Tito's Tour

Mt Baldy!

2012-01-25T23:21:00.001-07:00

Today I set out to conquer Mt. Baldy here in California:

Yep, that's what it normally looks like. But is was sunny out today so it looked a little friendly today:

It is a bit of a trek from my current home base in Newport, but I was determined to make it. Within the first few hours things were looking slow as I was being hit by a massive headwind, but I pushed on until I reached my first turn-off into new terrain. After cruising through the a golf course I was met with my first road block. Apparently the road I was suppose to take was actually a dirt jeep trail. And to start off it went through a horse ranch. So I made my merry way through stopped and petted the horses as I crossed, and quickly made my way out of the ranch thing. Then my next obstacle:

Dry creek bed fording! I had to stop and take a picture because it was pretty extreme for my wimpy little road bike. Little did I know this was the easiest of about the ten that I crossed. Multiple of them even had flowing water. I misjudged the depth of one and found myself bottom bracket deep in water before I realized it was probably a bad idea. But I made it through that too, next up was a mud field, and with the very tight clearances of my aero road frame I was brought almost to a standstill. I had to stop a couple times and scrap the gunk off my bike. But I finally made it off the dirt trail (10k later) to the trail head, where they had a water spigot for me. I had to pull off both wheels and give my bike a 5 minute spray before I could roll again. Then off! To more dirt roads. It seemed that the mud helped provide a barrier against all the cactus thorns I saw though.

Anyways I was then in the town of Chino and had to cross the valley to get to the base of Mt. Baldy. By the time I made it there I was almost 4 hours into my ride. And with 3.5 hours of sunlight left, I had to crush my own hopes and dreams and call it. I was able to find a different way home (that somehow also had a 30k headwind section) but I managed to make it about 5 minutes before the sun went down. Some success, I guess. Almost 7 hours ride time but only 185kms. Now I am off to Palm Desert to attempt another all day ride Friday, perhaps I will update again when my journey is complete. Until next time,

SoCal

2012-01-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

So here I am, after escaping the winter of Colorado getting my bronze on in sunny California. Got in today for a nice two week block of training. Got out for a few hours this afternoon, and an is it different than Colorado. Lots of fast cars and traffic, but really good roads with lots of shoulder space, and some warm weather, so no complaints! I did run into a few peculiar folks today: I was asked how to find the interstate by a couple of plumbers driving around on one of the one way back roads/bike path, Had to dodge a man flying his kite directly across the bike path and I watched in wonder as some lady apparently got hungry on her afternoon run and stopped right in front of me leaned over grabbed a bunch of berries out of tree and gobbled them up. Some interesting people out here. Now its time for some serious training for me!

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-12T15:30:00.002-07:00

After the large (and somewhat unexpected) helping of snow that we received in Boulder yesterday, I was left with few options for working out. Fortunately I have a mountain bike in my fleet that I was able to pull out and tear up the slopes with. Most of the road were either wet and slushy or frozen and slick. It made for some challenges but it also keeps things interesting. Either way I only have a couple more days in town here before I head off to Southern California to get some warm weather in and around me. Got start working on the tan, right?

Just been reading this article about some of the crazy weather around the country, and it looks like I am picking the perfect time to get out of Colorado - before the real snow and cold comes!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T15:33:00.001-07:00

Ringing in 2012 with some new equipment from my new team! CycleOps is providing us with PowerTap Joule head units to replace my old Garmin. Tried it out today and I am into it, lots of options and the built in GPS is awesome. With the breezy winds down in Boulder I hit 52mph on a almost flat road, crazyness! Enjoying the warm weather here in Boulder though.

Failure

2011-12-19T16:11:00.001-07:00

Because is has started snowing here in Boulder (winter isn't suppose to start until Wednesday!) I have plenty of time to put up a new post describing my almost was epic ride-ness. Yesterday I attempted to ride my bike from Boulder to Breckenridge via Lookout Mountain and then a series of back roads, frontage roads, bike paths, and even a short stint or two on I-70. I was under a bit of a time constraint and things stopped looking plausible after I got slowed down through a particularly tough bike path section that was completely covered in snow, with no other options I had to ford through doing about 5 mph but still going as hard as I could. After that I was met with a serious headwind that also seriously slowed my progress, and by the time I got to Georgetown I had to admit defeat (and call the fiancee). If only I had brought the awesome Christmas present that I got from my Grandma....

It would have been a bit tight in my jersey pocket, but I am sure I could have taken care of part of it on the ride; although eating the entire thing in one sitting would probably kill a small elephant. I think I could do it.

In other news the new team kits for my new team are out and about. Check them out:

For more info on the kits or the team in general check out the link on my twitter (see right sidebar) or go to the new team site: Competitive Cyclist Racing Team.

Just Another Day in the Office...

2011-12-10T14:43:00.001-07:00

...If your office desk computer monitor was an air conditioning unit pointed directly at your face on full power. But you can't beat the view! A little better than a cubicle wall.

After a big snow storm and lots of cold weather this past week it was nice to get back outside after spending a week on the trainer. Definitely still snowy here in boulder though, but is should make me tougher, right?

The Art of Spectating

2011-12-03T13:19:00.001-07:00

I know it has been a while since my last post here, but it has been all quiet on the Tito front so to say. I have been enjoying some great weather and lots of riding throughout the month of November. But December has been somewhat unkind so far. Just hours after the calender ticked over into the final month of 2011 the snow started falling. Less than 60 hours into the month and we already have over a foot at the house here. To keep me warm and keep Courtney happy, I put my baking skills to work, whipping up some homemade crock pot mac'n'cheese and some delicious vanilla marble fudge cupcakes:

The real reason for this post however, is to show off some picture from my spectating of Courtney's participation in the Colder Boulder, a 5K run around the CU campus that is open to finishers of the famous Boulder Boulder 10K run back in May. It certainly lived up to its name - fresh snow and sub 30 degrees for the start.

Here she is getting ready to bust around a right hand corner.

And then closing in on the finish.

And then boom, finish line! With a finishing time of about 28:20!

As for me, I spent the day inside on the trainer, banging out some kilometer in front of the TV. Just started watching the first season of Game of Thrones on HBO, which makes the time fly by. Fingers crossed to see some sun soon!

Bicycling!

2011-11-14T10:31:00.001-07:00

It's not even the middle of November and I have already knocked out my first week of training. The weather in Boulder is certainly helping with highs consistently over 60 degrees! Not to bad after some early season snows at the end of October. Now I just have to figure out a way to keep it like this.

In my off season I have been convinced by my fiancee (@courtneysaario) to start up a twitter account, so check it out: @taylorshelden. And you will need to go there to see my new team announcement.

Off Season!

2011-10-23T19:38:00.001-06:00

We make lots of desserts (pumpkin pie, apple pie and cheesecake) and carve sweet pumpkins.

Home

2011-10-13T09:19:00.001-06:00

So I have been home for a couple of days now, and I figured I should do a final wrap-up post from the Tour of Tasmania. Sunday was the final day, and we only had one race - crazy right? It was pretty short, but had a nasty little climb in it that hurt the legs every lap, but we managed to all get through it and finished with Camo in 3rd overall and Bernie a couple seconds back in 5th. We had 4 stage wins, several days in the yellow jersey and Bernie won the Crit Champion Jersey as well as the Leading Tasmanian Jersey. Definitely one of the best races of the season for us.

Now I am back in America, and the weather actually welcomed me home quite nicely. After my awesome V Australia flight I have almost gotten over my jet-lag. I am serious about the flight too - even though I was in economy, I got 2 delicious meals (Chicken pie with mashed potatoes and a pancake breakfast), a midnight snack and my very own entertainment system built in (I think I put down 5 movies in the 14 hour flight). Now it's time for a couple of weeks to decompress and recover from the season, time enough to get use to driving (and riding!) on the right side of the road again.

Tour of Tassie

2011-10-08T00:56:00.000-06:00

So it’s been a while. But mostly because we have been slightly busy doing this bike racing thing. Since I last wrote we have raced 8 different times, and it has only been 4 days, you do the math. The 2nd day of the tour was probably the hardest, with 2 stages totaling 140km. The morning gun was fired and I experienced my first Australian sprint fest. Little did I know these roads stages were nothing compared to the crits they do here. But that comes later. The morning stage had some small rollers before a pair of steep climbs near the end of the stage. On the first one a couple of the young climbers from the leaders team smashed the pace and blew the field apart, at the top it was less than ten guys with me and Bernie fully gassed. But as we made our way to the next climb it came back together a bit before the hammering began again in earnest. I dropped my chain about halfway up and had to stop to get off and fix it, putting me out of the front group and chasing with a large second group. With about 5km to the finish we caught back on and went straight to the front taking turns on the front and setting it up perfectly for Aaron to win the stage and Bernie placed 3rd.

The afternoon brought more team success. I jumped in the early break of 6 guys and we had a couple minute gap coming into the first big climb of the day, I rode pretty much full gas and went over the top in 3rd, before getting swallowed up by a diminished field over the top before the final hard climb of the day and it was a beast. I was popped off the pace early and finished in a small group with a couple of teammates a ways down. But we got to the finish to learn that our man Cameron had won the stage solo and taken the overall leader's jersey. 1 day, 2 races, 2 wins. The 2nd day brought my first double double: the first time I have done back to back double days. The morning was an hour crit with a bit of a rise but was quite fast. About halfway through we took control and rode the front to keep it together and put Aaron in place to win once again with Bernie moving up to 2nd place. The afternoon was a bit easier with our team letting a breakaway roll up the road to take the time bonuses and us just having to watch a few guys coming into the finale. Aaron rolled in around 5th and Camo kept the leader's jersey.

Day 3 was more early morning crit racing - it was shorter and faster than the previous day but with a similar result in Aaron taking the stage and Bernie once again 3rd. The afternoon was a beast of a day. Hard rollers out of the start to weaken a lot of lets before a series of hard climbs culminating with a 3k climb that averaged 8% but was over 15% for most of it with a flat section in the middle. I had gotten gapped off on the previous descent because I was riding like a bit of a grandma (no offense to my grandmas) and started the climb close to 20 seconds behind the leaders. I did all I could to catch up on the climb but couldn’t quite get it and had to let it go and ride in to the finish with a large grupetto. At this point Camo still held the leader's jersey but only by 1 second.

Today was the final double day and consisted of the familiar format: morning crit, afternoon hilly road stage. The crit was even shorter today with an 800meter loop that we did 30 times, taking about 32 minutes. Our sprint king, Aaron had pulled out to save himself for the sun tour next week, so it was up to Bernie to take the sprint. He came in a good position but one of the other races moved over right before the finish and sent him to the ground. He more or less slid across the finish line and actually still managed 2nd on the day to secure the Crit Champion Jersey and move into the lead of the best Tasmanian jersey. Unfortunately we had more bad news in Camo losing his leader's jersey by a couple of seconds before the afternoon. This afternoon was another tough one. Up and down all day with some tough climbs. After about 20km a small group rolled off the front and I bridged across with a couple other guys to make a group of 10 or so heading into the day's main obstacle: a cat 2 climb. As we came to the top I was hoping to go for the KOM sprint line, but it can much earlier than I expected and I could only manage 4th. I timed the following sprint a bit better but still could only grab 2nd. Not exactly my cup of tea this sprinting thing. We had a series of short brutally hard climbs following and lots of attack coming and going, but nothing was sticking and it came down to a big group at the finish. We have one final stage tomorrow: a hard 4.5km loop that we do 12 times, with some nasty climbing. Should be a great way to finish the long tour and finish off the season for me!

Mt. Wellington

2011-10-03T23:31:00.000-06:00

Today was the start to the Tour of Tasmania, a leg crushing 18.1 km jaunt up an enormous mountain outside of our current city, Hobart. At the start the entire thing was cloaked in clouds and we couldn't see more than halfway the 1200 meters of verticalness that we were about to ascend. The team started strong with Aaron and Sean taking big pulls on the early slopes to get us off right, after the middle 'flat' section both were gone and we turned off the main road with 12km of steep climbing ahead. That was when the fog started to completely shroud us from the rest of the world and when the climb started to hurt. We all rolled through for long steady pulls and the team looked great. The higher we got the denser the fog until we could see less that 20 meters up the road.

This was actually a blessing as we couldn't see the shear length of the climb as the road is pretty straight. Notice the layer of clouds in the photo? We were in that. At around the 3km to go banner we finally broke through the clouds and the sun was shining.

If we hadn't been full on suffering we could have looked around and enjoyed the sights, but not today. At this point we were down to four guys: Camo, Bernie, Chris and I. With about 2km to go the legs really started to burn and we managed to notch it up even a bit more as we closed in on the finish.

We came around the final corner and sprinted for the line and we ended up finishing in 4th place out of the 14 teams, about 45 seconds behind the winners, but a further 2 minutes up on 5th place. The rest of this we week we have 9 stages in 5 days, so it will be a real battle, with two of the hardest stages on tap for tomorrow.

Tasmania

2011-10-02T23:37:00.001-06:00

So here we are in the solo state of Tasmania adrift from the mainland Australia, and closing in on Antarctica. As such it is chillier than Melbourne, but so far we have avoided the rain and wet that were plaguing us in Ferny Creek. It was quite brisk for our 9am (actually 8am but an hour time change for down under daylight savings) start yesterday and it didn't get much warmer. The only respite was a massive 12k berg (mountain climb) about 60km into the race which blew the field to shreds. At the top we were all stripped down and had to quickly bundle up as we looked around to find only about 15 guys left in the front group. After a bunch of attacks a little group of 4 guys rolled off the front with our man Camo in it. We sat up and waited as most of the field came back to us. The group swelled up to almost 40 guys and then we were sent to the front to hammer out the next 100km. At around the 140km mark the U23 race finished. So all of the sudden several guys shot out of the field and one posted up the victory salute - quite bizarre but they were done, so it was up to the big boys to take it all the way. We started picking up the tempo in the rotation and with 35k to go we were looking at a solo rider with a couple minutes, that was when I proceeded to go lights out as in hunger flat, bonk, hit the wall. It was full on game over me. 2 caffeine gels couldn't even save me, I was donzo and left on my own to finish the race off. I lost about 18 minutes but I managed to creep into the finishing city to find out Aaron ended up in 4th place. We have moved on to Hobart now on the southern coast with a nice beach side view of the ocean, where we soaked the legs after yesterday to aid recovery.

Tomorrow we face the rather daunting prospect of an 18km team time trial up a massive climb. We only need 4 guys to finish so it will be interesting a certainly a suffer fest. Normally in a TTT the strongest riders can take longer pulls, but here you have to be very carefully to not blow-up your teammate as there is no draft or recovery on an enormous climb. We'll see how it goes.

Rainy Day

2011-09-28T23:44:00.001-06:00

In the spirit of the boredom me and my Australian host/teammate have been through the last couple of days due to copious amounts of rain, Chris came up with a mini Q&A for me, read it here and try not to laugh to hard at me.

Aussie Coming and Goings

2011-09-26T23:06:00.001-06:00

Two firsts this week: driving a right hand drive car on the left side of the road! And it was a manual to make it that much more exciting. I managed to not crash but there were several times I turned the wipers on instead of the turn signal (they're on the opposite side here), and I tried reaching for the stick once or twice with my right hand only to encounter the door. The other new experience was getting dive bombed by a magpie bird. Apparently my helmet us a tasty target because he was coming after me, snapping his beak and all. Good thing I was able to sprint. Just a couple more days now to heal up after Sunday before we are off to the races again!

Blackburn

2011-09-25T02:50:00.001-06:00

Another race in Australia today. After suffering through the "hell ride" - a local 7am group ride yesterday - I was hesitant for today. There were more cyclists out on the beach road than I have ever seen yesterday, easily over a thousand people out on there bikes, probably more like two or three thousand! It was crazy. Anyways today Chris and I drove out to a local race and I got to experience some more if the Australian countryside.

We did two 25km loops that were pretty flat and not super fast. There were a couple of attacks but most people were content to just cruise. When we started the one large lap there was only one guy off the front with a lead of close to three minutes. And then we hit the climb, it was real steep at the bottom and Chris and I exploded the race. After 2k we were down to 4 guys and we all smashed it up the climb. We caught the lone leader just before the top and managed to drop a guy on the descent to keep the group at 4. Chris and I were both feeling really good so we started whacking it with 15k to go. We split the other two dudes and had just cracked one of them. I was just about to come around him when he turned left into my front wheel and blew it apart sending me to the ground at 45kph. I slid quite nicely and managed to tear off a bit of skin. With a broken wheel I was out of it, but Chris was able to dominate in the sprint and take his second win of the year! (You may remember that the last race Chris won back in March I crashed in the last corner, so apparently we need to work on something....)

Nothing like scrubbing road rash, but nothing too bad. Feeling pretty good actually, and now its just easy until our big team races starting a week from today.

Pinkies Out

2011-09-22T17:56:00.001-06:00

I can now be a tea snob after acquiring some brand new loose leaf tea from Australia. Chocolate chai flavor - what could be better? I even got my own little dipper thing, it tastes so good this stuff. I am moving up in the tea world. I am now at notch one.

Downtown Melbourne

2011-09-22T01:19:00.001-06:00

Sydney

2011-09-19T00:50:00.001-06:00

This weekend I got my first taste of Australian bike racing. We raced from the city of Golburn out to the coast and then up towards Sydney. Saturday we did a short violent prologue of 4k in under 5 minutes - quite tough. Then Sunday was a more standard 170k road race. The breakaway rolled pretty quick and I was one of the seven guys in it. We had a couple strong guys and then a couple of slackers but we worked well enough and established a decent gap. The course was rolling all day with wind from all directions but generally pretty fast. We made it to the top of the first ascent of Razorback hill - only 20k from the finish before we were reeled in and then spit out the back when we came back up the other side of Razorback. Johnnie Walker managed to make his way into the lead group of 12 and sprinted home for 6th place.
While we weren't racing we got to check out the sights of Sydney. From the opera house to the harbor bay bridge, it was a super cool city. Right on the coast and some lumpy terrain jammed pack with skyscrapers. We ate breakfast on the beach on Saturday morning after our 6am flight and we were all loving it - living the good life. Back in Melbourne now for a couple of weeks, so I need to check out the Melbourne city/beach life to see how it compares! I also added to my Australian wildlife spotting - a kangaroo! However it was already roadkill when we drove by, but I got my eyes peeled for a live one.

Birds and Such

2011-09-16T00:53:00.001-06:00

I have been riding around Australia for four days and finally today I was able to experience it in just my jersey and shorts - no getting all bundled up. Yesterday I knocked a couple more native animals off my list. We feed/hung out with some Cockatoos and some Crimson Rosellas.

As you can see they are my friends now. Checked out the beach and ocean for the first time today and we are off to Sydney super early tomorrow morning for the Golburn to Sydney race on Sunday.

King in the Australian Castle!

2011-09-14T22:14:00.001-06:00

I am in the giant's chair after conquering Mount Dandenong!

All settled here in Australia and not suffering jet lag too bad. Had a whole row on my awesome V Australia flight over and got in some serious shut eye. I already have knocked out a few solid rides with my teammate Chris Winn. Thanks mate! Just enjoying the time so far here, definitely cooled than Colorado but I am looking forward to my first race down under up in Sydney this weekend, should be a good one!

RME Finale

2011-09-06T14:49:00.000-06:00

This weekend I celebrated Labor Day in style by laboring on my bicycle. I was up bright and early on Sunday morning to race the PV Cycle Derby, the series finale of the Rocky Mountain Endurance Series. We made our way out to a boy scout camp outside of Elbert, CO. Kind of the middle of nowhere but actually a surprisingly good course. It was up and down with lots of singletrack and some tricky technical sections for 66 total miles. On the first lap we rolled out nice and easy...

The small field was quickly whittled down to 5, and after an hour of racing the pace started to ramp up. Our little group split and it was down to me, Brady K and Colin C. Right after that however my seat post bolt came loose and my seat slid right down into my frame making it impossible to ride on my saddle and forcing me to stand up for the rest of the lap, almost 25 minutes. I lost several minutes and by the time I had it fixed I was looking at an almost 5 minute gap I needed to make up. I hammered the whole 2nd lap and had closed the gap quite nicely to around a minute. But then the hurt started seeping in and I couldn't quite keep the pace up, so close, yet so far. I did manage to catch Brady with about 10 miles remaining but with about 5 to go he dropped me like a rock, and it was all I could do to pedal her home suffering from my early long hard effort. Another race in the books, with a 3rd place to boot and a real hard workout. Now a couple of easy days before I head on out to Australia!

Hot, Hot, and some more Hot

2011-08-31T20:04:00.001-06:00

So, I lied and it turns out I am not quite in Australia yet. Instead I am roasting like a pig on a spit in the summer of Boulder (See above photo). Today's ride averaged 35 degrees (95 F) and maxed out at 41 degrees (106 F). To much for me. But I suffered through it anyways, getting ready for next race, a MTB marathon down in Elbert, CO this weekend. And then I am off to OZ on September 9th.

Breck Epicellness!

2011-08-19T22:17:00.000-06:00

Finally finished the Breck Epic today after embarking on this grand journey last week. And I was so happy about it.

After 8 flats in the first three days I toned it down a bit and was the victim of only one flat tire in the final 3 days of racing. Day 4 was one of the best for me - I made it to the 2nd aid station (around the halfway point of the stage) with the lead group of 6 guys. From there it was a monster climb that started out on a fire road and then turned into an unrelenting double track that wound its way all the way to the top of a mountain. Around the time I hit the top I was sitting good in 4th until my chain starting jumping around in the small gears and that was about the end of my climbing. I had dropped down to 6th by the final long climb and fell several more spots as I was forced to push my bicycle all the way to the top - not fast.

Refueling before the climb.

Day 5 was a return to the dreaded flat town. I started nicely and hit the first single track in 2nd place but we missed a turn and all my hard work was thrown out the window as all the sudden I was in 8th, and then just as the real climb began I managed to pop the old front tire. After a quick fix (I am getting pretty good at these things), I hammered out the climb, passing well over a hundred people by the top. The last 20 minutes or so of the climb were a full gas hike-a-bike and when I finally did get back on the bike over the top I felt like I was in slow motion at over 12,500 feet above sea level. I took it easy on the descent once again to protect my tires and then crushed the paved bike path section before hammering out the final 45 minute single track back to Breckenridge.

Today was all she wrote, the final day! Here we are getting ready to rock:

We hammered all the way up Boreas Pass road and then quickly jumped on the single track to keep on climbing.

After a tough single track climb we jumped back on to a fire road and I was able to put the hammer down - pushing myself up into 3rd at the first aid station.

We were rewarded with a sweet descent and then another long fire road back to town. It was probably the deepest I had to dig all week - buckets of pain and suffering to make it to the top with 2 other guys before the ripping fast descent home. I held on for 4th place on the day - my best finish of the week by far.

I ended up finishing the race in 16th place, which was alright considering the number of punctures I had. Next year I am going back to mountain bike driving school before I try something like this again. Next up for me is the Tour of Murray River in Australia which starts a week from tomorrow.

The Breck Epic or Tito's Flat Fest

2011-08-16T15:04:00.000-06:00

So I have been a bit slow about posting on the Breck Epic, a 6 day mountain bike stage race that I am currently participating all around Summit County. The reason? Because I have had a bit of bad luck and I don't need reminding of it. Anyways, I have recovered enough to tell the world of my sorrows. Day 1 was this past Sunday and we started bright and early, and the pain began almost immediately, but we were quickly rewarded with a sweet descent through a really neat aspen tree tunnel.

And then the misery started, and I am not talking about leg pain either. A flat 45 minutes into a 6 day stage race isn't really the best way to start off, but trying to fix it with a tube that already has a hole is even worse. I had to go back a ways and ended up waiting for the course sweeper to give me a tube. So with a 45 minute delay I was off once again. On the next descent disaster struck once again, and I was fortunate to find a guy just out cruising with a stack of spare tubes. Ok - now it was time for me to be a bit more careful or something. I made it another 1.5 hours before the familiar hissing sound filled the air. So that was my day: 4 flats and probably 45 minutes of hiking. The nice thing about the Mountain Bike Community is how nice everyone is - and most everyone tried offering assistance until finally I found someone with the correct tire size.
Oh yeah, we have 3 awesome dudes from Cannondale staying at the house with us, and My Dad tried to drive off with their truck:

Onwards to Day 2: A chance for redemption. Once again the race was bright and early, and I managed to jump to the front on the first climb, and set a hard tempo, apparently not that hard though because when we reached the top I hadn't managed to drop anyone. Ouch. I settled in a bit on the next climb and then started picking people off who had gone out to hard. By the time we got to the first aid station about an hour into the race I was in 4th and only 2 minutes behind the leader. I forgot to mention that I also rolled into the aid station with a flat front tire.

A quick fix and I was off again slowly working my way back up in the top 10 and as we were closing in on the 2nd aid station I was around 7th even after a little spill. But it was not to be as the devil rocks struck again and I was forced to start running. However anyone who knows me, knows that I have an intense dislike for running, especially with a bicycle.

(That's me in the background). And so I was walking with my bike until another kind man stopped and gave me a new tube, wahoo! By that point I was already 30 minutes behind the leaders, and not super motivated to hammer, so I took it easy and made sure to keep my tires safe.

Today was good old hump day - the hallway point. And it was a killer some extreme descents and some even more extreme ascents made for a long day on (and off) the saddle. Lots of hike-a-bike today, but also some sweet single-track as our reward. I even managed to do some sledding on a big snow pack that covered part of the trail. (Apparently I wasn’t skilled enough to actually ride it and ended up sliding down the last bit. I also managed to fully submerse myself in a creek after misjudging a very sharp corner. And just when I was starting to think I liked this mountain biking thing I was off my bike again with another flat, and then another. But once again I managed to beg and borrow my way to the finish. 3 more days of racing left, let's see if it will turn around for me. Or maybe I just need to go back to mountain bike driving school, I must be doing something wrong.