Roadie Dreaming...

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and make a bold statement, "If I was raised in Tucson I'd probably be a full time roadie".

Let me explain...
I started my racing "Career" as a roadie. Back in the days of steel frames and downtube shifters. Back when 10 speed meant two in the front and five in the back. Back when Greg Lemond was dominating the Tour-De-France. I lived down the Jersey shore back then and used to take my Nishiki out on epic all day rides, dreaming the whole time I would be racing in the tour myself someday. Well obviously that never happened. Somehow I ended up in Rutherford N.J. and after a few uneducated rides on those super dangerous Bergen county roads I gave up road cycling for running and ice hockey. It just wasn't the same. Until a friend at work introduced me to mountain biking. I was hooked and it's been full on ever since.

If I lived in Tucson would I ever been exposed to mountain biking? Doing a road ride out in the desert is awesome. The views, the other riders the endless rolling terrain all adds to the fun of road riding out here.

Leaving this morning on my mountain bike I decided to keep it on the road today. Following the endless parade of roadies out Old Spanish Trail was like racing in a time trial. Hammer a little, pick a few off and set your sights on the next group. I'm sure I took more than a few by surprise when I passed on a mountain bike, some try to jump on, sometimes successfully (I always make them pull through though). It makes me think what could have been if I could have ever attained this level of fitness as a roadie.

I'm almost sad to say but when I go home I'll soon be back to riding mostly in the woods maybe a little bit of mountain bike on the road just to get to the trails. Jersey has some great mountain biking, but the road? It's just not the same there.

"Feets don't fail me now"

I awoke today with excitement. Yesterday I planed on riding the final piece of last years SSUSA course but my legs were total shit from the previous two days. A boring recovery ride was in order so when I awoke today and the soreness was gone I knew just what I was gonna do. La Milagrosa baby!

The infamous climb up Redington Road, still on the pavement at mile zero. I timed this climb today. It takes about 20 minutes to get to this point from moms and the watch read a hour seventeen at the top. Fun, fun, fun.
Just to make sure I gave the proper review the other day about the High Chiva section of the course, I rode it again. That's where I ran into this guy and a couple of his friends. The climb to Chiva still sucks...

The entrance to the best hour and a half you will ever have. If your thinking on bailing on this race after the first loop, DON'T. You will soon be greatly rewarded.



After riding for a few minutes on the Bellota trail, I got a flat. While trying to find something to stick in the hole to fill the void the Stan's wouldn't, I had caught the attention of some bees. One bee turned to a few, so me and my flat tire high tailed it down the trail a bit to get away from the bees and complete the repair. I would repeat this at least three times. Finally I gave up on the Stan's and put a tube in. As I was pumping up my tire the bees seemed to start to swarm. Run!!! Fifty yards later, I finally got air in the tire jumped on the bike and never looked back.
The entrance to Milagrosa ridge trail,


The following pictures are of the actual trail. It may appear I just took pics of some random rocks but rest assured there is a trail there. Just concentrate on staying on the bike. Try to ride this too fast and you will make mistakes. Mistakes are extremely costly here.As well as here...

The views on the Milagrosa ridge are amazing. Try not to be awestruck and keep you eyes on the ultra techy trail...


Remember, If you open it, close it...

Coming soon: La Milagrosa...

Not that I'm attending...

Today I prerode the SSAZ course. What the course was last year I should say. Not the whole course, just the opening 9 mile climb and the first loop. I had intended to do the whole thing but I got lost (again) and by the time I got back to Redington Road the watch was creeping up on 3hrs 30m. With the second loop being about a hour and a half then the 30m ride home I quickly did the calculations and realized I had not enough food or more importantly drinks to continue. No biggie, coming down Redington at mach one was a load of fun also. So much so I got rejuvenated and managed to pull a 30min race effort at the end of the ride surprising even myself.

After a 6 mile neutral start you will be treated to the opening climb of Readington Road...
Don't be alarmed by the gunshots. There are many areas where future assassins get to hone their skills. Worried about taking pictures of people with guns, I snapped a photo of the only vacant target area...
Keep going...

At this point the climb gets less severe... It's not over till after mp12 but it rolls after mp10
Finally the payoff...
The Arizona trail is some of the sweetest single track I've seen out here. Rocky, flowing and loose in sections it can be ridden very fast but takes some steady handling to do so. Unfortunately it's over in just a few miles and after a few fences and an annoying washed out stream bed comes the part of the course I disliked the most last year. The climb to High Chiva...
Watch your nuts while jumping the fence...

Washed out stream bed. I emptied my shoes after this, you of course will be racing...

The climb to High Chiva is best described as the fire road climb from hell. Estimated at 3 miles long, this fire road isn't your typical Ringwood fireroad. There could no truck in the fleet that could traverse this climb. To add insult to injury, The descent is worse. My chest was on the seat many times and the surface is extremely loose. By far the hardest unfun part of the course.

A little more single track then a rocky fireroad climb will bring you back out on Redington. I made a left to head for home you will be making a right to climb back up to the Arizona trail, this time you'll head the other way on the Arizona trail. Your SSAZ experience is about to get a whole lot better.
I'll check that out tomorrow for ya...

Today I ate a year old Lara bar...

Flying in to Tucson late last night, the first order of the day was to build the bike I sent FedEx last week...
Piece of cake (Thanks to the expert packing of Mike at Dark Horse cycles)
It's only 11:30 and I'm ready to go. Notice the full Camelback and the two bottles...
Fantasy Island was on tap today, super fast with tons of corners. Took the long way there to get some road miles in before the fun. Riding like a man on a mission, I passed a couple of roadies wearing Canadian national jerseys on Old Spanish Trail, pleasantries were exchanged, then I'm on my way. No time to waste, I've got business to attend to...




Oh! the Lara bar. It was left in my pack from when Jocelyn was here last March. At first I was confused, forgetting she was here later then me last year. I almost felt violated, like some stranger had worn my Camelback since I was here last. then I remembered, and proceeded to chow down on her "food of choice".
A year old Lara bar tastes just like you would expect....Like cardboard.

68' today...

Swan Song

Meaning
A final gesture or performance, given before dying or retirement.

Origin
This term derived from the legend that, while they are mute during the rest of their lives, swans sing beautifully and mournfully just before they die. This isn't actually the case - swans, even the inaccurately named Mute Swans, have a variety of vocal sounds and they don't sing before they die. The legend was known to be false as early as the days of ancient Rome, when Pliny the Elder refuted it in Natural History, AD 77:

If people ever did believe in the 'singing before death' story, few would now claim to do so. 'Swan-song' is now used figuratively and most commonly to refer to celebrated performers embarking on 'farewell tours' or 'final performances'. Those ironic quote marks were never more appropriate than in the case of Nellie Melba, whose swan song consisted of an eight year long string of 'final concerts' between 1920 and 1928. This led to the popular Australian phrase - 'more farewells than Nellie Melba'.

Lets go out with guns blazing...

T-Minus 7 weeks...

Seven weeks till race season for me. Sounds crazy, Right? It's only January I know, but I've been doing my prep work and things seem to be going well. Very well I must say. Without saying too much....
Right now it looks like I'll be leaving frosty New Jersey for the Grand Canyon state around the 24th of February. On the 26th I'll be opening the season at White Tanks mountain park in Waddell, Arizona (near Phoenix). The next weekend off gives me plenty of time to prep in the sun for the U.S. Cup race #1 at Bonelli park in San Dimas, California. I hope to be doing the whole triple crown thing with the XC on Saturday and the Short Track and Super D on Sunday. This being a UCI class 2 event I'm sure all the big boys will be there. Flying back from LAX should be an adventure with the U.S. cup site specifically stating that "LAX is 1 hour 15 minutes WITHOUT traffic". Did you notice the capital letters? If you know me and my love of driving at all you would guess right that I'm sure to have muttered "I could have driven to Jersey by now" sometime during this trip at least once. Getting back to Jersey will be a shock with the freezing cold still hanging around. But not to worry, Two weeks later I'll be at Michaux.....