That's Gonna Leave a Mark!

Here's a great example of learning the hard way.

I 've said it once, and I'll say it agian...... Always, Always, Always wear a helmet when riding!!

I think you know what I mean......

Angel Fire N,M, Mtn States Cup Rnd 3

Had a Great Time in New Mexico for the Mountain States cup round 3. There was some great racing (as the video shows!).

That was not Zac crashing, he was filming. Zac took first in short track, and settled for a seventh in cross country. A malicious rock jumped up and attacked his pedal on the first lap. Recovering quickly, no more damage was done. However, the pedal was destroyed. Zac said it "felt a little wierd" riding on the destroyed pedal, but was able to finish (always better than a dnf!!).

Others were not so agile in thier recoveries (see video above). Ian wasn't able to complete his downhill run due to a flat tire at the very start (anyone got a pump?!). He took it in stride though. How can you get upset in paradise?

The weather was awesome and the racing fantastic. This is the BEST sport in the World!!

You Thought Downhill Mtnbikers were Crazy...

Just when you started to think that there was something wrong with the thinking processes of downhill mountain bikers, you come across this...

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
These guys are really nuts!

Zac is doing great!. Check out the link to see where he stands. (hint; look at the no.1 spot).

way to go Zac!

http://www.usacycling.org/rankings/index.php?sex=M&state=&org=mountain&disc=xc&cat=1&agemin=19&agemax=29

Springtime in the Desert...

"Absence makes the hear grow fonder", the philosopher says. I think there is a strong case for the idea. It has been a while since we've been riding, but the awesome springtime in the desert beckoned, and we finally got back out. Desert spring is very short, so we had to get out while the getting is good! It turned out to be a bit warm, but very invigorating! Due to high school band commitments, we didnt make it out to McDowell Mtn park until 12;30. Rex and Tina met us there with Ezra and Carley. It was a fun ride, and not a race, so we just took it easy and enjoyed the day.

Ryan and Lonna at the Trailhead...

The Pemberton trail is a great trail for most riders, and as our group had varied skill levels, we decided to take part of that trail. Pretty much it's uphill for the first half of the ride, and if you can make it all the way, a GREAT downhill run all the way back. Turning around at any point is also available, and was chosen by some in our group. No problem, they just got a shorter downhill run!

The rest of us Soldiered uphill to Tonto Tank and turned around there to catch the Granite Trail back down. Wow. The desert is at its most spectacular right after a rainstorm, in my opinion, but second to that is a sunny spring day, with a breeze, and that's just what we had.

The 20 min ride down is well worth the hour climb! I was calling out our speed to Ezra (10 yrs old), ( i got a speedometer for Christmas...), and he was totally jazzed when we reached 20 mph at one point. I realize that at that speed it is hard to appreciate the scenery, but it sure is a blast! Great ride with no injuries and got to see a rattlesnake on our way out. Days don't get much better!

Get out! Get on! and Get Riding!

My New Favorite Place...!

It seems like everytime we ride at a new place it becomes "my new favorite place" to ride. Last weekend was no exception. The Brothers Keller called and invited us riding at one of their favorite places to ride in phoenix. It is called 'hawes", though I don't really know why (it is not really near "hawes" road). It was described as technical in places, but not really too hard, even the youngest Keller brother was going (Ezra is only about 11). I figured why not?, and called Brandon and off we went.

It started out really poorly for me as I fell over, unable to unclip in time, right in the parking lot before we even started to ride. I decided it was just good warm up, even if a little embarassing. I am still getting used to riding in clip ins and don't have the left foot extraction down quite yet - right foot is great, but i fell to the left, oops.

You have to cross a potentially busy road to start the trail, so, carefully, we embarked. Zac, Eric and Brandon immediately outdistanced the rest of us and we didn't see them again for a while. Ezra was doing great riding along with his dad, and Eric's dad Chris and I rode together for a while.

Ezra Shows Great Potential!

The trail is a great single track through the desert. Some cactus made me nervous in places (Brandon had to extract some from his fingers at one point), but the area is beautiful. after climbing up a ways, the trail splits a couple of different directions. I was just following along for the ride and soon found myself a little nervous. Part of the trail (Ian called it the "switchbacks" were very rocky and steep. Visions of the youtube video of the guy careening down the mountainside came to mind, but slow careful going turned fear into fun. We made it and I fell in love with the area. I think more time in the saddle would really help my confidence and ability on the rocky technical stuff.

Here is some video of the trail....

Brandon finally got his new helmet and wore it. He likes the full face type since he likes to ride very fast. It also keeps his ears warm in the winter, but I think it will be hot in the summer. Anyway, he looks cool and safe as he speeds past me!

Hawes is definitely on my favorits list, and I hope to be back regularly. If only I didn't have to work all week!

Get out! Get on! and Get riding!
CycleFreak!

LIfe Goes On...

Havn't blogged in a while, but that doesn't mean we havn't been riding. We have been trying to find a good trail for Lonna to learn gears without having to worry about crashing, and we finally found what turned out to be th e best trail for that purpose in the state of Arizona! It is the Rim Vista trail off of sr260 on the Mogillon Rim above Payson.

We arranged a Friday off work and headed out Thurs. evening looking for a great ride. I don't know what steered us toward Payson... yes I do! The romantic "Majestic Mountain Inn" in Payson was our destination for the night, with a plan to ride on Friday somewhere. The inn has rooms, they call them "luxury rooms", that have a jaccuzzi right in the room! We reserved one and had a great evening.

Friday morning we had breakfast at a cool cafe and headed for the rim. Not exactly sure where we were going, we opened our minds to "explorer mode" and ended up at the rim trail. The area isn't heavily used during the winter since its 6k feet elevation or so, and we had the place to ourselves. It's not often that you really feel alone in a national forest, but we did that day. Entering the parking/lookout for the military sinkhole just off the rim road toward Woods Canyon Lake, we unloaded and started riding.

The first short part of the trail is not paved and was a bit of a challenge for us. You are litterally riding right on the edge of the rim and really could ride off if you lost control. Once the paved part started it was great. It's basically a paved bike path for several miles in the middle of the forest! (check out the short video above). We rode all the way to the lake and only saw 3 other people the whole time. The terrain offers great practice for gear selection and Lonna made great strides, and boosted her confidence. Whoo! Hoo!

Here are some more pix from the ride....Days like these make it all worthwhile!

ON the racing front, Zac raced in the "Dawn to Dusk" race at Mcdowell mtn park this weekend and did great. Placed 4th in his first attempt. I personnally think its an insane race - 15.5 mile loop, all day, whomever does the most/fastes laps wins. Zac rode in 2 man team and they each rode 4 laps (thats 62 miles cross country mtn bike in one day!). I really gotta hand it to them for there perserverance.

In other news, Devins school (Saguaro High) won the state 4a football championship saturday. WE rode the bikes down to ASU to watch the game (but really just to watch Devin march in the Band at halftime). We can ride all the way to ASU from our house (about 10 or 11 miles one way) and only have to negotiate 2 traffic lights! I do love the greenbelt idea. Devin looked great marching, and the band performed well. The final score was 38-0, but any astute observer could see from the first few plays that Saguaro was gonna win. They played great.

Will get out more this month while the weather is so great, and I hope you all do as well!

Get out, Get on, and Get Riding!

CycleFreak!