Gooseberry Mesa

I can't let this slip by without a post. We camped at Gooseberry Mesa in Utah on our way to Park City for the race.

(Thanks for leaving a pile of firewood for the next guy--It was great since we rolled in at aroud 2:30 AM and didn't have any light to find wood.)

The riding was epic as expected. It's one of those incredibly unique places that only all the right people know about it, so that even though it's famous for what it is (incredible mountain biking), it's still completely isolated and empty of the crowds. We saw no one on any of the trails the whole 3 1/2 hours we rode that day. And it wouldv'e been totally cool to see people because they only would've been cool adventurous mountain bikers.



The terrain is so unique, you would never find anything like it except in Utah. It just awesome! Makes me see how much I need to work on my technical skills!





Some of the local wildlife.

Lyle's pretty skilled on catching these fast animals on camera! Here's from the drive back home:

Anyways, that's it for Gooseberry. Definitely a place we'll go to again!

Deer Valley

The race in Deer Valley was pretty surprising! I didn't do so bad after all. While pre-riding the course on Thursday (my race was Saturday) I REALLY felt the altitude and the lack of riding in my legs. I was so tired, short of breath and slow! By Friday when I pre-rode again, I felt much better and things were looking up. Then Saturday I was as good as new! It was a bigger field than normal and I felt like that podium spot I won actually meant something (not like geting 3rd place when there's only 3 of you!) There were 9 of us this time. Yeah!

I was sitting in 4th on the last 1/2 lap just behind this girl in the Wheaties jersey:



Just at the crest of the hill I was able to squeeze out a burst of power in those last 3 seconds before it turned into downhill single track (which I certainly didn't want to be in the back for) and passed her in the knick of time. I couldn't have done it any sooner and actually held her off still. Then it was a matter of keeping her off and I managed to continue widening the gap bit by bit until I found myself crossing the finish line in 3rd. Not bad considering my prior few weeks!

Down With the Sickness

Ugg. No riding for 1 1/2 weeks! I'm finally feeling better, but boy was that a long time to be sick and off the bike! Unfortunately Lyle is still under the weather. Deer Valley (Utah) should be interesting. At least we still have a week and a half to get back in the swing of things before having to torture ourselves once more during one of our weekend suffer-fests (otherwise known as a race). Here's Lyle looking particularly lively:

and me: