Finally Truly Ready for Cross Season

After last weekend's attempt to shake out the legs a little bit at the Boulder CX Series #1 and Cross at the River I knew my bike had a significant amount of work that needed to be done in order for me to be really ready for cx season.

First step: get rid of that silly shimano shifting. I've been running sram shifting on my mountain bikes for about 3 years now and have found that when the going gets tough Sram always comes to the rescue. So with my sram rival shifters from the destroyed road bike and a new force derailleur I was ready to roll.

Second Step: drop the double front chainring. Since the end of August I've been running a single ring setup on the mountain bike and have found that it is far superior to any system that requires shifting in the front. Front shifts, at least as far as I'm concerned, are always super sloppy and definitely kill momentum when making fast changes from downhills to uphills. With a double guard set up, extra long chainring bolts and spacers, and a 42 tooth single ring I was rolling (granted it did take some thought on how to make the double ring actually fit my frame, but I solved it and am stoked now).

Third Step: New saddle and seat post. With my physical proportions I am forced to ride straight seat posts (i.e. no set back) and 100 mm stems on all of my bikes. It allows for better comfort and my arms to not have to completely lock just to reach the bars. Plus, as many racers are, I am picky about my saddles. For me WTB saddles fit the bill and I have found that the silverado is by far my favorite, so I tossed one on for good measure.

Final Step: New bar tape and brake/shift lever hoods. With some nice white fi'zik bar tape and hudz clear sram brake/shift hoods I was ready to go with some awesome matching technique (it's not how fast you are, but how fly you look, man I wish this were true).

Well here's the final product:I apologize for the grainy image, my camera is still not into my macbook, so....

If you're in the boulder area you can see me ripping around the course on this in our brand new Pioneer Racing skinsuits on October 11th and 17th at the Boulder CX Series #2 and the Valmont Bike Park Ground Break Party/Cross race. Anyone and everyone should come out to these events with beer tents and good times to be had by all!

Too much to do, Way too little time

Things have been pretty ridiculous around here recently. School is starting to get to that point in the semester where I have to do more than spend a few hours a week reading. I actually have to think and write about stuff. I really should be thinking and writing about stuff more since my thesis is going to be up for review at the end of next semester, but... alas....

I have been working pretty hard on a weekly basis. In fact for the first time since college I actually have real consistent work to do that pays me money, which is pretty cool. Day in Day out is pretty much wake up, eat, walk dog, ride (hopefully in the am), tutor student-athletes, read, got to class, go home, ride (if I haven't already), walk dog, eat, sleep.

I also got my cross season under way for Pioneer Racing this past weekend at the Boulder CX Series #1 and Cross at the River in Buena Vista. It felt good to really hammer again after skipping cross season last year. Unfortunately I have not made the physical adaptations to cross that are necessary to actually riding fast yet and suffered pretty hard. Probably didn't help that it was 90 degrees on Saturday and in the 80's on Sunday. Long sleeve skinsuits and bikes without bottle cages with a super high heat factor really don't go together all that well.

Last night I finally got my cross bike dialed to where I want it. Switched out the Shimano shifting for some smooth operating Sram Force. Also got rid of that silly double chainring thing up front for a single ring set up.

Gave the new set up a quick spin/shakedown at the Wednesday Worlds Cross Ride in Boulder (the 8 am version, not quite up for the working man's edition at 6:25). Was throttled pretty hard during the course part and then Brandon Dwight had us do some super painful intervals (sprint to hill, dismount, run up, remount, sprint down hill, stop, sprint up hill riding and back down - rinse, repeat). Then to top off the pain cave aspect a huge group decided to ride up and over Poorman's road outside of Boulder. I was amongst that group, that really hurt. Maybe I'll actually ride quickly on the 11th with all this training?

That is pretty much it. Some short ramblings about life to catch up the very few who actually read this.

Till then....

I Made It....

This past weekend was the Mountain States Cup Fall Classic. The Fall Classic is supposed to highlight true mountain biking in and around Breckenridge over the weekend and that is what it did. With a 3 race stage race in 2 days we did plenty of mountain biking in Breckenridge mixing it up with the trails in town, above town, and much farther up in the mountains as well.

Overall I would say the weekend was a success to end my first professional mountain bike season. I struggled in the circuit race (the cold rain and insufficient warm up did me in), pulled it together for the Hill Climb Time Trial, and then killed it for Sunday's Epic XC race.

The XC on Sunday was the best race I have had all season, minus one thing, my epic flat. For the first time this year I think I actually rode intelligently instead of blowing myself up in the first 45 minutes of racing. By the time we reached the heinous climb up French Gulch my legs were really ticking and I just motored away from the group I was in and bridged up to Tim Allen. After jockeying back and forth all day with Tim I eventually dropped him on some tight singletrack climbing and left him behind until I hit a rock hard at the beginning of the final descent bending my rim and causing a sudden lose of tire pressure that would not seal (I am still not sure that I will be able to use these rims tubeless anymore). Tube in, tube valve stem broken, aaaargh! Ok, well cross season is coming up I guess I can go for a bit of a run, right? As a ran down the trail with bike in hand I remembered that I still had close to 5 miles of course left to get around before the finish line.... Here comes Nick Truitt. This guy is awesome, after a flat in the circuit race the day before he had to fix it and finish the remainder of 5 laps in order to get a time for the overall in the stage race. Well, he stopped, threw me his saddle bag and went on his way. Tube in, air in, off we go.... I didn't finish dead last it turns out, but man that 10th place I was in would sure have been nice.

All in all, I am happy with the race regardless of the result. I ended the season on such a high by mixing it up with guys my age that are mad fast for the first time ever. I realized that I definitely do have the power and the skill to ride in the pro field after a number of disappointing weekends. To top it all off, now I am even more motivated for Cross Season and next year! Sweet!

The Cross bike should arrive soon and I am looking forward to donning the kit of my new team Pioneer Racing. These guys are awesome and it is going to be a sweet program with some sweet teammates!

Cheers all!

An Update on Life

As per usual with the school year in full swing there are not enough hours in a day to accomplish as much as I need to accomplish. This leads to the slight lag in posts as well as my ability to misinform those that follow me on twitter (@KatStatman) that I would post an update about this weekend on Tuesday. Clearly that did not happen, so here it is and then some....

This weekend was a bit of an odd weekend of racing at the Mountain States Cup (MSC) where instead of our typical Saturday-Sunday race scheme we did a Sunday-Monday race scheme (in honor of labor day I guess!?!) Sunday was the XC. The race plan, see how long I can handle another one of these silly Colorado ski resort climbs that goes on and on and on while not hating the Patriot Trail at Sol Vista Ski Resort as much as I did for Nationals. Turns out I hated the Patriot Trail a lot more while enjoying the rest of the course a lot. Though there was a lot of climbing it was not particularly sustained. In fact we would climb for a bit and then descend and then climb for a bit more ride flat, descend, climb, descend, flat climb, descend. There were some really cool and challenging sections of singletrack mixed into all this too, which made for a fairly good course. Unfortunately the legs weren't responding and once again I did find myself bringing up the rear. Turns out though I did not finish in dead last, apparently someone came in 5 minutes after I did, that was pretty cool to see! All in all Sunday wasn't much to talk about.

Well Monday morning rolled around I went through my normal routine at home (man it is sweet being to sleep at home between race days!) and then loaded up and headed off to Sol Vista. The Short Track course was much less than exciting, especially considering the super fun course we got to do at Nationals with a brutal short and steep climb and wicked fast but fun descent! Regardless I warmed up and toed the line against 9 other pro men from Colorado. Well it turns out I was feeling pretty darn good and I ended up finishing 7th of those 9 riders and the one rider I finished in front of in the XC on Sunday wasn't there, so these were guys that clobbered me the day before. That was pretty sick for sure, I was stoked in fact.

Maybe it was the 1x9 set up on my bike that allowed me to save some time and energy or maybe I was just on the ball for short track this past week.

Well since then things have pretty normal. The game plan for this week is to rest up as I have a monster weekend of racing coming up (3 races in 2 days!). Just a chill mountain bike ride in Nederland yesterday, hoping to get out for another chill hour and a half this afternoon, though that depends on the efficiency of my bike shop changing tires for me (with a full school and work schedule I unfortunately don't have time to do much of my own wrenching anymore) and possibly replacing my bottom bracket (not sure yet on that).

Happy trails!

Quick Update

So a lot has happened in the past week. Made it safely through the first week of classes. Finally decided what classes I was going to take for the remainder of the semester. Raced a short track and cross country race up at Copper Mountain. Discovered that with the training I have done all year I am far from prepared to race 40 minute climbs at race pace without cracking. Did some training. Snapped my front derailleur power cordz cable. Switched to a 1x9 set up with the MRP 1.X and an MRP 34 tooth podium chain ring (don't worry the 36 is on it's way). Dropped nearly a pound of my bike doing this. Drank some quality beer while enjoying a peaceful evening with my sweetheart at a belgian restaurant in Copper Mountain. Was rained out from riding my bike, so had to ride late again. Signed up for Master's Thesis hours, I guess my time as a CU student is slowly nearing an end. Well anyways, here are some photos:

Beer Review: Rogue Brutal Bitter vs. Rogue Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red

As some, or many, of you may know I am into beer. Let me rephrase that I am into good beer. There are some beers that I absolutely refuse to drink (e.g. Coors, Bud, etc.) due to their lack of flavor and quality beer merit. I am not saying that I only like darker beers, though this is by far my preference when choosing a beer in the liquor store, I do enjoy many lighter beers. However the key to a good light beer is still flavor and complexity in my view.

In addition to liking beer a lot I was also brought up in a home that not only encourages but supports wholeheartedly trying new beers and seeking out the most interesting beers one can find from around the world. Additionally, I have also begun to dabble in my own craft brewing with my lovely fiance so have learned about many of the techniques used in brewing beer to accomplish specific flavors. Because of this I feel as though I am fairly well qualified to discuss the various merits of one beer over another.

So now on to the meat of this post, a simple comparative review of Rogue Ale's Brutal Bitter and Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale.

Let me start with the Dry Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale. When thinking of a red ale a reasonably standby that comes to mind is Killian's Red. A red ale tends to be on the maltier side of ales with a crisp sweeter finish. Something that is not bad and definitely an enjoyable beer. What Rogue has done with this beer is in addition to adding hops during the initial brewing process they also added more hops during the first fermentation process, called dry hopping. By doing this it allowed that "bitter" flowery, grapefruit flavor to really invest itself in the beer. Because of this, in addition to the solid red malty nature of this beer there is a strong and salient hop flavor that comes through with every sip. I think the complex nature of this beer that they have created definitely makes it a great one to keep in the fridge and to match up with strongly flavored foods like barbecued or smoked fresh sockeye salmon.

Now onto the Brutal Bitter. Let me start with quoting the Rogue Ales website with regard to their Brutal Bitter:

"Dedicated to Justin Fisch, the Shade Man, and the official beer of the Rogue Nation. Brutal combines Oregon hops with English Malts. The Oregon grown Crystal hop is a triploid variety developed from the German Hallertau aroma hop variety with contributions from Cascade, Brewers Gold, and Early Green. Crystal is the only hop used in brewing Brutal and it provides a massive amount of aroma without dry-hopping."

This description is easily spot on. Rogue has accomplished something very interesting in this beer. By taking a traditional English style beer, a bitter, and creating something wholeheartedly American and amazing out of it. They do this by using English Malts and then using a highly refined American hop in order to create a wonderful mixture of sweetness to bittnerness throughout all while keeping with a beautiful aroma.

I don't think I could pick a favorite of these two different beers at all. In fact it would honestly depend on my mood for the day. However, if you are capable of purchasing these or any of the fine beers made by Rogue Ales I strongly suggest you do. They are worth every cent and every sip.

And the winner is....

As I've mentioned on Twitter a few times I received a new fork for my Yeti ARC recently. Granted this is not a brand new fork, in fact it is 2007, but it is in new condition. When it arrived last night (well really when I arrived home last night and it was sitting on the couch) it took all the mental strength I could muster to not break out the work stand, toolbox, and work rags. But I held off until this morning.

Above you can see photos of the build, final product, and the weight of my complete race bike (this is more because I made a cassette upgrade while I was back east and knocked off a considerable amount of weight there). Yeah, just under 24 pounds is not super impressive for a hard tail cross country race weapon, but, this is one durable cross country race bike! Not to say there aren't changes I could make, in fact, I am still toying with the idea of going 1x9 with the mrp 1.x to drop a little bit over 300 grams as well as get rid of chain suck in bad race conditions and just make the bike that much more durable. We'll see though...if I do that I might have to spend a little more time on my singlespeed over the winter to build up the strength to push a 36 tooth front ring up some of the climbs we have on the US Pro XCT circuit.

Back to the build. This was the fastest fork change I have ever done. Though pulling the crown race off of my old Reba Team was a little difficult. Yet, putting it on the Fox 32 F100 was a piece of cake - a sign of what was to come.

Well the build was done, the brakes were set up, my rotor was re straightened, and now to set up the fork pressure. Looking over the Fox manual online I gathered that I should set the pressure to roughly 65 psi for my weight and see how it handles. I did the necessary work to do so and thought the fork felt a little squishy compared to what I was used to.

Ok, well now that I am talking about how the fork feels I might as well dive right into it's first ride. Since my legs have been feeling slightly fatigued from a solid weekend of back to back 3 hour mountain bike rides I opted to head out for a semi-short endurance ride at Marshall Mesa to test out the new fork and give my legs a little spin with the option of giving it some gas if they were feeling it (by the way, they were!)

Marshall Mesa is not terribly technical. It has some more technical bits but overall it is pretty smooth and just fun. I also rode the Prairie View trail, Dowdy Draw Trail, and Spring Brook Loop on the other side of the highway for good measure, some solid mountain biking. Fun, good fun fast and slightly rocky singletrack.

Even though when I initially set up the fork I thought it was soft I discovered quickly on the trail that though at first it feels soft this is the way Fox forks are designed. For a 100mm fork, a travel length I have been running since last august, this fork feels bottomless. The travel starts out being super responsive to the slightest trail alteration and as you move through it becomes progressively stiffer. What this means to us mountain bikers, go and rip it.

My Reba has never felt this way in the year I rode it. It was always a consistent feel from beginning to end. Not to say that is bad, but I could clearly tell when I was bottoming it out, not so with the Fox. In addition to this I felt as though the Fox definitely allowed for more input from the rider.

As a hard tail rider it takes a certain amout of bike handling skills to handle technical terrain smoothly and fast. Something that has taken me a year to really get the handle of and I still can't do it 100% of the time. One thing about the Fox with it's amazingly smooth feel and quick reacting rebound it really helps you make those late big bunny hops over boulders on the outside of corners you would have otherwise plowed into and certainly endowed. When this happened today it was great how quickly the fork reacted and I was up and over the boulder without even touching my tire to it.

You might think that I just didn't have my Reba set up properly in order to have that kind of feel. I have owned 2 different Rock Shox forks as of now and no matter how well I set them up and work to make them feel the best they can they never felt like this new fork does.

So, today not only is the winner my bike, but the winner is also Fox Suspension, you guys really know what youare doing.

As a quick side note a good friend of mine is starting a huge part of his racing season this weekend at the Suicide 6 race in New York to tune up for the Shenandoah 100. Best of luck to Jason Hilimire as he heads out to rock a series of super hard and awesome events! If you click on his name you can follow updates on his blog of his training, racing, and life in general. Definitely well worth it.

Till next time....