A New Adventure Awaits!

This year has been pretty incredible. It started off with 3 months in Arizona, followed by my buddy Steve’s wedding in California, Sea Otter w/ Evie and the Linear Sport Crew. That momentum carried me into the racing season placing 2nd at both the Fontana and Wisconsin ProXCT’s. I once again stood on the podium at mtb nationals, and to top it off Evie and I got married! It’s been a busy year to say the least.

I’m excited to begin my newest adventure, which includes a move to Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ sometime next month.

Wedding Party

Fontana US Cup - Tim Racette 2nd Place Cat 1

Lake Tahoe

Tim Racette - Mtb Nationals - Cat 1 - 5th Place

The journey started a few months back when Evie saw an opening for the town manager position. She applied and next thing we knew we were flying out to AZ for the final round of interviews.

Pinetop-Lakeside is an interesting town. It sits at 7000′ up on the Mogollon rim (the southern edge of the Colorado plateau) about 2-hrs east of Flagstaff, 3-hrs NE of Phoenix, a great location. The little mountain town of 4500 people sees cooler temperatures than Phoenix in the summer, but still get’s a little bit of snow in the winter.

The town’s motto is ‘Celebrate the Seasons’ and that’s exactly what the area offers, outdoor activities for every season.

Mountain bike trails out your door, endless fire roads to train on. Long gradual pavement climbs that take you up past 10k feet.

The town itself has a lot of cool little shops and restaurants including a brewery, olive oil shop, and numerous ski shops.

Sunrise Park is about 40-miles from town and offers downhill skiing in the winter with a vertical of 1800′ plus XC skiing at the base. In the summer they run lifts for down hill trails, woo! Excited to check these out.

Overall the area has a lot to offer and Evie and I excited to start a new chapter in our lives. We’ll certainly miss our friends back home (which is only a plane ride away), but we know you’ll want to come visit 🙂

The next few weeks will be filled with finding a place to live, packing, and finishing out the WORS mtb series.

We just got back from the Dakota Five-0 in Spearfish, SD an absolute blast of a weekend. The trails, the people, the food, they’re all amazing. I ended up 12th with a time of 3:59 after a wrong turn took me off course to Old Baldy Summit and back down. Evie finished 4th overall in the women and took home some cash, a sweet flask, and a brand new Quarq XX1 power meter, yeah!

Black HillsI’m currently sitting 6th overall in WORS, hoping to snag a top 5 this weekend at Lake Geneva and cap off the season with one of my favorite courses!

I know I probably won’t get to see everyone before I leave, but rest assured I’ll be back.

Here’s to old friends & new adventures!

Mtb Nationals – Bear Creek, PA

As the biggest race of the season comes to a close, I sit down on the couch and let out a big sigh, what next? Here’s a look at my trip to mountain bike nationals.

It’s Carnage Out There!

Tim Racette - Mtb NationalsThis being the second year nat’ls was held at Bear Creek, I knew what to expect coming in and I knew that played to my advantage. Coming off a 2nd place finish at WORS Cup I also knew I was riding strong.

East coast riding is littered with bowling ball sized jagged rock gardens for days. Rocks big enough that you can’t just motor over them, you have to use your whole body to pump and finesse the bike. While fitness comes into play, it’s more bike control and riding strong enough equipment.

I was lucky to have plenty of practice this winter in Arizona ripping trails, descending South Mountain and Bell Pass gave me a lot of confidence on my bike. The Trek Top Fuel was once again amazing! With the new Fox CTD shock I’m running this year I had the advantage of a rear remote which was fantastic. You don’t want to take your hands off the bar even for a second at Bear Creek!

Next Year…

While another 5th place finish and spot on the podium was great, I certainly had the potential to do more. After hitting my pedal and leading the prologue lap I dropped my chain coming into the first climb. That was the first of many dropped chains in my race.

Turns out my clutch had broken on my rear derailleur. Brian at Shimano got me fixed up after the race, but unfortunately it was after the fact. On the plus side, while dozens of riders littered the trail fixing flat tires, my Racing Ralph’s w/ Snake Skin were flawless.

Tim Racette - Mtb Nationals - Cat 1 - 5th PlaceSuper happy with the way I was riding and ripping through the rocky descents. After falling to last place at the start of the first climb I moved up to 3rd by the time we got halfway down the descent. I was ripping, handling my bike great, but I knew the two leaders (guy’s I’ve raced against earlier this season) would be tough to catch.

I pinned it down the descent and across the start finish straight and began lap 2 of 3. At the start of the descent on lap 2 I came around a corner real hot and lost my front wheel. That sent me sliding pretty good and it took me  minute to get moving again after the impact. I’m glad my only crash of the day was on a fast corner and not down one of the jagged rock gardens. Regardless, I was passed by Brad and another rider and it took me a good 5-10 mins to get any sort of rhythm back.

I rolled through the start/finish ready to go out on my last lap feeling defeated. I muscled my way up the climb and then rode down the descent at a conservative pace.

Tim Racette - Mtb Nationals Short Track

I’m certainly no quitter, but that race had me questioning whether or not I’d finish, call it bad luck or what-have-you, sometimes it’s just not your day. I had the legs and handling skills to win, but I was out of the race before it even got going.

While my result wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it was still a fun weekend. Joe and Brian both did super well in the pro race, Evie podium’d in all 3 of her races and Brad took 3rd in the XC race. Good times with good friends (and family!)

Thanks to Lynn Senkerik for all the cheers and awesome photos!

Evie Brings Home the Bling!

Full Throttle: WORS Racing & Wedding Planning

Tim Racette WORS Camrock

Goodbye winter, hello summer!

Somehow we missed spring, but that’s alright because the trees are blooming and WORS racing is in full swing.

With WORS racing, training for nationals in July, and wedding planning, things are getting pretty crazy. I’m trying to stay focused and be as efficient with my time as I can.

Quick WORS 1-3 RecapTim Racette Camrock - Xtreme Photography Unlimited

WORS #1 kicked off at Iola which is always a fun race because you get to see so many faces you haven’t seen all winter. Evie, Marc, Kristina and I caravanned up to the race and camped at Iola Pines. We had a good time and love our new camp stove! The race itself was just alright, didn’t have the greatest start and rolled in feeling meh, for 20th.

WORS #2 Rhinelander turned into another camping trip, meeting up with a handful of other teammates and friends made it a great weekend. The trails were awesome, fast and flowy singletrack. A lot of people make comments about it being a bumpy course, but my Top Fuel was butter and I railed every turn coming across the line 10th.

WORS #3 Camrock put even more fuel in the fire having ridden the trails quite a bit. Lots of single track and short punchy climbs. Race day was hot! Spending so much time in Arizona I tend to thrive in these conditions. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to prepping for the heat.

I had a pretty good start, having practiced the start climb a half dozen times the week prior. I slotted easily into the top 10 before the first section of single track, made a tactical pass into the next section and never looked back.

After riding solo for laps 2, 3, and most of lap 4 I rolled up on Tristan which made for an exciting finish. Matching my effort from last year, I was 7th once again. Happy with that.

What I was most pleased with in my race is the consistency of my lap times. My first lap is always the fastest, the middle are usually just a bit slower, and the last lap a touch faster. At Camrock my first lap was the fastest and my last 3 laps within 20 seconds of each other, two were just 1 second difference. Pretty solid.

My Top Fuel once again rocked. I’ve never felt better ripping through single track so I’m really excited for the next race in Wausau, a course that has bigger rocks, and a few more challenging sections than Camrock.

Snake Alley

Snake Alley Crit

The weekend prior to Camrock I shot down to Burlington, Iowa for Snake Alley, a road crit up a cobble switchback climb. It’s a super fun race unlike any other crit out there. I had a pretty good go and ended up 5th in the Cat 3 race out of 70 some racers.

The race stuck together early on, so I was able to move up from the back after 2 laps, and riders started dropping off halfway through. I was pretty consistent up the climb and closed down a couple gaps on the flats fairly easily mid race. The legs were good.

Evie also raced, her first road race and got 2nd in commanding fashion.

Next up WORS Wausau, Eau Claire and then our wedding on July 5th in South Dakota!

Till next time…