Getting back at it.....slowly

Back in Grand Junction and riding my bike since the last post, took a couple of weeks off to mentally and physically rest.  Nothing crazy yet just going on group rides, riding the mountain bike and actually surviving which is something new for me. I am actually having fun riding the mountain bike. So I will be in Junction until the weather starts getting cold and I hope we can go somewhere to ride in the warm weather during the winter.
Leaving tomorrow for Sin City Vegas!!! Kenny has 70.3 Triathlon worlds on Sunday, so we are going to cheer him on as he takes on the best triathletes in the world. Once that is done we will be heading straight to In N Out burger a little end of the year gift!! Monday we will head to the strip for Inerbike trade show and check out all the new cycling gear coming out for next year. Dirt demos start Monday so we can go test ride all the new Mountain gear. Wednesday we will go watch Cross Vegas for the first time. Conor and I are not racing cross this year, which is something new for us. We have raced cross for many year and had a blast doing it but we are trying something new and actually have an off season so we will be well rested for a hard schedule of road racing next season. So this time I get to be the guy on the sideline yelling at the racers!!
Until Next time....

Photos from the phone

Reno

Kenny and Conor

Big Screen

Vaill TT Start

Great Season

This past weekend was my last race of the season in Chicago = It was 3 days of hard racing to end off a good season. I am now back in Grand Junction for a while. I will be traveling back to the front range to watch my Teammates take on the best riders in the world for the US Pro Challenge.
My computer broke 2.5 weeks ago so I am waiting on a warranty one hopefully but until then I will have to keep these short.

McCall ID

So this past week Conor Ben and I travled about 100  miles north of Boise to McCall ID to get some altitude training in for our upcomming races. We spent a week out there getting some great riding in and some time on the lake. We were spoiled while we were there and sad to leave but its almost time to race. We arrived back to Boise today and will leave Saturday morning for Reno for the Tour de Nez crit on Sunday. After the race is done we will travel to Salt Lake for a few days to ride with the Colorado Squad then head to Chichago for the Tour of Elk Groove. This will be my last race of the year. I am really looking foward to it and had a great summer so far and hope to go out with a bang. I am also looking to sometime off and being back in Colorado for sometime during the off season. Here are some pics from the week.

View off the back deck

Top of White Bird Climb

A look down the switchbacks(Awesome Climb)

Something you don't see everyday, a goat on a leash

Rough Life

My team backpack

Canadian Photos

Photos from Greg Descantes

Boise Twilight!!

This weekend was full of excitement. Friday night we had a team Exergy BBQ to get pumped for the Twilight Crit in downtown Boise; this was the first time all year the whole team was in one place. My parents and little sister flew in from Denver to watch the race and hang out for a few days. It was really nice having them here for the short period of time. Saturday morning we had a community group ride and spun the legs out and went to lunch right after. Got home took a shower and laid down for a few hours before we had to head back downtown to prepare for the race. We arrived with the earlier races going on and had a meeting in a hotel room and received our new kits for the rest of the year. They are all WHITE, a lot cooler in the hot sun! Then we went and raced our hearts out. A lot of sponsors were there to watch us race so we wanted to thank them with a hard effort and a good performance. Early in the race I was up front covering all the early moves and keeping it together. With 15 to go Fly V took control and drove it. With three to go a crash in corner 1 stopped me in my tracks. Carlos was positioned well with Freddy setting him up and ended up 4^th.

After the race got to hang with the parents and sis until Monday afternoon which was really nice just to relax and take my mind off of racing and training for a couple of days. Tomorrow Conor, Ben and I are going up to McCall Idaho to train in some altitude for our upcoming races. It will be nice to ride somewhere new and have the lake in the back yard to soak the legs.  The rest of the team is Racing Cascade Classic!

Canada....eh

Just got back from Canada a couple of days ago. Going to Canada I didn’t know what to expect with my form since my last race was Tulsa and I have never been to Canada so I was pretty excited to see what it had to offer. We left Thursday morning to make the trek, when we hit the US/Canada boarder we had to present our passports and answers a few questions. One of us must have said something wrong to set off a red flag so they made us park the car and walk inside to talk to another guy as he ran our passports. After only about 10 min we were on our way again and shortly after reached the host houses. I ended up staying at a house literally on the boarder of the USA. It was pretty cool is was a cement line a few inches about the ground to indicate the boarder and a US patrol border man sat on the other side off and on throughout the week.

Racing began with the Tour of Delta on Friday with a crit on Friday and Saturday and a Road Race on Sunday. Our plan was to win the overall, and it being an ommnium it was based on points the whole weekend. . The first night was a fast crit with a nice riser and a fast decent. We got a teammate up the road early in a break that stuck the most of the way. With 3 to go we didn’t want to drive the pace because we would catch the break so with 1 to go we hit out and caught the group on the last corner. Andres got 2^nd and Carlos 4^th I believe. The next night plan was to get Carlos the leader’s jersey and we did just that. We rode the front and were very aggressive. Carlos ended up 3^rd I believe but that was enough to put him in the Jersey! The next day was a rolling RR and we had to get Carlos to the end without doing much work. We rode the front early and stayed there all day. We let a break go with no threats and a couple of them stayed away. Carlos ended up losing the Jersey to United Healthcare by 1 point so that really hurt. Monday we had a day off from racing and Tuesday was another crit from a different event, BC super week with races the rest of the week but we could only do Tuesdays because we had to get back to Boise to get ready for Boise Twilight!! The crit on Tuesday was on the UBC Campus with it being a big rectangle. Carlos ended up getting in a break and Winning from it!!! Ben ended 5^th

With tomorrow being our home race right downtown Boise there is a lot of pressure to perform. My parents and lil sister are flying out tonight to see the race so it will be nice to see them and hang out for a couple of days. Tomorrow is a big day for the team; write up sometime next week about it. 

New red bont shoes so everyone can tell Conor and I apart