Wednesday, June 23, 2010

  Local Race in Los Alamos NM. $300 payout for 2nd! 
(of 2, so yes, $300 for last place, I love this race)


Massanutten Hoo-Ha, Final US Cup Triple Crown Race in VA

Great weekend! I traveled with Kelli Emmet (Giant) which was a blast, we had a hotel with everything and a van who's doors opened and closed at the touch of a button.  We did not bring any support to the race but Sue Haywood's boyfriend Tim of Shenandoah Bicycle really helped us out!


I was totally stoked that my new kits from Primal showed up (early)!! Thanks Dave (www.trailwatch.net) for all the Cycling News pictures in my new kit.

 Super D 2nd Place!

Loved this SuperD course, rocky, bits of climbing, fast, you had to pay attention the entire time. George (the local promoter) did a great job listening to the racers and making changes to the starting order/times based on feedback.

 Short Track 3rd Place

Spectators were so loud and fun!

The courses were the best I've seen, everyone agreed the short track was awesome. After the race everyone was wondering if these guys could build a great short track course just for us, why can't the National Championship guys or other big races build a fun short track?  The men's race did have a bit of an issue because they were pulling lapped riders after they were lapped and this led to a wreck taking out one of the leaders (Sid) on the last lap...


 Cross-country

The cross-country course was great, I however did not have a great race.  First of all they started every Cat2, Cat1, Pro racer at the same time without lining us up.  We didn't realize this was what they meant when they said mass start, we assumed there would be small gaps between groups. I was not a fan. I love Sue Haywood's quote in the Cycling News XC Recap "That start was not cool."  "If that's old school, I think we should bury the old school."

It was really hot, ~95 degrees and humid, but that never ended up being an issue. About 30 minutes in I again moved off the trail to let faster guys by and a stick popped up out of the thick eastern coast undergrowth/leaves/debris went through the spokes and took the derailleur with it.  I was finally able to get the derailleur out of the spokes, the wheel spun and I tried to line the derailleur up "normally" but the shifting was way off.  With the chain slipping on 4 out of 5 pedal strokes I had to stop again and another racer who I believe was Thomas (Tim's Business partner at Shenandoah Bicycle) helped get it ridable - fellow racers were allowed to help each other outside the tech zone at this race. When I went through the tech zone Tim worked on it some more while I pounded water. I went back out to salvage the last of my race but ended up wrecking and hyperextending my elbow (it popped). 

As I gingerly rode the last 30 minutes I couldn't believe I had such a bad race, was in pain but still thought the course was amazing. I would highly recommend this race, and the town of Harrisonburg seemed to have a great cycling/arts/college community.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Angel Fire MSC

I have been hanging out in NM for a month now. Our plans were to head to Durango for June, but Todd has been working in Arizona, I found great riding and racing in and around Santa Fe, and I fly out of Albuquerque, NM mid June so we are still here.

Sat 29th: I hung out at the Java Joes parking lot waiting for just the right group road ride to join.  I passed up two groups including the one shown here, the Santa Fe Road Riders B ride.  They are so nice not only do they let me join them, they let an older man (who seemed a little tipsy at 8:30 am) join them with his low end mountain bike, jeans, tennis shoes, etc. They all pedaled out of the parking lot together, not sure how far he made it.

I am not the only one inviting myself on rides...

Bike N' Sport A ride store stop somewhere outside of Santa Fe

Sun 30th: I couldn't find anyone to join me so I loaded up the Ergon pack and went in search of the snow line using the Big Santa Fe Loop GPS track. Great ride up Chamisa, Windsor, Big Tesuque, then a bit of dirt road riding on Aspen Vista. Once I ran into snow it was back down Aspen Vista, down Pacheco Canyon dirt road all the way to the houses then back up to Hyde Park Road, down Big T, Windsor, and Chamisa.

Found the snow. Aspen Vista dirt snow covered road, I was able to hike around this section.

Okay, time to turn around, Aspen Vista road ~11,600feet

June 4-6th: Todd and I headed up to Angel Fire to camp and race the XC and SuperD. Seems like everyone had vehicle or bike mechanical issues this weekend, luckily we had van issues and the Scalpel ran perfectly. 

A heat wave arrived this weekend. We thought Angel Fire would be nice and cool, but we were wrong. The van air conditioner started running intermittently which we tried to ignore. Then the fuel sensor failed and we stalled out at a stop light in Taos; luckily we were able to get it started and limp, gas starved, to a parking lot.  My sister Adria called and as I talked to her Todd got out a spare fuel sensor he just happened to have in the van.  He searched around under the hood till he found the part, replaced it and we were on our way. As we pulled into Angel Fire I pulled on the door handle and it broke, Todd didn't have a spare door handle... After the races we packed up, Todd shut the van door and all the glass fell out.

XC way too hot! great course, great girls!
me, Jen, Teal

SuperD 11+ minutes all downhill, super fun!
placed 2nd (6.9seconds back) to a DH'r

Hanging out at the SuperD finishline

Durango Boys (Chad broke his chain in the SuperD)

As we got ready to leave and shut the van door all the glass fell out...

 my crankbrothers stickers on the ground

Todd headed to Tucson Monday with a busted up van...