Prescott 6'er

                The season has pretty much rapped up for me, but there are still a few races that I can’t pass up. The Prescott 6’er was one of them. Although this is a young event, I have heard great things about the course and knew it would be well run with Hub Event Productions at the reigns.

                My dad and I drove down the morning of the race to be greeted with a venue full of Flagstaff locals and many of my AZ Devo teammates. The atmosphere was chill, perfect for this time of the year. We set up my pit and chilled for a while awaiting the 9 am start time. Hopped on my bike about twenty minutes to just to get the legs opened a little bit, they felt solid, which got me excited to go! I got on the front line along side my teammates Dilyn Sheber and Ian Wilkey and stood there for what seemed like a long time. I didn’t mind though, just hung out and had some laughs.

                Finally the race started, I got the holeshot  and kept the pace fast through the venue. There was a four mile start lap which consisted of a few minute climb and then pretty much the last third of a full lap. My legs felt good off the start so I decided to take advantage of it and held a strong tempo up the first climb. By the top Kurt Refsnider and I had a gap, which we held going into the first full 9.1 mile lap.

                For the first few laps Kurt and I traded pulls, he is a great rider, it was really fun to ride with him. Always an honor to ride with a Tour Divide Champion! We stayed together until the third lap, where about half way through I got a little gap. When I realized this I stepped up the pace to solidify my lead. After I was on my own I settled in and rode hard.

                Lap after lap my legs felt good, I tried to rest on the descents and attack the climbs as hard as I could. The course was really fun, which helped me push through the hours. There was lots of cool singletrack along with some wider stuff which allowed me to keep downing my Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem and Hammer Gels.  Keeping fueled was the key to my success for sure; I only cramped once the entire race!

                I knew going into my eighth lap that I had to make it back before three, the cutoff time, to get in a ninth. Legs still felt awesome so I attacked the lap. Pushed it hard, shredded the descents, and really felt the flow. I got in at 2:53, grabbed my nutrition, and headed back out. At this point I knew I had won, I knew Kurt couldn’t go out again so I went out and cruised. Really enjoyed that last lap, got to ride with my teammate Nick Thomas for a while. He was still riding really strong, holding his fourth place position in the Solo class. I came across the finish, completely stoked with my performance. I had ridden well and had a lot of fun out there.

 

 

                Awards were quickly after the event where I got on the podium for the win in the Solo category. I also got the fastest lap and had the most laps overall! It was great to see my other teammates riding well. As I mentioned Nick had a great ride to fourth in the solo race while Daisy Ward and her teammate Leah McCabe won the Duo Women’s race. Dilyn and Ian also raced duo with their dads and both placed in the top ten!

              I would like to thank Mike Melley and the Hub Event Productions Crew for a great event! I will definitely be back at this event next year. Also I would like to thank AZ Devo , Nathan Cain and the Flagstaff crew, along with my dad for all the help in the pits. As always my Hammer Nutrition fueled me throughout the day, couldn’t do these things without it!

 

 

 

Time Trial State Championships

            After last weekend's great result with the team, I was stoked for the individual State Championship Time Trial. For this one we went down to Phoenix for a couple of days before the event. Shea, my parents, and I stayed at the Point to chill by the pool and start the off season a couple of days early. We had a ton of fun, haven't chilled by a pool in a while. Lots of time was spent in the Lazy River and playing volleyball in the pool. Had a great time!

          Saturday it was time to get back to business though. I went out and did some openers on the TT bike. Legs felt ready, there was nothing left to do but go race. After a little more chillin at the pool we headed down to Arizona City. There's nothing much to do in Arizona City so we just watched some TV and went to bed.

            For the second weekend in the row, woke up early and headed out to the course. It was the same course from last weekend's TTT so I knew what to expect. This time I only had a 20k course though. This made it even more important to get in a really good warm up. Spun on the trainer and threw in some good intensity. When I got off the trainer I was in the zone. I headed to the start and got ready to go out and tear it up.

           I started hard and got up to speed quickly. There was a solid headwind but I knew I had to work hard through it,  there's no time to be conservative in this short of a time trial. A lot of juniors started ahead of me which gave me a lot of people to chase. I worked hard to catch as many as I could. I had caught quite a few before the turn around but I wanted to get a few more after.

         The turn around went smooth, kind of. I went in pretty hot and ended up sliding the back tire around the corner. Whatever, nothing wrong with getting a little loose! I got back up to speed quickly though. Having the tailwind on the way back totally reenergized me. I felt like I was flying. I was in my biggest gear the entire return trip. I gave it everything I could and came across the line, knowing I had put in a solid time.

        I ended up taking the win in the 17-18s with a time of 26:36 averaging about 28 mph. Really excited to get the State Championship!! Thanks to Flagstaff Cycling along with my parents and Shea for the great support!!

        Now to take a couple weeks off. Go to Interbike, play some soccer, and do other stuff that I normally don't!

Team Time Trial State Championships

           Team Time Trialin, one of my favorite things to do on skinny tires. This year some teammates from Flagstaff Cycling and I decided to race the State Championships. The race was down in Arizona City on a pretty flat piece of road kind of in the middle of nowhere. The night before Robert and I drove down to meet up with our other teammates Mark and David at the Motel 6. We got there after dark to avoid just sitting in the hotel room. We chilled for a little while, talked some strategy with Jim Silverman and Bryan Antol and then just went to bed.

           Woke up bright and early, ate a little food, and then got in the TT mindset. I was ready to suffer, I was ready to ride fast! We showed up to the venue and set up the trainers.  I put in some hard efforts to make sure I was really ready to go, I knew we had to start hard. About 10 minutes before the start I hopped off the trainer and went out and spun around. The team gathered at the start and you could feel the intensity in our group, it was awesome!!

          We started controlled, with Mark working us up to speed. Once up to speed we rotated through pretty smoothly. I was feeling good, but I knew I had to  hold this pace for the entirety of the 50 minute or so time trial. Everyone was working well, not pulling through too hard or too slow. The race was not to eventful out to the turn around. Legs were still feeling good, had a bit left for the return trip.

           We didn't go around the turn around too smoothly but if anything we only lost a couple of seconds. Right out the turn there was a big headwind which made it hard to get back up to speed but fortunately the road turned about a kilometer after the turnaround. Then we just had a side wind which was much better than the huge headwind. This is where I had a little difficulty. I took a big pull in the headwind which tired out my legs a bit. I took a couple shorter pulls but was able to comeback quickly.

          The team started to get back in a good rhythm once again. We finished strong and came across the line all together which was awesome. I was done though, left everything out there. One of the most intense efforts of the year for sure! We ended up placing second in the Open Men with Team Landis taking the win. I was stoked with our performance though. We averaged just under 30 mph, finishing the 40k course in 50:12, a great result in pretty windy conditions.

          Thanks to my teammates for a great race. Had a great time with you guys! Also a thanks to Flagstaff Cycling for the great support!!

Mormon Lake Road Race

The transition to road racing has officially started this fall. I was pretty done after Leadville but wanted to upgrade to 3's by the end of the year, so I decided to do some racing just for fun. The Mormon Lake road race is on a coarse just outside of Flagstaff. It consists of a circuit that I do for training every weekend so I thought it would be fun to do. Flagstaff cycling was putting it on, which was another big plus!!

We had a pretty large group, with more than 50 riders. I had a few strong teammates in the group though, so I knew we could keep a large group contained. The race started out chill with a few attacks that led to a couple dumb crashes, luckily I was able to avoid them! There was really only one decisive climb on the course which came towards the end of the 16 mile lap. It was short, but steep enough to get a gap. The problem was holding the gap, immediately after the climb there is a couple mile descent towards the Mormon Lake Lodge, which is much faster in a large group. On the first lap the pace was fast up the climb but the group still remained large with about 40 guys.

Heading into the second lap, I know I wanted to try to get a break away. As soon as the course turned onto Lake Mary road I attacked hard and was able to get away with two other guys. It was a rare calm winded day out on this stretch of road which made it difficult for us to stay away. We held off the group for a few miles but got caught towards the end of the lap.

With about thirty guys left in the group going into the third lap and little chance of a breakaway the team started working together to get ready for the sprint. Chuck, Derek, and Ken all went up front and took big pulls so I could just sit in which was awesome. We completely controlled the last lap. Ken and Chuck took a few big pulls before the climb and fell off but Derek stayed with me. He worked hard and put in a huge effort with about a kilometer to go. The sprint was on a slight climb which I liked, so with about 400 meters to go I went. I dodged a few riders and opened it up. I felt good and was able to come across the line first!

I was stoked with Flagstaff Cycling's performance. We really worked together and I am extremely appreciative to Chuck, Ken, and Derek who guided me to the win. This win gave me enough points to upgrade to 3's so there's nothing left to do but race a couple of time trials to finish off the year.