Dirt and knobby tires

This past weekend I decided to put my mountain bike skills to the test and race on the dirt.

It was super fun, and here are some pictures.

The racers- AP and Heidi G

Swanny, Lucy Bell, made sure our legs stayed loose by taking us on walks, tuning up our Frisbee throwing skills and making sure we could bend down to pick up her poo.


The staff, Josh and Greg, served us post race food at the campsite-

Then proceeded to work on our bikes.

The racing was hot, dusty, and FUN!! And my bike and well taken care of legs from Lucy Bell all worked very well.I was happy at the end, AND all the salt from the chips the night before ended up back on my face. Bonus!!

Espresso makes the time go by...

Q.-What do you do when you go on a mountain bike trip and it rains?
A.-Head to town to visit the coffee shop.

A#2- Go across the street to the next coffee shop and keep waiting.
A#3- Head back to camp to make press pot, to feed dogs and to get ready to (hopefully) ride.

A#4- Ride...and it is awesome!!!

Reality Check

After Redlands, I was kind of "flying high" (actually, there was no kind of about it). First race of the year, good success, fun times, lots of congrats e-mails, I was feeling pretty dang good about myself.

Then came the reality check.

While working at SG (cool bike shop) one day last week, a guy came in and was talking all about his race team and how they were going to go to Gila at the end of the month. This is how our conversation went-

(me)- "oh cool! I'm going to Gila too."
-"Nice. What Cat. are you?"
- (shocked surprise) "um...I'm Pro".
-"oh WOW! What team are you on?"
-"Team Type 1"
-"Oh I know that team! One of those guys totally ripped our legs off last week at the (local) crit".
-"Oh ya, that was Ian. He's pretty fast".

BOOM!! Crash landing back to reality. I'm not as fast and famous as I was thinking.

Then came the snow.
Followed by my whining.
My goals and desires followed all that up by telling myself to
"Harden the F--K Up!
Get over the snow, find your winter riding gear, and get out and ride".
There are more races to win.

Still sideways

Thanks to the snow that is falling sideways, the canyon to my home is closed.

This gives me time to post some Redlands pictures and to give more Redlands interesting facts.

Interesting fact #1- Redlands was fun. The racing was hard, my team was fantastic; both staff and riders, and we got good results (that always makes things more fun doesn't it?).

I-F- #2- our team was spread out among four host houses. I managed to eat food and lounge around at each house (same goes for The Mom and Dad).I-F- #3- Thanks to the shot of Patron I had Saturday night (it, um, clears the chest), I won on Sunday! Now my teammate, Kori, and I are winning both the overall and the sprinter jerseys of the Women's Prestige Series (that's cool! I told you this team was the bomb).I-F- #4- I get to be home for three weeks before the next race in Silver City New Mexico; The Tour of the Gila.

Sideways

Is this an April Fool's day joke?

March here in Colorado was awesome! Sunny, nice weather. Redlands California, was sunny, nice, warm weather.

April 1st in Colorado? Snowing...sideways.

I already put away my winter riding gear. Plus, I now have a light cycling tan from Redlands. I am not ready to ride in the winter anymore. Heck man!!

If you are interested in a Redlands update, (this time not just about poo-ing) stay tuned!! I have some great pictures I will post in the coming days (that way you keep coming and looking at the blog). In the meantime, check out teamtype1.org and click on blog. It's awesome (link at right).