Chihuahuan Desert Bike Fest

Last week, I spent 3 amazing days mountain biking in and around Big Bend at the Chihuahuan Desert Bike Fest - a stones throw from the Mexican border. It's really some of the most beautiful landscape I've had the privilege of riding through. I forget how much I love the desert. The never ending sky changes the light, and everything seems that much more crisp and alive.

Riding there is amazing. The terrain is diverse. One moment you're on hardpack; the next it's momentum eating sand. You might climb steep, loose gravel with a 15% grade, and then descend through a bone-shaking rock garden at 35 miles an hour. I was excited to get as much riding in as possible, because I can't imagine a better week of training.

It was my second year going out there. Last year, Orange Seal sent me out for work, but this year I was free to my own devices. I drove out with some friends I know through the Peddler, and we stayed at Rancho Topanga, a small but nice campsite about seven miles down the road from the main festivities.

On day one, we hit the Airport Trails and then the Dome Loop. There's a new trail there called Fresno Divide. It starts off with a pretty tough climb and then a long, rough descent. It's pretty fun.

On day two, we did the Rincon Loop. An old tire puncture that I'd plugged busted loose, and I had to nurse it a bit. It sealed back up, and we tore through the rest of the loop pretty fast. We took the new trail, and managed to cut off to the road. It deposited us on 170 where I took this.

That's the Rio Grande over to the right, and behind me is AJ from the Peddler and Paul and James from Mafia Racing.

On Saturday, I did my first IMBA Epic. It was actually epic, and AJ and I rode it together. One of his tires was losing air right from the start. Luckily, Richardson Bike Mart was out there wrenching, and they topped off his sealant for him. After that, we didn't have any more problems. A few miles later, we got to a sign that described two different routes. One was seven miles, but included a loose, 3/4 of a mile climb; the other was eleven miles without the climb. We decided to take the climb, and with that, we made up some time and caught the lead group on the ride. There were so many brutal climbs and gnarly descents, but I managed to keep the bike rubber side down (as opposed to last year when I cut my left shin to the bone). On the way out, we added the Dome Loop to make up for some of the miles we'd missed, and then we biked back to camp.

That final night, we went to Starlight Theatre for dinner. It's the central hangout spot for all the locals and during the Desert Fest, it sees lots of traffic. My buddy Paul and I split the Diego Burger. It's easily more epic than the epic route. With all the snacking we'd done at the campsite beforehand, it was still difficult to get through just half. Next year, I'll make sure I'm half starved before attempting to eat it.

Yes, it is as big as his head; that's not a trick of the camera.

Boo-yah.

And with that, we ended the trip. Another year at the Desert Fest an amazing success, though this year, it really went by too quickly. Hopefully, those miles did my legs some good, because next week is the Mellow Johnny's Classic.

I did it.

Well, I did it. I raced the Pro/Cat 1 race. And, it was...
...hard. It was hard.

I was right about my stamina after the time off in January. I just didn't have the juice to keep the pace up, and I got dropped the first lap. I stayed steady though, and no one passed me. 25 guys started. 6 didn't even finish.

I ended up placing 16th - the same as my race number.

Really the best part about the race was how supportive my friends were. Everyone was really pumped on me doing the Pro race. People told me that I looked strong or fast. One friend said that he was proud of me. It was really touching and made all the suffering and uncertainty worth it.

The Mellow Johnny's Classic is in 19 days. I'm going to get lots of training in this weekend at the Chihuahuan Desert Bike Fest. I'll follow that up with a big road weekend, and then hopefully, I'll be able to push a little harder.

I definitely want it, though, and I'm sticking to the Pro/Cat 1 race. I'm too Cajun to quit now.

Working Back into It, and Baptism by Fire

I'm still dealing with that injury from a few weeks ago. The ultrasound came back negative, which left the doctor scratching her head. She went from telling me to stay off the bike to suggesting that I ride some to see exactly what hurts and what doesn't. Hopefully, I won't have all of my inside parts erupt from my stomach in the middle of a race; that would be a real drag.

Now begins the recovery. Two weeks off the bike felt like a long time. I don't feel like my power has been diminished, but my stamina took a pretty big hit. I probably should've immediately started doing some long slow miles to recover, but instead I went and tried the trails at Emma Long Park for the first time. It's very, very technical. There are lots of ledges and drops, and everything in between is rocky and dry. I stopped and had a snack at one point and took this photo of the new bike (with a test saddle that I'm trying out).

The day after that I borrowed a friend's car and went out to Reimers Ranch. There's still a lot of stuff there that gives me a little trouble, but the new bike's given me some extra confidence on the drops. And, I was able to blast through the long, straight section at the back pretty fast, which was fun.

It's tough deciding what to do. All the stamina I built off-season with long, road miles is gone. I want to try and get it back, but it seems like time to switch back to fast trail riding. I guess I'll see where the chips land this weekend...

I registered for the first race of the season today, The Rocky Hill Roundup in Smithville, TX. For some idiotic reason, perhaps pure masochism, I decided to register for the Pro/Cat 1 race rather than just the Cat 1 race.

...

I don't really have much to say about that. I guess I feel like I still race like a really fast Cat 2. They wouldn't have let me race Cat 2 again this year because I won a few races last year. Then, I thought "if I want to be as fast as the pro guys, why not chase them around the course instead of doing the Cat 1 race?" Honestly, I really want to see how they ride. How do they move over things at the speeds they do? The unfortunate truth is I probably won't get to see them much. They'll probably gap me pretty early and I'll be riding by myself most of the race, which means that my biggest worry, that I'll be in someone's way, won't be an issue.

Whatever. I wasn't going to be competitive for a while this season anyway whether I did the Pro race or the Cat 1 race. At least now when I'm dead last, I'll have an excuse, right?