Racing in Colorado and beyond

Sorry i am so off the back with my posts but i will be getting it updated with everything that has happened between nationals and the end of the school year soon. Thanks for Viewing.

Cross Nationals was in early January this year instead of early December like normal for USA. This was a little problematic because my racing season was extended an extra three weeks, but with my lack of training this year it gave me enough time to get back to the fitness i wanted to nationals.

The U-23 race was on Saturday the 7th and it was a warm day for Madison, WI. The mud was deep and draining, and the competition was great. I started 4th row which was a little further back then I wanted, but I had another great start and by the first corner was in the top 10. I slowly made ground up into 4th place where it was a close battle between 3 of us. After that i found out that i went out a little to hard and started to blow up. so i backed off and gave up 4th and 5th deciding that it was time to save energy for the collegiate race the next day. Finishing up in 6th in U-23 was right on track with my goals for this last year and i look forward to next year, planing to bring a new level of myself to the U-23 field.

Fort Lewis put on its local collegiate race this last weekend and it was probably the best collegiate race that I did this year. Unfortunately I have found out that I won’t be going to collegiate nationals this year because of the extreme competition level here in Durango and Fort Lewis. So I will be focusing on racing cross from here on out. I will be posting up something from the USGP in Fort Collins soon.

Started racing downhill in the collegiate racing series and having
a blast. Decided that I was going to focus on cross this year and try to do
well at U-23 nationals.  Training for
that so I don’t know how the rest of collegiate MTB will turn out. At this
point I am just struggling to try to get on the Fort Lewis Collegiate national
team. SOOOOO many fast riders up here. It’s like I moved to a little get away
of Europa in the Rocky Mountains.

On the cross front I am looking forward to The USGP in Fort Collins
and hope to see anyone there that can make it. I am ready and can’t wait to
race some high level cross.

This last weekend I race the collegiate race in Steamboat springs. This was the first MTB race of the season for collegiate racing. I took up my A9C as my only MTB bike even though I was racing cross country, short track, 4 cross, and downhill. I was doing pretty good sitting in 3^rd place in the cross country, but I took a wrong turn so I got disqualified. In the 4 cross I took 3^rd in the B’s but had the 3^rd fastest qualifying time overall by a quarter of a second off first. Then in the short track I was a little beat down from the day before but I managed to pull out a second place in the A’s. And in the downhill I raced my downhill bike (A9C) =) I had a great run and pulled off the win in the B’s. turns out maybe a carbon hard tail is sometimes the best way to go.

First day of college was exciting and insightful for what
the rest of the year will have in store.
So far I have met so many new people I have got about four names down
and this year is going to be a blast getting to know all the rest of the Fort
Lewis College and the Durango community. The first cycling meeting is on the Tuesday
the 30^th and after that I believe my first race is on the 17^th
of September. I can’t wait for this Collegiate cycling season. It will be full
of new friends and sick races for many years past my college experience.

In the pro short track I was one of the last to get called up but I was able to make my way into the 6^th row (out of 8 rows). Started and made a few spots right away then just played a little frogger the rest of the race jumping up group to group then falling back a few and jumping up a few more. Until I made it up to a group of four and the leader of that group was in 12^th in the pro men short track. But I was blown out and there were still 2 laps to go. I fell back to a group that first was 18^th then crashed around the final turn and got up to finish in 22^nd. Top 25 at my first pro national championship is something to be proud of for sure and I am.

I had a pretty solid start position in the third row of about 50 total starters. The start went about 100 feet on super lose gravel before it pitched up for a 10 minute climb. I was able to run up the first little pitch and work my way up to 15^th by the top of the first climb and just settled in and picked off 2 or 3 a lap the full 5 laps until I finished in 7^th place. I had a plan of how I wanted to race and did exactly that, except for throwing down a nice baseball slide on the final decent. Super excited for a top 10 in my first U-23 nationals and look forward to the next year national race.

The Nationals course has probably one of the most grueling climbs that I have ever faced at a national level race, although the lap starts with a long flat piece with a total of about 200 feet of manmade rock garden. After the flat it pitches up for about 10 min of between 9-18% grade service road that will separate the boys from the men in the first lap let alone our 5^th time up it for the final lap. The decent is fairly technical so it doesn’t provide a lot of time to make up or lose ground, but the mountain that it goes down is so steep a single mistake could lose a person a lot of time. I can only think to describe it as a BMX decent. With a lot of fast single track and sharp, quick, steep switchbacks. With a finial rock garden drop into the final corner going into the finish about 100 feet after the final turn. For the most part it looks like the sprint for the finish will be at the top of the hill because the first one into the single track will most likely be the first one to cross the line.

The drive out to nationals was an exciting 11 hours from Fort Collins to Hailey Idaho, which is about a 20 minute drive from the race venue in Sun Valley Idaho. Crazy how as soon as you leave Wyoming everything gets a little more fun to look at… Anywho the main race that I am focused on this weekend is the U-23 Cross Country that is on Friday and starts right around Noon. Right now looks like it should be dry but rain can change that in a hurry I hear. I will be riding the course today and I will through up my thoughts about it sometime later today or tomorrow.

This was the first annual 40 in the Fort race. To start things off I would recommend this race to anyone who likes anything close to the Firecracker 50. Super technical terrain that has added up to one of the longest 40 miles races that you can find. I had an absolutely great day on the bike and was able finish up the race in first place with about 3 minutes on second place. It was a great time and really well run. I really look forward to this race again next year.