Moab, 2009

A couple of my old teammates from Horizon Organic, John Shippey and Brandon Eifrid, invited me out to Moab last week for some hard training, desert style.

When I was riding through Utah last year during my solo RAAM bid, I remember telling my crew chief that there was "no way in hell" that he would ever find me on my bike again in Utah.

Well...how soon we forget our promises.

I'm a river guy, not a desert guy. I prefer the lush, almost squishy roads of northern California to the barren wasteland that is the American West desert. Think banana slugs, Stanford University and the Haight Ashbury district of San Fran. That's where it's at, at least for training camp.

Moab is a different place of sorts, the Mecca of mountain biking. The riding out there, on the road at least, is very dry, very hilly and pretty challenging. We set out to ride each day we were out there and it was a definite drag to get on the bike after 6 hours of prep and driving out from Denver.

Day one held an easy spin, but I knew immediately that the week would be a challenge, having just started to get better from a cold that was driven home by an earlier trip out to Vegas. Day two we hit the Lasal Mountain loop, which is a major pain in the ass. After the gradual 3-5% grade of the first ten miles, we a hit a section of road called "the big suck" or something like that. I had some other choice words for a 4000 foot climb that lasted around 5 miles or so. I'm sure my stats are a bit off, but let's just say that the climb was short, steep and I was cross-eyed much of the way. Up top the temps dropped quickly and we were faced with a cold, slushy and red mud filled descent into the canyon. Yikes. John hit a 2 mile stretch of snow and ice at full speed and nearly lost his life, if not his collarbone. I picked my way through that descent and we eventually made it home.

Other highlights included an "easy day" that featured a wicked headwind and a view of Arches National Park, steak the size of Texas a couple of nights, good beer, the Dave Chapelle Show on the tube and monster breakfasts of omelettes, more steak and some sweet oatmeal and grits. Did an awesome Canyonlands ride, Brandon got some mountain biking in with Alison Dunlap, Katie Compton, etc., and we all survived through the last day of TT'ing up and down Wall Street and Potash Road.

I've been back for a few days now and am absolutely psyched for the race season and RAAM to begin. John and I were driving back into Boulder after dropping Brandon off in bumble, I mean, Highlands Ranch, and we both agreed that no matter where we race or train, coming back to Boulder and Denver is always great, is our home no matter what team we race for and is a definitive privilege for us as cyclists.

Keep in touch, do great things and keep the rubber side down.

Tim