The race season continues...

Yeah, I know, I haven't updated this thing in a while.  Honestly, I have just been really focused on my studies and on riding my bike.  The last month has really flown by as a result.  You can tell I've been having fun on the weekends though!

1st place at Fort Ebey Budu Race.  Super fun trails on Whidbey Island.

Volunteer Park Criterium.  Ian Terry (friend from Premanon study) got this cool shot.

Whitney having fun as well.  This one is from Independence Valley.

 Last weekend we raced the North Shore Road Race up here in Bellingham.  Sure was nice to ride from home to the start line of a race.  That's one thing I miss about living in the Seattle area. The abundance of weekly and weekend races that are within riding distance of home is much greater down there.  I finished in 8th place at North Shore which was a decent result for me, but I felt like I was easily capable of better.  Really fun race though.  I wish there were more challenging road race courses like this one.

This weekend is the Tour of Walla Walla.  The three day event is always a great way to get some sunshine and hard miles in.  Until next time...

Mt Constitution

Whitney and I rode Orcas Island last weekend.  We really lucked out on the weather, but snow on the road prevented us from riding to the very top of Mt Constitution.  We made it to 2200 feet, about 200 feet short of the summit.  I love the San Juans.

Sun and snow on the slopes of Constitution.

Tour de Dung quick recap

There was a medium sized turnout in the cat 1-2 race in Sequim last Saturday, with most of the usual suspects present and the notable return of Kenny Williams. First lap started out fast with the standard back to back attacks. I tail-gunned for a while and got a feel for road racing again before working my way to the front on lap two (of six). A strong-looking break of 6 dudes rolled away and had about a 15 second lead on the peloton. The pack eased up just as I was moving to the front, so I decided to carry my momentum into an attack. Nobody followed me and I was able to bridge to the break which I discovered contained some heavy-hitters; Morgan Schmitt, Logan Owen, Dave Richter, Mike Hone, Kyle Farrell, and Todd Galaher.

We held a narrow lead for the next two laps, until finally pulling away from the peloton a bit. On lap 5, Logan Owen had the bright idea of putting in a huge dig to get rid of Todd and Kyle (both fading at this point). I guess once Kyle returned to the peloton, his whole Garage team (they hosted the race) went to the front and started chasing since they no longer had a man in the break. A few miles to go on lap 6 it was game over as the five of us were caught by the pack. I was spent and soft-pedalled in, happy to get such a great workout. Logan Owen still almost won the field sprint. 16 year old man-child...

Blaaahhh!
Thanks for the photo Amara!

Sequim's rain shadow reputation didn't disappoint, as the roads were dry and the sun even came out at times.  Whitney had an awesome race, placing 4th in the cat 4 women's race.  Looks like she will be upgrading in the near future!  Feels good to have the first road race of the year behind me.  I'm looking forward to some hills at Independence Valley in a couple weeks followed by the Fort Ebey Budu mtb race.

Echo Red 2 Red

Bike racing in Oregon never ceases to amaze me.  An incredible number of 550 mountain bikers raced this weekend's Echo Red 2 Red cross-country event.  With the huge turnout, Whitney, my dad Craig, my sister Ariel, and I all had tons of competition in our categories, which really added to the experience.  The small town of Echo in NE Oregon hosted the event and the start/finish was right on their main drag.  Riders were treated to a one-lap style race that consisted mostly of singletrack that twisted and turned through the undulating and exposed Palouse hills.  When I say exposed, I mean that everyone was completely at the mercy of a steady powerful wind that made for some very interesting riding.  Think something like riding twisty singletrack inside a wind-tunnel.  The sort of wind that could take your wheels out from under you if you weren't careful.  The raging breeze was made up for by the sunshine and 60 degree temperatures.  Such a nice change from 38 degrees and raining.

The race started out with a neutral rollout on the highway leaving town.  After a mile, we turned left and the real race was under way.  The next mile or two were chaotic as 30+ pros and all of the experts/singlespeeders fought for position in the strong cross-wind.  Bellingham friend Brian Ecker made an early solo move (on his cross bike no less), but was reeled back in.  It wasn't until we took another 90 degree left onto a doubletrack that the front of the pack really started to string out.  Now with a tailwind, it was a 30 mph battle to be first into the singletrack.  Barry Wicks (Kona Factory Team), Patrick Means (Kona S&M racer and college buddy), and I were the first three into the singletrack.  For the next few miles we fought to stay with Barry.  That guy is a machine.  He simply rode hard until nobody was on his wheel anymore.  I was the final victim to be spat out the back of his draft.

Start of Pro/Cat1/SS.  Can you find me?  Photo credit:  NW Epic Series.

For the rest of the 30 mile race I settled in to my own pace and enjoyed the fast and flowy singletrack.  There were a bunch of points on the course where you could see other riders around you on all sides.  Reminded me of the Tapeworm trail in Renton, except completely out in the open.  There was even a flyover bridge where the route crossed back over itself.  One section really mixed things up and went along a small river, weaving between trees and onto wooden bridges above the water.

Whitney had a great race!
Photo credit: Oregon Velo Photos.

Photo credit:  Deanna Lloyd. 

The last few miles seemed to really drag on.  Is it just me, or was it all uphill and into the wind?  I ended up holding on for second place and Patrick came in for a super strong 3rd place.  Barry made the win look easy.  I definitely want to race Echo again in the years to come.  A really well-run and memorable event that I could see becoming something of an early season classic.

Oregon Cycling Action article and results:  here

What's in store for 2012?

2012 is looking like its going to be another exciting year for me.  After two solid months of base miles, I can feel my endurance really building.  I started working out at Trailhead Athletics this year and my all-around strength and balance have already improved drastically as a result.  It will be exciting to see how this translates to racing.

http://trailheadathletics.com/

Another new thing for me this year is that I started seeing a chiropractor for the first time in my life.  Steve Noble of Noble Sports Chiropractic is a long-time friend and supporter of local racers.  I'm really excited to finally start working with Steve and see how much more speed we can unlock.

http://www.noblesportschiropractic.com/

My race season officially kicks off this weekend with the Echo Red 2 Red mountain bike race in Echo, Oregon.  For most of the remainder of winter and spring, I'll race a mix of local road and mtb events, including hopefully the majority of the NW Epic Series and new Fat Tire Revolution Series.  Ski to Sea (aka "The Bellingham Olympics") will of course be on my agenda again.

In the summer months, I plan to travel to some bigger events including Nationals in Sun Valley, at least two Pro XCT (national series) races and also Downieville.  I have my eye on the growing genre of super-d/enduro dh.  The races are super fun and cater to the all-around rider which I think is really cool.

Double Century and Quadruple Bypass

The last two weekends have been filled with back to back exciting long rides.  First up was the "double century" weekend.  Some of the Hagens Berman Elite Team members came up from Seattle to Bham for a mini training camp (can you blame them for wanting to ride on some nice roads?).  Saturday we hammered out 85 miles on Mosquito Lake Rd, Chuckanut, and some other classics.  Sunday was the real event, however.  110 miles of relentless tempo and attacks were enough to give us an average speed of 20.4mph.  Definitely one of the hardest road rides I've ever done.



After all the road miles, I was anxious to get out on my mountain bike.  This last Saturday, Lars Sternberg from Transition Bikes invited me to ride a so-called "quadruple bypass" route (the "triple bypass" is a notoriously challenging mtb ride in the Chuckanuts outside of Bellingham).  The plan was to ride up and over Galbraith, Lookout, Blanchard, and Chuckanut mountains consecutively...

Galbraith Summit.  Bellingham below us.

Descending Lookout.  Lake Samish and Blanchard Mtn in the distance.

Brad making a sketchy line look easy while riding a hardtail, no less.  (No way in hell was I riding this!) 

Top of Alternate Incline on Blanchard.  This trail might be my future "xc project" to ride clean. 

Looking out at Chuckanut Mtn and the San Juan Islands from Blanchard Mtn. 

 More San Juan Islands from Blanchard.  Oyster Dome is the knob in the lower left.

Galbraith (left) and Lookout (right) in the distance.  We were there hours earlier! 

 Chuckanut Mtn, our fourth and final peak, in the distance.

Fireball on Raptor Ride (Last high-point of our ride).

 We survived!  That was one unforgettable Bellingham ride.

Snowmageddon

It's officially winter again in the Pacific Northwest.  Wunderground showed a temp of 15 degrees in Bellingham today.  Brrrrr, that Fraser River air is cold!  I didn't let the snow and bitter cold stop me from enjoying my day off though.

Heading out for a "road ride."

The only disappointing part about today's ride is that I forgot to bring my camera.  It would have been great to capture the "ice road trucker" style roads.  33 miles, but my tires never touched pavement.  I will be dreaming of Schwalbe studded snow tires tonight...