beached

Um I think I just decided that I'm gonna have to find some somewhere to live where there is some sort of beach/bike fusion and lots of warm weather... Like a beach-side shack in Baja or something with endless dirt roads and cow trails and a taco stand about 2 miles from me. Oh and maybe some other modern comforts like the printing press, interweb and TV, oh oh oh and an endless supply of good coffee... but yea other than that I think I would be good.

So I left Durango tuesday with Mitch Hoke and we proceeded to drive though a full on blinding snow storm in AZ. We spend a good two hours asking how this could happen is a state so well known for overly tan old people. Who would have guessed... the doughnut I had that morning kept a smile on my face though as we drove at 20 mph behind police escorted snowplows. Thats the sweet part about traveling with a clown like mitch... he keeps me humble. The kid is so talented and realizes how sweet this lifestyle is, so he makes sure to have fun and loosen up. Tight wads suck. We ate some fruit while chatting with the California border inspector too. I convinced him the two apples we were eating were the only fruit I had in the car... but those oranges in my jacket were probably from california anyways right? God I am a rebel... Getting pumped on bringing citrus into california. Shortly thereafter we pulled off the freeway and rode our bikes on some dirt road that ran back into the freeway... we decided to do some overland riding and ended up just getting cactus in our shins, and these ones were deluxe with the barbs on the ends of the spines... made for some creative language when we pulled them out. We ended our little 12 hr drive by nearly running out of gas in the Navajo desert and then getting lost in the nuttiest little village I have ever seen. It was perched up in the mountains just east of LA, and it was straight out of Disneyland. Crestline, CA. All the roads looped back on themselves and nothing made sense. It was silly. We were trying to find Trevor Downings house with Mitch's Garmin, and we just kept looping around into weird little side streets precariously perched on the near vertical hillsides (this debacle caused some emotional scarring and really ruined a healthy relationship between Mitch and his GPS). And the whole town of about 8,000 people just lives literally at the top of this peak with homes and roads cut into the hillside. We ended up calling trevor for his service as an escort (no not that kind). Just really an exhausting trip. I was shelled yesterday from it.

We ripped a couple laps on the Bonelli race course yesterday before coming down which was good. Its pretty low key, not so technical, pretty short punch climbs and really just short and fast. It will be a good time undoubtedly. I am looking forward to getting this racing thing going for real! Legs were a little tired, but I have been training a lot (some epic 6 hr rides in the rain back in Durnago) and so really I am just hoping to recoup over the next couple weeks and then rip it hard in Fontucky. I think most importantly was that once we got done there we drove down to San Clemente (where I am right now) and met up with Lydia. She is pumped to see familiar faces and its so good to see her too. Went for another beautiful, green ride with her, and then wrecked a really good burrito and some chips. She took us to some dive-ey mexican place, so it had to be good, and they really came through. I know it was good because all this morning by stomach was still pretty pissed off about the whole thing. Sweet!

So today Mitch and I just lounged and took some bad photos of us in all the free shwag that LT gets from her internship at Bike Mag and then cruised down to the beach. She is three block away and it was just brilliant. Oh my god. I can't get over it. I won't describe the euphoria because it wont to it any good. Then bike ride, which is weird 'round here cause one moment its riding though grassy hillsides and literally no less than two minutes later it's strip malls and over stuccoed homes, which ended with a picture perfect setting on top of a cliff overlooking the beach and ocean. Hmmm what was that about taco's and the ocean and liking the biking thing? Tomorrow its back up to the venue to start getting my head back on straight... today was too good to be true.

Neon Jesus

So its gotten kinda crazy down here in D-town. Tad got home Sunday, after about a month on the road. He was killing it though. He led the U23 World Championship pursuit race for a while, then went to a World Cup and then to Aspen for the Owl Creek chase, which he won! He has things on lock down right now. Oh and the a Khazak who got 5th today in the Olympics nordic sprint, was someone who he was beating at Worlds. So pretty much Tad is faster than the 5th fastest Olympic sprinter... Not really, but we were laughing about it today. Norgay worlds were actually just outside of Kirchzarten, Germany where we spent last summer and will return to this summer. He took some people to our favorite coffee shop while they were in town! I wonder if he went and hit up the truffle shop across the street though... probably not, nordic skiers are crazy and don't eat anything but egg smoothies and raw hamburger.... oh and salad.

Speaking of coffee shops, I got a job at Durango coffee here in town. I am pretty pumped on it... until it starts infringing on my bike riding and nap time. So far its been good. I just got done training, and am thinking that having some people other than the clown show of Tad and Evan to hang out with will be good. And speaking of good, Ryan and I went out on the town last week and ate some super delicious bad mexican food and had a couple Tecate's at this place called Gaspacho's. Its dialed. Like $1.50 tacos and $1.50 beer. And they don't really care who comes in, so I get to giver' without feel awkward and lying about my age. The food was just super greasy and tender and just rad. Pretty close to taco wagon style, so it was a little piece of heaven. I never found good mexican food in Bozone, and would consider it a passion of mine, so I am stoked on the Southwest. Bozeman is too cold for people who come from the desert... actually its too cold for anyone really.

Went down to Tucson this weekend, for 24hrs of Old Pueblo. Ryan and I had a four man singlespeed team with Joey Ernst (our National Team mechanic) and another guy named Jim from Colorado Springs. It was one of the best trips I have had in a long time. There was some friendly rivalry between us and another team who was composed of friends of Joey, Ryan and Jim. Everyone but me were singlespeed nuts, so I just got made fun of a lot for looking like captain america and shaving my legs most of the weekend. I had my Specialized Epic (haven't got my new Mafia Felt yet!!), and apparently having dual suspension is super gay for singlespeeds, and I had everything jerry-riged. Stuff was breaking, I stripped out a crank bolt, had to steal one from Tad before I left, and my bike was just sketchy. That just fired up the jokes even more. Joey was there though, so everything got sorted out. He's pretty much a genius. Side note: Right now as I write this Tad and Evan are fighting because they don't agree what boxer briefs are most comfortable or stylish... anyways, Joey got stuff dialed and I got out riding friday evening. It was absolutely incredible!!! I felt good, and riding a singlespeed is another world. Its just a totally different type of riding... I had to look for different lines to be more smooth, and prevent my chain from bouncing off, carrying speed, and just oh man it was sweet. I need one at some point. So I sucked ass in the run off the line to start the race so I was angry, and then hit some cactus so I started raging and rode sketchy and then lost my chain some, then wrecked some... I just didn't have my game face on. Riding at night got sweet though cause the course was twisty and tight riding at night past cactus that looked like all sorts of stuff. It was unreal... I don't know what I am trying to describe it, its not gonna do it justice. I rode again sunday morning, was pretty shelled, but I think it was my best lap cause I was too tired to ride like a sketch bomb. Oh also... middle of the night on my second night lap I straight body checked a prickly pear cactus. I lost my line and just hugged it. I was too tired to care at the time, but I spend some time cleaning out my jacket, shoulder, arm and leg when I got done racing. The best part of the weekend was probably eating some more really good bad mexican food on the way home though. We hit up some place that had the drive-thru window go though a trailer park... it was sketchy and so by definition it had to be good. It was a cool drive home cause we were both shelled but not really sleepy so we had some goofy and bizarre conversations, and the stars were incredible! I really enjoyed the weekend... I needed it more than I realized. Ryan needed it to. He's a pretty incredible friend, and I was stoked to get to do something like this with him. Got to see Grandpa and Judy and Craig while I was down there, we went out to dinner Friday night and it was great to see them... I am such a vagabond all year long, and so busy that I hadn't seen any of them in a long time. Family is important and I feel guilty about seeing everyone on such a sporadic time frame. I feel bad it was such a short visit though.

Also, another best part of the trip... we were driving through Aztec, NM at 5 am Friday morning on our way there and drove past a neon sign that looked like it belonged on a strip club... it said "jesus saves" cross word style. In the shape of a cross. Take it for what you will... I think it says something about the world we live in right now. I got a picture.

So its sweet to have Tad back in town... stuff is more entertaining now that Evan has someone to fight with. They constantly are arguing or jostling about something. Snide comments are everywhere. But they never fight about anything important... just girls and Blackberries. It's cool. Watching twins is a riot. Their friend Irerlyn came over last night and the two of us just sat back at watched. Evan was constantly ripping on the "Fag" and "Homo" men figure skaters. Then Tad would chime in about what athletes they were and then Evan "That doesn't matter Tad, they are still gay"... Just hating. I was on the floor just struggling. Evan just slammed down 4 Natty Ices and is gonna go out and party... Wednesdays are good for that right? Bed time for me though.

New

Alright, so this whole thing didn't exactly work out as planned last year. I kinda got overwhelmed with all the other things I didn't really have to do, and this blog got neglected. This time though... I swear its gonna be regularly updated...

So I am announcing that I will be racing for the Mafia/Felt/Pabst Pro MTB Team this coming season! I think this will be a great opportunity... There are a lot of great sponsors backing us this year including Felt Bikes, PBR (yes the beer), Rudy Project, Shimano and bunches of others! Eventually I will figure out who they all are and let people know what I think of the products (as if my opinion really matters).

Also, for those of you who don't know I am now living at Tad's house in Durango... manning out by myself cause Ethan Giver-more money just went home to backwoods VT. We dropped out of school together so we could get some sweet training in Durango and be fast and stuff this year. He made it a total of 9 days I think. Ha. Don't think I'm ridiculing him, cause he's still a close friend, and I'm fully in support of whatever he needs to do... I just think its funny. He's probably the sane one... we were sharing a harry potter room previously occupied by Paige Elliot (Tads sister, shes at Dartmouth, an Ivy League school)... and when I say that I don't mean its small... its just covered in had drawn sketches of Harry and Ron (unfortunately no Hermione) and some Vampire stuff from the Twilight series. One of the posters on my wall has a great quote about the hypnotic eyes of that vampire guy. I don't know his name... its just some serious adolescent girl stuff though. Poems and valentines everywhere. I've got a sweet single bed though! Ha! But in all seriousness, Tads family is rad and have been so hospitable. Nancy cooks some delicious food, and Mike only hassles me about how much I eat and how little I train a occasionally (hes a former Olympic norgay skier). Evan (Tads twin) keeps stuff pretty relaxed. Hes a character. The other day he was stuffing zilla-cat into the couch cushions to see if it would turtle itself on it's back. The thing sees some abuse, but it's only slightly more intelligent than the wall it likes staring at so I can only laugh.

Right now things are kinda slow but its good cause trying to train has been keeping me way too occupied. As Ethan and I were twenty minutes from town last monday, it started to snow, and didn't stop for 5 days. We got 36 inches or something stupid... I'm trying to be constantly optimistic, but even right now as I write this I hear someone outside snowblowing and nothing has fallen for 5-6 days. Silly. It takes a half hour just to bundle up for a ride. And I wear a rain jacket even when its sunny out cause most of time the streets have a 1/2 inch of standing water on them.

In all reality it might be good that Ethan is gone. I wont get harassed in my sleep anymore. On our way down we stayed with Mitch Peterson in SLC. The kid has two audi's, and is 23. Whoa! Talk about living the dream... anyways, I woke up in the middle of the night to Ethan whacking me in the head with his sleeping pad... I asked him what he was doing but he wouldn't respond and just kept hitting me. Apparently he shared my pillow for a bit too, although I don't remember that part. But I will miss sharing the experiences we had in just a few short days... like when snowballs were thrown at us by middle school bullies, and I wont have having anyone to give me a play by play of my face plants in the middle of main street.

Today was a good day. Coffee all morning and this afternoon just hanging out. I sat out on the porch while Joey was playing guitar, and it was beautiful out. The thunderheads were moving in, but they were all that existed on a blue sky. It was warm out, but not hot, just right. I watched Noel (the owner of the hostel) dancing on the porch to Joey's playing. He is a chef, and also owns a cafe next door, but he bakes in the hostel so this place always smells like pastries and cakes. It is pretty irresistible. The people here are incredible. I can't say it enough. They are so kind. I have a lot of that in my life right now, back in the states too, I have some incredible people behind me including my parents, family, Jason, and everyone at Arlberg (Scott, Dan and the crew), the community is great and I wouldn't be here with out all of you.  Life is good and right now we are watching a great sunset over the valley. I will get some pictures of it to you soon. Thanks everyone.

Coffee is good. Today it will save me, cause my legs are pretty wrecked right now and its only 8:30, but I could use a nap. I raced again yesterday, and once again got destroyed by Euro's, but it was good. I love racing somewhere new and somewhere hard. Everything is so different here, it is exhausting just trying to go grocery shopping, or to get some bread at the bakery, much less try to figure out where to warmup, and what tires to race on and where you are going to find a pre-race meals when we are on the road. But it is good and I don't want to be any other place right now. Everyday that I am here, I find something new and exciting that I totally love, something as nominal as musli, or no speed limits (that would have saved me some money over the years!), and wish I had back at home (wherever that is... my Subaru maybe?). The riding here is different too, I am temped to say its like east coast riding, rocky, and rooty and muddy, but then I realize that when we go ride, there is a little bit of everything. Some big open smooth fields, some tight, rocky twisty, rooty stuff though the woods, and some open fast rocky fire-roads covered in baby-head sized rocks (yes I said that), something out of a forest in the high country. Its just a big gumbo soup of riding and it is all sweet and everyone here does it. 

Second cup of coffee. So the race was pretty O.K. It was pretty typical of European races, it started on pavement, made a sharp turn then went straight up, and then they ran us down the Downhill race course for a decent. On top of that it was muddy earlier in the week, so everything was still wet, but it was slow and sticky, which is my least favorite. It was a course that had potential to eat bikes. Fortunately for the US Team (and probably most of the credit goes to Joey our awesome mechanic) nobody destroyed anything. I was the first US guy called up because I had the most UCI points (from Nats last year), somewhere around 25-30, we were in the fourth row. There were 108 starters, (supposedly), so it was a huge field and they were all U23's. It was fast, but I was strong, and as the race progressed I got stronger which is a good feeling. By the end of the 3rd lap I was in my rhythm and was catching people finally, I had a good surge going. I was pretty fast down the decent, and I had power on the climb, but alas, the swiss are stupid fast (the winner destroyed second place and the rest of a mostly german field by 4 and a half minutes) and I got pulled after 5 of seven laps. I was bummed because I was racing at a seven lap pace, so I still had quite a bit in the tank at the end of the race. I was the third american in the results, behind Tristan, who is killing it over here, at 23, and Mitch at 29, I finished 35. Which is good considering the size of the field, and that this race is just a step below a World Cup. I am happy though cause I am in Euro-land and racing my bike. Things are good. 

Mononucleosis is a nasty disease. It is still keeping me at about 85%. I just am not recovering, and I never seem to be able to go 100% in a race. I always have flat legs and I am living from cup of coffee to cup of coffee. I just want to feel good for once. It hasn't happened yet and I am wondering if it will happen at all this year. Frustrating. Ok so we are going to the store so we can have food for a day or two. Six hungry bike racers eat a lot. Here are some photos:

This is the Taylor Cup Race last Sunday

Some photos of a ride that Rob said would last about and hour and change, the climb was an hour and a half alone:

Riding up to the windmillsThe holy grail, Schaminsland (I did not spell that right)
More of the Robscapade

Wow, so here I am here in Europe all of a sudden. The past moth has been a completely insane. I have been racing almost every weekend, and struggling to get unpacked before repacking, find time to study and train. I have been tutoring chemistry, physics and stats students on top of all that. I made it though somehow, and I think I managed to come out of it strong and pretty fit for this trip, and I managed to pack up just about everything I needed too, I am impressed with myself, as egocentrical as that might sound.

But anyways I found my way to Kirchzarten, Germany, after 40 some-odd hours of travel. A little village with the stereotypical uber narrow roads that wind up the hills to obscure little villages that somehow stick to the steep hillsides, and high passes over which roads disappear into the depths of the next valley and its isolation. This place is incredible. The trails wind through the Black Forest, totally disorienting me, until I am totally convinced I am lost and which time I always pop out onto something very familiar, and close to our home here in this place. I am surrounded pretty much 360 degrees by the Black Forest and its high ridge lines (the sky is bigger in montana). Today we went out for a recovery ride after racing all weekend (which I will get to) and climbed for 1:30, on one of those little switch-backing roads to nowhere. We rode essentially to the top of the valley, and made it pretty much to the snow line. The ride down was just crazy fast, we were moving at 40 mph easily in places, just bouncing down this old single-track sheepherders trail though open fields and ducking into deep forested gullies. Just out of this world.

So the racing is stupid fast, thats the only way to describe it. But at the same time, just the most fun, masochistic stuff I have ever done. Saturday we drove down into Switzerland (a short 30 min drive) and raced the Swiss Bike Racer Cup in Solothurn. We arrived around 1:15 and raced at 4, so in the meantime we planned on checking out the course. Robbie Squire, Trevor Downing and I went out, got totally lost because of poor directions by the swiss (actually it was our lack of ability to convey a simple question, which I will talk about in a few). So it should have taken us about 20 min to do a lap, but in the midst of the womens race happening and getting lost and going for a few short hikes, we showed back up at the car after an hour with everyone getting worried about us. We got yelled at by a bunch of swiss people and had plenty of fingers shaken at us because we were on course when the women were racing. 

We got to the starting line, I had a good warmup, so I was feeling confident that I might finally be able to put together a good race this year. I pinned it hard for about 10 minutes, and was racing with Tad Elliot and Mitch Hoke in the upper 1/2 of the field (this is a field that has multiple current and former olympic and world champions in it, and a lots of guys who can place top ten in the world on any given day), so I was stoked. But with my luck this year of course things couldn't last. I started getting stomach cramps. I had to slow down (a lot) and just kinda rode tempo for while because I was about to boot. I eventually got lapped by the leaders (Nino Schruter), I think it was on lap 6 of 9. Once I got a coke on lap 7 my stomach cramps went away for the most part, but all I could do was damage control (the theme of my season) and try to keep what I had. I finished up 46th, which isn't great, but considering the jet lag and my stomach I can't stress too much about it. The course was totally cool. We started in the middle of town, under this huge old arch and continued to race through city block and neighborhood until we hit some dirt which accounted for about 40% of the 5km course. It wasn't like anything in the US. So we got home late after the race (I think I finally got to bed at about 1130) and none of us were anywhere near recovered. We had to get up and race again the next day too. 

So sunday was a low key local race which the US just dominated. We rode to the venue (about 45 min) getting lost along the way, and receiving more blank stares when we asked for directions (this seems to happen a lot to us). We previewed the course which was just up on the hillside through some dude's field essentially. It had a steep, short climb and then a flat/rolling section with a fast decent and another doubletrack climb. It was 2 km long and we did 10 laps. Once we got racing this took about 6 min per lap. I just got dizzy going in circles so fast. But although I had totally sore,crappy, flat legs, I did well. I powered through this one hour race and ended up 10th (yes 10th in a Euro race, sweet huh) I got payed out 25 Euro, which was awesome. But even cooler was that Tad won, Robbie was second and we had 5 of us in the top 10, and the Germans were stoked on us being there. People are so gracious here, and they love that we are racing. They think its so cool, and I agree.

We are such a bunch of dorks here. We are all stuck on facebook constantly, and none of us know and German. We go out for dinner and just struggle to get through the ordering process, but all I can do is laugh. We have no idea what any signs say and are just trying to keep the asshole factor to a minimum. When we were in Switzerland I tried to buy some water with my debit card, but couldn't read the screen at the checkout, so I just pushed buttons over and over until something worked. I just got a stare from the woman working that asked "are you that stupid?" and yes we probably are for doing this sport and putting up with its lifestyle, but we love it and ignorance is bliss.  I will get some pictures up soon.

There is too much to do. That has been the story of my life the past month, and that is exactly why it has taken me so long to get updated on whats happened thus far this season. And keeping with tradition (or what there is), I am once again procrastinating studying, this time its for a final though, so I feel kinda guilty.  I am already over a month into the season, I can't believe it. Since Fontana I have raced 8 more times! I raced in Spokane the weekend after Fontana in a road omnium (road race, TT and Criterium) which I dominated (kinda) even though I had awful legs. I rode the field into the ground as was by far the strongest racer in the pack. It was more just for training, and to get that edge back that I so badly was missing when I was in fontana. Shortly after the Spokane race I found that I made the Euro Camp team for the US National Team. So actually I leave in 36 hrs for Germany to spend 3 weeks racing. I am so incredibly humbled and honored. I have been so fortunate in my racing pursuits over the years, I have incredibly supportive parents, friends and sponsors. I couldn't have gotten here without all of you. So yea Europa will be incredible. But first what is leading up to now.... So I went down to Sea Otter Classic a couple weeks ago and botched another big race. This time I nearly got heat stroke. It was up to 95 degrees in Monterey, CA, and I just burned up. I had a I good call up and was racing around 25th out of 150 people for the first 45 minutes of racing, but then I started getting goose-bumps, and was lightheaded and super tired. I was feeling so fast too! So I ended up stopping under a tree and dousing myself with water for half and hour and getting a ride up from one of the medics with Ryan Trebon. Bonding time. I did Ok in the short track, but I had such a crappy call-up that I couldn't do much. I just rubbed a lot of elbows and then got pulled. So that was another disappointing weekend. I raced in Pullman with the MSU road team last weekend, which was a total blast. I had a great time. It was pretty low key racing, although our mens A race was definitely a fast hard race, I rode with J-mac and some other pretty quick cat 1,2 guys and in both the road race and crit I was as strong if not stronger than all of them. I finally have found my legs. It took a while, but I have done it. I feel ready for germany, I have strong legs and I have a fast mindset, which is what it's gonna take. I am so pumped. I will keep you guys updated more regularly while I am over there, it is gonna be sweet.