In somewhat chronological order, and not necessarily in order of significance, here is a rundown of the top-4 events in March which have made for a great start to the 2012 race season:
1. The Olympic Campaign officially kicks off! - A Top-10 at the US Season Opener in Texas!
Photo Credit: Jake Orness - jakespointofview.com
2. Coming from dead last to finish on the lead lap and 5th American in the World Cup opener in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Photo Credit Colin Meagher
This doesn't usually happen while racing in the US...but it's normal for the back end of a World Cup
3. ...oh yeah...getting to travel to South Africa!!!
With a stopover in Dubai! - Flight Itinerary - Seattle to Dubai (14hrs); Dubai to Durban (9hrs)
This is actually all I saw of the real Dubai...from the terminal...
The Dubai International Hotel in Terminal 3 - rest between flights
And finally to Pietermaritzburg, where the town welcomed the World Cup with a big banner downtown
Signs posted throughout town
Met up with Kona DH teammates Mitch Delfs and Connor Fearon
And super-mechanic Mathieu Dupelle
The Midlands! -The green hills of the KwaZulu-Natal province
Gate to a private game preserve...they had some 18 spots available
4. Some great training back home in the PNW! - just as most plants grow best in their native environments, home is the best place to recharge and train between big events
Sarah and I ventured out for a weekend on the Olympic Peninsula
Checking out the trails at Dry Hill for some gravity practice
self-powered shuttle...the Entourage actually climbs pretty well...like backcountry touring on a power day
Who says XC guys only ever wear spandex?
snow and muddd
post 10,000'+ vert day - Thanks to Lars Sternberg and the Transition DH crew for letting us tag along for some runs!
Kona bikes look best when well-loved
and back to the skinny tires for the rest of the weekend
Awesome ride from Port Angeles to Cape Flattery on Hwy 112
...the end of the road to Cape Flattery
...up next...the Olympic campaign continues with World Cup #2 in Houffalize, Belgium - April 9-16...then the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA - April 19-22
The first test of the 2012 season - the Mellow Johnny's Classic
down in Texas!
The first big race of the season is always exiting, but this year,
an Olympic year, made the vibe much more palpable. All of North America’s big hitters in cross
country mountain biking showed up in Texas for the first round of the Pro XCT. It was great to reunite with so many members
of the traveling MTB circus.
Teammate Kris Sneddon and I were proudly representing for Kona
amongst the 70+ elite racers who lined up on Saturday’s XC event – 5 laps on a
frenetic, rocky course at the Flat Creek Ranch in Texas hill country. I lined up front row and soaked in a bit of
the moment before the gun went off…poised next to the best racers in
North America…Adam Craig, Geoff Kabush, Todd Wells, Sam Schultz, Jeremy
Horgan-Kobelski, Max Plaxton, Derek Zandstra, Jeremiah Bishop…all of us on a
quest for the Summer Olympics in August.
Everyone had brought their A-Game.
This season would start faster and harder than any I had ever done.
Enough thinking though!
Down to business!
BOOM
And it did...!
(me far left)
We blasted off down the dusty start-loop. I was a bit wide on the start stretch and
missed the wholeshot, but blitzed into a spot in the top-10 and stuck on the
lead group into the first singletrack.
The engine felt powerful on all of the climbs, though I felt a bit inefficient
carrying speed through the jagged rock sections, losing seconds here and there. For the majority of the race I was in the mix
with a small group riding for 7th, with 5th and 6th
bobbing and weaving through the brush not far ahead. Going into the last lap, sitting 8th
behind JHK, Adam Craig (who had flatted on the first lap) surged through (with
probably the ride of the day, having come from 37th place!). I stuck to his wheel on the climbs, which was
motivating for me…until I heard a hiss coming from my back tire…and willed the
Stans sealant to fill it up…still hissin…quick stop to put in some air before a
hard-charging chase group caught me…and cranked into the finish in a respectable 9th.
By my historical standards, this the BEST start to any
season I have had – I've never finished this high up in the first race of the season, not to mention placing this well against
the top North American racers, all of whom are faster this year on account of
their Olympic prep. So, overall, I'm PUMPED!
By my upgraded standards, however, I was hoping for a bit better...a top 7,
or at least the 3rd or 4th American. Still, I feel confident that my preparations
have been excellent, and that I demonstrated my form by keeping in the mix for
the entire (albeit SHORT) race.
One more week of fine-tuning at home before leaving for the first
World Cup in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading.
I was called upon to travel back to sunny Arizona this last weekend to visit a nomadic outpost in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, an area known by the locals as "The Old Pueblo".
The nomads had assembled an impressively sized village of RV campers and tents...
When I arrived, I somehow angered all of the local villagers, who chased me down the road and into the hot, cactus-laden desert...
Terrified for my life, I jumped on my bike and sped away...
I rode swiftly...all day...
and all night...
and in the end made friends with several of the villagers, particularly this group of ruffians, members of the Kona Bike Team.
Congrats to Cory Wallace (far right) for winning the Solo Men's event (18 laps, or ~300 MILES in 24 hours). Congrats to the Epic Endurance team from Boulder, CO for riding like machines and winning the 4-person team category. Congrats to all who made it through the race! And big thanks to the race organizers, volunteers, and to Kona Bicycles for putting together such an awesome weekend of good biking and good people.
Stay tuned for the first stop of the US Pro XCT in Austin, TX, March 3rd-4th
In less than a month, I'm jumping on a plane to South Africa for the first round of the mountain bike World Cup! Not only will this race kick off the international race season, it will also kick off the final Olympic Qualification period, which ends on May 22nd after World Cup #4 in La Bresse, France. The qualification period consists of FOUR rounds of the World Cup:
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - March 17th
Houffalize, Belgium - April 14th
Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic - May 13th
La Bresse, France - May 20th
Speaking of race schedules, it's always fun to map out the season. As the jet-propelled crow flies, here is (approximately) my itinerary for the season:
Assuming there-and-back again travel, this track will cover at least 75,000 miles, or roughly three times around the globe. While cycling is a staple environmentally sustainable transportation, it's ironic to consider how many resources are required to complete a high-end competitive cycling season. With all of my globetrotting to these events, I'm making a hefty contribution to the transportation sector CO2 emissions:
By coincidence, I can theoretically feel better about [maybe] breaking even on my carbon emissions through the work I do with Ridgeline Energy developing large wind and solar projects. So far, we have 200 megawatts of wind operating in Idaho. Based on the EPA's carbon equivalence emissions factor of 6.8956 x 10-4 metric tons CO2 / kWh , that renewable energy should offset approximately 411 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year. With 35 people in the company, that gives me a personal share of around 11.7 metric tones of CO2 equivalent per year. The calculations get pretty foggy at that point, but roughly speaking, all of my travel alone should barely fit within that limit. Yikes!
Anyway...back to the task at hand...
The eight men on the and nine women on the Olympic Long Team will be focusing intently on burning serious fossil fuels to get to those World Cup events in order to secure a starting spot at the London Olympics. Only 2 men and 2 women will be selected from the Long Team, and that selection will be based primarily on individual performances in these four rounds of the World Cup. Game ON!
Needless to say, the preparation for these events is already well underway. Most racers, including myself, turned off the gas for a bit after last year's World Championships in September, but due to the early start of the Olympic year, resumed training in November.
I've arrived at this point in career mostly under my own direction on training. I have receiving some very formative guidance from good friend and fellow Kona lifer Erik Tonkin and Team S&M. With a goal like the Olympics, I am working formally with the top-notch trainers at Herriott Sports Performance in Seattle. Their list of clients for strength and conditioning includes 2011 Tour de France Champion Cadel Evans and his BMC Race Team!
A corner of the HSP Training Facility
Trainers for when music, movies and fans are more inspiring than the cold rain and snow
Power Squared: Weights + PowerBreather
Lactate Threshold testing - pain face not due to prick of blood from the ear
And of course...LOTS of bike riding. Most recently, a great block of offroad riding in Bellingham, WA in Kona's backyard, and a few beautiful days at home in the Columbia River Gorge:
The Syncline near Lyle, WA
My dad is still good for an off-the-couch surge to the top of the Syncline and singletrack riding all day
It doesn't get much better than a sunny day in the Gorge...
Stay tuned for this weekend's 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Tucson, AZ. It's a major event for Kona, and I'll be joining the team (Barry, Kris, Sean, Slaven, and others) for a long day in the desert.
Have you ever wondered what happens when you have to sign up to compete in the Olympics? I have! Since I was, like, 8. So today, I was pretty excited when I saw THIS in my inbox:
Most of my friends are probably tired of hearing this story, but I'm still excited about it. So...for those of you interested, a bit of recap:
As some of you may recall, all of that running around last year -- ramping up the training schedule, taking time off from full-time work, traveling to Europe for the first time, competing in the World Cup events, making it back onto the World Championship team -- was in pursuit of a spot on the US Olympic Long team for the 2012 Summer Olymipcs. Well...on December 1st, 2011, I became 1 of 8 men selected by USA Cycling for the Olympic Long Team! All that running around (even getting punched in the face in Germany) paid off.
So what does it all mean? I am in the final pool of riders from which the Olympic Team will be selected on June 25, 2012. Only 2 menfrom the Long Team will be able to start at the Olympics this August. The final selection from 8 to 2 will be based on the top riders in the first four rounds of the World Cup. There's no guarantee YET that I will make it to the starting line at London 2012, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm darn close!
Thus, my modus operandi of late is to become 1 of those 2 guys. If I ACTUALLY made it to London, it would be a "Cinderella story outta nowhere"! Don't get me wrong - for me this is a thrilling pursuit of a lifelong goal that, in the last two years, has continued to progress, step-by-step, and I don't doubt myself. But considering the competition I'm up against, and all the work ahead, well, as the Carl Spackler once said...gunga galunga.
I'm pulling all the stops this year. I started training in November. I'm part-time hourly at Ridgeline Energy starting February 1st, so that I have time to train and travel, but the bills will still get paid. I'm watching what I eat, getting lots of sleep, and working on my breathing every morning. I even got a coach! It has been satisfying to have made it to this point on my own program, but now, with a "chance of a lifetime" goal, I need to step up to the same level as the competition and get some help from the pros. This year I am working with the awesome crew at Herriott Sports Performance in Seattle. They will help me to be as fast as possible by the time the first World Cup rolls around in March. And of course, I'm riding Kona Bikes!
Lots of bike riding!!! When the snow showed up recently in Seattle...
I used some miles to get a ticket to Arizona...
And trained for 34.5 hours in 8 days...all in the SUN
The pic above is from the last couple days of the trip, riding in Sedona, AZ with fellow Long Teamer and Giant Rabobank racer Adam Craig. The previous six days were spent in Tucson, the unofficial training camp for several other members of the Olympic Long team, including Todd Wells, Sam Schultz, Chloe Woodruff, and Stephen Ettinger. Most of those hours were spent aboard my trusty new King Zing
That's Giant rider Carl Decker in the background. Being the mountain bikers that we are, we couldn't stay on the asphalt the whole time, and one day did an epic ride over the back side of Mt. Lemmon...
And to feel closer to Seattle, we found some snow...
With all the bike race travel that happens from March to September, it's a welcome treat to have a race so close to home...no packing, driving or flying is required. This last Sunday was the final race of Seattle's MFG Cyclocross Series, held in the idyllic cyclocross venue at Seattle's Woodland Park - and a convenient 5-minute spin from my house. Seven hundred seventy-seven racers came out for the races on Sunday (according to the Ballard News Tribune). Cyclocross Magazine did an official write-up of the race, so you can get those details HERE!
The highlights of the day included:
Being able to pedal to the race from my house
Watching Sarah Butsch and Liam Voorhees each compete in their first cyclocross race EVER
Taking the win in front of a hometown crowd
Sarah looking experienced after 10min, owning the run-up and on her way to winning Beg. Women's field. First 'cross race, and second bicycle race ever.
Liam Voorhees blazing along in his cyclocross debut
Taking the win
Thanks photographer Mike Hone for the shots (mikehone.com)
The old saying, "ride it like you stole it!", may be aptly substituted with, "ride it like you're in a video shoot!!" That may be a commonplace idea for the regular stars of freeride films and ski movies, but for your average spandex-clad, cross country racer, it's quite the novelty. Being filmed from a chasing helicopter while tearing down a frosty, snow-covered ridge-top trail was key to inspiring the new saying. That's what I decided this weekend on assignment with Kona Bicycles for filming the next installment of House of the Big Wheel, Kona's shred-inspiring presentation of their big-wheeled mountain bikes.
LOCATION: Rossland, BC
TRAIL - Seven Summits Trail, IMBA Epic, check it out!
Jet fuel...check. With dollar signs literally falling out of the helicopter with each chop of the blade, it was a money-saving and time-saving plan to bring the fuel-stop to the top of the mountain, rather than have the heli fly back and forth to an airport.
That's Derek Frankowski, co-producer of Life Cycles. He shot stills for the weekend. Videographer Eric Crosland worked his magic while hanging out of the helicopter all day long. It was a privilege to work with such accomplished artists who have done so much to bring our sport to the magazine stands and silver screen for the last several years.
Foggy down low
Breaking through
All clear at the top of Red Mountain
To get to the first shooting location, "standard ride time is 2hrs, you boys need to be there in 40min, chopper's comin' in...here's a map"...
Barry Wicks, on location, fresh snow, elev. ~7,000'
Chopper...Old Glory in the background
Barry & Eric setting up for the day
Kona Team Chopper - Bell 206 JetRanger - gross weight ~1,870lbs
By the end of the day, Barry and I rode between 40k and 50k of epic trail between shoot locations. It would have been an incredible day of riding without the whole helicopter element. Barry aboard his Hei Hei 29 Supreme, me aboard the new carbon King Kahuna 29 with the team race build, weighing in at a scant 21lbs. Getting chased by a helicopter while riding world-class trail through the Kootenay Mountains was pretty fantastic. A major highlight of the off-season, and a highlight of the year in general.
The action shots and footage should be ready in the next couple weeks, and they're sure to be impressive with the likes of Eric and Derek behind the lenses. And Mitchell Scott, too (Kona Global Communications Director), who arranged and directed all of the logistics for the entire weekend, and photographed the action as well.
Kona has been doing great things for mountain biking since they started in 1988. I was flattered to be a part of the story this weekend. We speculated that this just might be the most epic footage of pure, spandex-clad cross-country riding in the last decade, maybe ever...at least since the seminal Chainsmoke, released by Giant Leap Films in 1996. My friends and I must have watched that movie almost every weekend during summer of 1998 when we first discovered mountain biking. So much in the sport has changed since then, but the feeling at the end of a day of great riding...feels the same as when I was 14.
