TJ Woodruff ONLINE

Today’s race was pretty cool and was one of those great days spent out on the trails. Levis is one of my favorite places to ride and the course featured some of the best stuff there. We raced for 25 miles and the results turned out in the ‘normal’ order – Jesse scoring the W, Marko easily winning the style award en route to second, and me taking third. So third was the result, but today was full of firsts. I was racing aboard a borrowed bike that I hadn’t ridden on dirt much more than an hour prior to today. First time with a big front wheel, first time rigid, and first time single. The big wheel and rigid setup were easy to figure out, but the single gear part is a little bit tricky since I was slacking out there a little too much. I kept forgetting that I couldn’t go hard on the flats or descents and therefore I should have attacked the ups a little bit harder than I did. This evening I’m feeling spent but in a weird sort of way – more like I’m beat up rather than exhausted if that makes any sense.

Bike racing is bike racing and today proves that the more variety, the more fun the overall experience. In the past seven days I’ve done a geared wors race, a tuesday night crit, and now a ss mtb race. All good times yet each it’s own unique experience. It was good to get out there to see what the single gear racing is all about and I’ve got a high level of respect for those who race these bikes full time. Thanks to Pete for the bike and to Jesse for lining it up. The next race will be more business as usual – shifting into the big gears at Eau Claire next Sunday. Chloe placed eighth at Deer Valley today which is pretty awesome. It’s the first time in four years I haven’t done the NMBS there, but I’m not missing it too much at the moment. Looking forward to the East coast stuff after having sharpened my game here in WI. Have a good one, -TJ

photo courtesty of Nachobar.com

This race came down to the final stages once again in a way somewhat resemblant to last year. Our lead group of six played a tactical race on the fast, flat and rain-soaked course. The tacky soil was quick for the most part, but the critical areas of the course were the mud bogs that had been partially filled with wood chips – serious watt suckers. I ran the Oriflamme tires which proved to be a good call as they hooked up nicely and rolled fast all day.

From the start I was ready to race and have a rematch from last week. The first snafu was at the start when the diamond file tread didn’t hook up so well on the wet grass under the big torque. My first two downstrokes at the line yielded a cool ‘zip, zip’ sound effect, but I hadn’t moved forward. Having enough of ameatur hour I accelerated gingerly and got up the hill and into position. I moved up soon enough to sit in until the going got a bit hot towards the end of the first lap (of three). Mike launched his tire so we had to chase back up to the Lalondes. The second lap was mostly mellow and I kept first, second, or sometimes third wheel into the singletrack, but never further back. With six guys on, the train gets too stretched out for that.

During the final lap things were getting more tactical and we were sprinting into most of the singletrack sections. I might have led some of the earlier sections, but the later sections Jesse and Marko were wise to position themselves in front of me. There was some good racing going on and I was all for it. Good battles can be hard to come by, but I knew with these guys it was going to fun. Jesse had a couple good blocks for Marko but I kept the chase on hard. Mega-hard. I caught back on at one of the connector ski trail sections and had a brief moment of respite, but it didn’t last for long as we were now ripping through the mud bogs putting down some inside-out type efforts. It was the second to last bog that they got a bit of a gap and left me to chase. I could see them up the trail, but I was at the limit and closing it down for a second time was a steep order, but I hadn’t thrown in the towel. I kept at it until losing it in final mud bog, doing a pretty good slip and slide, smacking my left calf into the pedal hard enough for it to cramp. That was it for me and I had to be content with third and simply finish before getting caught from behind. I pedaled it in, but wanted more. Third place is great, but fortunately the season is young and I’ll get another fight for a win soon enough.

In other news Scot decided to race after a ten year hiatus from the knobbies. He medaled in Comp which was a solid return. Also, his brother Bret did bottle feeds for us which was a HUGE help to our performances. On race day you can’t go fast without good support so I’m grateful for those who help make it happen. Lower your rotating mass, keep fueled, your vision clear, and training on course for success. You can also find yourself a cool Swiss bike next time you’re in the market. Rumor has it the next battle might be out of my element. Some generous folks are finding me a 1×1 machine so I can join in on the fun…

-TJ

The Subaru Cup was once again my return to WI, though this year it’s comes a couple months earlier. Some of the details changed, but much of the Cup went off just like last year with the top three spots unchanged. The XC started off hard enough that a smaller, early separation was made. Jesse and Marko went up all the hills at the same speed, regardless of its pitch. This meant it was either a doable effort, a hard effort, or an inside out effort as I followed them around. And after a couple of inside out efforts on the course’s steepest climbs their gap was established. So for four laps it was TT mode and I stuck with the doable and hard efforts, but no more inside out efforts. Without much ‘racing’ going on at least I was able to enjoy the course and it’s jungle like feeling (it’s been awhile since I’ve ridden nice dirt under thick tree canopy). It was all enough to finish third. Apparently Jesse and Marko really like those inside out efforts and I’ll have better acquire my taste.

Day two of the Cup started off in full style and I was left to vie for the overall in the absence of the Lalondes. The Super D was off the hook with the lemans start (video to be posted in a day or two) as Paul darted to the top first. It’s been since my CC days in high school that I’ve run so quickly. Chasing Paul down the hill was all the motivation I needed to ride super fast and when all the heats were tallied up, we finished in the top two spots.

The STXC course was great in that there was always something going on and it was plenty fast for the most part. The steep grassy climb was the critical feature and Brian and Tristan gapped me on the second or third trip around. I held them at 12 seconds for most of the race, but wasn’t making any ground back. Chris and I did some good battling for 3^rd, exchanging attacks every lap. His final burst up that grassy pitch was enough to ride away. 4^th for STXC and plenty exhausted from the weekend I was happy to have wrapped the overall. Breaking even after driving 2000 miles and paying my entry fee is pretty cool, especially when gas is $4 a gallon.

Next up will be the Reforestation Ramble. See you there. -TJ

I suppose that since I haven’t blogged much recently, the riding I did while in Colorado could be considered ’secret’. Spending a couple of weeks in Boulder was a great way to split the travel from Tucson to Wisconsin. There are so many mountain roads to explore that the rides seemed to go on and on. And that’s a very good thing. It felt really good to get into the riding groove again as for a while it seemed as if I was only racing and recovering. Getting back to big rides on consecutive days was just what I needed for the body and mind.

My CO stay ended with the Teva Mountain Games which once again proved to be a super fun weekend. There aren’t many races out there where cycling is part of a bigger festival, so it’s a nice change of pace and a good chance to see what ‘other’ people do. The huge prize checks made for some highly competitive racing which was a lot of fun. There were quite a few fans who hiked the mountainside to watch the xc, but this number was tiny compared to that of the other events. The World Cup climbing and kayaking competitions seemed to draw the most fans.

The XC was your standard slow motion altitude climbing race where it always seemed as if I should be going faster. But as soon as the effort is increased so is the fatigue since there’s not much oxygen available up there. This meant that nice and steady was the name of the game. I might have been one of the fastest sea level guys there so that’s got to count for something…

For the hill climb I was super pumped about the massive tailwind we would have. Last year we weren’t so fortunate so it was easy to take a big chunk of time off. I rode the flat part of the course conservatively so that I could let it rip once we started up Vail pass. This negative split seemed to work well as I turned in a pretty solid effort. No records were set on my part, but both the Men’s and Women’s winners set new course records.

Chloe blogs less than me these days so I’ll let you know that she had an awesome weekend, placing 5th in the xc and 3rd in the hill climb. She made some big payout and enjoyed the occasion. She even got to practice with some TT gear before really putting it to the test at the Nature Valley Grand Prix where she’ll be racing as part of a collegiate ‘all star’ team. This is an awesome way to experience the high level of women’s road stage racing. Six races in five days ought to be great.

Up next for me will be the Subaru Cup. I’m pumped to be back in Wisconsin and the thought of hitting up all the local stuff is exciting. It ought to be a good time as the local scene will be more hotly contested than ever this year. See you there,

-TJ