TJ Woodruff ONLINE

Hi everyone,

It’s Thursday here in New Zealand, the day after my cross country event at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Rotorua.  This afternoon I’d be able to say more about Rotorua—Jenna and I are going to be tourists today—but I’ve spent the last four days staying out of the cold, riding, warming up, and eating some of the best food I’ve ever had three times a day.  Come race day, I was well rested, well fed, and absolutely thrilled by the lack of rain clouds in the sky.

About ten minutes before the start of my race I had to visit the Porta-Loo and succeeded in ripping my number off my back while trying to figure out how to efficiently remove my skin suit.  The skin suit also has no pockets, so I had to put two gels in my shorts. One of these gels exploded all over my leg while being called to the start line with two minutes to go.  Despite my anxiety over sporting the skin suit, the ripped number and gel oozing allover my leg on the start line, I will probably wear it again because I felt fast.

My call up was 21st of thirty-some riders, third row of three.  I found myself in a poor position on the line, and when the gun went off the girl in front of me missed her pedal and I had to swing wide around the back of the pack in order to move up on the outside. Before the start I made it a goal of mine to reach the end of the start loop in a position that would allow me to ride up the first steep, slick incline.  I could only ride one line up the climb so I figured I would have to get there before it inevitably jammed and girls are forced to run—I hate running.  And I didn’t have to.  As our field funneled into the climb, I was fifth.  The Chinese duo was off the front immediately and nobody saw them again until the finish.  Ren Chengyuan and Ying Liu placed seven and five minutes ahead of third place finisher, Sarah Koba of Switzerland.  I won’t be surprised if their lap times will put them within the top ten of the elite women’s race.

So I was still climbing in fifth.  By the summit of the main climb I was still in fifth and a little surprised.  The girls ahead of were nowhere in sight but I had a sizable gap on the trailing group, things were looking good.  Then I lost my head and forgot how to ride my bike.  Three girls flew by me on a particularly fast section of the decent, I tried to hang with them, crashed, and two more girls flew by me.  Tenth.  Still good.  One of the girls who passed me was Terezka Hurikova, the 2005 Junior World Champion, whom I finished six and a half minutes behind last year at World’s.  Nathalie Schneitter, the 2004 Junior World Champion, who beat me by over 20 minutes two years ago, also passed me. While it was a bummer they passed me, it meant I beat them up the first climb.  I think once I realized that I got my head back.  And I finished lap 1 (of 4) in 10th.

While climbing up the first ascent on lap 2, I caught sight of Jenna not far behind me (Jenna Zander has been a travel buddy and competitor, now she’s a teammate and roommate here in New Zealand—and a very fast one too).  I fought to keep a gap between us for the remaining laps.  Jenna never seems to get slower as a race goes on and I usually do, but my faster starts usually allow me enough of a gap so we’re within seconds of each other at the finish.  And yesterday I had enough of a gap to keep her behind me until I crossed the line.  Somewhere around lap three, a German girl, Adelheid Morath, caught me on the decent and kept her gap up the climb and over the line.  I crossed the line in 11th with Jenna about 20 seconds back in 12th.

Maybe I should have described the course a little.  It’s 6km with very few rocks, a number of steep, rutted, and rooty switchbacks, a couple misplaced two and a half foot poorly constructed drops, and some high speed grass sections while ridden conservatively are fun, but at race pace absolutely terrifying.  The climbs had some steep sections where I’d only hope the Chinese girls were also in their granny-gears.  The first climb took about 12 minutes, while my lap times ranged from 25:18 to 26:36 (This is interesting: Jenna’s lap times ranged from 26:03 to 26:15, dang that’s consistent).  And the views from the summit of the climb were incredible; I remembered to look on every one of my four laps.  It’s been over a page so I’m sure you’ve now heard more then enough.  I’m almost done.

Next year I’m going to have to be in the top five and there is no question about whether or not I’ll be doing this again.  I think I fall a little more in love with racing every year and it’s what I plan on doing for awhile. There are so many people who have encouraged, supported, and challenged me over the last few years.  It’s because of you that I love what I’m doing and why I’ve had such incredible opportunities.  Thank you all.

-Chloe

Sunday I made the drive up to Spirit Mountain to race the Powder Monkey, one of the most demanding races in the Midwest. I knew it would be a gun fight so there wasn’t any way that I could miss out on showing up. And I was not disappointed. Pretty much all of the Minnesota heavy-hitters were in attendance so I had to do my part and represent Wisconsin as best as possible!

Three laps of the 45 minute course meant that it was a full-on NORBA duration race in the 80 something degrees and humidity. Maybe the humidity wasn’t so bad, but everyday seems muggy after being out west for a majority of the summer months. At the start Doug and Justin set an absolutely ballistic pace up the face of the mountain. We were all big-ringing the opener climb so fast! I knew that guys were going to crack or I was in for a rough day. Somehow it worked out both ways; guys cracked and it was a brutal day…

By the end of lap two I had worked up into second place, leading a string of riders that were Paul, Brendan, and Justin. Unfortunately for me Paul had a little something extra near the top of the climb and put out an attack to open a gap. Brendan was able to respond to this as I hung on and tried to follow, now riding fourth on the course. I never could pull these two back and Jeff Hall was long-gone off the front, but I was able to hold on for fourth.

Tom did an awesome job with the hand-ups for many of us in the feed zone which really made all of this hard racing possible. Thanks Tom! This was my best ride to date in Minnesota and though I did ‘lose’ second place, I’m quite satisfied with the result on such a demanding course.

Ever since racing Sunday I’ve been very exhausted and taking some serious down time to recuperate. For this weekend I’ll be 100% charged up and ready to go at the WORS Cup XC event. The racing form is working well as of late, so let’s hope that I can go strong again this weekend on home turf.

You can expect a WORS Cup report from me, but before that Chloe will have an update coming from New Zealand where she is competing as a member of the US National Team at the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships. She and Jenna Zander are the two US women racing the U-23 category which goes off at 7:30 tonight (which is noon on Wednesday in NZ). Wish them both well and stop back for a full report. Over a

I’m feeling privileged that someone at cyclingnews.com decided to put a picture of me in the same photo sequence as Chloe. She pulled out yet another top 10, finishing 9^th in the short track. The best part is that I didn’t have to pay the camera lady.

It’s hard to believe that the 2006 NORBA circuit has officially come to an end. Wow. The series finals were held at Snowmass, Colorado this past weekend and closed up nicely. Saturday’s cross country had us doing two twelve mile loops, each having no less than 2300 feet of climbing. This made for some seriously challenging racing!  The first twenty minute climb went horribly. I wasn’t anywhere near the front of the group as I made it to the top, but at least I was able to salvage things by climbing well for the remainder of the day. I continued to pass people on the climbs while holding my own on the rock strewn descents. At the end I made my way back into the top forty, to finish 38^th out of 90 guys. Given the poor start this was surely one of my best performances, it is unfortunate that I didn’t get going from the start for this one!

Day two brought about the last short track race of 2006. I was super motivated for this as I desperately wanted to finish one of these things without being pulled. It wasn’t to be as I got pulled with just three laps to go. Once again most of the field had also been yanked as the leaders set a blistering pace. 26^th meant that this was my second best short tack on year. Another phenomenon is that my STXC placing directly correlate with the altitude for the year. The higher I race the higher I place.

I really grow to love the alpine climates and every time I go to the mountains it becomes that much more comfortable. I’d almost go as far to say that I prefer it over the thick, heavy, and wet air we breathe down here at sea level… Once again I’ve returned to Spooner and this is where I’ll be while finishing out the season with some WORS racing and of course the Chequamagon. It’s tough to see chapter one of my pro career come to a close, but I’m excited at the prospects of chapter two. I’ve got a lot to sort through now, but before I know it I’ll be headed out in search of a warmer winter climate once again. Thanks for following along; all for now.  -TJ

This is going to be a brief post due to the somewhat sketchy internet connection I’ve found here in Snowmass, Colorado. Sunday’s short track was a great experience for me. I lined up on the far right in about the third row but was able to move up the side as we made the sweeping left turn on the paved climb. By the top of the dirt I was sitting in about fifth ahead of all of the favorites. This positioning ensured that I wasn’t going to be pinched off on the courses S turn which was very important. Of course I got passed by a lot of riders and I almost made it to the finish without being pulled on the relatively short lap. I was in there for 18 minutes this time to finish out the top 25. What a rush!

Monday we awoke in Moab, Utah and ventured out onto the slickrock trail. What a mind game, riding all of the crazy steep and off camber stuff out there! This trail is truly unlike anything else I’ve ever seen.  The views from the top were incredible as was the drive out of the canyon as we headed towards Colorado.

It’s hard to believe that this weekend will bring the end of the Norba series for 2006. All of the travels and adventures have been so enjoyable and the racing has been a big eye opening experience. I’ve still got two tough races left to go, but I’m already looking forward to the challenge again next season. This is all for now; enjoy the ride.

TJ

Here’s a quick recap of the xc event here at Brian Head. A noon start had us out there under clear skies with temps in the sixties making for perfect conditions after yesterday’s afternoon storms.

Up the first climb I rode on the wheel of none other than Steve Larson, former Norba champ. We had a pretty good tempo to the top but I had to get by him shortly into the descent as his triathlon skills had him going no where fast once the going got gnarly. The climbs treated me well and I was able to settle into a good rhythm and finished 36th. This was a satisfying race, especially since I was feeling relatively good out there above 10,000 feet. This is almost enough accomplishment in and of itself! The course was longer with some added singletrack that we did not use last year. My time remained the same, while the winning time was about five minutes slower this time so there has surely been a noticeable improvement in my racing from a year to go. Little gauges like that can always be reassuring.

Tomorrow is the short track of course, so we’ll see if I can make it the full duration this time… Chloe pulled out a huge ride today and finished in the top ten, riding with Sue Haywood for a majority of the day. So all is going well in the thin air so far. I’ll try to get a post online with a short track recap tomorrow or sometime soon after. All dependant upon finding a good internet connection of course… Keeping it real here in Utah, TJ

Getting back out on the mountain bike for some real riding is a sure shot way to up the motivation levels and find some extra fitness for the season’s final races. I joined up with some of the locals in hopes of finding some epic riding; I was not disappointed.  I’m convinced that thin mountain air makes for the most incredible riding. Perhaps it’s a lack of oxygen reaching the brain that explains some of the euphoria associated with such alpine singletracks… Thursday’s ride was so incredible that I went out and did the same thing on Friday and it was still blowing my mind with every turn of the cranks. Though my legs were feeling heavy this morning, there was plenty of motivation on hand for a successful interval workout. The thin air no longer seems so foreign to my body and if not physically acclimated yet, at least I’m learning to cope. May your rides also be an adventure everyday. Keeping it Real, TJ

With a break in racing, I also gave myself a break from updating things here online.  THe national championship at Sonoma was a good experience despite the unexciting course and sweltering heat. Placing 33^rd and 30^th in the xc and stxc respectively, were hard fought results. The highlight of that weekend was surely watching Chloe and Jenna battle for the women’s U23 title. Jenna came out on top, but both have qualified to race at the world championships in New Zealand; what an opportunity…

Since last weekend I’ve been training again and it was nice not to pin on any numbers this weekend. I honestly can’t remember the last weekend that I didn’t race or the last time I trained for more than one day in a row. Yesterday capped off a nice four day block with a four hour mountain bike ride in the mountains. It’s been almost a year since my last voyage like this and I had forgotten how enjoyable it is out there.

With nearly three weeks at altitude I should be somewhat acclimated to the low pressure we are all about to experience at Brian Head for the next stop on the Norba circuit. This was the first pro race I entered and the experience is still fresh in my memory. You can read about this experience here. Perhaps this time I’ll fair a little bit better with the pace.

All for now; it won’t be so long until my next post.

‘If our brains drive us towards human accomplishment, then motivation is the fuel for the engine.’ –loose quote from the iMax film, Wired to Win.

TJ

This weekend’s come and go faster than ever before. Getting here in Wednesday meant that I got in four laps of the xc course before Saturday’s four lap race. I had everything dialed on this fast and flowing course that is a total gas to ride.  With a third row call up I was able to have a nice start and I was riding top 30 for the first twenty minutes, but I could feel that the pace was just a bit ‘hot’ especially when at 7,500 feet. I lost some ground finishing out lap one and on lap two but hung in there for some stable lap times to finish out the second half of the event. Race time was 2:35 so it was one of the longer races which contributed to the fatigue factor.  It’s so hard to nail down the right pace when all the climbs are so broken up, a huge learning game for sure, but I’ll figure it out one of these times. XC result was 48th in a largish 100 rider field.

Short track is really something that I somehow hate to love. I love the intense, close quarter racing, but it is so frustrating trying to negotiate through all the traffic of the first couple of laps. The efforts required to move up leave me drained and unable to do anything for the remainder of my time out there. Today’s course was quite short, just over 1:15 per lap, so this meant that the most all of the field once again was pulled before the bell lap sounded.  One of these times I’ll couple my good start with some sustainable power and hang in there longer than my usual 12 minutes… I guess that challenge is part of what makes short track exciting and frustrating all at the same time.

All for now; westward we go! Keep it Real,  TJ

It seems as if I just came here to Mankato from the WORS race in Wausau, but actually a month has past and we are all doing the same things once again. I’m taking care of some things while there’s still an internet connection while everyone else is stowing things in the RV and washing bikes.

My time home was a much needed chance to recharge and prepare for the madness of another NORBA RV adventure. Of course there were the endless number of lose ends to tie up before leaving, but the week was quite relaxing. I got in some hard training before yesterday’s WORS race so all systems are go for the next two big weekends.

I was pleased with how Eau Claire ended up even though I know that I’ve got a lot more in me. It seemed as though I was reaching a terminal velocity in the tight twisty singletracks while the lead group managed to open up small gaps. I was going about 90% effort in there only because if I pedaled any harder I only hit more trees… I was able to gas it on the flat open stuff and really go fast, so it is good to know that the legs are surely there.  That’s all I’ll be needed for Deer Valley anyways.

I best finish up here inside and help get this show on the road. Another adventure awaits so stay tuned for roadside details. Keep it Real,  TJ