Ready for the beach


Seems like all the riding I've been doing lately has gotten me back in shape. That's what happens when you know you only have a few weeks left in single track paradise, you ride a ton,... and get stronger! I've made a different goal in my racing this year. I wanted to improve my time at the Tuesday nighter at Solitude each week. Unfortunately, I failed. The first 5 races went well, each competition I improved my time by at least one minute. Last week was different. I felt good, but ended up 6 seconds slower than the week before......at least I didn't go back to my time of the first race.

This was the shortest mountain bike race season for me in a while, but it was a fun one. I'll be heading back east next week and I'm looking forward to the upcoming cyclocross season. Well, before that, I can't wait to hang out on the beach a little and work on my stroke with my swim coach. Apparently I suck at swimming, but I'm determined to one day finish a triathlon.

Solitude


When you think of Solitude in terms of skiing, you think of a small resort, not too crowded, with great terrain and quality skiing. When it comes to mountain biking, it's no different. The resort might not have the amount of trails that Park City has to offer, but it has some great single track climbs and down hills.

The Tuesday night race series features a short loop, about 20 min long, and that usually makes for great racing. Too many races have long loops, the field strings out immediately, and the race becomes an individual time trail. Don't get me wrong, I like long loops when I ride, I don't have to do the same thing over and over again, but when it comes to racing, it's just more exciting when the field stays closer together. So last night, I ended up riding with Shannon on the last lap and he made me push as hard as I could to hold a 10 sec. gap. It was a good race, if someone didn't hold my digital camera hostage, I wouldn't have to steal this picture from the Solitude Race Series website......

Costa Rica

A personal growth journey

La Ruta de los Conquistatores faengt an der Westkueste an, in Jaco Beach, Startschuss ist um 5 Uhr morgens. Die allgemeine Stimmung war grossartig, und das Wetter war auch ganz schoen.

The Ruta de los Conquistadores starts on the west coast, in Jaco Beach, at exactly 5 o'clock in the morning. The atmosphere was great, and the weather was nice as well.




Team Mona Vie/Cannondale lockert die Beine aus am Tag vor dem grossen Mountain Bike Etappenrennen.

Team Mona Vie/Cannondale loosens their legs the day before the start of the big mountain bike stage race.

Die Hotelunterkuenfte waren allgemein ganz gut. Hier hab ich nicht wirklich den Mut gehabt, das Warmwasser einzuschalten.
The hotels were generally pretty nice. In this shower, I didn't have the guts to turn on the hot water.

Nach vielen Stunden am Rad, im Regen und im Schlamm, immer wieder vom Weg abgekommen, und ganz egal, wo man ist, immer 2 km vom Ziel entfernt (wenn man den Einheimischen glauben schenkt), sind wir dann schlussendlich 4 Tage spaeter in Limon an der Ostkueste angekommen.
After numerous hours on the bike, in the rain and mud, getting lost at least once a day, and no matter where you are, always 2 km from the finish line (according to locals), we finally made it to Limon on the east coast 4 days later.




Das Ziel war direkt am Strand, das Bier hat dann gut geschmeckt!
The finish was right on the beach, the beer after the race tasted great!




Dann gings ab zur Erholung nach Puerto Viejo.
Off we went to relax in Puerto Viejo.




Dieses Schild haben wir leider erst gesehen, nachdem 2 Mitglieder von unserem Team aus dem Wasser gerettet werden mussten. Diese dummen Touristen.....
Unfortunately, we didn't see this sign until after two of our teammates had to be saved in the water by local life guards. Silly tourists....





Ja Krokodile gibts auch in Costa Rica, zum Glueck hab ich keine im Rennen gesehen.
There are crocodiles in Costa Rica, luckily I didn't see any during the race.




Um noch mehr Bilder und Geschichten rund um die La Ruta zu lesen, bitte an team mona vie oder jason sager's site klicken.
To see more pics and stories about La Ruta, go to team mona vie or jason sager's blog.






Olympic Park


Yesterday was another beautiful day in Park City, no snow in sight. I love climbing up to the Olympic Park at Kimball Junction, great views from the top, plus good workout on the climb.

Moab Memories


Found these pictures from our Moab trip, Team Mona/Vie-Cannondale taking Nr. 1 in Coed Pro/Am as well as in Men's Veteran



Park City Duathlon




I took the doggies out for a run yesterday morning, Snowtop and Gap trail up at Deer Valley were nice and dry. The run with my dogs was awesome, it feels great to see them happy and tired after the run.


I decided to head out on my mountain bike later in the afternoon, figuring the trails around town would be dry. I made the mistake to start out on Lost Prospector, which is anything but dry. Good Park City clay, makes me miss Cyclo Cross even more. It'll be fun to get my bike cleaned, but sliding around in the mud makes it worth it. The Round Valley trails were dry and in great shape, and really busy, too. I ended up riding for 3 hours, plus the 1 hour run in the morning beat me up pretty good. But I need all the exercise I can get right now, especially since a friend of mine (who I haven't seen in a while) told me I looked good with the couple of extra pounds I put on. Maybe asking Jan Ullrich on how to stay in shape in the off season wasn't such a grand idea.






24 hours 28 min and 55 sec of Moab

I've been wanting to do this race for a while, and finally I got a chance this year. I think doing the 24 hours of Moab as a 4 person team is a great way to do this race. You get a chance to race, but you also get a chance to enjoy the "festival atmosphere" of this event.

Bart was putting out record lap times, but the whole team was showing a great performance. And that includes Bart's mom (team cook, team manager of 3 teams, keeping everybody informed about lap times, start times, etc) and the Cannondale mechanics Troy and Ryan. It felt great to win this race and post the most laps of the event, but the really cool thing was that each one of us on the team did 5 laps and we never had to change our rotation in order to achieve our victory. Mountain biking is not usually a team sport, but Moab was definitely different in that respect.


Here's a look at the Mona-Vie/Cannondale pit area

The start of the race reminded me of the running of the bulls in Pamplona

Notice the cacti right there



Bart finishing up his first lap and handing the duty over to Jason



Nina was a great addition to the team, a great rider, always with a smile on her face



The weather was perfect for racing, the course was nice and dry







Bart posting the fastest lap of the entire race in 1 hour and 2 min





Jason looking as fresh on his last lap as he did on his first






Jason finishing up his last lap of the 24 hours of Moab


If you want to see some more pictures and race reports, go to our team's website, Bart, or Jason's website