Home Again

With the risk of sounding like a broken record COLORADO WAS AWESOME!!!!11 I could not have picked a better group of guys to ride with the. The mountains, the single track, catching Downhillers, it was amazing. THANX to Brennen for letting me crash with them.

My 2 weeks of 2 wheels in over. But the riding/racing/training is just about to heat up again. Despite missing the Gateway Cup I should be pretty busy between Norba races and crits. I am even getting some invites to be on teams for 24hr of Landal and Burnin' at the Bluffs. This is still up in the air. First and formost is the Cape Race. I have never been on this course so it should be interesting. I really hope that I can break my 4th place finish streak I have going on.

Lastly I hope all went well for Team Seagal and DRJ at Rapture in Misery.

fairwell

Yesterday was my last day of riding here in Moab. I got up early and rode from my camp to the Porcupine Rim trail. I was a 30 mile loop with a couple thousand feet of climbing then an AMAZEING decent into some unmatched single track. Later I went to the Monitor and Meramec trail but didnt have it in me to do the entire figure eight and copped out finishing with only 10 miles.

I has once again Been a blast riding here In moab. I have 98miles on the mountain bike and 129mile on the road bike. I climbed a mountain, ran out of water, broke a chain, bent derailure hangers, and didnt get once flat tire.

From here it is on into Colorado where I will meet up with Chris and some of the guys from DRJ. I am not quite sure where but I'm thinking that I would hold u in Crested Butte then head to leadville and watch Landis, Armstrong, and ross so who can ride 100 miles faster My money is on Landis.

Smart....not really

So Here is how my day off went

Got bored

went for a easy road ride

Decided to drop the easy and do a 62 mile loop into the La Sal mountains

Ate all my food on the climb and drank most of my water

Started the 20 mile decent back to Moab

bridge was out had to turn around and climb 3 miles back to the summit

8oz of watter left and 39miles

Descending at 30mph

hairpin+brakes+grave=bent derailleur hanger, out of true wheels, and blood

finish the 20+ mile decent with about 4oz of water left

1/2 oz drinks as I limp the rolling road back at 16-17mph

GET BACK TO CAMP 79MILES 5.15HOURS WITH A 15MPH AVERAGE AND 4500 FEET OF CLIMBING.

Hind sight: Maybe I should have gotten a cassette with a bigger ring then 23

Rest Day

After logging 100mi in the last 3 days i decided to leg the legs get so recovery time. Although i really want to be out on the bike. I will probably take Jess (Fuji Team Pro) out for and easy going road ride later. Nothing too major though. Tomorrow I am planning to hit Porkupine Rim early then maybe Moniter & Meramec. So until then.....

MOAB ....NEW HOME?

The first day I got to ride here in gorgeous Moab Utah was on the 4th. I decided to start out slow and ease into the MTB scene here. YEAH RIGHT SLICKROCK HERE I COME!!!!!11 It kicked my ass. I crashed twice bending my Derailure hanger both times and skinning up my arm a bit. Then i broke a chain near the end but im a mechanic so i was able to trail fix it all (I love using an d XTR derailure as a leverage tool). I decided the 13+ miles there wasnt enough so I headed out to the Bar M trail which was rated as an easy trail. Well i got a little off track and ended up on the Soverign trail which had some whicked single track but took me way out of my way. All said and doen day one about 25 miles. that night I met up with thei guy Andy who was originally from STL and we planned a road ride for the next morning. We met up about 830amand road to Arches National Park. Gorgeouse Scenary and gigantic climbs totaling 50 miles. Today i decided to try to do the Behind the rocks 16mile loop that is used for the 24hrs of Moab enduance race. I got out there early and it was over cast so the cool temps really helped me out concidering i got lost again and added 2 extra miles onto the course. Still not satisfied I headed out to Klondike tail (picture). This trail is an out and back which is 7 miles of climbing to and over look then 7 miles of down hill. total milage 33 miles. I AM HAVING A FREAKING BLAST!!!!! Check out some of my trap vids on mysapce

So after i got back in the saddle after the races of death i took a relaxing ride with Any and Matt through west county nothing major 40mi low average. Then Rode out at the Ranch with DRJ's big guns. That place is like heaven! then the Thursday night ride from west county which was a blast. I am feeling better on the bike then i did in mid July. Now I'm on vacation in Moab then ill be in Colorado. two weeks of two wheels pretty catchy.

So much going on

Way back on July 9th Floyd Landis was having a book signing up in Chicago. I decided to take some days off of Charter and drive up there to shake hands and maybe get a sponsorship lol. I was a good time however, the 10hrs of driving in one day screwed my sleep pattern up for the next week and just got me off to a bad start for training. The tour of Sulard was on the 15th of July and I entered the 4/5 race and the 3/4 race. As I said before the week leading up to the race I got poor sleep and I only managed one training ride (one ride for that matter). So the day of the race came and I was under prepared and could feel it. The game face went on anyway and i set up on the line. I had a poor start ( looked like a roockie because I couldn't find my pedal). I worked my way back up to the lead group (about ten riders). I was getting ready draft to get my legs back when my front wheel caught the back wheel of the rider in front of me. Asphalt is hard and it is even harder in front of your friends. I got up and restarted but got dropped and DNF'ed. I cleaned my wounds and got set for my second start. Once again i had a poor start and spent the entered time trying to gain ground back. However, the Cat 3s are fast and even faster as a group. Once again I DNF'ed. Bruised and defeated I packed up and went home. Since I had the next Tuesday night off I went out to the Tuesday night crit races. I raced the B and C races but just didn't feel ever good and ended up with a poor showing. I think the only thing that will help me Is more training and less work.