The Cape Epic

Well, I finally went and did the Cape Epic in South Africa last week.  I’d been intending to see what this eight-day Magical Untamed African MTB Race was all about for quite some time now, but it’s just never worked out with the schedule.  Or I’ve never made it…  Rabobank/Giant Teammate Emil Lingren has finished The Epic twice in the last few years and expressed interest in doing it this year.  Which made a bunch of sense considering it was one week after the World Cup opener in Pietermaritzburg and finished two weeks before the next round up in Belgium.  Our team manager, Leo supported the idea when we proposed it at Team Presentation in December, provided I promised to get in shape to avoid sucking and wasting everyone’s time…  I was able to agree to this, nobody likes sucking, after all, especially when it’s pointed out like that. 

After the World Cup we made the short flight down to Cape Town and set about resting up properly for the week in an apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  My body was pretty pooped after the travel across the World and difficult racing on Saturday, so the plan was pretty much to take it as easy as possible without becoming completely comatose before Sunday’s Prologue TT.  To avoid said coma, Emil and I took Christoph Sauser (who owns an apartment in Stellenbosch) up on attending his midweek fundraiser race at the Kayamandi Township.  Songo.info is an organization that sponsors Christoph and Burry Stander for their South African racing pursuits as a way to draw attention to helping the children of these impoverished settlements gain access to sport and a more diverse life.  Racing through a Township of tin roofed shantys has a way of making you less concerned about the burning in your legs and somehow it’s easy to push hard when presented with how easy your reality is.  So we did.  Emil and I came 5^th and 6^th in a World Cup caliber field and left feeling rough and ready for the Epic.  After a few more days of nothingness… 

Those days passed quickly and soon enough it was 11:26am on Sunday.  We kicked out of the start gate just as Jackie Baker and Josh Fonner (liv/Giant program manager and NY Giant Rep) finished up their Prologue.  They said it was a cakewalk…  Liars.  Emil is effing strong, especially on the steep climbs that dotted the vineyard meandering course.  He kept me on the rivet and we passed a bunch of people.  Including a team of women with #546 on their back.  We had #13.  At 30 second intervals, that means they started 4:25:00 in front of us to complete a 27k TT loop.  Dang, there’s some tough souls that sign up for The Epic…  We made it to the hilltop finish (who’s idea was that?) in an hour fifteen, good enough for sixth place and reassurance that we were indeed ready to contend at the front of the race.  Perfect. 

A couple hour drive inland, through a tunnel in the Hawequas Mountains where the scenerty changed from verdant vineyards to rugged desert land, delivered us to the arid valley of Robertson.  This, and our trusty Kombi Camper, would be our home for the next three nights.  Thus my insistence on parking under a shade tree.  Survival skills would come in handy this week…  It was only when we arrived in the race village that the undertaking that is the Cape Epic’s organization really became obvious to me.  1200 riders need to eat, sleep and live for a week in this roving city.  A massive meal tent (where I’d be providing entertainment and anecdotes from the front of the race to the dinner crowd), hundreds upon hundreds of red Absa tents, a whole slew of RV’s, shower trucks, food vendors (the greatest of which was the Woolworth’s truck with it’s free recovery snacks and afternoon top-up meals).  The infrastructure is quite impressive, and shade is at a premium!  Temperatures were set to be well into the 30’s to start the week (37C is 100F), necessitating smart locations and impressive amounts of water. 

Stage one proper is always a grunt, according to Epic regulars.  It’s intended to set the tone for the week and weed out the unprepared.  Regardless of riding quite strong, almost got weeded out for being unprepared.  Emil had a classic JRA flat riding down a smooth gravel road, which we changed in just over a minute and caught back up to the group on the next climb.  Then, with about 40k to go, and the three ridiculously steep (two of them unridably so) climbs out of the way, Emil and I were working with the second place group to keep Sauser and Stander’s gap in check.  I thought we were doing so quite well, Emil’s initial work on the steep climbs (where I was again surviving) had softened the group up a bit so I took over on the rolling bits and we were both thinking a stage podium was in sight.  Then I flatted.  Which we fixed quickly as well, while Photographer buddy Sven Martin snapped away)  Then I flatted again.  And again.  Once your tubeless tire with latex sealant has a lowly innertube inside, you’re completely defenseless against the millions of thorns that line the rocky tracks and vineyards.  Oh well.  We found increasingly comfortable spots to change the litany of punctures and rode at an increasingly conservative pace, opting to lose a touch more time today and save energy for tomorrow.  We lost 27min total, and finished 17^th on the day.  Shoot.  But hey, at least we were riding strong before the junk-show started.  And we didn’t melt in the heat, which reached 44C at one point.  Whoa. 

That would be the last we (or I at least) saw of the front of the race.  We started stage two, supposedly an easier 120km with less climbing, on heavier tires and hopeful to get some time back.  Which would prove difficult with the road-race like pace and terrain.  Much of the day was spent on fast District Roads, the rest on jeep tracks rolling through the barren hills.  I had a sinking empty feeling in my legs from the two previous days’ efforts that became quite apparent on a 5min road climb around KM60.  I got dropped.  Never to see the front group again.  Emil eventually realized what happened and waited up, as we’re never to be more than two minutes apart, and helped me keep a steady tempo to Water Point Two.  Just before which I had the opportunity to walk, aided by fatigue, frustration and dust/sweat soaked glasses, into a metal fence right at nose level.  Nothing like getting dropped AND a black eye/bloody nose.  We held on for the rest of the day working with the chase group to end up 14^th, but I could feel my body’s emptiness.  It was a concerning feeling. 

Eating is pretty much your life at the Cape Epic.  On the bike, the second you cross the finish line, all afternoon right up to bed (which, with dawn and the start coming at 7am) happens before nine…  I knew that this particular afternoon was going to be key for replenishment, so I set about it.  By bedtime I’d eaten about a half-pound each of rice and sweet potatoes, a steak, a can of tuna, three bananas, two apples, two bowls of cereal, a salad, a custard dessert, enough Himalayan Salt to last a week and a Woolies Top-Up bag consisting of sweet potato salad and a chocolate shake.  Plus a bit of random other stuff like barbecue peanuts and dried fruit.

 

It was the dried fruit that I had the pleasure of seeing amongst the stomach bile that came up when I rolled into the fetal position, shivering, at Water Point One on stage three.  This pleasantry came after I took nearly three hours to cover 57km of mostly flat terrain (aside from one soul-crushing 6km rocky hike-a-bike climb and subsequent paved descent).  Brilliant.  I was able to get a ride with the concerned looking medics back to the race village eventually.  It was an impressively long drive, but that’s to be expected for a stage that covers 143km.  Yup, 89 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing over lumpity-bumpbity jeep tracks and district roads for the folks tough enough to complete, which was most of them…  Impressive. 

Once at the Medical HQ, they took a urine sample and blood sample to gauge my fluid levels and pronounced me dangerously dehydrated.  Obviously.  My options were to immediately start an IV drip if I wanted to continue on stage four, risking kidney damage due to grossly imbalanced fluid levels.  Or to accept my fate and quit.  With the Houffalize World Cup and a chance at Olympic Glory 18 days away, I chose to honor the give up option that had already been exercised quite effectively by my body. 

For some reason the toughness ethic that pervades this particular event has gotten into my normally analytical brain quite deeply over the first couple days.  The party line at the Epic is SURVIVAL.  It’s what the eventual winners are doing just as much as the poor blokes that are out there for 10 hours per day, every day, surviving.  It’s a serious test of being.  One that I’d failed impressively early, and that kind of tears me up inside, regardless of how obvious it was that continuing was not an option.  Fortunately, Rabobank’s agreement to go out on a limb and send us to the Epic wasn’t completely disrespected, Emil continued on as an Outcast, riding in a black jersey and unable to factor into the stage outcome, but having the Untamed African Experience nonetheless. 

I, as I often do when feeling like a bit of a failure, got the hell out of there.  Thursday morning I was on a flight to Johannesburg, then Frankfurt on my way to the Mediterranean Island of Mallorca, off the coast of Spain and world renowned for it’s perfect weather and ideal riding.  Rabo teammates Katie Compton and Rosara Joseph posted up here to train for Houffalize and that’s just what I’ll be doing, if I can ever get my health back.  The flu bug has turned into a cold and I’m sat here in the sunshine, shivering, just like five days ago on that lonely District Road in South Africa…  Wondering if I’ll ever go back to The Epic and finish things up.  Trans Provence sounds a touch more fun, but a good test is what makes us strong, right? 

Here’s to all the finishers, I’m impressed, no, shocked, at the level of riding that happens throughout the field at the Epic.  World Cup pace at the front and 60 hours of survival at the back.  Hats off to you, folks.  

Check out the details at 

http://cape-epic.com/

Even Sven had puncture problems on the media moto.  Thanks for all the fine Photos, Sven.  Check out his work at http://www.svenmartinphotography.com/

South African Dispatch          

Hello from the other side of the planet.  Assuming you’re in North America, although this is probably the other side from most places this email will be read…  That said, the bike community down here in South Africa continually impresses me with it’s strength.  The day I arrived happened to be the annual Cape Argus road race/ride.  Which meant bike racing (40,000 riders strong) was on live TV in Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport.  And everyone seeing my Rabobank/Giant polo shirt assumed I’d just been there, or was a bit late in coming.  Good eyes that the average SA resident has for cycling-related tidbits.  A nice welcome for a place I’m slated to spend three weeks with the sole purpose of riding bikes in the sunshine, hopefully fast. 

Speaking of arrival, the last thing I wanted to do after departing Bend at 4am Friday to land in Durban at noon on Sunday was to spend another six hours waiting for the arrival of the rest of the Rabobank team members for our drive to Pietermaritzburg.  Fortunately, the local Giant dealer, Cyclesphere, is owned by someone who’s a proper bike rider.  Greg Albert is an avid Track, Road and MTB rider who understands what makes the bike riding world go round.  So, I reached out to him for an airport wait enhancement.  Which he delivered in style.  Luckily for Women’s World Champ Catherine Pendrel, she was on my flight from Jo-Burg to Durban, albeit without her luggage.  This put her in the perfect position to catch a ride down to Cyclesphere with us and borrow a bike for a much-needed afternoon tour of urban and suburban, er, Durban.  Some of the local racer chaps joined Johan, one of Cyclesphere’s mechanics to give us a sampling of their turf.  It’s a diverse turf, enhanced by a warm, if torrential at times, afternoon rain.  We rode through shanty villages, high priced condos, urban revitalization efforts, the harbor, the boardwalk (with it’s perfect, and well used, surf) and finished past the new soccer stadium, built for the 2010 World Cup.  Lunch at the local Italian Restaurant as the downpour continued was the perfect airport wait capstone…  Thanks for the time, Greg, and for helping us out all week, and for lunch again on Monday.  And for having some of your loyal Giant riders swing by the shop to watch us pack our bikes while asking tons of thought-provoking questions.  Bike love in Kawzulu-Natal is strong! 

OK, now off to Maritzburg for the World Cup opener.  Mind you, I arrived in South Africa on MARCH 11 for the first World Cup.  Dang, way to stretch out the season, UCI.  I kind of hate you for that, but hey, you also forced me to train harder earlier, which has resulted in feeling stronger sooner than ever before.  Or so I thought. 

We had a full work week to get our bodies sorted after the planetary crossing and set about doing that the only way I know how on Monday.  Going for an accidentally exploratory bike ride…  Three hours and a bunch of bermed singletrack amongst the Gum-Tree groves later we felt like the jet leg was combated effectively by laughter and excitement.  And we found a waterfall.  A big one. 

The rest of the week lounged and flew by simultaneously.  Getting used to being part of a group of a dozen for three meals a day was smoothed by the fact that it’s a good group and the meals, prepared by the Protea Hotel chef, Sven Lindstrom, were meatily delicious.  Plus, I was rooming with Katie Compton.  Five boys and three girls on the team set up a unique lodging scenario, which Leo deftly handled by assuming that The Americans would get along fine with their tandem jet-lag and love for car shows on TV.  We stayed up late watching Top Gear and all was swell…  I was able to resist sneaking bites of KFC’s Bakery on Main Gluten Free Granola and plentiful nut butter supply, just… 

We had team bonding/practice with Giant’s skills guru Oscar Saiz on Wednesday, analyzing our way around the course and finding the fastest, surest lines.  The track didn’t really speak to me initially, a bunch of finite terminal velocity, smooth singletrack (fun but not especially selective or creative) broken up by what’s becoming known as “technical sections” comprised of various imported obstacles to spice things up.  These are kind of challenging, kind of dangerous, and kind of make you feel like a dweeb riding through them, no matter how effectively.  There’s no “hell yes” line.  Just survival.  But there were some sweet jumps.  And riding with the boys was fun.  They thought I seemed fit, which was supportive and nice.  Compared to last spring, I better be! 

Trusty Mechanics Ed and Marcel made sure James Huang put the cameras on my sweet new whip real tight for a POV lap of the course.  Check it here.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-adam-craig-previews-world-cup-cross-country-course

Anyway, Race Day:  The moment we’ve all been waiting for.  After a solid spring and good week, I was ready to find out what being fast was like.  Except I wasn’t.  Damn it.  The standard crazy start found me in about 90^th place after a lap, riding as hard as my strangely sore legs and stomach would allow me to.  Which wasn’t very.  I was still getting passed by random dudes, only 20 or so of which remained behind me.  Embarrassing.  And sort of soul-crushing, for that matter.  World Cup racing sucks when you suck at it, and have sucked at it for a couple consecutive seasons after so many where it all seemed to make sense and be worth the struggle.  I kind of got trapped inside my brain a bit on the first lap.  Then after the second struggling round I got yelled at by some Spanish rider for no reason.  So I told him off.  Maybe a bit aggressively.  For about 30 seconds.  And somehow that swell of anger, and the appearance of Spencer Paxson, who was charging, turned things around.  My legs eventually warmed up, the adrenals fired and I was off.  Making up ground from the 80’s.  Impressively bad.  Needing to get back into the top 60 to salvage a start for Houffalize in a month (surely I’ll be fast by then) I put my head down and rode fast-ish and felt good-ish for the second half of the race as the storm clouds thickened.  Then on last downhill of the race, as I was just entering the top 60, all hell broke loose, rocks and logs covered by clay and a downpour let me catch a couple more guys and come in 55^th.  Ouch.  But less terrible than if I’d quit (racing completely, maybe) after the first lap… 

Hats off to the little guys on the team, Fabian Giger was 12^th and Emil Lingren 22^nd.  The girls did awesome as well, Rosara Joseph used her Kiwi summer form to bring home 11^th and newcomer to the Rabo show, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot was hot on her heels in 13^th.  A benefit of a big team, SOMEONE is always riding well.  Hope that’s me soon…

We had another real nice team bonding exploration ride on Sunday as well, Michiel and Rosara keen for more after the initial find of sweet Sappi Land trails outside Howick helped me knit together some loops I’d been thinking about all week.  Rumor has it these trails are playing host to a certain race that awards a Tattoo for fastest/best drinker in September…  Hope you’re thirsty. 

Monday we popped on down to Cape Town, on a flight filled with bike riders, just like always.  Was good to chat with some folks I hadn’t seen in six months and catch up on the happenings of the bike world, which included John from Black Box Labs’ attendance of a recent Italian SuperEnduro race in Finale Ligure.  Sounded like fun…  The Cape Epic folks sorted us out with an apartment in Sea Point, a coastal suburb of Cape Town, and we settled in for the week of sunshine and resting.  With a bit of riding.

And more racing.  Christoph Sauser works with an organization called Songo.info that aims to provide much needed funds for developments in the “Townships” surrounding every decent sized Town in South Africa.  These settlements are often comprised of ramshackle shelters constructed from whatever’s available and cheap/free.  Lots of cardboard and sheet metal.  And dirt.  Even with the fall of Apartheid twenty years ago, South Africa is still quite separate and not exactly equal.  Songo.info is working on getting kids in these Townships exposed to sport, cycling included.  The Township of Kayamandi, across the tracks from the posh wine producing community of Stellenbosch, has seen the installation of a BMX track and programs to get local kids using it, as they should be!  It’s working from what I saw. 

Plenty of urban singletrack in Kayamandi

It was pretty easy to be positive about my position in the world, even with racing like a small child last weekend, in such an environment.  I steeled myself to make the most of the 40 minutes+two laps circuit race that took us up the hill through the Township every lap.  I was able to do that, actually feeling decent and riding through the chase group of the World Cup (and Cape Epic, which is sort of the same) level field to finish sixth, just behind Emil, who’ll I’ll be trying to stay that close to for 780km starting on Sunday… 

It was pretty surreal racing through Kayamandi.  Little kids yelling and running down the streets next to us, middle-aged women going about their daily chores (like laundry, which I need to do too) as if nothing was happening and old timers looking on, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.  Everyone seemed happy to see something different passing their front doors nonetheless.  And the BMX was race going off.  Local kids battling with out-of-towners on all manner of bikes like it was the World Champs.  Great to see another avenue to show folks a good time on two wheels.  Good work with the vision and even, Christoph, and congrats on winning… 

Now we’re finishing up resting our faces off before riding them off next week.  I’m feeling good and Emil is obviously strong, so we’ll see how things shape up in the first few days of The Cape Epic, maybe we’ll be contenders, hopefully we’ll survive either way…  Check it out at www.cape-epic.com and I’ll do my best to keep facebook and twitter updated with something noteworthy.  Like drool. 

Ten, wait, Eleven, Reasons Why Winter Was Also a Blur

1.  The Olympics.  The race season kickoff seems to creep earlier and earlier these days, but normally one can ease into things with some US racing before the big show.  Not this year, World Cup #1 is March 17^th in South Africa and marks the beginning of the Olympic selection process (best two Americans in World Cup Series ranking after the first four rounds) for London 2012.  This necessitated the following changes to my normal winter routine. 

2.  Perpetual summer seeking.  I like riding in the cold.  Most of the time I’m content to hole up in Bend and ski in the morning while it warms up enough to ride in the afternoon with booties and a thermal jacket.  This year that wouldn’t fly with the good form needed in March.  So I went south. 

3.  California.  As much as I love The Northwest, our southern neighbor is a pretty rad place to ride bikes in the winter.  And most of the sponsors who get me through the summer have offices there.  Thus, it was a logical start to winter training trip, 2012.  Visiting and riding with the Santa Cruz area folks first, Fox Racing Shox and Giro, seemed like a logical start.  We had lots of fun.  And I didn’t get poison oak, the fear of which is why I didn’t spend the whole winter in Cali…  Next up were Giant and Shimano in greater LA.  Even sunnier.  Perfect. 

4.  High School Kids.  Also in California is the epicenter of kids getting on bikes these days.  The uber-successful NorCal High School League has grown into the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.  These fine folks held their annual awards banquet at Clif HQ in The Bay Area and they invited me to be the guest speaker and take some folks on a bike ride in Marin.  It was a pretty eye-opening event.  The students are amazingly articulate young adults who also happen to be stoked on bike riding.  Happy days to them, learning an activity in school that you can carry on with through life is an incredible opportunity.  NICA is hoping to bring High School MTB programs coast to coast by 2020.  We should all help. 

5.  Sedona.  While last fall was flying by I was keeping my ears open for good training locations for the winter.  SoCal?  Hawaii?  New Zealand?  Then longtime shred buddy Ross Schnell called me randomly and mentioned that he and the rest of the Over the Edge Sports shops were going in on a place in Sedona, Arizona for January and February.  Sold.  Sweet trails (so I was told) and super fun folks to ride with would make getting in shape seem like having a good time…  Which it was, it was great to see the different crews rolling through town with a common goal, enjoy riding bikes in the sun.  I met up with said crews after doing my workouts and we had lots of fun on the red rocks and never-ending trails.  Go there sometime, and try to keep up with Jason First and Mike Raney from OTE’s new Sedona shop.  Plus, talk to Troy about all things life. 

6.  Recess.  With a long season ahead of me and a good solid training plan laid out with my longtime coach, Bart Bowen, I had a couple of rest weeks mixed in to regenerate and prepare for the next, ever-intensifying training block.  I took advantage of some United miles and flew home to Bend for one of those weeks.  It was magical to have a bonus week, house projects done, life in order, just time to spend catching up with friends and being able to relax at home.  Plus, I got to go to a pretty awesome Beats Antique concert.  Perfect.   

7.  Retail therapy.  Since he loves it so much, Carl pointed out a craigslist posting for a motorbike like his.  I called and they had already sold it.  Oh well.  Then a chance Superbowl Sunday backyard motocross session at garage framer Tony Emick’s place alerted me to the fact that it was still available.  So, I got a fresh (to me, quite used though) KTM 200 XC-W.  You know, to ride, and maybe even race, this fall after bike season…  Pretty sure having a moto that feels like a MTB is going to make me ride more like a French Enduro racer, or maybe Danny Hart.  Thanks for helping, Tony and Carl. 

8.  Planning.  It’s going to be a long, convoluted season with many variables.  This takes all kinds of vision in regard to what events to attend, how to get there and what I’ll need to succeed while there.  Spring is going to fly by as well, with March 9 through May 21 spent across the Atlantic in South Africa and Europe chasing the World Cup and Olympic Selection.  Here’s hoping I ride like I know I can and make the team.  Regardless, summer will also fly by, mixing in some Enduro events with the XC and having a good time along the way…

9.  Driving.  I love being on the road, solo, with an outline but no exact plan to stick to.  3000 miles went on the old WRX (will it ever die?) from mid-January through the end of February.  I met some great folks, saw some amazing scenery and assorted randomness, listened to a lot of NPR and got some good thinking done.  And my beat-down car loved every mile of it.  Especially the last 100, in the middle of the night in a snowstorm, hauling ass, returning home to Bend. 

10.  Winter.  I think it flew by because I wasn’t in it much.  Even Bend had record warmth through my departure in the middle of January.  It was weird, not being in proper winter.  Seasons run deep into my soul and I take a lot of emotional balance from the changes that come with life around the 45^th Parallel.  A necessary evil, chasing summer, in my opinion.  This week in Bend, taking some time off the bike and watching it snow seemed to balance me out a bit, and getting straight into race season will seal the deal, but I’ll still long for the winter that never was.  Good thing 2013 will see a serious paradigm shift for me…  But hey, I’m always staying that.  This time I mean it…

11.  RACING!?  Since everyone seems to prefer the list format to my run-on 2000-word reports, let’s just cover the season kick-off right here.  It happened this weekend, the first one in March.  I thought this was a fundamentally flawed concept, but it turns out riding your bike on sweet trails in Arizona all winter prepares one for riding on similarly sweet trails in Texas too.  Despite moving from Lance’s (recently sold) ranch to a different ranch, Flat Creek Crossing, outside Austin, it was still on kick-ass (better!) singletrack and the date change resulted in P E R F E C T conditions instead of oppressive heat (like we’ll have in South Africa in 13 days).  A bike meet on home soil also meant that I could hang out with my old posse from the Giant Factory Team, I miss you, Felice, Carl, Kelli, Frank and Steve K.  Love your work, and company.  Anxious doesn’t really speak to how curious I was to get to racing and see if I was on track, regardless of Nerd Box (SRM powermeter) quantification of my homework.  Turns out I’m decently in shape, or at least good at riding my shiny new Anthem X 29er (26” is dead to me) on funsie trails.  Or off the trails, which I was forced to do often after flatting out of the lead group about seven minutes into the race.  I passed a lot of random dudes, and eventually people I recognized, after Frank gave me a handy-dandy new (inflated) wheel.  Almost all of ‘em.  Ended up 7^th in the shortest XC race I’ve ever done, under 1:20 isn’t even time to have a drink or warm up…  I almost didn’t care about the flat and ensuing couple of minutes lost, I was just stoked to be having a good time racing my bike (fast!) and feeling good about it.  Here’s hoping that’s a trend that continues.  Max Plaxton won, which won me $5.  Rabobank/Giant teammate Katie “it’s the off-season” Compton ended up fourth, an impressive off-the-couch effort made all the more awesome by some comments made the night before about her competition…  I’m glad we’re teammates, her being hilarious will make ten weeks in Europe go by much faster…

PS- I’m still building it out, whatever that means but I’ve created a Facebook Athlete page.  Go Like it and I’ll do my best to cleverly keep y’all up to date this season.  Good stuff is going to happen. 

10 Reasons Why This Fall Has Flown By

1. I built a garage. Using past tense is a stretch here because it’s not exactly “done” yet but at least it’s a glorified shed with a sweet paint job and lights that (mostly) work.  My Dad came out for a while and we puttered away on the details, letting the professionals handle some of the major things, like Framing and Roof.  Eric Meglassen from Pique Architecture did a good job with design and sub-contractor wrangling as well...  It was nice to wake up in the morning and roll out back with Harvey to solve problems and make progress.  That said, it will also be nice to no longer be working construction from dawn till dusk…

2. Houseguests.  Dad opened and Mom closed a solid month of visitors to Portland Avenue.  It’s great to have time in the fall to catch up with folks from out of town and show them a good time in Bend.  Easy crowd to please and good catalyst to do the things you don’t normally do at home.  Like go to the dirt jumps, or the Symphony. 

3. No Cyclocross.  Other than a hilarious Halloween weekend in Bend.  As much as I’ve always struggled to accept cyclist’s claims of being “burnt out” at the end of a season, I was pretty over toeing the line after a challenging summer.  Thus, it was nice to catch up on life this fall, stoking the fire for next year. 

4. We did a rally race.  We won.  It was awesome.  Decker/Craig and the Wheels of Teal are now stage record holders on 17 Road and Fir Mountain, two classic stages of the Mount Hood Rally.  That’s effing TEAMWORK!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbszjRY0O5Y

5. Um, the GRAND CANYON!  Yup, took two weeks and floated down the Colorado River for 280 miles of spectacular scenery, hiking, camping and general pleasant existence.  Perfect weather, a great group of old and new friends and high water made this sort of an amazing trip.  Thanks for the invite, Lana, glad I ran into you and made it happen.  Some solid introspection has time to happen whilst floating between towering sandstone walls and looking at the stars from your bivvy sack. 

6. Bike Testing.  We’re working on some pretty sweet new stuff over here at Giant Bicycles.  2012 was the year of the road bike and I can assure you that 2013 will be the year of the MTB.  Sounds like a good year to me… 

7. Cinematography.  On the topic of bike testing, Clay Porter came up to Bend with a proper film crew to make a short showcasing the fruits of our labor.  $200,000 worth of camera equipment and a hilarious Irishmen combined to produce some serious dust busting footage.  Stay tuned…

8. Europe without a bike.  My fantasy of traveling to Europe and not racing was fulfilled for Rabobank Team Presentation in Holland.  This left time for a couple evenings checking out downtown Amsterdam around the team event at Rabo Intergalactic HQ before popping down to the Alps for a short, solo ski holiday.  Which worked out so, so amazingly well.  Fresh show just in time, friends of friends introducing me to ever more great people in Verbier and Chamonix and a surprise MTB ride in the valley with the folks from Bike Verbier.  I might retire and become a guide on their lifetime supply of singletrack…

9. Planning.  2012 is shaping up to be a great year.  I’m going somewhere warm for the bulk of the winter to train my face off, hopefully without crashing it off following Ross Schnell (preferred shred buddy) around Sedona, AZ’s fabled trails. Then nine weeks across the pond will be spruced up with the Cape Epic in South Africa after World Cup #1 and enhanced by the last seven taking place at some TBD sweet location for the remainder of European Springtime (Verbier? Fribourg?).  At the conclusion of World Cup #4 in late May I’ll know if I’ve earned my spot on the US Olympic Team for London and can commence preparing to ride like myself at The Games.  Either way, the season will wind down at Trans-Provence, with a week of racing through Southern France from Gap to Monaco, but only on the downhills, it might just be the best event I’ll ever do…

10. Motivation.  Not racing or being involved in competition for the last few months has refreshed my brain and body, and let me catch up on all the other things in life enough to be stoked to step off the plane in Redmond this evening and get down to business. This is about six weeks before I normally start and should pay dividends considering the schedule.  It’s going to be so sweet to be super fast all season!  Between getting off the plane and a sweet bike ride tomorrow there will have to be a stop at Deschutes for a local’s burger though.  With salad and gluten-free bun of course…

I hope this finds everyone having a happy holiday season.  Whether staying home and relaxing like I am or traveling to Sri Lanka to re-uinte with long lost relatives...

Locals’ Advantage

Over the last couple weeks I’ve gotten to see both sides of having a little local knowledge of a bike contest.  First was our home court advantage, US Marathon Nationals in Bend.  Eight days later I was in the Eastern Standard Time zone for the Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage Race.  Which happens to be in one of my favorite riding buddies’ back yard, Sam Koerber.  His back yard is way more awesome/complex/diverse/rad/dangerous than ours when it comes to trails and pertinent knowledge… 

Carl and I had to sort of cram for our local knowledge exam at Marathon Nats.  The trails we were slated to race on didn’t exist until recently.  Our local MTB group, the Central Oregon Trail Alliance has been building out the Wanoga Sno-Park area with the support of the Forest Service and a whole bunch of local labor since the project began a couple years ago.  One of the goals of the system is to have competition-friendly trails to support events from the local to national scale.  This would be the first National level test, and we were trying to ride the new stuff enough that we at least knew where we were going by race day. 

The trails in Bend overall are pretty darn easy to ride.  This lets John Q Public get into riding in the woods quickly and without breaking anything (I have no idea how newbies survive in Pisgah…).  The flip side of this is we were concerned if they would be demanding enough for a National Champs caliber event.  Fortunately, one of my favorite sayings applies to this situation as well as many others, “if it’s not hard enough, GO FASTER!”  This is exactly what Carl and I did without even really realizing it once the race hit the dirt proper.  

Esteemed Garage Architect Eric Meglasson looks on as Kelli Emmett clears the most tech climb on Funner.  After getting 3rd at CrossVegas two nights before, she refused to run any more...  2nd place for Emmett.  Nice.  

Up until then it had been a very civilized start in the Old Mill District and roll out Century Drive, other than road honch Peter Stetina making an early, slightly concerning move.  By the time we were climbing up away from the river it was a group of Mountain Bikers though, led by the Subaru/Trek duo of Jeremy H-K and Sam Schultz.  We were really nervous about their recent string of Top-20 World Cup results and associated fastness.  On account of this concern, Carl and I had a plan.  Which normally falls apart at the first turn.  Not this time.  We got into the singletrack up front and stayed there, for thousands of turns to come.  There’s something about riding fast on Bend trails that’s an acquired taste.  This flavor is of conserving and producing momentum through the endless turns and riding a friggin’ full suspension bike.  The Trek guys asked what bike to bring and I gave them a firm recommendation of a duallie.  They didn’t listen.  So we used our Anthem X 29ers to pedal away without even really trying.  It was pretty nice to work together so smoothly over the course of the race, trading pulls on the road sections and laughs in the twisty bits.  We were perfect. 

Then the race started.  Carl knew I would jump the super sick (as far as 10 foot gaps go…) doubles when we dropped into the final Tiddlywinks descent.  I knew he wouldn’t, giving me a gap, after the, er, gaps…  Our next bit of mutual knowledge was that Carl is way smarter and quicker in a two-up finish.  So, I didn’t want that.  He did.  We came out of the bottom of 15 minutes of shredding dusty, blown-out perfection separated by about 10 seconds.  10k still remained to the finish.  So the time trial, on mountain bikes, on pavement, dirt and random neighborhood trails, began.  I had to stay away and Carl had to catch me.  He got within about 3 seconds a few times but never closed it completely.  We both almost had it closed for us by random Saturday morning walking traffic.  Evidently Chad and Bill didn’t believe us when we said it would take just over three hours.  The crowds parted for me and I crossed the line in 3:10, 12 seconds up on Carl.  Sweet.  I was kind of planning on getting smoked at the end of a long season of getting smoked.  Those twenty final minutes were the hardest I’d ridden all season, and The Deckerator agrees.  But hey, at least it was to ensure a local took the National Title, not to get just barely beaten by some out-of-towner. 

Carl was cutting some serious corners to try and reel me in.  All he had to do was hit the sweet jumps...

After I recovered from the brutal 20-block ride home (the last two uphill blocks of which would’ve been insurmountable without a tow from Timmy’s van) and fought off the bouts of nausea that come with a good, hard effort, we got down to trying to show the aforementioned out-of-towners a good time.  The obvious solution- Sundowners on the deck of my garage-in-progress.  And a late-night stop at Taco Salsa for recovery snacks… 

I’d been approached this summer by Rodney Robinson, sponsorship director for the Pisgah MTB Stage Race in Western North Carolina about attending.  As a growing event, they were interested in getting some more pros to come try their hand at riding in Pisgah for five days.  In the middle of a busy, challenging summer, I normally am reluctant to take on any extra racing commitments.  Fortunately, (or maybe unfortunately) I’d gone on a handful of pretty amazing rides with Sam in Pisgah over the years.  This little snippet of knowledge got my “I love mountain biking” juices flowing and I agreed to check out their event.  Either way it’d be an amazing week of riding some of the best trails in the universe.  A lot of them, the five stages cover 195 miles and over 25,000 feet of climbing with most stages being 40-odd miles and 5-8,000 feet of climbing.  Ouch, but doable. 

It’s a good thing Pisgah is holding strong, because after the August Europe struggle-fest, I wasn’t too keen on more struggling.  Winning the Marathon title was a good booster, but I was still pretty tuckered out.  That all faded away once we turned onto Squirrel Gap trail, day one. 

The first morning.  Pisgah is beautiful at 8am.  And, thanks to Hunter Subaru for giving me an Impreza to rally for the week...

An ulterior motive of race director Todd Branham in getting me to show up was to put some pressure on three-time winner Jeremiah Bishop.  He even went to the length of putting up $3000 for first place.  That’s a lot of hooch.  Bishop is pretty darn good at stage racing but I was hoping I could use some good-old-fashioned hooligan riding and overall woods efficiency to give him a run.  Hopefully with the help of an on-form Sam Koerber, who rides these trails faster than ANY person ever has, or will in the near future.  It’s a thing to see, ideally from about ten feet back, all day long. 

The first stage worked out just as I hoped the whole week would, Sam and I rode away on the first major descent and never saw Jeremiah again.  That’s what he gets for approaching me in hopes of an agreement to ride long-travel trailbikes (which I happily agreed to) for the week.  I was pumped to race on a bike I actually loved riding (Trance X Advanced SL) for the week, enhancing my ability to keep up with Sam on the good stuff and my safety while doing so.  Then JB showed up with his 20lb XC wonder-bike, mumbling something about his trail-bike not working right.  Lame.  So we gave ‘er on the downs and it worked.  Sam rolled and smoked me on the last tech climb/hike of the day and took the first leader’s jersey, as he justly deserved for that display of trail-riding mastery. 

Then Jeremiah got serious.  Still claiming to want to ride funsie bikes, he pulled the bait and switch again on day two, rocking the fun-hater bike and attacking on the climb to Farlow Gap.  Even with my new Fox DOSS seat dropper (doing exactly nothing for me on the climbs) I got dropped.  Sam hung on.  Impressive.  JB went on to win that stage by 8 minutes over the course of 39 miles.  Sam cracked on the final climb up Maxwell Cove and I caught him at half-speed, hoping he’d make it in and recover in time for the next day’s Mills River area test. 

Local knowledge is always better implemented with a partner.  Sam and I agreed that we’d try to check out on the first descent of Spencer’s and work together to take some time back on Bishop, who was riding his “racebike” (what, is this a race?) again.  I finally smartened up and brought out my Anthem X 29, which immediately felt rad on the rough-and-tumble Pisgah trails. 

Excerpt from SuperTroopers-

Officer Thorne: “Mac, what does any good law enforcement officer do with his equipment before using it in the field?”

Mac: “He tests it!”

Thornie hands the already nude Mac a bulletproof cup to wear.  Mac obliges, slaps the rookie, Rabbit, on the ass and strolls down the shooting range for a test.

Thorne fires a few rounds at Mac’s crotch, all ricochet harmlessly off the now-proven equipment.  Rabbit dry heaves and dons the cup for more testing. 

If I had taken this type of scientific approach to my equipment on day three, Sam and I’s plan would have worked.  But instead I stopped 15min into the day to fix some avoidable problems.  This was the last time I’d see the front of the race, although I did get to pass, in awesomely dangerous fashion, about ¼ of the 70 rider field (including Daniel, who had just made me breakfast and is pretty darn quick himself) on that descent down Spencer’s.  Hopefully they were amused more than pissed or horrified…  Sam ended up winning that stage solo while I continued to fix my assorted issues and hemmorage time, eventually losing eight minutes. 

So, after three days of racing, I was really tired and about 12:00 down on Jeremiah, 4:00 down on Sam.  Shoot. 

Another day brought another plan of Sam and I’s to use the challenging, mostly ridgeline trail Stage Four to get some time back.  We used our skills to pressure JB up the opening climb of Black Mountain and forced a little gap on bits of an extremely fun, difficult, raw, overgrown Turkey Pen Gap trail.  Then he decided to really race.  And dropped us for good, riding at about World Cup pace along the unrelentingly rolling ridgeline.  It was brutal, and trying to keep up cost me the final match I had to burn for the week.  Survival mode came on at hour two and was my reality for the rest of the race.  Lightly padded by some (well deserved for running light tires on proper trails) flat tires and other pauses.  I lost 30 minutes on stage four.  Wow.  But I saw a lot of beautiful Blue Ridge scenery and had a good time riding the continually awesome descents.  Too bad those aren’t categories for the win…

This newfound level of exhaustion was at least placated by Todd’s pre-race talk on the final morning at the Black Mountain Trailhead.  He said “We’ve ridden a lot of great trail this week, but we’ve saved the best for last.”  Vineyard Gap, Laurel Mountain, Pilot Rock and Avery Creek would bring us to one final shred down Black Mountain, which is the best finish descent I’ve ever ridden, and we got to ride it four days this week.  Once again, I tried to stay with Sam on Vineyard Gap, but a bobble let Bishop through and I got cut off yet again, left to ride my guttered pace for one final day.  Fortunately, Laurel Mountain climbs like a trail should, peppered with things to entertain yourself, and Pilot rock follows immediately with miles of ridiculously perfect descent.  Really great.  I stopped and took in the view on some exposed switchbacks before continuing to giggle to myself through the forest.  Pilot rock is the most fun I’ve had on a bike this summer, that it came at my most exhausted moment as well speaks to just how awesome the Pisgah riding really is. 

Shrimper dressed up in this perfectly creepy White Squirrel suit every day and came out to heckle.  Here he's giving a demo of how to ride Pilot Rock properly...  How awesome is this on all levels?  

Anyway, I survived the day and held onto third place, my 17:30 or so overall time being well over an hour behind Jeremiah, who had a healthy gap on Sam as well.  We made $3, 2 and 1 thousand dollars each for our time rallying around the forest.  But that’s not even the point, the point is for the other 70-odd racers who finished five days of riding the most trail-packed stage race in North America to take pride in that fact.  Every one of those folks is a damn good mountain biker and I hope they’re all back next year, with their friends, and YOU, to sample the best Pisgah has to offer.  I know I want to come back, maybe with some “fitness” and “knowledge” gleaned from this year’s edition.  It sure would be sweet to launch a race-winning attack coming down Pilot Rock… 

I owe a huge thank-you to Todd, Heather and Rodney for getting me out to this event.  One of the constants in running this even is the amount of trail work done in the forest before race day.  I think it’s kind of an excuse for Todd to keep his favorite trails open…  Sound familiar, Paul Thomasberg and Bend’s Big Fat Tour?  Daniel and Terry at Brevard’s Red House Inn sorted me out with a sweet cottage for the week and made delicious breakfast at 7am every morning.  The local Giant Dealer, Asheville’s Ski Country Sports, let their head mechanic Aaron Pete out for the week as well, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with bike washing and fixing after each stage.  He kept things running smoothly considering the amount of abuse dished out by some guy riding like a dick in Pisgah on a daily basis and I got an extra hour of sleep a day because of it.  Thanks, Aaron. 

I resisted the urge to have Daniel make the Full English Breakfast.  Until Sunday...

It’s a good sign when folks are passionate enough about their event that they actively recruit guys like me to come check it out.  I’m pumped to have some insight into stage racing and excited to see where these events will go in the next few years.  It’s up to you, the enthusiast, to come out and participate, and us, the Pros, to continue raising the game at these types of events.  Which I believe to be the future core of Mountain Biking.  Who doesn’t love a week of riding classic trail with savvy folks? 

Cyclingdirt.org send Thom Parsons out to cover Pisgah. He did it in fine style, riding out into the woods and following us around for some POV shots to complement daily interviews.  Check it out—

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/coverage/240283-Pisgah-Mountain-Bike-Stage-Race-2011/video/508345-PISGAH-Stage-4-Highlights-1

World Champs (Anti) Climax

I drove from Czech to Italy on my 30^th birthday for the final round of the 2011 World Cup.  It was a beautiful drive spent with good friends, Katie, Rosara and Selby (who also happen to be teammates).  We were all excited to arrive in the culinary capital of Europe in time for the sunset.  Our Rabobank team manager even went to the trouble of procuring a couple bottles of Prosecco for a toast after a delicious dinner at the Hotel Bella di Bosco.  Thanks for starting a new week off on the right foot, Leo, you’re a good man. 

Nothing wrong with a little nap on a long drive, right?  Selby is a steady hand at the wheel...

We had a fairly lovely week in Male, eating three delicious Northern Italian creations a day and riding our bikes around in the mountains.  It all went by too quickly, to be honest, and it was soon time to toe the line for the World Cup Finals.  It was similarly hot and steep to the last two times I’d raced around this valley.  Not my ideal combo but after last year I knew I could do it.  Too bad that knowledge wasn’t used for the duration of the race.  A solid start and a bit of luck had me in the 20’s after two laps, feeling strong and moving forward.  A bit too strong, evidently.  Lap three saw the end of my rise to a decent position and marked the slow decline back through the field, to right around what seems to be by rightful place in 2011.  I sprinted with Rabo teammate Neils Wubben for 47^th place.  Jaroslav Kulhavy sprinted with Nino Schurter for the win.  He won the sprint to confirm his already locked up World Cup overall series win.  I lost the sprint with Nils to confirm my 45^th overall in the series.  If you can “confirm” being totally average for an entire season, that is.  Pretty sure 45 is the number I started the first round in South Africa with.  So, at least I know my place in 2011.  I’m really looking forward to 2012 now that the level of mediocrity of this season is so firm in my mind.  I know how to change that, it just takes a lot of homework that I never had to do in the past.  Getting old I guess. 

It's better to start a sprint in the draft, right?  Then you come around at the line?  God I suck.  

Fortunately, the Final World Cup isn’t the final race on the international calendar.  We still had World Champs to look forward to.  And I had been, regardless of recent mediocrity.  The English-speaking Rabobank crew borrowed the Team Transporter van and drove to Champery, Switzerland for two weeks of resting and training in preparation for the biggest race of the year. 

A moment to appreciate how awesome the VW Transporter Van is.  We loaded nine bikes, four people and a whole bunch of gear into our trusty van and drove with dynamic precision and comfort normally reserved for a station wagon.  The route from Val di Sole to Champery crosses two mountain passes to bookend a freeway rip through the industrial heart of Northern Italy.  The Transporter ate it up, six speed gearbox and perfectly placed pedals making heel-and-toeing whilst passing trucks on narrow roads a pleasure and also cruising comfortably at 150km/hr on the motorway, staying with the aforementioned German wagons…  And the 700km used about 2/3 of a tank of diesel.  Why can’t we have this vehicle in America?  Does it not suck enough?  Maybe I’ll get into the grey-market import business…  Crap, I must be 30, dreaming about importing a friggin’ VAN instead of some unobtainium Japanese Domestic Market Nissan Skyline track car or something…

Thanks for the good times, Volkswagen.  And for the arrival rainbows, Champery.

Unable to find an apartment or rent in the Kirchzerten, Germany area for the week off between Finals and Worlds, we ended up getting a Chalet right in Champery courtesy of Leo’s Dutch connections.  Initially we were a bit hesitant to post up in a tiny Alpine valley for an extra week.  The riding would be steep and hard every day and the weather could easily be abysmal.  After our first day we were more than stoked to have an extra week in this amazing valley.  The riding was awesome, weather perfect and forecasted to remain as such and that chalet was, shall we say, of sufficient quality… 

Not wanting to get TOO settled in, the girls suggested we go to the Swiss Bike Trophy race up in Bern on the Thursday evening.  It was to be an urban race circling the Swiss Parliament building.  Not really knowing what to expect but excited to find out, Rosara sent off from our steamy parking garage base to check out the track.  Selby and I were in no rush so waited for a report.  She came back wide-eyed and subtly suggested that I go check out the track and maybe give her a tip or two on the “obstacles”…  Turns out the Swiss like their racecourses to be stimulating even when they’re in the city.  Wooden pallets, a corduroy-road (perpendicular logs) bridge, some cheese-wedge jumps and other assorted creations were complimented by a pretty cool paved switchback descent that ended in two sets of tight and technical stairs.  And a kind of big climb for a “criterium.”  We sorted Rosara out on the sweet jumps and discussed how slick and dangerous the race would be if it rained, which, considering the density of thunderclouds around the city, seemed likely.  I turned up at the top of the climb on lap five just in time to take shelter in the covered alley as the clouds broke loose.  This gave a front-row seat for Katie’s arrival at the lead of the race with Lea Davison and Natalie Schneitter.  More importantly, it was where Rosara would succumb to the wet concrete and (completely harmlessly) slide out directly at my feet, laughing out loud and decided that it wasn’t worth continuing…  Awesome. 

The men’s race started at the peak of what seemed to be the heaviest thunderstorm I’ve ever witnessed.  And it was just getting dark.  Perfect conditions for 100 guys to sprint down a boulevard and onto a sidewalk littered with obstacles.  We all survived but there were some cartoonish moments, the pinnacle of which was the two guys right behind me taking each other out at the lip of 30 stairs and sliding down on their asses.  Ouch.  I felt pretty lethargic after a long, hot day and was a touch scared of racing around in the downpour/darkness/lightning storm.  Fortunately, Florian Vogel and Thomas Litscher were hauling ass and lapped me after about half the hour-long race.  What a relief.  We were in a pizzeria having a Quattro Stagioni as they crossed the finish line.  Ah well, it was good culture and Compton made 750CHF for her podium finish. 

How's that for some rainy darkness?  

We rode out the rest of the week at The Chalet in style, cooking great meals, playing cribbage and doing a few rad rides up in the hills before moving across the tennis courts to the USA Team Hotel for worlds week proper.  I used to stay with the Giant team at worlds, just to keep our routine smooth, but there’s something about kicking it with all of the Americans that sets the world champs apart from other events.  We have some legitimate talent in the Junior and U23 ranks these days and it’s great to get to spend some time with those guys, even if it’s just to give them beta for the good post-race rides. 


Speaking of Juniors, 17 year-old New Zealander Anton Cooper is pretty good at riding.  Here Rosara stokes him through a last-lap charge from 6th to 2nd.  Hope we can keep him on Giant bikes...

All right, one last big international race for 2012.  And it was the one I’d been looking forward to since it had been announced two years earlier.  I’ve always raced well in Champery, the course really (REALLY) suits me and I’ve been 6^th, 10^th and 14^th here since 2007.  With this history I’d set it out as my goal for 2011 to be really solid at Worlds, with an eye toward a top 5 finish and automatic 2012 Olympic Team nomination.  As the season progressed I kind of knew deep down that I didn’t have the form and basic physical strength I normally enjoy in September and absolutely needed to ride well on the technically perfect course.  You just have to feel STRONG to ride well in this forest.  I kept my chin up for the week leading up to the Worlds though, trying to rest my weary body and brain as best I could and being positive about the prospect of shredding. 

Reality is harsh though and when race day rolled around, bringing with it absolutely perfect (fully expected) conditions, I just didn’t have it.  Just as I had expected, regardless of my best efforts to keep a sunny disposition.  Frustrating is an understatement.  I survived the start and first lap melee somewhere in the 50’s and set about picking riders off in the technical bits, or wherever I could.  It was obvious though, the spark needed just wasn’t there.  Then it started to rain.  Perfect setup for me, if only I could capitalize on it.  Staying smooth, the slow climb through the field continued, but not with its usual fervor.  The last guy I passed, with a lap to go, was Sam Schultz for 34^th place.  Afterwards, over some tequila, we agreed that  was totally average and such a missed opportunity to do something great.  And, more importantly, something FUN.  I LOVE riding around the Champery track with the strength of the East Coast in my body and brain.  It’s just not there this year, and it takes more than two weeks of utopia to bring it back…

Another In Motion Photo.  This one has huge crowds.  If only I could get a push.  

Todd Wells did what I fantasized about doing here this year.  He used the mid-race rain to turn a spot in the teens into 7^th at the finish, CHARGING and very nearly punching his ticket to London.  JHK did the same, making it up to 12^th by the finish.  Solid work, Team America, glad you guys flew the flag like we should at the “Mountain Bike” World Champs.  It was the Czech flag that flew highest though, Kulhavy capped off a dominating season with a dominating last couple laps, crushing the Swiss hopes of an Elite world title on home turf.  Impressive. 

Sunday dawned early for me, as my roommate and fellow US Team XC racer Spencer Paxson rallied after a couple hours of sleep to make the 6am Canada vs. The World hockey game which happened to be taking place at our hotel’s rink.  Rad.  I was confused enough to have forgotten about this little tidbit of information at the bar and fell back asleep, wondering why he went to breakfast so early…  Dang it.  The World OWNED Canada, but Catherine Pendrel got to keep her Rainbow Jersey. 

Fortunately, the Downhill race was in the afternoon, plenty of time to pack and hop a rainy chairlift ride up the hill to watch Danny Hart dominate in spectacular fashion.  It was pretty amazing how composed he looked cruising down a mountainside that was difficult to traverse on foot.  And pretty awesome to watch up close, getting a feel for the gnarliest track in World Downhill history.  Here’s to the Giant Factory Team earning a World Title!  Paul, Joe, Oscar and Alan busted their asses this year to help Danny help himself to the title.  When it came down to it though, that kid PERFORMED! 


Check it out here:
http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Danny-Harts-2011-World-Championship-Winning-Downhill-Run-at-Champery,9041/bturman,109

Anyway, thanks for tolerating my average International season’s reporting this year.  The outline is already in place with my coach and winter training locations to rectify the situation for 2012.  Racing fast is way more fun that just participating.  We’ll save that for the plethora of other events that will need (and receive) my attention in the near future.  Bikes are fun, and they'll get ridden a lot this Fall and Winter. 

Alpine Super D and Czech WC

After not nearly long enough at home following the big swing of racing around the East Coast and Rockies, I headed down to SoCal for Giant’s annual product launch to their top retailers, The Link.  While I was suspicious of doing something that wasn’t training or racing this time of year, it ended up being super productive and entertaining.  Giant’s dealers are inevitably bike riders at heart and we got to do a bunch of that with them while they tried out 2012 product.  There were also a whole bunch of presentations on everything from sales trends to getting more women on bikes with the launch of Liv/Giant.  And, we obviously spent plenty of time hanging out BSing about sweet new road bikes (they’re pretty rad) and the inevitable 26 vs. 29 discussions, both with our Product department and dealers.  Sean from Knoxville sorted me out on the setup for the Pisgah Stage Race, which, as any properly good trail deserves, will be Maestro Suspension and 26” wheels.  It all ended with a pretty rad evening ride down to the beach for burgers, beers and a classic Pacific sunset.  Nice.  And, Carl and I took turns pounding each other into the ground on the plethora of big road climbs in the Santa Monica Mountains, so we got our legit training in too.  All in all, a nice way to earn your keep as a bike rider, other than the usual racing and making up stories about it…

I made it home from The Link in time to do some housekeeping around town and load up the car for the Oakridge Super D.  Since the inception of the Oregon Super D Series in 2010, I’ve been wanting, almost needing to make it to one of their events.  Held on some of my favorite trails in Oregon, it’s Mountain Bike racing like it should be.  The queen stop, in my opinion, is held on the Alpine Trail in Oakridge.  4700’ of descent in 14 miles starting in an alpine meadow and finishing on the banks of the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River.  I figured since it was a “local” race, I’d keep the spirit of that in mind and hitched a ride with good buddies James Williams and Laura Winberry. James ended up riding his road bike over there (dang) and Laura and I arrived in plenty of time for a couple practice laps (AKA- having a damn good time) on Alpine before a campfire prepared dinner and early night to bed.  Going to bed early is important when you’re camped with the Bend family crew.  Kids love to wake up early and get a head start on playing the day away.  I suppose bike riders should too. 

I've been at a lot of scenic start lines in my day, but this one is right up there...  These flowers bloom every seven years, and normally in June.  Here's to crazy Northwest winters!

Oregon Super D organizers know that nobody likes hurtling themselves through the woods first thing in the morning, so they smartly have the Pros go off first at 11:00.  It wasn’t until we had all piled into Randy’s Mountain Bike Oregon school bus fleet for the shuttle up 1912 road and pedaled up Kate’s connector to Sourgrass Meadow that the legitimacy of the field was confirmed.  Mark Weir, Jason Moeschler and Kenny Burt had made the trip up from NorCal to race some of Oregon’s finest.  Good thing I didn’t know this until start time, I totally would’ve been nervous about getting smoked.  And it’s a good thing I’m in shape and ready for the final European XC racing, because the 900 feet of climbing sprinkled (liberally) throughout the 14 miles should have presented enough of a chance to distance myself from those guys. 

Jason Moeschler is a pretty awesome, easy-going, hard-riding guy.  His competitive side came out in fine form as the times were posted though:  “Goddamn it Adam, you put a MINUTE into me?  I had a PERFECT run, and I’m having a baby this week, my last chance to win one of these things was today!”  Sorry buddy, I’d like to see you win too, but my run was also perfect, and a whole hell of a lot of fun.  I look forward to taking my fitness down and beer intake up a notch or ten sometime in the future and racing you NorCal punks on the downhills!  Weir was third, another 20 seconds down, with Kenny Burt and Aaron Bradford rounding out the podium.  Good thing I made it out to represent the Northwest and keep these Cali sallys from stealing our show.  I’m stoked they came out though, Alpine ended up being the most stacked Enduro race we’ve had in the States this year.  The new Downieville?  At 42:47 from top to bottom, it’s plenty long enough, and doesn’t have any of that pesky “fire road” or “pavement”, just bench cut beauty.  As maintained by Derrik Bell and the rest of the Oakridge trail crew.  Thanks, guys. 

Moeschler isn't afraid of a little air-hump.  Must be what got his wife knocked up...

One more interval session on the road bike Monday morning and I was on a flight to the Czech Republic for the next World Cup XC.  I’d have sore legs for the rest of the week…  Good thing there was nothing to do but relax and recover from the last couple weeks of training and working.  I’d been looking forward to getting across the pond and catching up on rest for a few weeks now, and it was everything I thought it could be! 

Ah, Hotel Medlov.  How very eastern european.  I didn't have the heart to photograph the food.  It was meaty...

Not to get too sedentary though, Emil, Nils and I got decently disoriented on Thursday riding through the Czech countryside and ended up our for quite a while…  It was beautiful, once we figured out where we were and how to get back to the Hotel Medlov.  Friday I kept the fight against bedsores going by participating in the XC Eliminator race in the evening.  We each did a time trail qualifier around a 1:40ish course that wound out of the Biathlon stadium over some logs and through the woods before looping back into the stadium for the sprint finish.  I just barely snuck into the finals with the 30^th qualifying position.  Work smart, not hard.  Evidently I worked too hard in my first round though, sprinting with enough panicked aggression to pull out of my pedal and effectively hand first and second to the fast qualifiers, ending my evening.  Oh well, great crowd and fun warm-up made it way better than more hotel lounge lurking.  I guy I’ve never heard of won.  Nice work, guy.

Katerina Nash has ski raced in this stadium since she was a kid.  Finishing up an Eliminator round on "bikes" was a nice change of pace...

The legs came around just in time, on Sunday’s morning workout.  Lately, at coach Bowen’s direction, I’ve been taking it easy the day before big races then doing an abbreviated opener effort session on race morning, followed by eating, sleeping and warming up short and easy for the race.  It’s been working pretty well.  Henk-Jaap let me (not that he’ll get them back) 150mg worth of caffeine pills and I was feeling READY for the start.  So was the GIGANTIC crowd.  Dang, these Eastern European countries sure love their mountain biking these days.  Having a hometown ringer in the form of Jaroslav Kulhavy doesn’t hurt either…  He didn’t disappoint.  Maybe I got so dropped on the start lap because he was attacking off the front with such fervor that everyone was forced into an impressively unsustainable pace in response.  I felt warmed up and strong, but just couldn’t respond to the pace and got shuffled from 48^th to nearly last.  100^th or so.  Fortunately, as Kulhavy kept his charge going, everyone else was forced to accept reality and I started working through the field with good legs and mindset on the first proper lap around the pretty amazingly rad circuit.  Beautifully dark Czech forest laced with rooty trail that was taped WIDE for artistic interpretation of each and every section, in addition to countless clever passing opportunities.  I liked.  For a few laps, then I got sort of tired too and settled into the 40’s with two to go.  Kulhavy stayed off the front, much to the delight of the crowd and live TV audience.  It was easy to tell when he crossed the finish line.  The crowd stuck around for us backmarkers too, I got nearly as big a cheer rolling in for 41^st with a below-average wheelie.  Thanks for having us, Nova Mesto na Morave.  We’ll be back next year and I’ll be in shape, ready to properly shred your woodsy perfection. 

One of the only places on the track with one line and no spectators.  Credit- In Motion Photography.

The young Americans made us proud in Czech, Stephen Ettinger got off the plane and into a test-drive with the BMC Factory Team in time to bust a top 5 in the U-23 race.  Solid.  Sam Schultz had his best world cup yet in 15^th place.  He must’ve been fired up after getting his stolen bike back…  East Coast master Lea Davison also had a career best- she was 7^th in the Elite Women’s race, mixing it up all day with some of the sport’s biggest names.  At least one of us “2010 Surgery Club” members is riding decent in ’11…  Solid work, Nugget. 

I really enjoyed our time in Czech, apart from yet another missed opportunity to race like myself, but we were all pretty pumped to get to Italy for the next round and a serious upgrade in hotel menu.  Since I was turning 30 on Monday, the rest of the English-speakers let me drive a few hours of beautiful backroads as we made our way to Austria, Germany and, eventually, the Sud-Tirol region of Italy.  Driving in Europe is such a pleasure, in our Rabo team VW Transporter van we cruised little roads and The Autobahn quickly and smoothly, with 5 people and 8 bikes, only using less 3/4 of a tank of Diesel for 800+km.  Where's my sweet, efficient, manual transmission, high capacity vehicle, American Car Companies?


Regardless of recent racing struggles, I’ve been pretty lucky to have done and seen a lifetime’s worth in the first three decades of my life and am looking forward to the next third.  You never know what’s around the corner.  Even WITH a GPS on the dash…