TJ Woodruff ONLINE

‘09 is off and rollin’ in a hurry.  A taste of WI winter was all I needed to reinvigorate the bike riding. A couple days in California bookended what was a great time back home to the Northwoods.  Some CA riding with Chloe made for some fun explorations. The highlights were Honey Run, Spunky Canyon, and Lake Hughes with a couple nice stretches of road between them.  

2008 was an excellent year both on and off the bike. More of the same would be a great start, but as a part of the Adventure 212 team it’s sure to be an even better this time around. I’m excited for the racing and also the thought of spending the summertime months in Wisconsin again. The team is comprised of some great guys so we ought to have fun off the bikes while also pushing each other on race day.  Odds are good that there’ll be a significant amount of red, orange, and grey on the podiums… 

Things are not 100% certain as to what bike I’ll be aboard, but those details are coming together rather quickly – more details sometime soon. For now my days are spent coaching, riding, and repeating.  While November and December marked a lot of time spent riding singletrack and tallying up the KJ’s, these days I’m mixing in a little bit of pain with my pleasure in the form of some interval work. I figure that I might as well practice some suffering and keep my game sharp.  Simply more endorphins per hour is how I see it…

Here’s to making 09 the best yet.  Enjoy the riding, -TJ

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

Yesterday I got back to the AZ Cross scene for the first time since last year. Being that it was the last race of the series before the state race, I figured it would be a fun practice of the skills and a chance to catch up with regulars once again. It’s fun, low-key scene, but the racing is always exiting.  After having done El Tour the day prior I wasn’t quite sure about how my legs would be with five hours of Tempo in them. I’ve learned that it really doesn’t matter how you feel going into a race, rather it’s all about your perception and the expectations you bring to the starting line. If you tell yourself that your tired it makes for an easy excuse to have a bad race. I like to have fun on the bike, keep positive and race hard. Usually the harder the race the better since this makes it easy to keep focused.  This is exactly what I got.  

We raced for twelve laps and on the eighth I flatted my front tire (something sharp in a smooth grassy section of the course, gotta love phoenix parks…) At that point I had a comfortable, but only ten second gap over second rider and third and fourth weren’t much further behind. I was able to cautiously ride the flat straight sections only to run all the corners or changes in elevation.  I got passed shortly before pit then once Dan helped me get a wheel in, Kyle and Cam had just charged by. So from fourth the chase was on and I had four laps to make up my 30 second stop, plus whatever was lost by slower lap with the flat. The gap was decreasing all the while to the lead and eventually I made my back to the front with about a lap and a half to go. The effort required was sizable, especially after all of the extra running prior to the wheel change.  The racing was full speed the entire time so the win was a great reward.   Dan was directly responsible since it was his spare wheel that made the chase back to the front possible.  Thanks! Also, the REI guy doing tech support helped me complete my new brake setup earlier in the day, fitting some proper straddle cables to the Paul Neo-Retros.  As setup, they have similar power to my old Avid’s, much better modulation, much more clearance, and they look very clean on the bike.  Things ought to be set for the state championship which is just less than two weeks away.

Since a once a week blog update tends to be the norm here, I figured adding a new feature could help things out and add some life to site. I’ve added the twitter application so now you’ll find mini-feeds at the top of the right column.  I’ll leave snippets regarding my day to day there so check back whenever you might want to catch the latest bit.

Later,  -TJ

Keeping roadies off my tail at the finish. Photo from Superfly.

Having never done the Iceman before I really felt that it was time to give it a shot. The travels from Tucson were long, but time spent with good friends was well worth it. On Friday I opted to do a preride of the full course figuring that it would be better to know what to anticipate on race day. The course was straight-forward and I was thinking optimistically about the forecast.  Saturday came quickly and I helped with some shuttling for the early races.  Thanks to Jason Lummis of Bells Beer I didn’t have to mess with my bike on race day after cracking the derailleur cage on the Friday preride. With his help I had a loaner installed and ready to go just hours after busting my own. That sort of help really goes a long ways.

I got in a warm up with Iceman veteran Brian and we rode the first couple miles of the trail. His advice that it was all about the first ten minutes proved to right on. The only problem was that I messed up my line about a mile into the race and went from fourth wheel back to twenty-forth wheel in a matter of five seconds. Getting bogged down on a sandy climb before things had stretched out didn’t fit well with the race strategy, but I was determined to keep at it and try to reclaim lost ground. The single file train began to splinter and I wasn’t able to pass guys since I was already at my limit and doing so would have required a big effort.

Eventually I got a rhythm going to finish 17th, but it was a bummer never really being in contention with the leaders.  I enjoyed the race and I pushed it 100% so I’m pleased with the result. Next time I’ll come back equally or better prepared and will know just what to expect in those first ten minutes. I can honestly say that it seemed to be the most intense start of any race I’ve done to date. The competition was great.

 The ice pellets that fell during the race really completed the Iceman experience. Though it wasn’t a third podium in my third triple crown event of the year, I’ll be able to give it another shot in ‘09.  It seems that I brought some (not much really) of the cooler weather back with me.  Afternoon highs have been sunny and 70’s since I’ve been back. Change is always appreciated.  

I’ll wrap this post up with some pics.  -TJ 

Superfan!

race-ready. (ok, really it didn’t snow until Sunday)

JB lovin’ the Ice trophy. And for good reason – it’s super cool!

I’m set to soon leave for the lands of cold weather and gloomy skies.  See you all in Michigan.

 Life’s been happening at record speed lately and blog action has been lacking. There’s been little break with anything else and the riding has been good.  I’m feeling ready to rip one final time on the midwest MTB scene. It ought to be a good one. I’ll have a recap on Monday so check out the details then.

-TJ

Got back on the dirt. Or should I say ‘rocks’ of Tucson this weekend. Good stuff!

Pending monsoon rain? I lucked out and stayed dry.

Rolling out on Tanque Verde with Redington/AZ Trail/Milagrosa in mind for day one. Eventually met a stranger by the name of Dominic who ended up riding with me. He used to race the NORBA scene back in the late 90’s.  Good guy with great skills…

Flowing trail and high country grasslands turns to…

big bouldery rocks with plenty of pointy edges as you descend back to the desert.

Cacti make for great ‘freestyle accupuncture’ treatments.

Day two I had some better looking company.  She’s also highly skilled. We rode over ‘Golden Gate’, which is in the background. More rad trails followed too.

Chloe riding up the rocks of Tucson Mountain Park. 

All in all it was a fine return to the desert MTB scene. It’s rugged and tough as ever and I’m loving the challenge. You gotta have skills and searching for more always makes for a great weekend. After a second consecutive weekend without racing I’m feeling very refreshed. I might have to find a way back for ICEMAN… 

-TJ

Not long ago it was June and I was leaving Tucson for the summer months.  Four months later and I’m now back after having an awesome experience in Wisconsin.   Friday was a pre-dawn departure from Madison with a post-dusk arrival to Colorado Springs.  Saturday’s ride made the long hours in the car worth the while. Brian and I got out for 4.5 hours of MTB action. Two hours of dirt road climbing was followed by some of the best singletracks I’ve ridden. This ride was a favorite of my personal ’stash’  from ‘05 so after three years away I was happy to be able to recall the trails so we could make the loop happen as it did. Brian agreed that it was one of epic proportion. He even got a good digger when I had the camera out…

Perfect weather, golden aspens, tacky soils, and fun bikes made the ride incredible. I’m jealous of Brian’s backyard, enough so that I’m tempted to plan my move to Colorado’s Front Range.

Before that happens, life in Tucson takes off once again.  I finished the drive on Sunday and was greeted with a pleasantly cool evening in the desert.  I’ve been on Lemmon twice already this week and it’s nice to be getting back into the local scene. Great friends and good riding can make this place very attractive. I’m looking forward to the weekend and the chance for some big MTB adventures.  Stay tuned for the details. Enjoy the riding!  -TJ

The racing action at the MadCross CX event was fast and furious. My dad made the trip down for the weekend so it was cool that he got his first taste of what cyclocross is all about – intense race action with a lot of super-fan excitement.  Flatting out and not having the mindset simply to add more air to my burped tubeless setup was frustrating but at least I kept the bike together on Sunday to turn in a good finish. The field was stacked and I’m happy with how the season wrapped up in Wisconsin.  Hopefully the AZ Cross scene is ready for some UCI speed! I’ll do my best to up the level the level now that I’ve gotten a taste.

Mountain Goat shot some great film out there so feel free to check out his camera work. Thanks to everyone who made all of the noise and also to those who offered help in the pit on Saturday. Next time I come back to a UCI event I’ll have a better race/pit setup going…