Home grown

My neighbor told me Viagra was great fertalizer for tomatoes. Hope everyone is well. 8 days til the fun begins. I know Daren and T are feeling bad about not riding. Russ better be riding a bike up in the Unitahs. He is hunting the mighty elk with a bow, good luck. Ride safe.

Dirt

The best part about riding cross bikes on MTB trails is the looks people give you. T and I ventured into Draper's Corner Canyon on the cross bikes Saturday for some off-road training. There were a bunch of MTB's out and they gave us the "what's with the road bikes" look. It's best when you pass MTB's going down hill.

I'm back on the bike this week. Probably racing the Crit and TT. Cross season will be here sooner than I know. I have three sets of tubulars to glue up this week then T and I will be set. Good stuff.

Oh yea, I'm still a hunter, not a killer.

Long time, no write

First, I need to apologize, it has been a while since I last wrote. This summer has gone by with a blur. A lot has happened, school, car being stolen (sorry to tell you Robby it was the Honda, but it is back now and beat up pretty good), and 4 ferrel kittens being born in our back yard. My racing has been sporadic. Some weeks I do well 2nd, 4th, then the next week 7th. I am looking forward and dreading Lotoja. So I came up with a list of things I have learned from writing Lotoja.

1. The race won't be the same without our Lieutenant Kim. We will miss the grunts up the hills, the banana mix drink, and the intense focus. One memory I will never forget is the bathroom break from last year! Need I say more?

2. It doesn't matter what seat I use my butt still hurts.

3. Mt. Dew is my best friend. But only after 100 miles.

4. No matter what, food does not taste good when you ride that long. It feels like I am forcing it down my throat. After the race I can't eat granola bars for weeks.

5. Life would be miserable without a support team. Thanks support crew!

6. The family that rides together -- stays connected. We are only as fast as the slowest rider.

7. Mp3 players rock! Does anyone have small speakers? That would be cool to play music we can all hear.

8. 206 miles is a long way. What are we thinking?

9. Preparation pays off.

10. Can't wait to sit behind the tandem! Thanks Sutt's.

Racing Photos

I some how I lost all my clever writing and I can't stand the thought of writing it again. The tour was fun and we had some great rides ourselves. Ride Safe.
Escuela with Freddy in chase. Escuela won.

So fast!

Fast Freddy in the Red of Rock Racing

Garmin/Chipotle driving the train all night!

Coming over the top of big mountain, Blake Caldwell and Darren Lill. This this how they finished the stage.

Turbo not having any fun!

Local star Dave Hawood enjoying the divide!

Some how without doping, Tyler just can't climb as well

eventual winner of the over all, local pro for BMC Jeff Louder

Blake Caldwell of Garmin/Chipotle making a break at the top of N. Ogden divide

Gone Hunt'n

It's been a busy few days with Erin's return and mission report, racing and getting ready for the bowhunt. I'm heading out the door for a week of solitude in the mountains chasing deer and elk. Should be good times. I call it hiking with my bow because I've yet to actually shoot something. Maybe that will change this year.

Tanner and I completed a great MTB season Saturday with less than stellar results. I was good for about an hour and then blew to finish 4th (way to go Karl on the 2nd place finish). It is an unforgiving course if you blow up or have a back day. When things go bad, you just hope to make it back alive. Tanner was off as well and went backwards the whole day. However, we had a good time at the after-party and enjoyed being around our racing buddies. There are a bunch of great people that race MTB's and I'll miss seeing them for a few months.

Tanner did end up winning the 16 - 18 Sport/Expert ICUP overall points. It's a huge accomplishment for him. He's improved more in a year than anyone I've been around. The kid can climb, that's for sure. His technical skills took a big jump and he'll leave the old man in the dust next year. I've had a great time riding and racing with T-man this year. These are times we'll remember all our lives. Tanner's putting his climbing skills to the test Saturday at the Snowbird Hill Climb. I'm bummed I'll miss it. Since I can't climb, I'd be on the side of the road yelling for him.

My hunting adventure will keep me from the Tour of Utah the next two days. However, I did make it to the finish yesterday. Very cool. Like Adam, I'm huge standing next to these guys. The top 12 were all a buck 135 or less. Tyler Hamilton is a midget. Those boys can climb though. The exception is Treefarm. He's skinny but super tall. Just like at cross nationals last year, I stood by his bike and can't believe a human can ride that thing. It's ridiculous. The seat is chest high on me and the seat to bar drop is about a foot and a half.

The Canyon / Utah All Stars set up was sweet. I got to talk with Dave for 15 minutes right after his finish. He had a great day and finished 23 minutes down. He had some good stories about riding most of the day with Fast Freddy. He said Feddy is scary fast downhill. Dave's going to try to make some noise in tonight's crit. I've never seen him look more fit, so it should be interesting.

Personal notes on the Utah Tour

Yesterday I had a blast checking out the Tour de Utah with Doug. We went down to the start to check out the teams and their bikes before heading up to watch the first climb. It was Awesome!! I only had one slight problem upon arrival, I forgot my camera. Doug forgot as well but on the way to the North Ogden Divide Doug grabbed one. So please put up a few pics from the first climb.

My thoughts about the race
1. Money matters in bike racing. It was amazing to see the different setups and support from each of the different team. Rock racing looked like a touring Rock band.

2. Pro bike racers make me look big. (although there were a few riders taller than me and maybe one or two with a higher body fat %)

3. Everybody uses butt cream and they'll put it on in the parking lot with everybody watching.

4. Everybody hurts climbing the Divide. This might sound bad, but it was nice to see even the big boys in a little pain.

4. How steep the Divide really is. Doug and I walk about 150 yards up the divide (something I had never done before) and I was shocked as I realized for the first time in my life how steep it is. Now I know why I can only climb up it at about 7 mph.

5. I could not believe how low key it is around the warm up/ start area. You're right in the middle of everything( support cars, trailers, bikes, riders) and it's cool to see things from that perspective.


In other news our Team had a group ride to help Russ ride 100 miles before he does Lotoja;s 206. We had a great ride. Tanner you'll have to post the pics. I almost got myself ran over taking one of the shots.

T's the Man

Congrats to Doug, AT and Mindi on completing the TdePC. I'm impressed. I'm not sure I could endure that much time on a road bike. I'm more into 2 to 3 hours floggings.

In the past week, Tanner demonstrated he's the fastest in our house. We rode Big Cottonwood while Doug and the Suttlemyre's were doing the big ride. Our 13 mile climb wasn't close to 50, but still hard. I gave it a good effort and was still a good 5 minutes behind Tanner. Then on Tuesday, we had our final battle at Solitude. I'd managed to hold off T the prior 4 times we raced the Tuesday night series. I had a pretty good race and did my best time of the series. However, Tanner smoked me by over a minute. He got off to a good start and was gone. He's finished 2nd in the race and was closing on the leader on the last lap. It was cool to she him go so fast. Tanner's progression for the last year has been amazing. I'm happy to have a front row seat to it. We're having the time of our lives. We ended up 4th and 5th in the Expert class for the series and each walked away with some cash. Not a bad deal.

We're off to Evanston tomorrow for the last ICUP of the year. I'm ready for MTB racing to be over so I can do some fun MTB rides and get ready for cross. Tanner and I have been working on the cross bikes and we're almost ready to roll. Just need to glue some tires.

It's great having Erin home and we look forward to the family gathering Sunday. She had a great experience in Uruguay. We're enjoying our few weeks with her before she and Ashley go back to Logan for school.

The Joys of the Mirror Lake Highway

I could at least stand

The Suttlemyre's enjoying a casual climb!

Well as the pictures might indicate, that was one long and challenging climb from Evanston to the top of Mt. Baldie. If 50 miles of climbing isn't enough we had a hard head wind all the way back to Park City. It was so weird to look ahead and see the mountains so far off and know we had to go over them. Adam and I adopted the asphalt 10 feet in front rule, not the most scenic trip but much better mentally. When we left Kimball Jct. going to Evanston, we just flew along. I am thinking this is AOK. We were cruising along at 25 mph thinking not bad. We didn't preceive the same wind that we were going to be eating when we turned south.

We did have a great ride and it was a big confidence builder for lotoja. I had felt so bad the Sat. before and it was unknown miles on a tandem for both Adam and Mindy. Big props to the Sutt's. Adam was putting out the power and was deep in the effort cave. Mindy is such a great person to be around. She is so positive and she kept me hydrated, reminding me to drink, a big part of the good ride I had.

I would have to say that the effort and difficulty of the Tour de Park City and Lotoja and about equal. I'm not so sure both in one year is the best option, but we will see in a few weeks. Our only regret was we didn't have our other teammates along. It seemed like a solo ride for most of the race. Well we look forward to being with you all in a few weeks and best of luck to our Ulcers group tomorrow. Ride Safe Doug

Tour de PC

Before going into the details of the ride I'll let ya see a few of the pics

Doug climbing to the top of Bald Mountain. He Climbed like a champ and didn't cramp. I think all his hard training is paying off.Mindy taking a pic just before we reached the top

At this point in the ride I was starting to wonder if we would ever make it to the top. See that same view for around 3 hours was hard.

Although my view was better than what Mindy had to deal with all day.

After a while I would only focus on the road about 300 yards ahead

Reaching the top of Bald Mountain was harder than reaching the top of the King of the Mountain in Lotoja.

On the home stretch back PC

The finish line

The photo Finish

Going into the ride I worried about how Mindy and Doug would do, but both of them did great. I might have been the weak link on this ride. I was drained by the time we finished and I would diffidently but the Tour de PC on equal grounds to Lotoja. Our total time and time on the bike for PC and Lotoja were about equal, but the the tandem sucked the juice right out of me. I've never felt so drained after a bike ride (I'm still down 4 lbs), but it did build my confidence for Lotoja in the fact that Mindy and Doug did so well.

Saturday I was bit worried about how I might do in Lotoja, but then I started thinking of all the little things I didn't do on this ride that I will do for Lotoja. First, I just need to eat and drink better for Lotoja. I was unprepared for the increased amount of energy I used up as compared to riding solo. Secondly, I knew the support crew was great, but not until you don't have them do you understand how much they help you. Not only physically with food, drink, and all the changing orders, but the mental encouragement in big.

Physically my gut was messed up for about 24 hours, my abs felt worse than my legs, and my butt had the feeling of finishing Lotoja. Other than that I feel great, but for some reason I can get full. I have to eat about every other hour. Not a snack a full meal. It's crazy.

Only 33 days to Lotoja or for Doug, Mindy, and me Part II