Who goes to Hugo

It all started in New Castle. The team met to go to Hugo for the Hugo RR. Hugo is a small town past Limon. In New Castle the coaches said we were going to get hair cuts. What we didn't know was that they weren't serious but we went through with it any way. Half way to Hugo we stoped at a burrito place in Silverthorne. They have the best burritos I recommended everyone to stop there. Its by the City Market in Sliverthorne. Living in Colorado you get to see some beutiful scenes. Once we got to Limon Josiah and I had to find me some new glasses. (Limon is where we stayed the night.) Me with my new glasses and before my hair cut. After I got my glasses the team got their hair cuts. The next morining we raced in the great town of Hugo. It was a great Road Race. The Boys (Ethan, Josiah and Me) raced in the Cat 4's. The race was 64 miles long over tough terrain. With a field of over 90 riders and strong wind the race was a great learning experince for us. Nate had the best result of the day, she finished a strong 4th in the women's Cat 4's.

Things you say on the way to a bike race

So the heart on the drivers licence with the Y on it means you're an organ donar, have you donated any organs yet? That was the first thing that was said on the way to a bike race in the city of Hugo, Colorado. Some other things were said too. I won't mention names but here's some things.
Hey, it stopped raning! When we pulled into the gas station.
My half sister is the littlest, she is a girl.
So if there is a man bear pig, there can be a polar grizzly and a polar bear bear.

A Near Death Experience

We had just gotten to Denver and were at Ruby Tuesday's for some pre-race dinner, when I almost died. Was sitting half way in the the car and lighting struck feet away from me. I was blowen back and shaky for hours. We tried to find a pool so we could try out our new swim wear. It took us three hotels and crossing a few streets to find one. The next morning the team took on the State Time trial. It was a hard up and down course with lots of wind. Avivah did the best placing third. While us older boys finished 9th (Ethan), 10th (Trevor), and 12th (Josiah). After the race we stopped in Idaho Springs, the home of Mt. Evans. Ethan Josiah and I decided to ride the junior course for the Mt. Evans race. All that riding took it out of Josiah.

Fruita's Redemption

After today's ride, I regret what I said about Fruita earlier this week. Runaway horses and redneck pickup drivers give the town its unique character. But as I mentioned before, it's the mountain biking that makes the area so amazing. This morning I went and picked up one of my collegiate teammates, Rana Schnell, and we headed out to Fruita.
To be politically correct, we actually passed up Fruita and ended up in Loma, Colorado. This is the home of the Kokopelli trailhead, one of my favorite mountain biking areas. And, to judge by the amount of cars, bikes and people in the parking lot, I'm not the only one who likes it.
We started out on Rustler's, which is generally considered to be the practice, or beginner's loop. In about half an hour, I must have seen at least fifteen people. I couldn't really blame them, though, the weather was perfect and the trails were even better.
After Rustler's, we started on Mary's loop. Suddenly, about halfway through the loop, we stopped seeing people. I'm not sure what happened to everyone, but somehow that section of trail was ours alone. And we were out there, all alone, stuck with Rana's gearing deficiencies.
Maybe "deficiency" is the wrong word. It's not that the gears don't work. But that bike is definitely lacking something, namely a small chainring. She's been struggling with it for a while now, but today I got the whole story. It happens to sum up quite nicely. Basically, she's riding one of Adam Craig's old bikes, complete with his gearing setup. The bike was courtesy of her brother, Ross, who's riding for Trek-VW this year. As much confidence as he may have in Rana, I honestly can't think of a single chick who can ride that bike up a long climb. So Ross, if you ever read this, she's not a wus for wanting a lower gear, and you might want to help her out. Oh, and kudos on this weekend. Ross Schnell, ladies and gentlemen, finished eighth at this weekend's Norba National in North Carolina. For those of you who follow some of our local pros, Nick Martin, also of Trek-VW, took 28th and Noel Weddle of Velo Bella-Kona took 36th.
Anyways, with more work than should have been necessary on Rana's part, we managed to ride Steve's loop, and finish up on Mary's. We got back to the parking lot to find it as full as when we left, but somehow we'd managed to find our own piece of Fruita singletrack.

Welcome to Fruita, enjoy your stay!

Last night I went to my first Red Rock Riders ride of the season. These are the infamous "rides" commonly referred to as the Tuesday night races, often described as hammerfests, sufferfests, or any number of similarly attractive-sounding descriptions. Last night's ride was even more brutal than normal, with temperatures above 100 degrees. I wanted to hammer, and I was ready for anything the boys would throw at me. But as I would find out, I should've been more worried about what the local Fruitans would throw at us, and less worried about the other riders.
Our "warmup" was short and we started to pick up the pace a bit. We were hauling down a hill out on 23 Rd when a pickup pulled around the entire pack, then decided to throw on his brakes right in front of us, conveniently in the middle of a bunch of gravel. Welcome to Fruita folks, watch out for the pickups. We regrouped and continued on the ride, undisturbed for a mile or two. Then we came upon a lady on one horse, and leading another. We were getting deeper into Fruita at this point, and no one thought much of seeing a couple of horses and a rider on the side of the road. But then the horse spooked. It took off chasing the pack down the road, quickly overtook us, and continued down the road at full speed. Luckily the lady handled it very well, and as we slowed down to a near crawl to pass them a second time, we gave her back a few items that she had lost during the incident. During the excitement, the pack had split in two, and we waited for the second half to catch back up. As soon as it did, I flatted. Trevor waited for me, and we tried to get back to the pack by cutting off a few miles, but the top pack had split up.
It wasn't quite the ride I was hoping for, but there wasn't much anyone could do. But when in Fruita, please don't do as the Fruitans do... running cyclists off the road isn't a sport. We're well aware that your pickup truck could beat up our road bikes, proving it really isn't necessary. Not that I don't like Fruita... it's a cool town, with some of the best mountain biking I've ever found. All I'm saying is that you might want to watch out for the pickups

You Know You're a Bike Racer When

Yesterday started well. We had a team Time Trial to gauge how well the members of the team are coming in their training where their fitness level is at. The time trial went well with most of our team showing up. Everyone did every well especially the younger riders. The top junior award was a tight race with Josiah and I taking around three minutes off are first time but Ethan was the one who improved the most, by cutting four minutes off of his previous time. After the time trial us juniors; Netana, Ethan, and I put the hurt on the mentors in the hills of Silt. But it was on the way home when my brother and I had a You Know You're a Bike Racers When experiences. We were driving down the road when we heard something. At first I thought we had a flat but after further inspection we found that we had a tail pipe down. As you can see from the picture we are racers with $5000 worth of bikes in the back and a $500 jeep falling apart.

Silt Time Trial

Sean warming up

I should be warming up too, but talking to Jeff is much more fun


Kyle, Bill, Max and Avivah ready to start


Ethan and Josiah wait for their starts

Trevor gets ready to go

Jeff N. charging hard out of the start

Jeremiah, Avivah and Max chat after they finish

The team after the time trial

We had another one of our time trials on the Silt frontage road yesterday. Most of it went off fine, with only a few small issues. Sean broke out the trainer for his warmup in an attempt to go for the course record. Unfortunately, he flatted only a few miles out, and had to give up on the attempt. He somehow managed flag down a convertible and hitch a ride back, which seemed a bit suspicious to me. Kyle came out for his first TT, and got confused about where the course went, so he didn't complete the time trial either. Everything else went pretty well, with Jeff N. turning in the fastest time of the day. It still wasn't enough to break Jeff M.'s course record.

Power

Well there are many gels, bars and drinks out there. My favorites are as goes: Gels Honeystinger/gold, Bars orginal power bar/chocolate, Drinks H2O or Rehydrate.