Four days of riding never felt so good!  I rode all four days of the long turkey day weekend and I must say that it felt wonderful to be outside riding with my wife and my friends.  I am very thankful for having them!

Thursday we hit up Lower San Juan Trail.  We had a time constraint and a pretty decent sized group so we didn’t get many miles in, somewhere around 13.  I did get a pretty good workout as one of the people in the group was having a bad day and I wound up carrying two Camelbaks for the majority of the climbing.  One of our fellow riders brought his girlfriend on the ride; she is extremely fit but new to mountain biking and not very technically skilled.  On the way back down I rode with her and gave her some pointers.  I think the highlight was when she conquered a rock roller, it was quite an achievement for a new rider!  Back at the parking lot we all lingered a while, enjoying the company of good friends and wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving.

Friday Allison arranged to spend a day riding with two other couples in Idyllwild.  We rode Thomas Mtn/Ramona Trail and then shuttled up to a high point and descended Snakeskin and several other trails back down to Hurkey Creek campground.  The fun factor was very high and we got in close to 30 miles.

A picture of the shuttle ride back up...

Saturday Allison and I did a suffer fest training ride.  The plan was to climb from Hemet to the top of Thomas Mtn. via fire roads.  Allison broke down pretty bad on the trail, for some reason she just wasn’t in it mentally.  Sixteen miles or so into the out and back she refused to go any farther.  I felt pretty good and did my best to coax her into making the 20 mile mark but she would have none of it.  In all honesty I was glad we turned back when we did.  My left Achilles tendon became extremely irritated shortly after turning around.  There were a couple of good climbs on the way back and I wound up carrying two hydration packs again which really took a toll on me.  I did my best to keep Allison trudging forward and deal with the pain from my ribs and left ankle.  It was a long day on the trail and I felt like we suffered sufficiently.

Sunday we led a small group ride at Daley Ranch in Escondido.  I broke off the front of the group with two really strong riders and did my best to hold their pace for the first few climbs.  My legs were feeling the efforts of the day before though and around 7 miles in I could no longer hang onto the fast guys.  We had a blast slamming down the single track descents; they always seem to make the horrid fire road climbs worth while.

I have to say that although it would have been great to go on a road trip and ride far away and exciting trails over the holiday, I am very thankful for my wife and my friends.  They make even the uneventful local trail riding awesome.  I am very fortunate to have them!

Two weeks ago if asked, I would have answered that the race at Fontana was going to be a great race for me.  I have been riding well, have pretty decent fitness, was healthy, and wanted to really put in a good race for the end of the season.  We have a ton of training ahead of us to prepare for Vision Quest.  The training really isn't fun, with hours and hours of climbing on fire roads followed by careful descents.  The most important thing is to be healthy, injury free, so that you don't have anything holding you back.  Last weekend's injury to my ribs put a serious wrinkle in the plans.  On top of that, I was out of town on business Thursday and Friday.  Thursday night I think I logged less than 2 hrs of sleep.  Friday night I went to bed pretty early, but you really can't make up for such horrible physical preparation.

Saturday morning I felt pretty good.  We showed up pretty early, got checked in, and made sure everything was in order.  I headed out to warm up.  I wasn't sure how my ribs would treat me.  I had tried to be nice to them all week.  I rode up a few hills and felt pretty stiff.  I tried to loosen up by standing some, but in the process found that I absolutely could not pull up hard on the bars.  This presents me with a difficulty for XC and a severe handicap in DH.  I decided to race XC and play it by ear for DH. 

My XC class was very thin, 4 riders at the start.  I didn't start really strong.  By the end of the first lap I could no longer see the person in first place, occasionally I would catch a glimpse of the guy in second but was unable to put in an explosive performance to catch him.  If I hadn't had about 8 people screaming and yelling and cheering for me after the first lap, I might have not continued.  It was an awesome feeling to have so many people cheering for me.  I truly appreciated their energy!  The second lap was very hard for me, I dug deep on the painful climbs.  In the end, I took third 51 seconds behind second and a little over 10 minutes back from first.  I don't think the guy that took first should have been riding in Sport.  He was wearing a full Giant kit with a matching carbon Giant bike.  He looked like a factory sponsored pro!

Unfortunately after the race I was in major pain.  Before awards we ate lunch.  I layed on the ground for most of the award ceremony.  After awards we suited up for DH so we could get some practice.  The kidney belt on my 661 armor really helped support my ribs.  I put in three good runs and was totally wiped out.  There were some lines I could not take due to the pain, but I thought that over night I could sleep on my lines and do fair on Sunday.  Saturday night we sat in the spa at Nancy and Roger's house for a bit.  I think that helped.

Sunday morning was very painful (I think I see a trend).  We got up early and were on the first practice shuttle.  On the first run I felt horrible, I was not on.  The second run I felt much better.  I was going to give it my all in the race run.  I hiked up the course and cheered on the pros as I hiked.  I tried to check out some of the lines and found at least one spot to save time.  Race run came after much waiting.  I felt very nervous at the start, pedaled hard out of the gate.  Hit the first turns and scrubbed a little more speed than needed, I saw Brad crash here in his race run and didn't want to do that.  I pedaled hard out of those turns and took a new line that I saw the Pro and Expert riders take.  It felt fast.  I pedaled more and then slammed through next turn, hit the brakes a tad hard but then got a lot of speed off the rock and into the next section.  The fire pit sucked up a lot of my speed, I pedaled very hard to recover afterwards.  I pumped the little ledge, then tried not to brake check the next drop off, nailed the rock in the perfect spot and was into the flowy part of the course.  The next big left hand turn caught me out, I set up in the rut and scrubbed a lot of speed, then had to pedal really hard through the next turn.  I was really having to pedal a lot to get back up to speed and wasting a lot of energy.  I was really exhausted when I hit the rock garden.  I picked the right line going in, but messed up on the slight right and got off line, washed the front and slipped off the back of the bike, I jumped back on but lost more than one second, probably almost 2 seconds.  I pedaled hard to get back some speed, slammed through the right hander at the wall and pedaled for dear life to get to the next section.  I was slower than in practice, pre-jumped the first rock, had to swerve some to make it cleanly through the next few rocks, rolled a section where it was much faster to jump (too much pain to pull up and didn't want to risk crashing or the rest of my run due to pain) then split the two rocks heading onto the wall and pedaled for dear life.  I ran out of juice, sat down and kept pushing as hard as I could.  I flew through the last section and was completely gone when I crossed the line.  I finished 4th.  I was 0.4 seconds back from third and 4 seconds back from first.  I was happy with the results considering my injury and racing XC instead of practicing Saturday.  Thanks to all the people who cheered for me and kept me going.

Today if you ask me, Fontana WAS a great race for me.  I kept going through the pain.  I kept focused and didn't give up.  Now it is time to start training for Vision Quest.  Wish me luck!  The sound of all my friends cheering me on will ring in my ears as I climb the endless fire roads.  Thank you all!

By the way I am SUPER proud of my wife Allison Mann.  She won her class in Sport XC and placed second in Expert DH.  She is riding so well.  I think she will be racing at the Pro level soon in DH.  It is really awesome to see her progress so rapidly.  To go from not riding at all to a Pro level DH rider inside of 2 years is amazing.  GOOD JOB ALLISON!!!

First off I love my new Sunline V-one low rise bars and Logo grips!!!!  Awesome stuff!  I am also loving my new Royal Future Combat shorts and 661 Pro Pressure Suit!



Next weekend WAS going to be a pretty big race for me.  The Fontana 16th Annual race in which I will be racing sport XC and DH.  I probably should have gone to Fontana and ridden the XC course at near race pace, and practiced a little on the DH course, but it was my wifes B-day!  Off to Bootleg Canyon with Nancy and Roger and a fat grip of STR riders.  All day both days I was trying to keep myself in check, not getting hurt was never far from the front of my mind.  Unfortunately I fell victim to "one last run" syndrome.  I hadn't eated all day since breakfast, was riding with a group of strangers that ride The Shore all the time, it was 3:30pm and I should have packed it up to drive my buddy Jeff to the airport...  I find myself sitting on the shuttle waving to Allison, "one more run and then we are hitting the road!"  We went down Armageddon-Snakeback-Gstring.  Armageddon was really fun, Snakeback was fast and furious, one of the guys pinch flatted and we waited for about 5 minutes at the top of G-String.  I got cold, and anxious.  I got stupid.  When the guy finally showed up I nodded at everyone, stood, took three massive pedal strokes, loaded the suspension and launched into the first rock garden.  At the bottom of the short steep rocky section the trail goes hard left and there is a good bit of exposure if you go straight.



Airborne, front down, big hole, front tire slams in the wrong spot, suspension bottoms, weight transfers over axle, catapult, step over bars, tuck and roll, SLAM.  A rock finds a soft spot in the side of my new 661 pressure suit.  It breaks a rib before I continue to tumble down the hill.



I am still hoping to race this weekend, but I won't be doing as well as I would had I not broken a rib at Bootleg.  Oh well, here are some pictures from an AWESOME weekend at Bootleg...

Thursday night was a killer night ride!!!  We rode at Vail Lake and had some major star power out with us!!!  Eric Carter and Rich Houseman showed up and rode with us!!!  It was a beatiful night and we had a great ride!!!!

Rich Houseman, Me, Luke, and Eric Carter checking out some animal tracks.  (sorry for the crappy picture)

Today was great!  Beautiful day.  Fun course.  Awesome racing.

The race started out pretty poorly for me, but wound up okay.  At the start, the guy that was starting us was having microphone problems.  I was talking with the people next to me and all of a sudden I hear a faint, "go."  I see all my competition speeding off while I am desperately trying to get clipped in and up to speed.  I passed a bunch of people heading up the first climb, then got stuck behind the massive bottleneck at the "off camber single track section".  I was pretty much track standing for like a full minute waiting for the people in front of me to figure out how to make forward progress.  (Mental note to self:  If this happens again, get off the damn bike and run off trail and pass the people in the way!  Thanks for the tip Roger!!!)  Once I got into a groove things went pretty well.  I only got passed by one guy in my class the whole race.  I had some great moments, I was drifting like crazy in the high speed corners.  I am glad I had the Rampage on the front as the SB8 on the back was really sketchy, but I was able to hold onto the bike due to front traction.  The course was fast, there were a few sections where I was able to make up time on the climbers with downhill speed and cornering skills.  Unfortunately on the last lap I started cramping about half way through the lap.  I felt it coming and could do nothing about it.  I dismounted and fast-walked part of one climb hoping it would help, I jumped back on the bike when I noticed a few riders coming up behind me.  Didn't want to lose position.  The last straw was the final climb, a nasty hike-a-bike section (I don't think anyone including the pro riders rode it).  Both quads cramped to the point that tears were coming out of my eyes as I trudged up the climb.  I just kept moving, no matter how small my steps were, or how much pain I was in.  At the top I jumped back on my bike and did my best to descend the final DH section with both legs still locked up.  At the finish line I could not stand.

I finished 4th with a time of 1hr 18mins and change.  3rd place had 2 full minutes on me so I don't think my cramps kept me from catching him.  I am happy with my performance, especially considering that the fires and injuries have kept me off the bike for 3 weeks, except for two short rides.

Me reeling in some competition on the DH...

Fourth place isn't so bad...  :)

For more pictures check my XC picture gallery!