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

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!