Thursday, August 14, 2008

Moving back to Boulder

Taking a break to watch the Olympics which has pretty much consumed all of my downtime this past week, but I'm packing up and moving back to B-Town for the rest of the summer and the beginning of school. I'll be starting my first semester at CU after transferring from FRCC. I'm really excited to be apart of an actual team this year for Collegiate Cycling, don't get me wronge, FRCC was an awesome experience and creating my own team and floating around hanging out with different teams and riding in a swaetervest was sweet! Maybe I'll find a sweet CU sweatervest and continue the tradition? Thats all gonna happen in a few weeks, so we'll just have to see how things pan out!
Last weekend was the G3 mudfest in Snowmass, and let me tell you...it was slippery! I love the G3 format, I think its great; a stage race creates so much opportunity for lead change and opens things up in the overall. I have been plagued by bad luck on my first race every time, crash, flat, crash and this time 45 seconds from the bottom all the air let out and I peddled hard smashing a brand new rim to pieces. The night before I spent all my time building a new rim that had a lifespan of all but 5 minutes. If I didn't have two more races ahead of me I think I would have saved it for another day! After a slick and mis fortunate first run I started nearly last in 16th position in the Super D. After a 50 yard sprint the super D trail winded down single track through the forests and wide open flower filled fields, however I didn't really get to enjoy the flowers and all that good stuff due to all of the mud caked on my glasses; glasses were a bad choice in the rain and mud! The track was sooooo much fun though, I passed two guys, including michael who had poor tire choice and was sliding every which way. The best part about the Super D was that it was taped through the mountain cross course, and theres nothing more exciting then riding an xc bike over 20 foot doubles in the wet:) An 8th place overall helps my position as I move up in the standings, but i really had no chance at the podium after the first race anyway, but I still wanted to get the best result possible. Sunday brought the rain and mud. People were scrambling for tires and we turned into tire salesmen practically donating our extras to the needy, including our sister who had the race of her life, so far at least by staying on the bike and passing 3 others on her way to a landslid defeat finishing first! For Michael and I it was a different story, no passing or even staying on the bike. The weather had been fluctuating between constant rain and then the sun would poke its head out drying the track making it greasy. Many riders had trouble staying on their bikes, I had trouble staying on the track as I was trying to stay loose, but it didn't work as I was staring at silly lines that had engulfed earlier riders. I hit most of my lines but managed to run some turns wide into the tape destroying my momentum. Without any major falls, but many mistakes I ended up in 6th and 6ht overall, one off of my pre race goal . Michael had a rough weekend with some crashes, but for the most part was riding really well in practice. The new 31.5 inch bars made an instant impression as I felt more comfortable and stable on my machine which is how I've felt all year, but its all coming around and I feel that I will end the season strong at Sol Vista for another G3. I'm off to Sol Vista tomorrow to break in the new trails and to also train for the upcoming race!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Snowmass G3

Gonna try to get back on this blogging thing, been pretty busy the last few weeks, lots of working, riding, and traveling. Its the night before the Snowmass G3 kicks off and its been raining all afternoon, looks like there will be mud!? Its been a 3 weeks since Blast the Mass, and I think I am finally comfortable on the DH bike...finally:)! We've had an awesome last few weeks of riding our backyard trails, got some suspension testing done this week, and with the addition of 31.5 inch bars(HUGE!) everything is rocking and ready to go! I have high hopes after coming off of a relatively successful weekend at the Colorado State Championships in SOl Vista. Sol Vista by the way put on one hell of a race, mad props go out to Wentz, Thompson, Sharp, Moga, Andy W, Mike Mac, and the rest of the Bigfoot productions crew for putting on a race to remember. Check out the link for additional coverage from an awesome weekend:

http://www.littermag.com/2008/news/newsarticle.php?newsID=1230

The fourth place finish, second place qualifier was confidence inspiring especially while rocking the hard tail on a bumpy and fast Dual Slalom track, the best I have ever experienced! I learned that night that consistency counts as I watched Brian Lopes and Chris Herndon advance to the final, I started off the night smoothly, but the runs were getting so fast, I lost focus a fews times and thats what hurt me in the long run. Still stoked to get on the podium while riding well. The DH however was a little different story! Still not entirely comfortable on the bike, I had some great practice runs, my qualifier however didn't go as planned with a fall in the rocks even though I thought I was on my line. The weather was a little quirky, lightning was flashing above but the race went on, I was on deck when a flash popped, people's hair stood up inside of their Helmets, Joey's brake levers shocked him, did we stop the race...no! Concerned for my safety I stayed crouched on my toes until the final ten second count down where I rolled up the ramp, looked down the ramp and was off. The rain had just started creating a greasy track which I noticed immediately making me a little conservative, I didn't take any risky lines, was cautious and used my brakes a wee bit too much. I didn't hurt, but it also didn't help seeing a blue flash surround you while riding and the boom fallowed immediately as I entered into the tree's. It was pretty neat though as not too many people will ever get to experience anything like it. I came down first, the race stopped and was held for an hour until the storm went away leaving a fast tacky track for the faster qualifiers. Many had conservative runs as they didn't know what the riding conditions were like, some improved their times as the ruts formed firmly in the usually unsteady sand. Mike Kreger 4th, Kain Leonard 3rd, a disappointed Chris Boice 2nd and a huge breakthrough for Joey Schusler as he came across the line in first 2 seconds in front with a broken transmission. Congrats Joey, you earned it! This weekend in Snowmass I will be looking for a good result, but most importantly I want to have a fun weekend, few mistakes, clean runs, successful working bike set up and of course to beat everyone else!:) I'm not going to put pressure on myself this weekend, I will do the best I can, and go hard. A top 5 overall is the goal, top 3 in a race run with 3 total consistently fast race runs. Michael I'm sure is also feeling the sam ewaqy as both of us are looking to get back on top in the DH department after a hard beginning to the season. Tune in for further updates and pictures(maybe!)