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

Was that it?

I did a mtb ride a few days ago. I went up to the top of Bald Mountain at Deer Valley to do my favorite downhill. It could have been the last time for this year, looks like there's a good amount of snow on the hills today. I love going down Aspen Slalom to Freestyle to the bottom of Thieves Forest, then a short 1 min climb to finish it off with Devo. These trails are just awesome.



I don't know why they never incorporate them into our yearly NORBA or Intermountain Cup races. I don't dislike the usual course, but there's more to Deer Valley than 100 switchbacks.



Next weekend I'll be heading down to Moab for some 24 hour racing. It'll be fun to race as a team and not just an individual.

Pedaling Squares

I went on nice road ride today, I think the last time I was on a road bike was at the beginning of August. My pedal strokes weren' t the smoothest, but after a while it felt good to be back on the road. I even used my power meter, had to dust that thing off before I used it. I love looking at the numbers after the ride. I was on my way back to Park City, when I got a flat tire at the bottom part of Browns Canyon. I had a spare tube and a CO2 cartridge, sure enough, the CO2 wasn't working. I think the last couple of times I had a flat I always ended up with the CO2 cartridge not working. Is there some sort of expiration date on it? Maybe I've just been carrying around the same empty CO2 cartridge for the last 2 years. Who knows...The vibration of the road numbed my ass for the remainder of the ride, but other than that, I was able to keep a good pace with my flat tire.


Some people get burnt out in the fall. I've been kind of struggling with motivation to get out and train myself, so I kind of focused on different things while I was riding. I've been carrying a camera on my last mountain bike rides, I was looking for good shots and it got me pedaling my bike rather than sitting on my fat ass.

Sometimes when I'm not that motivated I make a deal with myself. I go out for at least 15min.

After the 15min., if I still feel like doing nothing I turn around and go home. But most of the time, after the first few minutes, you get into a rhythm and you stay out and enjoy your ride anyway!

I've also been running more lately. I love it, because there's no mechanicals or such, and it works different muscle groups than the ones used on a bike. Plus, I can share that activity with the dogs.