Road Trip Photos

The set is here and below

A Tough Training Week

I stand at the stove cooking, legs ache and feel weak. I shift my weight; hungry and tired, but happy. The shaky legs, the ache, are a good sign. It's a build week and I should feel it. It's been beautiful in Bend, warm and sunny. The weather has brought a renewed focus to the bike. As spring approaches, daylight drags on just a little longer, and more races fill the calendar. Afternoons are a rush to get into spandex and on the road or trails. It's a good feeling to put in the miles, to feel the legs come around. There is a focus, I know that as the work day ends another work day begins. I look forward to the work. Putting in work that doesn't show immediate results requires patience. I will be patient, I will do the work.

It just doesn't get much better- Powder and Mountain Bikes

Couldn't have asked for better weekend. This is one of the many things that makes Bend incredibly special. It seemed like everyone in town had a little bit of a buzz from being out in the sun, the snow, and on the trails.

Sat - The best day of skiing I can remember in a long time. Deep, light, powdery snow and blue sky. The whole mountain was open and it was just a great day of skiing. Ran into all sorts of friends and got a ton of good skiing in.

Sun - Sunny lazy morning filled with coffee, followed by a beautiful mountain bike ride with friends in short sleeves and shorts. Grilling on the porch with cold beers.

Just another spring weekend in Bend. Loving the daylight!

Echo Red to Red XC Mountain Bike Race

Who drives 8 hours for a two hour mountain bike race? Well, when it's early March and you're itching to do some racing, it's not a tough decision, especially when the weather is sunny and warm.

Fri night saw Serena and I loading up the car and getting on the road for a while so that we weren't leaving at 5 in the morning. We got to hwy 84 around midnight and got some shut eye in a state park just across the river from Biggs.

Some coffee and food and we were on the road in the morning, arriving in Echo around 9. It was a beautiful morning and there was a great crowd of folks out for a mountain bike race in some unseasonably warm weather. Echo is not surrounded by mountains or trees, but just endless rolling farmland, not what you would think of for mountain biking, but the race, the course, the crowds of racers...couldn't have been better.

A mass start saw the cat1/pro/single speed combined fields roll out. A little chaos on the dirt road leading into the single track caught me off gaurd and with a gap between me and a good group of folks we came screaming down the hill towards the single track. I got around a few riders at the last second, but immediately found myself slowing my pace in the twisting and turning that would continue for another 20 something miles. I made my way around folks where I could and extended a lot of effort in doing so, but would quickly recover and chase down the next group. I was getting into a good rhythm when an old teammate in front of me had a quick crash, without anyroom to avoid it we got tangled up and crashed, meanwhile some of the 10 riders we had worked to pass went screaming by. Back on the chase. Again I was picking people off one by one, feeling good that I was still moving up and feeling like I had some good legs. Some short fast climbs led into a rocky side-hill descent that was full of sharp rocks. Coming around the next corner I felt my rear wheel slip out and make the tell tale noise of a tire running way too low and rolling off. I pulled off the course and inspected the tire. I couldn't find any leaks or sealent coming out. I figured maybe it just burped some air out. I only had two c02 cartridges to work with so I decided to give the first one a shot and see if the tire didn't just seal up...no such luck, sealant came squirting out of a decent size gash right on top of the tire. I dug through my pockets again and fished out a tube and a gel wrapper to get the tire back going. My last co2 cartridge did the trick and I was rolling again after what seemed like the entire cat 1/pro/ singlespeed field had passed me. I knew my race was over at this point, but I wasn't about to soft pedal so I kept chasing and making my way up. I never made it even close to where I was when I flatted, but it was an amazingly fun course and a great day of racing around in the sun. Miles and miles of sunny snaking singletrack up and down over the prarie...Not a bad way to spend a saturday. A long finish section of dirt road and pavement rolled back into the tiny town of Echo and a welcome burrito.

Great races by the crew of sunnyside folks that were out there. A great win for Don. A great win for Serena. A bunch of second places and just a lot of happy racers!

It was great see so many people out and racing. It seemed like one of the bigger mountain bike races and its only March. I think between the weather and having a winter off, most folks were pretty anxious to get out. It's nice having some early races where conditions are excellent, makes me think we should have some more early races in around eastern oregon...Horse Ridge?

Screwed up and lost my photos, but I can assure you Serena sleeps with her bike, I had it documented.

Flat Tire!

Damn, a flat tire. That was my race, but certainly not the end of my day. What an awesome day ripping around the pastures and vineyards of Echo. Race report and photos coming soon.

Thanks for the words

From Belgium Knee Warmers

When the sh*t goes down and the screws are turned, we all wage the war against the ingress of doubt. Like cold, salty ocean water, doubt will find its way inside a breach and then… it’s only a matter of time before the ship goes down.

Following an effort so hard that it leaves the eyes bloodshot and your feet fried, a rider tries to sort out the race’s details. How can one’s fitness vary so greatly on back-to-back days? All things being equal, one can point to doubt.

At times, denying doubt is harder than any of the physical efforts doled out. When the group is strung out into a razor sharp point and riders begin popping, doubt becomes tough to ignore. At that moment, the difference between a good day and a bad day is determined by the mind’s willingness to ignore the persistant whisper of that f*#ker doubt."

Bend in Bike Magazine

We already knew that mountain biking in Bend was amazing, it's possible to mountain bike mostly year round. Just head east in the winter to Cline Butte, Smith Rock or Horse Ridge and all of sudden you've got a whole new set of options. In the spring and fall most everything is great. Once summer hits, head up into the woods to avoid the dust. Well, Bend got some props for being a great spot to bike. Not that we didn't know that, but it's great to see Bend getting it's dues. Check out the March issue of Bike magazine. When people ask me about how I like Bend, one of things that I always seem to bring up is how easy it is to get out and be on the trails. I can pretty much ride dirt from my house to the trails and not ever need to load up a car and drive to a trail head. It's not lost on me how fortunate I am for this. It's a privilege to be able to live in a place where this opportunity is available. It's one of the things that makes Bend a special place to live.

Here's the link to the article (pdf file)