King of the Rockies - The Legendary Tiperary Creek

This was the sixth and final race of the 2007 winter park race. The course was on the legendary Tipperary Creek course which was the first winter park course ever raced on. The race was an epic 25.8 miles long with over 4,000 feet of climbing. The course map can be seen here (follow the dashed white line) and the course profile can be seen here.

This course was a lot of fun. It started out with a huge climb in the beginning, followed by a huge descent and then some up and downs with some pretty technical sections to the end. The overall course gained altitude, so that was good for me.

I completed this course in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 58.7 seconds which put me in 4th place, just 32 seconds off of the podium. The full results are here. I was very happy with this finish however because it gave me enough points in the series to capture 2nd place overall! I ended up with 236 points for the season whereas the 1st place finisher had 247 points and the 3rd place guy had 231 points. The complete series rankings can be viewed here.

I had a great time competing in the winter park mountain bike series this year. The courses were challenging, the scenery was beautiful, and the competitors were all very cool and friendly. I hope to take part in these races again, I guess I will have to upgrade to expert next year though. So much for podium finishes. I'd also like to try more of the Mountain States Cup series races.

Winter Park #5 - Cross Country

This was the fifth winter park race this summer. This one started near Fraser and finished at the base of Winter Park. A map of the course can be seen here and the course profile is here. This race was 24 miles long and it had a huge climb at the beginning to start of the race. The first hill was over 2,000 ft of climbing and over 6 miles long. This was to my advantage since I am a better climber than descender. It was pretty cool that morning and I wanted to be nice and warmed up by the time we started so we parked in Fraser and Kendra and I both biked the few miles out to the start line. Right before the start of my race I rode up the road a little ways to see how the incline was after the start, but I went out a little too far and almost missed my race start! At got back to the start line right before the gun went off. When it did most of us started nice and easy since we had a long day ahead of us and a huge climb right in front of us.

There was a mile or two lead out on a dirt road before we hit the singletrack and the incline wasn't too bad. On the approach I chatted with the guys that I normally race against and are about the same speed as me. Before we hit the singletrack our group moved up towards the front. Once we hit the singletrack I let Brian lead us and we kept the pace pretty steady. Half way up the climb there is another dirt road that is relatively flat and short. I decided to attack right before this road and got a small gap. On the road I caught the guy that was in second place in our category (James Mack) and asked him if we could work together. I drafted him for a minute and then we traded pulls for the rest of the flat section before we hit the "wall". This next singletrack section was extremely steep and rocky. I did my best to just hang on James' wheel for the climb and was successful until the last half mile or so when it really pitched up and was covered with loose rocks. He pulled away from me and summited about a minute before I did. Once I started the downhill, I just hung on the the incredibly fast descent. Shortly after the start of the downhill I passes James who had unfortunately crashed on a water-bar in the trail. There were already medics there so I kept on going. I crashed on one of the couple tight switch backs, but was going slow enough that I didn't get hurt too bad. This allowed Andrew to catch me though and he passed me. I worked hard to catch him and was able to by the bottom of the huge descent.

Andrew and I took turns leading each other for about half of the race, but he pulled away from me on Vasquez Road right before we had to cross Vasquez Creek again. I didn't see him again until the finish line, but ended up in 3rd place! Here's a picture of me crossing the line:


I was pretty happy with my finish and had a great time on this course. It was definitely my favorite course of the series. It took me 2:17:47.7 to finish the race and I was 133rd overall. The complete results can be seen here. Here's a picture of me on the podium :-)

Winter Park #4 - Valley Point to Point

The fourth winter park mountain bike race this summer was the Valley Point to Point. This race started at the Winter Park resort base and finished just outside the town of Fraser. It was 18.8 miles long (the longest so far), the starting elevation was 9,080 ft. and the finish elevation was 8,830 ft. with 1,950 ft of climbing along the way. Which means this race was mostly downhill. There is a map of the course here. And the course profile is here.

The night before the race we camped just outside of the town of Winter Park off of Vasquez Rd. It is national forest so you can camp there for free. Here is a picture of our campsite and our new tent! It was nice spedning the night before up there so that I didn't have to worry about getting up early and driving all the way up there the day of the race. It was a nice night, chilly; but not freezing.

The next morning we got up and brushed our teeth (Kendra came with me of course) and ate some breakfast. Then I started warming up by riding up the road to where the race would be on it and checked out the Vasquez Creek water crossing to scope out what the best strategy would be to get across it. Then I rode to the start line and prepared to start. I saw the regulars in my category and made some small talk before the race. Here's a picture right after the gun went off. I tried not to go out too hard at the beginning.This race was pretty tough for me because I am better at going uphill than I am at downhill. At least it started out going uphill so that I could get into good position before the downhill. I think I was in 2nd place by the time that we started going down. I held my place pretty well on the first serious downhill. I think I might have gotten passed by one person. Then we had another tough uphill where I was able to pass him back. Then a little downhill and the water crossing.

I was actually able to make it all the way across the water without stopping. Putting it in a really low gear was key. Then we rode down Vasquez Rd. for a little before turning off and heading up a challenging climb. Before we got to the climb I noticed that my seat was slowly sliding down lower and lower. This wasn't going to do, so I decided to stop on the uphill to raise my seat and tighten it and I was passed by two or three riders in my category! After this uphill the rest of the race was mostly downhill and I continued to get passed. The final stretch was really rocky and really beat me up. I don't think my suspension was ideally tuned. Eventually the finish line actually showed up though.


I ended up finishing in 7th place in my category, 207th overall. The race took me 1:35:04.7 which was a pace of about 5 minutes per mile. The complete results are here. This wasn't my best race ever, but I survived and I learned a lot. I'm glad that my loose seat post was the worst of my mechanical issues for the year. I got to talk to Brian Kleinman after the race and met his wife as well. He is a pretty cool guy and I would get to talk to him at other races this year, too. I enjoyed racing against him.

Winter Park #3 - Cross Country Super Loop

The third winter park race was on July 7th. The course consisted of one BIG loop at the ski resort. The map can be viewed here. I raced sport category again so my course was 14.7 miles. The race was pretty hard and I only ended up getting 8th place. I think this was largely due to the very long downhill portion of the race. The complete results can be seen here.

WP#2 - Mountain Circuit One

The second Winter Park race was on June 16th. It was a cross country circuit race which means it was a loop that you do several times. Our category did two loops for about 15 miles of racing with 900 feet of climbing per lap. I also talked my friend and coworker, Derrick, into racing with me. We were in the same category and lined up against each other at noon.

When they blew the whistle I used the same race strategy as I had last week. I fell in behind about the 5th rider and just held on to see what the pace would be. They started out a little faster this week since there was only a short climb at first and then a flat section on fire roads before we hit the singletrack.

I slowly moved up until I was sitting in second place and could see the turn onto the singletrack section. Since it is much more difficult to pass people on the singletrack I made up my mind to get in front before we were there. I was successful and started the singletrack trail in first place.

I held this position for about a mile, but was unable to shake the racers behind me. I was using a lot of energy to lead the way up the climb so when I hit a fairly technical switchback to get around, I had to put a foot down and gave up my lead to two other riders.

I kept pushing to the top and don't think I was passed again. I caught up to some of the guys in front of me by the top of the hill and then we started descending. I was passed by two guys on the descent, but stayed with one of them and passed him again on the uphill part of the next lap. This uphill section was even longer than on the first lap! It was a long hard climb to the top, then we had a very long downhill to the bottom.

When I was almost to to the very bottom, I was going around a tight switchback a little too fast and lost traction on my front wheel. My bike slipped out from under me and I went down hard, scraping up most of the left side of my body. It hurt pretty bad, but I got up right away and got back on my bike. I pushed hard for the finish line and didn't give up my spot. I ended up finishing 4th which I was happy with.

Fat Tire Triathlon

I did one triathlon this year. I kendra got into triathlons after we met. She did her first one two years ago, but I was out of the country during it, so last year she did a sprint triathlon and I watched the whole thing. This year we wanted to do a triathlon together so after looking for a while we chose the Fat Tire Triathlon. It is an off road triathlon (mountain biking and trail running) with an open water lake swim. It takes place near Fort Collins at the Horsetooth Reservoir.

We picked this race partly because it was close to our wedding, but not too close. We thought that it would be at a good time that would encourage us to work out until close to our wedding, but be over soon enough to allow us enough time to dedicate to finish our wedding planning. However, we were so busy with planning most of the summer that we didn't get to train for our race nearly as much as we hoped. I got lots of swimming in and biking, but hardly any running.

Because of this I decided to do the swim as fast as I could, but then wait for kendra (she started 10 minutes after me) in the transition zone so that we could bike and run together. I did the swim in about 12 minutes, which I was pleased with, and then spent over 17 minutes in the transition zone waiting for kendra. It was well worth the wait because I had a blast riding and running with her.

Kendra did a great job in the race! She didn't get scared at all on the swim (even though it was her first open water swim) and swam freestyle the whole way! She didn't even have a wetsuit to use! The water was about 70 degrees, but the air temp was probably around 50 so the water felt warm in comparison. It had rained most of the night before so they weren't even sure if the state park was going to let us do the race on the original course.

Kendra had a good bike ride, pushing hard the entire time. She did fall twice though (spralling out across the entire trail), but she got right back on and kept going both times. The bike was on some fairly mellow, rolling singletrack. The only annoying part was passing people and letting people pass on the tight singletrack. The run was pretty much straight up a mountain and then back down, but we were able to keep running the whole way even if it wasn't very fast at times.

Kendra did an amazing job and we both had a great time. The complete results are here.

Winter Park Cross-Country Super Loop

On July 8th, I participated in the 3rd race of the Winter Park series. The course was great, it was a gigantic loop on and next to the ski resort that was 15.7 miles long with lots of climbing and some fast descending. Here is a profile map of the course. All categories ran one loop, I lined up with the sport group again. It was lightly rainy the entire time and slightly chilly.

I ended up getting 3rd place this time, which I was very stoked about. I was only 3 minutes behind 2nd and 6 minutes behind 1st. I also beat the 4th place guy by less than 40 seconds! Complete results are here.

This ended up being my last mountain bike race of the year, but I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to next season.

Eldora Escape

On July 1st, I participated in my first Mountain States Cup mountain bike race. They take place throughout Colorado, New Mexico and sometimes Utah. This was a nice local one just up Boulder Canyon from my house.

The course was pretty hard, probably the hardest mtn bike race I've done. There was a really steep rocky singletrack uphill section, a steep, loose downhill section with several small drops and there were lots of muddy spots with several "puddles" (read lakes) that you had to ride through or around. There was also a very short steep climb that most people had to walk/run up. And we had to do 3 laps! Here is a map:

I ended up finishing in 5th place with a time of 1:47:11.80 which I was very please with. I was in 2nd place halfway into the first lap, but came out of my pedals on the steep climb and got passed by a few people. The complete results are here.

Kendra was kind enough to act as my water support and did a fantastic job! Love you, baby!

Winter Park Mountain Circuit One

This race was the day after the first WP race, the Hill Climb. My legs were pretty dead from the hill climb, so I wasn't too sure how I would do. My friend Rob came up Saturday afternoon to pre-ride the course and race on sunday. After he heard how well I did in the hill climb in beginner category he talked me in to upgrading to sport for the next day's race.

This race was out to a loop, ride the loop twice and then another out to the finish on the opposite side we started from. Here is a map: This race was REALLY hard. I left everything I had on the course, but was unable to stay with the lead group. It was also difficult to pass people and be passed during all the tight single track sections.

I ended up finishing in tenth place, which I was pretty happy about my finish since I had just moved up a category. My full results are here.

My friend Rob raced in the expert category and finished in 3rd place only 4 minutes off of the winner. I was pretty impressed.

Here are some pics. This is my start (i think):






Here is Rob's Start. Rob is number 1053:

Here is Rob getting his medal:

This is Rob and I at the awards ceremony:

Winter Park Hill Climb

So, this year I decided to bike racing more of a try, especially mountain biking. I joined the actual race team of my cycling club, ICCC, and by being on the team I was given a good discount on a bike purchase, but also had to commit to racing 6 races. On June 17th, I participated in my first mountain bike race of the year at Winter Park Resort. It was a ‘hill climb’ that involved riding up to the top of Mary Jane from the base of Winter Park on a 5.3 mile long fire road including over 2000 vertical feet of elevation gain. I’ve been doing a lot of training, but mostly on my road bike and haven’t done a whole lot of race pace training on my mountain bike.

Kendra, Marcia and I drove up Friday night and camped near winter park at the base of Berthoud pass in a campground called Robber’s Roost. It was nice, but a little to close to the road, creating lots of noise. It was pretty cold, but we kept warm in our 4 season tent that we borrowed and nice warm sleeping bags.

We got up early and headed over to the winter park base where the start of the race was to be held. I went over and got my race number at the start line and then headed back to the car to get my bike and myself ready for the race. After my bike was all set I started warming up by riding up the road back towards Berthoud pass. I thought it was going to be a faster ride back to the resort and rode out a little to far on my warm up and had to race back to the car. I grabbed the girls and then had them hustle over to the start line with me. I was getting a little anxious though so I went on ahead. I got to the line about a minute before they started, just in time to hear the start line official give his informational speech.

At exactly 10:48 they blew the horn and we were off! I was pretty well warmed up, much better than my first ever mountain bike race last year, which is a good thing because this race starts straight up the mountain! I tried not to go out to fast so I wouldn’t burn myself out to quickly. I just wanted to try to settle in to a good rhythm, not caring too much about the other racers, but also trying not to let any of them get away.

A few guys pulled out ahead quickly, but I was able to hold back and let them have their fun. I settled in behind a few guys in about 4th or 5th place. By now, one guy was about 100 feet off the front, but we didn’t worry and just stayed at our own pace. The guy in front of me was quickly burnt out and dropped off and I jumped onto the guy’s wheel in front of him. He led me up past the guy that was dropping off in front of him and another guy and then there was only one guy left in front of us. The guy right in front of me was going at a pretty good pace, but I was able to stay on his wheel. We were slowly reeling in the guy who was off the front because he had gone out of the gates a little to fast. Before the first mile was behind us we had caught him! Now it was just me and this other guy in front of me, wearing a black jack porter jersey. He was going at a very good pace, but I was able to hold on around the first couple turns. I looked back, and we had a very good gap on the rest of our field. By this point we started passing some of the field that had started before us. I was starting to feel tired and wondering if I could keep this pace up for the rest of the race. I looked back again as we went around another switch back and could not see anyone from our field. However, this guy I was following was starting to pull away. I tried to chase back on to him, but he was going too hard and continued to pull away from me. I tried, but just could not match his effort and soon he was out of sight. I continued to work as hard as I could without blowing up and kept picking off riders from the earlier category starts. I looked back again and saw that I had second place in the bag and so just tried to push to get the best time I could without bonking. I soon saw the top of the mountain approaching and gave it all I had to the end.

I finished in 2nd place with a time of 45:53.6, just under 5 minutes behind 1st place and almost 10 minutes ahead of 3rd place. Complete results can be found here.

We decided to hang out for the awards ceremony and I received a silver medal for my efforts. J This was a great race. It was well organized, very fun, and an amazingly beautiful venue.

Wheels of Thunder

On May 13th, my racing team, the International Christian Cycling Team (ICCC) put on their annual criterium race in Golden, CO. The race takes place on a 1.3 mile closed course loop that the police use to practice/train in their squad cars which is located on top of a large mesa called South Table Mountain. I volunteered to help out the race and was asked to work at the registration table. My fiancee said she wanted to come help out as well and we got there early and worked the table together, entering every racer's name on the scoring sheets.

I also decided to race the Wheels of Thunder category 4 men. This was my first race of the season and only my third criterium ever. My race wasn't until 12:55 so I helped at the registration table until about 11:30 and then started getting my bike ready for my race and warming up. I had to change my tires on my spare wheels for the wheel pit (in case I got a flat during the race) because my old tires had holes in them and I had just recieved my new tires at the race. That took me a little while and then I got my bike all ready to go and put it on the trainer I got from my coworker to warm up. I had it in my mind that my race was at 1:00 instead of 12:55 so I rode the trainer a little longer than I should have. As I was taking my bike of the trainer and preparing it to race, I realized that I didn't have my race number on my jersey yet! I can't put it on myself while I'm wearing my jersey so I ran over to wear Kendra was working, but she was not where to be found so I found my closest team member (a guy from emmaus) and asked him to pin my number on as fast as he could. I only had a couple minutes until the start of my race! He did a fabulous job, then I ran over and grabbed my bike, hopped on it, and bike the wrong direction on the race course towards the start line, swerved off the road right before the pack at the line and went to the back of the pack. Right after I turned my bike around and got on it, they fired the gun to start the race! I almost missed my first race of the season!

That got my adrenaline pumping pretty good, so I was amped up for my race. As we started I let most everyone go ahead of me and just hung out in the back. I needed to get a little more warmed up before I tried anything fancy. My goal for the race was just to hang on and finish with the pack. After the first lap I felt that I had to work pretty hard to hold on, but I was still hanging. I started to feel a little better during the second lap and started to get into a rhythm even though I was still working very hard, and we had to race 14 laps! On the third lap I was feeling pretty good and started to work my way up closer to the front of the pack. I think it was on this lap when there was a crash right next to me! It happened pretty quickly, I just saw a couple guys collide and go down and heard the terrible noise of metal grinding on asphalt. I was very thankful that I wasn't right behind the crash. On the next lap as we were going through the S-turns on the far side of the track, the peloton (pack of riders) condensed very quickly and I had guys pressing up against me on both sides. It was pretty nerve wracking, but I kept my cool and we rode out of it without any harm.

Around the 7th lap or so, I found myself near the front of the peloton and feeling pretty good so I decided to push myself as we were approaching the finish line. I broke off the front of the peloton for a little bit and crossed the line in about 2nd or 3rd place. I didn't get any credit or anything for that effort, but it was really fun. On the following lap however, I was regretting speding that much energy and had to really push it to not drop off the back of the peloton. I was able to stay in the pack and recover over the next lap and then started mixing it up again. A couple laps later there was a small break away off the front. I was up near the front of the pack and we worked together to reel them back in quickly.

The next thing I noticed was the announcer saying there were only two more laps to go. I couldn't believe it! We were almost done and I was still in the main pack. I just had to hold on for two more laps to accomplish my goal. The race felt like it was going by really quickly too. So, I managed to hang in the pack for that lap and the following. As we were coming down the final stretch to the finish line I realized that I had made it! I had finished with the first group! Then I thought, "why don't I try to move up in the field a little more?" So I worked my way up a little bit and finished 22nd out of 58 finishers and 93 starters. I was surprised at how many racers had dropped out. Our average speed was about 27mph and it took us just under 45 mins to ride about 18.2 miles.

Complete results are here.

I actually had a blast in this race. Criteriums have never been my favorite race, but I really enjoyed this one since I didn't have a flat tire or get dropped like my first two races. As I look back I feel like I could have finished higher if I had pushed it a little sooner and harder as we were finishing, but I wasn't really trying because I was content with my performance. Part of me wishes that I had though. I guess I will have to do another criterium and go for the win next time...

Birthday Gift From My King

So, I was born on this day, 26 years ago. Doesn't seem like it's been that long. Yet it does because I can't seem to remember anything before that event...

I love to ride my bikes. I don't have my new moutain bike yet. It's in the shop, I just need to pick it up and haven't had time yet. So... I rode my rode bike today at lunch. It's also easier to rode ride at lunch than trail ride. I thought it would be a great birthday activity to go out at lunch and suffer up one of our threatening climbs here in Boulder.It was a beautiful day out today and we had a great ride. (I went with some coworkers and others that work near Ball)

3 of us were planning to ride up sunshine canyon, maybe even to the top, but we ran into Bill, a guy I used to ride with a bunch but haven't lately, and he was heading up super flagstaff with some friends so we decided to join him. There were 7 of us that rode up flagstaff all the way to the top. We rode to the base of the climb at an easy pace, but as soon as we hit the climb the pace was raised quite a bit. I was hurting at the bottom, giving almost everything I had to try to stay on and got dropped about 1/3 of the way to the top. I kept pushing though and praising God (helps me get through the pain). and I was asking God to give me the strength to beat Bill because he is a good climber and I've ridden with him a lot and never outright beat him, but come close several times. anyways, he had already dropped me, but i spotted him and another guy struggling up the 'wall' and i was feeling pretty good at that point. I decided to keep pushing at a steady pace but not too hard. I was closing the gap and he spotted me at the last switch backs and put in an extra effort to try to keep me off. I almost gave up, but kept my cool and kept pushing at my steady pace. After I cleared the last switch back I stood up and pushed HARD up the last climb and passed bill and the other guy about 5m before the finish line! It was awesome! and painful! I ended up third at just under 34min behind a Rocky Mounts guy who did it in 29 something and kraig who finished in just over 31min. God is so good! what a great birhday present to finally out climb Bill. I haven't been climbing that great lately either. So far, it's been a great birthday!

so long XTC, thanks for everything

Last week, as I told you, I decided to buy a new mtn bike. Here's a picture of her! (you can click on it to enlarge) She's a Specialized Epic. Isn't she pretty? She should arrive sometime in March. I can't wait! I'm so excited! I was able to get a pro deal on the bike from specialized through the racing team I just joined: the International Christian Cycling Club or ICCC or IC3. We were able to get more than 40% off! It was a sweet deal. I guess now I have to race for the team this year. If we got bikes through their deal, we are obligated to race in at least 4 races this year. That's cool though, I'm looking forward to racing. I think this bike will help me out a lot too. I'm used to riding on a hard tail and last year I got torn apart on the downhills. A full suspension will really help me.

This bike has a sweet front fork (Fox F100RL) and a pretty high tech rear shock. It's the new 'brain' shock by fox and it is suposed to ride like a hardtail until you hit a large bump, then the shock activates and acts like a full suspension. Last year was the first year for the 'brain' and its downfall was that the first bump would really jar you because the shock was still stiff. This year they improved it so that the shock will absorb the first shock. I test rode one and it really works. Pretty impressive. This bike also has hydraulic disk brakes which I'm excited about. I'm used to mechanical discs and I think these will be much nicer and hopefully not as noisy.

I hope that I'm able to place better at races this year with my new bike. Not that I need to win to have fun, it would just be more fun. I think i'm going to fit my old mtn bike for my fiancee so we can go riding together more often. That will be sweet too!