For the past 3 years I’ve been spending Labor Day weekend in the Black Hills of South Dakota — thanks to Evie 🙂

The black hills are most famous for the faces of Mount Rushmore, but there are amazing mountain bike trails, tons of hiking, water falls, streams, and sunny skies.

This year we picked up Evie’s niece and nephew in Colorado Springs, and brought them with, meeting up with grandma and grandpa when we got to Spearfish. It’s nice to make a long weekend out of the event. Always good to see so many friends.

Sadly, this was the only picture I took on the trip, too much fun and excitement  had me forgetting to pull out the camera.

Tony, Ryan and Cole drove out in the sprinter, and Corey, Justin, Karen and Butch also drove out from Wisco. We spent a few days ripping around on the “can’t wipe this smile off my face” singletrack, most of which were one way shuttles 🙂

Dakota Five-O: Home of the Pro’s, Joe’s, and Who Knows

Each year, more and more talented riders seem to show up to the Dakota Five-O. This year I was stoked when Corey get the win after making a wrong turn last year.

I had a great race following a mediocre start. I entered the singletrack about 15th, not ideal, but quickly started working my way up, making a few late race passes to finish 7th.

I could ride Five-O single track all day long! The trails were in the best shape ever and my Scott Spark crushed the descents like mad. Overall satisfied with my effort, hydration, and fueling. I’m always amazed at how after nearly 4-hrs in the saddle, the race comes down to just a few minutes.

Afterwards, free beer from Crow Peak Brewery and burritos from Barbacoa’s, plus live music and prizes, it’s quite the after party. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Hometown Race

Next up, Tour of the White Mountains, right here in Pinetop! Stay tuned for a special post next week where I’ll be highlighting some of the best places to eat, drink, and hangout when coming to town. Along with some great post race riding spots.

Cheers!

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun.

August started off with a return trip to Wisco to visit family and at weekend in Marquette, MI for Ore to Shore, one of my favorite weekends of the year. Great trails and lots of familiar faces. This year was no different. We sandwiched the race with some “can’t wipe that smile off your face” riding on some the new trails at Marquette Mtn. Incredibly fun!

The race itself went down as usual, well except for the lead group getting stopped by a train. This brought things back to maybe 40 or so riders and it got a little chaotic once we started rolling again. At some point a gap opened up and a chase group formed and we finished with a bunch sprint for 18th.

Nationals

Prior to that Evie and I hit up Mtb National’s in Mammoth Lakes, CA, what a pretty area. We rented a condo with Corey, Jeff, Joe and Corey’s two friends Michelle and Jonnie that turned out to be a stone’s throw from the venue. It was a good bunch and everyone had a good time, including Lucy!

I’m hoping that this year is just the year of bad luck between my flat at Whiskey and then Nat’ls. Had a great first few laps, but then (discovering afterwards) what turned out to be a little electrolyte overload I had to stop and get off my bike for a little while which pretty much put a damper on any hopes of finishing in the top 20. A fun course though, your standard mountain course 15-mins up, 5-mins down.

Evie crushed the downhill race, winning the overall Cat 3 on her trail bike. That being only her second DH race ever was pretty cool.

Good Ol’ WORS Racing

Back in Wisconsin, the second weekend of my trip I went up to Minooka Park to checkout the WORS race. Bummed that they did away with Crystal Ridge after which I’m told “The Rock” is no more. Anywhoo, the Minooka course was fun. Super tight, so tight that my 700mm bars barely fit through one set of trees, and twisty.

The race itself hurt! So much hammering on every small up hill and out of every single corner to gain a half second here and there. On laps 1 and 2 I was constantly out of the saddle, but my back really didn’t like. After another go around on laps 3 and 4 I started to get into a little better rhythm, but a little to late to make much out of it. 10th on the day, which is about par for the course for a “meh” kind of day. It was good to get out and mix it up with the WORS crew.

Back to the Mountains!

After returning to Arizona, I spent a week in Tucson before returning to the mountains of Flagstaff and then home to Pinetop. My birthday was on Tuesday so I took a little stroll up Mt. Lemmon and dropped in on Bug Springs, way fun! Even in 90+ degrees up there.

In Flagstaff, getting back to rocky technical goodness I took the win at The Old Fashioned Mtb Race. Bike was great and so was the nutrition. After returning to elevation after almost 3 weeks at sea level my lungs felt it. I can definitively say that there’s about a 5% gain in power for me coming down from elevation. At sea level the legs just seem to flush the lactic acid better due to more oxygen (or some other type of scientific explanation).

Next up, South Dakota for the Dakota Five-O. Rain or shine, it’s sure to be a great time!

Yesterday Evie and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary, a pretty cool thing.

A lot has happened in the last 12 months. In traveling around the county racing our bikes we’ve made some incredible friends, but had to say a temporary goodbye to our Wisconsin friends as we moved west to Arizona. Evie sold her house and started a new job as town manager of Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ. I moved my website design business, we got a new dog, new bike sponsors, and have been on many new adventures. Here’s to having many more in the years to come.

A look back at our first year…

 Love you Ev!