Tour of Utah Criterium

The Tour of Utah culminated in downtown Salt Lake surrounded by fans. The public lined the course as the 90 minute race flew past in a blur. The crit is a unique opportunity to watch some of the strongest riders around put themselves to the test.


The over all race was taken by Rock Racing's Francisco Mancebo of Columbia. If you all didn't get a chance to go out and watch the race, check out www.Tourofutah.com later in the year to find information on next years race.

Floyd Landis from team Ouch in the left of the picture above.
The second to the last lap. Utah's own Jeff Louder from team BMC attacks.

Last of Summer

The looming black clouds of homework, tests, and student life now drift back into our lives.  This would be the last day free from having those thoughts nagging at the back of our minds while we blow off responsibility and have fun.  

The plan was to go early.  I woke up to the sound of rain... crap.  I let everyone know we would postpone things a few hours while we waited it out.  It let up and we were back on.  Meeting at the mouth we headed up to Cannabis Wall where we made our way across the river.  We had the grill in tow and we knew it would be a long lazy day up the canyon.

I put up the hammock and ate almost a whole pack of hot dogs.  The climbs were different but fun.  Some of the moves were awkward and uncomfortable but all in all it was a good day of climbing.  Eric had a good day and my friend Jeff threw down on some hard routes.  He was working on a 5.13a that he cut a ligament on a while back.  Hard.

We all swam in the river afterward. Robbie had to get creative and made a swimsuit out of his t-shirt.  We decided to call it a day and as I walked up the bank with the grill where I had a nice stumble.

Cooking wieners and its opposite there in the river.

Wet roads... hopefully not wet climbs.

Follow this guy (round two)

Getting the gear out.

Robbie begins each day on purpose.

Follow this guy.

Robbie.  

Adventure Tuesday (two weeks ago)

Pulling together the usual crew we fell into tradition and met at the mouth of American fork canyon. We haven't been able to pull together anything to out of the ordinary in the past few weeks so we fell into the "traditional tuesday" where we climb and swim. We went up to the Membrane yet again because we all had things to conquer. Unfortunately I had a horrible day of climbing. I fell 3 times on the 10d which was rather frustrating.

Everyone else had a good strong day and it was a good time. We then headed back to the Andra's house where I was staying and we played a long game of depth charge. (we invented it. The idea is you swim across the bottom of the pool while everyone throws scuba weights at you) The day was a success.

1000 Warriors

Plopping down into my sleeping bag on the deck of a vacant house we borrowed, I looked out over Park City. My stomach was happily full of fish tacos, blueberry bagels, and whatever else I could find. Why is it that so few places make good fish tacos? There are a million places that make an "okay" fish taco... I lay there trying not to think about the next morning where I would be pulled from my slumber at 5:30.

An alarm from the Rocky soundtrack pounded into my ears and I looked at my clock. 5:10? I still had 20 more minutes. When it sounded again five minutes later I knew it was time to get going. After eating a large bowl of cereal with my makeshift spoon (my hands), I got my stuff together and the team headed out the door to the starting line. We warmed up a bit and made last minute adjustments on our bikes. At 6:50 we were off.


It was a mellow pace all through Kamas and Midway. When we turned up the Alpine Loop, Eric and I just sat on the wheels of the guys leading the race and made sure we didn't expend any energy that we didn't have to. Slowly the pack thinned out until there were five of us in the lead group. We made the summit and started down the decent.


We happened upon the crash as the ambulances were getting the guys taken care of. Life Flight buzzed overhead and then headed back down the canyon in search of a place to land. After waiting for 15 minutes or more the ambulances made their way down and we were allowed through... I have never seen that much blood... The cyclist went through the back window of the SUV at around 40 mph. It cut him from his ear down to the top of his sternum which severed his jugular. If it weren't for some EMT trained cyclists... the guy is lucky to be alive. The whole thing was bad. It was bad for the injured cyclists, their families, the race, and for all of us racing. for the whole story check out this link- http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7636047


The race continued onward and was pretty much a re-start because everyone was standing around for so long that all the time gaps went away. We had about 5 minutes on anyone behind us when we hit the top of the loop. The climb up Suncrest was a lot of fun though. It thinned out quick and we retook the lead. When we made the decent I am sure I hit my all time fastest speed. Eric had 55 mph on his computer and I pulled away from him pretty quick so I think I was pretty close to 60 mph at my fastest. With the cross wind I had about a 5 foot swing with each gust.


I started to get dehydrated and was sick of sports drinks, I just wanted water... I didn't get it until the top of wasatch... I got dehydrated, stopped eating and bonked. There went the race. Eric left me in the dust and powered his way ahead of anyone else. He finished almost 10 minutes ahead of second place. I came in about 20 minutes behind him. 12th place. Stupid mistakes. But 5 hours and 27 minutes ride time isn't all that bad for that ride. I think it will be an easy time to beat the next time I ride that course.


Little Cottonwood is always miserable but, in the thick of bonking, it was the worst time I have ever had on a climb. I finally felt I could cram some food and it hit me with about 500 meters to go. I was able to pound out that last little bit pretty dang quick. There are always "what if's" and "I should have's"... Live and learn. I am glad I got some things figured out with this one and I wont be so dumb during the Lotoja.



Zazoosh.com took these of the race if you couldn't tell.

Lake Powell... With the Bike.

Getting ready for the 1000 warriors race... I didn't want to be off the bike for a week.  Todd helped me stay motivated.  I don't think wakeboarding and surfing helped me to be loose for race day. Oh well. It was an awesome trip with the family.

Amidst a Move

We finally sold our home in Highland. This week was filled with the move and I was only able to get away for brief interludes (none of which having my camera in tow). In the shuffle of the move a friend called me asking for help with a group of young women who would be climbing. I decided I didn't want to sleep on the couch again so I headed up the canyon where I strung up the good ol' hammock and went to sleep.

I awoke the next morning meeting them and getting some climbs ready for the group. My friend Bob told me that he was driving up and heard on the radio that someone in their mid-twenties, camping alone, had committed suicide during that night in American Fork Canyon. He was kind of worried for a minute that it might be me. Don't worry, it wasn't.

The rest of the week involved more moving, and more training on my bike. I met Bob again for a ride Saturday up in Heber. It is such a beautiful area up there. Looks like I will have some good adventures this week to update, but in the meantime here is a recent article that the Herald Extra put out on Bob. It's a good read so check it out. Heres the link.

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