End Of Summer. . .

First off, I would like to thank Ken and all of the sponsors from our community who put together team HealthFx this year. You guys gave me the funds to find out what it is really like to race against the Pro girls. Sometimes it's not pretty; but mostly it was a good experience and I learned and developed as a rider. I think one of the best parts of my season was racing the Super D course at the mountain bike nationals in Vermont. I was lined up against a lot of Pro ladies - including Marla Streb. Last spring I read this book written by Marla, about all of her experiences and racing. She has done a lot of amazing stuff, and I was kinda stoked to be lined up next to her.

The Super D started - it was a little bit of chaos as we ran to our bikes, then ran with our bikes, put them down again, then ran back to the start line and ran back to our bikes. Sounds confusing. Then we mounted our bikes and raced to the beginning of the single track; and it was all downhill from there. After the run, I found myself battling for 1st place with Marla. We we sprinting, head to head, for the whole shot at the single track. And I beat her! I was so stoked I out sprinted the legendary Marla. It didn't last long, of course; she promptly passed me on the technical single track. I was bouncing along on my hard tail, and she flew by on her full suspension and went on to win the race. I tried to catch her, but there was now was in hell I was going to be able to do it. My ego was shattered as more girls passed me, and in the end I didn't even care what place I took. I knew I wasn't in a podium spot. Maybe next year. . .

So now I am racing for Fort Lewis College! I love collegiate racing. There are so many awesome people. This past weekend was our home race. My race was no so bueno ( I was sick and my mind was other places), but FLC did pretty well:

Men's A Short Track:

Noah Singer - 1st place
Joey Thompson - 3rd palce
Dicky Dub - 5th place

Women's A Short Track:

Teal Stetson-Lee - 4th place
Chantelle Shoemaker - 7th place

My roommate Jess Lathrop won her race! She did the women's B short track. And it was her first mountain bike race, which is pretty awesome. Now she is going to have to race A's with us. Muaaahhhahaha.

Our Cross Country race was cancelled on Sunday due to torrential downpours. Racing in weather like that would have been miserable! My bike would have hated the mud and ruts. So instead we all went out to breakfast and then headed to Ouray to check out the hot springs. Soaking was awesome, even though it would have been fun to race this course. It's one of my favortites (maybe that's because I won it last year).

Congrats to all the racers, look at our website for all the results: cycling.fortlewis.edu I don't think they're up right now, but maybe they will be someday.

That's all I got for now! Thanks for reading!

Show and Tell.

I have finally located the cord to my camera, so I have some photos now!

Here to our left is our ladies TTT team getting ready to take off. We were Fort Lewis College's first girl's team to win Nationals, pretty exciting. Above, we have me crossing the finish line of my first Xterra triathlon.

These are my girls! They are part of the Devo junior development team, I am their coach. We like to have cruiser ice cream days and hang out in the park when we are not being hard core mountain bikers.

I spent the 4th of July rafting out in Cataract Canyon on the Colorado river with some of mi good buddies. We had some fun. I captained my own paddle boat down with an all girls crew, and it was one of the best experiences ever. We raged some class IV rapids, had a few swims, I had to do some rescues. We floated past the confluence of the Green and the Colorado, which is such a beautiful place. Our trip ended at Lake Powell, and sadly after six days on the river I am back in Durango now, working all week. Back to reality. Not that Durango is a bad to place to be - I love it.

Xterras and Raftin!

Last weekend was my first Xterra triathlon! It was sooo fun. It was in Show Low, AZ. We had to swim across a lake and around some bouys, then shed our wetsuits and hop on our mountain bikes, ride, then do some trail running. The swim was 800 metes, the bike was 18 miles, and the run was a 10k. I thought that I was going to be OTB ( on the bottom) in the swim, but I actually didn't drown and made it out of the lake alive, definitely at the back of the pack. Once I got on my mountain bike, however, I must have passed maybe 50 people. I went from 2nd to last in the women's field to 4th! I lost one spot on the run, and managed my first podium of the season in 5th place. Yay. I might have to switch over to doing Xterras, becuase the World Championships are in Maui, and I really would love to go hang out in Hawaii. I have to work on my swim first. . .

This photo is me raft guiding, what I do during the week to earn some cash! I love taking tourists down the river, haha, I've met some interesting people, thats for sure. I might get to go raft the Upper Animas next week, I am so stoked. It is so beautiful up in Chicago Basin, if you are familiar with the mountains between Silverton and Durango, it is absolutley spectacular. The river is kinda intense, last time I rafted it I was pretty scared. Quite the adrenaline rush. It's just like riding a downhill, you have to pick your perfect line or you are screwed. We hopefully will get to camp up there for a night and hang out, then we get to hike out near Purgatory.

My next race is most likely the Deer Valley NORBA National. I am most definitely planning to do the Super D and Short Track.

Here's a photo from the Super D at Fontana! I love Super D, I think it should be my new event. I even have my game face on, which is extremely unusual.

Since my last blog, our Fort Lewis College team went to compete in road nationals in Lawrence, Kansas. Both our girl's and guy's won the Team Time Trial, which was pretty sweet. We took 3rd in the overall team omnium and unfortunately two of our guys went down in the Crit.

Now I'm taking a little rest from racing. I'm trying to switch it up a bit by doing an Xterra triathalon in a couple of weeks, so I've been swimming and running along with the biking. This weekend is the Iron Horse, a Durango tradition. Can't wait!

Summatime!!!

I just posted a blog on my team website, www.teamhealthfx.com, check it out! There are also some funny pictures on Noah's blog to look at. Chao. . .

Sea Otter!

I just got back last night from racing the Sea Otter in California. I think that's the longest drive I've ever done, almost 17 hours each way. Hmmm, hopefully sometime soon I will find a team to hook it up and fly me around the country. My brother, Teal and my parents came as well, so we made a trip out of it.

Sea Otter is a sweet event, and this was my first time racing it. They have such a HUGE venue and tons and tons of people. The word on the street was that there were 800 people trying to race the beginner men's downhill. HHmmmm, I guess I find this extremely hard to believe. . . but hey, maybe mountain biking is not a dying sport!

I was stoked on my races, I took 26th in the short track. Katie Compton and I were the last to be called up, and she passed the entire field and won the race. I would have taken 2nd in U23, but for some reason they didn't have the category. It was all muddy too, which made the race all the more epic. I got kicked in the face once by a girl who slipped in the mud and fell off her bike and nailed me as she was jumping back on. Good times.

Congrats to the Teal Stetson-Lee who took 3rd in her Expert ST race!

Also congrats to Alisha Gibson, who took 2nd in the Expert Dual Slalom and won the Expert Downhill. Very nice.

The XC was so fun. It was the longest MTB race I've ever done at 38 miles. This was my first Pro XC race that I finished! I came in around midpack, which I was stoked about, considering that I was racing against former world champions and people like Georgia Gould, who won our race by 4 minutes.

Good weekend, good people. I'll post some photos sometime. Until then . . .

Some Road Racin

This weekend the Fort Lewis Cycling team ventured all the way to Utah for some road racing. Salt Lake City is a nice place, especially for a big city. Lots of beautiful mountains around, and we didn't even have to race in the rain.

I will post some results as soon as I get them, but I know that FLC definitely cleaned up. . .

PHOTOS:

Jordan at the Hill Climb

Assof and Dicky Dub pretending they are superman

Dicky's creeper face

My two awesome teammates Kristen McGrath and Christi Roberts. These girls are so fun to race with, they have taught me a lot and kicked my butt into shape. The three of us won the Women's A team time trial this weekend by a minute! It was so fun during the road race, I attacked about 1/2 way through and only one girl from Mesa came with me. We stayed away from the pack the entire race because my teammates slowed everybody down and nobody decided to chase us. I suck at sprinting so I took second, with the FLC girlies close behind.

A random photo:

The brother Ben raging the fixed gear tyke bike.