TJ Woodruff ONLINE

I traveled south for the latest stop on the Pro XC Tour.  The race was in Pelham, Alabama and my sister’s family lives not too far away in Georgia, so the relatively close proximity made the trip out all that more alluring since I could visit them for a couple of days on either side of the race. This was my first trip to the South and it ended up being a fantastic time. My nephew Mason is nearing two years old, so he’s an awful lot of excitement to be around. He loved seeing all the bikes!

The course consisted purely of screaming fast singletrack along with a couple extended sections of pavement to complete the loop. This made for intense racing since there wasn’t much along the lines of vertical gain to separate the race, instead it came down to lap one positioning and singletrack speed.  I had the call up for the final spot on the second row so that wasn’t so bad but the bottleneck entering the singletrack wasn’t the best. Being just five spots further up could have made a huge difference that first lap since there was essentially zero passing opportunity.  Hitting the paved climb on the first lap, just over 10 minutes into the race, I was sitting 27th  and not much changed from there. I went on to finish 25th after zipping through five laps of the course.  It was 90 degrees and humid, but fortunately I had excellent family support in the feedzone.  Going through 100 oz in 100 minutes was serious,  drinking only when I was thirsty.  And to think that the locals were saying that it wasn’t all that humid…

Up next will be the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO. Thanks to Adventure212, Specialized, and NoTubes for the support.  -TJ

Being the first week back to Wisconsin why not do two races instead of one? I had the opportunity so I went for it. Having done neither race since 2005 it was enjoyable to relive some past experiences while out there on the courses. Back in ‘96 the Cable Classic was the first mtb race I ever did so it’ll always remain a favorite to attend. Without doing an official tally, this may have been my 10th year at Iola. 

At the starting line @ the Lakewoods it was 34 degrees with small snow flurries floating about the air. It had rained overnight so the course was saturated and heavy in some spots but fortunately never too slick elsewhere. I ran my Crow/Raven tire combo and had great luck with them.  Somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes into the race I was able to separate myself from the rest and get out of sight. Up to this point it took a sizable effort since we were mostly on fire lane dirt roads from the start.  The final hour of the race had predominately more singletrack and it was all about enjoying the ride – keeping it fast and flowing all the way to the finish line for the win.  Having family and friends there made it a great reminder of why Wisconsin races will always have that unique appeal. Our post race pizzas from the ideal market were a big hit. Who new that there was a stone oven in Cable? I’ll definitely be back for another!

Sunday came around and my legs were feeling alright, but I was generally tired from Thursday’s monster drive and also the race on Saturday. I’ve learned not to give much consideration to how I feel prior to a race since I know that I can do just fine despite any minor nuances. I felt good with the warm up and knew that I’d be in the mix.  The first half of the first lap was just as planned. We were going fast and had separated from most of the WORS Elite field. I was fine with the hard efforts and ready for some good racing action.  However on the less physically, more twisty turny second half of the lap I somehow got gaped off from the front group somehow. Maybe my tree weaving skills could use some fine tuning, maybe I just wasn’t accelerating hard enough out of the corners, or maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention, but one way or another a small gap opened and I didn’t really ever get to close it down.  For laps two and three it stayed at just 10-15 seconds. On lap four I went by Nathan then on lap five I went by Eppen before the finish. Aside from the first couple of miles I had done the entire race on my own pacing with little or no cooperation or battling with others. Not the most exciting day tactic-wise, but it felt good to stick to the pace, see it through to the finish, and come home with a respectable third place finish.  Hopefully next time there’ll be more battling and maybe I’ll have that little bit of extra snap in my legs.  

The summer race plans are coming together and there’ll be a couple of trips in addition to doing mostly Midwest stuff. Up next is the Bump’nGrind in Alabama followed by a couple of CO races.  Summer’s nearly here and there’s plenty of racing to be done.   See you next time, TJ

Sea Otter was awhile back, but figuring I ought to pick up where the blogging left off, here we go. I had one of best rides ever at Monterrey. It was one of those days were things really clicked and the sensations from the body were mostly all good. Pushing hard, focusing on the task, and going fast were all second nature despite suffering a flat front tire early in the race. I could feel that it was getting soft and when I stopped 40 minutes into the race a visual evaluation led me to try adding more CO2 in hopes that it would seal and hold whatever puncture had occurred. I may have only been off the bike for 75 seconds, but the minutes prior to and also immediately following the fix were somewhat nervous since I wasn’t sure it was holding air or not.
During the stop I lost a lot of ground. Thirty guys or more flew by and it was slow going once I was back in action – and it sucked. Fortunately I was able to get over it, regain my focus and get back to business. From this point on I was on a mission to regain lost ground and by the finish I had worked my way back up to 22nd. I had no clue as to placing at the finish line, but regardless of the number I was pumped. Regaining concentration can be hard to do but I was successful at it. At the end of the day it turned out to be my best ever national level result and considering the flat fix as well as the competition I can help but think about how things could be even better next time. The support of the new team, Adventure212, was phenomenal and the entire Sea Otter experience was a great time. My Specialized couldn’t have been any faster. Thanks, -TJ

Today wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but there’s always another crack at it tomorrow… It was a nervous day on the roads out to the Mogollon climb and it took a fair amount of work to cover the 87 miles getting to the base of the climb. On the way up things started all right, but shortly after beginning the second half of the climb I hit the limit of how fast things could go. Getting dropped isn’t fun but I kept it together and got myself to the top the best I could. Part caloric deficit, part altitude, part ? got the best of me and I wasn’t my best those last 6.7 miles of today’s stage. A couple of small breaks were away and some riders survived to finish amongst the leaders today while others popped on the climb. Tomorrow ought to be a good one with several climbs along the route. More to come, -TJ

Rolling through the hills of Fort Ord with Chris P. and Bender.

Sea Otter is shaping up nicely thus far. The weather has been great and the company of teammates has been a lot of fun.  I’ve got the bike mostly dialed after having some interesting issues with front wheel traction on our initial ride.  I’ll typically race with low tire pressure in the 20-25 psi range so I inflated the Raven 2.0 front tire up to 25 prior to setting off on the course.  The entire lap I was fighting the front end of the bike as if the headset was binding even though off the bike the headset was just fine.  Turned out that the contact patch of the tire is/was so huge that it was just biting into the ground that much… So with some more tire pressure up front the bike is once again handling as normal. Who would have thought that it’s possible to have too much traction up front? Only on a 29er!

My approach coming into Sunday’s XC is a little diffrent this year as I’m opting out of the Saturday  Short Track.  The xc has always been a fine line as far as race speed versus glycogen stores goes. Last year I had a solid result shaping up only to run out of steam coming back up the long climb to the finish. By avoiding a 20-25 minute near max effort, I ought to have that much more glycogen in the tank for when it matters most this weekend.  All my eggs are going into the XC basket! I hate passing up a race, but the xc is where my attention has been placed this weekend and I’ll be going for broke en route to the finish line.

Race report to follow,  -TJ

Our MTB national series opener went off today and most things went fairly well out there. Early season racing is always hard to figure out but things were more ‘on’ than ‘off’ for me.  My plan was to manage the start by getting/maintaining good position while not maxing out the effort so that I could have plenty left for the duration of the five lap race. Given the demands of the course with the sizeable initial climb this was no easy feat, but things actually played out all right. Once to the top it was steady lap times and keeping on the gas until the finish – never backing off too much or surging too hard.  Finishing 31st will help with the Sea Otter call up and it gives me some confidence that things are close to being in order. I know that I’ve got more in me and even better results aren’t far off. Being that we raced a more demanding course this year it was good to get a result far better than any of my three previous Fontana performances. 

The 2009 season ought to be fantastic and Fontana was a nice way to start things up with the Adventure212/Specialized team.  Chris made the flight out so that he could get in a race prior to Sea Otter and placed well considering that most of his ride time has been on rollers coming from WI…  It’s been a fun weekend and the support of the team has been a great help.  Colt @ CyclingDirt.org has done well with creating the MTB dedicated ‘inside scoop’. If you haven’t seen the site, you’ve got to check it out – and often. The newly organized US Pro XCT series seems to have a good vibe going and the racing fields were as big or bigger than I’ve seen them during the past four years. I say this is the year that mountain biking starts it’s comeback!

Sea Otter is the next goal on the horizon.  Thanks for the support,  -TJ

Got in an amazing ride this morning as an unofficial ’stage four’ of the Tucson Bicycle Classic.  Overload was the name of the game and two trips up to windy point was the plan of attack. 80 miles and over 7k feet of climbing were tallied.  Somewhere out there I fell in love with my bike (and with suffering) yet again.

riding into the clouds above 6000 feet.

The Tarmac didn’t mind the conditions.

Fortunately this was my flipping point at milepost 14.  It was very dense so I was happy to head back down.

The second visit to Windy Point was less dramatic since the clouds had risen a couple thousand feet by then. The ride was a great way to follow up the race weekend and an even better way to kick off a new week. Life’s good on the bike!

The racing went well Friday through Sunday. I figured out how to TT fast and ended up 5th overall on the GC with a couple of top 10 stage finishes.  Good times and plenty of speed were had.  Thanks for checking back. I’ll try to improve my blogging ‘fitness’ now that my riding fitness is getting close to par…

-TJ

I’ve been in CO Springs since Thursday evening for a USA Cycling coaching conference.  The days have been simple since I’m staying on the Olympic complex and everything is in close proximity.  There’s time for a quick am workout, plenty of good dining in the cafeteria, and a lot of time sitting in on various lectures related to cycling. It’s been a good experience so far and employing a couple new secret interval workouts ought to be helpful once I’m back to Tucson. Necessary might be more like it since so much of the day is spent writing notes rather than being out on the bike.

Springtime is just around the corner and with it will be some more racing.  I’ll do a handful of events as a means of preperation for the bigger stuff to come later this season.  I’m excited for the Pro XCT events, the Tour of the Gila, and of course some the regional MTB stuff in Wisconsin. I race a lot in a year, but different places and different disciplines keep it fresh and exciting for me. Luckily fast racing helps to allow me to race fast in a snowball-effect sort of way.

Enjoy the riding,  TJ

Winter must end with January in Tucson since so far in February we’ve hit 80 degrees most every day. Afternoon riding is now down-right  balmy.  Lately I’ve transitioned to some more climbing oriented workouts so mount Lemmon has been a staple of the weekly routine.  For some reason battling a climb works for me mentally. A bunch of other battles work for me too, but a good uphill fight is always worth the while.  After a ride with Cole earlier this week I’ve learned that there are ways to go even faster on the descent too, so maybe I’ll have to start working on that some more.

Later today I’m going to do my first ever ride aboard a TT bike.  The venue for such a ride ought to be perfect too since it’ll be on the Tour of the Gila TT course. Chloe and are are headed to Silver City for a mini training camp and some recon work of the various stages. With all the heat here in Tucson the cooler temps there ought to be refreshing.  Should have 220+ miles in by Sunday evening…

More details to come after the weekend. There are a mountain passes to be climbed and miles to be ridden so I best get things packed for the weekend.  Next week will be the unveiling of some new gear.  Carbon will be the theme…

-TJ

the mountains await w/ fog

Saturday was a long 32×18 ride for SingleSpeed Arizona, my second ever singlespeed ride/race.  58 miles was the day’s tally, and yes that’s nearly 10 more than it should have been. The 9500 feet of elevation meant some tough going along the way.  Unintentionally I chose to add an extra loop in the first half of the race and I’ve now realized that such mistakes are part of the risk in trying to lead such a race – there’s no one there to confirm your navagational decision making. I went left instead of right which meant I decended far more than I should have while adding on an extra loop of sorts. By the time I reached a flowing (near raging) wash, I knew that I wasn’t on the originally intended path. After two or three knee-deep forges of the freezing cold water I made my way back up towards the planned course. Nearly two hours later I was on route once again after some seriously steep and rough jeep roads. At Redington road I figured that with AZ trail and Milagrosa awaiting I must go on despite already having a day’s worth of riding in the legs.  As I finished up the incredible singletracks some interesting people were met and each of the 70 or so added something to the day’s story.  

my kit from '97 made a comeback

DeJay put on a fun day of bike riding and it was great to get out there and try the singlespeed thing. Enjoyable yes, but equally frustrating at times. The simplicity of the bike is appreciable, but so is riding up steep trails with the aid of gears. Pushing the bike is never fun, especially when it would otherwise be a rideable trail. It was a new way to experience some of my favorite singletracks and it made for an epic ride that won’t soon be forgotten. The day started under a dense fog cover unlike anything I’ve seen in AZ before, but by early afternoon it was sunny with temps in the 70’s.  Couldn’t have been a a better day of riding.   Later,

-TJ