Better Ride Training Camp for Mountain Bike Team

Yes, Mountain biking, Fruita, Betteride Training Camp and one local sports bar, what else is needed? Seven of us headed to Fruita, Colorado from April 4th to 6th for a 3 day training camp with Gene Hamilton with Betteride. Blue Sky riders Darrin, Pete, Cindy, John, Dave J, Kevin, and Phil all make the pilgrimage to ride dry tight single track while improving upon our skills and riding abilities. Now, you might say why do I need to learn MTB skills? Well, most of us never really practiced skills, we just get on the bike and go ride--which is one way to learn, but may never improve your positioning, vision, and just overall efficiency with cornering and technical objects. That is where Gene comes in. He runs you through three days of skills, drills, and thrills to help you improve yourself, your confidence, and overall riding. All of us learned something, whether it was from doing a better wheelie, making a steep switchback, to improving your vision by just looking down the trail more, versus your front wheel! Here are some pics to give you an idea of how things went down.

Day 1: Body position, balance, and weight.



Here is the campsite at the State Park in Fruita just before the sun went down. Pete and John braved the cold while the others took refuge in the local Motel 8. The first night down to 20 degrees so the hot tub at the hotel for sure sounds like the better choice!

Here is everyone getting ready in Loma TH parking lot just West of Fruita. This is also where the Kokopeli Trail starts.











Here is the group heading out to work on skills towards the Moore Fun trail, Mary's Loop and Rustlers Trail. All right, now I have to catch up to all those racers!













This turned out to be our manual and wheelie practice stretch. No pics as we were all having way too much fun! Cindy and Darrin are the back two riders.







Here is the group working on visuals--gene was showing us that you remember and more peripheral vision than you think. Its all about trusting though! Cindy looking on as the rest of the group walks their bikes on the drill.








Gene showing about Vision on a turn off of the Rustler's Loop Trail. Basically, do not look at the rock, look way ahead! Pete to the left and Kevin to the right.







Recap of Day 1 with Gene to the right. From left to right: Cindy, Dave J, Phil, Pete, Darrin, and Kevin. This was at the entrance to the Rustler's Loop. Pete and I headed back to camp after this with dinner plans to join the group about 7:30 for a mexican food dinner. The other 5 brave soles headed out Mary's Loop to Horsethief Bench for a quick "3 HOUR TOUR". Pete and I get a phone call around 7:30...ummm we have not gotten back tot he cars yet so we are going to be a little late. All I heard was the someone fell off a cliff, a fwe others wrecked and Cindy's seat post blew up (uh, must be a speed ball!). Pete, Gene and John kept the bar busy while the group slowly trickled in, dirty, tired, and half bonking. What a first day!


Day 2: Cornering and braking skills.



We started the Day 2 out in a local town park right in Fruita. There was an empty parking lot that was perfect for Cornering drills using all sorts of crazy drills around orange cones. Here Dave J. gets a little help trusting being in a true cornering position with his weight over the BB and arms bent, while looking up! Pete and Darrin look on. What you cannot see is that Dave is actually track standing as he got more comfy with the balance.








Here Darrin practices more of the same.














Kevin having Gene find that sweet spot on the track stand with the weigth over your BB.










Here Gene had set up cones in an oval for working on those cornering techniques each of us were practicing above. As you approached the turn, you looked at one cone, as you got to the turn, you looked at the next one, as you were in the turn you looked to the third one. Great practice and gears you up for working on switch backs for sure. There was also some technique in keeping your weight over you BB and not on your handlebars. As you approach the turn, you can also push forward on the inside grip and your bike will just magically turn itself!




Here we are all meeting up at the top of the Kestle run trail off of 18 road at the Bookcliffs. As we ride down this trail we were supposed to work on proper cornering position that we had worked on in the park, but the damn trail is so fun--you have to let it go a little! Gene was not so happy about that!








After a quick fun ride down the Kestle trail we rode up part of Prime Cut to this large rock obstacle. Here Gene was showing us about how to approach this rock and how to get up and over it smoothly.

Here is a video of Gene showing us how its done.

At the top of prime cut is Chutes and Ladders. We did not ride the whole thing which was a shame but we did use th first steep climb to practice braking and position while descending. Here Kevin shows us how its done without locking the rear wheel and leaving a nice rut in the trail. We all rode back over to Kestle and did another run all the way back to the parking lot before heading out.

The 2nd day ended up with a few pizzas at the Tomato on main street and then a short jaunt to the local sports bar--the only bar actually. I think the music stopped when we walked in. Pete could not get served and the local boys seemed intimidated by Dave. On top of that, it was country night with one guy and a keyboard. Welcome to Fruita! If we had stayed any longer and a few more beers, we probably would have made the headlines the next day.



Day 3: Large Obstacles, Switchbacks and more balance!



Today we headed to The lunch loops out of Grand Junction on the East side of the Colorado Monument. These are great spider web of trails that range from the extreme to the beginner level of trails and technical. Here is the parking lot and you can see Gene's big white Dodge mobile that he runs the camps out of.






The rest of day 3 did not copy over..will fix that soon--there are three videos in it so that is probably what is wrong. Stay tuned! JP

Oredigga' part duex

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and my legs were aching from the 85 mile donut ride the day before. the box of sake from Saturday night helped me get a good nights sleep, so i couldn't complain. I slapped on some new race rubber and jumped in the car for the oredigga'.

this course, while being dubbed a circuit race, was pretty rippin--pulling laps in just under 3 minutes. So it felt more like a crit. I jumped off the hood of my car into my skinsuit and warmed up on the trainer, feeling less than optimal, but stoked on the tight, technical course taking us through the scenic, if architecturally disjointed, school of mines campus.

I roll to the line and check in with the posse. Ryan and Horacio are feeling pretty tore up from big Saturday rides of their own, but are pinning on numbers to get some stage race practice. We line up when called-- a bunch of lycra-clad white boys tap-dancing their way into the street. i score a front row seat. Then the dude tells us to take a practice lap. From watching the collegiate race just before ours, I know that some kid got hauled out by the medic on the "practice" lap, so i get my game face on. Horacio does the same, and gaps the field on the practice lap. Action is hot and heavy at the front, as I jockey for position. Horacio nips the field at the line, and we both take notes to show up for the "practice-lap-podium-and-awards-presentation" immediately following the event.

Horatio hanging tough:

the gun goes off. Horacio is out like greased lightning, and i get to the front for the first downhill. The pavement on the downhill is rugged and off-camber in most spots. I imagine I am driving the car from hardcastle and mccormick through the set of robocop. my theory from years past holds true that cat'4s cannot corner or descend, and i effortlessly slide off the front on the downhill. however, the correlary of that theory also holds true, and i effortlessly slide back into the back on the uphill.

Rob in the lead group:

by lap two, six minutes into the 45 minute race, we are strung out like a runway model*. I hang onto some sort of lead pack, and we shell out guys every climb. I literally cannot stand riding my brakes through the downhill, though, and i slip off the front, only to be re-absorbed in a few minutes. I can tell the legs do not have it to try to make something stick.

Rob ripping some corners:

So, I patiently wait for the one lap to happen when i cannot hang on with the surge on the climb. Sure enough, with about 6 laps to go, I get ejected to no man's land. I have one other rider to suffer with, and we make an attempt to stay close to the lead. It is futile, even though we make time on the downhill, the uphill is just burning us alive. I look back and see ryan valiantly bridging up to me, and we ride together for a couple laps, until he slips past me for the 10th place spot at the line.

Ryan haulin' ass in for 10th:

I come across just behind him in 11th, with a few people on my wheel.

The afterparty:

All in all, not bad for any given sunday.


Nice work to all of you who put the hammer down at the Koppenberg!

*quote credit to Dave Towle.

Over and out.
Marty & Rob

Oredigger Classic Circuit Race

The race du jour for me was the Oredigger Classic Circuit Race in Golden. It was a 6 corner course with some nice descending, climbing, and high speed cornering on each lap. Horacio, Rob, and I all showed up with 60+ hard Saturday miles in our legs. I consider it good stage race training for the Gila.

We all showed up at the start line in plenty of time to secure a front row starting position. There are a lot of high speed corners, and race director had everyone take a lap to check out the course. So much for my front row starting position because I wasn’t really willing to jockey for position on this parade lap. I ended up in about the fourth row.

At the gun, I saw Horacio and Rob go out hard and take up the front while I did my best to gain some early positions. I hung on in the top 20 or so. We hit the climbing part of the lap and I had to get on the gas hard. Just before the climb there is a high speed corner and people were really braking through it. This meant I had to regain my speed to try and catch up with the front of the race. I was passing a ton of people on the climb, so I know I was working hard.

Eventually, I got dropped on that climb a few laps later. The braking and surging finally killed me. If I could have made it closer to the front, I really think I could have hung. Later in the race I was taking that corner at full speed, so I know all that earlier breaking was killing me.

Rob and I both came unhitched around the same time, and I spent most of the rest of the race taking the “Rob Love High Speed Cornering Clinic”. Holy crap. Rob can take a corner. As I was behind him, I tried to follow his lines through the corners and it really helped. I even managed to scrape my Speedplays a couple times as I tried to get on the gas early out of the corners.

In the end, I took 10th and Rob took 11th. Horacio’s legs finally screamed loud enough that he decided to listen and join the cheering section on the sidelines.

After a hard race, I'm recovering on the couch with a Belgian Blonde (Ale) and a Belgian Quadruple watching the Tour of Flanders. Those Belgians sure know their beer.

Here's Rob showing you how to take the inside line of a corner like a pro:


More pictures from today's race are on the BSV Photo Pool on Flickr.

Koppenberg Circuit Race

The first road race of the year is always the Koppenberg Circuit Race. With 50% of the course on dirt it seems like the perfect transition from cyclocross season.

After a prolonged 5-hour donut run on Saturday, I didn't have the freshest legs at the start line, but then again, if you peak for Koppenberg you have some serious issues to take to your cycling psychologist -- ie, Kevin. However, I would like to remind you it's not appropriate to have an intimate relationship with your psychologist, or so they tell me at BCH ... eh, more on this later.


The first race of the year is always met with a certain amount of consternation.

Despite the soggy legs, the worst-case scenario for me was that Koppenberg would be a 90-minute workout with the added bonus of an excuse to suit up in the brand-spanking new long-sleeve skinsuit.



Jose and I took off with the 3s at an absolutely frantic pace. We covered the first lap in under 12'30", which is an average speed of 26+ mph. I felt worked but pleasantly surprised at the good sensations and the fact that everyone else was starting to look a little tired. On the back-side climb I rode right up the side of a strung-out peloton with a gushing "who me?" expression on my face. Unfortunately, during the descent back to Costco a couple riders banged heads, leaned on each other, and promptly hit the ground not more than a couple bike lengths ahead of me. I was able to slow significantly, but still had no choice but to hit one of the dudes and take a brief extravehicular flight. I got up, found my bike, and kept on going. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, Jenna assures me the long-sleeve skinsuit was unscathed. I was a little nervous riding with a gash on my shin, but so long as this was a high-quality workout I wasn't packing it in. It's too bad I wouldn't see the front of the field again, because I think I might have been good for a top 10.

Meanwhile, Jose was making his debut in the Cat3s. I can sympathize with the experience, because every time you make a leap it always feels mighty fast! Jose, I promise you that you'll get desensitized to this. Last year after a season of getting bashed in the 3s, I dropped down to 4s for cyclocross season and felt like an absolute stud!



I ended up in the second group on the road, with probably 25 guys ahead. I was riding with guys who got dropped, so I was probably one of the stronger guys. Cat3s still don't know how to paceline or cooperate, so it was too bad that we never picked anyone up, but I wasn't about to embark on a fruitless attempt to bridge. I just sat and waited for an opportunity to attack on the final lap.

On the last lap I rode away with 2 other guys on the climb, and we had a gap that would stick. This was a perfect scenario for me because I didn't want to solo in the windy conditions. The sprint from the final corner is 400m, and of course someone went ... I was sitting 3rd wheel and waited till about 150m, but was only able to come away with 2nd in the sprint. In retrospect I should have waited longer.



After the finish I had the medics take a look at my leg, but they couldn't really do too much for me. Jenna and I then headed to BCH Foothills to get it cleaned out. Three stitches and a few Pumphouse brews later and the first race of the season is officially in the books!

And I almost forgot ... mom always tells you to wear clean underwear in case you end up in the ER ... well, this should be amended for racers to, "Remember to wear any underwear at all!" I hit the road in the chamois this morning and had to visit the ER commando ...

Clothing Sorting

A special thanks to all the troopers who braved cold temperatures and Isaac's insistence to sort clothes in the open air until 9pm!

Your heroes in no particular order: Bill Teasdale, Dan Farrell, Ryan Lewandowski, Joel White, Jose Castilleja, Steve Capstick, Jenna Dancy, Isaac Dancy, Michelle Vercellino, and Dave Kilmoyer.

3/27 Team Meeting Report

Excellent team meeting last Thursday! Thank you to everyone who gave up their evening's training for a couple hours to hang out, drink some Pumphouse beer (and Ziggi's coffee), meet 80 of your teammates, learn what's going on with Blue Sky Velo and get Race Day Nutrition tips from sponsor Dr. Rodgers of Colorado Sports Chiropractic. That's the quick overview of the evening... Not enough to convince you to pencil in the next team meeting?

Well then here are a few more details.

A few snapshots from the meeting: 

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

One of Blue Sky Velo's new for 2008 sponsors, Dr. Jeremy Rodgers, accomplished adventure athlete, doctor of sports medicine, radiology and chiropractic presented: Race Day Nutrition tips.

But first each member of the Blue Sky Velo Board of Directors presented a short report of what their sub-team (MTB, 'Cross, Road, Club and Triathlon) is planning for the season. Lots of exciting plans for 2008 including racing, great deals, rides, parties, etc etc. To find out more, contact your Captain if you're not already in the 'loop'.

Find your team captain here (select "Directors/Team Captains" from the pull-down menu).

Finally, framed jerseys were presented to a few of our esteemed 2007 Blue Sky Velo sponsors - make sure you look for them hanging on the walls of Ziggis Coffee, The Optical Centre, The Pumphouse Brewery, Edward Jones, Blue Sky Cycles and the Longmont Athletic Club.

Mad Cow Classic

I shirked my duties as a front range racer and I went out to Grand Junction over the weekend to race the Mad Cow Classic.

Executive summary:
I stayed with the lead group as we whittled down the group from 40-ish to under 10. I had a good race and I ended up finishing in 5th place.

Keep reading if you want the gory details.....


Course description:
About 7 miles out, 3 laps around a mesa, then back to the start. Each lap is about 14 miles and 1200 feet of climbing. The lap consists of a long false flat, a long descent, and a relatively short steep climb.

Summary:
About 30-40 riders lined up for the start. The group was Cat 3, Cat 4, and 35+ open. I'm a Cat 4, so racing with Cat 3's and 35+ is a good challenge.

The race started a little quicker than it has previous years. One guy in a Wyoming jersey sat 20' off the front for a while. I don't think it was any sort of strategy, rather it was inexperience. He spent a lot of time with his nose in the wind the whole race (which is fitting for a guy from Wyoming). There was a cross wind on the way out, and I was having a hard time getting a good position. Five guys lined up in an echelon at the front of the group and I tried to start a second echelon, to no avail. I mostly ended up shielding guys, and they weren't interested in returning the favor. Eventually, I squeezed my way into a good position by just squeezing someone out. I'm not normally good at that type of maneuver, but I'm trying to get better at taking the positions I want instead of waiting for them to magically open up for me.

We didn't go really hard up the first climb, but we dropped a lot of people (a handful actually caught up later). The first selection was big. At the top of the first climb a 35+ rider attacked. I've seen strange attacks go clear on this course before due to rider complacency, so I decided to bridge up to this guy. I bridged up to him cleanly, but the pack wasn't far behind and we were quickly caught. This guy made several attacks through the race. I think his plan was to put in some half-hearted attacks until the group got sick of chasing him.

Our first lap around the "loop" part of the race was pretty uneventful. We weren't soft-pedaling, but we weren't going all out either. I did my best to stay sheltered in the slight breeze, conserving as much energy as possible. We hit the big climb towards the end of the lap and it was hard but nobody really hammered it.

The false flat part of the loop was getting hard the second time around. My legs were feeling it for sure. I worked my way to the front before we started on the downhill portion because I really like to go through those high speed corners alone. I was trying to make sure I had access to the front of the group in case someone took off because this is exactly the spot of the race that someone soloed to the win last year. I got boxed in as I was eating a gel, and the 35+ rider attacked again. This time, it looked real. Once I got to a better position, I tried to get the group to chase. Nothing. They just sat there, willing to let this guy (who was clearly strong) get a gap. I tried two more times to initiate a chase. When that wasn't working, I tucked myself back into the group and chatted with some of the other guys. We decided that he shouldn't get any more of a gap, but we'd leave him hang until the false flat section of the course. I was happy that there was at least some organization and people willing to chase.

By now we were on the big climb for the second time, and my pre-race plan was to attack here. With someone off the front, though, and a somewhat organized chase behind, I decided to wait and possibly launch a counter when we reeled the leader in. We could see he was slowing down on the climb, so I was feeling confident that we would reel him in soon. Amazingly, this guy didn't make the turn for the final loop and instead headed back for the finish line. I'm not sure if he screwed up or what, but we were glad to see him go. His constant attacks were irritating. (Plus he majorly violated the yellow line rule on multiple occasions which is *not* cool. He got a good talking to about it on the road.)

I contemplated launching an attack on the false flat, but it's so hard to get away there because people can see you for a long ways. I decided my best choice was to wait for the last climb up the big hill and try to create a break. Coming up to the climb, the wind had picked up and I did a good job "resting" by making sure that I wasn't in the wind. I wanted to at least be on the front of this climb to cover any moves or make one of my own, so I was sitting second wheel.

On the way up, I could see two guys (teammates) making eye contact with each other, and I figured they had something in mind. It was those two guys and me up front. One guy accelerated, and his teammate immediately swerved over into me and guttered me. Totally lame move. If you're going to try to physically block someone, you need to at least be a little more discrete about it. The attack was quickly reeled in and (as expected) his teammate countered with another attack. He got a good gap and it was clear he was going to be trouble. The attacks at the top of the climb whittled down our group to just 6 - one guy was up the road and his teammate was in the chase group (and of course not chasing). That left 4 of us to chase, but one guy wasn't doing much. It was a little frustrating have to carry so much of the load, but none of us wanted to race for second place.

The lead guy was strong. He stayed away until about the last mile. (What a pro maneuver, catching the leader in the last mile.) I was pretty spent from all that work and I found myself in the back of our group of six as we came up to the line. Once people started to sprint, the guy in front of my broke his chain. I had to swerve around him, and it created a gap that I couldn't close. I don't know if I had the legs to take that sprint, but I would have like to have a better shot. Oh well, that's what I get for being in the back of that group. I still ended up finishing 5th, which is a really good result for me.