Go vote for the next rider submited Evomo T-shirt.

Evomo had a great contest going on for all you haters out there who think they could design a better t-shirt then them. Well I approached that wrong, they had a great contest for those creative people out there where you could submit a t-shirt design then have it voted on by the public. The winner gets their t-shirt run in limited release for sale on the site.

You can go to vote here.

I’ll give you a preview of your options starting with m y personal favorite. But don’t let my opinion swing your choice. Go and vote for yourself.

It brings so much pain to my little world.

So you may be asking where the heck I have been for the past week and a half. The answer is…..sick. Yep I got back last weekend from the race and the allergies started really kicking my ass. By Monday I was completely out of it and didn’t get back on the bike until Friday.

At any rate I am back on the bike this week and feeling 100% better. No that I am back I motion to burn down every orange tree in Mesa. All in favor let’s go out and do it so we can all live better.

MBAA race #4, Fort Huachuca.

It was a great weekend for racing down in southern AZ. The MBAA series held the first race in 6 years on the Army base Fort Huachuca; it’s a great place only 15 miles from Mexico with an elevation around 5000 feet. For those of you who didn’t make it down to this race, you missed out. The course is mostly epic single track weaving through oak tress and up and around grass covered foot hills.

I rode down with the guys from focus, Dan, Lane and Travis. We got down there in time to put in a couple laps.

The race starts out right, with a big tough climb, you can see the elevation gain from the last post. Once you make it to the top its right onto single track for a fast off camber decent that winds through trees at the bottom. It was decided that this would be the portion of the trail that would decide race. If you got behind a slower rider there really was no way around them so if some one got out and ahead they would put some major time on you.

There are also a few technical sections that could mess you up. It was rocky enough that I got a pinch flat my second time around. On this one Dan takes the foot down and looks a little sissy, but you wouldn’t know it on race day because he got second in the category 1 group. Great job Dan!

Race day itself was beautiful, high 50’s with a few clouds in the sky. The marathon group I was with started first as usual at 8:30 and to start the day off right I got the whole shot to the single track. It was a great peace of work but within the first mile an unknown guy who blew past me. Turns out he is a full time pro from Canada who decided to travel down here for some early season racing. Cool I guess, I figure if he is willing to travel all the way down for this then he can have the win and deserves it.

My race was great though, I completed it in 3 ½ hours and with as rocky and technical as the trail is I was happy with my position. Considering I am not a technical rider it was a good thing Travis and I got out and warmed up the tech skills over the last couple weekends. With the flat on Friday I was a bit sketched out so I pumped the tire pressure up to 40 PSI. That made for a really bumpy ride and not as much control as I am used to. Time to get a new rim.

Throughout the race though all I could think about was how great the trail is. It actually felt like a mountain bike race and not a glorified road race. I fell into my 3rd place with in the first lap and then had to sit in to try to catch the two others ahead. It wasn’t to happen though and I finished solo a few minutes ahead of number 4. However I was off walking the trail watching the pros when I heard my name being called for the podium. To make up for that though I got this sweet pic of fellow Evomo rider Darren who placed 4th in his race. Way to go Darren!

Good times on the training ride.

It's hard to stay entertained on a recovery ride, there are only so many routes a person can take at low speed for only so many years before you want to pull your hair out. Tonight though Mesa PD did me a favor and posted the movable speed radar right into my path. So I got the camera out to see just how fast i could get going without hands.

24 MPH, not so bad. I think I could have gotten it up higher.

This weekend I will have to do some driving to get down to Sierra Vista for the MBAA race. The marathon race is only 35 miles long. The thing is though that when they cut the mileage down you know it is going to be rough steep and ugly. Looking at the election here I am going to say it will be a little of both. Sierra Vista is practically in Mexico so it will have to be an over night adventure.

Why XC guys don't catch air.

A non-cycling friend of mine asked why there are no pictures of me jumping off stuff on the blog. I tried explaining that I don't catch a lot of air on a 29er and that most of my time is spent with two wheels plated firmly on the ground. Still he persisted in wanting to see some "action shots" other then me just riding. So to demonstrate why I don't have any "sick air time" photos I got Travis to jump over a burm into a wash.

There you go, not that exciting right? It's hard to translate the glory of a 5 hour mountain bike ride to the non-rider because there is no point of reference between us and them. Seeing some kid hucking himself off some 50 foot cliff is something quick and easy for people to look at and go "wow, that was soooo rad." 5 hours up and down hills though is a bit harder for people to wrap their mind around.

The ride yesterday was dedicated to getting my mountain bike handling back. Travis and I made repeated climbs up a technical climb out on Hawes called "big screen." Big screen is great because it is always changing, routes and lines are never the same and it has a good mix of loose sand as well as rocks to momentum up and over. There is a price to be payed though and I did fall over a couple of times during the day. Nothing cool just those lame ones where you loose momentum, stand there for a second and then down you go. Again like the jumping XC falls are pretty unimpressive.

Kids and bikes?

Tonight as I was doing a recovery ride in the dark I came across a little family consisting of a mom, dad and 14 or 15 year old girl all on touring bikes decked out with racks and trailers. They had stopped at a light and had maps out so I figured I would stop and see if they needed directions. In talking to them I found out they where from Tennessee and riding cross country from Florida to san Diego. They had been on the road for 6 weeks and I wondered how in the heck they got a teen age girl to ride a bike across country like this.

At any rate I helped point them in the right direction and rode on. Now that I have a little one on the way I have been trying to figure out in my mind how to integrate being a mountain bike racer and the time that this takes with the new responsibility of being a dad. Clearly priority number one is the child, I have already made that choice but how do you strike a balance?

I know a lot of guys who hold down the ride thing as well as the family thing but if any of you out there have any suggestions on making it all work I am all ears.

FYI

Mesa AZ mountain bike ride.

With the bike back at home where she belongs it was up and of the house before the sun rise for a good long ride. Any mountain bike ride that starts out with the use of lights is a good ride for me. I took the canal system out to the Salt River and the Hawes loops meeting up with Travis and his new Specialized 29er he picked up over at South Mountain Cycles. Even with the Extra large frame and 29 inch wheels Travis makes a bike look small.
A few minutes after meeting up and hitting the trail the sun was coming up. I am not a fan of getting up early for road rides I love it on the mountain, the sun sitting low in the sky cast great shadows making the desert look much more colorful then it actually is.
We did a complete Hawes loop including a new section the pirates carved out. The new stuff is great and an addition I am sure the forest service didn't sanction. fine by me though, if we left it up to the government mountain bikers wouldn't even be on the trails we created in the first place.
After a complete loop there we headed out and back on twisted sister, a trail that for some reason I cant help but getting cactus in me on. This was the first 4 plus hour ride that I have been able to sit in consistently on with the Titec components. The Pluto Duke seat post was great, this is the first carbon seat post on a mountain bike I have had in a couple years and it was great. The high frequency vibrations that typically break down my low back where lessoned. That is a great thing.
Once I parted ways with Travis I had a small bit of road to ride and was quickly over taken by a roadie. I had to catch and pass him just to show him what's up. the look on his face was priceless when I pulled up along side him fat tires and all. Passing roadies on a mountain bike and beating guys with more expensive bikes are a few of my favorite things. The only thing that could have made it better would be if he hada pro team kit on.
After the ride I recovered with my favorite Cheesy eggs and salsa. I also had to throw on a few thick slices of pepper bacon for good measure. That's the kind off food that makes you a fast mountain biker.