Life by Bike: 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)

PROSOK