True Grit 100 is one of the best 100 mile mountain bikes races in the country. It serves as the season opener for the NUE series and a great way for me to get an early season hard training ride and have a hell of a good time along the way. Getting back on the bike only 5 weeks before the race I always take the True Grit as training and not so much emphasis on placement but as any highly competitive athlete knows once the race starts you give it everything you’ve got and I’m always going for the win.

All of the three years I’ve done this race its been great as far as the weather is concerned but this year was looking a little iffy. I was up a good part of the night listening to it rain rather hard right up to about an hour and a half before the start of the race, and just like magic the rain cleared out and it looked like things were good to go. The dirt ended up being perfect with all of the rain and it really made for a super fun day of bike racing.

A group of 6 quickly jumped out to an early lead consisting of Cary Smith, Taylor Lideen, Two very fast Costa Ricans, and myself. We all stayed together just about all the way through the first lap, when the Costa Ricans pulled away from the rest of us. At the end of lap one Taylor and Cary dropped me as I was hitting a little low point and couldn’t keep pace, into the second lap I gradually started to feel better and was able to push progressively harder all the way to the end. I end up in 5th place just making on to the podium and finished almost 9 minutes faster than last year. This gives me a great feeling for the season, as last year was one of the best I’ve ever had. Taylor caught the Costa Ricans who had flatted and gotten lost putting him on the top step for the win, huge congrats to Taylor for that because I know he has been putting in lots of hard work and he’s a hell of a great guy!

All in all great start to the season in a beautiful place got to race and rally mountain bikes with some fast folks see all of my cycling family that I haven’t seen all winter and got to soak in the wonderful desert climate that St.George UT has to offer, you really couldn’t ask for a better time than that.

This was my second year racing the 12 Hours in the Wild West. For 2016 they moved the venue from Fort Stanton to Village of Ruidoso, NM. This brought it right outside of town to the purpose built trails of Grindstone lake trail system.

The staging camping area was just below the Grindstone Lake in a beautiful stand of pine trees protected from the wind that can whip up in the high desert of the southwest. The Salida Colorado IMBA crew built the Grindstone trail, which was the highlight of this race.

The trail starts with a 4-mile climb that gradually works its way up 1000 feet to the top of a beautiful mesa. Once on the mesa, you snake through tall pines and challenging rock gardens and then descend on a fast and flowing roller coaster that brings you back to camp. The course is definitely a mountain biker’s course rewarding those with well rounded riding skills and it made for a really fun day of racing.

A day before the race, the weather report was calling for rain, but we avoided it all day, however, that night it rained pretty hard and I knew it was going to make for some interesting racing in the morning.

By morning the rain had stopped and a chilly fog hung in the air. When things got going the climb was slick but not to bad, the descent however was quite muddy, I ended up being the first rider down and did not have good tires for mud and my bike was getting caked with the top soil, this made for a pretty slow first lap and by the time I got to the bottom my bike was so packed with mud it came to a complete stop on the downhill and I had pull all the gunk buildup out of my drivetrain.

After the first couple laps the course started to dry out and buy the third lap it had turned to hero dirt, brown-pow! The riding was so good that you could hit the corners as fast as you dared to. It was great to have one big climb and then when you got to the top of that it was game on and the fun began.

I felt good throughout the day and stayed very consistent with my slowest laps being the first couple of muddy ones, I stayed right in the 1:05 per lap zone the entire race. I led through the day but wasn’t really sure of who or where my competition was so I pushed hard until the end finishing with 10 laps and an hour and 10 minutes to spare. I could have just squeezed in another lap but I had enough lead at that point to stop for a burger and beer.

This race turnout has grown from last year to this year and will grow even more next year, the riding is really spectacular, just super fun I can’t say enough good things about the Grindstone trail system and locals have put a lot of hard work into maintaining the trail.

I would say their biggest problem is there isn’t enough people riding here this race will help with that. I really enjoy racing in New Mexico, all of the people are incredibly friendly and the vibe is really laid-back and fun. The Zia Rides crew also does a great job of putting on races and I plan on hitting at least one more of their events and I will definitely be back to the 12 Hours in the Wild West next year!

This year I made my second trip to Prescott AZ for the Whiskey 50, which is actually an entire weekend of racing. Starting with the pro crit on Friday night right in the town of Prescott, then the amateurs race on Saturday followed by the pro race on Sunday. The last time I came down for the Whisky, the weather unleashed full on blizzard conditions for the amateur race but turned to perfect conditions for the pro race day. This year’s weather was not looking to be very good, with rain predicted for the entire weekend we crossed our fingers and hopped for the best.

The crit is so far off of the radar of what I’m used to doing, the course is less than a mile in town up a big climb, then down you negotiate a couple corners through town then back to the climb and you do this for 20 minutes and then 3 more laps, sounds like fun right? Wrong, it’s full gas the whole time and you have a bunch off mountain bikers who don’t usually race in big packs what could go wrong? Right off of the start, two guys tangled up in front of my and I slammed the brakes on and barley missed them, the climb is a brute and it was full sprint every time. I stayed with the main pack for about 5 or 6 laps then I started to loose contact and got stuck in no mans land and killed myself trying bridge the gap. I was basically drooling on myself by this time and lots of men had dropped out and there was only a small group behind me, they had caught back up to me and we were at the three laps to go but I had nothing left so I dropped off. I felt much better than the last time I did this but still it was so damn hard.

On Saturday we lounged around went for a leisurely ride and checked out the amateur race and whisky row were there were tons of venders in an almost fair atmosphere. The amateur race drew almost 2000 people making this one of the largest mountain bike races in the country. Epic Rides does a great job with this race, which is a big reason why it’s become so popular. There were bands playing every night and the town square was a great place to eat food, listen to music and do some people watching. It rained off and on all day Saturday and the weather was not looking good for the pro race on Sunday. That night it rained fairly hard but stopped about midnight.

When race day arrived, it was cloudy but not raining although rain was still in the forecast it was looking like we may get lucky and avoid getting hammered on. This year they had added more single track to the start of the race making the course about 20 minutes longer than previous years. The race started out fast, but not crazy and we had about 2 miles of pavement then on to double track for another mile or so and onto the single track. Things got spread out pretty well by the time we hit the trail and I was about mid pack.

I definitely wasn’t feeling that great out of the start and was hoping that my legs would kick in later. When we reached skull valley I was somewhere in the top 30 and feeling much better, when you hit the bottom of skull valley you have about a 16 mile climb up a progressively steeper dirt road, the riding had been fun until this point but now I was finally feeling good and able to push up the hard climb.

At the top you drop into single track for the final push to town, thankfully you do get rewarded for all that work with some fast fun and technical riding. I was trying to push hard in this section and I new there were people right on my heels. After the long hard climb my legs were seizing up with bad cramps and was trying hard to just keep the pedals turning. I wanted to get in the top 30 and I figured I was close to being in that but had to fight for every spot, I did end up holding on to my position thankfully because I just squeaked out 30th. Even though this is not the distance I like to race, it was a fun time and I always love to see all of my mountain bike family.

I have been riding in Grand Junction for many years because of the close proximity to home with the almost year round riding potential of the area. It doesn’t hurt that the terrain in GJ is the type of rocky physical riding that I seek out… Because of that, I knew that the Grand Junction Off Road course was going to be a good one and I can always count on the Epic Rides crew to put on a great event.

As with the Whiskey Off Road, there was be a criterium in downtown Grand Junction on Friday night. This crit course was pancake flat with lots of cornering, so it was a much different affair than the Whisky course. I pretty much sat at the back of the pack trying to hold on. The pace picked up quick, with lots of attacks at the front. I stayed in the lead pack all the way to the end and even sprinted by a couple people in the end for 14th place.

On Saturday we again went on a leisurely ride to keep the legs fresh and relaxed and enjoyed the day. It was perfect weather for this race and we hung out in downtown checking out the bike expo and enjoyed some bluegrass music with lunch.

For the XC race on Sunday, the weather was looking perfect and I was ready for some fun racing. We had about a 3 mile paved start before we hit the dirt, the pace was quite leisurely until we got close to the start of the trail then it was a full on sprint, I was about mid pack by the start of the trail and quickly moved by lots of racers through the technical terrain. I was really surprised at what these pro mountain bikers were having trouble riding and was able to work my way to the top 20 very quickly.

I was a little worried that I was going to be stuck behind some slow downhillers on the butter knife single-track section so I made a hard effort to stay ahead of as many people as possible. I ended up behind Carl Decker who is probably one of the best all around mountain bikers in the country so it was best-case scenario for this section. When we got to the long windmill climb I had Carl to work with and we started trading pulls up the hour long climb back to the road, this lasted for about 15 minutes then Carl had to stop and fix a slow leak. The wind was pretty strong and it was hard work without anyone to work with.

By the time I got to the road I had been battling with a couple other riders and was about 30 seconds ahead and tried to keep it that way. Andy’s trail was great for me at the end because I could widen the gap a bit in the technical terrain. When I crossed the finish I had held on to my position and ended up in 15th place out of about 60 pro racers. I’m very happy with the result and the fitness that I have heading into longer races for the rest of the season. The Grand Junction Off Road was great event, super fun racing and a great weekend overall. I highly recommend this race if you’re into fun, challenging terrain.

I decided to race the Gunnison Growler last minute this year not because I don’t like the race but I wasn’t really sure how I would feel after racing the Grand Junction Off Road the week before. The Growler is a proper mountain bike race: lots of fun hard riding and now that there is a substantial cash purse it draws a really talented field. Guys like Bryan Dillon, Kalan Beisel, Nick Gould, Brian Smith, Drew Free, and Cameron Brenneman I would have my work cut out for me, and this was just some of the fast guys, there was probably 15 guys that could be in position to take a podium spot.

We decided to stay at the KOA camp ground this year, we had my girl friend’s (Marlee Dixon) mother in town so we opted for indoor plumbing and showers, for parents sometimes van life can be a little less than the glamorous life that we see it. The KOA is really fun if you’ve never been to the one in Gunnison its run by a guy named KOA Dave who used to put on 24 hours in the Sage, the campground is part petting zoo, part parade. The kids follow Dave around like he’s the pied piper of KOA land. It was a great time hanging with friends all day Saturday and soaking in the warm sunshine that has been hard to find this spring.

The hardest part of the race for me is the start we role out of town for about 2 miles to Hartman’s Rock, then its game on up this dirt road called Kill Hill, its exactly what the name implies, full on sprinting to the top of this thing kills you or at least it kills me. I held on pretty well and was at the back of a 10 person train heading into the trail. I was slow to get around people for the first part of lap one after the effort up Kill Hill, but started to get in my grove by the middle of the first lap.

By the start of the second lap, I had worked my way into 6th place and was hot on the heels of Drew and Camron. I got by both of them just after the Ridge Trail and tried to stay strong. In this race, riding all of the technical sections well is key and I knew all the good lines after lap one. Drew was riding well and it was hard to get a big gap on him, by the middle of the second lap I only had about 2 minutes on him and you never know what can happen so I tried to stay on the gas as much as possible.

By the end I held off Drew and Cameron for 4th place, which I was very happy about, as both of these guys have beat me in the past. With this many fast dudes in one race you never know who is going to be having a good day, you just have to push your own limits as far as you can and see how it turns out. The growler never disappoints, it’s always a great time and Dave Wiens puts on one of the best mountain bike races in Colorado if not the country.

The Bailey 100 was the fourth stop for the 2016 NUE series, situated less than an hour southwest of Denver on the Platte River, Bailey is in close proximity to the Buffalo Creek trail system and the Colorado Trail. The race serves as a fundraiser for several nonprofits including two youth biking initiatives, Colorado Trips for Kids offering mountain bike opportunities to underprivileged youth and Colorado High School Cycling League which provides riding and race opportunities to high school students in Colorado, the race also supports Colorado Mountain Biking Association which is working to build trails in the Platte Canyon area.

Starting in downtown Bailey the route winds its way through the Buffalo Creek trail system and on to the Colorado Trail, consisting of two laps of pristine Colorado single track, racers ultimately covered 106 miles with a whopping 14,000 feet of climbing, with about 70 miles of that consisting of single track. Coinciding with the 100 mile race is a 50 mile distance (the Hundito) which new this season and served as the marathon event for NUE. The weather for the day of the race was looking like it would be a perfect Colorado day, with nothing but blue skies and temps in the 80’s it was shaping up to be a great day of racing.

Men’s 100

In the men’s 100 mile there was quite a stacked field, with Cohutta and Mohican winner Dylan Johnson, True Grit winner Taylor Lideen and a host of other top end endurance athletes: Cameron Brenneman, Nick Gould, Josh Tostado, David Krimstock, Taylor Ross, and Scott Leonard. In the first few miles of road the pack stayed together, but once the race hit a new double track section the early leaders were quickly established. Jonson and Brenneman jumped to the front upping the pace and chasing 50 mile racers Alex Pond and Mark Currie. Just behind in a chase group of 5 were Lideen, Gould, Krimstock, Ross, and Tostado. Once the race got into the single track, things stayed pretty much the same but with Gould, Lideen and Tostado taking up the chase of Jonson and Brenneman. By the time they reached the Colorado trail the chase group of three were starting to reel in Brenneman, who had been dropped by Johnson who was now pulling away in first place.

By the 40 mile mark Lideen and Tostado had dropped Brenneman and Gould who was suffering from back pain. Johnson now had a comfortable lead of about 4 or 5 minutes on the two chasers. At the start of the second lap catastrophe struck for the 4 lead riders when a course marshal sent them the wrong way. They continued in the wrong direction for over an hour before realizing that they could not possibly be going the right direction. They returned to the marshal where they were informed they had been given “bad information.” Now way behind, Johnson, Tostado and Brenneman decided not to continue out of frustration. Lideen was the only one in the lead group that decided to continue and with a huge amount of courage he finished the race in 11^th place after almost 120 miles of riding.

The new leader of the race was Krimstock, followed by Ross who had also been told to go the wrong way but decided to turn around before he had gone to far. Krimstock powered out the second lap of the course taking the win followed by Eric Bee in second and Ross getting edged out at the line by Scott Leonard for 3^rd.

Women’s 100

In the women’s 100 mile race it came down to two pro women who persevered and finished the grueling race, Christy Olson and Liz Carrington. Liz reported that she didn’t think the race would take as long as is did and that the mileage between the aid stations was a good 5 to 7 mile longer than advertised. The heat of the day took a huge toll on her as she battled through severe dehydration, pushing here bike up some of the steeper climbs near the end of the race. She turned down offers from motorists on the final stretch to the finish line. She wasn’t the only competitor suffering in the hot sun from dehydration today and the medical tent was a full house. Christy Olsen took the top spot with Liz coming in 18 minutes behind her.

Men’s 50

In the men 50 mile race there were only two pro men, Alex Pond and Mark Currie.     Even though there were only two of them, it would be great battle for the top spot. Both 50 mile men jumped out front at the beginning of the race and had only a couple 100 milers with them. When they reached the single track Mark had a slight lead but Alex had him in his sights the entire time.

When they reached aid three where they split off from the 100 mile course Alex quickly bridged the gap up to Mark and they rode the burn section together. Just before they got to the final road section Alex made a move to see how Mark was feeling and he couldn’t answer the call. Now riding alone Alex was a little concerned with the lack of course markings, as he had never been on the course before. He saw many alternate routes but he tried to stay on what he thought was the most traveled direction. He finally did get to aid 5 and knew he was going the right way, but again after the aid the course markings were few and far between.

Alex had built a comfortable lead by this point but he was still a little concerned with markings, besides the aid stations there were none. When he got to where he knew the finish area should be he saw the turn but the arrow was pointing straight up the road, so he continued on. When he found himself back to the town of Bailey he knew something was wrong so he rode back to the last arrow he had seen. Now there was a course marshal there to tell people to turn, when he finished it had been an extra 20 minutes and Mark had come in already. Mark knew exactly what had happened and in a show of great sportsmanship decided to give the win to Alex. Alex had him beat by a good margin and it was the right thing to do. After a great race between these two it comes down to great sportsmanship. Alex takes the win with Mark in second but really they both came out winners on this day.

Women’s 50

In the women’s 50 miler Karen Jarchow proved she was the strongest in the field with a commanding win, beating her closest competition by 30 minutes. This is win number two for Karen in the NUE marathon series. When asked about her race Karen said “Pretty uneventful but a solid day, I was climbing better than I was descending, I really struggled to find any flow through the kitty litter and unfamiliar trails. What I lacked in technical skills I made up for on the climbs and came in with a solid lead. I’ve done this race before two years ago and I completely cracked on the final stretch of road before the finish, so this year I tried to stay consistent up until then to be able to drill it back to the finish line”. Rounding out the podium in the women’s 50 was Lisa Hudson in second followed by Becky Edmiston in third.

Final Thoughts

There were good and bad things about this race, first the good. The course is phenomenal, its great Colorado single track in a beautiful setting. The camping and after party was great: great food, good band, and a really fun time. The aid stations were great, all the volunteers at the aids were wonderful, and the bottle hand ups were very nice and helpful. The money that is raised goes to a great cause and it’s easy to get behind something like that.

The bad; the course was marked horribly, not everyone racing is from the Front Range and knows the course by heart. Many competitors came from other parts of the state and country and had never been on these trails. 100 miles of trail is a lot of course to mark but there were way too many unmarked intersections and not one piece of ribbon on the entire course.

When course marshals are sending racers the wrong way, you have a big problem. I don’t think blame falls on the volunteers because they are just following instructions. The organization starts at the top and trickles down, if there’s a lack of it at the top there will be a lack of it all the way through. Putting one of these races on is a huge undertaking but on the flip side so is training for one, especially for the competitor who look to do only one or two of these types of races. They should get every opportunity to have a great race getting lost isn’t a part of that.

Three of the four pros that were misdirected on course were from other states and took the time and effort to travel to the race. Getting sent in the wrong direction by a marshal is unacceptable and is something I have never experienced in over 15 years of racing. The Bailey 100 can and will be a great race, it just needs some fine tuning; hopefully they can learn from past mistakes and make improvements for the future.

I had wanted to race the Tatanka 100 in Sturgis South Dakota last year and it didn’t work out with my schedule so it was a priority to get to the race this year. Sturgis is located in the far western part of the state near the Wyoming border, the town was much smaller than I had pictured after seeing the hundreds of thousands of bikers (the other kind with motors) descend on the town for the annual motorcycle rally. Sturgis actually has a nice little trail network right out of town and the Centennial Trail, which makes up the entire race course passes straight through Sturgis.

The race is a unique point-to-point, with a shuttle from Sturgis to the start at Mount Rushmore, The shuttle was an hour long and to me seemed like a huge undertaking but the race organization pulled it off pretty well. I have never been to Mount Rushmore and it was really cool just to see it never mind start a mountain bike race from the base of it. The race started out on pavement for about 3 miles then onto the Centennial Trail. The pace started out nice and easy but when the entire lead group missed a turn we had to double back and pass about 20 racers on the single track.

Once everyone was back to the front and a couple of missed turns later a group of four had separated from the rest of the field. Dylan Johnson, Jamie Lamb, Taylor Lideen, and myself were all at the front and had settled into a very leisurely pace. The first section of the Centennial Trail was quite technical with multiple hike-a-bikes and steep fun descents, we were all having a pretty good time when Dylan comes racing up from behind taking about how Taylor had crashed and possibly broken his wrist, we later found out that it wasn’t broken but had cut his hand very. Needless to say he was out of the race… We continued on the Centennial Trail which now was turning into on and off double track, heavily overgrown single track, and open rolling hills. Coming down an overgrown section of trail I hear the sound of a puncture in my tire so I pull over and take a look. This is where I had to decide if the Stan’s is going to seal the hole or not. If I use my C02 and the hole doesn’t seal then you used your air and your screwed. I decided on putting a tube in and not risking it. By the time I got going again I had lost 5 or so minutes and my chances of catching back up were slim to none.

I continued on, alone now, and things were really heating up the forecast was calling for 95 degrees and it was getting hot! I just tried to stay steady and was taking it easy on the descents so I wouldn’t get another flat as I didn’t have another tube until the next aid were my drop bag was.

Every aid station I came to I was filling my bottle and drenching myself trying to stay cool in the stifling heat. The middle of the course on the Centennial Trail was mostly double track ATV trail and there were quite a few ATV’s to deal with, on a particularly rocky section I got my second flat, luckily by this time I had another tube and put this one in unfortunately it was a 27.5 tube I was trying to put into a 29er wheel, not the easiest thing to do. I finally did get it fixed and was going again. With no more tubes I was in just finish mode going really easy on the descents but still trying push it on the climbs.

The last 30 miles of the race were really good trail riding with beautiful views of rock canyons and big climbs into big descents, with a final super fun purpose built descent back to Sturgis. I was able to hold on to 3rd place and although I had felt pretty good during the race now that it was over I was not feeling so good. The effects of racing my bike for almost 8 hours in the heat took a toll on me.

I was really impressed with the riding in the Tatanka, the course marking needs a bit of work. More than once out on the trail at intersections it took a while to figure out which way to go and I heard of many people getting lost. Overall I thought it was a great race with a good after party and fun riding I would definitely do it again hopefully without the heat next time!

The Pierre’s Hole 100 has become one of my favorite races of the season! If you’re looking for a bike race that covers all the bases this is the one. The location is really beautiful, I can’t think of a more incredible backdrop than Grand Targhee ski resort. With views of the back-side of the Grand Teton’s and surrounding mountains with their massive rock monoliths it really is amazing. You camp right in the parking lot of the ski area and there are showers available for all the racers, families show up in there various van, camper and whatever other cool setup you can think of. Dogs and kids running and riding bikes everywhere, it’s a cool little village of bike racers for the weekend.

The course gets better every year, I started racing here 5 or 6 years ago and the amount of trail that they have added in that time has really made this race what it is today. It’s about 90% single track and all of it is purpose built super fun, more switchbacks than you can shake a stick at, and no shortage of climbing, about 13,000 feet to be exact.

This year there have been a lot of issues with course marking at other races, not with this race. Any spot where you could get lost there’s a course marshal siting there all day making sure no one goes the wrong way, they really have it dialed. After the race is a cool scene as well, everyone hanging out talking about close calls or how hard they were ripping on the great trails, and how hard it was because make no mistake, this a hard race.

I definitely had my work cut out for me this year with a very strong field of riders showing up to race. Jeremiah Bishop, Taylor Lideen, Jamie Lamb, and Sam Sweetser were just some of the guys I would have to deal with. The start of the race played out like I expected, Jeremiah jumped out to an early lead with Taylor hot on his heels. Jaime and I were just behind them. By the middle of the first lap we were all together in a group of four and kind of just taking it easy on the 38 special decent. When we got to the bottom and started the climb back to the base of the ski area, Jeremiah just took off and started sprinting we all kind of looked at each other and were content to settle into our group of three. We worked together well trying to bridge the gap to Jeremiah through the second lap and the pace was pretty high, I was definitely feeling good and all of a sudden Jamie was gone. Taylor and I rode the rest of the race together, it was really nice to have someone to ride some supper fun trails with and we were really pushing each other to keep the pace high.

In the last hour of the race Taylor started to get little gaps on me and then I would reel him in, this happened two or three times and then in the last 10 minutes of the race he got a gap that I couldn’t bridge back to him. He ended up getting second and I came in just under a minute behind him in third. I am really happy with 3rd place, any time I can push hard all day and have a race I feel good about in the end result is really rewarding. What a great race this is I can’t say enough good things about it.

If you want to know how to put a bike race on take a look at this one, they have the blue print for how it should be done.

I had no idea that the Crested Butte 100 has been going on for so long, 13 years to be exact! This season I’ve been looking for different races to do so I decided to give the CB 100 a go.

I came to CB leading up to the race to ride as much of the course as possible. There’s so much great riding in the area and the more of the course I rode I realized how big of an undertaking this thing really is.

The race started pre dawn at 5:30 in the morning to give everyone ample time to try and finish this beast in the daylight hours. The first part of the course heads up out on a long dirt road climb to trail 403 and then the iconic 401. At the start I was accompanied by Mike McCauley and John Todd Mallow, starting off with a bit slower pace was eventual second place finisher Jesse Jakomait who amazingly had done an 86 mile race the day before.

I really wanted to hit the course as hard as I could so I didn’t really hold much back at the start, and quickly found myself alone. By the time I reached the top of 401 the rising sun and the cloud cover made for a spectacular view of the valley bellow. After 401 we rode deer creek trail which was my least favorite trail of the day, it would be a good trail if it wasn’t getting trampled and shit on by cows. But in this area there needs to be coexistence between ranchers and recreation so you have to take the good with the bad.

After deer creek the real fun starts with a huge climb up brush creek starting on jeep road then turning into moto single track, most of the trail conditions for the day were spectacular hero dirt except for the higher sections of brush creek where it became very muddy and incredibly challenging to keep any forward momentum going. We rode trail 400 all the up to 12,600 feet where we turned on to Crystal trail which had just been finished and is a super fun mountain bike trail all the way down to cement creek road. After riding Cement Creek road for about 5 minutes we turned onto Cement Creek trail, which was another super fun and flowy decent all the way to the Reno climb. The next section Reno, Flag, Bear, Deadman’s starts with a long jeep road climb and then it’s up and down moto trail for about an hour and a half. Basically the theme of this race is do a super long hard climb and then ride sweet, sweet single track down.

After the finish of Deadman’s, I was at mile 75 and got to refuel and grab some much needed lube for my chain from the support truck. The last 25 miles were more of the same, a huge climb up warm springs, ending with a hike a bike called the wall and it is a wall, it was hard to even hike up it. After that it’s more steep moto trail but when you do get to the top it’s a great payoff. Point lookout and 409 are super fun! First it’s fast and flowy on point lookout then you hit 409 and it’s really technical rocky trail riding just how I like it.

The finish of the course was strand hill to strand bonus to canal trail, all great riding! Then out brush creek back to town. The whole course is exactly what I love to ride: hard climbing to high alpine trail with steep and fast downhill, just great mountain biking! The race took me 10 hours 30 minutes and I felt really good the entire time not to say it was a walk in the park “feeling good” means I was able to suffer at a high level all day.

This is probably as far as 100 mile races go the hardest I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a lot of hard ones. I’m really happy to win this thing but really it was just about doing the course I usually don’t look a course and get nervous but this was a really big one. Every person who finished this thing should be super proud of their accomplishment. Thanks Dave Ochs for putting on a great event and an all time course, the riding in Crested Butte is awesome!! I would urge anyone who loves riding trail to get there and check it out.

Talking about racing is not really my favorite thing to do, riding my bike and racing my bike are though.

When it comes down to it I want to combine riding fun and challenging terrain when I race so I try to pick and choose which races I do based on what I like to ride. The true grit in St George, UT epitomizes what I want in a race course, technical, heavy on the single track and a good amount of climbing. The race was hard, it always is, there were a slew of fast guys two of which Dylan Jonson and Taylor Lideen took off and stayed ahead of me all day.

It was a hot one and I had to push at the end to keep a hard charging David Krimstock at bay. I ended up in third place which I’m very happy with, really it’s all the other stuff I enjoy more now, the journey and not the destination. Hanging out with friends and riding before and after, eating good food and some frozen yogurt, It doesn’t sound like a huge treat to most people but to supper skinny bike racer types it’s a big deal. The next day after racing for 7 hours I got to do a “fun” ride with a big group including Dylan and Taylor, we basically hammered around on the Jem trail in nearby Hurricane for 3 hours. This is the part that makes me happy riding my bike it’s a simple concept do what makes you happy!

This was my third trip to Ruidoso, NM for 12 Hours in the Wild West and the riding they have here is top notch! The course is just how I like it, a big climb with lots of downhill and good challenging technical thrown in.

I really didn’t know who was going to be my competition, I stopped looking at race lists a long time ago… I did know the race had sold out and there would be around 60 solos so there were going to be lots of people to race bikes with.

Lately I have been spending my free time pondering the energy in us and in the world around us. It’s everywhere and what I really dig about these lap races is all of the people going around in a circle for 12 hours creates one big merry-go-round of energy.

I have always felt it’s presence in these endurance races, back when I first started doing lap races, I just chalked it up to hippy shit. Over the years I have come to understand that everything and everyone in this world is made of energy it only makes sense that when you get 500 people going around in a circle you can tap into that.

For my part I try to leave nothing but good energy on the course as to not disturb the the circle of stoke!

Well enough hippy shit for now, I came into the race hoping for 11 laps and 125 miles. It’s a challenging course to rack up a lot of miles on and it’s definitely a mountain bikers course. That’s why when I did end up reaching my goal I was very happy.

The cycling community in Ruidoso, albeit, small is very passionate about there trails and riding. It’s great to see people that take such care and ownership of there community, and I love to see these people every year, (you know how you are) great to see you guys! There are races I have done and going back is an afterthought and there are races I look forward to going back to, this race falls in the latter category.

photos: Mark Stambaugh

If I remember correctly, this is my 4th time racing The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde. Phil’s World is definitely a trail that you can do multiple laps on and have a good time doing it!

The venue is located in Cortez, Colorado, about 45 minutes south of Durango, in the beautiful desert southwest. Here the weather can be very fickle… In years past racers have had to deal with rain and snow and bike crushing mud this year the weather was perfect with temps in the mid 70s and nothing but sunny sky’s for the competitors.

I have been putting lots of mileage in preparation for this race and ultimately 24 hour solo world championships in Italy, so I was feeling strong and ready for a long day ahead. Lately I have been editing a short video of the course so people can get an idea of what exactly the racing was like but for some reason I neglected to bring my chest mount and ended up with no video of the really fun course we got to ride for 12 hours.

The leman’s style start is definitely not my favorite thing in the world, take a bunch of mountain bikers and make them sprint a quarter mile in carbon race shoes before they have to ride there bikes for 12 hours is not typically how I like to start a bike race but oh well, on with tradition. The start is always very fast and I sprinted up to the front of the pack to stay out of the bottleneck into the single track.

I jumped in with some team guys and ticked a quick 1:15 lap to start things off. You don’t really realize how many miles you can ride on a mountain bike until you’re involved in a race like this were your picking up food and supplies every hour and a half or so. Not that they’re any easier to do but you can stay really light on the bike and rack up the mileage. And rack up the miles is what I did all day long, 145 miles to be exact in 11 hours 29 minutes. I had a number of laps in my head 8 being the magic number and I thought if I got 8 laps in around 11 hours then there would be a good chance to win and if someone did it faster then they would deserve the win.

I received notice early on that second place was only 3 minutes behind so I upped the pace as much as I could and kept it going the entire day and even feeling good enough at the end to throw some sprinting into the finish. I was really happy that I had to push hard as this is prep for 24 hour worlds so it was great to get a good solid effort in before I have to do likely twice as much mileage in Italy.

I wanted to say a couple things about my time at 24 hour worlds before it was to late. Lately life, riding bikes and racing bikes have been more important to me than writing about it.

I was extremely nervous about racing my bike in Italy, the logistics of it, the time, the money, it was a lot to think about. Luckily I have Incredible sponsors who stepped up and kicked in extra money so I could make the trip happen, namely Infinit nutrition and Bolle covered most of the travel expenses and Santa Cruz stepped up huge and basically took care of everything else from lodging for the entire trip, to support, to food.

Allan Cooke was my support from Santa Cruz this was his second time supporting me at 24 Worlds and he has got it dialed! He took care of my bikes for the race and every time I switched bikes I had a perfectly clean and dialed bike, his title at Santa Cruz is the doer of things, if something needed to be done he does it and does it well.

My girlfriend Marlee Dixon also came along for support and a nice trip to Italy, she was incredible the entire time literally shoving food in my mouth as I went by and handling all nutrition needs, lights and anything else that need to be done. Lastly my good friend Troy Scott came for support as well, him coming on his own dime is huge it really means a lot to me that he made the trip. Basically what I’m getting at here is my crew was kick ass!! Once the race started I didn’t have to think about anything and I knew they had me covered.

The town in Italy where the race took place, Finale Ligure was a beautiful little Mediterranean mountain bike destination. With an Enduro World Series stop there and a long history of downhill, in my book it was the perfect spot for a bike race. The course was good riding with a mix of single track and double track with some nice technical sections in there for good measure, the only thing I didn’t like about it was that it was 7 miles long, which I thought was very short for a 24 hour race and this would come into play once the race started.

We averted huge disaster the day of the start of the race, the start had always been at 12 noon and I had no reason to believe it was otherwise. Supposedly there was an e-mail that went out the week before the race changing the start time to 10 am. I never received said e-mail, so I had no reason to think the race didn’t start at noon. The day of we pulled into the venue about 9:45 am, feeling pretty good about how much time we had I decided to go to the start area with a bike and get a good spot for my bike to grab after the running start.

When I got over there the bike corals were full and everyone was standing around with kits and helmets on, I thought this was a bit weird then it hit me this race is about to start! I asked a guy with a British flag on his jersey what time the race start was and he informed me 10am! A wave of panic rushed over me as I sprinted back to our pit yelling as I got there the race is starting in 5 minutes! I got dressed grabbed my other bike and rode back over to the start jumped a couple fences and got to the front of the start with one minute to go. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and the recurring dream I’ve had about showing up to a race as its starting and you have nothing ready, well I just about lived that dream. The almost missed start really had no bearing on the outcome of the race just a little hiccup in a long bike ride.

I’m not going to go into a blow by blow of the race that would take to long and my memory is not that good. For the first couple laps Jason English, Cory Wallace and myself were fairly close to each other. I knew that these were the guys I needed to watch Jason had won 7 world championships and Cory had been 2nd many times.

This year and I as I get older I have tried to put more emphasis on pacing especially in 24-hour races. Early on the pace was good and at about lap 3 or 4, I was riding with Cory and he took off with a hard pace I didn’t chase because I thought the pace was good and he would blow, well he didn’t blow he lapped me twice.

I have never been lapped in a 24-hour race, ever, granted the laps were 7 miles but still the effort that Cory put down was an incredible thing to witness. He ended up winning and beating Jason by a lap and a half, I ended up in third a half lap behind Jason, about were I was behind him at worlds in California. I think Jason and the rest of us had a hard time with passing, since the course was so short and with over 400 solo riders, it was a constant battle and very frustrating and mentally draining.

Coming into this race I had no idea what to expect having never raced in a foreign country before, let alone Europe. It was an incredible experience, the culture is so different over there, cycling is an honored sport not a segment of society that’s looked down on even hated like in US. The Italian people were all very nice ready to help us Americans as we struggled in a foreign land. The food in Italy probably my favorite thing about the trip, it was incredible! The seafood, cured meats, bread, and pasta, it was all wonderful! And you can’t forget the vino, it was all good and cheap. Traveling overseas is not easy I see a lot of people doing it all the time and I really don’t know how they do it. Don’t get me wrong I will remember my trip to Italy for the rest of my life it was an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. I guess I’m just happy staying home just as much and riding my bike I really don’t need much more than that!

I love traveling to Oregon! The only problem is that it’s almost 18 hours away… I had this realization on my last trip to Bend for the High Cascades 100. Once I get there I love it! Oregon is a beautiful state with lots to see and Bend is a great town with lots of great mountain biking. I’ve been racing the High Cascades 100 for quite a few years and it continues to be one of my favorites! Depending on snow melt the course is always changing from year to year but one thing that stays the same there is always plenty of single track and lots of climbing and great trail riding, just how I like it!

The race starts in Bend proper and heads up and out of town on pavement for about 4 or 5 miles then onto double track for a couple more to sort things out. When we hit the dirt the race was on, the pace was high and I soon found myself struggling to stay in the second group of riders, my legs were not cooperating and everyone and there mother seemed to be passing me. Once we hit the single track I was able to make up some ground and passed about 6 or 7 riders but once we hit the climbs I had nothing and they were all back on me and passing. I struggled like this up until about mile 30 where I started to feel better or maybe all the hard chargers at the start were slowing down. At any rate I went from about 15th to 4th in about 30 miles, along the way I got to rip some prime single track with a couple people but never really staying with anyone that long.

For the final 30 miles I found myself alone racing my bike in beautiful Oregon, although it was a very dry year the riding was still super fun and I was feeling good so pushing on the climbs felt great. I kept the pace high until the end hoping to maybe catch one more spot and to make sure nobody came from behind at the end. I definitely did not have my greatest race ever but what constitutes a great race? Getting the win, is that a great race? Feeling great but not placing well, that can be a great race! Overcoming adversity and pushing through even when you know your not going to be the best and never giving up? That too can be a great race! I have never been someone that has won every race, ya I’ve won a couple here and there but that’s not what keeps me going. Life I feel like is more interesting with hardship, if it were easy all the time it would be boring, I would say there are lots of ways to be successful at racing and at life, and I’m happy to say I’ll continue to persevere at both.

This was my 12th time racing the Breckenridge 100. I have raced every year but one, looking back on all that racing makes me feel a little old. It seems like yesterday I was just getting into this sport and now it’s become such a large part of my life. Sometimes I have a hard time motivating to write about a race I have done so many times and know inside and out. You go over this mountain and its really hard then you ride this sweet trail and another then like 10 more really hard climbs and more sick riding and you feel like dying and congrats you just finished the Breck 100!

Well this was actually much different than that, all the riding was there but with a world of freezing cold rain thrown in for another level of suffering.

It had been raining daily leading up to the race but it was more of the set your watch for the 2pm thunder shower type thing. The day before the race it was an almost all day light rain event and I was hoping it would get out of the way for the next day but the weather report was not looking good.

The alarm goes off at 4am for the Breck 100 and it was raining pretty good at that point, it continued to rain pretty much until noon. Luckily we are blessed with very porous dirt and it’s not clay based so we really don’t get much mud but when your riding your bike over 12,000 foot passes it can get really cold.

I was anticipating a cold rainy first lap so I went with knee warmers, arm warmers a vest and warm gloves to start with. I’m glad I had enough sense to go with some extra clothing because a lot of people didn’t and most of the ill prepared dropped after the first lap. For the first lap over the Ten mile range it had slowed to a cold mist but by the time we started down the other side to Copper Mountain it had picked up and was getting cold. By the time we got onto the peaks trail back to Breck it had really started raining and the roots and rocks were making the going difficult but its a good amount of climbing so this was nice for trying to stay warm. The trail was a river by this point and clothing and body were soaked to the bone.

Starting out for lap 2 it had slowed a bit and seeing how I was already soaked I decided to not grab a jacket the next three hours it continued to rain and it was a vicious cycle of shivering uncontrollably on the decent and try to warm back up on the climbs.

Finally near the end of the lap it started to clear out and warm up a bit. I’m not sure if I would have made the last lap if it had continued to rain like it had been, I guess we’ll never know…

On the last lap I was starting to unravel and the climb up Indiana creek sealed the deal I felt like I was crawling up the thing. Riding down gold dust trail gave me a bit of energy because it’s such a fun rip! When I got to Como and began the hour long road climb back up the pass my motivation was really low, the last thing I wanted to do was push up this thing. About half way up I could see a couple riders a few minutes behind an figured it was all or nothing at this point and put my head down and gave it all I had. When I pulled into the finish I had held onto 3rd by pure determination alone, The Breck 100 had crushed me this year.

Usually I am crushed by this race but this year the race teamed up with mother nature for the ultimate double team. Every person who crossed the finish line on that day is a hard ass in my book, and this edition of the race will go down as the hardest thus far.

I’ve always struggled with sleep before races and when it’s a single day race loosing sleep before a race isn’t really that big of a deal but when your trying to recover for 6 days getting good sleep is very important. I stopped doing the Breck Epic a few years ago because it’s a really hard format for me, the days are somewhat long, but more like a marathon distance and the pace is very fast, like cross-country fast. The one advantage I have in the epic is at altitude and I know the course forward and backwards. This year coming into the race I got sick the week before the start, I figured that was it, I wasn’t going to race after being sick for a week, but as the race got closer I was feeling well enough to give it a go I figured if I got worse I could always just pull out.

Day one I started off with lousy sleep and I was feeling like I had made a bad decision but I was already here, so let’s race bikes! The first stage went pretty well, the level of competition was off the hook, the pro field was supper stacked and I finished in the low 20s and was pretty happy with that.

The stage is not one of my favorites it kind of cruises around Breck climbing every gnarly jeep road around. It was good to mix it up with some friends and get in the groove of racing, at the finish I was feeling a little better about things and had fun racing with a bunch of fast dudes.

There’s a lot to take care of every day in a stage race and I definitely had my list of things I felt like would help me get through. Directly after the stages I would do a light spin for about 15 minutes then I would drink an Infinit recovery mix while I was soaking my legs in the ice-cold river for 10 minutes. After that I would have my lunch and try to warm up after my Ice bath! Next would be bike cleaning and maintenance, then I would head up to the racer HQ for the 4 o’clock meeting, after that it would be time to eat again and chill out until bed time. This was my program for 6 days, I also decided to stay in my van at the camping area for the race instead of driving from Fairplay to Breck everyday. It would have been difficult to go home everyday and do everything and get to the meeting every night. The camping spot was great I meet some wonderful people and had lots to talk about every night and was able give plenty of advice as I was the resident expert.

Stage Two was the Colorado Trail stage, super fun riding and lots of single track, I was not doing well on sleep and I was blowing a lot of snot all day but I did ok finishing about where I figure I should be. Stage Three is one of my favorites! The course climbs French Pass and Georgia Pass and we ride a bunch of awesome trail. Unfortunately I felt like shit and had been sleeping so poorly that I was contemplating dropping out. I finished in the mid 20’s but I had thought I would do much better on a stage that suited me so well. That night I made the decision that if I didn’t get good sleep I was done I wasn’t going to tax my body like this anymore without proper sleep.

As luck would have it I finally got some quality sleep that night and felt good about Stage Four. This stage is the Keystone stage and Colorado trail backwards from the second day, lots of great single track and definitely talked to a lot of people who said this was there favorite stage. I was back with a low 20’s finish and was very happy with that and more importantly I was really glad I didn’t drop out.

Stage Five is my favorite stage and most everyone’s least favorite, Wheeler Trail and Miners Creek, high alpine single track, rocky steep and lots of hike-a-bike. The first part up the Wheeler is not a normal route that people take but to make it a loop it makes sense. After the first long hike it’s high alpine single track bliss, when you get over wheeler pass it’s a screaming fast decent to the Colorado Trail and back up on the 10 mile range for a little more hike-a-bike and then my favorite section of trail in Breckenridge, above tree line miners creek is what I love and the decent back down to the bottom of peaks trail is just gnarly! This was my best stage finally cracking the top 20 with a 16th place!

Stage Six is always my worst, it’s the shortest day and has the most road riding and I always crack on this day. I felt ok in the beginning but as soon as we hit the road I lost motivation, I just wanted it to be over. I started to get pumped on the Gold Dust trail but a stupid mistake on a bridge when I was looking up the trail and my front tire went off the side left me face first onto the bridge, this definitely took the wind out of my sails. The road climb back up Boreas Pass sucked and I just wanted to finish at this point. I was definitely cracked and started to slow peddle for a little bit but I snapped out of that after about 10 minutes and gave it all I had until the end.

At the finish everyone was excited to be done, lots of high fives and recounting the last 6 days of racing. The racing is always great but this is one of my favorite parts of racing, the people the stories the friendships it’s all part of racing bikes! I ended up finishing in 23rd place overall about middle of the pack in the pro field.

I had come into the race looking for an excuse not to do it getting sick gave me that excuse but I wouldn’t let myself quit before I even started then during the race I wanted the easy way out again but the side of me that wants to fight through won again. Every racer on some level goes through this at some point or another, you can’t be physically strong all the time but you can always fight though those feelings of wanting the easy way and push through, the only thing in my life that I am constantly in control of is the amount of effort I put in and always pushing through mentally.

The Vapor trail is the kind of race that strikes fear in the average racer who’s thinking about doing it for the first time. I don’t discount the fact that it is a very difficult race, but when I hear 18,000 feet of climbing on some of the best single track in the state and it takes place at night… where do I sign up!? The night factor is what I think makes this race so difficult, a lot of people just can’t get past that, I love that it’s at night! When I ride my bike at night I feel like a little kid that’s getting away with something bad, to me it’s energizing. I never get nervous for this race I get excited because I know I’m about to partake in a big adventure!

The crew at Absolute bikes puts on such a great event, the aid stations on course are some of the best of any race I’ve ever been to. You really don’t even need to carry any food just stop at the aid station and grab what looks good, and that runs the gamut from burritos to bacon full on hot breakfast, donuts, cookies and everything in between. All of the entry fees from the race go to support the Salida trails and it’s their biggest fundraiser.

The biggest point of concern for me with this race is the weather, what to bring and wear for clothing can be very crucial. I have in the past played it very safe with lots of clothing because the weather had looked like it could go ether direction. This year it was looking like it would be perfect weather so I decided to go rather lite, regular Cuore kit with vest, arm warmers and knee warmers, warm gloves and then for backup when it got colder I had a very lite weight shell. My light set up is usually the same with Niterider Pro 1800 race on the bars and a Lumina 900 on my helmet. I try to conserve my battery’s by only using my head light on walk mode for the climbs so I can have bright lights for the decent.

I knew the pace would be pretty high this year with Zack Guy and Taylor Ross on the starting line. In past years  the neutral roll out has been very fast, now they keep it very slow and even do a bathroom brake before we cross Highway 285. Once we hit the dirt the race is on, I jumped to the front with Taylor in tow, Zack opted to hang back off the start but would later be on my heals the entire night.

Taylor was with me until we hit the Colorado Trail then I slowly put a gap between us. By the time I got to the first aid I had about 5 minutes on my chasers and quickly refueled and continued on my way. Last year they had to change the course and climb over Hancock pass instead of the alpine tunnel and Altman pass, although Hancock is shorter it is a much harder (in terms of effort) climb to get over to Tomichi Pass. I could see two people behind me all the way up Hancock and then the hike a bike up to the summit of Canyon Creek trail. I knew that it was Zack and Taylor and having raced both in the past I knew they were very fast so it kept a fire lit under my ass the whole way.

The decent down Canyon Creek is probably one of the best in the state and then when you do it in the middle of the night it makes it that much more epic! I knew that at least on the down hill I was going fast enough so that even if they were pushing they probable were not making any time on me. There are so many really long great descents in this race but for every long awesome down hill there’s an even longer climb, Old Monarch Pass is case in point, it’s a hour plus climb but you know once you get to the top you get to ride the Monarch Crest trail so the payoff is huge.

I got to the top of Monarch a little before the sunrise so I ditched my bar light but kept my helmet light because it was just dark enough for a stupid crash. I have been very lucky in this race to always get sunrise on the Monarch Crest Trail and every time is amazing! My low point in the race is usually coming out of Starvation Creek and this year was no different I was really trying to push because I had no idea how far back my chasers were, but the going was tough. When I got up to the top of Marshal Pass aid that you go through twice I asked how far back second was and they told me 15 minutes so I grabbed a handful of bacon (which I had been enjoying at every aid) and took off.

I decided to give it all I had till the end just in case and really I was just trying to be under 13 hours. The Rainbow Trail at the end of the race is such a pick me up, it’s so much fun, super fast with a few punchy climbs thrown in, ok more than a few but it rips! Once I hit the highway back to town I looked at my watch and was surprised at how early it was and figured I could break the record so I hit it hard all the way back and ended up getting the record in 12hours 24 minutes almost 20 minutes faster than my time from the previous year.

In the end this race is more about the experience then how fast you do it, I do enjoy going as fast as I can and that is part of my experience with this race but it’s definitely much more than that. All I can say is you have to experience it for yourself then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’m making an effort this year to mix my race season. I’ve done a lot of great races a lot of times. Even if a race is a really good one with great riding in a cool location after you do it a bunch of times it get a little stale. So if you check out my race schedule for 2018, most of them will be first time races for me. The Tommy Knocker 10 Hour race started things off this season and gave me a new race in a new place. I really enjoy racing in New Mexico, it’s such a beautiful state with some really great people. The Tommy Knocker venue is just outside of Silver City at Ft. Bayard, bordering the southern end of the Gila national forest. This is an area of NM I have never been to and have wanted to check out for some time.

I’m no stranger to Zia Rides races, they put on great grassroots mountain bike races in the state of NM and I’ve done several of there races throughout the years. I always say: to have a good mountain bike race you need 4 things, good riding, good food, good beer and good people. I think they hit all of four of these at every Zia rides race I’ve been to. The riding at Ft. Bayard is a mix of single and double track that weaves its way through high alpine grass lands with beautiful views of the Gila mountains and rewards moderate climbing with a fast, fun decent back to the venue.

I’m not a huge fan of early morning starts so the 8am race start was a nice change from the usual 6am or earlier. I can take or leave the Lemans (running) start. I’m not so much opposed to running as I’m opposed to running in super stiff bike shoes first thing in the morning. I do a good bit of running in the off-season and even more so this year because of lack of snow in my home state of Colorado. I had to put my bike farther up the trail so I had a longer way to run and when I did get to my bike I had a stick stuck in the spokes that took a few minutes to work it’s way out.

The first lap of a race is usually a bit fast, everyone has nervous energy and is stoked to get the race going. I usually try to get in the front to stay out of congestion. It’s nice to pace with some team guys for the first lap and then after that settle into a more reasonable pace. This being the first race of the year and it only being March the race was really more about getting a long hard ride in a new place.

I wanted to stay steady throughout the entire day and keep my lap times about the same throughout. After my fast 46 minute first lap I kept the lap times in the 50 minute zone for the 12 mile course pretty much all day besides a couple 54 minute laps it was pretty consistent, I figured that 11 laps would probably be possible if everything went ok and I had no problems, with no support or race crew if anything went wrong I would have to deal with it.

Everything ended up going perfectly I was alternating my Infinit custom endurance mix and race mix every lap and that gave me great energy the entire time. My Santa Cruz Tallboy with Shimano DI2 worked flawlessly and I went with my usual Maxxis tire set up, Icon in the back and Ardent race in the front. Everything came together perfectly to take the win and get the 11 laps I was looking for, with 132 miles in 9hours 34 minutes.

The after party is always a great time with Zia and this was no exception, they had a great fire pit and wood fired pizza and good beer, although they did run out of beer a little early. I really think this is the best part of racing meeting new people hanging out, recounting the day of racing bikes. The coming together of like-minded people who all love to ride bikes, this is my tribe, if you love mountain biking too, we can relate.

12 hours in the Wild West has become one of my favorite races over the past couple of years. The venue for the race is at Grindstone Lake Trail system in beautiful Ruidoso NM, the first time I came to this area I was impressed with the mountains and cool vibe the place has. The course for the race is a gem! definitely a mountain bikers course with a good amount of climbing, challenging technical sections and a super fun decent back to the finish. The folks at Zia rides who put the race on and an endurance race series in New Mexico do a great job of mixing competitive racing with family fun and a good amount of partying afterwards as well!

This winter was a dry one in the southwest and the course was loose and dusty. During practice, I was having fun, kind of ignoring the dry conditions and going pretty fast on the decent. I took a hard fall, the kind were you just lay in the middle of the trail for a couple minutes. I finally collected myself and got down the rest of the way back to start and cleaned up my bloodied body and got to work getting all the particulars ready for the race.

I used to get so stressed out before a race that I wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before an event. For years I struggled with this until I realized the value of the overall experience, good riding and great people. Yes, the race will be hard and painful, but if I’ve put in the effort for training and come prepared, there’s no need to worry at the last minute. Then it’s just time to go out there and do the best I can and have fun.

Race day came with beautiful weather, a bit cold in the morning probably in low 30’s at the start but by mid-day it reached into the low 60’s for a perfect racing temp. The start of these things is usually way too fast for my liking but it’s better to get to the front especially with so much single track.

We started with about a half mile of road to break up the pack, then it was into the trail for a fun and flowing 4-mile climb, The trail really is good even on the climb it’s broken up with short downhills and technical sections, it really flows well and keeps you entertained the whole way up. I get so bored on road climbs, this was definitely not a boring climb.

I got to the front pretty quick off of the start and paced with some team guys for the first lap. I have been trying to get video of racing and I thought I was recording but for some reason my camera has been turning off after nine minutes. It’s too bad because on the first lap I got out front and was descending down when I spooked about nine elk who kept running straight downhill at me as I was traversing across the fall line. They did this three times before finally heading away from the course. It was a pretty intense experience when huge animals are crashing through branches, rocks are flying and you’re just trying to determine if an elk is about to run you over while negotiating single track. Definitely a cool and scary experience and would have been a lot cooler if my camera had been recording, oh well maybe next time.

After the first lap I settled into just ticking off laps enjoying the riding and perfect weather. I kind of knew what my lap times should be to get 11 laps and be close to my time from last year. I was right where I wanted to be for time and was trying to beat my time from last year, I really had no idea if anyone was close behind me I figured I was going as hard as I could and if someone came from behind and beat me then good for them!

I ended up getting the win but missed beating my time by 2 minutes on a much slower course from the year before. I was very happy with the effort I was able to put down and only felt bad for a couple laps in the middle of the day, I do love that feeling of being done with a race! I talk a lot about fun in races but make no mistake, it’s F@%$ING hard every time especially on a course like this your body gets beat to hell, Mountain biking on technical single track for 130 miles will beat you down but there is no better feeling of accomplishing something that is not easy. That’s why we do this type two fun thing, it doesn’t make sense to other people you either get it or you don’t.

Instead of praying for an easy life pray for strength to endure a hard one
– Bruce Lee

The Salida 720 is a new 12 hour race this year, put on by Chocolate Bunny Productions and takes place in the S-Mountain trail network in Salida, Co. The course is 14.6 miles long starting and ending in downtown Salida. The start of the course is a 15 minute road climb up to North Backbone trail, NB is a mix of technical to flowy single track with short climbing and descending throughout. After NB the course climbs CR 173 for a mile or so then descends on the very chunky and challenging Sand Dunes trail, SD is about as technical as you will see at any XC race anywhere and would challenge even the most skilled trail rider. After Sand Dunes it’s back onto Back Bone trail for more flow and technical riding, then onto Sweet Dreams and finishes on Chicken Dinner for some fast, flowy bermed out goodness! The course then traverses on CR 177 back to town for a mile or so and into the Boathouse restaurant and through the bar to finish the lap.

Living in Fairplay, CO, I’m in close proximity to several almost year round mountain biking destinations. Salida being one of them. It’s less than an hour from my house I end up riding there a lot in the fall, winter, and spring. I am very familiar with trails and riding in the area and jumped at the chance to race on the great trail system at S-mountain. I was a bit nervous about how I would feel after racing 130+ miles two week prior, but I figured it would be great training and I felt like I had put the work in, so it would be a fun day of riding either way.

I had been waiting on a couple of parts to complete the build on my new Santa Cruz Blur and now that I had it built up, I was excited to test it out on a very difficult course. The race started with a short running start, I got to the front pretty quickly and started up the road for the first of many climbs. The new Blur comes with a dual suspension lock out, that at first, I wasn’t to stoked about, but after using it in just one race I’m sold on the concept. It was amazing to fully lock the bike out for the road climb without even looking down then unlock it just as quickly for the trail riding. The locked-out Blur feels like a road bike when riding on pavement and dirt roads and has just enough give for rougher dirt to keep you comfortable.

I felt good on the first climb with some team and duo guys just in front, I didn’t want to push too hard on the first couple laps but wanted to keep the pace high. I jumped in behind duo racer Ben Parman and we kind of yo-yoed back and forth for the first lap, I would catch him on the technical and downhill sections and then he would climb just a bit faster than me. It was nice to rally with someone early in the race and I definitely had a good time on the first of many laps.

I felt good for the majority of the race and the Blur was amazing and incredibly versatile! I had very stiff competition for this race in the way of David Krimstock, who I knew he would be charging the entire race and never give up. I have the edge on him on the trail and he has the edge on me with with speed so I had to stay on the gas all day to stay ahead. I was able to push most of the day and was gaining a couple minutes each lap but the course was definitely taking a toll on me and by the last couple laps I was hitting a wall pretty hard. I had a good lead towards the end but you never know what can happen, so I just gave it everything I had even though I felt like I was going backwards.

I ended up getting the win just a few minutes ahead of David, every year I get a little older and the kids that I race against come in younger! I just have to go out and do the best that I can do every time and that’s all I could do in this race. I ended up at 130 miles in 11 hours 34 minutes and was pretty happy with the effort that I was able to put out, maybe a little tired at the end but If you’re not tired after 260 miles of racing in 3 weeks then you’re not human.