My 29er race bike…

This puppy has been specially built for me by the engineers at Specialized. (thanks Jason!) To save weight, the BB has been replaced with a large diameter shell to fit the Specialized Carbon road cranks. (Which I’m running 2×9) And most of the paint has been left off. In my opinion, the silver looks a lot faster than the green and brown on the standard bike. (the stock bike weighs in at 28lbs) specialized.com.

This one weighs in just below 25lbs (11.3kg) (give or take- will update) vs my 26 inch Carbon Epic 23.7lb. (10.7kg) Nice.

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Avia is my new shoe sponsor. Eish! What great shoes.

Avia AVI Bolt racing flat

Since Temecula (yesterdays XTERRA race venue) is so close to the Avia headquarters north of San Diego, a photo shoot was scheduled. I hobbled around on sore legs and blistered feet, but they say we got some good shots for Avias upcoming ad campaign. I’m blown away by the company and its people’s great attitude. The rest of the day was spent eating (no, DINING) and Amber and I got to know the folks better. (Yes, that is a goofy pose- for focusing purposes only)

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Picture by 2008 Rich Cruse

Railing a turn at XTERRA West Champs.

XTERRA West Championship. Temecula, California. The people who keep count says its my 6th XTERRA West win in 7 years. (the other year I was injured)

It was blazing hot. The run was absolutely brutal. Steep up- and downhills over terrain that a few days ago was nothing but shriveled shrubs and bunny tracks in the sand.

Dan Hugo finished 2nd about 2 minutes back.

Brian Smith ran up to 3rd from 10th off the bike.

All round nice guy Josiah Middaugh was 4th and

Seth Wheeling 5th.

Ladies race:

Melanie McQuaid

Marrion Summerer surprised everyone with 2nd

Jenny Tobin,

Danelle Kabush and

Amber Monforte all finished really close together

more complete update coming up once we get home…

This 4hr ride starts in Reno at 1300m altitude, climbs straight up to 2700m (takes me about 1h40 at 130 heart rate) and descends straight down to Incline Village, on the shores of Lake Tahoe. (1800m)

Fill up the bottles, (penalty points awarded for time spent off the bike) and start climbing back over. About 50minutes at 130HR. Then scream down the fun side and try to keep up with cars through the many curves on the way down.

I do this ride on my own. I get a lot of thinking and soul searching done. I think about racing, training and life. But mostly about racing. Then at times I’ll switch off and numb my brain with Battery 9’s “Oom Kosie” and others…

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