the mountains await w/ fog

Saturday was a long 32×18 ride for SingleSpeed Arizona, my second ever singlespeed ride/race.  58 miles was the day’s tally, and yes that’s nearly 10 more than it should have been. The 9500 feet of elevation meant some tough going along the way.  Unintentionally I chose to add an extra loop in the first half of the race and I’ve now realized that such mistakes are part of the risk in trying to lead such a race – there’s no one there to confirm your navagational decision making. I went left instead of right which meant I decended far more than I should have while adding on an extra loop of sorts. By the time I reached a flowing (near raging) wash, I knew that I wasn’t on the originally intended path. After two or three knee-deep forges of the freezing cold water I made my way back up towards the planned course. Nearly two hours later I was on route once again after some seriously steep and rough jeep roads. At Redington road I figured that with AZ trail and Milagrosa awaiting I must go on despite already having a day’s worth of riding in the legs.  As I finished up the incredible singletracks some interesting people were met and each of the 70 or so added something to the day’s story.  

my kit from '97 made a comeback

DeJay put on a fun day of bike riding and it was great to get out there and try the singlespeed thing. Enjoyable yes, but equally frustrating at times. The simplicity of the bike is appreciable, but so is riding up steep trails with the aid of gears. Pushing the bike is never fun, especially when it would otherwise be a rideable trail. It was a new way to experience some of my favorite singletracks and it made for an epic ride that won’t soon be forgotten. The day started under a dense fog cover unlike anything I’ve seen in AZ before, but by early afternoon it was sunny with temps in the 70′s.  Couldn’t have been a a better day of riding.   Later,

-TJ

It might be late, but it’s still Friday!

Chamois: Something to be understood and respected, not something to be confused with ‘shammy’ or any other mis-representation of Chamois.

Cycling garb has come along ways. Most pros are experienced enough to remember shorts that once included a leather chamois for padding. This was some high tech stuff and it wasn’t until the mid to late 90′s that synthetic chamois started to take over the market.  Likely for good reason, yes, but let’s not forget how the Chamois used to be.

With new high-tech synthetic chamois now the norm, many cyclists abuse ‘chamois time’ by hanging out in their kit for far too long. If they were to experience the leather chamois of  old, chances are they’d learn to change more rapidly post training or racing.  Lessons must be learned and chamois time is certainly not training time.

Respect the Chamois!

Throwback to the leather chamois commences tomorrow. Keep tuned!  -TJ

WhiteTanks Podium

Saturday Chris, Gattis, and I made the drive up to Phoenix to race the first MBAA series event. Driving across Phoenix can be horrible sometimes so it was a pleasantly uneventful drive this time.  I knew that White Tanks was a fun course and the race would be longish at five laps of the 7+ mile course. With some good riders in attendance it was a nice way to test the legs a little bit, but not too much too early.  The first lap we got things strung out and it was basically a three man race with me, Scott Keller, and Eric Salstrand at the front of the race. The pace was always steady but never too much. Late in the race I was able to maintain relatively consistent lap times and that let me slip away as we started the final lap.  

The course was run in the opposite direction this time which made the climbs more techinal along with some faster descending. I liked the combo and felt as if I was riding most of the stuff pretty well. The rigid fork was tricky in some spots, but overall not too bad of a setup. It was fun exchanging the lead while doing plenty of honest effort.  I’m happy for the win and equally happy that I felt strong for the full duration. Faster racing will surely happen, but this one was just what I was looking for.

Gattis and Chirs each podiumed in their races too so In-n-Out was well earned by all of us, especially after we  waited around for 2+ hours before results/awards were finally figured out.  A long, but good day at the races…

Sunday I followed things up with a small (as in 2-4 people) group ride out and back to Mammoth. This five hour ride is always a good one and includes plenty of vertical and wind for doing Tempo out there.  Good times on the bikes. This week it’s more of the same, but with a Singlespeed race on Saturday.  

Stay tuned,  -TJ

It’s been back to full speed since returning to Tucson. I’m in the middle of a VO2 block that seems to be going quite well. More power and less sense of effort than years past. Today was the third day so I overloaded with a climb up Mount Lemmon. By the time I got back to the city temps were already near 70 degrees so it was quite warm being dressed for the 40 degrees that I left in.   

Saturday I’m going to do the white tanks race. It’s awefully early to be racing, but it should be a good time riding fast on some trails. More on that after the fact.  

B-Matter is looking fit and ready for worlds. He’s doing things right here in Tucson with a healthy balance of rest, riding, and paperwork. Today he killed my ink catridge while printing off USAC’s terrorist/war waivers… We might make it up Kitt Peak on Sunday – we’ll have to see about that one. Later,

-TJ

Yesterday I got back to the AZ Cross scene for the first time since last year. Being that it was the last race of the series before the state race, I figured it would be a fun practice of the skills and a chance to catch up with regulars once again. It’s fun, low-key scene, but the racing is always exiting.  After having done El Tour the day prior I wasn’t quite sure about how my legs would be with five hours of Tempo in them. I’ve learned that it really doesn’t matter how you feel going into a race, rather it’s all about your perception and the expectations you bring to the starting line. If you tell yourself that your tired it makes for an easy excuse to have a bad race. I like to have fun on the bike, keep positive and race hard. Usually the harder the race the better since this makes it easy to keep focused.  This is exactly what I got.  

We raced for twelve laps and on the eighth I flatted my front tire (something sharp in a smooth grassy section of the course, gotta love phoenix parks…) At that point I had a comfortable, but only ten second gap over second rider and third and fourth weren’t much further behind. I was able to cautiously ride the flat straight sections only to run all the corners or changes in elevation.  I got passed shortly before pit then once Dan helped me get a wheel in, Kyle and Cam had just charged by. So from fourth the chase was on and I had four laps to make up my 30 second stop, plus whatever was lost by slower lap with the flat. The gap was decreasing all the while to the lead and eventually I made my back to the front with about a lap and a half to go. The effort required was sizable, especially after all of the extra running prior to the wheel change.  The racing was full speed the entire time so the win was a great reward.   Dan was directly responsible since it was his spare wheel that made the chase back to the front possible.  Thanks! Also, the REI guy doing tech support helped me complete my new brake setup earlier in the day, fitting some proper straddle cables to the Paul Neo-Retros.  As setup, they have similar power to my old Avid’s, much better modulation, much more clearance, and they look very clean on the bike.  Things ought to be set for the state championship which is just less than two weeks away.

Since a once a week blog update tends to be the norm here, I figured adding a new feature could help things out and add some life to site. I’ve added the twitter application so now you’ll find mini-feeds at the top of the right column.  I’ll leave snippets regarding my day to day there so check back whenever you might want to catch the latest bit.

Later,  -TJ

Keeping roadies off my tail at the finish. Photo from Superfly.

Having never done the Iceman before I really felt that it was time to give it a shot. The travels from Tucson were long, but time spent with good friends was well worth it. On Friday I opted to do a preride of the full course figuring that it would be better to know what to anticipate on race day. The course was straight-forward and I was thinking optimistically about the forecast.  Saturday came quickly and I helped with some shuttling for the early races.  Thanks to Jason Lummis of Bells Beer I didn’t have to mess with my bike on race day after cracking the derailleur cage on the Friday preride. With his help I had a loaner installed and ready to go just hours after busting my own. That sort of help really goes a long ways.

I got in a warm up with Iceman veteran Brian and we rode the first couple miles of the trail. His advice that it was all about the first ten minutes proved to right on. The only problem was that I messed up my line about a mile into the race and went from fourth wheel back to twenty-forth wheel in a matter of five seconds. Getting bogged down on a sandy climb before things had stretched out didn’t fit well with the race strategy, but I was determined to keep at it and try to reclaim lost ground. The single file train began to splinter and I wasn’t able to pass guys since I was already at my limit and doing so would have required a big effort.

Eventually I got a rhythm going to finish 17th, but it was a bummer never really being in contention with the leaders.  I enjoyed the race and I pushed it 100% so I’m pleased with the result. Next time I’ll come back equally or better prepared and will know just what to expect in those first ten minutes. I can honestly say that it seemed to be the most intense start of any race I’ve done to date. The competition was great.

 The ice pellets that fell during the race really completed the Iceman experience. Though it wasn’t a third podium in my third triple crown event of the year, I’ll be able to give it another shot in ’09.  It seems that I brought some (not much really) of the cooler weather back with me.  Afternoon highs have been sunny and 70′s since I’ve been back. Change is always appreciated.  

I’ll wrap this post up with some pics.  -TJ 

Superfan!

race-ready. (ok, really it didn’t snow until Sunday)

JB lovin’ the Ice trophy. And for good reason – it’s super cool!

I’m set to soon leave for the lands of cold weather and gloomy skies.  See you all in Michigan.

 Life’s been happening at record speed lately and blog action has been lacking. There’s been little break with anything else and the riding has been good.  I’m feeling ready to rip one final time on the midwest MTB scene. It ought to be a good one. I’ll have a recap on Monday so check out the details then.

-TJ

The racing action at the MadCross CX event was fast and furious. My dad made the trip down for the weekend so it was cool that he got his first taste of what cyclocross is all about – intense race action with a lot of super-fan excitement.  Flatting out and not having the mindset simply to add more air to my burped tubeless setup was frustrating but at least I kept the bike together on Sunday to turn in a good finish. The field was stacked and I’m happy with how the season wrapped up in Wisconsin.  Hopefully the AZ Cross scene is ready for some UCI speed! I’ll do my best to up the level the level now that I’ve gotten a taste.

Mountain Goat shot some great film out there so feel free to check out his camera work. Thanks to everyone who made all of the noise and also to those who offered help in the pit on Saturday. Next time I come back to a UCI event I’ll have a better race/pit setup going…