2011 Mountain Bike Sponsors

I am very excited to announce that my teammates Russell Stevenson and Aaron Mickels and I will be representing several really great companies in the 2011 season!

Noble Bikes are an engineering-focused bike company located in Seattle, Washington. They currently offer one bike, the F4, but more models are in the works, including a five-inch travel marathon racer, the F5. Suspension performance, high quality materials, and a very fine attention to detail best describe a Noble frame. The F4 is(as you may have guessed) a four-inch travel cross-country race frame that has been designed with an optimal balance of pedaling efficiency, suspension performance, handling rigidity, and light weight. Learn more about Noble Bikes at their website: http://www.noble-bikes.com/index.php

Magura brakes were revolution in the early days of mountain biking and they are still revolutionary today. Combining German precision-engineering with advanced materials and a wariness for the environment, they produce some very nice products. I am super excited to race with the Marta SL brakes and Durin Race 100mm fork! http://www.magura.com/en/products.html

American Classic has become an industry leader in hub and wheel designs with new innovative products being released every year. Everything they engineer is put through strict tests for strength, stiffness, and durability. Their tubeless mountain bike wheels feature wide rims that are unique in the way they hold the tire-beads so securely. These wheels recently won a 20-wheel shootout in the extremely-scientific German "Bike Magazine." http://www.amclassic.com/en/index.php

Kore has been building quality bicycle components since the late eighties. Their revolutionary I-Beam saddle-seatpost system is lightweight, strong, and very adjustable. Their handlebars and stems are used by some of the best riders in the world. http://www.kore-usa.com/index.html

Schwalbe is one of the few bike companies who focus purely on tires. They put all of their efforts into designing some of the most advanced tires available. I am always impressed and amazed by their tires and have chosen to race on the Racing Ralphs and Nobby Nics for years. This year, I am excited to try out the Rocket Ron and Furious Fred as well! http://www.schwalbetires.com//

Uvex is a German company that is well-known around the world for their safety glasses and goggles, and more recently for their sports eyewear and helmets. They make some of the lightest, safest, and coolest helmets around, as well as a full line of glasses. Their intelligent new Vario lenses are light-sensitive and change shade according to brightness. http://us.uvex-sports.com/

Thanks Whitney!

Whitney got me a helmet camera for xmas! I tried it out on the Lake Desire "test track" behind my parent's house. This thing is going to be too much fun!

2010 Season Complete

Last Sunday was the grand finale of my 2010 cycling season, where I raced the collegiate and elite races at Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, OR. I was really looking forward to the collegiate race especially because I knew my WWU teammates and I had a good shot at winning the collegiate team title.

Whitney in the mud.

I watched Whitney, Hannah, and Courtenay throw down in the women's race while I warmed up. They all did amazing and placed 13th, 7th, and 3rd respectively! Awesome!

In the collegiate men's race, I started a couple rows back but worked my way forward on the first lap. Once on the second lap, my teammate Steve Fisher, was off the front by about 15 seconds. I was on the wheel of Ryan Leech, the '09 national champ, but was able to separate myself cleanly from him in one of the slow swampy sections. I was now free to work my way up to Steve.

Photo Credit: here

After another lap I had closed the gap and Steve and I were riding together with nobody near us. Taking turns leading, I think both of us were excited just to see that the race would most likely be won by a WWU rider.

It wasn't until the final lap that Steve and I ended our truce and began throwing down attacks and really pushing the technical sections. The crowd seemed to really go wild as we battled back and forth all the way to the final corner into the finish. Steve came out of the final turn ahead and held me off for the win.

Photo: Debbie Driver

I was really happy to take second place to Steve. It's always a great day when you go 1-2 with a teammate! Ian and Ben also delivered the goods with 8th and 16th place respectively! Nice work!

After all of our individual results, we were confident we would take the overall Division 2 team title. Sure enough, we were indeed awarded the win! Go Vikings!

Photo: Debbie Driver

Remembering that the fun was only half over, I started warming up for my second race of the day. I knew I didn't have any UCI points to help my starting position in the Elite race, but I did end up getting a lucky call-up that was relatively close to the front(behind only 70 people instead of 100+).

Once the race was underway, I didn't hesitate to pass dozens of riders in a short period of time. Knowing the course so well from my previous race must have been a big advantage because I was already in the top 30 at the end of the first lap.

Until... I plowed into a rider who crashed in front of me. Hooking my handlebars in his spokes, we fought to untangle the puzzle of a mess. Finally free to ride again, I was close to dead last. Temporarily heartbroken, I rode slowly until finding my rhythm and starting to gain back lost time.

Until... my crankarm broke. My pedaling started feeling really weird and I realized that my right pedal was at an angle coming out of the crankarm. Fearing that I would tear the pedal out completely, I didn't dare stand up and pedal hard. Relief came soon enough when I was pulled from the race before being lapped by the leaders.

61st place. Not exactly the kind of result you would write home about. However, I did have a ton of fun racing and suffering. Plus, the amount of spectators was totally unreal! I'd say at least three times as many as the World Cup in Aigle! It was really cool seeing first hand how big the sport of cyclocross is becoming in the US.

Photo: Dave Pearson

2010 has been a long year filled with some of the best races and experiences of my life thus far. Whether it was collegiate road racing in the spring, mountain biking in the summer, my two months in Europe, or cyclocross in the fall, I made big personal improvements that I had previously only dreamed of.

A good collegiate race report from CX Magazine: here

Going home!

I can't believe it has already been two months since I arrived in Premanon. There have been highs and there have been lows, but most importantly, this has been an experience of a lifetime! I am mostly glad to be going home, but also sad to be leaving this amazing place. Sometime in my lifetime I hope to return for some riding or skiing in the Jura Mountains of France and Switzerland.

To wrap things up, I thought I would post some numbers about my time here:

- 11 VO2 max tests to measure aerobic capacity

- 6 indoor 30km time trials to measure sub-maximal power

- 2 muscle biopsies to measure muscle cell mitochondrial function

- 7 CO rebreathing tests to measure blood volume

- 2 arterial catheters used to measure cardiac output

- 6 wingate tests to measure anaerobic power

- 12 electro-stimulation tests to measure muscle fatigue

- 30 or more blood draws

And most importantly, all of the time spent riding in an incredible setting with:

- 78 hours of riding outside

- 1200 miles

- 110,000 feet of climbing

Now all I have left to do is to invent teleportation and instantly transport myself back to Seattle and not have to deal with the long miserable journey ahead...

The complete Live-High Train-Low crew before saying our goodbyes.

World Cup Cyclocross

Today we had the treat of spending the day in Aigle, Switzerland watching the first World Cup Cyclocross race of the season. Pretty amazing to see the world's best in person. American Katie Compton won the women's race!

Zdenek Stybar leads Sven Nys into a tricky off-camber section.

Tim Johnson, US national champion.

Jeremy Powers of the US.

The race course surrounded the UCI World Headquarters.

Bart Aernauts of Belgium after the barriers.

Drunk spectators from Premanon.

Zdenek Stybar of the Czech Republic continued his winning streak today.

Stybar 1st, Niels Albert 2nd, Kevin Pauwels 3rd.

Rough evening in Premanon

Yesterday evening, I decided it would be nice to spend a little time in the sauna, like we often do here. Turns out I would have been better off doing something else...

After spending 12 minutes in the sauna with a few friends and some French skiers, I showered, dried off, and started walking back to my room. Next thing I knew I was waking up facedown on the floor with Ian standing above me asking me if I was ok. As I slowly regained consciousness, I could taste blood and feel the pain setting in. Apparently my blood pressure must have dropped dramatically and caused me to pass out.

But anyways, don't worry, I am alive and doing great. Last night I had a couple stitches put in my forehead and this morning I visited a Swiss dentist's office. Walking into this place was like stepping onboard the space shuttle! Super nice facility and staff! After all the invasive testing over the last month and half, it was so effortless and painless to just lay there while they fixed me up. I think they did a good job, but you can be the judge:

Before

After

I should also mention a similar funny story(some of you have heard this one, I'm sure). Two years ago, while working at the Black Diamond Bike Shop, I smashed my finger in a disc brake rotor and passed out from shock in the same fashion. I smashed my face up pretty good, but my finger was really the worst injury. As if this wasn't a random enough event, TJ, a friend here in Premanon, just told me about when he had also smashed his finger in a disc brake rotor and also passed out. The world is small, it seems...

The final hurdle

Today was a major turning point of my time spent here in Premanon. This morning was the 2nd and final muscle biopsy which was the last of the invasive tests. I was pretty nervous of the procedure, but was looking forward to getting it over with. During the biopsy, Carsten used local anesthetics to numb an area in my quad. He then made an incision and used a special device to "suck out" a sample of muscle. Painful, but quick. Thankfully, this time around was not as rough as the first biopsy because I knew what to expect.

This evening we will be moving back downstairs into normal single rooms. Everyone is excited to get out of our cramped, stuffy, noisy hypoxic rooms. I can't wait to open the window and hear the cowbells and breath the fresh mountain air again! Our final two weeks should be pretty plush. We are not on a time schedule and there are not many tests.

Above is a video that Carsten took of me performing the final few minutes of one of many VO2 Max tests. In this one, I topped out at 475 watts and you can tell I'm really suffering by the way I start fighting the bike!