Russell Finsterwald

Cross season, off season, base season and back to race season

2013-03-12T20:43:00.001-06:00

I guess it has been almost 6 months since I last updated this thing. It's not that I've been lacking stuff to talk about, but instead the complete opposite. Worlds is where I last left off. I took a short break after that and then jumped into some cross races. I was fortunate enough to get a last minute spot on the Trek Cyclocross Collective team. I didn't want to travel to a ton of races so I kept a low key schedule mostly in Colorado. I decided to do Cross this year so I could keep in shape for mountain bike season. I really ended up liking cross quite a bit and am hoping I can do a bit more of a focused schedule this fall!

Racing my Trek Cronus at the Fort Collins USGP

Champagne Showers courtesy of Zach McDonald

Along with cross racing I got in some pretty fun fall rides, most of which were done on my Trek Remedy. That bike is so much fun to ride. I took it out to Moab during the Whole Enchilada Enduro to ride with friends who were racing. I didn't do the race but it was pretty fun riding and hanging out with them out there. I also went to Crested Butte with some of the USA Cycling Development Foundation Donors. It was my first time riding a lot of the trails in CB. Dave Weins and Susan DeMattei showed us around on some of the best trails CB had to offer; including the well known 401 trail. That was an awesome trip with some really cool guys who allow us U23 racers to get to a lot of the races we do.

Crested Butte in October. Doesn't get much better!

Brady Kappius sends it!

Pikes Peak was open to bikes the month of September. Kalan and I cruised up. 14,115 feet is a long ways up there..

Fall in Colorado. Never gets old!

After a fall filled with racing and awesome rides it was time to unwind and rest up a bit before getting back into the groove of training. A friend of mine from Germany was on a trip in Thailand for 3 months and it was perfect timing for me to use some frequent flyer miles and meet up with them. Thai food is one of my favorite foods so I thought it would be well worth the visit. Aside from the long travel to get there, it was a trip filled with adventure and excitement. Just about everyday we did something that was new to me and pretty cool. We were on the island of Ko Chang for a majority of my stay. The island is not huge but has lots to offer. We went night fishing, golfing, elephant trekking, snorkeling and spent lots of time on various beaches. The food was beyond my expectations! You could eat just about any type of food you wanted on the island but I tried to stick to either Thai or Indian food for the whole trip. I thought I would get fat not riding my bike for the 2 weeks while I was down there, but the food was always filled with fresh vegetables so I ended up eating pretty healthy! I can't wait to go back again in the future.

The village of White Sand.

Thailand is still working on its road infrastructure.

Elephant Trekking thru the jungle on our way to some waterfalls!

I took a day to learn about the Thai culture and Thailand's history while in Bangkok. I checked out the Grand Palace, some Temples as well as China town and India town.

It was a bit hard to leave the hot weather of Thailand for a snowy and cold Colorado. I made it through a couple weeks of riding in some really cold weather but quickly realized I wasn't tough enough for that anymore so I decided I needed to head to Tucson for the winter again. I wanted to try to stick out a winter in Colorado this year but I'm pretty glad I headed to Tucson. It's super easy to get in lot's of consistent riding knowing you don't have to plan your riding around the weather. That being said, it hasn't been the warmest winter by Tucson standards. It actually snowed in town one day and the weather men are claiming it to be the coldest winter since '66. I've been living with Jack Hinkens down here and even though he isn't riding much these days we've had a lot of fun and have gone out for some good coffee shop spins.

Winston Wells spotting!

Hinky still has the skills to pay the bills.

This past weekend was the first race of the season as well as team camp down in Austin, Texas. It was great to meet up with the new riders on the Trek Factory team as well as catch up with everyone else. I had a good time with all of them and am looking forward to another fun year with the team. This will be my fourth season on the team as well as my last year as a U23. It's funny to look back at my first race in Bonelli, California with the team and think how much I've changed as rider being apart of the program. The level of support I receive along with being around some of the best riders, not only in the country, but the world has definitely been a huge part of my development. One of my favorite memories of my first year on the team is having to shop on my own for the first time. I came back with a bunch of random food that I didn't really know what to do with. Everyone pretty much laughed at my shopping choices. Since then I've stepped up my cooking game quite a bit and now realize how important nutrition is thanks to my elder team mates.

Team dinner or "tea" at the Salt Lick! Good stuff.

Matt O and Troy were all business. Sleeves rolled up and hat back. They threw down HARD!

Back to Austin. The Mellow Johnny's Pro XCT was my first race of the season. I opted to race my Superfly 100 since the course was pretty rough. This year we are racing on Fox and Shimano products. This was my first time riding it. The bike and equipment are totally dialed! I had a pretty good race down there despite my finishing spot. I was sitting in 6th place and flatted just after the second tech zone on my last lap and had to walk it in the rest of the lap. Total bummer but I'm glad it happened towards the end of the race and I could at least see how I was riding. I think it's shaping up to be a good season!

Racing on my new Superfly 100!

Heading out for team pics at Reveille Peak Ranch.

For now, I'm back in Tucson logging in the miles and working on the tan. After Bonelli I'm planning to head back to Colorado Springs. As long as the 10 day forecast shows no snow!

The 2013 Trek Factory race team!

Die Weltmeisterschaften

2012-09-11T20:43:00.001-06:00

That's "the World Championships" for those of you who don't sprechen Deutsch.

A lot of my down time was spent listening to Electronic Music Radio. This was my favorite song I heard this time over. I'd recommend blarring it in the back ground while reading this!

The 2012 World Championships took place in the Austrian Alps outside of a small town called Saalfelden. Before heading to Austria I made a quick trip to Germany with fellow wolf pack members Colin Cares and Mitch Hoke. We decided to do a German National Series race (called the Bundeslegia) in the town of Albstadt. It was only two hours away from Kirchzarten, Germany so we decided to post up there a couple days before hand. That's the town the US National Team bases out of when in Europe. Tom Bolts is a friend of mine who lives there and provided us with a place to stay, thanks Tom! It was great to be in Kirchzarten even it was only for a couple days and rainy the whole time.

Mitch and Colin pet the pigs in Kirchzarten!

With 4 days of straight rain it was pretty clear that the weekends race was going to muddy. And muddy it was! After the first lap my bike was completely covered in mud and probably 15 pounds heavier. It was crazy! Definitely the muddiest race I've ever done. I ended up breaking my chain on the next lap which was a bummer but still a good tune up for the big one next week.

Mitch and I shared a bed in Albstadt. Coincidentally it was the same hotel and bed Brady Kappius and I shared in 2009 when I first raced in Albstadt.

Post race muddiness!

After the race we headed to Munich where we would meet with the rest of the Worlds Team. I forgot to mention that we were navigating this trip without a GPS unit which made things a little tough. We made it to Kirchzarten and the race with no problem. Making it to the Munich hotel was a bit harder. It was on Bahnhof Strasse which means train station street. Turns out just about every little suburb city of Munich has a "Bahnhof Strasse." After looking for the hotel for about 30 minutes in the wrong town we eventually realized our mistake and found the right hotel. Classic!

Next morning we meet up with USA Cycling and headed over to Austria. It was nice not being jet lagged and funny to watch everyone else struggle to stay awake! The drive just kept getting more scenic as we approached the village of Leogang where we would be staying for the week. The view out my hotel room was stunning. I'm a sucker for mountains, just can't get enough of them!

Howard struggles to stay awake!

Later in the day we rode to Saalfelden and checked the course out. I was pretty stoked on it. It had two sustained climbs as well as a few technical features. I spent the next few days getting familiar with the course and exploring some of the valley roads. Thursday came which was the Team Relay. I was repressing as the U23 rider while Keegan Swenson, Lea Davison and Todd Wells filled in for their respective category. We ended up in 7th. I didn't have the greatest lap but it was still a good opener for the XC the following day.

I had everything in my favor to have the perfect race; a good call up, a pimped out bike and a ton of support from my team and USAC. The day did not go as planned by any means. I only had one speed out there and it was far from fast. I am disappointed to end what's been an amazing season on a bad note but it leaves me hungry this off season to better myself. Howie, Kerry and I meet up with the Canadian guys and did a post race ride. We hit some sick trail which was just what I need after my race. Good times!

When we first arrived at the hotel I picked up a map at the front desk and began planning Saturday's ride. I'd been looking forward to this day of exploration all week! Only Kerry and Skylar we're adventurous enough to set out on the ride. The route headed down the valley to a town called Zell am See, then up 2,000m to the top of a mountain called Hundstein. From there it was mostly all downhill into Saalfelden where we would catch some of the elite races. I'm going to go ahead and say that this ride was my favorite one to date. Yes the trails we rode where fun but the best part was the astonishing views all around (I did say I love mountains!) Everywhere you looked there we're jagged peaks with glaciers. I hope I can return to this region of Austria in the future to explore some more!

Sunday was the Eliminator. I didn't really want to do it but somehow I got persuaded to do so. I laid it out there but didn't make it past qualifiers. Eliminators are hard! After being eliminated I headed back to the hotel to pack all my stuff. I really didn't want to leave Austria. Even though my race was pretty unsuccessful this was my favorite trip to date. There was so much about this trip that made it special it to me.

It's crazy to think that the cross-country season has come to an end. Hard to believe it's been 7 months since I started my first race of the season in the Dominican Republic. I've learned a lot about myself, a lot about racing, had some awesome adventures and have had a lot of fun. There are so many people to thank for making this my most successful season yet. My teammates and staff at Subaru Trek keep racing fun and make sure I have everything to perform at my best. I'm so fortunate to be on such an amazing team. All our sponsors that help support our team and provide us with the best equipment to do so. Gully, USA Cycling and all the donors that give me the opportunity to travel world racing my bike. My coach Colby Pearce for making me suffer and understand my body. My family has always been super supportive of my racing. It's great to have so many awesome people standing behind me, thanks guys!

That's it for now. Time for some epic fall riding mixed with some cross racing!
Now for some pictures!!

Balancing silverware to keep entertained while waiting for dinner!

Zell am See

Getting water from a spring on the ride.

Schultz entertaining the locals.

This Belgian dude was 41!

Getting back in the groove

2012-08-21T10:16:00.001-06:00

After a heavily packed June and July there was a one month hiatus of racing on the national circuit for me. It was a good time to take some much needed rest and recover as well as get in some solid training. After the Missoula Pro XCT I took the week off and headed up to Snowmass to support my friend Kalan during 12 hours of Snowmass. Seeing him do that made me never want to do a 12 hour solo race. It looked so hard. While up there I was able to meet up with Matt Shriver and Lance Armstrong. I was supposed to be resting that week but couldn't turn down a ride like that so I suited up for a pretty hard 4 hours. It was a fun ride and cool opportunity to meet Lance.

After the low key week I started to get back into the groove of training. At first I was just putting in hours to build back the base for the second half of the season. I was able to sneak in a couple days of lift riding in Winter Park on the Remedy during this time which was a total blast. Luckily I avoided hurting myself. Looking forward to more of that after Worlds! Colorado Springs has a pretty good Wednesday night race series so I did a couple of those to keep up the race fitness. It's nice to be able to ride from home and get in a solid race effort.

There is always some stiff competition anytime you race in Colorado!

Last weekend I headed to Steamboat Springs for the Honey Stinger 50. I used it as the last hard effort of my training block before resting for the Mt. Morris Pro XCT so I was unsure of how'd I feel coming in with a good amount of fatigue. These marathon races start way to early but I was ok with it because I got to watch the women's Olympic Mountain bike race before heading out to warm up. It was so inspiring to see Georgia win a bronze medal. It was so cool to see the US as a whole do work out there. I love the Olympics! The Stinger went well for me, I ended up feeling really good out there and turned myself inside out for over four hours. The course out there was really fun. Long climbs followed by ripping descents. I was having a good time all day out there while suffering! Look forward to doing it again next year.

Rocking my new cowboy hat at Steamboat Stinger awards.

After the Steamboat Stinger I headed out to Wisconsin for the final stop in this years Pro XCT series. I always look forward to returning to Mt. Morris for many reasons. The course is a ton of fun and you can count on a lot of friendly spectators making for a pretty good race scene. In recent weeks Trek launched many new bikes including the Superfly SL, which I was going to be riding for the first time! I got a couple laps in Friday and felt great on it. The bike just wants to accelerate out from underneath you on the climbs and is really compliant through the bumpy descents. Trek did a great job on this bike; I'm already looking forward to my next ride on it! Saturday came and it was time to race the SL for the first time! I remember I've always gone out too hard at this race and paid for it so I kept it conservative the first couple of laps in hopes of coming on strong at the end. This ended up working well for me and I ended up moving from 7th and onto the podium the last half the race! This was my first Pro XCT podium. By finishing 5th I also locked up my 5th place overall in the Pro XCT series.

The dust bowl. Picture courtesy of Johnny Muller

Sunday was the short track. In years past the course has had a long climb in terms of short track courses. They changed it up this year and somehow it felt like even more climbing. It was definitely not a course you could hide on if you weren't feeling well. The gun went off I charged hard for the first corner. I'm not really sure where I went wrong but I either cut it too tight or went too fast and ended up sliding out. I laid it down and started taking out or holding up a good size of the field. JHK was to my left and the first one to go down with me. Not good team tactics. I felt pretty bad for being "that guy." Someone ran over my wheel in the carnage and bent it so I wasn't able to keep going. I was bummed to end the weekend that way but it is what is, on to the next one.

You never know what you're going to come across on the roads out in Wisconsin

I have 10 days at home before heading over to Europe for a German Bundeslegia and Worlds. I'm heading over early with Colin Cares and Mitch Hoke to do some self supported racing. It should be a good time. We're renting a car and heading down to Kirchzarten and staying with a friend of mine. Later in the week we'll head to Albstadt where there is a U23 HC Bundeslegia. The Euro racing style is so much different mostly because of how aggressive they are so I think it will be good to get a reminder of what that is like before Worlds. I've been feeling really good lately and feel like there is more to come out of me this season so I'm hoping to put it together in Austria!

I'm excited to race in Albstadt again. I raced there for the first time in 2009 with these clowns. (Matt Wiebe and Brady Kappius)

Big Sky Country

2012-07-17T07:31:00.001-06:00

The last 5 weeks I've raced my bike all over the States and Canada. It looked like it was going to be a much harder block travel wise on paper than it actually was; it flew by! Hard to believe the Colorado Springs Pro XCT was only 5 weeks ago. I also think I had 5 of my best races all year during that time. Missoula was the final stop in the block. After Nationals we spent the week hanging out in Sun Valley which was awesome. The riding there is really incredible. It was hard to keep myself from getting epic everyday. The best ride I did was with Heather, JHK and Kerry. We climbed up Mount Baldy on a trail called Cold Springs (much better than the XC fire road climb haha) then ripped 30 minutes of fast and flowy trail on Warm Springs. Connected over to Forbidden Fruits (for the 8th time!) and did a Strava timed race. I won that competition, I did have the advantage of course knowledge after riding it so much.

The back side of Baldy!

Road tripped over to Missoula with Kerry and my friend Corinne. The drive is a really scenic one and follows the Salmon River. We broke the drive up by eating lunch and floating in the river, it was a nice little stop! Made it to Zoo town and headed to the Schultz residence for some Elk Burgers, hunted and killed by Mr. Schultz himself! So good! Friday was a low key day. Just busted out a couple laps on the course. The drop was just as big as I remembered.

Finally race day came but there was still a lot of waiting because we started at 6pm! It's hard racing that late in the day but I don't mind doing it once or twice a year. It was so hot warming up for the race I didn't even feel like I needed to open up. Luckily I still did some openers since the race started out lighting fast! Some Aussies were drilling it on the front and quickly broke the group into around 7 or 8 guys. I was barely hanging on. I got split from the group the next lap and spent the rest of my race battling it out for 6th place with Colin Cares. The race was really tight between the top 8 or so. I was only 3:15 back from Schultz and 45 seconds off the podium. Both Heather and Sam took the wins out there. Awesome weekend for the team.

Moving up in this world! I got my first Pro XCT "Pro" plate!

Sendin 'er big off the drop

Champagne showers!

Now I'm hanging out at home for a full month! That's the longest I've been home since.. I don't know when! December? I'm taking the week pretty easy before building again for the next two races. The Mt. Morris Pro XCT and Worlds in Austria. I'm heading up to Winter Park with Brady and Mitch to get rad on the big bikes today. This weekend I'm going to Snowmass to play the support role for Kalan, Brady and Mitch in 12 hours of Snowmass. I've also got some sweet high country rides planned! I love this time of year.

Last but not least some pictures I like from Nationals:

I've got an awesome crew of hombres on my side!

From L to R: Matt, Rich, Jon and Troy. Not pictured is Dusty. He was probably working on someone's bike to make sure they were ready to go the next day. So dialed!

Went moto style through a turn in the short track. It was intentional, probably passed 5 or so guys in the turn. #IfYaAin'tSkiddinYaAin'tLivin

National Champion(ships)!

2012-07-10T15:45:00.001-06:00

This past weekend will definitely be one I remember for quite a long time. I've been gunning for Nationals all year long as it was one of my biggest goals of the season. I knew exactly what the course demanded and with the help of my coach I was able to get the perfect training done for it. I knew Howard was going to be hard to beat at Nationals since he is a beast of a climber. I took the early lead in the race and never looked back. On the first lap I went into the descent first and was able to get a gap on Howard but he then closed it on the next laps climb and went into the descent first the next couple of laps. I was able to make a couple tight passes on the descent and again get a gap. On the last lap I went into the climb with a 20 second gap and turned myself inside out to get to the descent first. After that it was all downhill to the finish and as long as I kept it together I knew the jersey was mine. I'm so ecstatic to be the National Champion. Howard and I worked each other over so hard out there and it ended up being an awesome battle. We ended up putting 6:30 on third place.

My friend Josh was able to make it out to the race and heckle me. It was fun having him out there.

Howard and I givin it our all.

The next day it was Heather, JHk and Sams turn to gun for a jersey. Jeremy and Heather both locked up a 3rd place and Schultz brought home the win! I think it says a lot about the great staff we have to put the whole team on the podium. Big thanks to Jon, Matt, Troy and Dusty for keeping us rolling. It makes it incredibly stress free to not have to worry about anything other than racing fast.

I'm excited to rock the Captain America suit with Schultz for the year!

Sunday was short track and I really had no expectations for that. I just wanted to see what I could do out there and have fun. I ended up riding in for 9th and man that was that a painful race. After the race I went and rode the Forbidden Fruits flow trail with the Clif bar boys and Kerry. I've rode that trail just about everyday now at least twice. It's so fun!

Shredding with my buddies!

This week I am hanging out in Sun Valley enjoying life. It's been fun catching up with friends and riding sweet trail. Sun Valley is a really cool town. Mitch, Brady I talked a bit about living here next summer. I really want to make that happen.

Post ride Captain Crunch at Java!

Empire State of Mind

2012-07-02T22:52:00.001-06:00

Man this last week in New York flew by. This whole race season is flying by actually. I guess it is true time fly's by when you're having fun. With so much going on right meow I decided to do more of a picture update, it's a lot easier. Here we go!

Crossing back into the homeland! 'Merica

Saw some funny bus ads on the way through Albany. This totally makes me want to buy a mattress.

I did some course laps Wednesday. I got a KOM out there but then some Nino dude thought he'd steal it.

It's important to structure some pool time into your daily training plan.

Played some shuffle board with Kerry, Julian and Howard. Kerry and I beat them both times. Howard was not good at this at all but he makes up for it when it comes to bike riding. Julian was actually probably the best player. What aren't Euro's good at?

A flood last year caused a lot of damage to the town of Windham. This bridge was washed away but Schultz and I still jumped it Duke's of Hazard style in Rourke's WRX. (kidding)

My bike got some pretty cool parts. Check out this integrated bar/stem combo. Meet the Hammerhead.

Oh ya! We did a little bit of racing too. I was able to take advantage of a gap on the front row and sneak my way up. That's me front left!

I went fairly fast at this World Cup again. I got 11th! I was pretty pumped with it. Wyndham hasn't treated me too well in the past so it was good to get that bug cleared out. The US pretty much cleaned house with a ton of top 10's. It's funny what happens when the Euro's have to travel a lot..

I'm meow home for two days before another 1.5 weeks on the road! It's a good energy boost to be home riding sweet trails. I got the Remedy all built up today. She's resting in the garage and anxious for her maiden voyage tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to show her some fun trails. I leave to Nationals Wednesday. Legs are feeling pretty good lately. I know what I need to do to win that race, meow it's time to do it.

Beast Coastin it

2012-06-26T19:26:00.001-06:00

Mont-Sainte Anne is always one of those courses I look forward to returning to each year. Wet or dry, you can count on it being a technically challenging course. This year marked my fourth year returning to the venue and of all the years I think this one was the most challenging. For the most part it was the same course as years past but a few short but technical sections were added. It's hard to explain the course if you've never seen it but there are many sections lined with roots and some tough rock features. The infamous Beatrice rock garden being one of them. I remember how terrified I was of it my first year riding the course. As the years have gone by I've really taken a liking to the race course.

The infamous Beatrice rock garden.

This year we arrived to a dry and dusty course but that all changed the night before the race. A heavy rain storm came in the but I think it made the course a little bit more tacky. I opted to stick with my Bontrager 29-1 tires and that proved to be a good descion. Those tires are light, fast, and hook up well in most conditions. 15 minutes before the start Troy realized I forgot my back number. Matt sprinted back to the house and grabbed it for me. He was back in the blink of an eye and I was good to go. After the first lap I was sitting in 20th but felt pretty strong and knew I could move up if I rode consistent and clean in the technical sections. Each lap I was able to pick off 2 or 3 guys. On the last lap I was with a group of 4 battling it out for the final top 10 spot. I gapped them on the courses decisive climb and never looked back. I was able to grab the 10th place spot, accomplishing my goal for the day. I already feel like I'm pinned 110% on the first lap but somehow I need to improve it. I lost a minute to the 5th place finisher but each lap after that our lap times were comparable.

After our race I watched a bit of the women's race then headed out to do some lift riding with Kerry Werner and Julian Schelb, our German friend. We did two runs down the mountain and after that I was completely blown. I wish I had the energy to do more because the trails are so fun. We made it to the bottom in time to catch the men's race.

I always look forward to this swimming hole!

On Sunday our team staff had a day off so we were able to get a ride in with those guys. They'd found a good loop earlier in the week and had some goodies to show us. They put us athletes in the pain cave pretty quick. I was impressed. That was a pretty good time and a for sure highlight of the trip.

Sam the frog tamer!

What's a trip to Canada without a trip to Tim Horton's

I'm glad to be on the East coast right now as opposed to being back home. Currently there are over 10 major fires in the state of Colorado with one of them being in my hometown of Colorado Springs. It's currently over 5,000 acres and growing very quickly with only 5% containment. Unfortunately the area affected is one of my favorite training grounds. It's sad to see such a beautiful area up in flames. Every trail in the area has been in the fire's path. I know the strong riding community in the Springs will unite and we'll have the trails back and riding even better by summers end. Thanks to all the firefighters and volunteers for their hard work! As I am writing this blog the whole Mountain Shadows neighborhood is going up in flames. A lot of my friends live up there and I know some of their houses have been lost. I am also just reading that parts of Ute Valley Park are on fire. Hard to believe we were racing a Pro XCT there less than 2 weeks ago. My thoughts and prayers are with all the families affected by the fire. Let's hope they get it under control soon.

Very close to where the fire broke out. This won't look the same for a long time.

Rocky Mountain High

2012-06-19T15:50:00.001-06:00

Early summer is, in my opinion, the best time of year in Colorado. Of course fall isn't bad either. Actually Colorado's pretty bad ass year round. With the high country trails starting to open up due to snow melt off and a 4 week break in traveling some sweet rides have been done. I've kept the road bike hung a bit more than normal and busted the mountain bike out quite a bit. Lot's of training has been going down lately with a little bit of racing in there.

For the first time since 2008 I was able to attend the Teva Games. In the past I've either been in Europe racing with the National team or just getting home and not wanting to suffer at altitude quite yet. Teva games is a really neat event with a lot of action to keep you entertained while not racing. The course was old school style with a roughly 20 minute climb followed by a long descent. I had a good race ending up 4th and making a good amount of money. Mitch Hoke opened up his condo to me so we stayed there 2 nights after the race to build some red blood cells. Ha! Hopefully it worked. His place was in Copper Mountain so we were able to jump on the Colorado trail 2 minuted out his door. Really fun riding!

We found some snow above treeline..

Two weeks later was the Colorado Springs Pro XCT. With the course being in my hometown I had plenty of time to get familiar with the course. I even was able to do a race on it last season. I've had this race on my radar for about a year now so there was a long build up to it. With afternoon storms in the weather forecast, I was a bit worried about it being a muddy race. Normally I'm down with some mud but the clay dirt in Ute Valley would not be fun to race in. Unfortunately for the girls they ended up having a muddy race but the guys lucked out and had a dry and fast course. The race went well for me and I ended up 7th. A top 8 is an automatic worlds qualifier so it looks like I'll be heading to Austria in September now! Stoked on that.

Racing in my back yard!

Can you spot the 2012 Olympian?! Congrats Sam, so stoked for you!

We came across an Ice Cream man on our post ride spin!

I travel to Quebec, Canada for the Mont-Sainte Anne World Cup tomorrow. I was 8th there last year so I'm hoping Canada treats me as well as it did last year!

La Bresse World Cup

2012-05-23T09:30:00.001-06:00

The week leading up to the La Bresse World Cup was like an early spring day in Colorado. There was rain, sleet, hail, snow and a little bit of sunshine in between. We left the Czech Republic on Sunday and after an 8 hour car ride we were back in Kirchzarten. Monday and Tuesday's rides both made stops at the Biosk Coffee Shop in Freiburg. That place never gets old!

Wednesday morning we woke up to the mountains around Kirchzarten frosted in snow and heavy rain coming down outside. We packed our rain gear and jaunted over to La Bresse to get in some laps on the weekends World Cup course. It had also snowed in La Bresse the night before and was raining upon arrival. Kerry, Howard and I met up with Schultz and set out for a couple laps. After climbing for around 8 mintues we hit the downhill. It had a few Euro chutes, a few rock features and a couple drops. Overall pretty technical especially in the muddy conditions. I was stoked on the conditions and was hoping for a gnarly muddy race. I spent the rest of the week praying to the rain gods for for epic conditions come Saturday's race. No such luck :(

Race day finally arrived! Kerry, Howie and I spent the morning watching some Danny Hart DH runs for inspiration and playing on Stumble Upon to keep entertained. We got a little to into it and before we knew it we were scrambling to get ready to go warm up. Opps! I added a couple sprints to my warmup in hopes it would open me a bit more than normal for the ever fast World Cup start. I lined up 39th. The gun went off and I immediately got pinched off forcing me to have to have to brake. I moved back quite a bit but still grabbed a couple guys in the start loop. I came through in 57th. I need to be passing 18 guys in the start instead of being passed by that many.

Photo courtesy of Rob Jones/ Canadiancyclist.com

The rest of the race I wasn't riding nearly as fast as I needed to be and finished a mediocre 39th. I finished the race feeling pretty exhausted. It's good to know I left everything I had for the day out there and sometimes that has to be an accomplishment in its self. One of my goals for the season was to be riding in the top 20 at European World Cups. So far Houffalize is the only race I came close with a 22nd. There is one more race in France this season where I still have a chance to go for that top 20.

One of about 4 or 5 crashes for the day. Definitely not on my descending A-game.

Post race fun on the Alpine Slide outside our hotel

Sunday we planned on doing a ride from La Bresse to Kirchzarten after sucking in the World Cup. It was, in a way, our walk of shame. It was a little over 100k on mountain bikes but we had a nice tailwind so it only took 3.5 hours. The waffle shop in town closed at 2 so we made sure to head out early enough to make that. We arrived in mid-bonk state and a waffle covered in fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream was the perfect cure. What a perfect ending to the trip!

Crossing over the Rhine into Germany

After being on the road for races 6 out of the last 7 weeks I'm excited to be home for nearly a month and improve my fitness for the next block of racing. It's hard to get in longer rides between races so a couple weeks of those along with some intervals should have me going good for the next block of races. First up is the Colorado Springs Pro XCT which is in my backyard. I want a top 8 out there so I can punch my ticket to Worlds in September. The two weekends after that I'll be in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada and Wyndham for the North American World Cups followed by Nationals and the Missoula Pro XCT. Time to buckle down and get fit!

I'll leave you with a video staring Howard Grotts and Kerry Werner. Sometimes you start to loose your mind sitting in a hotel all day waiting for the race.

Czech'n in

2012-05-14T15:07:00.001-06:00

A little over a week ago I made it to Kirchzarten, Germany where the US team will be spending time during the week between races. I've really grown to like the Kirchzarten/Black Forest area. I've become familiar with the rides, made some friends and found the best coffee shop in the world. It doesn't feel right if my ride doesn't end at the Biosk in Freiburg. There you will find the best Cappuccino and Muslischnitte ever. Muslischnitte is like a granola bar but even better!

After a couple days in Kirchzarten we headed down to our first race in Solothurn, Switzerland. We did this race last year so I knew what to expect in terms of the course and such. It is a lot of pavement with a nice dirt climb and fast descent. Not a great course but still somewhat fun to ride. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great day for any of the US guys. We all suffered from some sort of bad luck.

The next day we did a hill climb close to the house in Kirchzarten where we redemmed our selves a bit. It was only 10k but without any downhill to recover on it, it felt like an eternity. It rolled out of town on pavement and as we entered the forest it went to dirt double track. The group was still pretty large at this point. I saw a steep section coming up and since there was no advantage to drafting anymore I went to the front and put in a large effort to blow things apart. After a minute or so of pinning it I thought the group would have shattered but there were still like 8 guys holding on. I decided to keep giving it and eventually the group fell apart. All except for 1 guy held on. 15 more minutes of pain ensued and eventually we made it to the finish. I got gapped a bit and rolled in for 2nd. I won a mini keg and some Euro so that was sweet! Keegan flatted in the start and Kerry end up 5th.

Took the whole-shot and made the local paper!

We had a nice week of training in Kirchzarten exploring new trails and hanging out with friends. We went into Freiburg one night with some German U23 riders who live in the area. We got some new trails to ride from Tom Bolts and set off to explore those the next day. It was an awesome ride and some ripping singletrack. It was cold and pouring rain the whole time but Kerry and I toughed it out and had a good time.

On Thursday we arrived in Nove Mesto, Czech for World Cup #3. The course here is by far my favorite World Cup yet and maybe even the best course I've ever raced on. There was quite a bit of climbing which meant there was also quite a bit of descending each lap. The descents were my favorite part (who likes climbing?). There was a rock drop, a BMX section with a jump you could double, fun flow sections and a couple man made rock features. I had to stop myself from doing too many laps before the race otherwise I would've been out there all day. After getting 22nd in Houffalize I had a couple World Cup points which improved my start number to 31! The first few laps I was climbing slow and descending like a total hack which isn't a good recipe for fast lap times. I found my mojo the last two laps and put down two top 20 lap times. Kerry was with me for those so it was fun running the pain train express through some Euro's. I ended up 33rd which I was a bit disappointed with after setting out for a top 20. 33rd is still better than any World Cup I had last year so that's a plus. I'm ready to earn that top 20 in La Bresse this coming weekend. It's on!

Photo courtesy of: CanadianCyclist.com

Howard had a great ride in his first U23 race. 28th.

Sea Otter 2012

2012-04-24T10:52:00.001-06:00

On Monday I left a cold, dark, and rainy Belgium for a green, sunny California. After being on the road for two weeks with a lot of traveling I was looking forward to putting in some hours on the trails around Monterrey. On Wednesday I headed out for a pretty long ride and came across Toro Mountain Park. After a bit of exploring and a lot of climbing I found a trail specifically for Mountain Bikes. Rad! I had no choice but to go shred that. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole way down. It was full of bermed out corners, a couple jumps and some good flow. If ever in Monterrey definitely check it out. The trail is called Pipeline.

As Thursday rolled around the venue began to come to life. All the teams and exhibitors began showing up. Sea Otter is one of the few chances each year we get to see all the great people from Trek, Bontrager, Sram, Crank Brother's, Oakley and many more so it's great to see all those guys. Along with a little bit of racing there is a large "business" side to Sea Otter. It's a great time to connect with fans and catch up with all your buddies in the industry and such.

On Friday we did some autographs.

I woke up early Friday morning thanks to jet lag and decided to cruise along the beach. It was a beautiful start to the day before heading up to the venue for the short track. The last 4 years I've done Sea Otter the course has been exactly the same. It's really nothing special and probably one of the hardest on the schedule because of one steep kicker in it. The start is pretty key in it as well because of a short and rutted out climb 100 meters into the race. My start wasn't great but I was steadily picking guys off the first couple of laps. Todd Wells also had something happen to him in the start and came by me. I knew he would make it up towards the front of the race so I hitched onto his wheel and stuck with him for the rest of the race. I made it up to 7th place. I was pumped on the result!

The views were amazing on my morning spin!

Holding on for dear life!

Next up was the cross-country. This year since it wasn't a UCI race so we didn't have to do the 4 mile course that is 50% on the asphalt of Laguna Seca. I really liked the 20 mile course over the past years course. It had a good mix of fire roads for passing, some fast, fun single track and a surprising amount of climbing. Since this year didn't have any UCI points up for grabs I decided to go into the race to try and test myself and see how long I could make it in the front group (if I could even get there). After our start lap on Laguna Seca we hit the dirt and I was in around 30th at the top of a SUPER fast and rutted out descent. I took a big risk of sprinting down the side of it and made my way into the top 5 by the bottom. The Garmin said I hit nearly 44mph there! That's scary.. For the first 40 minutes of the race I was able to hang before I lost contact with main group. I was still feeling strong and rode with Clif Bar Boys Mitch Hoke and Troy Wells for a bit. On the final climb Mitch opened it up and I couldn't hang anymore. I limped my way in for 14th. I'm really happy with how I raced out there. It was cool to be in the mix for a short amount of time. Now I just need to figure out how to make it up there longer.

The start of the race is on Laguna Seca.

100 mountain bikers on pavement

Sunday there was a free day with no racing so a big group of us headed out to the Pipeline trail I did earlier in the week. It was a fun leisurely ride and a nice way to cap off a fun weekend. Now I'm heading home for a quick 8 days before returning to Europe for the Solothurn BMC Racing Cup, Nove Mesto World Cup and the La Bresse World Cup. I'm really looking forward to the World Cups and hope to improve on my 22nd place in Houffalize. I'm also excited to spend some time at the US house in Kirchzarten. I've been going there for a long time now so it almost feels like home now.

Until next year Sea Otter!

Houffalize World Cup

2012-04-16T01:53:00.001-06:00

After Mexico I travelled to the East coast to stay at Kerry's before heading over to Belgium. He was kind enough to let me stay and show me around. We got in late Monday, unpacked our bikes Tuesday AM, went for a ride then packed them back up that night and flew out Wednesday AM. The riding in Banner Elk was pretty rad. We just did a road ride on dirt roads but I enjoyed it.

We arrived to a gloomy Belgium Thursday morning and headed to the small village of Houffalize. Kerry and I checked out the course and man was it steep! I seriously think there was somehow more uphill than downhill. Those tricky Belgians.. Friday I did some more laps and liked the course a lot more. I guess it's probably not the best idea to check the course straight off a trans-Atlantic flight.

The legendary Houfallize course

Finally race day came! After winning Pan Ams I got a pretty good boost of UCI points so my start number was 40. As always, you can expect World Cup starts to be incredibly fast. By the time we hit the super steep start climb I found myself moving back a bit. I had to hop off and run and by the top I found myself in the mid to late 50's. I knew that this was a good course for passing so I wasn't too stressed. I rode a steady race and picked quite a few guys off each lap. By the 5th and final lap I found myself battling it out for a top 20 spot but got a little too excited and gunned it too early. The group caught me and I yo-yo'ed off the back and ended up rolling across the line in 22nd. My goal for the day was a top-25 so I'm pumped to accomplish that. I got some more UCI points and World Cup points which will be helpful in determining my start position in Nove Mesto. It was really cool to race in Houffalize. It's one of those classic mountain bike races I've always wanted to do!

World Cup starts are crazy! Photo courtesy of Rob Jones/ Canadiancyclist.com

Photo courtesy of Rob Jones/ Canadiancyclist.com

Sunday Kerry and I had a free day since the juniors were racing (Keegan crushed it for 3rd!!) so we decided it would be sweet to get in a big ride. At first we looked at the possibility of riding to Liege but that would've been close to 6 hours. Instead we saw it would be possible to ride to Germany. We planned out a route and banged it out. The ride took us through some flat windy fields of Belgium and Luxembourg and before crossing into Germany we hit some good hills. It was a nice ride and felt good to spin the legs out. It's not everyday you can say you rode your bike in 3 countries in one day. Check it out on Strava.

On our way to Germany we crossed through Clarvaux, Luxembourg and passed by an old cemetery. Some of the tombstones dated back to the early 18th century!

Post ride waffles! I had 3.

A huge thanks to USA Cycling, Marc and Michel for the support these last few weekends. This week I'll be reunited with my Subaru-Trek teammates for Sea Otter. We'll be spending a week there so I'm looking forward to getting in some good rides in the Cali sun. Santa Cruz is calling my name!

Campeon!

2012-04-09T11:22:00.001-06:00

This year Continental Championships were held in Puebla, Mexico. After a quick flight south I met up with all my American team mates in Mexico City were we would begin the drive down to Puebla. According to Map Quest the drive was only supposed to take an hour and a half but after a lot of U-turns, going the wrong way on one way streets, violating several traffic laws and a bathroom stop we made it there about 4 hours later. After pulling up to the hotel I was not sure what to expect on the inside. The saying is don't judge a book by its cover but I was definitely guilty of that. It wasn't terrible but not quite up to most of our expectations. All of the riders and staff were in one 10x20 room. That's 8 of us! Luckily we all get along so it worked out well.

The room. haha

The next morning we built our bikes up and Todd, Kerry, Howard and I went and rode to a Starbuck's. Navigating our way there was not the easiest task so we had to bust out the iPhone and get directions. Eventually we found it! Yay coffee! Later in the day we headed out to the course. I was pretty happy with it and knew it would be a good one for me. It had a mix of fast descents, some sustained climbing and a little bit of traversing through a river bed. It was really fun to ride and hard to race on but that's to be expected. The Superfly Elite was definitely the bike for the course!

Real ponies on the merry-go-round

Finally race day came and after a solid warm up it was game time. The race started out incredibly hard and I didn't find myself in the most ideal spot. Just inside the top 20. We hit a tight single track section and I ended up having to run a little. I knew the climb coming up was long enough for me to make up some ground. I rode through the field into second place on the climb with 1st a handful of seconds ahead. I continued to ride consistent lap times and ended up making the pass then rode the last lap solo and came in a minute up on second place. I'm pretty ecstatic about this win and even more excited to have gotten a ton of UCI points. After having a not-so-hot 2011 I was lacking a good amount of UCI points. Those will be helpful for next weekends World Cup in Belgium.

On the podium with K-Dubzz!!

In general the United States had a podium filled weekend. A silver in men's DH, a gold in women's DH, a silver in junior men's XC, a gold in junior women's XC, a bronze and gold in men's U23 XC and a gold in men's elite XC.

2012-03-13T20:51:00.001-06:00

While all my Subaru-Trek team mates are down in South Africa chasing the Olympic dream, I headed to California for Pro XCT #2. Bonelli will always be a special race to me because it is where I did my first race with Subaru-Trek (back when it was still Subaru-Gary Fisher). This marks my third trip out to Bonelli but only my second time racing at the venue. Last year I had to sit it out due to a shoulder injury. Schultz is my normal room mate but this weekend I was rooming with the man Rich Weis. That was a good time!

The venue is pretty amazing.

On Friday I checked out the course and was quickly reminded how punchy it is. I knew it was going to be a sufferfest out there! Race day finally came. I knocked out a good warm up and rolled over for staging. With all the big hitters being down in South Africa I was able to get a front row call up! Kerry and I both lined up next to each other. It was kind of funny, we were both pretty nervous we were going to mess up the front row start by slipping a pedal or something. Luckily we both avoided that and K-Dubzz ended up grabbing the whole shot! The race started out fast as usual. I was a little to excited to be at the front of the race and burnt a little too many matches making passes and chasing down people. On the first lap, the eventual winner from team Turbo went for it and I followed him. The pace felt manageable and we got a gap but I quickly realized it was a dumb move going into lap two! Opps. I spent most the race going backwards from that point on but still put together a top 10. I actually set a new 20 minute power record and 5 minute power record on that first lap. Probably not ideal in a 1:30 race. You live, you learn.

A couple hours later it was time for some Super D. The course was more of a TT and more favored to those with a hardtail and skinsuit than those with a 5 inch bike and baggies. It was under 6 minutes so pretty much just an all out effort. I blew a couple corners up top but still put down a good run. I missed the podium by .55 seconds. Bummer!

Sunday was a late day short track. I did a morning spin to open the legs a bit then headed up to the venue. I was excited to get another front row call up for this race. The race started out fast but after the first lap it chilled out a bit. The main group was around 8 guys or so and I didn't really want to sprint for one of those spots so with 2.5 laps to go I attacked hard on the climb and got a gap. For the next two laps I was seeing stars but was able to hold the gap and come across for the win! My main man Kerry came in right behind for second. I was pretty ecstatic to take the win. I was a bit bummed after not doing as well as I would've liked in the XC so that made up for it! Rich raced in his 40-49 category just before and came out to crush it with the pros. I'd never do 2 short tracks in one day. Haha

The win!

Top Step!

Kerry and I went out for a celebratory dinner that night at a Thai restaurant after both having successful weekends (he grabbed a 5th place in the XC!!). Even the salad was too spicy for this white boy. Kerry asked for the hottest option and after taking a bite nearly had the waitress faint. She was shocked by his manliness. Afterwards some Fro-Yo! When in Cali...

Now I'm back home in the Springs for a few weeks of training before heading to Mexico for Pan Ams. The 10 day says we'll be in the 70's for a while. Awesome!

Testing the legs

2012-03-08T18:32:00.002-07:00

Today is only March 6th and I've already got 10 days of racing under my belt. Most those race days came from a 9 day stage race in the Dominican Republic. I left Tucson early morning and after 4 different flights I arrived late at night in the DR. After collecting all my bags and clearing customs I was greeted by a man holding a piece of cardboard with the word "bicicleta" and a nicely drawn picture of a bike on it. Threw the bags in the truck and we were on the way. He spoke zero english and I basically speak zero spanish so there wasn't much conversation. The truck we were traveling in had definitely seen its better day. You know that sound when you mean to shift to 2nd gear but accidentally find 4th? Well that rattling, groaning sound of the engine is how his sounded all the time. Luckily the truck made it to the hotel and I got checked in and off to bed.

The next morning I found out I was the first USA rider to arrive so I was all on my own for the ride. I found a nice 5k out and back section of road and stuck to it for my whole ride. I wasn't feeling to adventurous. Ha! Turns out that 5k section of road was the TT. Stage 1 was a 20 lap circuit race and we got our first taste of the pot hole infested roads. We actually started calling them craters since they were so big. It was a pretty uneventful day but still pretty hard. Day 2 was a little more interesting. We had 110k in the morning, a 3 hour break, then another 50k. I'm not sure why they didn't just make it 160k. Oh well, I was into the lunch break. That 50k afterwards was pretty full throttle the whole time and the roads again were horrible! This was by far the scariest stage due to the roads being pretty narrow and lots of big tractors pulled over to the side that you had to watch out for. Luckily we all survived!

This is what Dominican roads do to a wheel.

The team preparing for battle.

After stage 4 we headed to a new hotel. We were out of Santa Domingo now and in areas were poverty was quite a bit more prevalent. The hotel looked really nice on the brochure but it was pretty evident some photo shop was in use. They had a sandwich bar there and after dinner being a little late we decided to get some. They were only 75 pesos (2.50 USD). It was good to eat something other than the provided race food consisting of chicken, rice and pasta. The next day we came back only to find the prices had been tripled! They definitely had a gringo button on that cash register.

The rest of the stages we're all pretty similar. Hard at the beginning then a break would go, it was easy for a while, then hard again once teams started chasing. I went back to the car for bottles a lot. I'm not sure why, but I really thought that was pretty fun. I guess I'd make a good domestique. I could never get myself to pee off the bike. Sometimes I'd finish the stage and have to immediately stop and find a bano. Kerry rode really well and found himself chasing the best young rider jersey. Pretty cool considering we both had no idea what we were doing. Team mate Tanner Putt ended up winning a stage after being in a break all day and almost getting caught on the line. Awesome to see and an impressive ride. After 9 days and 11 stages I was pretty cooked. I was really questioning how I was going to be able to race the next weekend at the first Pro XCT race of the season. Just finishing felt like such an accomplishment after less than 1/2 the field did so. This race got me pretty pumped on road racing, I can see myself playing around on the skinny tires in a couple more races this year.

After only 36 hours at home I was back on the road to Austin, Texas for the first MTB race of the year. It was nice to catch up with all my team mates and see my friends on the circuit. This years course was pretty rough and rocky so the Superfly 100 was an easy choice.The race came up pretty quick and before I knew it I was on the starting line ready to put myself in the pain cave. I found myself mixing it up with a group of guys from 8th-13th. Unfortunately I lost contact with them after a small mechanical but I was still able to pull out a 15th place. My best Pro XCT in a while so I was pumped on that. This week I'll be able to tune my fitness up before heading to the Bonelli Pro XCT for another weekend of fun. Thanks for reading!

The new team look. What do you think? I like it!

On Monday we rode at the Reveille Peak Ranch. Definitely worth checking out

The desert life.

2012-01-26T15:28:00.004-07:00

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 months. 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.

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!