Cottonwood Cycles opens 2nd store

Our sponsoring bike shop is officially opening their 2nd store in Aztec, NM today at noon!

 

Yea Cottonwood!

Keifer

Mesa Verde 12 Hour MTB Race

This race happened on May 9th. I wasn’t going to race this, due to a business trip to Boston on Sunday, but I couldn’t help myself!!!

I didn’t want to go solo, plus the catagory was filled the week before, so I posted on the 12 Hour of MV forum that I was looking for a Singlespeed Team.

Two days later a guy from Cortez calls, and suddenly I’m on a three man team! Schweet!!

These guys were representing Kokopelli Bike Club (and bike shop) in Cortez, which is where the race is, so I had the local connection going on! The one prerequisite they asked of me is to be the first rider off at 7 am. Matt parked an old travel trailer at the race site, 100 yards from the start. I had it all to myself to sleep in the night before, and be ready to race on Saturday. Very nice! Much better than a tent!

"Old Enough to Know Better" team camp

 The race course uses the Phils World trails, which everyone knows is some of the best singletrack MTB trails in the four corners! 17 miles per lap. My team ended up doing 8 laps total and 132 miles! We ended up third place in the Singlespeed Team category, and received a sweet custom trophy!

The beer was flowing afterwards, and I think James (3D Racing SS Team, 2nd place) need to start bringing beers to these events. He mooched to many of my beers! I wanted one more!

Well, it was probably better anyhow, because I had to drive back to Farmington, and get ready for my trip to Boston the next day. I got home at 11pm, Went to bed about 12:30. Was up at 5:30 to be on the road to Albuquerque Int’l Airport, to catch my plane. With sore legs, the flight SUCKED! I was SOOOO tired when I got to Boston!

BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!!! Yee Hah!

Keifer

Tierra Torture XC SR- Santa Fe

This was an Omnium race this year with a Short Track Saturday, and a XC race Sunday. I had a totally crappy start on Saturday morning in the PRO/1 class. Ending up at the back trying to pass, pass, pass.

By the time I ran out of riders to pass, there was all ready a group of riders off the front! I ended up racing hard and rotating pulls with another Pro rider, Micah, for 6 laps. The race was supposed to be around 30 minutes, but we ended up getting over 45 minutes of full gas riding. The coarse was perfect for short track. ABout 3/4 doubletrack (1/2 of which is really soft, and the other track hard pack), and the rest twisty single track, with tricky turns.

Micah and I ended up in the top 10 overall, and I was second in the Cat 1 30-39 group.

After my warmup Sunday morning, I knew I was in for some pain. The legs were pretty cooked from the Short Track, and the hillclimb I did in Durango on Thursday. Yes, I am training through this race!

The XC course was well marked. Thank goodness, because there was so many turns, climbs, and fast decents, I didn’t know where I was. It took till the 3rd lap to really get a feel for how far away the start/finish area was. This was very important information on that last lap! The legs were really tired on the climbs, and I knew I was loosing time there. I just went as hard as possible. In the end Jay English (Mountain Top) passed me on the last lap to bump me into a 3rd place Cat 1 finish. I was actually surprised I did that well in the results. It is a really fun and challenging XC coarse. I saw many riders with injuries afterward. There are many spots that you can wipe out if your not paying attention. I certainly had a few close calls.

On a side note, John Stadick raced the XC on Sunday also. It was his first MTB race in over 15 years!

Keifer

1st Win of 2009- El Paso Puzzler

It was 6:12 hrs of rocky, knarly trails, but the 2009 EPP is in the bag. I led the race until Jennifer Tribe-Wilson (Titus/WTB, PRO women) passed me going up the loose and steep Mundy’s Gap climb, at about 3-1/2 hrs. She ended up putting 14 minutes on me at the finish. I was crawling, and walking the last few climbs, believing somone’s gonna catch me.

I think everyone was hurtin’ at that point. I’ve got serious chammy burn now, and the whole body is sore. This endurance race is extremely challenging! You have be be alert the whole race. One false move, and your in a cholla, or prickly pear cactus. The cacti are right on the side of the narrow, rocky trail, so its real easy to get poked.

A befitting Trophy

Special Recognition to Dave and the BMBA crew. They had volunteers all over the course, and it was organized quite well. Dave and Jen (yes that WTB/Titus Pro rider is his wife!) are swell people.

Special Shout-Out to Ralph and Pete at our bike shop, Cottonwood Cycles, in Farmington. They provided my 29er GEAX 2.2 TNT Saguaros tires that worked very well, with no problems. They also provide my Hammer Nutrition products too! Hey Pete: the Thompson Masterpiece seatpost works great!!

The GF Superfly took a lot of rock punishment today, so I’ll have to give it a good look over to make sure it’s ok. Lots of rocks smacking the downtube and chainstays. I couldn’t see anything obvious after the ride.

Update: I’ve inspected the bike, and there’s not even a scratch on the downtube! Looks like the Superfly handled the rocks well!

I need some days off, I don’t think I can even sit on a bike seat anyway.

Keifer

1ST 2009 RACE- EL PASO PUZZLER

The entry form is in. 50 miles of endurance XC riding. Schweeet! I hope its warm down there! The roads are still icy to dirty in Farmington!

Puzzler Link:http: //elpasopuzzler.wordpress.com/

New Years in Scottsdale- Perfect!

I spent five days, the 31st through the 4th in Scottsdale, AZ riding. It was 70 degrees the first 4 days, and beautiful! LOTS of riding. The legs were tired after the first big road ride, but I kept riding every day. I knew I was going back to old man winter in the Rockies, so I wanted to get as much riding in as possible. Three long road rides (base training) and three really fun MTB rides. I was really stoked to MTB due to all the trails being muddy or covered in snow up in Farmington area. Its going to be road only in the four corners for a while.

Kinda stressful driving back though. From Flagstaff, AZ to 10 miles south of Shiprock, NM it was very slow going due to snow, and snowpack roads. I was even driving 5-10 MPH in I-10 at the AZ/NM border for a while. THe weather turned a 6-1/2 hour into 9 hours. I was glad I was driving a AWD vehicle (FORD Edge). Bailey, our Schnauzer slept through most of the stress.

Brian Palen getting Dirty at McDowell Mtn Park Competitive Tracks

 

Most of the road riding was in NE Scottsdale area, along Pima, Happy Valley, and Cave Creek roads. We did one road ride that climbed up South Mountain to the top, and a few spurs. The main climb is 7.7 miles to the towers. MTBing was at the Phx Mountain Preserve, South Mountain Desert Classic Trail, and McDowell Mtn Park Competitive tracks.   Thanks to Brian Palen for showing Jeanne and I around the Mtn Preserve Trails!

The Shiprock sunset from Hwy 541

Keifer