Future Posts

I've taken a bit of time away from the thoughts of cycling and team to give my mind a well needed rest after a long season.  It all started last January on the Pugsley and wrapped up in November on the Superfly.  My travels took me from California to Idaho and all around the Midwest.  The great thing is, my body feels great and ready to go but it's not all about the body.  The mind needs to be rested too.

I'm getting back into the swings of planning and I'll share a few things in the next couple weeks or so that is on my mind.  The team, off season training, planned races, thank you's, and a few other topics.  

Iceman

"If you need any more motivation then right now! Following the wheel of a Fluckiger brother, the 13th ranked rider in the world, you're in the wrong sport!"

Fluckiger, Shriver, me, and Guerra up Williamsburg Rd.

These are the words that littered my head as I suffered in the Iceman.  I used specific motivation to push myself beyond the limits.  Suffering equals reward and it turned my 11 Iceman experience into near perfection.

10 months ago I made my cycling goals for the 2011 season.  One of them, finish top 15 in the Iceman.  This goal was made way before I knew the field size and the field depth.  It's easy to say this in the now, but the 2011 field may be one of the deepest fields the race has ever seen.  10 different guys had a realistic chance at taking home the Ice.  Do the math, that leaves 5 spots out there for me to achieve my goal.  The weeks approaching I thought many times of changing my goal to a top 20 finish.  It didn't take long for me to smack myself out from cheating myself.  I knew I had the ability to finish where I wanted and so I stuck with it.

The Race
I got a good start position in the 2nd row right behind C. House and T. Schouten.  Two wheels I knew would be in the right position.  The field immediately swarmed and the chaos of the first mile of Iceman was full on.  I managed to stay fairly well positioned and jumped in about 10-15th in the first single track.  After that the front group was formed.  (2 min into the video you'll see the front group.  I'm tucked in decent position in the middle left.)  The battle for position was intense for the first 5k.  Everyone is vying for the top 10 spots and the sand throws you around making it more difficult.

The favorites were up front trying to split things early and it was making the back of the train all that more difficult.  About 30 minutes into the race an attack stuck and split us into 3 groups.  I was part of the 3rd group with C. House, N. Guerra, I. Neff, J. Wakeley, and C. Tanguy.  Neff and Tanguy did an awesome job of keeping the pace up and pulled us back to M. Shriver and M. Fluckiger.  We stayed a strong group of 8 for most of the race and somewhere along the way we picked up T. Wells.  We each took a turn up front pushing the pace.  Shriver, Fluckiger, and Wells did a lot of the pace making the next 20 or so K.  The pace never seemed to settle especially when Wells was on the front, he had the legs to be with the front group.  On the flats we were reaching pace line speeds of 25 mph and on the uphills we stood to keep the speeds high.  After "The Wall" N. Guerra put in a hard effort up the first of many steep climbs.  That split the group for a short time but within 3 minutes we were all back together again.  Approaching the last few K, Neff attacked and split the group and a few were able to keep going after he came off.  We were now spread out like a dropped bag of skittles.  At this point our speeds were so high for the last 20k the steep climbs were putting legs into an unrecoverable deficit.  The crazy thing about pain in the Iceman, you don't feel it when you have 3-4 people deep on the hills screaming for you to go faster.  To not disappoint somehow the body finds a way to pick it up.  This year they wound you through the venue with 1k to go and then brought you back out only to reenter for the finish.  The whole time you can hear the 1000's of crazies screaming.  That's enough motivation to push a tank across the finish line much less your bike. Entering the final few 100m I had J. Wakeley right in front of me but could not come around.  I came in 14th place.

I didn't know  when I crossed that I finished 14th so when my dad told me...... uncontrollable excitement.  To work so hard for so long to meet goals....its tough to match that feeling.  Come to find out our group finished 8-15th and were only 1:10 off the winners.  I heard the front group slowed a bit near the end but that really showed me that our group never let off and was able to make up some time staying steady.  Even though I hurt so much for the entirety of the race this ended being one of the funnest times I've had racing a bike.  I got mixed in with a great group of riders, the speeds were high, and the competition was fierce

For those of you who have never experienced Iceman...what are you waiting for?  This race is incredible.  The atmosphere is unmatched at any other event around the sport of MTB.  You can feel the culture instantly when arriving to TC.  Until next year....and I can't wait.