man it hurt! The heat came out in full force just as it had on day 1. I was riding on the tailend of the lead group then I got a low leak and had to stop and seal it up. I got back on and kept pushing but never got back on. It was a disappointing way to end the race, but I had a great time all 5 days and the courses were awesome. I'm looking forward to coming back next year!

They put together a nice dinner banquet for awards and everything. The food was great and it was fun to hang out with the athletes. We had a free day yesterday and did a lot of riding the scooters. I think I need a dirt bike now! I didn't get my full damage deposit back because I tore my bumper off doing a wheelie. Haha! It was totally worth it though. We're now getting ready to begin our voyage home. I'm pretty excited to chill in the Singapore airport tonight. After flying over here, I hit Premier Ex so I'll be able to hang in the red carpet club! Ballin!!

Stage 3 & 4.

2011-10-21T03:25:00.001-06:00

Maybe I'm just finally acclimating to the heat or my legs are coming around but the last 2 days have treated me well and I've found myself just outside the top 10 in each day, something I'm pretty proud of with the deep field. Stage 3 was an hour twenty of XC style racing on a 4.5km circuit. The first 1/4 lap was in an open field and was really bumpy but it went into some nice singletrack that had punchy climbs, a couple water crossings and a rocky descent. We then went and rode a dirt bike path section across the beach before another singletrack section to the finish. I rode with Kris Sneddon pretty much the entire race and we worked together well to keep riding consistent. We each almost popped and different points so it was nice to have each other to keep pushing. I ended up getting him on the last lap and rode it in for 11th. I'll take it.

Stage 4 was exclusively all road. The fastest rolling tires I brought were some Bontrager XR3's which are great tires on the trails, but they were probably a bit to much tread compared to the semi slicks most people were rolling. Some Bontrager XR1's or 29-1's would have been good choices. I pumped those suckers up to 50psi and prepared to suffer pretty hard on the flat 13k leading up to the 13k climb. Luckily, the pace was relatively easy leading up to the climb other than a few surges on a couple rollers. We hit the climb and fortunately I'd rode it prior to the race so I had an idea what was in store. The bottom part was the steepest section so I wanted to make sure I didn't bury it to deep and was able keep pushing the whole way up. I was yo-yo'ing off the lead group and finally settled into the lead chase group a few km in. I rode with them for a bit but I had a few matches left so I went to the front and just rode my own pace and eventually dropped everyone. I rode the last 6km solo which worked well for me because I could ride my own pace and not have to match attacks or anything. Not 100% sure where I crossed the line today but I believe I was just outside the top 10. Another day in the money, and another step closer to working my way up in GC.

We finished the race early enough that we had time to rent the moto's again and cruise to the beach. It was a nice relaxing way to end the day. Tomorrow we have a 45 minute short track (ouch!) and then we're done racing. On Sunday there is a Jamboree ride which is just for fun but I imagine it will turn into a drag race. We'll probably have that afternoon free so we can shred the island some more on our scooters! I don't think riding scooters would be as much fun in America because you can't exactly cruise at whatever speed you want and blow by cars on a one lane highway. I really like making those sketchy passes, it makes me feel like I'm in a movie chasing someone down. haha.

After day 1, I was questioning whether I would comeback for another year but the last 3 days have been complete turn arounds. I'm having a total blast and am acclimating to the heat finally. It doesn't really bother me as much. As bummed as I am to be missing some epic fall weather back home and some surely epic rides with some buddies this has been a good trip for me to "vacation" a bit. Here are some pictures of me from the first couple days of racing.

Stage 2. Rubbing Bars with Rubber Trees

2011-10-19T06:06:00.001-06:00

Today was stage 2 and I had much better luck than day 1 thankfully. My legs weren't quite as good as day 1, but I'm sure tomorrow will be better. I rode a steady race and never really went too deep mostly because its kind of hard to in the heat and humidity. Today was much cooler than day 1 mostly due to a lot of cloud cover. The course was a really fun 4.7km's that resembled a World Cup pretty well. The climb was around 8 minutes and some pretty steep rocky sections that were pretty tough to ride after an afternoon drizzle. The descent was pretty steep and was pretty tight because of all the trees. A lot of the trees produce rubber so there are a lot of buckets filled with it on course. There were also a couple Euro chutes as well. It was really fun course and I'm pretty impressed with what they put together. In other news, Brady recovered from his 24hr bug and was able to start today. He had a bit of bad luck hit him when he got a vine stuck in his cassette and had to spend some time digging that out early on in the race. I think he's just faking all his misfortunes and is saving it for the last day, a short track, and will come annihilate it! Haha, just kidding I heard him blowing chunks throughout the night. I'm glad he's come around though!

Tomorrow, day 3, we have another XC race on tap. Hopefully I'll find myself in the money tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures.

Stage 1. Getting Down to Business.

2011-10-18T04:04:00.001-06:00

Stage 1 had 60k of Malaysian mountain biking on tap for us. It's actually the longest day so it's nice to knock that out early. However, I think the remaining days will hurt the most because they are much shorter thus being more intense. I found out quickly you have to race at what feels like 70% because you will over heat if you go to far into the red. I was working pretty hard to keep the main group 30 seconds or so up the road until we hit one of the first sustained climbs. It was around 5 minutes long and pretty steep, under direct sunlight. I started to boil going up it and got goosebumps so I knew it was time to back it off a bit or I would pay for it later. A bit later I was able to get a good group and we worked together well and began picking people off. Our group eventually split and soon after I suffered a flat. Bummer! I was almost back rolling until for some reason my air chuck on my big air wouldn't work. After I finally found someone to lend me a pump I was on my way. A ton of people had passed me in the 10 or so minutes it took me to get rolling so I was pretty motivated to pick them off and work my way back. I rode all the descents super cautious because I didn't want to suffer another flat, but sure thing I got another one. After that, there were around 10 or so k left and I just rode it back pretty chill. Might as well save it for tomorrows stage where I could potentially get some valuable UCI points. I don't think I saved too much because I feel pretty blown right now! Haha.

The course was definitely a challenging one. It was filled with lot's of tight and twisty trail that was had many little twigs making things pretty bumpy. There were tons of short punchy rollers that took their toll on me! Throughout the course there were also many stream crossings. It felt good to get splashed and cool of, even it was for just a moment. There were also a lot of sections that crossed cow pastures that were a bit flooded after lastnights rain. I was a bit scared to drink out of my bottle after getting that sprayed on it, but I did my best to wash it off. Jack let me borrow one of his Osprey hydration packs and that thing saved me for sure. The feed zones didn't have neutral support, and me being here unsupported that could have been a problem! Unfortunately for Brady he caught some kind of bug and didn't get to start today. He's pretty much been in the fetal position all day. Hopefully he'll be feeling better and come out and do some work out there!

I've been having a blast down here but I think the one thing that could keep me from coming back is the heat. Holy cow it's hot! 38c according to my Garmin throughout the stage. It's pretty much a race of surviavl out there. Time to put the feet up and rest for tomorrows stage..

Scooter Shredding

2011-10-17T17:16:00.001-06:00

The day before stage 1 one is finally over and tomorrow morning at 9am the suffering begins. Today wasn't your typical pre race day for me. Instead of surfing the internet with me feet up, we were out shredding the island on our motos and checking out what the island had to offer. Fellow Americans Blake Harlan and Jason Sager are down here racing with Brady and I as well. They also rented some moto's and joined us on our adventure today. The speed limit on the island is normally either 60 or 70 kph, but we cruised at full throttle or no throttle the whole time. Pinning it at 110k's! Moto's pretty much run the road here and it seems like no rules really apply to them except stay left so people can pass right. That makes it nice for us so we can blow by! Between driving on the left and narrow roads, some sketchy passes we're defiantly made. Luckily, none of us died. Ha! Our biker gang rolled to the Langkawi cable car today. It's a gondola lift system that takes you up over 2,100ft to a mountain top where there are some awesome views as well as a hanging bridge. After that was all said and done we began the voyage home to return our scooter's. Brady's ran out of gas so I had to give him a tow to a gas station. Luckily it was only around 1.5k.

After a morning of scooting we figured we should go out for a ride. We did so and happened to come across part of stage 1. The trails here are cut like double track, but half of it is grown over so it's like riding singletrack. The race should be fun and will surely be hard. There are some big names coming, I guess that's what happens when $130,000 is put on the line. I'm hoping for a top 15 each day! Here are some more pictures and even a cool video of Brady and I sending it on the scooters.

More Malaysia

2011-10-16T17:31:00.001-06:00

Boy this place is rad. There is so much cool stuff to see and do here. The island may only 2 hours to ride a scooter around but there is a ton of stuff to do here. We rented some moto's today for 22 ringets, or about 7USD and cruised the island. We saw a bunch of beaches, monkey's and much more. It was a ton of fun. We've been doing some bike riding too. Brady and I rode to a sweet waterfall today and yesterday we conquered one of the finishing climbs on stage four. It's 13k long, climbs 2,600 ft, and takes around 45 minutes. It will be hard! Here are some pictures from the last few days.

Langkawi!

2011-10-14T07:11:00.001-06:00

The flight from Denver to Langkawi was by far the most consecutive time I've ever spent in an airplane. 3 hours from Denver to Seattle, 10.5 from Seattle to Tokyo, 7 hours from Tokyo to Singapore and 2 hours from Singapore to Langkawi with a quick plane stop on the way to Langkawi. It actually went by pretty fast. That could be due to the 4 Ambien pills I took throughout all the flights. We got into the Singapore airport at 12am and didn't fly out for 11 hours so we had a fair amount of time to kill. Good thing the Singapore airport is rad! The airport is by far the coolest one I've ever been to and I'm actually looking forward to our 13 hour layover on the way home. The airport has so much to do. There are tons of shops for you to blow all your money and they are filled with cool and interesting stuff. There are a lot of restaurants full of unique foods. There's a movie theater, koi ponds, sunflower gardens, shower areas, sleeping areas, art stations, beautiful bathrooms, a roof top pool and so much more. It's also incredibly clean. Apparently you can leave the airport and take a 2 hour tour of the city. We might do that on the way home. Here are some pictures.

Everything arrived safely which honestly surprised me! Langkawi is by far one of the coolest places I think I've ever been. It's almost like a Caribbean Island with a 3rd World feel. Everyone drives little scoters around that pew out smoke and there are plenty of little markets selling knock of goods. We even saw a bunch of monkey's on our ride today. They we're too fast to get pictures of though. I'm sure by the end of the trip I'll be able to!They drive on the left side which caught me off guard. Our hotel is also an amazing 4 star resort. Big thanks to the promoters of the LIMBC for providing us with such great accommodations.

24 hours of Colorado Springs

2011-10-13T18:11:00.001-06:00

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!

Just another day in paradise..

2011-09-28T22:32:00.002-06:00

The last three weeks at home have truly been the definition of living the dream. Fall is by far my favorite time of year because the race season over so things are a little more relaxed. It's nice to be riding with me buddies and exploring the high country that is covered in snow most the time I'm home. Lot's has been going on since I got back from Worlds. Jack hung out for a bit but returned home for Chequamagon and to see his family. I was hoping to head out there to race but it didn't work out so I raced the Palmer Park 50 instead. It happened to fall on my birthday and I took the W which was a nice present to myself. Kind of funny how we can call suffering for 4 hours a present...

Nice shot by Christian Murdock of the Colorado Springs Gazette

Brady and I went to Winter Park one day with the big bikes. That was too much fun!

I also did a cross race to keep the high end fitness going for Malaysia. It was fun, too bad there aren't time bonuses for wheel turns..

I've also been doing a lot of "get fit" rides at home. I don't feel like doing intervals right now, so instead I've just been going out and riding tempo/threshold for a couple hours. It's actually a lot of fun and not as mentally draining as structured intervals. It still hurts just as much if not more! If I feel strong in Malaysia maybe I'll incorporate that into the training next year. My favorite ride lately has been up Mt. Baldy and down various different ways. Right now it's pretty incredible with the Aspens changing and the amazing trail conditions. We got 6+ inches of rain about 2 weeks ago so they're in pretty prime shape still. I feel really fortunate to be living the life I'm living right now. With school out of the equation I am able to just get in a lot of good steady rides. You'd think I'd have a lot of free time now but somehow that's not the case. My days feel full and I'm never bored. Taking a year off school has been one of the best decisions I've made. This is a lifestyle I could get used to..

This weekend I'm racing 24 hour National Championships with Brady Kappius, Kalan Beisel and JJ Clark. It should be a good time out there. I leave to Malaysia for the 5 day stage race October 12th. Brady Kappius and I are traveling together. There's a lot of money on the line and I hope to bring some of that home. Afterwards, hopefully I can race Iceman then rest up a bit before training for 2012! I'll be in Tucson this winter getting fit with other U23's. I'm already super excited for 2012 and know it's going to be my best season yet. This will be the first season I've been able to focus 100% on being a bike racer!

Here's a bit of a photo dump from the last few weeks! A majority of them are shots of the Aspen trees, I'm a major fan!

Championnats du Monde

2011-09-14T16:36:00.001-06:00

Wow! It's already been almost two weeks since my race in Champery. Man does time fly when you're having fun!

A week prior to the World Championships I headed over to the USA Cycling house in Kirchzarten, Germany for my final days of training and to get in a few races to keep the legs open. The first race was a city sprint event which took place on city streets with stairs, pallets, barriers and other items thrown in to make it interesting. Interesting it was. Driving to the race, we got a bit lost which turned things into a bit of a scramble. Right before the race started it began to absolutely pour. Between the race being at night with little lighting, the pouring rain and sketchy obstacles I wasn't really into. I managed a couple laps and got in some good efforts.

A few days later we headed just across the Swiss/ German border for a Swisspower Cup in Basel. The course was pretty fun and had a bit of everything in it. It was really fast and finding a good group was key. I found myself in a pretty large group which included teammate Kerry Werner. I rode really well and had one of my better races of the season there. A good sign for Worlds!

The next morning we made the voyage to Champery, Switzerland. It was just as beautiful as I had remembered it being. The alps are truly amazing! The course was also the same as in the past. It's one of the better course I think. It demands you to be a good technical rider as well as a strong climber. Both things I would consider my strengths. The course was always a bit moist due to nightly rains. I was hoping for an epicly muddy race. I know the mechanics weren't though, and they got their wish.

After a few days of sitting around and resting it was finally race day! After a solid warm up it was go time. I put together a really good start and was constantly moving up. For the first 2 or 3 laps I was riding really well and found myself in the top 30. Unfortunately, I hit a wall and my second half the race I was going completely backwards. I didn't achieve my goal of a top 30 but took away a lot of experience to bring to the table in 2012.

Getting rad on the A-Line drop

The day after the race our Canadian neighbors invited us on a ride with them. We rode high up into the alps and peaked out on a ridge which doubled as the Switzerland/ France border. This ride was the official kick off to the off season and since then I've been doing a lot of fun riding. Jack Hinkens is staying with me right now which has been a lot of fun. Our first day back we decided some dirt jumping was on the to do list. Jack has a lot of hidden talents, including being able to pull a 360 off one of the jumps. Super impressive.

My bike takes me places school never could

After a day of dirt jumping, we returned to our cross-country roots and summited Pikes Peak. With an elevation of 14,115ft this was not going to be an easy task. After around 3.5 hours of climbing and hiking we reached the top. It was 41 degrees and snowing on top vs. the 80 and sunny down in the springs. Barr trail was a bit to technical to enjoy riding down on the hardtails so we decided to go down the Pikes Peak highway 3 miles to Elk Park, a more XC bike friendly trail. The only problem with that is riding down the PP highway is illegal. We ran into one ranger pulled over and blew by him. He radioed ahead to another ranger who blocked the road stopping us dead in our tracks, only 500 feet from the trailhead. After scaring us by saying he was going to charge us with a $250 fine and jail time, we walked away with a $12 ticket. Ha!

Almost above tree line!

Up pretty high!

Many of our days have involved keeping it fun on the bike. Jack and I also headed up to Winter Park on the big bikes and got pretty rad up there. That was a lot of fun. Jack is heading home tomorrow, but hopefully he'll be back soon. I think he likes it here! This weekend I'm racing in Palmer Park. A 50 miler on my birthday should be fun!

Livin the Dream

2011-08-24T02:57:00.001-06:00

Man have these last few weeks flown by! You'd think living at the Olympic Training Center with the sole mission of riding bikes there would be lot's of free time but that definetly wasn't the case. I put everything I could into my training lately, and if all this hard work doesn't have me flying in Champery I don't know what will! A lot of volume with a fair amount of intensity was the recipe created by Colby. Gully was able to get us out for some motor pacing on a couple occasions, we did some supplemental O2 in the lab, many double days, group rides and a couple short tracks in Boulder. I feel like I'm riding better than I have all year. I think the thing about racing is you are generally always carrying the same level of fitness, you can just teach your body to suffer more by doing intervals and such and that's what makes you more "fit." Thinking back to my first VO2 intervals in March and then comparing them to now, I think the main difference is my body is used to working more effiecently and I'm able to dig more into the pain cave.

Supplemental O2. It hurts, but hopefully is effective!

I arrived in Germany yesterday after a smooth trip over. Kirchzarten really is starting to feel like a second home to me now. Instead of feeling like a tourist, I feel like I'm apart of the community. Today I plan to go to my favorite coffee shop, the Biosk, in Freiburg and visit my friend Sonke. It's cool to have connections in such a foreign place! We're doing a race tomorrow in Switzerland as well as Sunday before heading over to Champery on Monday or Tuesday. The U23's race on Friday. I'm excited and hoping for a muddy race!

Champery sure is pretty. I can't wait to ride this trail!

Worlds Bound!

2011-08-06T22:04:00.002-06:00

USA Cycling announced the Worlds Team yesterday and I am pleased to be apart of it along with all my Subaru-Trek team mates. Right now I'm at the Olympic Training Center with Jack and Kerry doing some prep work. Read more about the Worlds Team here.

Things are good here and we've been getting in some good quality riding. Tomorrow a big 5 hour day on tap with 7k of climbing. Going to be epic!

Home sweet home!

2011-07-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

Today marks me being back in Colorado Springs for a whole week, longer than I have all summer. I love travelling all over the states and checking out sweet new trails and awesome towns but nothing compares to riding on the trails you've grown up on and shredding with your buddies. This past week has been great. I've got settle down a bit and lay off the intervals. With over a month until my next big race I took a couple days off the bike for some rest, got in a few sweet rides on the new single speed and got pretty epic today. Both Kelli Emmett and my good friend Kalan Beisel are training for Leadville 100 so they're putting in some big hours. Today Danny Pate, Branden Rakita and I became victims of their ultra endurance training and set out on a ride with 6,300 feet of climbing with a max altitude of 12,300 feet. Ouch! It was a pretty sick ride with some awesome views, sweet descents and an all around good time. We climbed for about 3 and half hours to the top of Amagre which is a mountain located a bit south of Pikes Peak. We headed down a super steep, super loose, super off camber trail that was new to me! It tied into Jones Park for a grand total of 15 miles of ripping singletrack and a total ride time of over 4.5 hours. We climbed 25 miles so it would've been nice to get that in DH, but let's not get greedy. I was an idiot and brought my hardtail instead of a dully. The superfly is sweet no doubt but 5 inches of suspesion would've been sweet! We started the ride at 9 so I blame being in "zombie mode" for this lack luster descion. Here are some pics from the ride:

The crew minus Kalan Beisel (photographer)

Peaks Peak across the valley. It stands at 14,110 feet.

Looking south towards Pueblo. You could even see Pueblo Resavoir.

Colorado Springs in the distance!

Above timberline.

Awesome views the whole way down!

Talk about singletrack. It was like this for nearly 5 miles.

I'm excited for the next few weeks ahead prepping for worlds. Like I mentioned previously I'm basing out of the OTC starting Wednesday with Jack and Kerry and am excited to show them some sweet trails while getting fit. I got them some 5 inch bikes from SRAM to borrow so you can guarantee some time before worlds will be spent doing some shuttling, possibly some lift access riding and definitely getting rad!

The Center of the Universe

2011-07-26T15:39:00.005-06:00

This past week Subaru-Trek spent some time in Missoula, Montana before the Pro XCT finals. Sam has always claimed Missoula to be the center of the universe and after checking out the town a bit, there is some truth to that statement. As we rolled in from Sun Valley, ID Monday evening Schultz took us on a tour and showed us the good places to eat. The town reminded me a lot of Durango for some reason. A river flowing through it and the older buildings perhaps.

The next morning Sam came to the hotel and gave the team a tour of some of the local trails. The trails were really fun and had some good flow to them. It was really hot that day so Kerry and I decided to hit the river. We found a cool bridge to jump off too!

The group riding some prime Missoula singletrack.

Later that night Mr. and Mrs. Schultz hosted us for dinner. We got to see a lot of Sam and Andy's old school pics. I really liked this one of Sam. No footer!

Wednesday the HIJHK's wanted to ride the course as did I so we headed up to see what he had on tap for the weekend. The course was by far the best on the circuit this year. It had everything; double track climbing, singletrack climbing, switchbacks, fast descents and a massive A-line gap jump/huck. The A-line was pretty nerve racking because it was ~5 feet high, you had to jump ~8 feet out to clear it and the run in involved a 90 degree turn right before the lip. JHK was the first to hit after scoping it for a bit. I however, wasn't feeling it that day and didn't do it. After a few laps JHK and I went for some more riding. We hit a really awesome trail called Ewok. It was so fast and flowy!

Eventually I maned up and hit the A-Line.

Thursday I kept it low key and just went for a nice spin with Kerry and Jack. The Ewok trail was so fun I took them on it again! Afterwards, we returned to the river we jumped in earlier in the week and Jack stepped it up and hit the taller one that was 50+ feet. It was crazy! He didn't even hesitate. We then head to a restaurant for an amazing lunch at a location called Hob Nob. This place was recommended by Schultz. I had an amazing chicken mango sandwich.

"Honey Badger" Hinkens jumped off the top bridge. Kerry and I jumped off the lower one.

The Hob Nob was my go to restaurant. I ate there 6+ times!

Friday came and I knew I had to hit the A-line today or I was going to be boo'ed the whole race. Ha, peer pressure! Luckily, I hit and and to my surprise it wasn't that bad. I was really excited because I knew a lot of people wouldn't be hitting it in the race.

Race day finally came and I was quite excited. After a morning spin with Kerry and Jack followed by a stop at the farmers market, I began to get ready to head to the venue. I was feeling pretty good in my warm up and was hoping to wrap the Pro XCT series up with a solid race. The gun went off and I quickly found myself 3rd wheel behind Sam and JHK for a bit. I guess that's what happens after doing a few world cup races.. Anyways, the rest of my race went well and I found myself floating around the top 10 throughout most of the race. On lap 3, however, I hit something that gave me an instant flat. I rallied the downhills and had to run for a bit to the tech zone where I grabbed a new wheel. I had some chasing to do, but finished in 17th. I was happy with it. The race was awesome, so many spectators came out making it feel like a world cup. I was glad I was hitting the A-line every lap in front of them. If you haven't heard yet Schultz took the W! I'm so pumped for him. That's got to be a good feeling to do in front of the home crowd!

Photo courtesy of Dave McElwaine

I'd highly recommend visiting Missoula if ever given the opportunity. Between sweet trails, Big Dipper Ice Cream, great places to eat, farms markets, nightly concerts, a cool community and the small town feel it's a blast!

Kayaking and man made boat races just one of the many things to do, on a Thursday!

Now I'm back in Colorado Springs for a few weeks before heading to Germany for some final Worlds prep. Starting August 3rd I'll be living out of the Olympic Training Center with Kerry and Jack. I'm taking the next few days pretty easy to recover from the last few weeks of racing; 15 races in the last 7 weeks. This weekend I'm heading to Winter Park to do some lift riding and perhaps race my new singlespeed!

I love the simplicity of my singlespeed.

U23 National Championships

2011-07-21T17:45:00.002-06:00

After a few short days at home I made the trip to Sun Valley, Idaho for Nationals. This was course was perhaps one of the hardest courses I've ever raced on due to a long steep fire road climb right off the start. It was roughly 8-9 minutes. Fortunately, the decent was long enough for you to recover pretty well. It was a ton of corners with some nice inside lines I scooped out pre riding. I think some people missed them so I was able to make some sweet passes on those! My race didn't go as well as last year but I still finished a some what respectable 6th place. Stephen Ettinger continued his domination and took the W followed by my buddy Jack Hinkens. A great ride from him. After the race I went to dinner with my parents which was nice. It was good having them at a race. They don't get to come to many now that I'm racing half way across the world most the time.

Sun Valley was a beautiful venue.

I was pretty bummed with my race, but after the awesome ride I did with Jack, Kerry Werner and Greg Carpenter I feel in love with mountain biking again. We took the gondola to the very top of the mountain and descended 1.5 hours of amazing singletrack. Everything you wanted in a trail; wide open fast sections, burms, jumps and tech sections! It was a blast. We finished the ride at the venue and watched Sam destroy the race! He finished an impressive 2nd place. Congrats to Todd on the win.

Riding with my buddies Jack, Greg and Kerry

We found a bowl and started a train...

It almost ended bad when Greg and I nearly collided.

Sunday was the Short Track. Kerry and I rode in the morning and hit up a coffee shop. It was pretty expensive, but it was really good. We found a fun flowy trail right outside town so we rode on that for a bit. I got warmed up for the short track and did a few laps on the course. It was pretty fun! It had a lot of gravel road and pavement but it also had some challenging trail. There was a pretty neat off camber section as well as a short downhill you could send pretty big. I had a good group in the race and finished in a similar position to last year, 15th. I was pretty happy with it.

Short Track!

After the short track, I did a couple hours of bonus training with Jack, Kerry, TJ Woodruff and Chloe Forsman. We hit some sweet trail. One trail was called Forbidden Fruits. It was fast, burmed out and had some good table tops in it. These guys ride it really slow, but you get the idea.

That's how you know it's going to be a sweet trail.

East Coast Chillin

2011-07-11T22:41:00.003-06:00

After a fun and successful stay in Canada Subaru-Trek made the voyage down to Vermont where we were posting up for a few days between the MSA World Cup and Windham World Cup. Schultz and I opted to ride in with Matt and Shep in the truck and trailer! It was fun being truckers for a day. Ha! Once in the land of Maple we were told we had a surprise waiting for us the next day! I love surprises and even with some hints had no clue what we had to look forward to. After driving for an hour the next morning we pulled into the Team O'Neil Rally School. I was so stoked! We spent a couple hours there taking a tour, 4 wheeling, getting to ride along with some students and at the end of the day we got to ride in a totally tricked out Subaru WRX with Travis Hanson, one of the top 3 rally racers in the country right now. The experience was incredible and we were moving mach 2 on tree filled country roads. Thanks for the surprise!

IMAG0208" width="400" height="239">

So fun!

While in Vermont we stayed in a town called East Burke, home of the infamous Kingdom Trails. The trail system has 100+ miles of fast, flowy East Coast riding with some bridges, jumps and roots thrown in for good measures. They were a blast and a great way to get some good training in before Windham. We headed to Windham Wednesday and I went for nice spin on some roads there. I scoped out a pretty cool looking cliff jumping spot I thought would be cool to checkout. I returned with Sam and some of the BMC crew the next day. We all got in a few jumps before the New York PD came and busted us. I guess we should've known it wasn't a legal spot to jump due to all the no parking signs and no trespassing signs. Luckily we walked away without any tickets or anything.

IMAG0216" width="239" height="400">

Later that night we caught the tail end of a tricyle race!

The next few days were pretty low key, just hanging out and keeping the legs up. The course was awesome and I was excited for the long climb. World Cups these days are normally short climbs. After my 8th place ride in MSA, I had a pretty nice start number, 20th, which reflected my new ranking in the World Cup overall ranking. In the race I didn't have great legs and quickly found myself off the back climbing and my descending, well it was even worse. It's frustrating that while two races are only a week apart, my performances can be drastically different. I guess that's racing, but in Sun Valley this coming weekend I'm ready to bring my A game 110% of the way and earn a jersey.

Getting my suffer on at Windham. Photo courtesy: Dave McElwaine

After my race I watched the women's race. Both Emily and Heather put together great races. I also watched the first few laps of the mens race. Sam decided he wanted to start 45 seconds down in the start (just kidding, some Euro chump crashed him). Despite being DFL going into the first lap he still rode to a solid 45th place. Jeremy also crushed it. After a bit of spectating Jack, Kerry and I headed out to do some cliff jumping at a location 30 minutes away I'd found on Google. We got there, scoped it and hit it. It was a sweet 40+ footer into a pool. There were a few different ways to jump all with varying heights. One way was to climb this tree above the cliff, then jump. An easy 70 feet. I opted out on that! it was really sweet and a great way to cap off my time on the East Coast.

That's me, flying!

Hanging with Jack and Kerry. Both are great friends and fun to hang with.

Next up is the US National Championships in Sun Valley, ID then Pro XCT finals in the so called "center of the universe" according to Sam, or just Missoula.

I spent my forth of July in Vermont. Without any fireworks and a need for explosion, here's what we came up with!

Mont Sainte Anne

2011-07-04T22:22:00.001-06:00

I just finished off one of my most successful weekends of the season and couldn't be more motivated for what lays ahead. This trip was my 3rd time back to Mont Sainte Anne and every year I've grown to like the course more and more. When I first did the race as a junior I was terrified by the infamous Beatrice rock garden, the roots and the mud. This year was different. I wasn't intimated by the pouring rain, muddy conditions and was able to ride everything with ease.

alyq" width="400" height="300">

MattO and Shep are both amazing mechanics, and really cool guys! Thanks!

I had a second row call up at this race and was anxious to make something happen with it. The race started and I found myself holding my ground. Moving up a bit, moving back a bit. After the start loop we hit the first muddy section and everyone hopped off their bikes but I found myself being one of the only one's still riding. I was able to move up a bit and throughout the first lap picked off a few people and came across in 15th. I saw that and was pretty ecstatic to be in 15th and just knew if I rode consistent and didn't take any risks I could finish in the top 20, my goal going into the day.

Throughout the next few laps I rode a steady race and was picking off quite a few people. By the 3rd lap I found myself riding in the top 10. I couldn't believe it! By the end of the race I came across in 8th place. I couldn't have been more happy with the way I finished. It felt good to finally put together a really solid race after a mediocre at best first half of the season. I'm really excited for the Windham World Cup in New York this coming weekend and hope to ride to a top 10 again before heading to nationals where I'd like to find myself improving on last years 3rd place and get a nice new jersey.

IMAG0197 1" width="239" height="400">

Nice location for a post race river sit!

On Sunday, coach had me doing a big day of 4-5 hours. Kerry was also down so we headed out with the mission of riding to the top of the ski area where the WC took place. We made it to the top and found a sweet downhill trail called La Vietnam. It was an awesome downhill trail with lot's of table tops, burms, and flow. It was so fun we ended up riding the lift a few times to ride even more. We found Schultz and convinced him to hold off on his intervals and hit a few runs with us. We ended up with only 5k of climbing but 13k of downhill. The perfect ratio!

IMAG0201 1" width="239" height="400">

The entrance to happiness!

IMAG0198 1" width="400" height="239">

The views were beautiful up top. That's the St. Lawrence river I think.

Spending sometime in ColoRADo

2011-07-01T07:29:00.001-06:00

Last I left off I was heading to check out the London 2012 course. That was a fun experience for sure. The course isn't too demanding technically but instead it is just fun to ride. It flows really well and is pretty fast. It will be cool to watch the race on TV and know exactly how each section rides.

Cool Castle on the venue of the London 2012 course

We were fortunate enough to spend a day in London. Amazing city!

After the Olympic course preview the team posted up in Offenburg, Germany. One of my favorite venues. The course is fun to ride and is always full of spectators. That race went alright and I finished right behind US team mate Jack Hinkens. Stephen Ettinger posted up a solid result of 8th I believe. Pretty awesome to see. Offenburg is a city full of vineyards, cherry trees, and strawberry fields. After the race we headed to a strawberry field and just indulged. It was amazing! Half of me was excited to be heading home but there was still my German half that wanted to stay. Europe is growing on me!

Offenburg vineyards. Beautiful area!

I was excited to be home until I walked into my room forgetting I hadn't unpacked from moving home from Boulder. Luckily I had a rest week so I had plenty of time to get situated. In the three weeks at home I headed up to Boulder a few times to ride with my buddy Brady Kappius and do some Boulder Short Tracks, aka Wednesday Worlds. Those things hurt pretty bad especially after riding 4 hours in the morning with 7k feet of climbing. Some good quality double days. I also did a small local race in the race in the Springs. Unfortunately, I went the wrong way into the finishing circuit and had to settle for second! Oh well.

The snow is clearing off. Sweet singletrack in Nederland, Colorado

I was also given the amazing opportunity to race the Ashland 12 mile Super D. Our mechanic Matt built me the ultimate Super D machine which has been coined the name "Superfish." It's a Superfly 100 and Rumblefish combo giving you the light weight front triangle and different linkage in the rear for more travel! I got to spend the week with several SRAMies which is always fun. I was treated like a king eating at some awesome restaurants and rooming with the one and only John Dawson. Ashland was really an awesome town with some of the most incredible riding I have ever done. One day we headed out for a shuttle run just after/during a rain storm. It was sweet to ride some real dirt and roost some corners. 4 days was definitely not enough, which means I think I'm going to spend some time up there this fall. Every single downhill your are grinning from ear to ear.

Dawson being Dawson

Thanks for having me SRAM! Our truck for shuttling.

The views from Mt. Ashland were amazing. Here's Mt. Shasta just across the CA border.

After Ashland. I had a week to polish off my fitness before returning to Mt. Morris, Wisconsin for the 5th stop in the Pro XCT series. The venue is the middle of BFE but somehow massive amounts of spectators make there way out. It's really cool to see and I appreciate every cheer I get. I had descent legs in the race and felt strong until the last lap. I had a really bad start and spent some time just standing there where the race went into the singletrack. I finished a disappointing 30th, quite a ways off my 15th place last year. I'm not sure if I wasn't rested enough going into it or what but my intervals this week showed bigger numbers than I've seen in awhile, so hopefully I can return to being fast again at MSA.

Right now, I'm on a flight to Quebec for the Mont Sainte Anne World Cup. This will be my 3rd time returning to this venue and I couldn't be more excited. I really love the next two races and am pretty pumped to check out the Nationals course in Sun Valley, ID as well as the Missoula Pro XCT. If that race is as cool as Sam talks it up to be, it's going to be the perfect way to cap of the Pro XCT series. I'll keep you posted with how these next few races go! Thanks for checking in.

Life in Europe 2

2011-05-26T08:06:00.001-06:00

Right now I'm currently in the U.K. traveling to London to checkout the 2012 Olympics Course. It's far different up here from the house in Kirchzarten; the language, the driving, the weather. I'm excited to get back to Germany this week. I'm really enjoy Germany and hope to spend a lot more time there next year.

Since I last posted a blog I've already done 4 races! Man it's easy to rack up the races here. While I was still with the US National Team we did a Bundeslegia in Saalhousen, Germany. The first night was a sprint race of about 8 minutes long. In the semi-finals only 15 from my heat made it to the finals and I got 17th so I didn't make it. Kerry and Stephen both did! The next morning was the XC race. I had high hopes for this race and really enjoyed the course. On the 2nd lap I started having major shifting issues and every time I would go into my 36t the chain would fall between the cassette and wheel. Stuff happens, hopefully I'm paying all my "bad luck dues" now and won't have anymore for awhile.

After Saalhousen, it was back to the house hanging out and living the dream for a week. Kerry, Jack and I decided to do the Wednesday night crit again. This time we decided to ride over. When we drove last week we checked out the route and it had one long climb in it but then the rest of the ride was pretty much descending into Bad Sackingen, where the crit took place. Jack got a little to inspired by the Giro before heading over and found us a new route that included 3 mountain passes. We got about a 3 minute warm up before getting to climb number one, and Jack pinned it almost the whole way up at 400 Watts. I was pretty blown by the top and wasn't sure how I was going to make it the rest of the way let alone race! We made it to the race after about 2.5 hours of riding and I was still questioning how I was going to do in the race. I actually rode pretty strong covering a lot of moves, initiating a few and riding the front. I think that crit was perfect for training and hopefully I can find a way to get there this Wednesday.

Heading to the crit, with my new haircut

The next day we headed to the UK for the Dalby Forest World Cup where I meet up with my Subaru-Trek teammates. The course was amazing and is probably my second favorite World Cup course. Canberra is still my favorite! I was really excited to be duking it out with a large but manageable field of U23 riders. While my race may not look great on paper, I was really happy with the way I rode. Each race I've been feeling stronger and stronger so I'm hoping to keep that trend alive. Stephen crushed it finishing 10th! Kerry also had a great ride and finished 30th. Had he had a good start I think he would have been top 20. It's cool to see the Americans climbing up in the rankings. Kerry, Jack and I still have a few years in the U23 field so hopefully we can do some damage in the coming years! The next day the elites raced so I got to watch my teammates race, something I don't normally get to do.

Right now we are driving down to London to checkout the 2012 Olympic Course before flying to Offenburg. After Offenburg I head back to the US and have a 2 week break before I go to Ashland for the Super D race with SRAM. I'm really excited to start preping for this race because it means I get to spend sometime on my big bike and do some shuttle runs!

Life in Europe

2011-05-12T12:31:00.000-06:00

Last time I checked in I was preparing to head down to Mellow Johnny's for a weekend of racing at Lance's ranch. I raced the Superfly 100 down there with the Bontrager XR1 tires and couldn't have been any happier. That setup had me rallying out there! Unfortunately I suffered a flat while riding in the top 15 on lap 2 and had to ride about 10 minutes with the flat before getting a big air to seal it with for the second time. I got a new wheel but by this time I was in the 50's. I spent the rest of the day passing people and made it up to 29th. Happy with the day all things considered and was excited to see I am riding well.

Racing in the heat! Picture courtesy: trailwatch.net

After MJ's I headed back to Boulder to wrap up school on Monday, moved home Monday, packed Tuesday and boarded a flight to Europe Wednesday AM. A busy few days, but everything is nice and relaxing over here. The only thing I have to worry about is riding my bike! A good life for sure..

Last Saturday we raced the Solothurn Swiss Power Cup. I didn't have good legs that day and have no clue why, just another bad race. I know I'm doing all I can and training hard so it's just a matter of time before it shows I guess. The rest of the team did awesome with Stephen finishing 13th and Jack and Kerry finishing in the 30's.

Jack and I enjoying life after racing

The next day we did a local MTB race about 20k from the house so we rode over for our warm up. The course was about 3k long with one super steep climb and then another 2-3 min climb followed by a fast DH. We did 8 laps which took it's toll on me! Kerry and I rode together. We were able to hold off a chasing group for awhile, but I started to fade towards the end and a few caught me. I ended the day in 9th, Kerry 5th, Jack 19th and Stephen won the thing! Awesome. Stephen is riding incredibly well which is awesome to see. We spent a lot of time battling it out in races last year, so hopefully I can be at his level soon once I get out of this "funk" I've been going through.

Heading to the local MTB race

After the back to back days of racing we took two days pretty easy and hit up some coffee shops. Jack got me hooked on coffee over here. I love it! Yesterday (Wednesday) I did a 3 hour MTB ride with some intervals and followed that with a German Crit at night. The lap was only 1k long and we had 50 laps on tap. The race started out hard but it was pretty clear that the US team was one of the strongest there. I told Kerry and Stephen we should save our energy and not cover any moves for a few laps then make our own move. That ended up working for those two but not for me since I got blocked when the move went. They ended up staying away for 15-20 laps. Another team there and I brought them back. I felt kind of bad but it was a training race and I wanted to get some intensity in. Fun race for sure and I think we are all going to do it again next week.

Anxiously awaiting my Choco-chino, normally I'm not that femmy with my coffee

Instead of resting today Kerry, Jack and I headed out for a 3.5 hour suffer fest with my local friend Sonke. Kerry and I did some 15 minute intervals on the way up and we were greeted with a LONG DH. It had everything; technical sections, fast flowy sections, continuous switchbacks and some gnar roots. All of us cracked pretty hard except Sonke the marathon racer! We took a solid 30 minute stop at a bakery on the way home. It ended up being over 40 miles and 5,000+ feet of climbing.

Jack, Kerry, and I out on a ride

Tomorrow a restday for sure! After that we head to a German Bundeslegia this weekend then I meet up with my Subaru-Trek teammates in the UK for some World Cup action. Pumped for those. Keep checking back for more updates on the coming weeks of racing!

The ups.. and the downs.

2011-04-23T22:30:00.001-06:00

Throughout the last several years of my short racing “career” I’ve experienced only one or two bad races. The thing about these bad races is my next one has always been better and back to my normal racing ability and I’ve quickly left behind that bad race. This season has been the exception to that. Both Pan Ams and Sea Otter I’ve struggled to put together any kind of result. It’s frustrating because I know I’ve done the work and I know I’m riding better than what’s been exhibited. I constantly look over my power files from training rides and often surprise myself with some of the numbers I see, which is reassures me I have the fitness.

After Sea Otter, I’ve been doing all I can to make sure that Mellow Johnny’s goes much better and plan to finish in the low teens down there. I’ve done a lot since Sea Otter that I think will payoff. I wasn’t taking my recovery days as serious as I should have, I’m not eating ANY dorm food anymore, adding in some yoga and the biggest thing; working on my mental game. I’m ready to recreate those good sensations I feel after finishing a race happy with where I’ve placed! So far this season hasn’t treated me as I had envisioned going into it, but I’m ready to leave those negative sensations behind and create new, much better feeling one’s at MJ’s and the upcoming races in Europe throughout May. They say you have to experience the downs, to appreciate the ups and I surely know what’s it like to feel those downs now. That can only mean the ups lay ahead, which couldn’t have me more excited for the remaining Pro XCT’s, the U23 World Cups and the National Championships. Next time I report back, I’m hoping to bring some good news and good stories from my racing and travels.

Thanks for reading.

Colombia!

2011-04-05T15:00:00.001-06:00

A rough race, but an awesome experience. I think is the best way to sum up my weekend in Bogota, Colombia. The trip started off awesome. I was upgraded to first class to Houston and from Houston to Bogota sat next to a local who was able to share some local knowledge with me. She gave me a list of the best fruits to try as well as some stories that kind of scared me. Apparently, her cousin was kidnapped after someone blew some powder in his face that made him unaware of his surroundings but was still able to function. He was taken to an ATM where he emptied his account, all unknowingly. Luckily, this didn’t happen to any of us.

The fruit: granadilla, patella, zapote, and chonta duro

Cruising down the highway

The next morning we woke up, built our bikes and headed to the venue. We were lead over by a police escort. The route taken wasn’t exactly the back roads with minimal traffic, instead we were jamming down the highway! Once to the venue, we headed up a climb through a gated community that took us up to about 9,500 feet through some really nice houses. I headed down and was able to get a lap of the course in and was surprised with how steep it was. I knew Sunday was going to hurt! After going back for lunch and a shower some of us headed to the town center to buy some fruit and checkout the scene. That was fun and we talked for a while with some riot control officers. While a lot of our conversation was lost in both sides knowing very little of each other's language, some laughs were exchanged and we headed back. I was anxious to try the fruit so I ate all of them. My girl from the plane was doing good, but the last fruit I tried was horrible. It was like wet chalk. If ever given the opportunity to eat chonta duro, say no! I made everyone try it saying it tasted like a mini mango and no one liked it. They all made faces of disgust, it was so funny! The patella (top right) was amazing and is now my favorite fruit!

Our police escort

They all look like Ninga Turtles!

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday but instead I did a hot lap. It felt a lot better at speed and I was anxious to get my season underway after my shoulder injury. Sunday we woke up did the typical pre race routine and ventured over to the venue. I got a solid warm up in before heading to the start line where I got a front row call up! That was cool. As soon as the gun went off I found myself nervous to have people sprinting around me and lost a lot of ground. Once I hit the climb, there was a lot of passing and I was able to make up my lost ground. I also got a side wall cut on the first lap, but luckily it sealed up and I didn’t have to change wheels. As soon as we hit the downhill I lost all the ground I’d made up. I did earn some karma points for use in the future by allowing everyone to pass me without a fuss. I spent the rest of the race taking one step forward on the climbs and two back on the downhill. It was incredible the difference between my speed and the other racers speed, especially in the loose corners. I know I can ride faster than I was, but I think I was instinctively protecting my shoulder. On the bright side I know my form is good, the shoulder is healing and I’ve got the first race done. Racing didn’t hurt my shoulder at all so that was a real confidence builder.

Race headquarters. Former home a drug lord taken over by the city.

Colombia is a country I would love to come back to and spend some more time exploring. USA Cycling did an awesome job making sure we stayed at the finest establishments available and were always safe. Big thanks to the staff and all their hard work! This next week and a half it’s back to training and prepping for my next race, Sea Otter.

Eight months later...

2011-03-29T20:41:00.022-06:00

It was brought to my attention the other day that I haven’t updated my blog in nearly 8 months. It’s not that I’ve forgot about it or have been too busy to update it, but instead so much has been going on in my awesome life and I don’t know how to put it all in to one post without it taking you an hour to read.

I think the best way to do this is to take it from the top. Last time I updated the blog was while I was preparing for a five day stage race in Namur, Belgium. I think I’m still recovering from that race. It was a giant suffer fest but I came out of it stronger mentally and physically. While I surely didn’t win any stages I learned so much everyday and was able to work at the front to keep our GC man, Jacob Rathe, in contention. After attempting to be a roadie it was back to my roots, mountain biking. I made the U23 Worlds team which was a great honor; however my race in Mount Saint Anne is one better left forgot about. At least I still have three years to make something happen there.

Another big change in my life around this time was beginning my first semester of school at the University of Colorado. Fall semester was a lot of learning on how to balance my schedule and training, but Spring has been a lot better. While Boulder is a great town, it definitely has some downfalls. The amount of mountain biking is limited, and it seems like it’s always windy. It was a tough decision but next year I’m planning on heading to Durango for a fall semester. I’ve always loved that town and when deciding where to go to college originally it was a close call between CU and Fort Lewis. The plan right now is to only go in the fall and move to a warm climate in January. The destination is up in the air right now but some solid candidates are Maui, South Africa, or Mallorca. Either one sounds like I’ll be living the dream. There’s been some small talk about doing this with Schultz. It would be awesome to have him around as a training partner, plus he’s pretty rad. All three locations would also fulfill his 3B’s..

Boulder sure is pretty!

I took the fall pretty mellow and didn’t race any cylo-cross this year. I did the Iceman Cometh which was a pretty fun race. I didn’t train much going into it, but this winter I’d like to train a bit more leading into it and go for the W. I also took up skiing this winter. I love learning knew things and that was such a thrill. I love skiing and look forward to hitting the slopes again next year already!

I started training consistently again in mid December and have been getting in lot’s of good riding. I’m now working with Colby Pearce and have enjoyed it so far. The weather would hit some bad spells here in Boulder so I made the occasional 5 or 6 day trip down to the Arizona sun. It’s so motivating to get out of the ice box and get some good quality hours in.

It doesn't get much better than this!

About three weeks ago I headed home for the weekend to ride some rad C Springs trails and apparently I was a bit too excited to be back on sweet singletrack I went over the bars and walked away with a 3^rd degree AC Separation in my shoulder. Total drag, but hey, it’s only March. That prevented me from racing the first two Pro XCT’s but I still headed out to the first one for team camp. Heather did a good recap on that, so you should check out her website. I'm excited for another season with such an awesome team and staff!

Sweet team pics! This year, sans elbow malfunctions.

The shoulders back in action and I’m able to get gnarly on the mountain bike again. By being the top ranked U23 in the nation right now, I earned an automatic qualification for Pan Am Championships in Bogota, Colombia this weekend. Ever since I heard this race was at 8,500+ feet I’ve had my eye on it and while my form is a mystery in comparison to everyone else, I’m feeling pretty good and hope to start the season on the top step. A few days after crashing, my horoscope was quite the confidence builder. This horoscope has been my motivation to keep pushing and racking up more hours on the trainer in a single week than ever before and getting in lot's of time in the gym as well as some hiking/running. Hoping for good things to come out of this..

"You may not be expecting much from this day or from the days ahead. That's because you have been through something recently that has left you feeling a little bit cynical. Something you gave your all to didn't work out as planned. You hadn't envisioned a problem, and so you may be feeling rather glum about all of your prospects. But in the big scheme of things, as you will see, your recent letdown was just one small, isolated incident. In fact, much is about to go very right for you. So pull yourself out of the doldrums and start looking forward to the days ahead."

Well, there's not much to be said so until next time...

On the road again..

2010-08-05T11:30:00.003-06:00

Last weekend was my last mountain bike race in Europe for the year. The Val di Sol World Cup didn't treat me as well as I would've liked but I still got in another hard race to get me all set for worlds. I moved up about 25 spots in the food chain this weekend and started 121st. I had two goals for this race; finish in the double digits and on the lead lap. I spotted Broderick in the start and knew he was my wheel to follow to get up to the front of the race. The gun went off and I pinned it, a lot of doors opened and I shot through those. I looked for Broderick and he was nowhere to be found. After how many people I passed in the start loop I knew he was behind so I keep trucking on. I think I was somewhere in the 70's or 80's. Sweet! Unfortunately, my day would end there and I spent the rest of it going backwards. I ended up with a disappointing 120th and one lap down. Each World Cup I'm getting closer to the lead lap. I'll definitely be seeking a top 100 and lead lap again in Wyndham.

After the World Cup, we hit the road to Zurich where we'd be spending the night before we all headed to our next destinations. For everyone that was home, except me. I'm now in Izegem, Belgium pretending to be a roadie for a couple weeks. I did a Kermesse on Tuesday and it was way more fun than I could imagine. It was really confusing how it worked at first (and still is) but I slowly figured it out and had a decent result. I was around 45th or so which may not sound to great but I'm pretty pumped on it. Saturday we start a 5 day stage race called the Tour of Namur. It should be some good training and really hard racing.

Yay roadbikes!

Bonjourno!

2010-07-29T10:38:00.007-06:00

World Cups are chaotic, bottom line. Luckily I started about 100 spots better than in Offenburg which made me pretty optimistic about my goal of finishing in the top 100. The race started just as Offenburg had, 15 second sprint off the line followed by a jam up. We reached the woods and hopped off the bike for quite sometime and got some running in. After a lap and a half of that my calves were tapping out but I continued to lay the hammer down trying to pass as many people as possible before I got pulled. I worked up to 109th narrowly missing my goal of a top 100. This weekend I get another chance to get into the double digits.

After Champery, we packed up and hit the road to Italy. We’re in Val di Sol which is situated right in the middle of the Alps and Dolomites. I feel with all the racing going on lately I’ve only been doing openers and races so this week I did a quick tune up in fitness. On Tuesday all the guys here including Gulli ventured out on a climb called the Madonna. It was an hour long but the hard part was the downhill back. We decided to drill it down. Jack and Kerry were ahead with Gulli and I chasing. We laid the smack down and reeled those Pansies in! Yesterday I was feeling like going big so I rode up the pass to a town called Tonale, down that pass and up about 3/4ths of the infamous Gavia which is frequented in the Giro d’ Italia. It ended up being a 4+ hour ride so I was pretty tired but luckily Troy made my legs happy! We’ve had really nice weather except today; it’s been rainy all day. Luckily it was my rest day so I didn’t have to ride much. Time for dinner.

Racing high and dry!

2010-07-23T10:51:00.009-06:00

Man has this last month flown by! Actually this whole season has. It seems like just yesterday I was putting in countless hours on the cold, snowy Colorado Springs trails with the guys wondering how my first season racing as a pro would go. I think it’s been going really well and my results are constantly getting better which is a good season.After Wisconsin, I had 2 weeks to finish off my training prior to the Pro XCT in Colorado Springs and Nationals, my two main races of the year. I got a solid week and a half of really solid training which should carry me through these next few World Cups before heading to Belgium for another hard block to set me up for Wyndham and Worlds.

Colorado Springs was by far my best Pro XCT of the season. I had that course pretty dialed in and was able to crack a top 5 in the time trial. That set me up real nice for a first row start in the XC. I had another great day in the XC spending almost all day in 7th. The third and final day was an hour and twenty minute short track which was by far the hardest day. I wanted to really get my suffer on so I dug deep and hung with the lead group as long as possible. I made it about 25 minutes which would’ve been perfect had it been a short track, but I spent the rest of the day doing damage control. I was able to hold my placing and keep a big group from bridging up to me and ended the day in 7th again. It was a solid weekend of racing and was definitely some good motivation for nationals.

Raging through a rock garden

After the Springs, I headed to Winter Park with Schultz and Willow. Leading up to nats I had a pretty low key week so it was a lot of chilling and enjoying life. The nationals course wasn’t the best course in the World but having a Superfly 100 made it a little more enjoyable on the bumpy, blown out course. I had another great race finishing 3rd in the U23’s. Going in I wanted the jersey but between Tad and Rob being as fast as they are and me having a bit of Colorado Springs in my legs, that didn’t quite work out.

Troy giving me the rockstar treatment

The U23 podium

I’m now in Champery, Switzerland for the World Cups. It’s absolutely beautiful here but you’d never guess that from all the clouds and rain. I’m hoping for a muddy race, I could use some more skills in the mud. I have a new favorite trail that probably has some weird French name, but I named it the Rail Trail. Check out the pics below. Of course, the pictures don’t quite do it justice but at least you get an idea.

The race is Sunday afternoon. The course is technical but not as fast as Offenburg so I’m planning to finish on the lead lap.

Wisconsin

2010-06-30T20:55:00.004-06:00

I made my first trip out to the so called land of cheese curds and dairy. Although I did see a fair bit of both that is definitely not what this state is about. Wisconsin is actually a pretty cool state with some cool trails, a great venue, and some really dedicated fans that made racing feel like a World Cup.

The team got in Thursday afternoon to get our brand new Trek’s dialed in. The staff has had an enormous stress load since the change requiring not only building up around 10 bikes but also stripping down the old Fishers. Big props to the those guys for getting everything setup perfectly for us. Anyways, I saw that I had a Superfly 100 in my arsenal weapons and I was so anxious to get on I went out for a lap. Man that thing is awesome, I’m looking forward to bonding more with that bike.

My Trek Superfly 100!

By the time race day came I felt comfortable on both bikes and opted to race the Superfly since the course had many quick accelerations and not too many techy sections. The race went really well. It was incredible how many fans were out there rooting for you. I sure hope to return to this venue in the coming years. I ended up 15^th which met my goal of a top 15 for the day and Sam pulled off his first National win which is so rad.

Cool little crash shots from the XC race

After the race we headed to Madison, home of Trek, for meetings, tours, pictures and some shredding on the Trek trail system. We stayed at this place called the Mansion Hill Inn which is an extremely high class bed and breakfast. We got to check out the city a couple nights which was fun instead of hanging out in a hotel all the time like normal race trips.

The newly wrapped WRX and Mansion Hill Inn

I’m now back in the Springs getting ready for our Pro XCT and Nationals. After Nationals it looks like I’m on the road for a month before coming back and starting my college career the next day.

Swiss Power Cup #1

2010-06-01T06:52:00.007-06:00

This past weekend was a Swiss Racer Bikes Cup in Plaffeien, Switzerland. The race was a couple hours away so we just woke up in the AM and drove down. I really like driving the morning of to a race instead of having to fly and all that stuff.
Anyways we got to the race and went out for a lap. It was a super sweet course but definitely pretty hard. It started out with a pretty steep road climb then hoped into a gradually climbing singletrack that gradually kicked up and got real steep towards the end. It immediately went downhill which was full of chutes, roots, mud and burms. It was really rainy before so the course was really muddy- good thing I brought some extra kits to the race.

Florian Vogel elbows out!

The race went really well and I raced a good consistent pace and was feeling stronger as the race went on. My last lap time was faster than my first one. Normally muddy descents aren't my thing, but the combination of my Power Balance Band Willow gave me, clipped down Bontrager Mud X tires and 29er wheels gave me confidence in the roots and I was able to do some rallying on the downhills. I passed a guy in one of the rooty chutes and the audience was going wild. It was pretty awesome. I ended up 13th hich I was super pumped with. I got a couple more UCI points and some Swiss Francs.

Gettin my suffer on

After the race I cleaned my bike and went for a nice shower before driving home. We’ve been doing a lot of creek sits here which have been awesome for recovering and something to do. This weekend is the Champery Swiss Power Cup which will be a good course preview for the World Cup later this year if I do it.

Yesterday we did a nice recovery ride hitting up the half pipe, quarter pipe and doing some reenactments from some Cavendish sprints. Nice rest day.

Euro livin'

2010-05-28T05:25:00.003-06:00

I’m writing here this morning from the Steiertbartlehof >house in Kirchzarten Germany today. I got here Sunday night prior to my first Elite World Cup, more on that later. The place we are staying this year is incredible. USA Cycling is really doing a good job in making sure the environment is as close to home as possible for us. The Steiertbartlehof is an actual working farm and every morning you can get fresh milk, fresh eggs, fresh bread, meat from the farm and some veggie’s. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Anyways, the World Cup was tough. I flew over a couple days before so I could check out the course and man was that fun. I could do laps all day but I figured I’d save that for the race. Unfortanetly, that plan didn’t really workout so well since I only made it 3/7 laps. Oh well, Absalon was gunning it! On the bright side, it was still really fun and I want to do some more so I can try to improve on my result. Major props to our mechanics over there though. They took my home bike and made it a race bike by redoing my drivetrain. I was rolling a new chain, bottom bracket, front brake and rear derailleur. It was awesome, big thanks to those guys and SRAM.

The course had some pretty technical sections, but nothing the 29er couldn't handle

Now I’m here in Kirchzarten enjoying the awesome weather here. All the other kids are here now and we did a pretty fun ride yesterday with my friend Soenke. He’s a local guy here who knows how to loop up some sweet trails, both on and off the map. This weekend were driving to Switzerland for a Swiss Power Cup. It’s smaller than a World Cup but the heavy hitters still come. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.

Check out Soenke's white wall tires!

Chalk Creek Triple Crown

2010-05-19T10:06:00.003-06:00

This past weekend was my fifth trip up to Nathrop for some racing. I made my debut to racing here way back when I was 13. This was the biggest the race has ever been for a number of reasons. It was now one of the races belonging to the Triple Crown Series and also had a Super D for the first time.

I got up Friday afternoon and most the day was spent waiting to get a lap in due to the rain. Eventually it took a break and I was able to get out check things out. The Super D was missing the "D" so basically it was just a time trial. I noticed the course dried out fast the night before so I decided to run some skinny tires figuring the course would still be in good shape after the 12+ hours of rain. It was a good choice and I was able to power to an 8th place only a few seconds off a top 5. Two hours later it was time for some Short track action. In past years the course had a couple 4x jumps but I was disappointed to see they took those out. I was hoping to air them out! Anyways, I dropped my chain in the start and spent a couple laps chasing but was able to get to the front group but spent a lot of time yo-yo'ing off the back due to different people attacking. I was able to crack the top 10 which I was pretty happy with.

Photo By: Dave McElwaine/ trailwatch.net

The next morning it was time for some cross-country racing. The first lap was pretty fast but I was able to hang with the leaders. The second lap we were either crawling or drag racing. It was pretty hard because of all the surging. JHK went off the front which was nice because I didn't feel obligated to do any work in the group. With JHK off the front, the group I was in consisted of Colin Cares, Travis Brown, Sid Taberlay, and Bryan Alders. Lap 3 was consistently hard and no one really attacked. On the fourth and final lap I got gaped on a climb and was never able to catch the group again. I ended the race in 7th and ended up 6th overall in the for the weekend. I was also the top U23 rider which involved a pretty sweet bonus.

Doin some bonus riding with the legends after the XC
Photo By: Dave McElwaine/ trailwatch.net

I'm taking off to Europe here in a few hours where I'll give my first European World Cup a go. Should be pretty interesting.

Here's a pretty cool video someone shot during the race.

I smell summer!!

2010-05-10T15:45:00.006-06:00

Since Sea Otter not much has been going on in terms of racing. I took a small rest period and am now pushing hard to finish preping for the upcoming European races. All the trails up high are starting to melt here in the Springs. I haven't touched the road bike in nearly a month since the trails are just in such awesome shape right now.

My Superfly getting eager for some downhill after a a couple hours of climbing

My brother also wants to race some four cross so I've been going to some local dirt jumps with him and airing the Gary Fisher Roscoe out. The 5.5 inches of travel are perfect for hiding my mistakes. Its pretty fun and I'm definitely getting pretty confident in the air. Look for some backflip videos later on this month.
This past weekend I headed out with a few local guys for what ended up being a six hour mountain bike ride. It was pretty brutal and involved tons of climbing. It's hard to say exactly how much, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000+ feet.

Pikes Peak looking good in the distance

This is my last full week of high school before its officially summer!! 7 more days and I'm free. This weekend is the Nathrop Triple Crown. I've won 4/4 races since I started racing at Nathrop but I think the odds of me continuing the trend aren't in my favor. After Nathrop I head to Europe for the Offenburg World Cup with Subaru/ Gary Fisher then part ways with the team and stay with USA Cycling for two weeks to do some Swiss Power Cups. These next few weeks should be pretty action packed..

The Otter

2010-04-20T11:28:00.004-06:00

Well, the biggest domestic race of the year is over! Upon returning home from Guatemala I caught some kind of bug that kept me in bed for a day and a half but before I knew it I was feeling better and it was time for Sea Otter. I liked being home for two days since it was just enough time for me to get my laundry done and through it back in the bag. Easiest packing ever. Sea Otter was a pretty action packed weekend. It was my first time “behind the scenes” which involved product launches, leading rides, diner with Sam's awesome family, checking out some new equipment and even doing some racing. The call up for the Short Track seemed random and luckily I had a pretty awesome start up. Right on Kabush’s wheel. I even got called up before Sam, not sure that’s too fair but I’ll take it. I was able to ride with close to the leader’s for the first two laps before falling off the pace and finishing somewhere outside the top 15. They didn’t go deeper than that in the results so I’m not to sure where I ended up.

The cross-country was practically a road race with a small amount of singletrack thrown in. the course started with about ½ mile of road before hitting the singletrack. Out of the 125 guys racing I got into the singletrack somewhere around 60^th and spent the rest of the day trying to make up time. I ended up 41^st which was a little disappointing for me. I’m not sure if my Guatemala bug had anything to do with it, but I feel like the fitness is there and hopefully the next few races I’ll be able to make up for it.
A lot of guys are flying out to Europe this week, hopefully the volcano ash will clear up and make it!

Nothing like some beach time after a hard day of racing

Guatemala

2010-04-14T14:29:00.006-06:00

This past weekend I headed down south to Guatemala for the Pan Am Championships. I originally wasn't on the USA roster, but after one of the U23's bailed I got the opportunity to go. We got in late Thursday and headed to the hotel. Gulli got us lost which was cool because we got to see more of Guatemala! Within 5 minutes of driving, a car passed us and I noticed the passenger had a shotgun, the weapon of choice down here. We made it to the hotel and got let in by one of the guards, who also had a shotgun.

The next few days we checked out the race course and stood on the hotel balcony watching the busy life below us. It seems like everyone is always doing some kind of work down there. Anyways Sunday came and I was really excited to race and hopefully get some UCI points. It was 90 degrees which really had me suffering. I ended up 9th giving me 30 UCI points and all the U23's finished in the top 10. The girls seem to always give us guys some big shoes to fill- they swept the podium! I stayed around to watch the podium ceremony which was really cool because all the people there treated us like rock stars! Everyone was wanting pictures with us and some were wanting to swap jerseys.After the race it was time to experience some Guatemalan culture! A couple of us headed to the market just outside the hotel and checked that out for awhile. Earlier in the week Sam and I used our Spanish skills and had what I thought was a descent conversation with a guy. His son didn't think so. He was maybe 8 years old and every time we tried to say something he would start laughing hysterically at us. As we were walking home from the market on Sunday I heard a kid laughing and there he was laughing at all of us with his friends. I guess I have some work to do on my Spanish for next years Pan Ams.
Here is a photo album from all the cool stuff down there.

For $1 you can get a fresh cocunut!

Breaking News..

2010-03-31T21:33:00.005-06:00

This just in:
Looks like one of the U23 riders for the Continental Championships in Guatemala had to bail. I'll be filling his spot which I'm pretty pumped for. Hopefully I'll be able to score some valuable UCI points. I leave a week from tomorrow.

If I remember right, in Off Road to Athens, the US team was escorted by the Military in Guatemala.

Fontucky

2010-03-29T21:48:00.006-06:00

This past weekend was the first Pro XCT of the year out in Fontucky, California. I was called up to the line in the 42^nd spot, not great, not terrible. Thankfully we started on a little start loop which allowed me to move up a little before reaching a short climb that would surely get balled up if you got caught at the back. When we hit the climb I saw a secret line which shot me up around 15 people or so. The first few laps I rode pretty hard and found myself riding in the top 15. I wanted to get in a good group to stay out of the extremely windy conditions as much as possible. I continued floating around a few spots before fading a little bit the last two laps and rode in for a pretty solid 20^th and was also able to finish 2^nd U23. That was an added bonus because they were paying out some cash and did a little podium for us.

The U23 podium: L-R Russell Finsterwald, Rob Squire, Travis Livermon

Sunday was the short track and it was pretty short for a couple of reasons. One being it was only 15 minutes plus a lap versus the normal 20 plus 3. It was also short because I got pulled with 1 to go. Bummer! I was feeling descent, not great, but just descent. I got caught back in some traffic and was never able to really go anywhere from there.

Gettin' my suffer on in the dusty Short Track

The next mountain bike race is Sea Otter which is 3 weeks away. I know some things I can improve on for the next race so Im hoping for better things to come. Cant wait!

Fresh ink..

2010-03-25T22:01:00.003-06:00

Be sure to get a copy in this months Mountain Bike Action!

3..2..1 GO!!

2010-03-16T22:12:00.002-06:00

This past weekend I kicked the season off with the first race which was the Bonelli Triple Crown in San Dimas, California. I got there Thursday night and woke up Friday morning to a day full of breaking in my new Gary Fisher Superfly, pre riding the cross-country course and finishing it off with a short massage.

The course was only about 4 miles, but packed in some steep climbs, screaming descents and flat double track. The course was mostly double track so I ran some skinny tires that would be sure to keep me rolling fast!

The pro’s went off at 2:30 so I was able to sleep in a little before heading to the venue (sure beats the 8 AM junior start times). I had a pretty good start spot, 4^th row I believe. I ended up riding in the lead chase group most the race with riders like Tad Elliot, Manny Prado, and Kris Sneddon. In the end, I came across the line in 16^th and was also the top U23 rider. I was really happy with this early season result and look forward to improving that as the season goes on.

Sunday was the Short Track and Super D. Again, I was able to sleep in due to the 3:15 start time! The short track was the same course as the start loop for the XC. It had a 15 second climb and the rest was pretty flat and fast. I had a second row call up due to my 16^th place in the XC so I was pretty excited about that. I didn’t have the greatest start, but I found myself trailing off the lead group with another group of about 5 chasing me down. I decided to rest up and let them catch me and hopefully launch an attack on the last lap. I ended up riding in for 12^th place. Immediately following the Short Track the team swapped out tires and bikes before heading to the Super D. I was pretty tired from the Short Track but was able to ride in for 26^th place.

In the end, I was really happy with how I finished and am looking forward to improving throughout the season. A big thanks goes out to the staff of the Subaru- Gary Fisher team. It was my first race with them and everything was done above and beyond what I could’ve imagined. They took all the stress out of travelling, prepping the equipment and making sure everything was perfect so I could focus 100% on racing. I also would like to thank all the generous sponsors who make it all happen: Gary Fisher, Bontrager, Sram, Subaru, Tokyo Joe’s, Six Six One, GU Sports Nutrition, Cane Creek, Crank Brother’s, Curve, Genuine Innovations, Yakima, Light and Motion, Mountain Smith, and ESI Grips.

Airports

2010-03-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

After my recent flight to Ontario, California I took a moment to reflect on how annoying airports are. To start things off I flew out of the Springs to Denver. The flight attendant gave her safety talk and told us if we were to have a water landing, our seat cushions would keep us afloat. If we land in water between the Springs and Denver, I will walk out the emergency exit and wade to shore. No need for the seat cushion! She then taught us how to put an oxygen mask on and how to buckle our seatbelts. I’m pretty sure I was able to buckle a seatbelt at age 3, maybe 4. If you are on a plane and can’t buckle a seatbelt, you probably shouldn’t even be in an airport. After my 17 minute flight to Denver I had a layover before heading to Cali. I’m not sure if you’ve ever paid attention to the music they play in an airport but its nothing special. It’s the same annoying tune played on repeat hour after hour. I made it to Cali flying economy plus thanks to my newly rewarded premier status. Man six inches makes a big difference.

Today, we got our race bikes all dialed in and checked out the race course. It’s a pretty sweet course with lots of short punchy climbs and fast downhill’s. I don’t think there will be much recovery, but then again if you’re not at the front you’re pretty much racing balls out anyways. Tomorrow’s the XC race. I’m looking forward to kicking the season off!

An empty Warehouse

2010-03-01T22:16:00.004-07:00

This year the Subaru/ Gary Fisher photo shoots took place in an abandoned Subaru Warehouse outside of Denver. These guys don't mess around when it comes to photo shoots. Between the stylist, 2 camera men and some brand new Subaru's we had it all. It was like a stunt scene in a Hollywood movie was about to start but nothing that cool ended up happening. Maybe next year we can rally the cars. We all did our individual shoots and I was lucky enough to knock mine out pretty quick. Phew. I hate taking pictures!

Sam getting ready for some make up

We then moved on to team pictures. They flooded the warehouse and had as all stand in the water to add a cool reflection. It was quite an interesting idea, I think the pictures will look really cool.
After team camp I headed home to continue my training. I took a couple day break after my trip to Tucson but I am back at it. Today marked the first day of intervals and things looked pretty good. Without any intensity so far this year, I'm only a couple watts short of where I was at my strongest time last year. Good sign for sure!

Good Bye 70's. Hello 30's.

2010-02-22T15:59:00.004-07:00

Goodbye Tucson. You've treated me we'll. I can proudly say I have tan lines in February and loads of miles in the sun. Its been good, I will see you sooner than later.

Yesterday Howes and I built a dam

During my trip to Tucson I did some market research and discovered the campus there is worthy enough for me to attend. My list has know grown to three possible colleges. Decisions Decisions.

Well, there's only 3 weeks until race season gets started in California! Guess I should go train despite the 4 inches of snow. Colorado.

The Shootout

2010-02-14T22:07:00.005-07:00

Well, I didn't wake up this morning feeling like P. Diddy, thats because I was up at 6 to make the infamous 7:30am Group Ride, known as the shootout. Rolled out the door at 7, got there at 7:28, rolled out of the University Starbuck's at 7:30. Don't be late. the group of about 80 cruised on down and eventually you could tell it was about to get fast because a bunch of fast looking guys were moving to the front. I meet Andy Schultz on the ride and figured I would hangout near him since he's obviously done this ride before. Anyways, we hit Valencia and thats when shit hit the fan. It was an all out race from there. Attacks were constantly flying off and I eventually got in one. Opps. My goal was to not get dropped on the ride and getting in a break way I thought was a sure way for that to happen. There were three of us and thankfully we got pulled in fairly quick. I stayed in the group the rest of the way and rotated through the front and pulled quite a few times. The crappy thing about the ride out is it's a false flat so you can never fully recover and with all the attacks going off it's always surging. About 45 minutes worth of racing and we hit a massive hill that I had just pulled into. The group was now widdled down to about 20 and I was second to last over the sprint hill. I ended up averaging 298 Watts for the 45 minute race out. Ouch.
From then on, its a nice hour spin to a 25 minute climb called Madera Canon. We all raced up it and I ended up averaging 292 Watts up this super steep climb. At the top we flipped it and took a nice cruise home.

The ride ended up being 114 miles, 6 hours, and just about 4,000 kJ's. Brutal. This was by far one of the hardest rides I've done all year but still a total blast. The riding community is awesome down here and it was so neat to meet different riders from all over the country that are here for that same purpose as me, warm weather.
Today, I took a nice 2 hour spin to finish the week off. Tomorrow is a new week which is sure to bring many hours of riding in the hot desert sun.

Here's a cute little picture of me on Mt Lemmon

Talk about living on the edge!

Day 4 of who knows, I never want to leave!

2010-02-10T15:23:00.004-07:00

Here on the ranch things are going real well. I’m totally digging Tucson and am already working on extending my stay. I have team camp February 22 and 23 so I’m considering flying to that and coming back here for another week.

Snow in the distance, I think I'll stay away from that stuff!

On Monday I went out West of town and checked out some roads out there. Pretty neat. All the roads have good bike paths and the roads don’t have pot holes, but they are pretty bumpy sometimes.

Yesterday did I pretty cool ride on the East side of town. Its called Reddington Rd. It eventually turned into dirt so I figured I'd go a little ways. On my way back in to town I passed a shooting range with some serious drug dealers/ red necks. Some definitely had automatic’s and there were two guys laying down with what looked like sniper rifles. I didn’t really want to go ask and confirm this.

You can put a mountain biker on the road, but he'll still find the dirt!

Tomorrow team mate Sam Schultz and I are going to rip some trails. Should be a good time! Speaking of mountain biking, check out Sram’s new 2x10 website. http://sram2x10.com/
Its got some really cool info on there and you can check out some of the technology that went into making the perfect shift.

Down at the Ranch

2010-02-07T16:29:00.003-07:00

With a little over a month until race season, I decided to head down south for some warm weather riding. I got here yesterday, so I'll keep you updated on what's going on down here.
As for now, there's an owl outback that wont shut up, so I gotta go grab the BB gun and take care of some things.

New Team, New Year

2010-01-02T15:35:00.003-07:00

With 2009 over I thought I would give an update on what’s been going doing here at home. First of all, I just got back from a trip up to Boulder to do a mini team ride and pick up the new whip. I must say that Fisher has there geometry dialed in as well as having the coolest looking bikes out there. Sram’s new XX component group is the smoothest shifting, best braking and as a whole, the best drivetrain I’ve ever had the opportunity to ride. A big thanks to Gary Fisher, Bontrager, Sram, Cane Creek, Crankbrother’s and ESI Grips for the awesome new ride.
That also reminds me, I haven’t said much about my team status in 2010. Do some reading here. I’m really stoked to begin working with the best mountain bike team and look forward to learning from all the veteran racers on the team.
Here in the Springs, the base miles are racking up and the weather is making this all relatively easy. Been doing most my hours with local rider Kalan Beisel and some chump named Danny Pate. We’ve been pretty much ripping it on the mountain bike all the time.

24 hours of Mobbin in Moab

2009-10-13T22:05:00.005-06:00

Just getting back from Moab and trying to get back in the zone. I was out there for my first and last 24 hour race! It was a pretty big race with over 300 teams entered. We got out there Friday to preride the course. I thought it would be weak since it was a 24 hour race but it was pretty knarly. I ended up crashing in the preride riding a section that would've saved like 10 seconds. Not worth it. I originally was going to start the race but figured I'd let JJ give it a shot so I didn't have to ride as much if we were having good lap times.

JJ came in first with the 3rd fastest time. Kalan came in with a time around 10th fastest of the day. Still first rider across the line though. It was my turn and I was riding my best lap by far before flatting and moving us back to third. Shit! Not something you wanna do in a team race. Rob went out and lit the course up! He crushed it bringing the gap down to around 8 seconds. The race stayed like this for the first six hours until I went out and got a 10 minute gap. that was my biggest contribution because I sucked the rest of the day. We continued to build it and my times continued to get slower.. way slower! I was hurting, nothing like waking up at 3 AM to go pound a lap out. Anyways we ended up winning with a pretty good margin. National Championship number 3 of the season!!

It was a fun race in a weird way but something I will not regret never doing again. Here's a few pics from the race. A big thanks to Kendra and Sonya for keeping us rolling.. don't know how we would've made it with out their support.

Fall

2009-10-06T14:36:00.010-06:00

The leaves have begun to change which means its time for some epic rides. They started this weekend with a little exploration of some trails here in town that we don't ride too much. Its a trail that runs south off of Old Stage road and can take you to the top of Cheyenne Mountain by linking it up with another trail. Today we were riding to the top of the mountain North of Cheyenne Mountain. The first half was good, lots of nice tight singletrack that was pretty easy. After the mid way point it was a lot of hike-a-bike but once we got to the top it was worth it. Lots of cool views and old buildings. I guess the old Broadmoor Lodge or something was up here. Pretty neat.This coming weekend is 24 hours of Moab. Although the team is not 100% or even 50% decided we are hoping to stand on top of the podium next Sunday. I'm in peak shape for this race and think I will be able to pull off some sub 50 minute lap times. Every race I have done this season has built me to perform at my maximum for my main goal of the season; gold at 24 hours of Moab.

The latest and greatest in shoes

2009-09-16T15:47:00.004-06:00

Lately I've been riding some pretty blinged out shoes. The Mavic Fury's are by far the lightest, stiffest and coolest looking shoes I've owned. They have a nice system to lock them down that always keeps a good tight fit. Most cycling shoes you are scared to walk on steep rock slopes but these allow you to walk across this kind of terrain with ease since they're built with a nice soft rubber. They're also available in black if you don't think you could pull off the yellow. Make sure your seen in next race and get a pair!

http://www.mavic.com/mtb/products/fury.320427.9.aspx

Thanks Everyone!!

2009-09-09T20:58:00.004-06:00

Thanks to everyone for helping make this one of my most successful seasons yet.

ProCycling & Bruce McGrew
SRM Powermeters
Mavic
Orbea
USA Cycling
USACDF.org Donors
Clay Worthington
Alison Dunlap
Steve McCauley
Marc Gullickson
Ben Sharp
Mike Hall
Jeremiah Boobar
All my riding buddies
Most importantly my family. Without them none of this would’ve possible.

Worlds

2009-09-04T04:34:00.001-06:00

Well I ended my season today down here in Canberra with the World Championships. The race started 10 this morning. I had a pretty good call up. The gun went off and we took of sprinting up the climb. I was about 30th going into the singletrack and hung around there for awhile. I raced tactically on the climbs drafting off people to save myself as much as possible then attack before the singletrack. With two laps to go I crashed on the famed Hammerhead section bending my derailleur hanger. I ended up coming across the line in 41st. Here are some pictures from the race.

Team Relay

2009-09-01T21:44:00.000-06:00

The Team Relay was today. We had a pretty stacked team all from Colorado and a different strategy than any other country. The team was Heather Irmiger, me, Colin Cares, and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski. We went off in that order. I had a pretty good lap I thought but it didn't stack up well to other juniors. The Italian kid had a time of 17:27 versus JHK's time of 18:21. These kids are fast here! We ended up 12th. It was an awesome event and I felt honored to be included as a member.

Canbrrra

2009-08-29T17:37:00.000-06:00

Got into Canberra today. The 23 hours worth of flying weren't to bad. Its pretty chilly here. We went over to hit up a lap and got about halfway through before a huge thunderstorm rolled in bringing hail and tons of rain.

Oh Canada!

2009-08-05T21:58:00.009-06:00

I’m just getting back from my tropical adventure in Canada. Actually there was nothing tropical about it, in fact it was only sunny 3 of the 10 days here. However, I still had an awesome time getting to ride some new terrain and meet some new people. I was up here for two World Cups which both promised to have some good racing.

Mont Sainte Anne
MSA was the first race and by far the most technical. Everything about it was steep and technical. The cool thing about the course was it was 7k long but it looped inside itself a few times so really you didn’t even use 1/3 of the “mountain.” It was a pretty technical course with a lot of rock gardens and steep little chutes. The hardest part of the course was this steep rock face. You came into a left hand corner that had a few slick roots before it and a steep boulder in the corner. After the corner you prepared yourself for the rock face immediately and headed down. This thing was way steep. It wasn’t hard to ride but instead hard to build the confidence to go for it. In fact, Julien Absalon walked it his first time down it! I got the course down as best as I could but I just didn’t have the flow through it. I ended ruining a tire on some rocks too.

Anyways, we did 4 laps and they didn’t go so hot. I had a kid lock up his brakes in front of me in the start then the very first single track section another kid crashed in front of me taking me down. From there I was chasing from last place. I caught up to 18th place but never really moved up from there.

Bromont
The morning after MSA the crew packed up and rolled over to Bromont where we stayed for the week prior to the World Cup. The place we were staying at was about a 40 minute ride to the venue and had no Internet connection other than Velonews, Facebook and Gmail. It was alright though since the Lapierre team had a chef that cooked us some awesome meals every night! I did some riding around the mountain and found some sweet trails. I was having a good time hitting up some of the DH runs until I ripped a sidewall again. Wednesday we jumped on the course and I was pretty happy with the course. Its about a 10 minute climb followed by a 10 minute downhill. The climb was nice and sustained and the downhill was a gradual techy one. The top was the old Dual Slalom course. I’m proud to say I was doubling those bad boys. Somehow I managed to destroy my 3rd tire of the trip. Good thing USA Cycling has backups!

I was felling pretty good the morning of the race and happy because the course dried up a lot since the day before. A good thing because I was rolling Specialized Fast Tracks witch I thought were a descent tire choice. I had a front row start which was pretty sweet. I rode the first climb in the top 5 and lost some spots on the downhill. This continued every lap and I eventually faded to a very disappointing 13th place. On the last lap I flatted (number 4) and had to run the last K.

Back in CO now. I’m taking my first weekend off from racing in a long time before I begin my final prep for Worlds in Australia. I found out I’m doing the team relay which I’m super stoked for!

Bored in Canada

2009-07-28T21:34:00.002-06:00

This is what happens when you get tired of the same stuff everyday. Surprisingly it was really good.
Ingredients:
1 Wheat Tortilla
2 Eggs
Enough Spaghetti

Enough Cheese

Bon Appetit

Nationals '09

2009-07-20T15:36:00.008-06:00

This past weekend was the US National Championships and I'm proud to say Colorado cleaned house as they have been all season. We won the men and women junior titles, U23 men and women as well as pro men and women! This years race was in Granby, Colorado only 3 hours from home.

The XC was Friday and I was feeling really good in my warm-up. I had a front row call up. The race started up a really steep and long climb. I knew the kids from low altitude would take off not knowing the punishment they were about to endure. Sure enough some kid from Texas lasted about 150 feet before getting swallowed up.

I followed Skyler Trujillo up the first climb and he put about 15 seconds into me on the downhill. As soon as we began the climb I caught right back up and motored on by him. I rode this lap at a good pace and opened the gap up quite a bit. I rode the 3rd lap conservatively in case someone was able to bridge up. I wanted to have enough strength to ride with them and come in for the win. Skyler made the gap about a third of the way up the climb. I waited a bit and put in a hard effort and successfully got a gap. From there I rode the downhill into the finish winning my first ever National Championships. Winning one the biggest race in the US and knowing I was on the team for Worlds felt amazing. Australia here I come!!

The short track was yesterday. The course was really hard. It had a long climb and a short downhill which meant little recovery. Skyler got a gap for the first two laps but quickly realized he went out too hard. I caught up and immediately attacked him. I ended up winning by close to two minutes! What a weekend. Two National Championships in the bag and a trip to Australia for the World Championships.

Next Stop: Canada where I will be doing the two World Cups all in the National Champion jersey.

Back in the USA

2009-07-06T21:07:00.008-06:00

It feels good to be back on my home trails, racing with familiar faces and sleeping in my own bed. I've been home for almost a month and have raced every weekend.

Race numbero uno was Crested Butte. That race didn't go so hot but I wasn't really expecting much out of myself. It rained a ton!

Believe it or not racing the road in Belgium got me stoked to do some road racing here. I cruised up to Laramie for a 2 day, 3 stage road race. I rode well in the road race and placed 3rd in the Cat. 3's. It was a brutal course with 7,200 feet of climbing in 86 miles. Sunday was the Crit and TT. I had a bad TT and finished in the mix for the crit. I ended up 10th in the road race and actually made some $$$.

This past weekend teammate Kalan Beisel and I raced the Firecracker 50 as a team. I went first and came in with the lead. Kalan was able to hold everyone off and we won by over 17 minutes! Firecracker is one of my favorite races because its all about fun. There is still stiff competition but racing in the Maverick class is all about having a good time. Hopefully we can kill it again next year.

I've also done some of our local series races. The first one went alright. I got 3rd but I was a bit further back then I would like to be. The last race I decided to bust out the 29er which wasn't the best idea after sitting in my room for over a month. I ended up busting my knee pretty bad.

As Dougie would say, "When in doubt, air it out!"

Albstadt Bundesliga

2009-06-15T16:02:00.005-06:00

Well im back in the US and am glad to see the mountians! Its hard to believe yesterday I was racing in Germany and today im sitting at home starring at Pikes Peak. A few nights ago we rolled into the hotel. This is our room. Believe it or not, those beds are split and not pushed together. Euro's are crazy. The race went good. I ended up 13th on a course that really didn't suit me well. I was feeling pretty tired and ready to come home! The course had a lot of super steep climbs that were just pure power.

Swiss Racer Bike Cup

2009-06-08T18:54:00.004-06:00

Yes its what you think it is!

Only in Europe.

One of the biggest races of the European trip was today. It was a Swiss Racer Bike Cup which attracts the best Elite riders, U23's and Juniors in the world. My race went well. I moved up froma 57th start spot to a 17th place finish. My goal was a top 30 so I'd call it a success. The course was 5k long with 3 climbs in it and some really steep downhills. Here is a little tour of the course.

Up the roadDown the sketchy downhill, there was a B line
Over to the ramp and downAfter the ramp down this hill (steep!)

Through the quarry

Up a climb which included 12 switchbacks

Down some stairs

Through some trees, again A line or B line

Down to the finish

So thats a lap, we did 8. They're short and steep here. We were able to watch the elites race and I can totaly see why Euro races can have 10,000 spectators and be ale to charge. There is nothing lame about these courses and you can walk the entire cousre. It was awesome. Here's a cool video of the Elite's on the downhill. Going over the drop you are as close to endoing as possible without actually going over the bars.

Germany Photo Dump

2009-06-02T09:09:00.000-06:00

German slugs are huge!
"To exit"
Man eatin bench

These towers are all over the forestSpagetti Ice

Canal

Kirchzarten in the background

Looking out our window

Arnon Bike Race

2009-05-31T08:49:00.000-06:00

The first mountain bike race was this past weekend. It was 35k in Switzerland. I got a good warm up in and had a good start, 3rd row. The elites, U23 and juniors all lined up together, there were about 125 people. The first 2k were neutral so I worked my way to the front. They "re staged" us before starting again, it was kind of weird. Me and Brady Kappius took off and got about a 50m gap. It was pretty cool but we sat up since we knew we were just wasting energy. When the group caught someone attacked and I covered it. It split the race into a few groups and I was in the front. I rode the rest of the race in the lead group of about 6 or 7 people. We reached the last 3k of the course which were through some windy Switzerland fields. I learned how important it is to stay out of the wind during the road races, so I did the same here. I was riding comfortable and was considering attacking when I got a flat tire. I fixed it and rode it in. There was only one other American in front of so I would still consider it a good result. I had really good legs today and believe I would've won this race. Next race is Sunday, so hopefully I will have a bit better look.

Germany!

2009-05-29T07:26:00.001-06:00

This tower is right out where im staying, there are 3 or 4 in town

Well I'm in Germany now which means its time for some mountain biking! For the next few days I am staying with a friend until the Bike Hostel has room for me. It was nice to stay with a local because he was able to show me the secret trails and all the good ones. Here are some pictures of the area.

Some locals. I was staying with the guy on the right.

The other day we went to France for a ride. The climb was a stage in the Tour de France and the downhill was sweet! It had a bit of everything. Tight tacky singletrack, loose rocky singletrack, fast fireroads, super steep tight switchbacks. It was awesome.

That is the mountain we were riding to the top of.

This is Peter, he is a former SRM/ Steven's team member.

Driedaagse van Axel

2009-05-25T06:48:00.001-06:00

So I just finished my first European road race. It didn't go as well as I was hoping but I learned so much and that if given the chance to come back, I believe I would have a much better performance.
http://www.juniorendriedaagse.nl/welkom/

Stage 1- 109k

We got to the line abou 30 minutes early and we were already 4th row. I was feeling good but at the same time I was super nervous not only because there were 180 juniors but there were cobbles 9k in and everyone wanted to be the first ones there. There really isn't much to say other than I got dropped, spent 30k in the caravan and then rode the rest of the way with some other people that got dropped.

Stage 2- TT, 8k

Rode the TT easy to try and be fresh for the next stage

Stage 3- 104k

Today it rained. I liked the rain for some reason. I felt a lot more comfortable in the peloton not only because everyone was being a little more cautious, but I learned a lot yesterday. I started yelling at people and made my way through the group better. I was still on the back a lot but I spent a lot more time in the middle. I could see some of my team mates consistently which was nice. I ended up getting dropped with 15k to go. Much better.

Stage 4- 104k, 12 KOM's
This race moved to Belgium where there were a few more climbs. Today had 12 KOM's and every climb was less than 1k. It was super hard and I was pretty tired. I ended up getting dropped again. I am glad I am done but this race got me excited to do some road racing in the US.

Belgium

2009-05-17T06:18:00.003-06:00

So I arrived in Belgium today. Its not as bad as everyone has made it sound. Other than the really unusal smells and having no hills its good!

The house is nothing like I was expecting. I thought we would be our own seperate house out in the country. Izegem is also bigger than I expected. First race is Friday, im not quite sure what to expect!