Mt. Lemmon

It’s by far the longest climb I’ve ever done, a 27 mile epic that took us from the desert floor through cool rock formations, then into alpine trees and finishing with snow. A.J. Myer and I rode the climb together at a steady but quick pace and summited in a little under two hours. After we summited it was time for the long fast downhill to the heat of the valley, which was so quick the we were catching and passing cars the entire way down. The other riders followed, however most found that 13.5 miles of climbing was enough and turned around at the half way point. Lemmon is not a climb I would want to do all the time, but I definetly want to come back again and see if I can climb it faster.

Ian

Two hundreds

Tortilla flats was all it was made out to be. An easy ride for the first fifty but an all out race the last fifty. Not only did we ride one hundred miles it was also one hundred degrees out on the tarmac. The ride was beautiful winding through canyons which are rivaled only by the great Grand Canyon itself. When the riding got fast my legs felt good, in fact I set five new watt average bests on my 1,5,10,30 and 120 minute power records. However, the long day didn’t come without damage to the pack, three riders called it quits before the fifty mile mark and on the final climb things blew apart. It was another great day on the bike, but tomorrow will be another death ride up the slopes of Mt. Lemmon.

Ian

climbing high

It was another hot and great day of riding in Arizona. Today was for the climbers with lots of three and four mile climbs and a hard ten miler which took us above the altitude where the famous saguaro cactus grows and where deep breathing is a common sound. The camp is run very professionally and every ride is followed by Jose the camp mechanic and his Sram neutral support car. However, the best part of the follow car is the water, on a day like today I drank 8 bottles of water and loaded up on sunscreen twice.
Tomorrow we have a century planned and by the sounds of the others who have been here before it may turn into a race over the last 20 miles. My legs have been feeling good up to this point, but tomorrow might be another story.

Ian

Arizona

Arizona Camp

I’m now down under the hot sun of Arizona at a training camp in Scottsdale. The day before I left I did my first road race of the year outside of Olympia Washington, in the cold wet weather of the North West, and now I’m in Arizona riding with my biggest worry being trying not to get sunburned.

Today we did an awesome ride in the 85 degree heart, and yes I got sunburned. The week ahead is going to be full of long hard rides, which one of the days will be Mt. Lemmon, a two plus hour climb that reaches over 9,000. More post and pictures will come in the following days.

Ian

Miles in Chico

After three weeks of training in Chico I'm back in Bend for a two weeks before I'm off to somewhere else, but where I don’t know yet.
The riding in Chico was amazing, there are dead flat roads in the valley that you could ride forever and see few cars. However just east of Chico are the foothills of the Sierras' which offers all sorts of different and great climbing. We all know that riding in the hills is hard, but I never before realized that long flat rides can be just as hard. Riding on the flats you never get a chance to stop peddling, you are applying pressure to the peddles the entire ride and that starts to catch up with you after a few hours.
Here are some photos from a few of my rides.

Enjoy Ian

Back for 2009

Hello to all, and hope the New Year is bringing good things. I’m back in the saddle training for the 2009 road season. I completed high school two weeks ago, and now really focusing on my training for my final year as a junior racer.
Currently I’m in Chico, CA for one month training in a climate that is more accompanying to cycling in the month of February. The New Year has also brought a new team for me, and I will be racing for Hot Tubes Junior Development Team. Hot Tubes is a team based out of the east coast, however has riders from all over the country. I’m excited for the upcoming race season and will keep you up to date.

Ian

Back at Home

I’m now back in Bend and back at school. It’s good to finally be home for a while and not be living out of a suitcase.

The race in Croatia didn’t go well for me as I pulled out on the final stage after 5 km after I got another vertigo episode. I also ran into trouble on stage one when I broke my steer tube and had to get a spare bike. Jacob however rode well finishing 16th on GC and top 20 on each stage.

Next up for me is some time off and maybe some cross.