Copper Cup XC

I felt great today, once I got on my bike.  Wasn't so thrilled when I woke up - actually felt like I got run over by a bus from the race the night before.  Not sure why, but I did all the same.  So it was some ibuprofen and Myoflex on the legs, Cheerios and a yogurt, then out the door to go race XC at Copper Mountain.

Got a good warm-up in, ready to go.  The weather was a little iffy, but I decided to forgo the arm warmers and took just a rain jacket, just in case.  There weren't a ton of riders, so ages 15-39 all started at the same time...about 25 of us or so.  Start was much mellower than the night before.  Two laps of nearly 2000 feet of gain each was probably a good reason.

Got a good start, got into a good rhythm.  Focused (not singing to myself) and smooth.  Rode with Brian Baker (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) all the way up the climb on the first lap.  Brian is a strong rider, so that tactic allowed me to open up a sizable gap on my nearest competitor.  Course was super buff singletrack climbing, a little bit of gravel road traversing, then more super buff singletrack descending, with lots of switchbacks both up and down.  Ripped the descent (or so I thought), but got passed by someone racing in the 30-39 age group.  Rode with him all the way up the second climb.  Didn't know where my nearest competition was when we turned on to the road traverse.  Saw the barricade pushing us back on to singletrack for the descent - I stood up and hammered, paying no mind to the obscene pain in my quads at this point.  Thought to myself, "Hit the singletrack first and you'll win..."  Hit the singletrack first.  Kept it rubber-side down all the way down for what ended up being a 6m30s victory over second place.  Like I said - I felt great today once I got on my bike.  First victory in a Mountain States Cup race...between this and the third-place finish in last night's STXC, I should have the series overall all but locked up.  Brian ended up beating me by 2 1/2 minutes, and taking 2nd in the 30-39 group.  Alan Christie (Pro Peloton), one of my fellow LBS riders, finished 4th in the 40-49 group on a flat.

Stuck around for the Cat 1 and Pro races to cheer on the local Vail Valley talent.  Barry Davis (First Descents) turned in a great 3rd place finish on his singlespeed, with Adam Plummer (Pedal Power) finishing well up in the Cat 1 race.  The near-immortal Jay Henry (Tokyo Joe's) crushed the pro field with his (what had to be) 2 minute victory, Josiah Middaugh (Pedal Power) took 3rd, with Jake Wells (Mafia) coming in 6th.  Damien Fraser (Mafia) also had an outstanding showing, and inches closer to the front of the racers every time I see him.

All in all, it was fun to get out there and make that Team DRV kit prominent, and not f--- it up by crashing.

Gawd, I have to work tomorrow.  Funny how things like that slip your mind when you've been racing all weekend...

Short Track XC

Pedal pedal pedal.  Shift up.  Pedal pedal pedal.  (Some guy cheers, "Come on Deathrow Velo!  Go 591!") Shift down.  Bounce bounce bounce.  Slam on brakes.  Pedal pedal pedal.  Go out wide, cut across the corner.  Pedal pedal pedal.

Repeat 10 times.

That's how my first ever short track XC race went.  At least cyclocross has some technique to it - this was just a 20 minute long interval.

Took off at the start, opening up a good gap on the opening lap.  Too bad it wasn't a one lap race.  I'd describe my race tactics like a bottle rocket - shot off the front, disappeared, then blew up.

Course was fun, but pretty "up" for a short track course (so I heard, anyway) - 1/8 mile dirt road climb (about 50-75 ft gain), 1/8 mile bouncy singletrack descent, 1/8 mile paved loop through.  Spectators at the top and bottom of the course.  I felt really good on the descent and the pave; by lap 8 on the climb, though, my body was begging for mercy.  I found myself sitting on the nose of my saddle up the climb, just trying to coax as many watts as possible on each and every repetition, while my breathing was out of control and my heart was running at probably 180bpm.  And it never let up - there was never a chance to recover.  I knew the only way I could stay in the race was to absolutely hammer on the pave...and on each lap I picked up probably 7 or 8 seconds on the guys in front of me.  Unfortunately, if you're giving 10 seconds back to them on each climb, you're not going to win.  I did finish up for 3rd place in my division.

The good news?  I didn't start singing to myself during the race, so at least I was focused for an entire 20 minutes...

Deathrow Velo

SooOOooo, you may or may not know I've joined a new cycling team - Deathrow Velo.

Deathrow Velo is an up-start cycling clothing company based right here in the good ol' US of A - New Jersey, to be exact.  CEO John Landino set out to create clothing that has edge, has attitude, and has the niceties of high-end Euro clothing (think Assos) at a fraction of the cost.  First lines were introduced and released in early 2009.

After trying on my race kit tonight, I can proclaim:

Nail hath been hitteth directly on head.

As for the team, Team DRV (Deathrow Velo, duh) is a up-and-coming grassroots organization comprised of about 25 cyclists all over North America, from the Northeast to the Rockies to Canada.  Everyone shares the same passion and enthusiasm for all types of cycling - mountain biking, road biking and cyclocross - with many participating in multiple disciplines.  The team has been racing throughout 2009 with stellar results.  Check the sidebar links when I get them updated.

New Team DRV Kit

New kit is here!  See it in action at the Copper Cup this weekend!

Thanks to John Landino and the rest at Deathrow Velo!

First Post

Every blog has first post.  I guess this is mine.

Since I'm the biggest bandwagoner of all time, I figured it was about time for me to jump on this here blogging bandwagon.  So here goes.  I'm not promising much at first - it'll be pretty rough.  But for some unknown and incomprehensible reason, I feel like you might want to know what's going through my mind.  So, by golly, I'ma gonna tell ya.

It'll get better.  Trust me.  Like warming up for a bike race...give it time.