the wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

The weather has been pretty up and down here in PC. We are on about a 5 day cycle, alternating between February and July. Today snow is falling, three days ago it was 75 degrees. Regardless of the weather, motivation has been high to get out and turn the pedals. Bike racing is a lot of fun. The days and races are anything but routine, it is all so new and exciting. Competing with fresh eyes and mind is really refreshing.

Last weekend was an off weekend, no races on the calendar. Myself and four other teammates made the trek to Moab for some warmer weather and a change of scenery. The first day we road through Canyonlands out to Dead Horse Point. The ride out was mellow and enjoyable. After a short break to check out DHP we headed home, straight into the wind. Wind means paceline and paceline seems to, more often than not, mean the hammer is about to fall. and it did. We crushed the ride back for probably 40 minutes. I don't think any of us could have ridden any faster. fortunately i flatted, one of the few times in my life i will be 'fortunate' to flat. we had to stop to change tubes quickly and that meant an end to hammering. we sailed in the last 5 miles to the car, total time around 3 hours. it was awesome to ride with friends in such a sweet place.

the next day we road the famed la sal loop, an epic climb that takes close to an hour and a half to the top. again, the hammer fell when we hit the uphill. it was brutal but at the top, the sights were worth it. the snow on the mountain tops constrasting with the red sandstone of canyonlands below is really something. from the top of the loop there is a long fast decent to castle valley. the ride out from castle valley is long and rolling, and into the wind. wind=paceline=hammer down. another 45 minutes of crushing it and we were all toast but the day was still young. we rode a few short spurs out of moab and headed home for a near 5 hour ride.

the last day we started out with a few spurs and some light spinning, we met the rest of our group at the entry to Arches National Park and road in. more wind, more paceline, more hammer falling. and on a climb out of the park, the joy ride turned into a full on race. i wasn't too psyched about it but it was a good push to get the group back together and spin back home. another 5 hour day in the books.

I was super tired after the weekend so i took a couple days easy. tuesday was two rides totalling 4 hours but easy the whole time with a few accelerations. wednesday i did some uphill intervals at threshold to get my legs ready for the weekends race. i took thursday off and friday a few intervals with world wide superstar, nordic combined world champion and now cat 1 road racer, bill demong. we hammered for about 12 minutes in total to open all systems up.

Saturday, yesterday was the East Canyon Road Race. a 60 mile race for everyone. its basically 45 miles of riding to get to the where the race really happens. then a 15 minute uphill grind, a 10 minute flat in the wind and brutal 300m steep uphill sprint finish.

i felt really comfortable in the pack this time. i just chilled the whole time. i had to bring back a few breaks but it didn't require much effort, but it was neccessary to make sure we hit the big hill together. when we got there, i moved up the side quickly. got to the front and started the click down one and spin, cycle. by that, i mean i shift down one gear (harder) and work up to the point where i can spin it, spin for 10 seconds and drop one more. its a good way to build speed up a hill and not over amp it. the changing cadence is also nice on the legs. after about 30 seconds of work, i had the field down to 7 and after another 30 it was 3 of us. i had it in me to go away from the last two but with a 10 minute, wide open flat afterwards, there wasn't much incentive. at that point i just dragged us up the hill, building time over the pack and keeping the other two on my wheel. when we hit the flats we started a good paceline and kept the speed high past the lake. by the time we got to the uphill, i could tell the other two were done. i slapped it into the big ring and let it all out. i crushed myself. i haven't hurt like that in a while but it was worth the win.

this week: more riding. next weekend: more racing. rinse and repeat as neccessary.

below are some pics from moab that i took with an old school 35mm film camera and a couple from the race that my buddy Jeremy took.

note the grin on my brother. I was not grinning.
leading the charge uphill.




la sal loop road, top of the climb.
canyonlands.

team.

Tour of the Depot (Stage Race in Tooele, UT)

This past weekend I did my first ever stage race on a road bike. It was pretty exciting to give it a try and I was really looking forward to the time trial. Until this weekend I had never even ridden a time trial bike but I was anxious to give it a try.

I was lucky enough to borrow a bike from a friend that fit me pretty well. I approached the race like a ski race, pacing and all. It only took a few minutes (like two) before I caught the guy 30 seconds ahead of me, another minute or two and I passed the guy who started 1 minute ahead of me and that trend continued. I passed 5 people over the 9 mile course and finished with plenty of power left. I really had no idea how i would stack up but I felt good about the effort. It turned out to be a decent one, I won the cat 4 race by a healthy 30 second margin and would have finished mid-pack in the 1/2's. I was satisfied and now I can't wait to go train a bit on a TT bike and try to do even better.

The second stage was a circuit race, 5 laps of a 5 mile course. The finish was a very fast (45+mph) gradual downhill, not exactly my strong point but I was ready to go. My first goal was to not concede any time in the overall, second goal was to win. I road conservatively for a few laps and figured out who the faster guys in the field were. Towards the end I put myself into good position to launch a sprint. As we came near my instinct told me to go and i went, i took off from the front with about 200m to go, only to realize that I had timed it wrong again and was passed by a few racers in the last 100m. Timing a sprint on a bike is much different than a ski race, it really takes patients, and after two botched sprints in 7 days (one earlier at the RMR Criterium on Tuesday) I vowed to not do that again... I maintained a 25 second lead in the GC going into Sunday.

Sunday was a 54 mile road race. It was pretty uneventful aside from the few racers close to me in the GC, who all happened to have teammates, trying to pin me in the corner and attack off the front. Not of them worked out so it came down to a field sprint. I sat patiently at the front and waited until 100m this time. When I when for it I was gone but there was one guy who came from the far side of the field with a lot of speed and about 40 lbs on me, good for another downhill finish. He nipped me at the line but I tied down second and grabbed the overall.

It was a great weekend and I am psyched to be able to race with the Cole Sport team. Another few months of racing and I should be a Cat 2, at which point I will actually be able to race WITH the team in the same races. I'm really looking forward to that.

Lost in the Vortex.

I'm not sure what happened last weekend but in terms of this blog, nothing happened. I totally forgot to create a post. I suppose it could have had something to do with the fact that I was probably lost somewhere in San Francisco while I should have been posting something here. Regardless, sorry to those of you who follow this blog about my tardiness.

So its been a few weeks since I last raced. I've been hanging in Park City, catching up one some design projects and just generally relaxing. We had a few weeks of awesome weather with temperatures near 70 degrees. I got out on my new bike a handful of times and also did some great spring skiing at Park City Mtn Resort. This past week has been epic in regards to snowfall. Something like 140 inches have fallen in Big Cottonwood Canyon in 7 days. Wild for this time of year.

Last weekend my ladyfriend, Crystal, and I traveled to San Francisco to check out the bay area. Crystal was accepted to a graduate program at UC Berkeley and having never visited we wanted to see what it was all about. It was an awesome place. Each neighborhood seemed to have a completely different feel and charm from the next. On Monday Crystal attended an open house at UCB and I took the day to visit a few art schools that I am interested in attending at somepoint in the future. Similar to the area as a whole, each school was much different from one and other and all have their various strengths.

After returning on Tuesday I took a few days to do some more work and get ready to start training again. I got out on my bike twice during the week and was hoping for a few more but its tough to hit the road when there is six inches of snow on the ground. The writing was on the wall and if i wanted to ride it would have to be on the rollers. The first day on rollers in some time was definitely not a relaxing experience. Its tough to feel comfortable when you are constantly worried about falling over or riding off the machine. Today was day two and it was much more relaxing.

I'm planning on riding everyday this next week. I'll probably throw a few short runs in there and as well as a day in the gym. Tuesday will be a training race called the RMR Criterium in Salt Lake, also known as the Tuesday night world championship because of how serious the riders are. Next weekend may be my first real race of the season if my legs are feeling ready. Its a short stage race in Tooele, just outside of Salt Lake. It should be interesting and I am looking forward to it. So far the weather looks like it is going to cooperate. It would be nice to train outdoors again.

Congratulations to David and Amory and welcome Thea to the ITA roster. Exciting news indeed.

Below are a few photos I took of a local stadium in the snow, spring is near.