Trying hard to get the last sections of trail done here to open our training loop. The descent is pretty darn close, with reviews tending to place it on the fast, steep, and technical end of the spectrum. The rest of the trails should be decidedly more mild though.

We did do some test riding this weekend, which is the best part for sure. The drop below comes right at the end and should be a good way to cap things off.

In other news the new Zaboo full suspension 29er should come this week. Pretty stoked on that one for sure. More details soon.

Coyote Hill Classic Race Report

Well, it's been a week since the Coyote Hill Classic, which also happens to be the Vermont State Championships. Guess it's about time to write a race report. If you want the report on the fast folks and some results, check out my MTBRacenews.com report. Here's the more personal take.
First of all, I love racing at Coyote Hill. I can ride to the race course from my parents house, which is always sweet. And the course is mostly singletrack, with lots of roots and mud thrown in for good measure. In short, it's a mountain bike course, not a glorified cross course, and good technical riders tend to win there. That's the way it should be if you ask me, so it's always a blast to show up and race. Of course, racing is more fun if you're feeling fast, which I wasn't this year. I've been training a lot, and I feel like I could be fast, but my allergies and asthma have had other plans of late. Slowly but surely I'm getting on top of it, but I knew that Sunday was not going to be stellar. Nonetheless, I punched it on the first open climbing section and put myself, very temporarily, into the top 5. While that was a dumb move, it probably only accelerated the inevitable, and 15 minutes later I was sitting on the side of the trail, light-headed and wheezing, with a core temperature that felt like it was well over 100 degrees. Not so good.
Lucky for me Nina was racing the women's race not too far behind. By the time she passed me I was in good enough shape to pedal, and we cruised the next few laps together. Super fun. I was taking advantage of the dropper post on the (little) descents to have some fun, and rolling through the techy sections with the suspension wide open. Way more fun than racing a hardtail (though probably not faster, oh well). Apparently our combined efforts weren't for naught either, as Nina snagged a Cat. 1 State Title and I brought home 10th in the Pro field. Didn't see that one coming. Sweet. Maybe next time I can make the podium. That would be fun.

I'm A Spoke! 7Days and More

Lot's happening these days. Some sweet wheels from Stan's NoTubes showed up yesterday, more on those later. 

The big news is that I'm now a Spoke for Muscles Not Motors, which is a really cool effort by Onion River Sports in Montpelier to promote active lifestyles in Vermont. Stay tuned for some cool posts there.

I also showed up in the most recent 7Days, thanks to Brian Mohr for the sweet shots. Glad to help promote Fellowship of the Wheel. Their trails are awesome.

Speaking of trails, here's a quick before and after of some recent trail work. It's now rideable top to bottom, though it's far from finished. Early review are pretty good. Hopefully we'll have a trail day soon to get it dialed in.

Coyote Hill race report coming soon (gotta race it tomorrow first). Stay tuned.

Intervals in the Rain and Other Happenings

Just got back from a weekend in Maine up at Sparkplug Farm. My friends John and Sarah are doing some awesome things up there. Today it's back to business on the bike (I hope). My asthma has conspired to make me go easy the last week, as intervals have been leading to instant flare ups, but I'm hoping I can overcome that one today. Kinda wishing things looked a bit more like this out there though:

In other news, the new full suspension race bike should be here very soon. I'm oh so excited to put it through it's paces at the upcoming Coyote Hill Race, which should be it's classic muddy self this year thanks to the rain out the window right now. 

Snow Up High Today

Word is that there is some fresh snow up high in the central Greens today. So, even in a "bad" snow year there is skiing in Vermont on May 11th if you wanted to get after it. Just sayin'. A quick image to remember the winter that was (at times).

Mad River Valley Loop

Lots of images from an awesome birthday ride in the Mad River Valley of Vermont today, fun to have some VT trails riding so well right now.

Back in Vermont

Gotta say that the shorts and flip flops I left North Carolina in didn't work out so well once we got back to Vermont. Word was that the lifts were spinning at Jay Peak this last weekend, but since it's felt like bike season for the last few months the local trails seemed like a better call than driving north to snow. Here's a quick shot from some out-the-back-door singletrack in the Upper Valley. Fun stuff.