Race or Ski?

It's a three option weekend.

1) Mountain Bike Race at 5 Mile pass
2) Road Race at Antelope Island
3) Snowboard at Snowbird

With rain and cold forecasted all weekend, racing doesn't seem like the funnest option, especially after last year's debacle at 5 mile. Antelope Island in the rain isn't all that great either. With 7 inches today, 8-12 inches expected tomorrow, and more Friday night, some spring powder is very tempting, although I've felt pretty good on the bike lately. Decisions, decisions...

What would you do? What are you doing?

Squaw Peak

Squaw Peak is ride-able, although there is some snow on part of the road around mile 4. I was so excited I had to do it twice. Get it while the gate is closed, and the gettin' is good. To celebrate, I started a TT page for the climb. And the descent.

http://squawpeak-tt.blogspot.com/

Sea Otter - The Race

So our race start was scheduled at 7:30. Monterey is 45-50 minutes from Santa Cruz, and Ashleigh's parents live 15-20 minutes from there. Which means we woke up at 4:30 to get there and set up on time. I started out driving and made it about 25 minutes before I started zonking. Thanks Dan for driving the rest of the way.

The race started a little late due to the Gran Fondo that took off right before us. That was good because it gave me more time to warm up on my favorite section of racetrack in the world, the backside of the Laguna Seca Speedway.

The race started out on the speedway just before turn 5, and was run in reverse. I'm sure it was quite the sight watching 65 single speeders spin up to 22 mph on the track. Luckily I took Racer's advice and was running a monster 34x18 gear, which was perfect for most the race but I sure was angry at Racer on the steep climbs. It paid off though and I was able to make some good moves.

I got on to the dirt in third and was maintaining a 5-10 second gap on 2nd until we hit these turns with sand traps - deep sections of sand right behind blind corners. I eased up, reminding myself that one place wasn't worth missing the rest of the year for. He got up to a minute ahead of me, but I was able to pull him in on the last climb - a 4 mile long fire-road along a ridge with beautiful green views all around. I caught him at the peak of the last climb. After that it was a short descent, a bridge crossing across the racetrack, and 1.5 mile of uncut trail in the middle of the raceway. This section I'm sure was put on the course just to frustrate single speeders, all of us whom couldn't hold enough momentum due to the bumpy grass. Pushing a bike in front of hundreds of people .5 miles from the finish sure makes you feel good.

So, I ended up 2nd, which was great. Dan won his race with a time about 5 minutes faster than mine, but he had gears. Wimp.

They had a podium girl and she asked if she could give me a kiss when she handed me my medal. I said no way. They were doing awards for all the mtb classes plus a road race which meant 10-12 classes, 5 places deep. Would you want a kiss from someone who had kissed at least 50 faces in the last 10 minutes. Well, Dan sure did. I've never seen a grin so big as when he got his podium kiss.

So that was that. A few hours at the expo, where we saw all the cool new bike toys, and a relaxing afternoon at home. And an awesome dinner by Ash's parents.

Oh, and the 13 hour drive home was pretty sweet too.

Ocean Otter

This weekend was the Sea Otter Classic. Which is like, the most awesome race ever. For several reasons:

1. It's close to Ashleigh's parents so we get to visit them.
2. There's like a million people there and a huge expo with all the new stuff.
3. The companies bring their employees that are actually fun to talk to, since they are meeting end consumers. (Unlike Interbike, where drab employees are just trying to make sales and hardly know anything about the product. Except for that Niner guy who smelled way to badly of alcohol for it only being 2 in the afternoon).
4. You can race bikes.
5. Ashleigh's parents live close to UCSC, so not only do you get to race, but you get to ride some sweet trails too.
6. That drive. Man, gotta love the drive. (not really)


Anyway, Ash flew out Tuesday and Dan and I drove out Wednesday night/Thursday day. We got there right in time for Ashleigh and her dad's tee time, so Dan and I took off for a ride. We did two loops at UCSC with different descents. The first one was obviously (after we finished it) a pure DH trail, my rigid 29er was a bit overwhelmed. The second descent was also a little much for the bike but it was doable.

Friday, Dan and I took off to register in Monterey, came back, met Ashleigh, and Abby and Rob for lunch, and then slept like babies while Ash drove around. When we woke up, the three of us, Ash, Dan and I, went for a ride at UCSC. We got a bit lost, and, not wanting to subject Ash to the DH trail from yesterday, Ash and I turned around and took the easy way down. Nice.

Saturday was race day. I'll tell that story tomorrow. For now, here are some not so good UCSC pics:

Arizona State University

So, it's decided. We are going to Arizona. I'll be attending law school at ASU in Tempe. Pretty rad. 2 weeks ago I visited the University of Colorado in Boulder and ASU. I was really impressed with the city of Boulder, and the campus. Not so much with the school itself though. ASU was sort of the opposite. The law school is housed in an older building that reminds me of the Flinstones, or a dinosaur museum. The law library is new and very nice however. The program however blew me away. Tons of clinical opportunities, a great legal writing program, low student to professor ratio, and a dean with a really progressive mindset. The scholarship offer was pretty nice, too. It kind of took Boulder out of the occasion as it will make ASU only slightly more expensive than BYU, tuition-wise. Ash and I were already leaning towards Arizona, but the visit sealed the deal.

That is saying a lot, considering my day prior to the campus visit, during which my rental had a flat tire, which I changed, but caused me to be late to a reception that night.

Arizona State seems like a great option, and we are so excited! We'll be moving in August-ish sometime, so we'll be sure to savor our summer in Utah.

PS: Like a million people have already told us how dreadfully hot the summers are in Phoenix. So, we've got that. But you can still remind us if you want to.

Dana Point Crit - hopefully this video stays up.

Dana Point is a beautiful area in Southern California. For me, it marks my failed attempt of surfing. However, this past week there was an NRC criterium (the pro level crit series in the US) there. Apparently there was a bit of drama. With five laps to go there was a big crash. The issue is whether Bahati (#5, the guy interviewed in the middle of the video) was intentionally crashed out, or whether his crash was due to "poor bike handling skills." I have my opinions. Let me know yours.

Video at: http://www.insidecyclingtv.com/videos/129/dana-point-grand-prix

Bike Change

It's classic's season, but this video makes me miss 'cross. The few times I've done bike exchanges for racers has been pretty exhilarating, but not so much as racing. Definitely not as much as winning Flanders, not that I'd know anything about that.