I blew up at the Halloween cross race

At the Halloween I had no power, I apparently was not recovered and therefore could not go at all. I got passed by people that I have lapped before and worst of all my dad who started in the 35+ A's beat me. I filmed the race with the helmet cam but have been unable to make myself look at it yet. I will upload it and post it here soon. I am all about recovery this week and should be back up to speed on Saturday.

Enjoy this video I took during a Solitude midweek mountain bike series race.

Fall in corner canyon

Rode in Corner Canyon on Thursday with my friend Danny, the fall colors were awsome. I mounted my helmet cam backwards just to see how it worked, here is the video.

the video gets cropped a little when I embed it, here is the link for the perfect version http://www.vholdr.com/node/49366#

2 cross race updates!...and a gas mask?

I missed a post about the second UTCX series race in Weber that I did, I will sum it up in less than 3 sentences.(I promise.) I had a horrible start.(1) I pulled really hard for a long time. (2) As a result of my hard pull I got passed at the line and finished 9th.(3) That is the 3 sentence summary now I will give you the 3 picture summary.

UTCX race number 3 was held at the Heber County Fair Grounds, yet another horse racing track, and is all about power on the straights. Much to my surprise I had accumulated enough points to get a front row call up which I blew by stupidly lining up on the right side off the beaten path. The start was not good nor was it as bad as last weeks. I managed to move up quickly after the mount Heber run and soon found myself at the front of the first chase group. I thought to myself, "self, what has been your biggest problem in the first two races? Being on the front to long to early. GET OFF THE FRONT!! IDIOT!", so I moved back so I was second or third wheel. The group was full of very fast riders that it is just a treat to race with them after looking up to them for years, unfortunately that endearment didn't transfer into amazing legs. After about the first half when they would accelerate on the power sections I was beginning to drop off the pace and want to throw up. I got dropped but still felt pretty good until 2 laps to go when I blew up. I barley peddled with 2 laps to go but managed to recover for another effort with one to go. At that point I was so cross eyed I could barley ride a straight line so I made a big mistake in one corner then crashed in the next and got passed by 3 riders. I finished 11th. It was a good race, I went the hardest I have ever gone in a cross race and raced pretty darn smart, I was where I needed to be to bad the legs weren't. Now some pictures.

the run up "Mt. Heber" every lap hurt

going down the Mt. wasn't as hard, but it was sketchy

This is when I was with the group and had friends going through the barriers.

This is after I got dropped and I had to run the barriers all alone.

I hope you notice I didn't have the tall socks this week, it was much to hot for them. It was much to hot for cross, think I got a little dehydrated. Pray for cold wet weather for every Saturday from now on.

Now for the week ahead planner. This Wednesday go watch the Utah High school cross country running state championships at Sugar House. I'm told to be there at 3:30. Go my friends that run!(I refuse to show school spirit on my blog!)(I like parentheses and exclamation points!) This Saturday you should all come and watch (that's you cross country team ) the cross races in Draper at the equestrian center on 1600 East Highland Dr.(13675 South), Draper, UT at the base of Corner Canyon. There will be races from 9:30am to 2:15pm. I race with the A group at 2:15.(I am taking the ACT again that morning so my racing might be a little off!)

Now the part about gas masks. Have you ever herd of a magical little place called the Army Navy outdoors store? I have, and I read their adds. They were selling surplus Russian military gas masks for only $13. It had the makings of an adventure. I journeyed to that magical land and purchased one just for fun. Then my sister came home and with her imac and photobooth we had some fun playing with it and some basic effects, enjoy.

You don't know what you missed.

Vote in my poll to decide what Halloween costume I will race in at the Halloween cross race at Wheeler Farm, keep in mind I would like to finish well so pick the costume you think would be least intrusive but still awesome.

P.S. I got my skis finally mounted up and tuned, bring on the snow!

P.S.S. The Pray For Snow Party will be a go for this year.

P.S.S.S. ( I really do like parentheses and exclamation points!!!)

I hope that you enjoyed this epic post.

Cross Season is Back!

Last Saturday was the first Utah Cyclocross series race of the year and my first race in the elite men's field. I am amazed at how large cross has become in the last couple years there are more Fields, larger fields, and faster fields. At the start I was a little overwhelmed because I was racing with all the fast Utah racers that I have watched and looked up to for inspiration for years so you can imagine that there was a little bit of awe in my eyes. Due to my stupefied attitude I botched the start and got pushed almost to the back of the pack but was able to move up again fairly quickly. This season I feel the best that I have ever been technically on the bike though I still don't think I am as good through the barriers as I was last year yet. It will come. I raced most of the race with a group of about 4 guys who are all very fast and smart riders, I am not a smart rider. I spent to much time on the front early and was not able to go with the attack on the last lap so I finished just behind the guys that I spent the race with. I am happy with my first race of the season and look forward for more to come. Look at these pictures and take the link to watch the cool video of my race.

the new skin suit and matching baseball socks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ZVXma4ahg watch the video of the first race.

Its been a while

I started school which has been fine. Won the Park City Point to Point duo race with Keegan Swenson by 32 minuets and won a tent. Got a replacement frame for the one I broke. Raced DMV last nite, tried to make people suffer, don't know if I succeeded but I drove the pace from the gun and pulled a lot. Pictures and more posts to come. Cross is a coming!!!

Err.... I guess I was wrong

The last time I posted I said that summer was here so I could start blogging, as it turns out all the fun activities that I would have liked to blog about seamed to take up all my time so I was unable to blog activly. I apologize for any falsely raised hopes.

A quick update in bullet point form with a more compleate update to follow with the Tour of Utah lookback.

• I went to MTB Nationals in Granby Colorado, I finished 11th and was as high as 7th before fading and losing time on the decents.
• I finnished 2nd overall in the 19-29 expert catagorie in the intermountain cup race series. The only I-cup races I did and didn't win I crashed in in. Lesson learned stay on the bike.
• Raced my second road race of the season and did well untill I pulled out of my pedal in the finnal corner.
• Finnished 8th overall in the snowbird hillclimb
• My phone bounced out of my pocket on a ride and was destroyed with all of my friendes numbers. I will get a new phone in the next couple days so I everyone with my number should call or text me so I can get your contact information back.
• Got a sweet helmet cam expect an epic video post.

Summer is finnaly hear, so I can start blogging

I haven't been able to post anything for a quite a while due to my rigorous schedule of training, school work, and generally avoiding any real work or anything else of actual consequence. But now it is summer so my pretend responsibilities drop to almost nothing, the plan for this summer is work just enough to buy ski stuff, ride and race bikes, and make memories by committing some sort of tomfoolery with my friends. This post will now break into two parts: (feel free to read both if you wish) first I will give you all the latest news about my always entertaining life, and then I will do a quick recap on everything that has happened to me since my last post through photos and witty commentary.

Part One: My life is made! I have a awesome job at Canyon Bicycles that allows me to still race and train as much as I want while putting me in an environment where I am surrounded by one of the things I love. My life is also cooler than yours because on Tuesday when you were out in the real world being productive I slept in then went to Alta and hiked up to the small jump my friend had made earlier and spent a couple hours trying to remember how to be stylish in the air without hurting myself. Then I came home picked up a couple things and then went up to Deer Valley and rode a lap on the I-cup race course which is one of my favorite courses. Because of the rain the trails were perfect and tacky unfortunately the rain came back and dumped for about the last 10 or 15 minuets of the ride. I have pictures of these events but I am saving them for a near future post that I hope will draw you back to my humble digital abode.

Part Two: Are you ready for some photos?

This is the only picture size that I could take from zazoosh.com, but the race at 5-mile pass that I won was very muddy. The section in this minuscule photo most people were walking, but thanks to my cross skills I was able to ride it with ease.

This is the river of a dirt road that we had to drive on to get to the East Canyon road race, thankfully it stopped snowing as we rolled off. I finished 2nd in the Cat 4's in a breakaway of 3.

I have smart friends that do things like go to model UN conferences and debate tournaments, one of my friends had to drop out of his partnership for the conference so I was brought in a couple days before the conference to be his replacement. I knew that my attention span would be taxed so I brought along a camera to document the experience. (It should be known that everyone else had been preparing for this conference for the entire year, I had one night of study.)about 10 minuets into the conference my attention span began to wain, pretending to be a member of the Canadian delegation was not enough for my brain so I looked at the program and found arguably the coolest word ever, "Finlandia", which I think is the Finnish national anthem. I should wikipedia it. Even though I was supposed to be Canadian, when they needed volunteers for the flag ceremony my Swedish heritage came about and I got to carry the flag of my very forefathers. Sweater vests and glasses just look good on me don't they?At about hour 6 or so we were supposed to be debating ways to be rid of malaria in Africa, my attention span was really shot at this point so I teamed up with the Egyptian delegation which we named the Canada of the Nile and together we drafted this brilliant plan to hire wizards to destroy the disease. For the actual discussions we went into smaller conference rooms with representatives from every nation. This painting was on the wall right in front of me. After a while I referred to him as Jeremy. It was a long day. Though I let my partner down and we didn't win, I still came out on top scoring a phone number of the girls in the Egyptian delegation.

This picture is from the Sherwood hills race which I won making for my second victory in a row at the I-cup.

Went to Idaho to race a USA cycling sanctioned event to qualify for Nationals in July. They had a mass start with everyone going at once so I was able to jump on the pro wheels and was in second for about the fist half of the race and ended finishing 5th overall and easily winning my class by a long shot.This picture was taken during one of the very few cool sections of the course the rest of it was super exposed sketchy cow tracks and jeep roads.

I was excited for the race in Draper but I got sick the week before and didn't really recover enough to have a good race. I led the first lap then faded. Because of muddy course conditions the race was delayed for most of the day so I probably did more standing around like this than any actual riding.

We are getting close to getting up to speed with my life I will just show you the video that showed my final project for IB physics that was due the last day of school and counted for most of my grade. I had to make a Rube Goldberg machine and film it.

Now that You have seen how I finished my school year you are caught up with my life.

I now have unlimited texting so I am considering starting a twitter profile so all of you faithful readers can get updates of my amazing life in real time! I will keep you updated on weather or not this actually happens.