Biking in the Rain

Monday was different. Riding in the rain at 50 degrees. Lots of mud. Seems like we missed that season in Utah. Good times getting lost at UCSC. The downhills were super technical thanks to mud and 6" deep puddles. Tuesday was a day trip to Boreal in Tahoe for skiing. Geez us Utah folk are lucky to have so many resorts within an hours drive. It was a 5 hour drive there and a 4 hour drive back. But we did get to eat In-n-out burgers. We're planning a 40+ mile "Hellride" for Friday. Too bad we couldn't get Mark Weir to come nip at our heels and bite our calfs off.

2.5 Hours in 16.0 miles = 6.4mph

I knew we were going slow. But at least we rode. Outside. In 20 degree weather. While it was snowing. But at least we rode. Did you ride???

Chain Length

I've been a competent bike mechanic for a few years. And yet, sometimes I make really dumb mistakes. Fortunately, (or unfortunatly, depending how you look at it) most of the time they occur on my own bike. Long story short, Aaron, Art and I went riding this morning. Less than 50 yards into the ride, I shifted into my big cog. No big deal right? Right, unless you are running a 1x9 and put a bigger chainring on your bike the day before, and spaced checking chain length. If that doesn't make sense, here's the simple explanation. My chain was to short and this happened:
When that happens, your bike doesn't work. Which is the pits when you're only 50 yards into a ride. (Especially when you've already spent 15 minutes nursing wounds- right Aaron?, and another half hour fixing tubeless setups, -right Arthur?) Oh well I ran back to the shop and snagged the demo Nine Solo and we got our ride in. And it was a good one.

Squaw Peak

I did Squaw Peak yesterday. Like rode up then down, on the road. For the first time in FOREVER. The cool thing was is that from mile 2 up, there was a trace of snow on the road. Luckily, it wasn't icy underneath, and if I pedaled really smooth I wouldn't spin out on the snow. It was pretty rad. I threw road tires on my cross bike, which may have not been the best choice for the day. Coming down was pretty scary, especially with my weak-sauce 'cross brakes. 'Cross brakes were designed to control speed in the mud, not to stop your bike. 'Cross races are usually pretty flat, Squaw is an 8-10% grade the entire way down. So a simple equation is 'cross brakes = not stopping on snowy road descents. Once I got below the snow line the descent was awesome, I remember why I road biking is (still) cool. I counted six sets of road bike tracks in the snow. That means there were two other people crazy enough to ride it. Here's some crappy cell phone pics:

Less than spectacular view of hazy Orem for a reward.


Couldn't stop on this.

I could rally...as long as the road was straight at least.

175s

So...Threw some 175mm cranks on the 'cross bike. I've wanted to try this setup all year, and even longer than that. The good: They are awesome. So much better for me than 172.5s I didn't think it would make a big difference but I could totally feel it. Especially on the climbs. Cool. The bad: I get a bit of toe overlap with the front wheel. I guess I'll have to deal with it. I've had to deal with it running fenders on my Fillmore, so I think I can handle it. It's a bigger issue on the commuter anyway. These are some pics from the SS race, thanks again Ash for taking such awesome pictures all year! (And there wasn't as much running as the pictures show, there were just a lot of good pics of the runup this time.)

It's Over

The UTCX cross series ended today. Bittersweet. Good but bad. We were at Draper again, the course with the killer hill. In the B race the first climb up the hill was an all out sprint, it was nuts. The SS race was a lot funnier, we were all spun out by the time we hit the bottom of the hill. I went down twice in the B's. Here's a hint for racing 'cross: Don't do practice laps and then add 15psi to your front tire. You lose a lot of traction, and your tire will wash out on turns guaranteed. It's kind of embarrasing when you go down on what should be an easy turn. Anyway, I dropped my pressure back down for the SS race and did better. It was a good race day and I was really finished when I was finished. I couldn't have made it up the hill one more time. Thanks to everyone who cheered for me and especially to Ashleigh for coming to all my races and supporting me without a single complaint all season.

This hill kicked my butt.

Literally. You should see the bruise. I think I went down twice on each lap ! Once dismounting, once running. At least Ash didn't get me going down on it and has footage of other people going down on it for me to show off:

Helmets

I hit a tree today. Barely. With my head. Going around a turn. If I didn't have a helmet on, I probably wouldn't have hit it. But I was glad I had it on. Better safe than sorry, right?

Just One Today

Raced the B's only today, too tired for the SS. Ash says I'm sick and have been dragging around all weekend. Sounds good coz I just couldn't make power today, I only had one speed and it was slow. Ash did awesome though, had a sizeable lead until she dropped a chain, and hung on to second in her race.

Adam Throwing down:

Nice butt shot for ya:


Ash trying to win biggest smile contest:

SLC Wednesday

Haven't blogged about a few cross races...Finally got video so I'll post it soon.

Went up to SLC to do the bobsled again, then we did city creek and hit the I-street jumps. The guys we rode with were hitting these huge doubles and even on the small ones they got tons of air. This is Tom doing a 5 foot tall ladder ramp with a 15-20 feet gap to the landing. I was pretty much right under him when I was taking this picture.

I was jumping racer-style, low and fast. It was fun riding with some guys that have a totally different riding style then I do and learning their tricks and stuff.

Oh, and I hit the big drop at the end of the bobsled full speed. Awesome. It was great when everyone regrouped and Ash wouldn't believe I did it.

RMR video - B Race

The Bobsled

In high school I had some friends that were on the bobsled/skeleton teams. One of them was in the olympics in 2006. I was super jealous that they got to go "practice" every week. What I would have given to just do that once. Well, on Saturday I did a ride that ended all those years of jealousy. The Bobsled, in SLC above the avenues, is the most fun I've ever had on anything that moves. The trail involves shuttling to "almost the top," then a tough mile or so long climb. Then the fun begins. A rutted out, steep 1/4 mile descent (not so fun, but more fun than the climb). Then the run begins. It can't be better described than it's name. Fast, flowy turns with HUGE berms. The trail is built down a small canyon, and the berms are the sides of the canyon walls, some of the turns 12-15 feet above the canyon floor. A few smaller stunts and some big ones (for next time, after 'cross season is over and when I have some pads), including a huge step up to ladder ramp to huge step down. The flow of the trail is what gets to you, there are few trails in Utah that are so smooth and, well, flowy. The trail conditions were perfect, most of the trail a dried-clay, concrete like consistency. Not a lot of pics because we just rode and it was no fun to stop for pictures. On a trail like this, you've got to take it top to bottom. You can find videos online but they don't do the trail justice.

Cross Ogden- Bruised and broken from my knees to my toes

My bike remounts have been pretty good this year. Up until today that is. Luckily I only had to get dismount/remount once per lap this go round, but that still added up to 7 terrible remounts. One of them was so bad that it tweaked my seat so the nose was tilted up about 45 degrees. I had to reach behind myself mid-lap and pull it back closer to level. My shins are all banged up from hitting the pedals. Of course because of my mental fear of bad remounts getting bigger and bigger each lap, the remounts got worse and worse. Which brings up the next subject: Bad choices due to oxygen deprivation.

Lap 1.5: Hanging on to the lead group...miscalculated a bunny hop by just a bit and my rear wheel slammed into the log. Result: Dropped chain, dropped from the lead group. Passed by 5 or so riders.

Lap 1.5 on: constantly hitting potholes, etc, and taking the worst possible line on the paved section. What, have I not ridden on the pavement before?

Lap .9, 1.9, 2.9, 3.9, 4.9, 5.9, 6.9: Barriers, barriers, barriers. For how much fun I made of the people slamming into that log, they can make fun of me for stumbling through the barriers. I felt like I'd never done these before. Guess I know what to work on this week.

Lap 5.5 Perfect bunny hop, totally blew through (read forgot about) the sharp left after the log. Slammed on the brakes and slammed my knee into the stem. By now I was bleeding in at least three places.

I'm amazed at how stupid I felt mid-race as my thoughts got less and less cognitive. At least it makes for some good "lessons learned" afterward, once I could start processing thoughts again.

On a semi-different note, just as Team Racer's Cycle Service got our skinsuits, I won't be able to use it when I achieve my dream of being a World Cup downhill racer. http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/uci-ban-skinsuits-and-open-face-helmets-for-mountain-bike-competition-19021 What? The UCI wants riders to wear pads? Oh well, those New Zealanders looked slick in their all black skinsuits on their 8 inch travel bikes while it lasted.

Heber Cross/Big Springs

Big Springs is perfect right now. The trail is packed and hard the turns somehow are no longer washed out but nice and semi-bermed. The whole descent is so fast and curvy, especially the first 400m or so on top. I've been up there twice this week and would ride it all day if I could. With a decent amount of rain it will probably be great all next week too...

Heber Cross was today. Heber was the first venue I ever raced 'cross at and was my best finish last year. Last year it was super muddy and thick, this year it was ice cold and the course was hard and firm in most places. 33 degrees and snow was the situation, but luckily the snow let up before my race. So we raced in 33 and dry, which I've decided is much better than 50 and wet (like last week). Because of my 7th place finish last week I got "called up" and got a front row starting spot, which was great and I got a good start. The first set of barriers came up quick and I was the prime spot to watch the holeshot rider turf it over the first barrier and land on the second one. It looked super painful! Luckily the rider was okay, and being the fast guy he is, recovered and still won the race. Wow. The race was super fun and I was actually in a group this race which meant we all just kept passing each other and passing each other back. It was a tough course with a lot of sticky flat sections that we had to power through. I was so grateful for any turn to recover a bit on and usually get a bit ahead of whoever was right on my tail. There were three of us right by each other at the end which meant a sprint finish, which felt much better than crawling across the finish line like last week. Fun fun fun! Sorry no pics, Ash is in California.

Draper Cross

The season officially started off today. A big pacific storm blew in last night to kick it off in style. We usually get one day of Seattle-like rain in Utah a year, and today was it. The course was fast and smooth with a lot of hills (for 'cross). It was so much fun that I couldn't stop smiling. Except for the 200-300m asphalt climb that was a killer. Here's some pics:

Arthur:

Racer:


Dan:

I beat Steve Peat at the 48 straight!

48 Straight hit the canyons this weekend. The local cross promoters got a 'cross race into the mix and so of course I was there. They only did an A and B race so that means that the C's and D's and women were all in the mix. Oh, and since it's the first race of the season quite a few of the A's were in the B race too. Right at the start of our race Steve Peat and Greg Minaar rolled past the start line up to the slalom course. So we all sprinted past them. Cool. The race was fun and went really well. My new tubulars are sweet! They accelerate super fast and handle really well. No pictures of the race - Ash was at a kiteboarding lesson. There were more photographers at the race than any other I've been too - hopefully they were local and will post them online. The DS was sweet with some good racing action. Greg Minaar barely beat Eric Carter in the final. It was raining on and off so we were soaked by the end of the DS.

Season Finale

Wrapped up the mountain season with the 12 hours of sundance this weekend. Art, Spencer, Jeff and I rode 17 total laps in just over 12 hours. Ash's team did really well too, took 2nd in their division. It was good times with 5-6 teams from the shop all racing. Each lap was about 40 minutes means it was good practice for cross- the season opens next week! I had quick laps and felt like it was a good wrap up, I rode faster and smoother than I have all year!

Yeah Baby!

Cross Season is 2 weeks away!

Cross season is almost here and I've been anticipating it for months. My cross ride is getting built and here is an update:

2008 Felt F1X
4ZA Python Fork
Bontrager cockpit
SRAM Force shifters - left shifter is gutted
Dura-Ace Crankset - single 42t ring.
SRAM Rival rear derailleur

Still on the way:
Easton EC90 carbon tubulars
SRAM red cassette
Tufo tubulars
Selle Italia SLR saddle

Here's some pics:

That saddle looks geeky, but it's gone now.

Gutted shifter

More pics as soon as the wheels come in.

The Trance

A few months ago I sold my 29er and built some wheels, replaced my broken fork and dropped 6 lbs off my Trance's weight. It's still heavy, but it's a solid trail build. The wheels are gorgeous! White DT Swiss 4.2D rims, Black spokes with ano red nipples, and ano red Hope hubs. Pretty!