RACE #3

Ah Flagstaff, what a great place to race. Race #7 of the Arizona Series (http://www.mbaa.net/), the Flagstaff Frenzy occured May 16th. The race went great for me, but I still only came in 7th. I would have liked to do better, but that is how it goes.

Check out the cool rorshach test I ended up with on my chest due to all mysweating during the race:

So back to the race. I had the best start of the year so far. I was on the front row, and this made a much bigger difference then I thought. I usually start in the back row and end up on the back of the back by two minutes in. Guess what, when you start in the front, you can be in 2nd or 3rd spot two minutes in. Interesting how that works. I will need to be up front from now on. It was a climb intensive course, and that usually works well for me. I was in 5th spot at the top of the major climb at the end of the first of two laps.

Let me just say that the Marathon Carbon is a comblete monster on the downhills. I am just amazed at how good it is. It has taken my descending to a new level. That said, you still need to properly tighten your stem for it not to come loose on a descent. I hit a big rock and the stem went sideways on me. Not as bad as it could have been, but a bit distracting, and it caused me to loose a few spots that I was able to recapture on the long climb on the second lap, but it would have been nice to have not lost those spots. Mental note, make sure all the bolts are tight before the next race. So besides the stem that has nothing to do with the frame, the GT Marathon Carbon is completely awesome.

Well there is another race up in Flag in a few weeks and I hope to do better at it. I know the bike won't let me down, hopefully I will have my climbing legs on. Thanks for reading!

Race #2

The race up east of Payson Arizona, the "Mogollon Masher", went down this past saturday. When my wife and I got up to leave at 5:30am in Tucson it was 72deg.....It was a four and half hour drive to the race venue so we got started. It was hot all up to Phoenix and we even had to run the a/c on the road up before Payson. However, once we got to Payson it cooled considerably due to the altitude. By the time we got to the course and the race started it was 58deg. This was great for me, since I perform much better in the cool then the heat, however not great for my wife to spectate, since we had worn shorts, but luckily she somehow thought to bring a jacket.

We arrived about an hour before the start and I was able to convince a course marshall to set up the tent right next to the entrance to the venue. This worked out great and all the racers had to pass the GT tent on their way to the start. Sweet. I got to talk to some nice folks about how great my bike was and handed out some brochures to interested fellow racers.

Interesting course. Mostly flat, but some deceptive actually climbing involved. I heard about 500 feet per lap. Not terribly technical and definitely a power course. Funny thing was that since the snow up there has only recently melted, there were two stretches of mud/ standing water to ride through. So, 9 mile loops with probably 20 feet of mud each lap, and yet somehow the bike and I got completely covered in mud. Cool, it is the Dirt Coaltion afterall.

The race went pretty well, and I gauged my effort well and arrived at the finish line 7th. I actually out sprinted a guy who came in a few seconds later. It was a tough up hill sprint, but I dug deep and took it. Very satisfying indeed. I really want to get on the podium, and I think I need to work on my start. I am always back of pack in the first quarter mile and then move up from there. I can't tell how important the first minute is in a 2 plus hour race, but I would like to be faster out of the blocks.

Thanks for reading