Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Road ride

Today I rode up Mt. Rose highway to the summit on my cross bike. It's a 4267 foot climb from the fancy new mall at the bottom. It sucks to ride, but it's a good way to kick your own ass into shape. And there's a pretty rad view of Tahoe from the top. Here's a couple pics from the ride.





Monday, June 25, 2012

Ashland Enduro 2012

Last weekend was the 2012 Ashland Enduro, the 2nd stop in the Oregon Enduro series. Ashland is one of my favorite places to ride, so I was stoked to have another reason to head up north for a weekend of shredding some of Oregon's finest. Wild Bill Roussell is the man behind the scenes, making shit happen like you wouldn't believe all weekend. Check him out if you ever head to Ashland, and he'll set you up, drive you to the top, and show you where to go.

Emigrant Lake Campground is a great spot to stay in Ashland
EPIC VAN SHOT!
We camped at Emigrant lake, only a few miles southeast of town on hwy 66. It's pretty nice there, and there are hot showers for 50 cents, so you don't have to have smelly balls all weekend. Sweet!
Wilson and Todd Toth, the man behind the scenes at Vital, looking stoked!
Friday was filled with rainy weather, which made it tough to get any practice in, and the visibility was the hardest part of it all. And the shit weather means I didn't pack the camera with me, so no epic riding shots, sorry.
Steam coming out of the hills as the storm breaks
I was stoked to get new suspension from John at X fusion just in time for the weekend's race! The Velvet fork and O2 shock were an awesome upgrade that kept me riding smooth all weekend.
Eddie McDonald, Felt's marketing genius

Mt. Ashland Ski park, the start of day 2
I also scored some sweet new Bont Vaypor XC shoes last week too! These things are fully heat moldable, so they fit like a glove. The soles are full carbon, and unbelievably stiff, letting me lay  down the power. Thanks Pete!
My beautiful new race van, thanks Dad!

Awesome view of Mt. Shasta, the home of the Lemurians

The race was a new format, 2 runs on 2 trails on Saturday, and then the same thing again on Sunday on 2 more trails. The big uphill sections aren't timed anymore! Pretty bad ass! The weather was pretty shitty Friday and Saturday, with steady rain making racing conditions a bit sketchy.
Ready to drop in for a post race run

Looking at the finish of stage 3
 With only one practice run on Saturday's trails, I had a tough time opening it up. Well, except for the switchback turn I went straight through on stage 1 (shit!). I was in 36th after day one, and not too happy about it.

"Well hey there, fella!"

Missing link trail, the best ever!
The sun shone through Sunday morning, and we were to race on trails that I'm pretty familiar with, so I was happy. But first I met up with Tim Zimmerman, the most bad ass pro photographer I've ever worked with, for a Vital MTB bike check on my Virtue LTD, and a quick action shoot, which went RAD! You'll see it on Vital soon.
Waiting for a van ride back to the top, finally some sunshine!
Sunday's race included a pretty lame fire road section, which made me wish I had a 50 tooth chainring. The final stage was by far the longest, and the dirt conditions were perfect, after the good 2 day soaking we received. I hammered my brains out on the pedaling sections of stage 4, and rode the descents well enough to move myself up to 22nd overall for the weekend! I'm pretty stoked to move up 14 spots over Saturday's placings, and can't wait for the next Enduro in Hood River in a few weeks!

Mt. Shasta could kick your ass
The drive home is pretty amazing with the evening light making Mt. Shasta look unreal! 14000+ feet of bad ass Norcal rock!

Make sure you don't miss out on the Ashland Enduro next year!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Mills Peak, Graeagle CA

Today Scotty and I rode the Mills Peak trail in Graeagle, CA, about an hour northwest of Reno. I had heard good things about this trail in the past, and last night, over a PBR, the call was made. We headed out at the buttcrack of noon (thanks to a sleepy Scott) with only a small idea of where we were going.  A stop at the local general store scored us a little map, so we were kinda reassured. We still decided to pack a ton of food and water just in case we ended up lost...We were lucky though. So we headed up the hill.


Looking at Mills Peak from Frazier Ck Road
The climb was long (about 12 miles) but not too hard. It's never really steep, so you're able to cruise up and BS on the way up.
This Bumblebee liked my grips

Frazier Ck Falls, a little detour

Dunking my head in Gold Lake
Near the top, you come by Gold Lake, which was nice to stick our heads in and cool down.



USA

Rad View from the fire lookout

Sierra Buttes from Mills Peak. Packer Saddle (The start of Downieville DH) is at the left edge of the frame

The trail starts just below the Mills Peak fire lookout, which had amazing views of the Sierra Valley, Gold Lakes Basin, and the Sierra Buttes.
SBTS RULES!

Dropping in...
The trail was just completed last fall, and it must have been a ton of work, especially through the rocky upper area. The descent is 3000' total, with just a short flat section in the middle. The trail rips, tons of really good singletrack with plenty of natural rollers you can pump and jump. I'll definitely be back there again soon! Check out the SBTS website for maps and more info.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Peavine Mountain

Last night I got a big ride in on Peavine Mountain. This is pretty much the #1 spot I ride, because I'm on singletrack within a mile from my door. There was also a Reno Wheelmen twilight race last night, the Peavine hillclimb. I decided to ride from my house to the start of the race, which ended up about 13 miles and 1500' vert berore the race started. It's all good though, I'm just using theses races for training. The race went ok, but the real treat was the descent back to home, nearly 5000 vert of downhill, with a little climbing in there too. Here's a pic from the top. Epic view. Thanks to Kevin Joell for putting on the race! Gonna get some Tahoe singletrack in this weekend, and maybe a trip to Downieville! Until next time...

Monday, June 11, 2012

Tears, Fears, and plenty of Beers in Eastern NV

Last weekend was the 2012 edition of the Fears, Tears, and Beers Enduro in the little Eastern Nevada town of Ely. This would be my second time racing here, and I was definitely pumped, as last year was a ton of fun. Check out last years story here.The race is super tough, 34 miles with 5400' of climbing, all above 6500 feet elevation, with 6 timed super D type stages that are added up for your final time.
We headed out from Reno on Friday morning across the loneliest highway in America, US 50. It's not too bad of a drive, with some good sights along the way, including Sand Mountain, a popular spot for dune buggies, and drunk hillbillies.
We were able to sneak in a little ride Friday evening, and check out a couple of the stages before the race. We shuttled to the top to save the legs for the next day. Trails were already marked, and easy to follow.
My trusty Felt Virtue LTD!
Don loving the shuttle ride

 We headed back to town, and got a room at the Jailhouse casino, which was giving crazy deals for the weekend, and they put up $2000 for the pro class! Sweet! The next morning, we all met up at the park downtown to get organized, and head up the hill, but not before riding right through the casinos downtown!

 The first big climb starts off gradual, but gets steeper as you get above the treeline, approaching the first timed stage.

There are locals volunteering at all 12 of the checkpoints, and they all had cold water for tired racers, which was great. The singletrack is all amazing, hard to believe that a place out here in the middle of nowhere would have such good riding.




















But on to the racing! Cannondale/WTB Enduro badass Ben Cruz and X-Fusion marketing manager/all around ripper John Hauer made the trek from the Bay Area to add some serious talent to the pro class. The 3 of us rode together all day, and the times were so tight, we actually tied on many of the stages. After 4 stages, we were all within 5 seconds of each other!




Stage 5 is pretty flat, and had a nasty headwind. I was able to dig deep and take a little time out of John and Ben on this one. I headed up the last climb in the lead, but unfortunately, a couple big mistakes, combined with amazing times by both John and Ben put me in 3rd. They ended up only 1 second apart, after 38 minutes of racing! Full results, along with stage times can be found here.

On Sunday we checked out the Cave Lake trails just south of Ely. The trails out there are amazing! No braking bumps, or ruts, because these trails don't get overused like many of the big famous places, but they're just as good as anything I've ever ridden, hands down.




If you like big rides, and racing on your trail bike, you absolutely have to make it to this event next year. I'll be there again for sure. Check out more info at the Great Basin Trails Alliance website. And here's my strava file from the race, because if it isn't on Strava, it didn't happen...

Thanks to Felt Bicycles, Formula brakes, E thirteen components, WTB, and X fusion suspension for all the support! Next up is stop 2 on the Oregon Enduro series in Ashland. See you there!