Friday, June 29, 2007

Moab, UT

Sovereign Singletrack in Moab, UT. My stopover on the way from Park City, UT to Durango, CO. Early morning or late evening rides are the only options at this time of year, it is hot. An RV park with a trailhead makes me very happy. This was a perfect one-stop-shop, great trail to ride, camping, diesel, propane and I didn't have to un-hook the pickup.

Monday, June 18, 2007

21st NMBS #4 Deer Valley, UT

21st out of ~60 in Saturday's XC. The picture is from Short Track on Sunday, 27th (good for a back row start). Todd placed 5th in Men's Expert 40-44 XC.
My sister Erika crashed out hard, stitches in hip and lots of cuts and bruises. She would have placed 3rd, or better, in Women's Expert 30-39 XC. She has been passing out and thowing up on and off for the last 24 hours.
Thomas Turner had a good weekend. 25th of 87 in Saturday's XC. He crashed in the short track (in the exact spot in my picture above). After getting up to 9th place for a bit (and the wreck) he ended up in 14th of 54. After a visit to the medical tent he headed to the popular Urgent Care to get stitches in his forearm. I am headed to Durango, CO in the morning.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Local Park City, UT Race

Still in Park City, UT. It has been fun training here, I have been able to watch my sister Erika's last three races. She placed 1st Expert each time, in a class of 8-13 racers, obviously having a great 1st Expert year.
Todd and I raced the local race this weekend. They start each class ~1minute apart, Pro Men followed by Expert age groups, Pro Women, Sport Men age groups, Sport Women, Beginner Men age group, Beginner Women. So everyone is out there together. A lot of the sport guys hammer the first lap passing Pro women then fade and we pass them back. The course we raced was not a passing course which made things interesting... It has also been a while since I have had to feed myself, it worked out well, I didn't drop any bottles.
On the last lap I had a crazy wreck where I hit a rock with my pedal, my left foot came out of the pedal, I stuck it in my rear spokes, the rear wheel locked up (at 15mph) I skidded down the trail thinking that my foot was about to break, then finally fell over in slow motion when I didn't have any speed left. I lay on the ground with my bike on top, my foot still stuck, (threaded over the left chain stay, through the bladed spokes, then out under the right chain stay so the wheel wouldn't go forward or backward), my legs were cramped up by having them in such weird positions and I was sure I was about to get run over by a Sport guy. Eventually I was able to untangle my foot and get back on the bike, a little while later both inside quads (adductors?) cramped and I still had the last climb to do. So, don't put your foot through your rear spokes... Erika placed 1st/13 in Women's Expert (by 5 minutes), Todd 3rd/11 (1 second behind 2nd) 40+ Expert, I got 4th/11 in Pro Women.