NEWS FLASH

Greetings all! I want to start off by plugging the race coming up. It will be here in Emporia at camp Alexander! It will be held on July 19, and is called "cRamp Alexander Bike Race". It is going to be a BLAST! A lot of people have been putting a lot of work into the trails, and they are the best that I have ever seen them.

It will prove to be a real barn burner. We are going to be visited by some of the top racers from the Midwest! Come race, or at least watch the big boys put on quite a show. You can watch the likes of Cameron Chambers, and other hot foot's. you can find more information at http://crampalexanderrace.blogspot.com/

I other news, I just got back from Colorado! It was an awesome trip. I got to visit family, go white water rafting, ride alpine slides, go jeeping and do a LOT of mountain biking! We started by spending a couple of day's in Ft. Collins visiting family. The first day I got to go up to Horsetooth Mountain Park and ride for a few hours. It was a lot of fun, and I got to get a little practicing in at altitude. Later we went to my mothers house for a visit, and then out to dinner at the Rio!

The next day I also got to get out for a little spin before shopping, and then dinner at my sisters house. She had an awesome cookout for my family, her family, and my parents. It was great to sit around eating and drinking and just catching up with what has been happening in each others lives.

The next morning we got up and trained a little and then went to the grocery store for supplies before heading up the Breckenridge. Once we got into the mountains, I unloaded the bike and did a pre-ride of the firecracker 50 course. The course was not completely marked yet, so I operated off of a Que sheet. It took me a while, but I managed to stumble through the course, and got a feel for what pain was in store in a couple of days.

By time I got off of the mountain, Shelley and Jeff had already checked into the condo, and met up with our friends that we were going to spend time up their with. While I was putting away the bike and showering the went down and secured a table at Eric's, where we ate some AWESOME burgers! After that it was to the condo for a chill evening.

The next day we went white water rafting! Boy, was that a lot of fun. With all of the snow and rain the river was full, which made for an excellent ride. It was the best trip down the river that I can remember. A good time was had by all.

The day before the race we decided to chill. We went up to peak 8 and did some alpine slide in the morning, then Shelley, Beth and Mallory went hiking in the afternoon while I took the guys up in the hills in the jeep to see the sights! It was awesome! We went down this trail that was the abandon narrow gage railroad for quite a ways and saw some great sights.

The 4th of July was quite a busy day. It started in the morning with Shelley and Beth doing their 10K trail race at 8:00am. They did excellent on such a challenging course. Part of their course was the final 2-3 miles of the bike race. After they got a good start on their race, and I snapped a couple of pics, I then went back to the condo to get ready for my race. When I was ready I went back to find out that Shelley had already finished, and Beth was within sight of the finish line. We all cheered for her as she finished, I congratulated them both, then I was off!

I was able to get a decent warm up rolling around town a little. The town was packed out! After about 20 minutes, I went to the staging area and found where my division was to line up. We hung out for a little while waiting for the start, and checking out the competition. I was able to meet some pretty cool dudes, and get their take for the day.

Before we knew it we were off in the rolling start. the street was packed with kids wanting hand slaps all the way down the main street. Once we made the left out of town the race was ON. The first 4 miles were all climbing. It went better than I thought it would. I was able to keep pace with my group pretty easily. When we entered the first single track at about mile 4 I was feeling pretty good about the race. For the first lap it was business as usual for the first two thirds of the lap. I was riding much better than the pre-ride, and was making great time. I was able to even ride most of the real difficult climb, and reached the top with ease. After the summit we pointed down and ripped up some single track. It was such a blast. After a bit of fun, we were ready for the last series of climbs. At the bottom I developed a bit of a problem. After all the descending I had cooled off considerable, and when we started to climb again I was starting to show signs of cramping. I chugged A BUNCH of electrolyte replacement, and backed off for a couple of minutes and then things returned back to normal.

Before we knew it we were on the final decent to the finish line. It was the most rewarding single track of the day, and was well worth all of the pain that we all went through to get to it. By the time we got to the bottom, we were so jazzed the we didn't even think of the pain that we were going to have to endure for the second lap of the race.

The second lap was uneventful. The pace on the climbs were a little slower than the first lap but were OK. The best parts were the descents though. The trails were not as crowded so I could open it up a little more and FLY down the course. It was such a blast. I had no problems on the second lap, and even though the climbs were a little slower, the lap time was only a couple of minutes slower.

At the end of the day I was quite content with the race, and ended up in 6th place in my division. This was the biggest race of the year, but am looking forward to a few more fun events. If any of you are in the area this weekend, you really should stop by at Camp Alexander on Sunday. My team (Team High Gear) is putting on a race on our home course, and it is going to be a BLAST! Check back next week and I will have an update on the race. Until then, keep the rubber side down!

Peace Out!