The City Creek Pedalfest XC Race last weekend was like one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The trails in Pocatello, ID and the race itself were definitely the “Good”. The overall stoke level was very high and I appreciate the fact that the organizers went out of their way to thank several of us for making the drive. This event will be on my race calendar moving forward for a long time and I would highly recommend it. The “Bad”, and more accurately at times “Ugly”, would refer to my performance as a XC racer. Holy crap, going from 0 to 60 hurts! Every time I do a XC race I vow to mix in more of them so that the explosive effort doesn’t feel quite so foreign to me. I do think that racing 2 to 4 XC races early in the season would help my endurance racing as it forces me to work on my bike handling at race speed as well as my race starts.
City Creek Pedalfest Racecourse
Great trails, sunshine, and racing with friends...what's not to smile about?More Rain & Snow
Yeah, I rode the trainer again this week. Ugh. If I had to pick one word to describe this year’s weather in the Tetons it would be “Relentless”. I can count the number of shorts & short sleeved riding days so far this year on one hand and I won’t even disclose how many “trainer” days I have. Let’s just say that I am very stoked to ride in Boise this weekend where it is supposed to be in the mid 70s with just a 20% chance of a thunderstorm.
Teton Pass Webcam - June 9th, 9:03amSingle-Mindedness
As soon as I finished the Cream Puff last year I decided that I wanted to race it again in 2011 on my singlespeed. And now the 2011 Puff is only a month away! I have been riding the singlespeed a bit but I am getting ready to ramp that up quite a bit and all of my “dirt time” will be on the singlespeed between now and July 10th. To prepare for the Puff, I am racing the Knobby 9 to 5 this weekend, the Cache to Game XC on June 22, and doing several long rides with lots of climbing…all on my singlespeed. My longest singlespeed ride to date is 4 hours.
When I built up my Niner One9 singlespeed last May I put a 32 x 20 gear on it and just rode it all summer like that. Now that I have been swapping between cogs a bit I am realizing that I don’t love the EBB. Mainly, don’t like how it changes my knee-over-pedal position every time I adjust it. My knees definitely notice it. The creaking isn’t so sweet either. Regardless, I do really like riding the singlespeed and I am looking forward to the next month of total single-mindedness.
I snuck in a lunchtime ride Wed before rain hit again. The views did not suck.
Halfway up the Targhee climb, June 8th
2 comments:
I am lost and confused. Is that some sort of geared, Giant, carbon hardtail 29'er thing you're aboard? That's no springy double-boingy aluminum 29'er Giant, now is it? This a demo run, or is that puppy there in the quiver? if so, your quiver is starting to freak me out ;-)
Very observant Mr. Hamilton. The bike in the pic is a Giant XTC Composite 29er...and it is mine. More on that soon.
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