Forgot....

To mention that Zach told Nick we would not pick him up from the airport unless he had grown a moustache. Can you see it??

Fat Camp Day 1

We picked up Nick on the way back from Fort Huachuca Saturday night. He is spending his spring break out here with us while we are on ours.

We started out Sunday with breakfast at the lake followed by a quick walk for the doodle. It was the first time we've seen these birds. Zach thought they were loons. There was one in the water and he'd dive down and stay under for what seemed like minutes. We had to walk right under this tree.

After that we packed up and headed over to Granite Mountain.

Based on his appearance, Zach and I were not expecting much of Nick. I was thinking we'd ride 347 (which is gradual, but rolling, climbing the entire way) from the Williamson Valley Trailhead then turn around and head back down. We ended up doing 347 to 348 and over to Mint Wash via 352. Rode thru Cayuse and up 349. Back to Cayuse up 346 and finally headed back down 347 to the car. I'm thinking we did around 15.5 miles. Not too bad for a kid from Illinois who's been riding once a week. And he's totally got the technical skills. Downhill, uphill. He was clearing everything. He'd just slow down a little (sometimes alot) on the climbs. To be honest, he was descending down stuff it took me a year to muster up the courage to do and he was climbing technical stuff that I still sometimes don't make. Brat.

At the top of 347, getting ready for our ride down.


We finished the day at the Brew Pub and Coyote Joes, but not before Nick cleared out with the neti pot.

Fort Huachuca

The 4th MBAA race was held at the army base, Fort Huachuca, in Sierra Vista, AZ (which is pretty close to Tombstone). We weren't super psyched to drive the 4.5 hours it was going to take us, but I needed to get this one in. Zach, the doodle and I got down there around 5pm Friday night. On the way I called my cousin Jim who has been stationed there for the last 5 months. Turns out he's on leave and out of town for a few weeks before moving on to his next assignment. Bummer.

We both squeezed in a preride of the black loop which we would each being doing 3 of the following day, followed by 1 red loop. I was glad we made it there in time. It was a pretty tough course and the preride allowed us to scope out the good lines. Lots of climbing and lots of rocks.

Race day temps were perfect. There was a little overcast and it was probably in the 60s. I ended up in first finishing in 2 hours and 6 minutes. The 29er climbed like a champ and made the scary descents super fun. Spring finished up in second, but had to cruise right after the race. She had Zach and I cracking up on Friday night.

Post race.



Here's the top 5 pro men. Man, these guys are fast. The Schultz bros, Tim Allen, Stefan Widmer, and TJ Woodruff.

Fat boy slim

In the house

I REALLY love my bike

Here it is. The latest addition to the family. Thank you Misty and the team at Vassago. This is the reason why flatting at Estrella was such a bummer. It was my first race on my new Optimus Ti.

I've only had it for about 2 weeks and it's morphed quite a bit already. We (I mean Zach) just swapped everything over from my last year's race bike. I originally had Zach's velocity's but just went out for a ride on MY new wheelset (I deserve new stuff too, right?). I can not believe I rode these handlebars all last season!!??? That's what I call "Zach style."

Here's what it looks like now. I'm still not sure where I want the stem. Might try further down.

I've been waiting

for the day to come. IT'S FINALLY GONE!!!

Picture this....

I used to go to these kinds of clubs in my youth and dance to this

Julian Jumpin Perez was the BOMB. Amazing what you can find on YouTube

Estrella

This weekend was Estrella race #3 of the MBAA series.

We got down early for Sara race and set up camp.



















Sara's race was exciting and disappointing at the same time. At the end of the 1st lap nearly an hour into the race Sara was way out in front of the women's Pro field. Unfortunately, around halfway through the second lap she tore a tire and was unable to finish. Estrella is super hard on tires, bikes, and bodies.


Start of Sara's race. Sara on far right













My race went just like I expected. Tired legs and tired body. I was not disappointed cause I knew how it would be with doing a 24 hour race solo the week before. I just tried to ride steady and keep myself going. All in all the race went good. I ended with an 8th place finish.

My results the last two MBAA races are definitely no surprise with a 12 hour solo race before Mcdowell and a 24 hour race solo before this one. Don't have any endurance races planned for a while and can now get back to some normal training with a weekend off of racing.





Tom Riding Like the Devil to another 1st in Advanced SS















Some good lookers!!!














The real excitement! Layla and Koko playing

Making up for lost time

Out of the 9 years I have been racing, I can remember 1 mechanical and 2 flats that I've had during those years. The mechanical was at the 2002 Hixton Holeshot. I had a bad shift and twisted a link in my chain. The first flat was at the 2004 Big Ring Classic. The second was at the 2006 Big Ring Classic. I took a spill at the 90 degree gravel turn they warned us about and then I later pinch flatted. Other than that, I have not had many issues during my races.

UNTIL THIS YEAR !!!! Ugh...the broken chain at White Tanks and now a flat that would not seal at Estrella on Saturday. I think the gash in my tread happened somewhere in the middle of my first lap. I tried to fill it at just into my second lap, but it was too big. I had lost too much stans out the hole and along the entire rim. By the time I figured it wasn't going to happen I had wasted all of my air.

So it sucks to DNF for the SECOND TIME IN ONE SEASON, It sucks cause I had a pretty decent lead, but it also really sucks for another reason.....(you'll have to check a later post to find out why).

But I am super excited for Christina who just got her upgrade to pro this past week and won her first race. Congrats to Christina, Spring and Jen who took the top 3 spots!! We have an awesome group of cool, talented women in our class!!!