Back to big bear

OK so went back to big bear to race, a few things were different. I'm now cat 1 , the bike was a new cannondale flash and I actually rested for a few days. We(dad and me) got there Saturday so I could pre run the course it was longer and different layout. Felt flat , maybe the rest or something else, so far I had great luck racing at altitude. The course was about the same as far as climbing and style fire roads and some single track.

Dinner was spaghetti and pizza some H2O drink After that a good night sleep, got up early so I could have a nice breakfast at the only place up there that opens at 7am on Sunday, I don't remember the name but lumber jack something, had waffles with bananas, eggs, bacon and juices. After that went back to the hotel for a 2hr nap.
I wanted to be warming up about an hour before the 11:03 start time, we were running a few minutes behind but it was fine, so we get to the staging area which is a half mile from the start. Now things got a little complicated then, as I get ready including getting My epic camera on the helmet I came to realize that my shoes are back at the hotel, I knew my dad was going to get pissed off when I tell him, because according to him I have 24hrs to get ready to race so no last minute things. I tell him he gets mad and leaves for the hotel to get them and try my best to warm up while wearing vans. He gets back with less than 10 minutes to race start.

I get to the starting line 11:03 comes and we are off, a few minutes into the race I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't get air in me I just felt well like crap it was weird I can't even explain it, but I was getting passed and for the 15-20 minutes I was just dying, after a while I felt that I riding a little better but the damage was done, I just kept going until I finished, got 5th. But it was awful.

We hung around so I could get my official cat 2 championship trophy, also to get measured for the so cal champ jersey, and as my dad would that's how you pay your sponsors with pictures and jerseys.

Next I will continue training to get ready for the State championship at bonelli park in September, will do road racing, track and any mountain bike racing I can find. i want that jersey, because I want to get the pro upgrade.

Cya
ed

Ok endurance racing time

After some back problems during my last race we decided against going to the nationals in July. So we had a weekend open to do some racing and try to figure out the pain, got my new frame(cannondale flash 2010) so we were going to try new things out and a 12hr endurance mtb race is a great race to do it.

Some guys from Ensenada Mex, asked me to join the 4 guy pro team, and I said yes.

We got there around 9am setup camp tents, tables ect. Took my bike to the mechanic there because of some chain rub, when I was using the big chain ring. I have a 2 *9 setup on my bike with a road derailleur up front, also my SI crank was making some noise an hour later he had it all done 5 dollar.

I didn't prerun the course so my first lap was a recon lap as well bike adjustment. The course was a real mtb course, lots of steep climbs mostly sinlgletracks a couple of fire roads. Right from the go we took the lead, the other teams were a few minutes behind, after 8-9 laps we had an 8 minute lead and bam disaster struck one of the guys had a flat that he couldn't fixed and we lost all but one minute.

Ok so we started again, now we were still running the same lap times late in the afternoon we had a 9 minute lead again, this time it was me who got the flat now I was running a tubeless upfront, of course I got the flat at 9pm, I get the tube in but I couldn't inflate the tire the reason was silly the silly nut that holds the valve stem in place it was missing, and the pump I was using didn't have a lock. So after a long while of fighting this I decided to run to the check point to have them call in the team , to have another guy come a get the baton.

Well after that disaster we dropped to 3rd and there weren't enough laps left to over come my time lost. So we got on the box and I think I got the bike and back pain sorted out.I'm going to skip the nationals because we need to be 100% sure that the pain is gone and Colorado is far and expensive to go and have it act up again. So we are running the last race of the So cal cup on sunday, I upgraded to Cat 1 so it should be fun, and I also get to try my cat 2 champ jersey.

Hopefully my new 2010 lefty gets here before the race, is cooler and lighter. I had all the guys in the team try my h2o overdrive drink and they loved it. I personally think it works great no real sweat marks anymore.

Will do an update after the big bear race.