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

CrossVegas 2013

                Cross Vegas was a very different race for me. Being that it was my first national cross race and that I was racing open category making it a much bigger field than I am used to was good for spicing things up a little from the usual mountain bike race. Race day started off very relaxing, I had just rolled into Vegas with my teammates Sam Gross and Tyler Coplea the day before and we had knocked out a ride together just north of the strip. That morning we immediately headed downstairs in the Luxor to go and get some breakfast in and then while Tyler and Sam went to go spend some time at Interbike, I decided to relax a little at the Starbucks there and give my first go at the pumpkin spice latte. I then made my way back to the room to get my things together and get ready to roll out the race course. We arrived at the course at around 3:00 and got packet pickup and everything out of the way. Once I was kitted up and ready to roll, I got a few easy laps of the course in with Jeff Frost who runs our local AZ Cross series, Tyler, Sam and our friend Hunter Keating. At 4:30, the USAC men’s open was called to the line and was told that we would be called up by number, mine being 85 gave me a 7^th row call up in a field of 69 riders. At 5:00 the gun was fired and we were off. I found myself pulling through a good amount of the field, passing and not being passed. We stayed as almost a peloton until about halfway through the first lap and it was easy to tell that the field was splitting up. I found myself making attacks really easily and riding smart up the short, punchy climbs and taking it a little easier on the flats and downhills. In a certain way it reminded me of my local shorttrack grind in Papago park that runs weekly throughout the summer; the effort was definitely the same. By the third lap I found myself almost alone, just grinding out the last half of the race and pulling away from anyone who came up on me. After pulling through and maxing myself out for a solid hour, I managed to finish up in 39^th place which I was happy for and made for a successful trip and leaving good times ahead of us in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.

                I would like to extend a very big thank you to my coach Travis (TJ) Woodruff of MomentumEndurance for getting me up to the level I needed to be and for getting my fitness dialed for every race.

                I would also like to extend a big thank you to the wonderful Harmony Systems Pro Cycling sponsors for their unwavering support as we take the cycling world by storm:
Flat Tire Bike Shop

Trek

Bontrager

Spy

Skratch Labs
ESI Grips

Rancho Feliz Charitable Foundation

Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty

Novik

Stance

Boombotix

One last thank you to our awesome team manager Sam Gross and our team director Kaolin Cummens for making all of these great opportunities possible for the Harmony Systems Pro Cycling team.

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

24HOP has been historically one of the biggest 24 hour mountain bike races in the US drawing crowds in the thousands including anyone from the US's top pro racers to weekend warriors. This year was the 14th annual 24HOP put on by Epic Rides and my first year to race it. Our team consisted of my AZ Devo teammates, Ian Wilkey and Dilyn Sheber along with Bicycle Ranch's head mechanic, Jon Gorman Cannondale/Stan'sNotubes pro racer, Krista Park, and myself.

 The course was 16 miles and included roughly 900 ft of climbing, opening up on what is known as the bitches which was seven short, punchy climbs on a dirt road with quick descents.

Here is a quick look at the course: http://app.strava.com/segments/636546

The order we decided to race in was me first, Krista second, Ian third, Dilyn fourth, and Jon fifth. With me going first, I had the responsibility of running to my bike about half of a mile to participate in the stampede of mountain bikers along with everyone else who had the first lap for their team. This was the only part of the race I was concerned about. I couldn’t help but think about how I was going to avoid being trampled by all the other racers. Everybody lined up to run counted down with the announcer and as when everybody shouted go, it was a mad rush for our bikes half a mile down the road. Our team captain, Ian was holding my bike for me. As I ran up and found my bike, I felt completely exhausted just from the short run. After hoping onto my bike, I caught my second wind and was able to start hammering on the pedals almost immediately. I pushed a hard pace through the dirt road we were on and upon making the first turn onto the actual course, I made the mistake of coming in too fast and crashed at 25 mph. Luckily it was a relatively clean crash and my Trek Superfly was still running just fine. After crashing, I saw one of my friends and former AZ Devo teammate, Sam Gross who I felt that I could hang on to for the lap. I hooked onto him as quickly as I could and stayed no his wheel until he dropped me after half the lap. Shortly after however, I found another one of my friends and respected Arizona coach, Art Macfarland and hooked onto his wheel. I stayed on Art’s wheel for almost the rest of the lap. On the final descent back into 24 hour town, I had another high speed crash, this one causing my chain to fall off. After getting it back on and finishing the decent, I came in to finish the lap with another one of my friends and respected coach, Darrin Permenter, made my way into the exchange tent and got Krista going on her first lap. After Krista left for her lap, I went back to our AZ Devo area to drink some Hammer Nutrition Recoverite, roll out my legs with Triggerpoint Performance Therapy’s Quadballer, Footballer, and massage ball, and finally flush them out with my Compex electro-muscle stimulator.

My second lap was the sunset lap, I was able to put down about the same time as I did for my first lap. At this point, everybody was scattered and a lot of passes had to be made, regardless though, I was still able to hold a fast moving pace. About half way through this lap, I had to turn on my Baja Designs Stryker and Stryker SL lights to keep it rad in the dark. I found myself alone for most of this lap making it rather uneventful but it was also without any crashes or mechanical issues. Afterwards, I was able to get my recovery in, hang out in the AZ Devo area for a while, then get a little sleep before the next lap.

My third lap happened right at around midnight, having a comfortable lead on the second place team, I decided to cool down just a little so as to not have a repeat of crashing twice like I had on the first lap. I felt like the night laps on this course would be slightly more difficult than in the day laps, more because of the concentration required due to how twisty the course was; also the factor of night riding anywhere, just not being able to see as well. This night lap was nice though because a lot of the people who didn’t want to ride at night had finished up their one night lap and went to sleep so not a lot of passing had to be made. At this point, I was really looking forward to just finishing the lap and getting some sleep in. When I saw the sign on the trail that said “This is the final push” I knew I was just one climb from the end of the lap and I was relieved to knock it out and hit the final descent back into 24 hour town.

My fourth lap I was starting to get a little worn, being as tired as I was coming back from the last lap, I fell asleep as soon as I got the chance to lay down and got almost no recovery in, leaving my legs sore. It was 5:00 AM, not a time of day I typically look forward to, but what is 24 hour racing without a little bike racing in the odd hours of the day? I was waiting in the exchange tent anxiously ready to go and found myself sitting next to the second place team’s rider who at this point, we had almost two laps on. I sat and made small talk with him for a while until surprisingly, his teammate came in before mine did. When this happened, I knew something must have happened out there. When he came in, he looked disoriented and told me he crashed and hit his head hard, not good news. At this, I wanted to make up as much time as possible so I hit this lap as hard as I could in the dark and with worn legs. I ended up bringing back a few minutes to start recovering our lead on them. At the end of the lap, I stretched and rolled out, then went right back to sleep.

I was woken up for my fifth and final lap. I woke up to sunshine and nice weather which I was super happy to see. When it came to be about time for me to start the lap, I knew that we had won the race. I started out being competitive but then realized that I had the luxury of going easy and that was what I did. I got ahead of the guy I was drafting off of and told him I would pull him around for the rest of the lap. He ended up dropping off about half way through, but I still made the lap more chilled out than the other ones. It was a nice feeling to go out and get one last lap in before getting ready for the podium. I finished the lap, and sent Krista on her last lap; the victory lap for our team.

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo put on by Epic Rides was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. It is an event all about racing bikes and having fun. Having enjoyed this event so much, I plan on doing it year after year!

For this event, there were a few special thank you’s and people that were a major help worth mentioning.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my 24HOP team, Krista Park, Ian Wilkey, Dilyn Sheber, and Jon Gorman. I would also like to thank our support crew from the race who kept us on track the whole race, Marty Coplea, Laurie Sheber, Todd Park and my dad, Ron Thomas.

A special thank you also to Baja Designs for their incredible products and making our night laps look like day laps with their Stryker II and Stryker SL lights.

Hammer Nutrition for all of their various products such as Race Caps Supreme, Anti-Fatigue Caps, Endurolytes, HEED and Recoverite.

Brad Wilhelm for coaching me and keeping me in fighting shape for every race.

One more thank you to AZ Devo for supporting me at all my races and supporting the development of Junior and U23 racers in Arizona

I would also like to thank the rest of my sponsors for their support and incredible products:
Trek
Bontrager
Hammer Nutrition
Bicycle Ranch
Sram
Genuine Innovations
Feedback Sports
Pro Gold Lubricants
The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona
Stan's Notubes
ESI Grips
Triggerpoint Therapy
Baja Designs

Dawn to Dusk

Dawn to Dusk is somewhat of a unique race put on by a company called DCB Adventures. The idea is that the race literally goes from Dawn until Dusk in that the race started at sun up (7:13 AM), and ended at sun down (5:20 PM). Roughly 10 hours of racing.

The course was on the Pemberton loop at McDowell Mountain Park. Starting out with 6.4 miles of a steady, gradual climb leading into a ripping and flowy downhill that turns flat towards the end of the lap and brings it back to the start/finish totaling 15.5 miles.

Here's a look at the course:
http://app.strava.com/segments/842236

The idea of going to this race started when my buddy Jason Downing and I were on a ride together and he suggested that we do the race together as a duo and I decided to race with him. About 3 or 4 weeks later, it was the day before the race and I had a lot to get done. I spent part of my morning shopping for race food which included several varieties of fruits and leafy vegetables, lunch meat, greek yogurt and some applesauce. With having that and several other things to do that day, I found myself hungry and unable to find the time to sit down and find out exactly what I should eat before the race, or even just to sit down and eat anything. By about 7:30 PM I finally got some food in me aside from a few bananas I had that morning, which was a few slices of pizza; not bad due to the fat and carb content but not ideal either. This also caused me to delay my opener. At about 9:45 PM I got to my opener and was home and eating some pasta by 10:45. By about 12:00 AM I finished getting packed up and could finally make my way to bed only to be waking up at 4:45 AM the next morning. I had some trouble getting to sleep that night as well to add on to my inconvenience and finally fell asleep at around 2:00 AM. When 4:45 AM rolled around, I got up, and got ready to head out taking a few pieces of toast with me to eat on the way to the course.

Upon getting to the race course, there was another addition to my inconveniences--mostly all fault of my own--I was too late getting situated into the venue to get a proper warmup in. Before I knew it, I was on the line next to two of my buddies, Mimmo Futia and Zach Keller along with a big time road pro, Eric Marcotte. When the race started, I expected a harder start than we had. I hadn't figured that the race having started on a paved road, that it would have more of a road racing kind of start; much easier than a mountain bike racing start like I had anticipated. A few seconds after going off, I saw Zach and Eric pushing the pace on the front just to my right, I decided that I felt good, and would attempt to make a big attack on the two of them and pick up the pace of the group as a whole. This did not end well for me. Some time after picking up the pace, I looked back to see if I could catch a draft on somebody nearby but the next closest person was about half a mile away, at this point, I just had to wait and do as much recovery as I could before they caught up. Everybody caught back up and I caught the first draft I could. I got lucky and was still seated in a good position all the way up into the singletrack entrance. The climb at the beginning was draining me as I watched Eric and Zach pull away from everybody, I still had it in my head that I could possibly catch up. After almost blowing up a second time, I decided to settle into a pace, catch a draft and wait for the downhill. I caught a nice draft off a tall and fast guy. Perfect for my situation. I held onto him until about the 6 mile mark, just .4 miles out from the top of the climb. On the downhill, I was thankful to slamming a hard pace. I found myself drafting off of one of Jason's Vitesse teammates until I hit a corner too wide and he pulled away. I found myself alone on the rest of the lap, found Jason by the exchange tent and tagged him for his lap. Afterwards, I went back to our tent to hook up on my Compex EMS system and drink some Hammer Nutrition Recoverite to get ready for the next lap

Just before starting lap 2, about 1 minute before Jason's expected time, I was faced with an issue, I somehow lost a bolt out of my right cleat and was permanently locked into that pedal for the entire lap among several other problems it caused. I saw another buddy of mine, Matt Connors who was racing solo, go by. We talked for a little bit until he motored off past me. I found myself alone for most of this lap, with the exception of a guy who was sucking on my wheel the whole descent. This time around the descent was somewhat of an issue. With my cleat being held in by one bolt, half of it would slide down to the lowest setting on my shoe, while the other half stayed on the setting I had it in whenever I hit anything with my rear wheel causing me to have to slide it back in with my foot. I dealt with this for the rest of the lap and still managed to drop The guy that was hanging on my wheel. After coming in and tagging Jason in, I surprisingly found an awesome guy named Jay from Team Vitesse who helped me out and gave me a spare cleat bolt he happened to have laying around.

Lap number 3 was hard. Pain was starting to settle in and the climb started to feel a little harder than before. On the climb, the second place duo team took first from us. Their guy that was out at the moment was Bob LaRoche. Bob and I knew each other from racing a short track series during the summer called Short Track at Papago. He told me to not let 2 old guys beat us. I tried to hold him and not let go. I held him for about 2 minutes until he went off. I spent the rest of my lap in a vain effort of trying to catch up. I did everything I could, even maxed out my gears to hit a top speed of 32 mph on the descent. I railed every corner much faster than I would have if I were at a normal race pace and took risks where I could. I did not let up one bit. Once I came to the flat section leading into the start/finish, I let up a bit and just tried to not blow up making my way back to the start/finish. After this, I also saw our AZ Devo team director, Marty Coplea who was bravely racing solo and was still looking strong after several laps!

Lap 4 I truly understood why people said duo was the hardest race. Just enough time for your legs to cease up and going right into the climb didn't help much. I really needed a draft and my prayers were answered in a good and not so good way; I caught a draft from the guy that was on the third place team just behind us. I realized that I could treat this lap like a XC race. I held on to his wheel for the whole climb and a little bit going into the downhill. After trying to drop me several times, he looked back and expected me to take a pull. This was where my XC racing tactics came into play. I pulled him on the downhill for about 1 minute, just enough time for him to think that I was going to pull him around but not enough time for him to get any kind of recovery from me. Then I made a hard attack on him. He picked up quickly though. I got caught up with another guy who seemed to be pushing about the same pace we were. This made things interesting. Each of us wanted to just get out and beat the other guys on the lap but nobody wanted to take a pull. I found myself off the front until I went a little too hard into a corner coming off of the downhill and into the flat section and almost made the 3 of us get into a big crash. After that, I wasn't sure what happened, but I found myself alone with the guy that we had caught. I had successfully gotten rid of the 3rd place team's guy. I just held in his draft for the rest of the lap and tagged Jason in for his next lap. After this lap I was getting pretty tired. I cleaned off my legs, set up the electrodes, hooked up the Compex and just fell asleep for about 30 minutes.

Lap 5 I felt decent for. Better than I did for lap 4. I knew this would most likely be my last lap. I went decently hard on the climb for having done 4 laps already. I just wanted to get to the downhill. Once I hit the 6.4 mile mark, I started to go for it. I hit the downhill as hard as I could, spent everything I had left. My hamstrings were killing me, much more than my quads and those hurt too. I kept thinking I saw Bob up in the distance but I didn't. I slammed it all the way to where I could tag Jason to take the last lap. I knew at this point I was done and glad for it!

After I finished, I went over to get my long awaited free tacos from Chipotle who were giving them away at the race as the event sponsor. Then I finally went around the venue and said hi to a few old friends, then before I knew it, it was right about time for Jason to come in for our 10th and last lap as a team. We had a great time and a great race out there!

A special thank you to Hammer Nutrition for the mixture of HEED, Endurolytes, Endurolytes Fizz tablets and Race Caps. Also for my Compex unit that kept me going lap after lap.

A special thank you to Stan's Notubes for my stupid light Race Gold 29er wheels.

And one more shout out to Triggerpoint Therapy for my Quadballer that also kept me going lap after lap.

A few thanks for support in the event:
First and foremost, my duo partner, Jason Downing who was doing incredible laps the whole race and Team Vitesse and AZ Devo for helping support Jason and I for this event. I would also like to thank my dad for supporting Jason and I. Lastly, I would like to thank my coach, Brad Wilhelm for helping me get to the level I needed to achieve a podium finish with Jason at this race.

I would also like to thank the rest of my sponsors for their support and incredible products:

Trek
Bontrager
Hammer Nutrition
Bicycle Ranch
Shimano
Genuine Innovations
Feedback Sports
Squirt Lube
The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona
Stan's Notubes
ESI Grips
Triggerpoint Therapy
Baja Designs

Prescott Sixer

It's that time of year where all the races that are mostly just for fun are marked on the calendar. This one however, was a mixture of both fun and brutally difficult.

The Prescott Sixer is a 6 hour mountain bike race on a course that is 9.1 miles over mostly singletrack including four major climbs to total 744 ft. of climbing. My goal was to put in 8 laps but I would have been fine with 7.
Here's a look at the course:
http://app.strava.com/segments/832002

I was only a little late to line up so I couldn't quite get a spot right up front but I got about 4th row which I was alright with. The race started at 9:00 and it started a lot harder than I thought any 6 hour race should start. Once the field quickly spread out, I got with a group of me and 2 other guys and I was leading the group at the moment. I was just about ready to break away because I was pushing a slightly harder pace than they were comfortable with and I could see the lead group with my coach, Brad Wilhelm and my two teammates, Ian Wilkey and Ryan Geiger. After I made my breakaway, there were several times where I had found myself just about to hook on to the back of the lead group. It seemed like I was less than a tenth of a mile away from them and I was sure I would hook on shortly thereafter so I pushed the limits a little and as a result I crashed right into one of the corners where not only the lead group got away from me, but the 2 guys I had dropped earlier had passed me. I worked to catch back up only to find that the lead group had completely dissipated but I found one guy to hold on to heading into the second lap. I almost went down again a couple times hanging on to this guy but I eventually honed my technical skills and made it through just fine. Since this guy had pulled me around for a while, I saw a rocky climb on a decent grade where drafting would be of use and an opportunity to return the favor but I unknowingly had pulled away from him. Going on to lap 3 I caught up with another group of about 5 other guys. Shortly after I hooked on though, one of the guys broke away and I took off on his wheel. He tried to drop me but I wouldn't let it happen and after a while, he just let me hang on. Once we hit that rocky climb again, I decided I would try to return the favor for this guy and maybe he could hang on. I made the same effort I did last time, he couldn't hang on, I dropped him, and I was on my own for the rest of the lap. This was where I realized that I could probably drop anybody that was on my wheel on this climb and it became an integral part of my strategy. Once I came around for lap 4 I was about 10 minutes away from the 3 hour mark and I kept thinking to myself, "Just do that one more time". Lap 4 I caught up with and ended up spending a good amount of the rest of the race with Jeff Frost. Jeff and I kept battling for 4th place until I dropped him on that same climb I was dropping everybody on. The rest of lap 4 went the same way the rest of them did, I just cruised into the next one. Lap 5 a singlespeeder named Hunter Keating caught up with me. He told me about how he had crashed out so I helped pull him around for a bit since I was just trying to cruise through the rest of the race until someone had caught us and passed us both. I wasn't going to let this happen and unfortunately had to leave Hunter in the dust. I decided to hang on this guy's wheel until we hit the climb again where I planned on dropping him and that was exactly what happened. I felt like I was going to be able to cruise through like I had for the rest of my laps until I heard the sound of a freehub behind me. I started to just make efforts to attempt to drop him but it didn't work. Then I realized my rear end was getting a little bouncy and I was loosing air in my rear tire, slowly. Toward the end of the lap I knew I wasn't going to lose him so as we were coming through, I asked him how my rear tire looked and he said it was low. I made a very quick stop by the AZ Devo tent where our team manager, Marty Coplea gave me a gel flask full of Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem among some other food while my dad pumped up the tire. Just before I got going again I caught none other than Jeff Frost going on his 6th lap taking 4th place. I wasn't going to let it go without a battle. I got extremely aggressive on the trail to catch back up. I caught him and he did not want to give up the spot. I found an opening on a wide part of the trail in the middle of a turn however and took back 4th place. Jeff was still right on me though. We talked a little during the 6th lap as I was leading him out through the singletrack. I planned to put the hammer on him on the same climb I was dropping everybody else on then go a little harder on the next climb than usual as icing on the cake. This worked. I had dropped Jeff again. I cruised into the end of the 6th lap and upon starting the 7th lap, I knew that either this would be my last, or I would barely squeeze in an 8th lap before the 6 hour cutoff. The 7th lap was harder than any of the other ones, though. It started with one guy from Tribe Multisport who looked like he was planning on slamming lap 7 to squeeze in one more and since I had the same goal, I tried to hang on his wheel for as long as possible. I held on for a little less than half the lap and decided to call it quits and try to catch him on the rocky climb. I surprised myself by doing just that. I caught up with him and dropped him just before hitting the top of the climb but I knew I would have to work hard the rest of the lap to keep him off my wheel. I kept him off until the end of the lap but toward the end, I noticed my rear wheel was going low again. I came in with 10 minutes before the 6 hour mark and repeated what I did last time I was going low and got back out for a final lap. This one, I was finally able to cruise the whole time and I needed it. I was almost out of gas and I was just hoping I wouldn't have to worry about anybody threatening to take 4th from me. That was what happened, I was able to just chill out and take this last lap easy. I saw my teammate and overall winner, Ryan Geiger lap me while he was on his 9th lap, a Prescott Sixer record. Then I cruised in to take 4th place, 8 laps completed in 6 hours 38 minutes.

This was one of the best events I had ever been to and it couldn't have happened without Mike Melley, Sage Grossi, and all of Hub Event Productions. It was an incredible race and I plan on doing it year after year.

Thanks to Marty Coplea and the rest of AZ Devo for the support as always and a big thanks to Hammer Nutrition for keeping me going the whole race with HEED, Endurolytes Fizz, and Perpetuem. I couldn't have made it through the race without any of it!

2012 National Championships and Missoula Pro XCT

My parents and I made the trip up to Sun Valley, Idaho again this year for the MTB XC National Championships. The loops I was doing this year included a flyover about half a mile off the start leading into a man-made rock garden then onto a super steep climb up a loose dirt road with some grassy switchbacks mixed in and then finally onto a twisty singletrack descent with some loose switchbacks all the way back down to the start/finish area.
Here's a quick look at the course:


http://app.strava.com/segments/682138

On race day I felt ready to go. I took my Hammer Nutrition Race Caps and Endurolytes to prep my body even further. I was hoping for a really good finish at this race and I felt like I was going to be able to pull it off here. I did my warmup with my buddy Ryan Geiger and made it back to the staging area about ten minutes before the race so I could get a good starting position. I ended up with a decent spot that I was pretty happy with, 2nd row. On the start line I did a quick review of the course in my head and before I knew it, the official blew the whistle and we were off. Everybody was sprinting for position, I saw a few of the guys I knew that I had dubbed my rivals for the race get ahead of me shortly after we started so I got up to position with them. We hit the flyover and I realized my chain had fallen off the drive side of my cranks. I decided that after going down the other side of the flyover would be the best time to pedal it back on; I couldn't get it to pedal back on. I eventually got off my bike to put it back on while everybody I was racing passed me. I got it back on by hand and slammed on the pedals to try to catch up but then the chain jammed and ripped out of my rear derailleur cage rendering the chain and derailleur useless. My race was over and we weren't even five minutes in. It gave me all the more reason to make the next weekend's race a better one.

After taking the DNF, I caught up with my buddy Macky Franklin and after telling him what happened, he gave me his spare derailleur because I wasn't going to have the opportunity to get home and buy another one before the next race in Missoula, Montana. 

The next race went a lot better. I pre-rode the course with my buddy Sam Gross and even had the chance to race it with him one time.

Here’s Macky’s description of the course:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZ26EqGTHE&feature=autoshare

We got to the course about an hour and a half before race time; more than enough time for a good warmup. After my warmup, it was about five minutes from go time so I got lined up and ready to go. There were about 25 other kids at the start line with me. I again felt like I was in good form and had a good race coming on. Once the whistle went off, we were gone. It was a fast start especially for having to climb right off the line. I held on the some of the faster kids in my category for a little bit but then started to fall backwards and almost fell into the other half of the category that split shortly after we got onto the climb. Everybody eventually split up almost evenly with about a 2 minute gap between each person. Several of the people that started the race either broke their bike or injured themselves bad enough to not be able to finish due to how technically challenging the course was. The race yielded 16 finishers out of the 25+ that started and I ended up in 14^th. Not a bad way to end the season.

One last note upon ending the season, I would like to thank a few people for helping me out:

All of my friends and family for their unwavering support

Brad Wilhelm for coaching and mentoring me throughout the season

Lee-Ann Beatty for being my podium girl

Marty Coplea and the whole AZ Devo Junior/U23 Development Team for all their hard work

Daryll McKenzie for mentoring me and teaching me a lot about racing smart

Macky Franklin for helping me out in that tough situation

I would also like to thank all of my awesome sponsors who have supported me throughout the year:
Trek
Bontrager
Hammer Nutrition
Bicycle Ranch
Shimano
Genuine Innovations
Feedback Sports
Squirt Lube
The Mountain Bike Association of Arizona
Stan's Notubes
ESI Grips
Triggerpoint Therapy
Baja Designs

It was an awesome season and I look forward to an even better one next year!

Epic Rides Whiskey Off-Road

Whiskey was a pretty awesome race for me. I had been looking forward to it all week before the race on Saturday. Friday night was nice because I had gotten to bed early and got to sleep until I just woke up on Saturday morning which just happened to be around 6:00 AM. I woke up feeling good and ready to go. My parents and I got to the venue about an hour early so I would be able to get a warmup in and get my legs going before the race. However, I underestimated just how many people were racing in the 25 mile race. A turn out of just over 700 people made for a not so pleasant surprise to see the people were already lining up when we got there so I did a slightly shorter warmup than I had planned but made it enough to get my legs fired up. I was still fortunate enough to get a good starting position because my buddy Ian Wilkey and I found a few spots right up front where we waited for about 20 minutes before the start. After waiting, we finally got to the point where there was about 1 minute left. I got ready to go. I still felt good and strong mentally and physically; a good sign of a good race. The announcer called out 15 seconds to start and I could feel myself getting more and more pumped for the race to start. Then the gun fired off a few times and we were gone. I was holding on with the lead pack which was about nine or ten of us off the front. I felt good holding on. I never felt the need to back down and I didn't feel like I was anywhere near red-lining. In fact, I felt so good that I considered making a break away but when I looked over at some of the other guys, I noticed that while I was slightly panting and pushing a little bit some of the other guys in that same pack weren't even breathing up the hill. That was enough to hold back my want to break away so I just stuck with the group and waited for something to happen which eventually, something did. I saw some guys take off almost instantly when we hit the dirt while some other guys fell off the back of our group. Eventually, it was just me and my two friends and teammates, Ian Wilkey Dilyn Sheber. We started to form a bit of a paceline, working together but that broke off once we hit some technical sections. It just became too hard for the three of us to maintain. I was the first to break off, my chain had slipped off the cranks and I would have just pedaled it back on but my gearing for the climb we were on was less than convenient and I was better off getting off the bike and just putting it back on by hand so that's what I did and I lost some time but being at the beginning of the race but after the critical part of the beginning, I was fine with having to make it up. After a solid amount of singletrack climbing, I found myself just behind Dilyn. I tried to catch him before we started descending because I knew that technical descents were his thing and that if he beat me there I wouldn't see him again until at least the very bottom. He just beat me to the top of the climb with me following close behind. I started descending with him and watched as he started making ground on me. He got the lead on me and I didn't see him again until we hit the bottom. I saw him again once we hit the next climb but he was way ahead. It looked to me like I would be able to catch him but when I started pushing a harder pace, it seemed like it wasn't making any difference. Once we got about halfway up the climb, I see Ian come up behind me. We started battling up the hill. We were passing people like they were stopped going up the section called "Cramp Hill" where most people were just barely making it up, the combination of my Trek Superfly and Stan's ZTR 29er Race Gold wheels, I felt almost like a shuttle going up it. Once Ian and I hit some gradual descents followed by some mild climbs, I decided that this was where I would put down what I had. I hit the gradual descents super hard which made it easier to get up the following hill. I did this a couple times which seemed to be a good strategy for me because I wasn't feeling worn at all and I was making time on everyone behind me. After all the dirt road sections were done, I knew that I was coming in on the final push of the race which was just some singletrack followed by a 2 mile pavement section. It wasn't long after I hit the singletrack that tragedy struck; I flatted on small lift with some sharp rocks in it. Lucklily, my saving grace was in my back pocket, my Genuine Innovations tubeless repair plugs. I quickly found the hole and stuck a plug in and it immediately stopped losing what little air it had left. Tragedy then struck again, I couldn't get my CO2 pump to puncture the cartridge and after fiddling with it for a few minutes, it blew up in my hand and almost froze it completely. Luckily, though, the photographers near by had found a small CO2 cartridge which did me just fine. I pumped it in and it worked perfectly but of course, bad things come in threes, I was still losing air from the sidewalls of the tire for some reason but I was able to spread the Stan's sealant that was spewing out onto the leak and it sealed up instantly. I was finally ready to go... sort of. With the lost air from the sidewalls, I was left with what I estimated to be about 5-10 psi in my rear tire, probably closer to five. I had no choice but to deal with slop handling coming from the rear. This made it much harder to corner and just ride my bike in general but I made it work. I kept going and made it through the singletrack. I was just trying to not completely destroy my rims by riding really gently but still trying to go hard. I reluctantly let some people pass me here because I knew that once we hit the last two miles of the race which were just pavement back to Whiskey Row, I would be able to push super hard and make up several positions which was exactly what I did. I found myself pushing 30+ mph and catching positions like crazy. I tried to catch a guy on the turn back into the final stretch before turning back on to Whiskey Row when I started to slip off and almost completely lost my rear tire off my rim but my  Stan's 29er Race Golds pulled through for me again and kept the tire on where any other wheel would have pulled it right off. I managed to save myself and keep the rubber side down and made the pass on the guy. I then found myself coming into Whiskey Row and having the challenge of beating someone for position on a sprint finish to the line. I sprinted with him for a bit until he started to stand up and actually sprint and I realized that I should stay down due to the low tire pressure in the rear because I wouldn't want to run the risk of falling at a high speed on pavement just before the finish so I settled with 26th out of the 700 people that came out. All in all, I had an awesome time out there and would like to give a big shout out to epicrides.com for putting on an awesome event!