Collegiate Racing Rulez!!!

That's me, then Matt Shriver (the current short track national champ), and some other FLC punk.

Last weekend was my first collegiate race of the season. I was reminded how much fun collegiate racing is. The trip started about 2 hours later than scheduled... pretty typical. We stopped at Qdoba, the best food from here to GJ on I-70, and damn that stuff works wonders. We rolled into GJ around 11:30 and stoped at the Mesa states coach's place where we were staying. I could not believe how many people we fit into his place. It was a 2-bedroom apartment, and we managed to fit 23 people in it. When everyone was in their bags, you couldn't even see the floor... we were packed in there like sardines... sleep was very minimal. However, that didn't seem to affect my racing this weekend. I crushed the short track... setting the entire pace and eventually riding every last man off my wheel.

The XC went pretty much the same way, I rode away from everyone very early in the race, and had about a one minute lead on 2nd place until I bent my front deraileur on a rock. I had to get off my bike numerous times to try to bend it back. I was eventually caught by Hagman, who I battled with until the very end were he outsprinted me to the final DH singletrack to the finish... he beat me by about five seconds. It was a little frustrating to feel like I had it in the bag at one point in the race, and to have mechanical issues take that away from me... but that's racing, and it happens to everyone. At least I know what I'm capable of. I was able to prove to myself and everyone else that I can win nationals again in October.

I won't be racing this coming weekend... instead, I'll be having a party at my place friday night, and I plan to do another epic ride in Nederland on Sunday. The next race for me will be the CU home race in a week and a half. That's about all that is exciting right now. Oh yeah, I ordered a new digital camera... so my site will get a little better once I start using that.

Epic Rides, Tests, Wine and Cheese

So of course a lot has happened since the last time I posted, but I only have time and motivation to write about the best parts of the last four or five days. My weekend (Friday night) began with a bang accompied by Kelly and a little captain morgan... because of this my Saturday wasn't very eventful. But Sunday... Sunday was EPIC. I caught the 10:10 am bus up to Ned and rode until 6:30 pm. The majority of the time I was riding some of the most techy trails I've ridden in a while. I rode with some really good riders (Ariel and Botsy to name a couple), and they were on their cushy 4-6 inch travel Mavericks, while I was on my hard-tail. Because of this I tweaked my shoulder again a little. However, I think it'll hold up for another month and a half until collegiate nats. I was able to hang with these guys on most everything, except for the sections with the big drops. We stopped about five hours into the ride at a bar on the peak-to-peak highway for a couple of pitchers of beer, that was fun, but I was starting to get to the point of just wanting to go home and eat/shower/sleep/etc. After refueling, we shredded some more sick trails almost all the way back to Boulder. (Sorry to those who don't know the Boulder area at all, because you probably have no idea what I'm talking about).

Exams have begun!! I had one yesterday, and one today. The first exams of the first semester of the year are always the most stressful, but I think I did pretty good on them. I'm done with these for about a week, then I get to take some more... YES!!

This coming weekend I will be making my 2005 debut collegiate race in Grand Junction. I've been mainly resting since the 24 hour race (not any intensity or much riding for that matter), so I'm not really sure how I'll feel, but I'm feeling motivated and that's the most important thing. I'm mainly just not looking forward to the traveling, I need like a much longer break than a couple weeks to get me stoked on travelling again.

Tonight, Kelly and I will be acting like sofisticated mature adults and will be attending a wine and cheese party at Chris Jung's house. Wow, I can't believe I just put Chris Jung, sofisticated, and mature in the same sentence. Honestly, I don't know what the hell a wine and cheese party is supposed to be all about, I think it's just another excuse to booze it up... but hey, I like wine, and I like cheese, so why not put them together and pretend we're french!!

I'll try to keep y'all updated as cool and uncool things continue to happen in my life.

Glabal 24 hour champions!!

Yep, we won the Global 24 race in Granby, CO last weekend. It was very close battle between us and Trek/VW. In the end we ended up winning by only 6 minutes. It was actaully really fun too... especially when looking back on it, seeing that it has almost been a week. I actually enjoyed myself the most at night. The course was, overall, pretty boring, but at night it turned ito some of the sickest, fastest singletrack I've ever ridden. Also, when I would pass people at night, I felt like I was going faster than I've ever ridden a bike. Everyone on the team kicked ass, Especially Georgia, who did four laps at night, and only two in the day.. and she also posted a couple lap times that were almost as fast if not faster than some of our guys slower times. We couldn't have won if it were not for her boyfriend, Dusty, either. That dude made my breaks in between laps much more bearable, and he totally kept up on everything, so we didn't need to really think or do anything. Not only did I walk away with a $4000 ($1000 a piece), I also left knowing how to suffer a little harder, and made freinds with some really great people. FOr how hard this was at the time, and for how much I wasn't enjoying it at the end, I think I'll definately try do another one someday, especially if there is a large purse... shit, maybe I'll even try doing a solo 24 sometime.

Keystone and sleep

Hey y'all,

I haven't posted for a while due to being pissed off cause I lost my camera... but I've started to accept the fact that there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm just goning to get a new one, mainly cause I need it for Ebay.

I raced the Mountain states cup final in Keystone yesterday, and it went pretty good. I ended up third, I felt okay on the climbs, and really good on the decents (finally... it took me all season). All in all, I was pretty happy with it.

I think my string of bad luck finally came to an end because this last week has gone very very damn well. I haven't been getting barely any sleep lately though, so I'll have to try to get caught up before th 24 hour race this weekend.

Tomorrow I'm goin' night riding... I'm psyched!!

That's all for now. Good night.