I miss the fitness. I miss the training. Somehow in the years past I got it into my head that I liked pushing my body and mind beyond what I ever thought possible on a regular basis. I like the accomplishments. And I miss the therapy even though I still ride enough to enjoy the rides. Maybe I even miss the constantly sore, solid legs.
I'm a goal-oriented person. I do best when I have something to reach for. So this year: Let's get back to some serious training and become competitive again. Looking at the 2019 numbers I rode about 50% of the past years so I have a lot of creative work to do so I can get my "second job" back in line.
During those years I had decent accomplishments at LOTOJA, High Cascades, Park City Point 2 Point, and the BC Bike Race, and a few more, that I want to return to. This post is a personal reminder.
In the last few years I wanted to find the next physical goal to reach for and decided to go for a 50+ hill climb championship. Now it's written down so it must happen. Here it goes.
Early this year we decided it was time to change my job from 100% remote to 100% in-office in Park City, move, shift my work-life balance to 90+% work, and stop bicycle racing. Maybe I was bored.
I am now happier at work because I'm surrounded by excellent coworkers and I'm making a difference. Work is rewarding as well which is important to me.
Even before changing work I was burned out on the bike. I had a tough time getting any training done and I wouldn't train in the basement like previous years. I bought a fat bike thinking it would be a good tool to avoid the basement but I didn't train with any structure. The fat bike is a bunch of fun for sure.
Selling and buying homes was no fun, and working long hours in the office was a difficult shift. We worked it out thanks to my amazing partner in life, and no one died in the process [that we know of] so it's a success. There were close calls.
We moved to the Wasatch Back which I now feel we should have done at least 10 years ago, but we didn't until now. It fits my outdoor love even though I am not yet taking full advantage of it due to my work schedule. It is refreshing, clean, green, scenic, smaller, and overall a better fit.
We are adjusting to the changes, have done a significant amount of house work after the move to make this place ours, and have a ways to go. Welcome to the next chapter.
Here's my 2018 race season illustrated. Turns out my race season starts around November of the year before because I typically have a March or April race I like to participate in. By "participate" I mean "win" of course but it hasn't happened yet.
December 2017: Broke Top Fuel. Large loose rock came up and bit the bike as I was rolling along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Limped back to the truck and went to Trek of Salt Lake City the next day because they're open on Sunday.
Trek is an excellent company in case you haven't heard me say that before. I'm a fan. They lent me a fat bike while my bike was down. Gretzky appreciated the fat bike rides.
Gretzky and I even got to play with Alex making a video in the snow with the Trek Farley!
During the month I had a fat bike available we got some snow. I rode in the snow cause that's what one does with a fat bike. I actually enjoyed most of the fat bike rides and found it to be a good workout tool.
In mid February a few of us joined up for a True Grit training camp which was an excellent experience. After the first day I wanted to ride more than "session" so I went for a quick lap, had a bit too much energy to release, went a bit too fast on a skinny fast rocky singletrack, found a large rock on the left side of the trail with my front wheel, and went over the handlebars into large jagged rocks. Wrist disapproved. Now I'm broken a few weeks before my first race.
I decided to race True Grit anyways because my wrist felt OK but mainly I'm stupid and stubborn. I like the True Grit course; it has a variety of trail elements for everyone and is a good early season beating. Note I bought the above picture but it hasn't arrived yet and I'm impatient.
I then raced a few road events because I try to take advantage of racing on the Utah Motorsports Campus every chance I get and because I also have a long history with the East Canyon Road Race. No pictures here.
My first "A" race was in Gunnison, CO: The Original Growler. That was rockier and rougher than expected. Nowhere near as rocky as the Grand Junction Off-Road which keeps the title of the roughest race I've ever done, but pretty rocky and tough. More desert racing than I thought given we'd been to Crested Butte in the past and found Crested Butte to be drool-worthy alpine trails.
Since I'm a geek and can work remotely we stayed the week at a nice little spot in Gunnison and toured around the area.
And then came the big one. The BC Bike Race. A 7-day stage race that I won't shut up about. It was phenomenal, spectacular, amazing, awesome, inspiring, gorgeous, and the list goes on. So much to talk about, so much to try to convey. Let me esplain... No, there is too much...Let me sum up. Maybe over a nice glass of wine some day. Anyone capable of this feat should participate in it. Anyone incapable at this time should work toward becoming capable then participate.
So far this is the most beautiful place I've visited on the planet. I've said this before about the Sea to Sky highway between Vancouver and Whistler, and now I got to race my bike in the out-of-this-world looking scenery to the west of that highway. No picture I took or have seen does this place justice. Go experience it already.
Vanessa and Gretzky got to ride a bit of the trails in Cumberland and found a video that gives a taste of the fun.
A few weeks after, back in Utah, I jumped in to the Snowbird Intermountain Cup race. Yeah I know I should pay for this picture; life isn't fair. Anyways I somehow ended up on the 3rd step of the podium that day which was an unexpected treat. A solid day.
El Doce at Pow Mow was next. This was a week before my last "A" race of the year so I chose to race as a team, and ended up putting the majority of the 24 hours of Moab team back together. It was so nice just to have fun instead of race seriously. Well, we tried to anyways. We are competitive people after all so we found ways to compete against each other and somehow ended up taking 2nd place in the team competition.
Last "A" race of the season: the Inaugural Big Sky Biggie. Our first time visiting Big Sky, MT thanks to Josh T's invitation. The trails there are so much fun! Alpine trail mix of new, flowy, fast, rolly, sexy stuff sandwiched in old school and even maybe goat trails that don't see much use, with the occasional double track service road in the middle of deep forests. It's worth the trip.
Finishing the race I see a paved section leading back to town as I drop out of the singletrack. I may actually beat the 5 hour clock depending on how long this road is so I destroy myself up the road climb. And I notice a guy on a bike, maybe motorized, pacing next to me as I'm drooling and dying. He took a pretty nice picture.
I managed to finish in 4 hours and 55 minutes, earning me a 1st place finish in my age group and an 8th place overall. Yeeeeeees!
One of my favorite races is the 8 hours of Sundance, previously a 12 hour event. The course is extremely scenic and has plenty of features to keep one entertained for the day. I managed to go around the place 9 times while overcoming four nearly simultaneous cramps and some mental funkiness to earn myself another W this year, and this time I placed first overall and in my age group.
Lastly, the day after racing my ass off (not kidding, it was raw) for 8 hours I decide to race, well, "participate in" the Tour Des Suds in Park City. It's an event that's become somewhat of a tradition with Rick L. and Elton R. It's a good time, a beautiful set of trails, a silly event, it's well organized, and it ends with this view, so why not finish the season here?
Top: Lake Havasu in February, Bottom: Park City in August.
My 2017 racing season started in Lake Havasu for the Havasu Havoc in February which turned out to be a nice early season option. It was our first time visiting Havasu and we enjoyed it even though it's yet-another desert. The town has decent food and RV options, the mountain biking is decent, and the Havoc organizers did a good job with the course and event.
Part of the reason for racing my mountain bike in February was to prepare for Moab Rocks, the 3-day stage race I decided to participate in. This would be my first mountain bike stage race and my first time racing in Moab. We've been fortunate enough to spend a significant amount of time in the last 20 years or so, but this was my first race there.
Moab Rocks started the first day with a climb out of town to the top of Porcupine which worked out well for me, then I realized I brought a knife to a gun fight in the form of a 100 mm-travel bike. I thoroughly love my Trek Top Fuel and we do really well together, but the guys with 130+mm bikes zoomed by us on Porcupine making us feel like we had our names on our helmets. Not pretty. Regardless, we spanked the course to our best ability and earned a bunch of PRs on our way down. The next 2 days taught me about stage racing on the mountain bike. Turns out there's still nowhere to hide on the mountain bike and stage racing is no different. Day 2 was a ton of fun in the Klondike area and my legs weren't quite happy about the intensity 2 days in a row. Day 3 at Mag 7 resulted in my legs and I having a disagreement during the second half of the climb. I lost the argument. We finished anyway, we accomplished a 3 day stage race, and I learned I need to do things differently if I expect to work that hard day after day.
In April came the Epic Rides Whiskey Off-Road in Prescott, AZ. I had that event on my to-do list for many years and finally made it over there. Vanessa also decided to take part in the fun by riding the 15-Proof on Friday which allowed me to spectate, cheer, and do a bit of crewing for her with the pup. Another first time event in 2017, there's really never enough time to preride such a large course, so it's "blind" racing. The Whiskey single track can be burly and surprisingly rocky. I wasn't expecting some of the skinnier rocky trail but it was a good challenge. The whole course is super scenic, even the massive dirt road climb out of Skull Valley. There's something special about descending forever on the road that you know you have to climb back. Everything in your head is telling you to stop and turn around to avoid all that work. It's masochistic. Maybe this particular dirt road is MASSochistic because I got to experience the "stop you idiot! Turn the F@#$ around!" voices for nearly 25 minutes of descending. To add to the fun, we were in a medium sized group of guys taking turns pulling at the front to go even faster descending and causing the descent to be a hard effort instead of a gravity-fed cruise. Then we finally get to turn around and head uphill. Climbers rejoice. A bunch of people now decide it's their turn and ratchet up the effort to various degrees of pain. And after descending for 25 minutes the climb takes some serious time to conquer. I try my best to hang with the pace, stay in the top 5 area of the group we descended with, and we start picking off riders. The climbing group reduces in size in front of me and behind me for awhile and the rhythm becomes tolerable. Then there were three. Somehow only three of us continue to ride at the same pace, still picking off people that started the climb too fast and paid the price. I take a pull, someone else does, I get back to take a pull, I tend to do best when I stand and it's steep, and then, no one. I just rode everyone off my wheel during a hour and fifteen minute climb. All those hardcore guys foaming at the mouth on the descend making me barely hang on and making me curse the pace, gone. Heh. At the top of this insane climb is a whiskey hand up and some excellent singletrack. Yeah, let's do both please. Then the paved road back to town for the finish. Pretty great event actually. As I'm writing this many months later I still feel accomplished for riding everyone off my wheel and am looking forward to this event again. Yeah, MASSochistic I know.
Three days after we return from Prescott I crash at 40 mph on my road bike. I'm down for a few weeks but luckily didn't break anything on my body.
I get the pieces back together and we later head to Bend, OR for the High Cascades 100. Winter snow accumulation forced a lower elevation course which I have no way to know if it's good or bad, and once again I'm racing "blind"; maybe it's the theme of the year. I ended up finishing in 8:35 averaging 11.9 mph for 100 miles while making approximately 16.5 MILLION turns. That is a twisty course. Fun singletrack all day, and I didn't realize I would ever want singletrack turns to end until that day. Bend has excellent fun trails, lots of them, with lots of turns. And lots of dust. I'd go back for sure regardless of the dust cause I love riding in forests and Bend has a ton of trails.
My 2017 finale was Point 2 Point. This would be my third time participating in this event after taking a 5 year break from 2012. That year's drama included a missed 1.5 mile section of course. This year's drama involved a broken seat.
I was in good shape at this point in the season. I had a goal of 7:30 for this ridiculously difficult race. I had studied my competition, I knew some guys from the rest of the season and noticed they did well in past years at P2p, I knew their race kits, and I knew their bib numbers. I was going to stick with those guys as long as I could. I wasn't screwing around at the start to have a bunch of traffic; race on.
And, while riding in the group I wanted to be in during the Round Valley section, I make a simple mistake, slide off on a simple curve, and my saddle breaks. Lovely.
My most amazing crew is only a few miles away though, and I tucked a spare saddle in a bag just in case. Just in case I break a saddle, because I had a bad rash of breaking saddles recently. It took 1 minute and 47 seconds to fix and I was on my way to an excellent 7:36 finish, averaging 10.6 mph for 79 miles and 11,000 feet of climbing. Good day that earned me a 5th place podium and a year's worth of Natural Delights Medjool Dates!
No wins in 2017. I got close with a few second and third place finishes. I'll keep digging. It was a successful racing year which took us all over the western U.S. I'll take it.
I am not in love with my new 2016 Project One Madone 9. I wanted to be in love with it, as I have been in love with all other Trek bicycles I've purchased. I hope this serves as information to help you better understand one of your demographic groups.
I am a mid 40s male with the financial stability to afford nice toys and the competitive spark to train and race basically as a second job. I'm a Cat 3 road racer and a Cat 1 mountain bike racer. I spend about a dozen hours on a bike weekly. I fell in love with Trek bikes with my 1998 Y22 because it fit like a glove, handled spectacularly, took an amazing beating, and pushed the technological boundaries of what I thought a bicycle was. I owned that bike for nearly a dozen years before it was replaced by a 2009 Fuel Ex 9.8 due to the Y22 being stolen. I now race the best mountain bike on the planet known as the 2014 Superfly 9.9 SL XX1, another Project One purchase for me.
I started my Madone path with the 2006 Madone 5.2. We were on a ski vacation in Steamboat Springs, walked by a bike shop, saw that beauty in the window, and the next day I owned it (thanks to my amazing wife gifting it to me). I moved on to a 2009 Madone 5.5 and a 2011 Madone 5.9.
Of course I needed a Speed Concept 9.5 to compete in stage races, upgrades happen, and my wife needs bikes too, so, our current garage looks like this. By my calculations I've owned over $55,000 of Trek bikes so far, where my newest Project One Madone 9 seen in white is worth $11,900.
Now that you understand the extent of my insanity, and hopefully the extent of my brand loyalty, let me get to the 2016 Madone.
I waited for this bike. I truly wore out my 2011 Madone. I ordered it the first week (maybe the first day) it was available. All my other Madones have been incredible and have been the best bikes I've ever owned, one after the other.
The 2016 is a Madone for sure. My second ride was a 100 miles, I've probably put 300 miles on it by now, and the Madone performs well; it is stiff under acceleration and it is comfortable. It is a stable descender and solid under my small-framed body. As promised the aerodynamics are superior to any other Madone I've owned, which is excellent, and kudos on the great work for making that happen.
What I can't wrap my head around is this: How can the top of the line $12,000 Madone 9 series possibly be 3/4 lbs heavier than my 5 year old Madone 5 series? The Madone is touted as the ultimate race bike. I chose against an Emonda because I wanted more than a pure climber; I wanted the whole package; you know, the ultimate. Did I end up with a sprinter-specialist bike? That is NOT my idea of an ultimate race bike. I suffer through flats and sprints to make some damage on climbs. I am now competing with people with 14 lbs bikes, how can my brand new, top of the line bike be 16.4 lbs?
The 2016 Madone 9 is a super sexy machine that climbs well. It feels good under acceleration. It descends amazingly. It is a Madone. I am disappointed that its climbing prowess doesn't surpass my older Madones. I've spent 3 times the amount of money I've ever spent on any Madone. I should be elated.
I hope this gives you insight and helps you produce superior bicycles.
Hyperthreads is the cycling clothing provider for our Diamond Peak team this year so I am getting the chance to use their products multiple times per week, for road and mountain rides, and for short and long durations.
First let me say these are some of the nicest looking kits I've been proud to wear. The design work was excellent. I don't know who to thank for that but I'm guessing it's a combination of Diamond Peak and Hyperthreads. Here it is on the Brian Head ICup podium; please disregard the stomach.
Since I spend many hours on a bike I spend many hours in jerseys. The Pro-model jersey is unique in it's "stickiness" where it is often difficult to put something in a pocket or take something out due to the jersey material causing my hand to stick or causing friction of some sort. This turns out to be a significant problem when there are only a few seconds available to grab food or put back food during a mountain bike trail section. And often times during a race there are few opportunities to eat so these times are at a premium. I never knew this could be an issue until I came across this jersey, and I happen to currently have more than 20 other jerseys of various brands that don't behave this way. I speculate the reason for this is the rubberized fabric.
Another byproduct of the fabric is its elasticity. Fill the pockets with enough food, supplies, and a large water bottle for a 50 mile race, and you'll find the jersey starts bouncing and stretching after a few hours, giving in to the weight in the pockets. I've experienced enough stretching that the back of the jersey caught on the back of my seat, forcing me to sit and change my pedaling style. I'm weird in a lot of ways, and maybe this is another one of my quirks, but I'd rather my jersey not play a role in how I ride, how often I stand, and what size water bottle I carry. I've now changed my plans to carry smaller water bottles to avoid this bouncing and stretching.
I am happy with the fit, the cooling, the look, the feel of the chamois, and all other aspects of the new kit. I am especially grateful for the sponsorship with our team, which is why I feel it is important to provide this feedback. I hope this helps Hyperthreads and others.
We traveled to Durango, CO to take part in the 44th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic weekend. I raced the classic road race on Saturday, Vanessa rode the Grassburger ride on Sunday morning, and I raced the MBS cross country race in the afternoon, you know, just so we can feel like it was worth the drive.
The weather was mostly wet and colder than usual for the end of May, yet we were lucky enough to avoid rain and snow during the 3 bike events we attended. Overall we enjoyed our second visit to Durango and highly recommend the voyage.
Iron Horse Bicycle Classic
Here is a quick view of the course from the pro viewpoint. I was only a few minutes behind that group so luckily the weather didn't degrade much from what is visible in this video.
We got started at 7:38 in a pack of 75+, rolling along at a nice and easy pace for the first dozen miles or so. At around mile 16 the leaders shed everyone but the best 25 ish, including me. A second group of 10+ formed as the road flattened, where only 4-5 of us actually worked up front. For the next dozen or so miles we had a good group effort,
good pace lines, and friendly group. Nearly every climb I ended up taking a pull, out climbed most of second group, and caught
some of the first group.
Once we hit the Coal Bank pass climb I stepped up to the front and left the group minus one person which became my pacing buddy (#207) for a significant amount of climbing. We were a good match and had fun pushing
each other yet no trying to destroy one another. He got away, I kept him in sight,
but didn't quite reel him in. Got within 20
feet at top of Molas pass, so close...He likely grabbed on to a bigger group and flew down because the little group of 3 I got in on the last descent didn't catch him.
I had a decent finish picking a guy off at the line but watching the sprint get
away. Not enough juice to go with sprint, maybe some mental issues but legs
were worked from holding on during descent and getting into town. Guy I passed at the
line yelled in disappointment; kinda funny, I've been there.
The Finish: dropped
into Silverton, last hairpin I was on 260 wheel and 204 clawed back. 204 is a big
guy so he crushed the false flats through town. 260 held back, got a rest,took off around, I couldn't match. 204 tried
to match, got a gap on me, I clawed back. He looked back 100 meters from finish
to see if he was safe. I was maybe 3 bike lengths away and sat down so he felt
he was safe. Once he looked away I stood, drilled it, and caught him by a wheel
or less. The picture to the right shows 260, 204 (DWC), and me a few hundred feet from the line. I would end up catching and passing 204.
Overall a good
race. Legs were strong, kept a good pace whole race, tried my best to mitigate losses
when dropped by lead group. Good descending but compact crank runs out of gears
too fast. Pegged effort trying to hold group on descent which I paid for on the subsequent climb and finish sprint.
Legs. were. worked. Spirit was high.
Results: 13th out of 75 finishers in the 35-44 age group, and 60th out of 450 finishers overall.
The rest of the day
Interestingly it was nice to get kudos from other racers at finish. I typically don't get congratulated after a road race. Are the roadies usually less friendly than mountain bikers? Absolutely. This time, nice sportsmanship from a few of the competitors.
I cooled down a bit, changed, had Ultragen for recovery since I knew I had a race the next day, looked for train, ate pea soup from Grumpys, looked for the train, found end of train tracks in dirt road, dropped bike off, waited for train, had difficulty with train, the only train in town was the wrong train, the wrong train left, the "right" train arrived and I waited to be told to board, decided to just board, some people had reserved seats, what a mess. Race organization could be clear on what to expect, where to get train, etc.
Grumpy's saloon
The wrong train
Silverton organization is interesting. No train station, just tracks at the end of a dirt road. Looked for train station for 20 ish minutes, asked people but didn't know. 3.5 hour train ride back. I guess I chose the cheaper option and wonder how long the bus would have been with after race traffic.
Train is klunky, creaky, rough, and ends up tedious. Scenery is amazing. Probably nice to take a day trip to Silverton, grab a bite, shop, and return. Silverton seems quite well set up for tourism. Not a great option after the race.
The train ride down
Above Silverton
Beautiful tough race. Need to do it again? Nah, mainly because of return logistics.
Mountain bike Specialists Cross Country race
Have you ever raced through a brewery? It's worth every penny.
Lined up with world class athletes, Todd Wells for example. Got interesting looks. As expected I didn't have the legs to keep up even before we hit the dirt. Dead last by the dirt. Passed 2 in the first few turns because one guy screwed up, one tried to pass back, tangled handlebars, made me go down. Dead last again.
Passed one back before the end of the climb; he also had raced yesterday. Passed "tangle" guy back by the end of the lap. I ended up catching 4-5 people by the end of the race where at least one was having chain issues. Better than expected. Ended 29th out of 36 finishers so I apparently wasn't ever dead last.
Crowds were awesome again all over the course although crowd through town raised the bar a few notches. Steamworks is bad ass to let us ride through and fill the place with screaming fans, cow bells, and beer hand ups. Took 2 beer hand ups this time cause it was just that kind of race. Crowd went nuts both times. Didn't feel confident on the man made obstacles this time though. They weren't positioned the same as last time and I just didn't feel like wrecking. One crash per season is plenty. Less is more here.
Legs felt ok during the race and ok after. Not as crushed as iron horse race. Maybe due to downhill finish without massive sprint at end.
Emotionally feel excited from a great race weekend. Proud of my efforts regardless of results, and happy to be back from injury.
