2011 Xterra and Dorba XC series wrap up.

As the year ends and a new one begins I cannot help but wonder where did all the time go?  The memories are still fresh in my head but the time has passed once again. The Xterra season ended for me many months back and as much as I loved every moment of it I was ready for its end. Per my usual schedule that led me right into the Dorba Fall XC Series

The Xterra season went well I took the regional championship for my second year in a row with a perfect score.  An honor that is humbling and still beyond where I ever thought I would be within this sport. I had a few goals this season and hit most of them. I was looking to defend my win at Eureka Springs this year but it was simply not my day for racing and I ended up with 3rd overall.

out of T2 at Xterra Eureka Springs

100 miles of Payne

100 miles of Payne

The century rides that made me fall in love with seeing the world on two wheels.

The trails are currently swimming in mud from the latest rains and the build of my latest road concoction has been finalized. The same great frame but now outfitted with Campagnolo Super Record 11. In a desperate flee to get in a century ride before the year-end I was reminded of the great summer of century rides today that my good friend Mark Payne and I shared a few seasons back.

End of Xterra season 2010

Get a bicycle.  You will not regret it if you live.

~Mark Twain, “Taming the Bicycle”

My Xterra season has finally come to an end for 2010. What was a slow beginning closed with the greatest gift of all, an overall win in Eureka Springs. As one chapter in racing closes another opens wide up and consumes me. This will make my third year of mountain bike racing and as of last week I am racing Category 1. To race with these animals is an honor.

It was a three for three finale in my last few races and a surprising abrupt end for the season. My last three races were Xterra Red River, Xterra Eureka Springs and Xterra Dawg Days. I made it to the top three overall in all three races(first overall in Eureka) and managed to run the fastest splits of those three races as well. I also claimed my first regional championship, in my six years of racing Xterra I have never been a contender for this distinction.

Xterra Dawg Days

Xterra Eureka Springs

“We could win one of these one day, train more train consistent and we could be as fast as these guys.”

Bill Driegert May 14, 2005 after completing our first Xterra race in Ruston La.

My first triathlon was on May 1, 2005 it was a sprint distance that set the tone for my love of racing. It was a road triathlon and the only thing I owned was a pair of goggles and running shoes. I borrowed Bill’s Litespeed Ultimate which was made for a man exceeding six feet in height. I am a short 5″8″ and  with a seat post that was lowered to the top tube I won my age group division in a race that had over 500 participants.

My only bike riding to that point was a handful of off road rides with Bill, I called Bill once I saw the results and told him what a blast it was he told me there was a race in Louisiana he was looking into, it was a triathlon but it was all off road, they called it Xterra. After our first race in Ruston Louisiana we have been back every year since.

This season thus far has been one of my best. I have raced six Xterra races this season and have one more race before the season is over. What keeps me coming back to Xterra racing is the learning curve even after six years of competing I am still learning something new every race.

Race numbers so far for the 2010 XTERRA season.

Xterra Red River The Comeback

“Sometimes great pressure pushes one to great things”.

Joey G.

I came to consciousness in the ambulance, the paramedic asked me some questions and I knew the answers, at least I thought I did. It was my first XC ride in Oklahoma and boy did it leave a mark.

4-5 hours after concussion

Xterra 2010

“I have always struggled to achieve excellence. One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you can achieve something without a struggle it’s not going to be satisfying.”

Greg Lemond

It has been a year now since my concussion  that left me damaged for the season in 2009. When I started looking at my racing calendar for 2010 I was thrilled as it was time to begin over once again. I wanted not to forget what happened last year but to move on from it.

This year I plan to pickup where I left off in 2008.  In 2008 I had finally mastered the run in Xterra racing and had made it to the top ten in most races overall.

My first race this season would be the inaugural first Xterra Muleshoe Race, a course that was seemingly fast and not too technical. I wanted to treat this race as a warm-up race. The first race of the season will usually indicate pretty clearly what needs to be worked on the most.

Muleshoe was a great course my swim time was respectable and my bike split was strong enough for me. My run fell apart a bit near the end, but I still managed to place second in my division and seventh overall. This year I am trying to dial in my nutrition strategies, weight control and last touches on the bike mechanically speaking.

Xterra Muleshoe right out of transition on the run.

Xterra World Championship Oct 25 2009

The road to being a champion is paved with suffering and learning.

Joey G.

It had taken me four years to make it to the Xterra World Championship in Maui. Since my inception to Xterra racing it had always been a dream. Now that I have raced it I am left humbled, grateful and most of all happy.

My 2009 season had started off with a bang, to the head that is. I had a harsh accident while pre riding the course for Xterra Red River in Oklahoma. Suffering from a concussion I was debilitated for a week. I still raced two weeks later after the accident and continued a few weeks later in Louisiana for Xterra Ruston.  Racing with a limit was something new for me. My cardiologist and neurologist advised me to take it easy on the exercise and to listen to my body, when my body was saying no I had to stop. It was the complete opposite of how I wanted to race and train.

Xterra two for one

“It never gets easier, you just go faster.”
Greg LeMond

Every year I say I will race less and yet that never changes. Xterra Camp Eagle was race number two in a three week three race odyssey. The first race (Dorba OCNP Bike Race) had gone well and I was looking forward to the camp eagle race that I had a mechanical problem at last year.  It had rained the day before and during the race, what conditions normally prevail in Texas were not happening that day. The temperature dropped into the seventies and the rain came down. On a normal perfect day it would be in the hundreds and very dry.

My rear derailleur and hanger was destroyed five miles into the bike course that year. I ran my bike back to the transition area and hung it up. I ran the remaining five miles of the bike course then came back to transition to run another four miles of the run course. I was not given any points for the race or even an appropriate finish time, but I raced the course and did it my way. It was a frustrating day but I still finished, my season was plagued with failures and mechanicals and quitting then was not how I wanted to finish this race.

Dorba OCNP XC Race #1

The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well. – Baron Pierre De Coubertin

Certain things are hard to forget and other things just need to be forgotten. Last weekend I rolled up to the staring line at my first XC mountain bike race of the season. The race was at the Oak Cliff Nature Preserve which is a hop skip and a jump outside of downtown Dallas.

I had participated in this race last year and did not finish, I bent my front wheel in half on my second loop. I tried to finish after I bent the wheel back but it wobbled too much and I had six miles left to cover before completion, my first mountain bike race ended in failure.

When I was a child my father taught me how to ride a bike, I was scared and it was anything but a hallmark picture, tears fear and blood are the only things I remember. One never forgets how to ride a bike; one just learns how to ride it better and faster. Racing is the next training ground, there are no training wheels but plenty of learning is to be had in the trees.

From Arizona to Lousiana, the downs and the ups.

Ironman Arizona April 14 2008

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt

This is the story of my first attempt at the Ironman distance; as usual I was unsure of my performance before race day. A lot off athletes train long and hard all winter for this race and come to bring their best show early in the triathlon season. Honestly I can not make comments like that, my training was off since the winter I maybe logged five hundred miles this whole year on the bike, and as usual my swim training before this race was a handful of swim practices a few weeks out. Was I prepared though? Sure.

The journey started on Thursday April 10 when I found out the American Airlines flight taking Christina, Mark, Kristin and I had been cancelled. My training buddy Mark Payne already had a back up plan. We rented a van and drove all night Thursday to Tempe Arizona, fifteen hours later we had arrived, on time and ready for packet pick up.

Upon arrival Mark and I settled into registration and made our rounds of things to do such as pick up the bikes, check in etc. The small college town of Tempe was booming with Energy it was electrifying. There were over two thousand hot, hairless bodies with more bling equipped bikes than the Tour De France prologue, the scenery was amazing.