Peak2Peak Oct. 14th-15th

After the Sheboygan race Cole House and I were talking about what to do till Iceman.  I said “rest and train, nothing else going on”.  He was nice enough to invite me to a race across the Lake in Lower Michigan called Peak2Peak.  Awesome race venue, classic Michigan venue environment with tons of energy and hype around the race.  Course left a bit to be desired, but with a few additions of single-track and trails on the amazing ski hill they have it has potential to be an epic event!  Not to mention the resort is one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed, simply amazing!

Cole’s new MTB sponsor SixOneSix put us up for the weekend, for which I am so very grateful.  Awesome laid back people, all about supporting the Mountain Bike scene.  Check them out at Iceman if your heading over this November, 5th.  They should have some good venue space setup.

3 lap race on a 10 mile Course which lent to a small group of 6-7 riding roadie style through fairly wide, flat, winding single track for 3/4 of the lap and then THE HILL…I think it was the longest continual hill climb I have done all year.

Here is Mike Anderson leading us up the climb at the end of lap 1, followed by Cole House, Myself, Jordan Wakeley, Christian Tanguy, Alex Vanias, and Derek Graham.  It was obvious this was where the race would be decided.  Cole and I had a plan, we wanted to go 1-2…and when your driver/host is the competition who gets to win the sprint? 

I never really have had the chance to work as a team on Mountain Bikes.  Of course on the road, but never had the chance to really play out anything on the Mountain Bike.  we controlled the race well and attacked from 1st or second wheel when we wanted…tons of fun. 

Going into the last climb Cole followed my wheel and I just punched it hard right at the bottom, immediately we had a 10 second gap.  We held off a strong chasing Christian Tanguy to the line.  Coming down the back side of the hill I was nice enough to hold back a bit on the Jedi Knight skills and Cole pulled off the Win in another sprint finish. Cole almost gave me the Win on accident, as I sprinted I was also yelling “go left”, Cole was in a full on sprint into the lap area instead of the finish shoot.  Laughed about that quite a few times during the 8 hour drive home that night…well worth it though since Michigan knows how to give out semi-decent prize pools!

Next up is a go at the BIG MONEY in a little over a week.  Training is coming along very well with some of the best numbers on the power meter I have ever seen.  All year I train in limbo of focus.  With so many races going on and different goals, I tend to want to be strong in everything and never really build my intensity well over a 3-4 week period for a very specific event.  With Iceman being so far removed from any of my major racing focuses I have been able to just build very specifically for this race. 

I also feel as though my  knowledge of how  to train and coach has really matured over  this year.  I am really starting to nail down how my body peaks and exactly what it responds best too in training.  No pressure or anything…, but I am very excited to see how this comes together next week Saturday.  Hopefully I will be able to keep the podiums coming and I will be more than happy with that amongst this crowd! Search the Pro field with no name inserted.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What are your top ten Iceman predictions? 

Answer honestly, no offense taken at all if I am not in there!

For those reading through a remote feed you can answer in comments sections found here.

All is new, nothing is mundane it is only in You,

Nathan

WORS #12 Wigwam MTB Challenge Oct. 8th-9th

Fitness was peaked and I knew I had winning legs for the WORS finale during my pre-ride Saturday, especially after I did a hot lap for Don and the race director to check Elite lap times.

I tend to want the hole shot to see if I can put the pressure on right away, so what am I doing in the picture below…8 wheels back???  Rear cog “ghost” shifted all the way to the first single-track.  Fought a bit for it, but eventually made my way to the front.  Lead group quickly formed  with 3 of us, Mike Phillips, Cole House, and myself after half a lap.

Equalizer hill climb play by play photos. They pay ya $5 at the top just for climbing this thing clean with no foot dabs, if you can grab it while your tongue hangs over the handle bars along with your head..  

Slick-Rock drops are sweet!

After 2 Laps I went to the front and drilled it, had a good gap but didn’t fully commit to the solo ride.  Cole was able to come back and the games began!

Lap traffic neutralized the race on the last 2 laps though.  We would attack only to be immediately held up by traffic, eventually we just laughed it off and settled into dodging human obstacles till the last half lap.  Cole and I were pretty evenly matched, but I felt  had the best legs going into the last half lap.  I just could not find anywhere to get by him, it was almost comical as I tried to attack only to be forced into a dismount due to lap traffic with 1/8 of a mile to the finish line!  Ended in a Sprint finish with some lap traffic in the way. 2nd overall with a 1 second split, good racing!

Had a few shifting/sprinting issues, thought they could be worked with a little lube in the shifter housing prior to the race…NOPE, should have changed them out after the mud race at Bear Paw. Lack of maintenance probably cost me this race. Anytime I tried to sprint the bike would ghost shift and lose all momentum.  Every move I made had to be a “wind-up”.  Guess you can tell it is the end of the season, plus there is very little time for maintenance with school and sponsor searching.  Parts have seen a whole season of racing and were on edge these last two races…

Here is a post race interview.  Not sure why, but some computers have trouble with the sound and others do not.

Next Up…

October 14th-15th Peak2Peak race report tomorrow!

As the focus starts to shift from racing to school and off-season I am doing something new with the blog. Questions to think about and perhaps discuss in the comments section at the end of each post, about almost any topic.  Looking at the trees outside my window today I thought of this one…

Senses perceive reality, hopefully…but there are only 5…what does this mean for reality?

For those reading through a remote feed you can answer in comments sections found here.

All is new, nothing is mundane it is only in You,

Nathan

Banshee / RaceFace World Cup DH racer Adam Brayton is a biking madman. Check this awesome video of him on a rocking road trip, hitting tons of sweet DH courses in Europe with his little brother and crew.

More Mountain Biking Videos

I wondered for a long time what it would be like to be there, winding slowly along the old Lilloett highway. Signage alerted me that it was “guaranteed rugged” and fits of colored leaves swirled past my windows. In between dodging solar flares as they shot their way through my windshield I realized I hadn’t seen another car in a long while. I lost track of time about five songs before then. It can be hard to guess the time in those changing seasons when the sun sits so low along the hillsides. But time wasn’t much of a worry, I knew I would end up in Bralorne before dark and that was all I was really counting on.  Winter was quickly approaching and the chilly shadow around every hill was a great reminder. The hot chocolate I purchased at a small gas station in my last towns passing was a little too hot to drink just yet, but holding it with my aching grip felt just right.
(continue reading…)

Better late than never or is that never be late? Looks like I am late either way…Having done the TransRockies once before in 2008 with my good buddy Paul Newitt I was hooked so when Paul called me up to say ‘Guess what you are doing in the second week of August.’I was in! As you may have heard the event was trying out a new format which differed from all previous editions, 9 and counting with this year being the 10th anniversary. Long and short of it was 3 days in Fernie on beautiful singletrack trails, half day transfer to North Fork with a great climb up onto a ridge top trail in the sub-alpine and into a bit of hail and glacier-fed river crossing into Little Elbow Campground. Two stages here then over to Rafter Six Ranch and finally stage 7 to Canmore where Paul and i placed 7th on the day in 80+ TR7.

Even with all the great mechanical support from Cory of United Bicycle Alberta we could not stop Paul from getting the most evil stomach bug. Paul suffered for three stages, eating next to nothing and drinking nowhere near enough considering the heat and effort level. It was the hardest thing to watch your good friend and team-mate slowly unravel.

Paul pulled out halfway through Stage 5 and I finished that stage and the next on my own but by Stage 7 Paul was back with a vengeance and he proceeded to rip my legs off all the way to Canmore. The trails used on this stage were some of the funnest I have ever had the chance to ride on; smiling was the order of the day (between grimaces and keeping the tongue out of the spokes).

Thanks to TransRockies Aaron and Joanne for fulfilling all the last minute requests, what a stellar organisation they have!

Thanks to Paul and Pedal magazine for making the adventure happen again!

Thanks to RaceFace for their continuing support of my aerobic/anaerobic endeavors!

Ciao!

Computer was in for warranty, been gone from the blog scene a while.  Here is what has been going on in the last month…

Rapid fire posts over the next 3 days starting with where we left off, the double header weekend  Sept. 24-25th

Fall Color Festival Sept. 24th

This is my main training grounds on the bike, so it was break away and then just flow and have fun.

Nothing like 30 miles of single-track to open up the legs after a few rest days.

Bear Paw Rock-N-Roll Sept. 25th

Started with a good lead, but a busted cleat had me clipping out all race and…

well, the picture says it all…

Started pouring at the start line…Bad tire selection + broken cleat = rough day…

4th place Overall.

AMAZING Legs with little results was slightly frustrating…after 2 laps I figured out it was out of my control and let go of any thought of catching up to 1st-3rd.  That is when I started having tons of fun seeing how hard I could push myself whenever the bike was working, or how crazy I could get the bike swerving and maneuvering through non-existent lines in 6 inch deep mud.  Quite a few trees were checked and new lines created off trail.  Suddenly enjoying myself so much I was actually really disappointed when waved off course after lap 3.  They cut off a lap because the times were ridiculously long, it was turning into a marathon race due to the mud.

Onto the weekend of Oct. 8th-9th for the Sheboygan race re-cap tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

The fall is pretty much the only time of year in Taiwan that there is moisture in the ground. The rest of the year we can not do much with the soil (sand). So for the past couple of weeks my brother James and I have been slowly building a step up.

with the step up on hold we turned to other projects

I went back to North America for the Sea Otter Classic and ended up sticking around until early October. I have not been in Canada that long since I moved to Taiwan in October 2003. I was all over the place over the course of the summer and spent a lot of time on my bike. I spent 5 weeks in Whistler riding with the Camp of Champions, I was in Fernie for a while riding the trails I grew up on, I was in Chilliwack for 2 weeks after Interbike riding with the Pinkbike guys and was even in San Diego for 3 weeks riding with Mike Montgomery.

It is good to be back in Taiwan, I spent the past week trying to get used to the heat and humidity, sleeping to get rid of my jet lag and riding and digging at our local dirt jumps.

James boosting …

James clicking it in …

I have only been back a week and I have already managed to blow up a rear shock on a borrowed Transition Double and bend the steer tube on my DJ bike.

Big thanks to Rob, Derek and Marcel for hooking me up with all the goodies before I left Vancouver.

For more pictures click here …

Rob Dunnet