1st Season Racing Pro

After having my pro license for almost a year, I made my way excitingly out to start my first pro season with races in Missoula, Colorado Springs, Pennsylvania and Vermont--and with some high expectations of myself. I had fully convinced myself that I would be able to finish midpack at any of these national races no problem, after all, I have been training really hard and smart, eating very right, recovering well, and doing just about everything I could to turn pedals over that extra .1% faster. Anybody I had talked to said that their first year racing pro was one of the hardest parts of their cycling career so I did what I could to mentally prepare myself for the races to come.

MISSOULA PRO XCT

The trip out to Missoula was fun! We decided to make a trip out to Antelope Canyon with my parents, my brother, my sister, my brother in law and of course, Molly but they wouldn't let her into the canyon. It was nice to relax for a bit and not think too much about racing, more just taking pictures of one of the coolest places the great AZ has to offer! Even after hiking through Antelope Canyon, the trip up to Missoula was beautiful and oddly very cold but still had some great views!

Here's some pictures from Antelope Canyon:

Missoula has always been one of my favorite races, first because the city has a really cool vibe to it and second because the course, although not very suited to my strengths, is fun and challenging so I was looking forward to racing there. First up was the short track, I was stoked to get out there and finally start getting some racing in with the fastest guys in the country, I was finally living the dream I had been shooting for since I started riding bikes. The short track, for me, lasted a good 10 minutes; I was doing well off the start, starting well had always been in my quiver. I found myself pushing a hard effort until I finished that lap I realized that I needed to maintain it which led to me blowing up early into the race, everybody started to pull away from me, and despite putting it all out there, I blew up and crawled into last place. Now that I had gotten a small taste of what it’s like to race in the pro class, I spent the rest of that night and the whole next day contemplating how the cross country would go. Surely I would do better than last, there’s no way that could happen again. After being called up again, I was once again excited to get out there and push it with the top guys once again, hoping to make a little magic happen this time around but without success, I ended up crawling into last place once again. From this I quickly learned that it is possible to be quite a bit faster!

COLORADO SPRINGS US CUP ROUND #4/PRO XCT

After Missoula, my dad and I continued to Colorado Springs for the last round of the US Cup Series which this year has generated a strong following in the cycling world through live streams of every race and the fact that it has now become a premier race series loaded with UCI points so that US riders would have the opportunity to get a better starting position in World Cup and World Championship events as well as the Olympic Games.

This was the first year for this race being at a brand new venue that I was hoping would suit to my strengths a little better than Missoula had. After pre-riding the course, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the course almost completely favored having a higher raw power output so I figured this race would go over better than Missoula had. Come race day, I got to the line excited and ready to go, Mostly ready for some redemption from Missoula. The race director gave us 30 seconds and we were off! 60 of us trying to make it into position for the singletrack which inevitably turned into a huge bottleneck which led to most of us running our bikes in a cloud of dust up the only course feature which involved a short but very steep, loose climb with a boulder across one of the lines up it toward the top. As mentioned above, I’ve always felt confident in dealing with start line traffic but this quickly turned into absolute chaos. I was able to hold on to a decent position battling it out with a few guys in front of me and behind me. This continued for the rest of the first lap and a little into the second lap. One by one, they all started to pass and pull away meanwhile I was maxed out and by the end of lap 2 I found myself on the same boat I was in for Missoula. There was one guy still left in sight and I was able to keep him there until I got pulled but never able to bridge the gap up to him. Once I got pulled I was just glad it was over, talk about some solid training though! Colorado was fun and the course was great so it is definitely something I will be looking forward to for next year.

After Colorado, I spent 2 weeks back home to get some training in and HOLY WOWZER IT WAS HOT!!! I wasn’t looking forward to the heat that Phoenix had to offer but regardless it was great to be home for a little bit to settle down and get ready for the next trip to Pennsylvania and Vermont for nationals and the Catamount Classic.

U23 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – MACUNGIE, PENNSYLVANIA

Nationals was cool because it was an opportunity for me to race in just the U23 crowd as opposed to racing the full on Elite race. Racing here last year, it was very hot, very humid and VERY East coast as far as the riding went so I was expecting a very similar experience. I was pleased to see that it wasn’t so hot and humid this time around and the pro course was a lot more fun than the amateur course from last year. I pre-rode it with one of my good friends and ripper from Philly, Cole, who showed me some of the secrets of the course and all the good lines to take. I rode most of the course pretty clumsily but after a few laps I had gotten it dialed in. I later caught up with my coach, TJ and got a few laps in with him and got his word on the course as well.

Race day came around and I was once again excited to get on the line and rock it out with the U23 guys. The race started and once again I made for a decent start. I held on to position for a while but alas my race was short lived. One of the guys I was battling with made his cut into what was called the party section/heckle pit where he crashed right in front of me leading me to crash over him but I wasn’t able to get going again so quickly as I twisted my knee between my front wheel and frame. This led to an early DNF for me as I made my way down the hill to tell the officials. This also led to not starting at the short track which I was bummed about because the course looked pretty fun too; it was cool to watch though! Especially TJ’s wife, Chloe who came in for a close 2^nd place finish!

After the short track we packed up and headed out to the last one, the Catamount Classic Pro XCT!

CATAMOUNT CLASSIC PRO XCT – WILLISTON, VERMONT

The Catamount Classic isn’t a new race for the Pro XCT circuit but it was a new one for me. I have to start by mentioning how beautiful Vermont is. Whether you ride bikes or not, Vermont is an awesome place to get away! We stayed in Colchester, just North of Burlington right on the shore. The riding in the area was beautiful. One ride in particular along a bike path called Island Line Trail which I caught right at sunset, one word, gorgeous.

 I was able to knock out a couple rides around the area and found that everywhere I went had good vibes and had some great views—all the green and water was a big change from deserts and saguaros! I met up with TJ for a wet and rainy ride on Wednesday instead of doing one of the local races that the Catamount Family Center puts on at the race course that got rained out. On that ride, TJ gave me some of the best advice I had ever received for becoming a bike ninja, quoting Yoda, “Do, or do not. There is no try”.

My last lap pre-riding I was riding really smooth, I wasn’t overcooking corners, I was using a minimal amount of brakes and in general just riding really clean which gave me a little more confidence on the line. I got to the line ready to race; I had only set one simple goal for the race: to focus hard enough to reach what’s referred to as “flow” in the world of psychology. When the race director gave us 30 seconds, I got into position and when he said go, it was on. I again, started strong and kept it up going into the singletrack. We did get a bottleneck at the wooden bridge crossing toward the start of the race but it wasn’t bad enough to have to get off and run it. By the time we got to descending, I was, to my surprise, gapping some of the guys behind me on the descent. Once we got to the climbing though, I couldn’t put down the hammer enough to hold on to the gap, some guys passed me as I maxed myself out and blew up toward the top. I ended up yet again getting pulled at 2 laps to go along with a few other guys. All I had left of the season was short track the next day!

Short track came around and to make it extra rad, it had rained that morning so we would have some mud while going anaerobic for 20 mins + 3 laps which makes for an EXCELLENT transition to cross season!! Playing in the mud, at least for me, is always fun! The course consisted of part of the start climb except re-routed to the top of the course to the final descent. This short track was very short lived for me, all I wanted was one really good lap and I would do what I could from there to hold on to position and that was exactly what happened. I had and incredible first lap! I made my way through a good amount of the racers, perhaps up to upper midpack, I wasn’t really sure, and then of course onto the descent, what would be a race without a bottleneck? We got it sorted out pretty quickly but had to slow down considerably nonetheless. After that first lap, I tried frantically to grab a wheel but for whatever reason couldn’t quite lay down enough power to latch on to anyone, I was a mushroom cloud by my 3^rd lap, the climb up to the top got exponentially more brutal an I couldn’t hang on. I then got pulled, I also then got to put the vegan life to rest for a couple days, grabbed some pizza and watched the rest of the race. Something worth mentioning: my friend Cole from Philly landed 3^rd place at that short track!! His story on that can be found here.

With as bad as all the racing sounds, this season was actually a great experience! I learned a lot about myself, most importantly I learned what needs to be done to move up and I learned just what it takes to be a great racer—much more than just the ability to turn pedals over quickly. I made a lot of new friends and was able to catch up with old ones too. I plan on pushing forward and giving whatever it takes to make it to the top step of the podium! It’s great to know that this is only the beginning of living out my dream; I couldn’t be more excited and motivated for what is next to come and with the help of TJ and his genius training plan, that top step will come sooner than later!! As my friend Dave puts it, “One must learn how to lose before they learn how to win.”

After all of that, I am now almost home, in New Mexico, actually with about 5 hours to go in the long trek back to Phoenix which may sound like a lot but it sounds way better than 33 hours!! As it turns out, writing a blog is a great way to pass the time!

I would like to give one last thank you to first off my parents because without them, I not only wouldn’t have been born but I also wouldn’t be racing bikes, and that would be a pretty boring life! So big thanks to Ronnie T and Kathy T on that one. Another big thank you to Jon Pettit, our Sram rep, who saved me last minute with some freehub issues. Travis (TJ) Woodruff who I don’t think I can ever thank enough for being an awesome mentor, coach, team director and clutch mechanic, the dude has saved me in way too many situations as well as writing my training plan for the past year, he is a huge deal responsible for the watts I’m laying down!! Not to mention that he himself is a total Jedi ninja on the bike as well.

And of course, AZ Devo and all of our associated sponsors,

Mountain Bike Association of Arizona (MBAA)

Bicycle Ranch

Trek Bikes

Cadence Promotions

Momentum Endurance

CLIF

ESI Grips

SRAM

Feedback Sports

Genuine Innovations

PROSOK

ProGold

Coming back from injury + Whiskey Off-Road Mudfest

Pre-Surgery, just trying to have fun with it :)

Pre-Surgery

In late January I had injured my left ring finger at a training camp in Tucson leading to surgery that had been scheduled for February 3^rd that included having a pin to hold the bone together and a wire to reattach the tendon. The exercise prescription immediately following the surgery was four days of no sweating as per the surgeon’s orders. This followed a few phone conversations with my coach, TJ Woodruff to help me make the most out of five weeks on the trainer with a lot of threshold work and some supplemental strength work to keep my fitness in check for when I did get back to riding bikes. Fun bit of info that I learned, it is possible to flat on the trainer. The first five weeks after surgery, physical therapy followed for the next two months which was supposed to go until June 3^rd but this was the point where I could at least get off the trainer and start riding on the open road again except had to be done with a cast-like splint on my arm called a dorsal block, it could not have come sooner though, the stoke factor was unbelievable even if I did have to take the first five minutes of the ride to learn how to ride a bike again! TJ labeled the ride “Freedom ride!” and that was exactly how it felt, sheer enjoyment! Fast forwarding to early April, my PT told me that my finger as doing really well and almost back to normal function and only needed to see me one more time for a re-evaluation and discharge. He then gave me a full recovery date of May 3^rd. This left me with a decision to race or not race the Whiskey Off-Road being only one week away from that “full recovery” date and I had made the decision to make Whiskey the first one back. For more detailed info on the injury: http://www.orthobullets.com/hand/6015/jersey-finger (mine was Type IV)

The week prior to Whiskey, I had given TJ the word and he put some time together to pre-ride the 25 mile course one day and the infamous Skull Valley climb the next. He had given me a lot of pointers that I admittedly can’t remember but the two that stuck with me were “don’t go far above threshold if at all during the race” (given the length of the race) and for Skull Valley, “don’t write checks at the base that your body can’t cash at the top”. These two pieces of advice stuck in my mind the whole next week heading into the race. The day before the race, we headed up to our cabin in the Thumb Butte area, unpacked and relaxed a little. I had a short ride to knock out to finish opening up my legs for race day so I went out and did the start climb to a shortcut that took it right to the final descent. After I knocked out the ride, I felt ready to race. There were a lot of rumors running around of cold temps, wind, snow and rain for race day; sounded like some epic conditions to me, more stoke. TJ, coming from Wisconsin knows all about racing in the cold and had given me some winter pro tips to beat the cold during the race; one of these included putting a thin layer of Vaseline on my body to lock in the heat in which proved to help greatly.

Race day. I woke up at 5 to have breakfast done by 5:30 with a start time at 7:30. My mom had made a comment that it was snowing just a little outside and that it was really cold, as expected. I put on all the layers I had, this included knee warmers, bibs, a long sleeve baselayer, a jacket, and a vest of course all on my Vaseline laden body, almost ready to rock. I was still a little cold when I stepped outside. I met up with TJ at Whiskey Row where the race was about to start and he was very much my saving grace, he had lent me a pair of baggie shorts and a skull cap to keep warm. I filled up my bottles with Clif Shot electrolyte drink mix and put some Clif shot gels in the pockets in my vest. It was pouring rain at this point and it was starting to look worse. I made my way to start line shivering, but ready. I had a good spot, second row out of the perhaps 700-900 racers there were.

Pre-race, on the line getting ready for whatever Prescott can throw at me

Upon the start we had rolled out at a decent pace, nothing too hard, conversational pace for sure. It then started to amp up a little more, I wanted to stay at the front but I didn’t want to blow myself up, of course I didn’t take TJ’s advice at all and like and idiot, I found myself pushing into threshold before we even hit the dirt and I paid for it later on. I saw one of my good friends and one of my first friends in the cycling community, Adam Humphrey pass me on one of the first parts of the singletrack and saw him toward the front for a good amount of the race. Once settling down into a pace, I found myself riding with another friend of mine and teammate of Adam’s, Wes Rasmussen. Wes and I went on to spend right around half of the race together. Shortly after hitting the first climb, maybe 30 minutes into the race, rain turned to snow and the wind picked up considerably, snow then turned to all out blizzard and was relentless. Snow in every direction and this didn’t settle down until we had reached the turn-off to descend into Skull Valley. Wes and I had stayed together for the most part until the last bit of the Skull Valley descent where he had dropped me, never to be seen again. Descending into Skull Valley I was able to count off how far back I was, I lost count after a while but figured I was sitting somewhere in the top 20. As I was climbing out of Skull Valley, I started falling backwards, thinking these guys were going all out and that I would catch them toward the top. Rain turned to sleet and shortly after, I came up on one of my good friends Nick Skaggs. I knew Nick was fast and that he would be good to stick with for a while. As it turned out, Nick and I had stuck together for almost the rest of the race.

Nick and I talking it up on the line pre-race about how rad it will be to race in the snow

Toward the top of the climb, I knew it was coming time to make a move to be the first one to the singletrack so I turned it up and gassed myself out toward the top and was the first one to the final descent. I made it almost to the last bit of climbing on the course to a short bit called cramp hill when my mud gummed drivetrain jammed up on me. I guess it had decided to clock out early for the day. I took a few minutes to rip the chain out and get it rolling decently again while I watched Nick and another guy go by. I plugged along and made it up cramp hill and on the very last bit of descending back into town I cramped up, oddly reminding me of a muscles test I took days prior. Fun stuff! No matter, I pedaled through it hoping the cramping would stop soon which it did, still in the raging wind, the sleet had stopped coming down at some point and I finally made it to the road and pulled it back into town. I came up to one of the last bits of road in town just before the finish and then made the descent back down. At last, the sloggy, muddy, snowy, rainy, blizzard of a race had come to an end on Whiskey Row with an epic story to tell for the ages. Not to mention that I was now part of THE 2014 Whiskey 50, not to be forgotten.

Post race, Clif Bar in hand of course!

Afterward, a quick photoshoot with TJ and Cyclingdirt followed the epic spectacle of a bike race. Considering the conditions, everything had held up pretty nicely, the Trek Superfly held up well and rode super rad as always, my new Rise 60 race wheels from Sram were perfect and stayed on point the whole time, even in the sloggy descents.

Post race shot w/ TJ and Cyclingdirt

There can’t be enough thanks to go out to my coach, TJ Woodruff of Momentum Endurance for keeping my fitness in check through the injury, helping me out on race day and always making sure I’m headed in the right direction. Also a big thanks to my parents for always supporting me in my races and helping me out whenever needed.

One last thanks to all my sponsors who make the magic happen behind the scenes:

Mountain Bike Association of Arizona (MBAA)

Bicycle Ranch

Trek Bikes

Cadence Promotions

Momentum Endurance

CLIF

ESI Grips

SRAM

Feedback Sports

Genuine Innovations

ProGold

And to you guys who read the whole thing!! Wow, that was a long one... :)

Cyclocross Season Overview + U23 CX Nationals

Sitting at home now after returning from Cross nationals in Boulder, I do find it somewhat hard to not be thinking about racing bikes. Thinking back on my cross season, I have had some tough competition and some great races throughout, from AZ Cross to CrossVegas, CXLA, and to Cross nationals.

This was my first season using a Quarq powermeter to train more effectively, race with more insight on output and to measure progress with more accuracy and it has been quite eye opening with very positive results and gave me some great insight on my progression throughout my season! Although most of my races resulted in either a flat or some other sort of other mechanical, I still found this season to be very successful due to the strides I had made in my training.

After starting to work with TJ Woodruff, founder and head coach at Momentum Endurance, I found myself to be making some great strides in my performance on the bike. After discussing a long drawn out season of 13 start lines including the full AZ Cross Series, CrossVegas, a double header at CXLA and finishing it up with U23 CX Nationals, I knew that I was in for a big season but at the same time, I was extremely excited to be racing my first full cross season.

My first race of the season being CrossVegas, also my first national caliber cross race, was very exciting; flyovers, grassy corners, 180 degree switchbacks, off camber straightaways and a mass start of over 60 racers I thought all made for a phenomenal experience, not to mention that it was a little hotter than usual which put me right in my element coming from Phoenix.

The AZ Cross series, put on by Jeff Frost, Mark Bibbey and Matt DeMicco was awesome! Every race had some cool features, one even included running up and through a trailer, however my favorite race was the one that was put on at Horse Lover’s Park in Scottsdale, perhaps one of the only AZ cross races where mud was a huge factor rendering my good friend Adam Atkinson and I to have a great time playing in the mud like children:

CXLA was another dry race for me and also ridden with not the best of luck. In warmup the day of my first race, I managed to roll a good section of my front tubular off the rim. I immediately threw on my pit wheel and got ready to line up. I was racing the Cat 1-4 Men’s A race which was sent off with the Master’s and Cat 3-5 Men’s B race. I found myself at the front of the pack, shifting around in the top 5 for most of the race until halfway through 1 to go when I flatted my front tire and lost any hope of gaining back my position which was quite frustrating, but anything can happen when it comes to bike racing. Day 2 at CXLA, I was definitely feeling the fatigue from day 1, I found that at the start line a lot of the guys I was racing the day before, didn’t plan on racing the second day and a lot of the guys I was racing the second day hadn’t raced the first day, a fresh group to start with. I held a good position for the first few laps but began to fall back quickly as the fatigue started to set in and by the last lap I found myself not making the same power through most of the sections I had on day 1 and not riding as smooth either leading to a disappointing result but nonetheless, I was racing bikes and having a great time; also as bike racing can be and almost always is!

Finally, Cross Nationals, Boulder, Colorado in January. If there is one word to describe the conditions it would be cold (runner up: muddy honorable mention: gnarly). Rolling into Boulder with my good friend Tyler Coplea (who is a heavily experienced cross racer) we had enough time to spin over to packet pickup to get our numbers and pins and then to go pre-ride the course. Riding the course reminded me of everything I had ever thought about when it comes to Belgian, World Cup style Cyclocross racing, beyond cold (at least for me), deep and slick mud EVERYWHERE, long run-ups, and nasty off camber corners, all made for perhaps one of the best cross racing experiences I have ever had! After we did some laps at Valmont Bike Park, we made our way over to our VERY generous host’s house for the night (thank you very VERY much Aden and family if you are reading this). The next day, the day before the race, Tyler and I made our way over to the course to do some more recon to find that it was incredibly windy out, still cold, but one nice surprise, the mud in some of the harder sections had dried up considerably (don’t get me wrong, it was still beyond muddy). After riding five more laps of the course and doing some openers, we made our way back to Aden’s house where his mom very kindly cooked an awesome dinner complete with pasta and kale salad, good fuel for the race the next day. The next day, 11:30, one hour before the start of our race, Tyler and I made it over to Valmont Bike Park to race our legs off on the slip-n-slide mud fest that it was. Waiting in staging for our call-ups Tyler and I did some active stretching to get our legs ready for the sufferfest that was about to ensue. At this point it all seemed like somewhat of a blur and the start seemed to me to have come out of nowhere. I had a hard time moving up at the start which was unfortunate because I count my ability in dealing with starts and start traffic to be one of my strengths that I strongly rely on in most of my races. After 3 laps of being toward the back with a few other guys I was racing, the officials started pulling riders and I was pulled from the race. I was disappointed that I got pulled but at the same time relieved that my long, strenuous season was over and I was ready for some well deserved off time to reset my body for the mountain season.

Link to the U23 Race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAP-yeorbA

After the madness of bike racing, I am very much looking forward to doing a whole lot of hiking and off-trail exploring in my home trails of South Mountain – probably with Molly:

Lastly, I would like to extend a big thank you to my coach Travis Woodruff of Momentum Endurance for always having my fitness on the top end for all my races

Also I would like to give a big shout out to all my awesome sponsors and all the incredible people behind the scenes that help to make the magic happen:

Mountain Bike Association of Arizona (MBAA)

Bicycle Ranch

Momentum Endurance

Trek Bikes

SRAM

Cadence Promotions

CLIF

ESI Grips

Feedback Sports

Stan’s NoTubes

Genuine Innovations

Oakley