Deer Valley Nationals

The National Mountain Bike Series made it's fourth stop of the season in Park City, Utah this Saturday. Locally, I ride Pro but this was a chance to compete against some national talent. I barely got upgraded to semi-pro (the aspiring pro field as opposed to the national "pro") in time for the race. And so I found myself at the back of a pack of just over 50 riders as the starting gun went off. Alisha said there were only four riders behind me going into the first turn on the course. Fortunately, the race turned straight up a ski run on a dirt road and blew to pieces on the steep climb. I took an outside route practically in the bushes and killed myself to make it into the top ten by the time the singletrack started at the top.

Deer Valley is basically two crazy climbs with corkscrews leading back to the bottom. The steepness worked for me and I found myself in seventh coming into the final lap where I charged ahead of two riders at the start of the final climb and rode with everything that I had to try to keep them from catching me on the downhill finish. It was just enough to make it on the podium and I snagged fifth with the best semi-pro finish by a Utah rider. The next day, Alisha and I went for a good two and a half hour recovery ride and she burned me on the climbs as my legs are fried. No doubt I deserved it for making her sit in the sun all day Saturday to hand me water bottles.

Utah Summer Games

Dave says: We just got back tonight from an exciting weekend of racing at the Utah Summer Games. It was a fun trip to Cedar City to see family and friends while competing in four cycling events. Thursday morning was the hill climb where Alisha pulled out the fastest women's time of the day up Right Hand Canyon with a 26:27 while I won my category but placed third overall with just an average time for me. Thursday night was a time trial where Alisha looked so fast that she got her picture taken by the local newspaper and finished second overall.

Friday morning was a fast-paced criterium race. Alisha split up the women's group early with some fast lap times. Two girls sat on her wheel for basically the entire race. Despite doing most of the work and being at a disadvantage from having to lead out the final sprint, Alisha put down a huge last effort and flew across the line less than a foot in front of the second place girl. My race also had some hot action with a solid group of core riders that stuck together the entire race. Brian Jeppson gave me an amazing lead out on the final lap and I attacked going into the final corner to win a close sprint. Behind me, a rider had taken the final corner too hot and slid out into another rider breaking some expensive bikes but fortunately not hurting anyone too bad (however the same thing happened in the older men's race and there were some broken bones and major injuries in that). When we weren't racing, we sat by the finish line using umbrellas to keep off the sun.

Saturday morning was the road race out from Cedar City to Newcastle and back. It was 60 miles for me and 40 for Alisha. She handled herself no problem staying with the fast men for a good portion of the race and winning the women's overall. My race split up in the steep mountains on the way back in from Newcastle but despite Brian's incredibly long and hard pulls up front and a couple fast accelerations from me, we came into the finishing straight with a group of about seven riders. Once again, I got an amazing lead out from Brian and had a solid sprint to win the overall.

Hard to believe, but we also did some things other than biking on our trip. When we weren't racing bikes, we were racing Mario Kart on the Wii. No gold medals for us in that though because Mandy and Shane have some serious skills. We also enjoyed some of Debbie's wonderful cooking and a fun outing with my mom up Cedar mountain to pick up Daniel and Katie from camp.

3 Years

Yesterday we celebrated our three year aniversary with family and friends. We have enjoyed having Dave's grandparents in town as well as Christine, Parker, and Kaylee. We went out to dinner with the whole group including family friends the Toussaints. Our house is gorgeous this time of year with everything in bloom. Dave made Alisha a boquet of a dozen red, pink, white, and orange roses from the yard. For an aniversary adventure, we are heading down to Cedar City later today for the Utah Summer Games.

Bike Racing (as usual)

Alisha says: Once again we were off to a bike race this weekend (this is pretty much going to be the routine the whole summer). The race was the Utah State Championship Road Race and took place just outside of Logan. We left the house with plenty of time to get there, pick up our numbers, chill for a minute and get a good warm up in, but the way that we wanted to go ended up having a road closed so then we had to turn around and backtrack a little bit to get to the other route. So we ate up all of our spare time and when we got there Dave had just enough time to get his gear on, hit the restroom, ride in a couple of circles and then he was off on his first race as a Cat 3 rider. I didn't start for another 30 min. so I had enough time to get ready. The course was a 16 mile loop. I had to do 3 laps for a total of 48 miles and Dave had to do 5 laps for a total of 80 miles. I am always so nervous at the beginning of races because everyone is antsy and the course was pretty flat so everyone stayed in a pack for most of the first loop. Towards the end of the loop there was a pretty good hill that busted the group up a bit which I was thankful for. Jamie (Ski Utah) and I had a good break away for a lot of the second loop and then Breanne (Ski Utah) and another girl caught on to us so there were four of us working hard together for the last lap. When we got to the hill I busted a move and got a little lead. From the top of the hill there was about 4 miles of flat to the finish. I knew that they would probably catch me so I just did my best and about 1/2 mile from the finish the two Ski Utah girls flew by me. I tried to grab on but they had gapped me a little. I caught Jamie but not Breanne. I was happy with second and didn't have any regrets. It was a really fun race.

Dave says: Alisha's sure got talent when it comes to the hills. Her big break away was a perfect move on this course and it took the teamwork of two girls to give her some competition at the finish. As for me, the group of about 40 stayed together pretty much the whole race. We were able to drop a few off the back on the big climb but it came down to a sprint finish and the big and strong riders had their day. In the end, my best effort landed me in eighth place.

The "W"

When Dave woke up on Saturday morning at six a.m., he rolled out of bed and looked out the window. "It's raining!" he said to Alisha, but she had already been up for fifteen minutes and knew this. Dave went downstairs to the computer to check out a live web cam of Park City where his mountain bike race was scheduled. There was snow on the slopes. It looked like it was going to be a terrible Saturday.

Then, Dave decided to bail on the mountain bike race and do a road bike hill climb in Draper with Alisha. At the start it was overcast and cold with a few sprinkles, but as the race began the weather cooperated and the pavement dried up. The race cranked up a 10% grade to Alpine, then down the back side towards Highland before turning around and finishing back at the top in Alpine. Dave sprinted away from two other riders at the turnaround and got the overall "W" in the men's category while Alisha easily snagged the women's "W" and was minutes ahead of the next girl. She would have even been on the men's podium after finishing sixth overall. Despite being a smaller event, they both won some cool gift certificates. At home they celebrated with nectarine and pork kebobs (a must-try from the family recipe blog) and were so tired that they went to bed at 8 pm.

Sundance

Dave says: It was a fun weekend driving down to Sundance on Friday after work to preride the course. We camped a couple miles above the resort in an area where there was still snow on the ground. Here's the crazy part, we actually slept in the back of the Civic with the seats folded, the air mattress blown up, and our feet sticking down to the end of the trunk. We brought a tent, but believe it or not this was actually more comfortable. As for my race, it was a throw down from the beginning with the same guys who I had raced the previous Wednesday in Draper. The course was super fast and in excellent condition. Sundance has always been one of my favorite venues. Fourth was another good consistent result as I moved up a place from last week. It was fun to hang out with the Kuhl/Scott Team under the giant team tent post race. Also, Alisha impressed everyone this weekend with a great win and pulled together a strong comeback on the final climb after a rough crash. Nice!

Alisha says: This was technically my first real mountain bike race and I was pretty apprehensive about it. I debated back and forth on weather to do it or not even after preriding the course the day before. The race was mostly fun except for the two crashes that I had. Once I just kind of tipped over but the second one I was going a little to fast down a hill into a switch back for my comfort level when I hit some rocks wrong and went crashing over the front of my bike to the ground (I now have a few scratches and a huge purple bruise on my quad muscle). I jumped back on my bike and continued to ride on. From the beginning I duked out the race with one other girl from my category. I would pass her on the uphills and then she would pass me on the downhills. Luckily for me the race ended on a uphill. I had to work to catch her but as I cruised by for the win she said "@#$% you can climb." It was a fun time but I don't think I am converted to mountain biking quite yet.