nothing but smiles!

Just got back today from Colorado and me Mitch and Michael had a incredible
trip ended up riding
over 200 miles and a little over 30,000 ft of climbing. The race went great other
than adding a few extra miles and don't think I ever quit smiling the whole week.
I will do a better write up and add some pics later when I get some sleep!

We did this trail on the first loop, the town of Breckenridge is in the background. this is one climb I will probably never forget, especially since we did it Sunday morning also!

The 5 counties ride.

Had this idea for a super loop some time back and Mitch had the same idea. I had planned on using the big ride loop from my house and wanted to use some of the big west county hills. Mitch set up a perfect route for us finishing up at my house. with the big Breck 100 race a couple of weeks away it became the perfect set up ride for us.



We picked the perfect day and everything went great. with no real hard efforts we just wanted to keep a good pace. Thanks Big for the ride Mitch Colorado is going to be awesome! would love to add another 30 miles and a few more really big hills to this ride. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=6182314

After finishing up the ride took the family down to Bobs place for some great food and fireworks, wish everyday could be this much fun!

Lucas eating chocomud!

This was some serious funny stuff. He picked up some dirt off of the ground

and said it was chocolate and started eating it. He claims the rocks or chicken

nuggets luckily they are to hard to eat!!

Matson Race

This was one of those races that you do because you love riding. Last year I did 10 laps and was wanting to beat my time, but with the rain yesterday that was not going to happen. So the game plan was just ride smart no flats or crashes and keep a good pace . I still managed to get 9 laps in 3hrs and 6 min. average hrt rate for the race 155. total elevation gain was a little over 4000ft. I pretty much rode all of the climbs in granny seated because if I stood I would just spin out. A few of the sections became hike a bike, but all in all most of the course was ridable. Finished up with no flats or crashes and the legs feeling better than they do on most training rides.



thanks again to all the guys that take the time to put on the race, prep the course, deal with the rain, etc. etc. you guys rock!

first time

This is the first time I have ever built one of these. The bridge will have more slope once the ropes stretch a little. pretty fun stuff.

CW race

Just another fun race, 37 miles in a little over 3 hrs averaged 11.5. still had good legs after all of the miles in Arkansas.

Syllamos Revenge

Welcome to Arkansas...

Thursday morning we packed up the camper and bikes and headed to Arkansas for the Syllamos revenge. Thursday was perfect, nice weather, trails were dry. So we got in some good biking and hiking.

Friday morning brought us some nice big storms and a couple of inches of rain, luckily Lucas brought a nice supply of toys for us to play with while we waited out the storm.

Saturday morning I woke up completely jazzed and ready to race. Me and Chris did the big climb to warm up, this climb is so much fun! I think I missed pretty much the racers meeting, there was no way I could sit still for that, my legs and brain were saying go time!! So luckily enough before I knew it we were hauling ass down the road. I had only one thought in my mind and that was a set time I wanted to beat and I was ready to do whatever it took to get it done. I knew the average I needed, what HR to maintain, and pretty much pre-road most of the course on Thursday and Friday. The simple thing is though, what makes this course so much fun is as much as you go there to race first priority should be to finish. This place can eat you and your bike real quick if you let it.

The start was perfect, got up front as quick as possible, hit the climb hard. Last year Eric and Chris was right there with me and ended up following them into the single track. This year there was nobody close, kind of freaked me out a bit. I headed into the single track riding a comfortable pace, keeping the HR rate in check everything was going perfect. I have to admit being out front was kind of nice, I was picking good lines taking my time through some of the rocky sections that I would normally bomb down and staying pretty smooth.

At just a little over an hour into the race I guess I hit a pretty sharp rock because my tire went to the rim before I could even think about trying to get the Stan's to seal it. I will keep this short co2 wasn't totally full so I had to use a pump to finish it off, when I pulled the pump off the stem, the stem came with it, bad luck! Things didn't get much better, wiped out both the tubes I had pretty quick and was thinking man I don't really want to walk the next 38 miles or so to finish. I am still amazed at how much most people wanted to help, and it didn't take to long for somebody to come by with a extra tube, I have the first two peoples faces in my head that helped me but for the life of me cant remember your names, sorry I just hope you know how much I appreciate it. At one of the flats I couldn't get my pump to work and none other than one of the Seagal boys hooked me up, I don't think I was ever so stoked to see that tire fill up.

So I was off again, made it about halfway around the green loop when I flatted again. This one bummed me out I thought for sure I would be walking back. Sat down on a rock watching people go by. Pete Goode came by and asked if I needed help. I told him I needed a tube and a pump, which it is one thing to give up a tube in a race like this let alone hang around while I use your pump he also let me use his c02 very cool dude, I owe you big because that is what finally got me to the finish. I think I was more motivated than ever at this point, I never quit worrying about flatting again but I also never quit racing either. I put every bit of effort into this race that I had trying to make up time when I could and still keep air in the tires! Didn't finish in the time I wanted to but man I am just stoked I finished. This race will always be my favorite place to race because of all the challenges it brings.

In the end the single speed guys dominated this race with Matt Keeven leading the way, congrats to you guys. Chris was enjoying flats almost as much as me, and Robert had a whole lot of problems going on with his bike but both still finished. great job to Mark and Scott also for finishing this one.


souvenirs!! hope I never see this many flats in a race again.





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