Back in NY

Here are the new clif kits

Well Tacoma went okay ended up 13th my best result in Tacoma to date. I never can seem to run hard up the run up for all 9 laps. After Tacoma it was back on the plane at 5:40 a.m. Monday morning heading back to d-town for 24 hrs. Some how I caught a little bit of the stomach bug during the trip and had a rough Monday.

Tuesday Mcduff and I woke up early to a cold Durango morning ride before leaving for Vegas. We stopped along the ride and played a sweet golf course in st. george UT. The next day was the cross race in vegas so I had a mellow day napping and hung out at the TAO beach pool with singer taking in the scenery for about an hour. The race didn’t go so well I just didn’t have it at all. Worst cross race I’ve had in a while. Headed out after the race and hit up the new nightclub Jet and the Ghost bar. The ghost bar was crazy top floor of the palms with roof access. Thursday I checked out a good amount of interbike, walked the strip, and packed all my stuff for my red eye flight back to the east coast.

My flight took off at 12:10 a.m. Friday morning and arrived in Albany at 9:30 with a stop over in D.C. I slept both flights the entire way even with a sprint across the D.C. airport to make my connection. Arrived in Albany and found a awesome coffee shop and got a breakfast sandwich and then back on the road headed home. Got home and have just been training trying to drive the least amount possible considering every weekend I have about a 4 hour drive to the races. My dad just had a bunch of trees taken down in our yard so it looks like a huge tree fort out of my bedroom window. They took them down Saturday morning and I basically slept through the entire thing. Nothing like having trees almost hitting your window and not even waking up. I love sleeping at sea level.

Star Cross

Star Cross went really well for me despite hitting the deck twice. The race was super cool under the light and with alot of turn in the infield of the velodrome. I'm staying with the Danimal (dan neyens) and his family and they are taking great care of me. It is nice to be back to cross racing where the promoters take such great care of you with setting up host housing. Making it alot easier to come in for weekend and do a awesome race. Dan and I arrived at the course a little late i think we pulled in just @ an hour before the start. The start went well for me and I was sitting in the top 10 until mid-way through the 1st lap someone laided it down right in front of me and I had no where to go so his bars got tangled up in my wheel and sent me to a halt. That sent me back into the 20th and then on the second lap i tripped over the barriers just trying to run them to fast and lost a couple more spots. Once I got up and going again i got to witness Sager laying it down on to the velodrome. The race seemed to be complete chaos as alot of people end up hitting the deck. I think it is just the 1st race of the year so people for get how to corner on their cross bikes and still are figuring out new equipment. Wicks even laided it down at least once maybe twice. So after my second crash i started moving up from group to group and was eventually in the 3rd chase group. Wicks, Trebon, and the swiss natz champ where gone. Lucky for me I was able to move up to second group and began doing work with chris sheppard and the danish natz champ. I ended up coming across in 5th @ 1:04 back. It was nice to make it onto the podium @ the first race of the year. Today is the Rad Race GP in tacoma hopefully the 100 meter run-up doesn't get the best of me.

Airplane

On my way to Seattle for star cross.. It will be crazy to not be racing @ night after vegas since 2 of my first 3 races will be under the lights. Did a 30 min race effort on Thursday in folsom park. Barthel built some sweet barriers out of pcp pipe that you can stick right into the ground. I tried to work on my bunny hopping, didn’t go so feel. I don’t think I will be hopping anything until I get back to NY and have some time to get my skills up. The new bike is working well and built up my back up bike on Thursday. Went to no way jose with snoodle meg TT and singer last night. I think it might be better and healthier than tequilas but you don’t get as large of a portion. As of right now they don’t have a liquor license but within a week they should be serving liquor. Woke up this morning and headed out for a ride stopped by bread for some fuel for the ride and run into shriver bowman and ben, they where the manual labor for the day for mitch and his dad. That is quite the crew for lifting windows all day. Meg and Winston took me to airport with Win telling stories the entire way. I tried out the taping two bike boxes together, which I first saw last year when Cozza showed up to U23 natz with his road and TT bike. They counted as just one piece of luggage @ the airport hopefully it all arrives in Seattle. I used some duck tape so it should hold. I got an upgrade on my second flight I would look @ that as a good sign except for the fact that last year on the way to Long Island cross race I got an upgrade and all my luggage got lost and I ended up racing on Wicks bike. Tomorrow begins the big weekend in D-town with the home fort lewis mtb race going on. If you’re in town you should go check it out. The A men STXC is @ 11:50 up on campus by the bmx jumps and the FOLF course. The XC is back in the gulch with a 10:45 start time. Sorry I don’t know any of the other start times I would guess the MX start around 4 or 5 at Chapman hill.

Bikes

Well I've been busy this week trying to get all my crap organized as i get ready to head back east again. I got a frame from dylan @ clif bar with last years paint scheme that i built up yesterday for star cross. I should get another frame tomorrow to build up for my back up for star cross and vegas until we get our new frames. I've also been trying to figure out what I will send back to the east coast. I've decided just to roll back with 2 cross bikes and keep all my other bikes out here in my closet at unit 51. Also trying to cut down on the amount of clothes i bring back I've got 3 large crates of clothing that I have to just man up and take to the salvation army store. They been sitting around since may so i really don't need them. Today was my final day @ RGP's for a while. It has been a great job for me while in school thanks to chris and jen for having a position that works for cyclist who only want to work for 2 hours twice a week. Well that is about it.

All done with my base block of my cross training. Thursday I went for a good ride with schultz on the mtb bike. We went up to the high point on the colorado trial and then descended down into the creek bed and flipped it. That was at least my fifth time on that section of the CO trail in the last two weeks. Yesterday I hit up the dirt road to bayfield which was my go to ride in the spring. It was nice to get back out on the dirt roads and not have to deal with any traffic. After the ride I went over to Lee's BBQ and then watched blades of glory with Meg. That movie is to much I finally got to see the beginning which i missed in theaters. Today I did a little cross practice i was definitely alittle otb as i arrived at the park around 11 and there was some kids B-day going on so the folsom sess was short lived. I headed over to riverview elementary which was a much better set up except for the soccer games going on. They have technical sand pits with 1 foot barriers around the pits which makes getting in and out of the pits tricky. After the cross workout headed out on the road for another 2 hours. Tomorrow night is schmidty party starting around 5:30 @ schmidty.

Cross Season

Well my cross season will start here in just under a week and half at star cross. This year I will be riding for Clif Bar for the cross season which i'm really looking foward to. The 1st week of racing should be an eventful with the double weekend in seattle then i fly back to d-town monday drive to vegas tuesday, race wedneday night and fly out thursday night on a red eye to the east coast for the first round of the new england series.

As for right now i have completed two weeks of base and about to start my third. Looking forward to doing some more big rides this week. Hit up the links with snyder yesterday. Today i think i will hit up some cross practice on the javelin. All my parts are in for my new cross bike just waiting on frames from orbea so hopefully i'll have my new bikes built some time this week.

Rough Day On the Bike

Well I did the junction creek road to the top of the colorado trail today with Walker Savidge. It ended up being a rough day for me. The ride starts out with close to an 2 hour climb on a dirt road. There was actually even construction going on up at around mile 18. 2 guys with a front end loader had road ripped up so walker and i had to do the long jump off the front end loader over the gap. Next my tire decided it was going to explode in the river bed on the CO trial and for some reason my CO2 was partly used so i could only fill up my tire to 10 to 15 psi so i knew it would only be a matter of time before my next flat. It came on the next climb which left me with around 10 to 15 miles of riding around on a front flat in single track and about 5 miles on the road. I tossed myself over the bars once. My upper body has never been so worked over.

The FLC team is off to CSU for the big kick off to the collegiate season. I wonder who will take the 1st W. Mcduff left for europa wednesday morning for worlds. It seems like he is riding well he was killing during the mping session tuesday. It is awesome that the US took 3rd in the team relay.

Well I did another good ride on sunday with schmidty and singer moles to cascade. Nothing like getting stuck in a thunderstorm @ 12000 feet. It also started to hail which made for a very cold 30 min decent down to 8500. Monday I took an off day and hit up pint night. Started early and was home by 10:30. Nothing like leaving a bar just as everyone is getting there. Today I took my bro motor pacing @ 8. He has been going to sleep @ around 4 in the afternoon trying to get ready for worlds on saturday. He is up at around 3 in the a.m. After Mping i went for a ride and even did a run trying to get ready for the run up in tacoma.

Above the tree line

Big Rides

Well this past weekend i put in the miles. On saturday I did Kennebec with schmidty singer timmons and schultz. It is one of my favorite rides in D-town and I hope I can do it at least 2 more times before the cross season starts up. It was sweet to get back up into the high country. Here are some pics from the big ride. Check Singers site for more photos and more of a description.

Schultz and Schmidty

Singer getting after it..

TT striking a pose

Singer feeling the night before

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