The last few weeks have gone by in a hurry. I flew back from Europe after racing in Offenburg, made a quick jaunt out to TX to do some racing at Lance's ranch, and then settled into a few weeks of easy MT livin'. It was great being home; getting into a routine, hanging out with friends, and giving my fitness a 'touch up'. Last weekend I resumed racing with the 4^th stop of the US Cup in Wisconsin and had a pretty good time.

It just so happened to be the unveiling of the newly re-branded Subaru-Trek MTB team and it included some pretty exciting racing. I was lucky enough to cruise into WI on Thursday afternoon and drive to the venue to check out our new array of team equipment. The mechanics, team manager, and all of the folks at Trek had been putting in some serious hours getting our new bikes dialed in and working magic in order to re-do everything you could imagine to make the switch as seamless as possible.

My first impression was that the bikes and everything else about the new look were sweet! After spending a little time dialing in fit I was right at home on the new rides and in the fresh colors. To be able to hop on a brand new bike and feel right at home while flying between trees on the tight WI singletrack speaks hugely of the newly designed frames and of the attention to detail that team mechanics, MattO and Shep, put into the builds.

Trek Superfly and team issue WRX; Both look fast standing still

On Saturday all of the elements of a good day of racing came together. Rad course—check; rowdy crowd—check; dialed bike—check; good legs—check; lots of luck—bonus check.

I felt good from the start and early on the race was whittled down to a lead group of 4; including JHK, Todd, Max, and myself. Even though the course had a good amount of climbing and lots of technical singletrack no one was able to break up the group. I was able to spend a fair amount of time setting the pace (which is still a bit of a novel idea for me) so I was having a good time.

Things stayed together until the last lap rolled around and everyone had no choice but to finally show their hand. Max attacked first and put in a good effort followed by some smooth descending. I was able to close down the gap on the next climb and sit on him for a bit before it was my turn.

When the trail widened I jumped around him and went for it. I opened a small gap and then kept the pressure on as much as I could. I was in the zone on the descents and I was laying down all of the power I could muster on the climbs. The gap slowly started to grow and after 15 minutes of going harder than I've ever gone and negotiating the twisty singletrack in my oxygen-deprived state I found myself cresting the last climb with a sizable gap. I knew if I didn't screw up the descent the win was mine. I relaxed as much as I could and was able to cruise to the line, raising my arms above my head for the first time ever in a national series race. My first win!!!

Sunday's Short Track provided more exciting racing. The course had some nasty climbs and slick descents. I felt good, made the lead group, and was able to do some pace-making at the front again. With around 4 laps to go Adam Craig put down a gnarly attack and I put myself deep into the red to stick to his wheel.

My effort to stay with him ended abruptly after Adam fired off one of his patented “mind bullets” in the form of an interesting line around a high speed corner. I tried to follow but wasn't quite lined up and I went down pretty hard. I felt too good to be sprawled on the ground so I scrambled back onto my bike and re-started the chase from 7^th place. I dug deep and managed to claw my way back to 3^rd by the finish.

Deep in the Pain cave trying to chase back to the leaders (Edge Photo)

Now I'm back in Montana with 2 days to re-group, do laundry, re-pack, catch up with friends, and point my Subaru Outback south. I'll be spending the next 3 weekends racing in Colorado; starting with Marathon Nationals (Firecracker 50) in Breckenridge, then the US Cup Finals in Colorado Springs, and finally XC Nationals in Sol Vista. After that I'll be highway-hauling back to MT in time for a one day turn-around before setting off on the next adventure to Europe for World Cup stops in Switzerland and Italy. It's going to be a busy July but I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't wait to get back onto the race course.

Ever been to a race with it's own theme song?  Until last weekend, neither had I.  The USA Cycling crew and myself all packed up on Saturday and headed into the German heartland to Heubach for the Bike the Rock festival and UCI Hors Category race.  The first thing I noticed when riding through the venue the day before the event was the Rammstein-esque 'Bike the Rock' theme song blaring through the sound system.  It was a nice touch.  (I'm thinking Shaun Radley needs to start thinking about theme songs for 'Rolling Thunder' this year).  

It was pretty gnarly pre-riding the course.  It was basically just a straight climb and then a big descent, but the conditions were super muddy.  I was a little bit unsure what to do for tires since there was so much climbing but I ended up sucking up the weight penalty and going for my burly Bontrager Mud X 29 tires and I am psyched that I did.

My callup was screwed up during the race and they had me slated as 49th because they hadn't gotten my UCI points right.  I think I should have been called up around 15th and luckily Gully talked to the UCI official and at least got me moved up to somewhere in the 20's.  I felt good on the climbs and I was having way too much fun on the descents, both good things.  The crowds were also huge and there was tons of good energy out there.  I ended up finishing 11th which I am super pscyhed with.  

Now I'm back in Kirchzarten hanging out until the Offenburg World Cup this weekend.  I am a little bit laid up with a weird muscle tweak but I'm hoping it will heal up quick.  One of my outside quad muscles was really sore while I was pre-riding on Saturday and then it hurt really bad racing yesterday.  Now the muscle is really sore and there is bruising around it, so that doesn't seem like a good thing.  I'm hoping some good RICEing will make it better quick.

I wrote a quick update while I was cruising under the English Channel on a Eurostar train a week ago but I was hanging in the Belgian countryside with no internet last week so I didn't put it up.  So here it is, better late than never.

The first World Cup of the season is in the bag and the Fisher girls tore it up!  Jeremy, Dror, and I were all huddled around the computer watching the freecaster.tv coverage of the women's race before we headed to the venue.  The first thing we saw was Heather and Willow leading the race and I can’t even put into words how psyched I was.  Those girls are riding unreal fast out there and it was really awesome to see Willow finish 2nd and Heather 9th.  Not a bad way for them to start the WC season.

Ever since I lost my camera in Guatemala I have been slacking on the blog entries.  I have been plenty busy though and am pscyhed to be back on the road.  I guess I left off at Fontana so I'll try to give a brief recap starting there.  After Fontana I decided to go check out the CA coast with a quick stop in Santa Barbara and  a few days in San Luis Obispo.  I got some sweet rides in, got to hang out with some great people, and even tried to surf (or more accurately got pummeled by waves with a surfboard yanking at my ankle).  San Luis Obispo really caught my eye and I will definitely be spending more time there in the near future.  I'm thinking possibly a new winter home.  

The Fontucky XC race is in the bag and man, it was a pretty tough one.  I didn't have the greatest start and had to close a little gap to the lead group early on, pushing myself slightly into the red.  That sort of set the tone for the rest of my short stay with the leaders.  I was really hoping that everyone would slow it up a bit so I would get a chance get into a rhythm but Wells was ruthless and wouldn't stop attacking.  Towards the end of the first lap I rounded a corner on the descent and saw Todd a good 30 feet off the trail dusting himself off from a crash.  Not sure how he rolled that far but I thought it might make the pace slow up a bit.  No such luck.  He was back and attacking in no time and then I got gapped for good.  I settled into my own pace and felt a lot better but  I couldn't latch back onto the leaders.  It was a long lonely day in the wind, but I was pretty pumped to hold on for 5th.  

Race numero uno is in the books and it feels pretty good to get it out of the way.  The first race is always a big question mark because it is impossible to tell how my early season form will mesh with everyone else's early season form, but yesterday things turned out alright.  The course was pretty fast with a lot of drafting sections and some really hard, short, punchy climbs.  I thought there would be enough climbing to make it more of a strong man race but it turned out that they were short enough that things stayed grouped up quite a bit and tactics came into play.  That made it pretty tough because you had to dig super hard on the climbs to stay in contact with the group and it was either balls out fast or conversation pace slow.  It always feels good to slow down but whenever it did I found myself white-knucking the bar and dreading the next hard acceleration.  Sometimes it's easier to be the one doing the acceleration because at least then you're ready for it.  Plaxton ended up making a really smart move and was able to take the W.  I was left with a group of 4 fighting for 2nd place.  It came down to the last climb when people started attacking and Taberlay was able to open a bit of a gap after countering Wells' early move.  I hung onto Kabush's wheel and managed to out-kick him to the line.  I am sure his legs were softened up a bit from chasing back on after a flat on the 2nd to last lap but any time I can come out in front in a sprint against him I am pretty psyched.  Must have been the hundreds of times that I watched this video of him coming around me in the sprint at Windham last year that gave me the edge.

http://tinyurl.com/yj5bffh

Right now I'm just playing the waiting game that I get so good at throughout the season.  I always forget how much time there is to kill when waiting around for a 2 or 3 pm start time.  I need to get better at sleeping in really late since my reign as top sleeper on the team has been crushed by new recruit, Russell Finsterwald (who had a pretty awesome pro debut yesterday).  He puts me to shame in the sleeping game.  Today is the second part of the race with Short Track and Super D.  With the Triple Crown format they take your cross country placing plus your best placing in either ST or SD for the overall.  It makes things interesting and it has me motivated to try to improve upon my 3rd place finish in the XC.  I'll keep you posted on how things turn out.  I think it's about time to make a trip back to the World Champion Barista coffee shop that Kabush told me about yesterday.  The place has some pretty delicious coffee and I think I'll need as much caffeine as I can tolerate to make it through a short track effort this time of year.

After being punched while driving through the middle of town (see last blog post if you haven't read it yet) I was living in fear for a couple of days.  Then I realized that was no way to live.  Driving around with my windows rolled up, doors locked, and too afraid to make eye contact with anyone was bringing me down.  So I decided to do something about it.  I've been spending every free moment at the arcade playing this game.  I can now throw one hell of  a haymaker and I am no longer scared.

 Actually, not a whole lot has been going on, but the first race of the season is coming up real soon.  This coming weekend I'll be packing up my Subaru and heading west to Bonelli Park, CA.  I'm looking forward to kicking off the season and maybe it will actually give me something worthwhile to blog about.  Until then, always be ready to throw a punch.

Today I was punched in the face.  Over the last 24 years there have been many times that I would not have been surprised to receive a punch (and maybe a few times where I actually deserved it), but I was not expecting one today.

It all started when I decided to load my bike up and drive across town to hit up some MTB trails.  I was cruising along with a coffee and scone stop in mind when a gangsta'd out Buick cut through traffic like a maniac, eventually flying into the left hand turn lane, cutting off a bunch of cars.  I raised my hand and gave him a little scowl as I drove by.  My gesture was quickly returned by a very angry looking double bird.  I didn't think too much of it until about 1 minute later when I saw the same Buick flying down the center lane of the road.  He pulled ahead of me and then swerved to a stop, blocking both lanes of southbound traffic and forcing me to lock up my brakes to avoid hitting him.  He quickly jumped out of his car and ran up to my window, spouting out a lot of four letter words and asking if I wanted to "start shit".  I said "no" which I guess was the wrong answer because he leaned into my window and threw two quick sucker punches.  The first one got me squarely in the nose but the next one just glanced off my cheek.  Before I really even knew what had happened he was hopping back to his car with gangster like gestures saying "what's up now!?"  He then peeled off back in the opposite direction.  

Last night The Cycling House staff (minus Andy) decided to celebrate our last night before todays big camp with a delicious dinner out.  We loaded up the minivan and pushed off to the highfalutin shopping mall right near our house and stopped in at RA for some sushi.  Right as we were sitting down I got a call from Andy.  I was excited, thinking that he decided to join us.  Instead he was calling to inform me that USADA (United States Anti Doping Agency) had just showed up at the house for an out of competition test.  Damn.  Sushi sounded delicious so instead of leaving my meal they ended up coming up to the restaurant to meet me.  It was pretty entertaining to see them walk in with their USADA jackets, duffel bags, and paperwork.  They tried to keep a low profile, but it's hard to avoid a scene when two people walk into a bathroom stall with an empty cup and walk out with it filled with yellow liquid.  There was definitely one guy giving us the big eye in the bathroom.  Anyway, I got the sample taken care of and other than the curious restaurant workers I don't think too many others noticed that I was pouring my urine into the proper vials in the outside seating area.  Ahh yes, the glamour of being a professional athlete.