Santa Ynez (Kenda Cup West)

Yesterday was a beautiful day of racing near Santa Barbara. There was another pretty solid turnout for the 5th round of the Kenda Cup West Series and the weather was awesome this year. The pro race had around 25 guys and there was a good amount of fighting for position during the first few miuntes of the race leading into the hardest climb of the lap. I laid back a little and cruised to the climb about 10th place, and was able to get on the tail end of the front group going over the top. Sid, Aaron Olsen and Andy Shultz did roll off the with a small gap which slowly grew and they went 123 all the way until the end. I raced it out with Sean D, Manny and a couple Blue riders from Canada for all 3 laps. One of the Blue riders rode away from us for 4th, but in the end I was able to go harder than the others at the right times and got myself to the line 5th.

After being tired and feeling out of my normal groove most of the week it felt great to get it back together just in time for another great ride. Life is good and I'll be ready to go after it one more time at the Idyllwild Challenge this weekend before a nice couple week break from racing. I highly recommend this very cool local race, in a beautiful area, with a very hard 27 mile loop and big pro payback - http://www.idyllwildcycling.com/springchallenge.html

Some podium time

8-5

This week has flown by... Beth and I ususally stick to a pretty steady routine anyway, but the week after a long weekend leaves even less time for doing much of anything interesting. Monday evening we ate at Wahoos, bought groceries and went to bed early. Tues I was too tired to ride, so I unpacked and put away most of our stuff from the weekend. Wednesday I did a good ride, cooked, and that was about it. Beth has trained Tue, Wed, and Thur since shes doing wildflower in about 10 days. Her training usually includes dirving to Laguna for a run and then swim at the high school pool and getting home around 8. Last night I did a tempo ride, watched some tv and that was literally it. Now it's Friday already!

Should be a good weekend though. Rest, clean and tune up the mtn bike, a late morning ride, then nap and run a couple errands. We'll drive up to the Kenda Cup race near Santa Barbara Sunday morning (about 3hrs) which also means a nice dinner and a good nights sleep at home Saturday. Then we do it all over again...

Beth at Sea Otter - 8th place sport racer!

Sea Otter

What an awesome day! Sunday at Sea Otter I finally had a breakthrough ride that I've been working towards for a long time now. For part of 2007 and all of last year I've been consistent with good training and good results, but didn't have any one big breakthrough day like Sea Otter turned out to be.

It was HOT and the start on the road was CRAZY with 150 guys going all over the place. I had a good move onto the trails and knew I was around top 40, and slowly worked by some guys during the big 19 mile lap. I really didnt know the chase group I was in was riding for about 20th though until I came through the feed zone. I was still feeling good, but when I heard how good our placing was the adrenaline flowed and I rolled right off the fron of the group. It was tough going the 2nd lap basically alone, but there was no way I would let anything slow me down once I was in the top 15. Looking at the results and especially the dnf list it's still crazy to me to see all of the awesome riders that were in our field. A couple random videos

Short track start

After XC finish

Easter

Chill in Laguna

Beth mtn biking?

New bike & Easter bunny

How many trails can you find dropping to laguna canyon here?

Busy Day

After Sagebrush I took my typical 2 rest days - off monday and an easy 1hr spin tuesday. The was to go hard Wed (some race pace cruising) and Thur (1:15 tempo). Wednesday was great, the legs had a hint of heaviness from the race, but I did 2 fast 20 mnute efforts and enjoyed a beautiful evening. Thur on the other hand I felt a little rolling away from the office and turned for home after about 10min. I felt like I was already bonking, got a flat, and was ended up having cereal, falling asleep on the couch, then ate dinner and sat on the couch some more. Thanks to Beth for trying to cheer me up because I turned into a grump too.

Today has been a little busy at work, with a trip to the DMV instead of lunch. We're closing things down a little early for Good Friday though so I'll hit the road again to try and get that tempo ride in. I won't go into my ongoing issues with the DMV. My new bike has even been here since Tuesday and the only thing I've had time / energy to do is take it out of the box! Man I'm happy it's easter weekend! The timing couldnt be better for catching up on a few things, a couple more big workouts before sea otter, and of course celebrating Jesus!

A couple links to leave you with -

new videos from Fontana and Sagebrush - http://www.channelmtb.com/

new World Bicycle Relief newsletter - http://www.kintera.org/htmlcontent.asp?name=n&cid=88878

Sagebrush

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2009/apr09/sagebrushsafari09

Kenda Cup - Sagebrush Safari

Yesterday was another awesome day of racing here in SoCal. The Sagebrush is a race that has happened most years for something like the last 20 years. It’s a classic one-lap course inland from San Diego with some good sustained climbing (mostly paved) and a lot of fun whoop de dooed, burmed singletrack. I love racing national events on short courses, where spectators can actually see the race, but there is something cool about being pretty much in the middle of no-where and doing a big loop race also. The overall turnout seemed really good and the pro class was 35 strong.

We just cruised for the first 10 minutes out a paved road, and when the grade kicked up for our first main climb of the day (still on the road) everyone actually rode tempo. A couple minutes from the top the attacks started and Andy Shultz, Sid, Sam J, Manny and a u-23 national rider went off the front. There was another group of 4-5 guys and I was just behind them hitting the actual trails. From there we did about 30min of awesome trails where I worked my way by a rider from Mexico and Sean Donovan. Then it was climbing time again, a good 30-40min straight this time. My rhythm was good and I slowly caught and passed Chuck Jenkins. We climbed up to Mt Pinos Lookout and the switchbacked road let you see the leaders a few minutes ahead. Next in front of me was u-23 champ Tad Elliot, but I could tell he was pulling away some on the climb. From there it was another section of ripping downhill singletrack, one last 10min or so climb, and then the final 15 minutes of single track down towards the finish. At some point I god Tad in sight but there was enough racing left to bring him back. In the end we end up finishing along side some beginner and sport riders who do a shorter course and merge back in with us on the final single tracks. It gets a little crazy passing on the sandy, sweeping trails, but its pretty cool at the same time. Everyone enjoys being finished around the same time and it’s just a good scene.

http://www.uscup.net/up/file/09_SAGEBRUSH_XC_RESULTS.pdf

Time to get back to work, I wonder what Todd Wells is doing?

Working it out

So Fontana was an awesome race. There was a huge talented field of 111 pros, a good tough course, and those are really the most important things to make for a good race. The nasty climb that everyone was talking about was only about 3 minutes into the race and that meant craziness on lap 1. I managed to survive any crashes of the start line, ran up the climb with everyone else and was around 50th over the top. From there it was back to my usual mode of slowly working my way up from one small group to the next - to 30th place by the end. Knowing how my fitness held up with that effort I'm confident that I'll be able to be a little more aggressive at the next one.

This week has been pretty typical, working and a couple training rides.

Tuesday I did an easy spin and then looked over my mountain bike. Heard a sloshing noise when I was looking at the breaks and realized there was water in my frame. Took the seatpost out and several ounces of water poured out from my ride in the rain the previous week – oops.

Yesterday I worked it out on the 7 sisters climbing loop in Laguna. I was pretty tired at work during the day and my back is bothering me some, but I was able to get in some good climbing anyway. We’ll see if I can go hard again tonight with a tempo workout and then take it easy for the Sagebrush race on Sunday.

Looks like the 50 mile ride was a success - http://www.50mileride.com/news.html

Pro Tour Round 1

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2009/mar09/usproxct_1_09/usproxct_1_095

30th place today - 111 starters - pretty solid start to the real race season...

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234765-us-pro-xct-1-fontana-city-national/166426-pro-mens-race-fontana-ca-us-pro-xct-1

Fontucky

Friday afternoon before the first pro tour (aka national) of the year and i imagine things are starting to buzz a little at the race site. Of course i'm spending the day at the office, so i won't be in race weekend mode until tomorrow when I head out for a little pre-ride. Some 8-5 office time isnt the worst way to phsyically take it easy 2 days before a big race.

It looks like cycling dirt will have some cool coverage of happenings at the race - http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234765-us-pro-xct-1-fontana-city-national/164905-fontana-intro

San Dimas Stage Race

Time trial - 15:15 for 30th place in the 100 rider cat 2 field. It was a good effort for me and just the training I need right now to get into top racing form. We'll see if there's any good opportunities to shake things up in the road race this afternoon.

Road Race - the roads were way bumpier than i remember. Felt my handlebar move a little in the stem about 5min into the race. About 20 min in it was suddenly completely loose. Fell back to the follow car and managed to tighten it while riding. This was still so early in the race the pace was high and aggressive and I couldn't get back to the group = dropped. Rode hard for about an hour and then sat up, got in my car and went to Chipotle.

Crit - couldn't race and road my mountain bike in the rain and wind instead. I was soaked 15min into the ride, rode through whiting ranch but got pretty muddy and had to stick to the roads from there. Still felt some strength in the legs and pounded out some tempo climbs before heading home to see the sun come out the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes things just don't go as planned. Thanks to Beth for keeping me from getting too worked up about it.

Time trial results - how exciting!

This guy from the Tri Beth did makes me feel better about my road bike issues. How much time can a $10,000 time trial bike and aero helmet save you when you have to stop and spend a minute putting your shoes on at the start of the bike course?

Time to hit the road

This afternoon I head inland for the San Dimas Stage Race - http://www.scvelo.com/san-dimas-stage-race. Time for some good roadie training, 4mi time trial up Glendora mtn road today, road race tomorrow, and crit Sunday. This is the biggest race in SoCal with almost all the fields selling out. There is a cat 2 only race with 100 guys in it! Should be fun!

Now I know how nice Beth has it on Fridays. Sleeping in a little, making some pancakes, putting air in my bike tires, then surfing the web is not a bad way to spend a morning. If it wasnt for the fog I would be chilling in Laguna right now.

Here's a cool video of the Bonelli US Cup - http://www.channelmtb.com/