Archive for December, 2008

Dec 16 2008

Desert Delight

Posted by: tjwoodruff in Training Report

 

dreary desert riding
dreary desert riding.

 

singletracked
singletracked.

 

rainbow
rainbow over Gates.

 

avoid the pointy stuff.

avoid the pointy stuff!

 

Desert trails are awesome. When it’s 45 and drizzling they’re even better. Nothing like the flow of the trail to keep you feeling warm inside.  Sunday I got out for 45+ miles on the knobbies, making the most of the ‘nasty’ weather.  Rainy and windy days make the best opportunities to get on the trails and I was fortunate enough to have planned for trail riding anyways. Most of the locals have adopted the weather.com plan and miss out on such fine opportunites.

Saturday marked the return to the infamous Shootout ride, my first time back since last spring. It was plenty fast and a handful of us fought the huge wind all the way up into Madera Canyon.  It actually got easier when it got steeper since the trees protected us from the winds. We easily rode at 30 mph the whole way backon old Nogie thanks to the tailwind. 95 miles and a solid day on the bike. A little bit of suffering can be a lot of fun.

Sunday’s trail ride was the perfect follow up and the trails were quiet for the most part. Tucson Mountain Park has some great stuff and I rode most all of the trails there before calling it a day.  These pictures are a taste, but do little justice to the clarity that can be found while on the trails. Good stuff and it gets better everytime I go back.

-TJ

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Dec 07 2008

AZ State CX Championship

Posted by: tjwoodruff in Race Report
Thanks to Jeremy and the crew of AZCross.com for making these events possible.  They put together some excellent races, always well organized and a lot of fun to do. 
Marty rode into the drink.

Marty rode into the drink.

Chloe crossed it up on her MTB. She won.

Chloe crossed it up on her MTB. She won.

Brian won his Championship event.

Brian won his Championship event.

Dan won too. Tucson was well represented!

Dan won too. Tucson was well represented!

I finished 2nd in a tactical race. The course was challenging in that it was hard to get away. There were lots of flat power sections where things would always come back together.  We’d go hard, then easy, then hard… I didn’t play my cards right and Ryan led into the final section of corners. That gave him a clear jump to the finish. Really, he won in a similar fashion to how I won last last year.  He rode more aggressively and that helped him get the win.  Early in the race we had a group of four and eventually Cam fell off the pace, leaving things to Ryan, Scott, and myself. Later Scott came off and it was just Ryan and I for the end.  The one spot were I tried to make a pass as we neared the finish on the final lap he quickly caught on and closed the door forcing me to slow up.  It was a well fought race and a good time on the bikes. As much as I would have like to win again, it didn’t quite work out this time. 

After the one day interuption with cross, it’s now back to prep work for ‘09. I’ve been getting a good start with the preperations – putting in a lot of tempo and also a good share of time on the MTB.  BMC has reshuffled their entire budget and I was left out of it entirely so we’ll see what comes together for support in ‘09. The BMC’s were great and I got the small company some needed exposure, but I can understand that it’s tough times for a lot of companies right now. News of much bigger programs falling apart will soon be hitting the fan… However these sorts of things turn out I’ll be racing (hopefully faster than before) and enjoying every minute of it.  Here’s to an incredible 2008! Thanks for following along,  -TJ

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