Peak2Peak

Peak2Peak Oct. 14th-15th

After the Sheboygan race Cole House and I were talking about what to do till Iceman.  I said “rest and train, nothing else going on”.  He was nice enough to invite me to a race across the Lake in Lower Michigan called Peak2Peak.  Awesome race venue, classic Michigan venue environment with tons of energy and hype around the race.  Course left a bit to be desired, but with a few additions of single-track and trails on the amazing ski hill they have it has potential to be an epic event!  Not to mention the resort is one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed, simply amazing!

Cole’s new MTB sponsor SixOneSix put us up for the weekend, for which I am so very grateful.  Awesome laid back people, all about supporting the Mountain Bike scene.  Check them out at Iceman if your heading over this November, 5th.  They should have some good venue space setup.

3 lap race on a 10 mile Course which lent to a small group of 6-7 riding roadie style through fairly wide, flat, winding single track for 3/4 of the lap and then THE HILL…I think it was the longest continual hill climb I have done all year.

Here is Mike Anderson leading us up the climb at the end of lap 1, followed by Cole House, Myself, Jordan Wakeley, Christian Tanguy, Alex Vanias, and Derek Graham.  It was obvious this was where the race would be decided.  Cole and I had a plan, we wanted to go 1-2…and when your driver/host is the competition who gets to win the sprint? 

I never really have had the chance to work as a team on Mountain Bikes.  Of course on the road, but never had the chance to really play out anything on the Mountain Bike.  we controlled the race well and attacked from 1st or second wheel when we wanted…tons of fun. 

Going into the last climb Cole followed my wheel and I just punched it hard right at the bottom, immediately we had a 10 second gap.  We held off a strong chasing Christian Tanguy to the line.  Coming down the back side of the hill I was nice enough to hold back a bit on the Jedi Knight skills and Cole pulled off the Win in another sprint finish. Cole almost gave me the Win on accident, as I sprinted I was also yelling “go left”, Cole was in a full on sprint into the lap area instead of the finish shoot.  Laughed about that quite a few times during the 8 hour drive home that night…well worth it though since Michigan knows how to give out semi-decent prize pools!

Next up is a go at the BIG MONEY in a little over a week.  Training is coming along very well with some of the best numbers on the power meter I have ever seen.  All year I train in limbo of focus.  With so many races going on and different goals, I tend to want to be strong in everything and never really build my intensity well over a 3-4 week period for a very specific event.  With Iceman being so far removed from any of my major racing focuses I have been able to just build very specifically for this race. 

I also feel as though my  knowledge of how  to train and coach has really matured over  this year.  I am really starting to nail down how my body peaks and exactly what it responds best too in training.  No pressure or anything…, but I am very excited to see how this comes together next week Saturday.  Hopefully I will be able to keep the podiums coming and I will be more than happy with that amongst this crowd! Search the Pro field with no name inserted.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What are your top ten Iceman predictions? 

Answer honestly, no offense taken at all if I am not in there!

For those reading through a remote feed you can answer in comments sections found here.

All is new, nothing is mundane it is only in You,

Nathan

 

Technorati Tags: Iceman,Mountain Bike,Nathan Guerra,Michigan,cole House,racing,peak2Peak,training,peaking

Sheboygan

WORS #12 Wigwam MTB Challenge Oct. 8th-9th

Fitness was peaked and I knew I had winning legs for the WORS finale during my pre-ride Saturday, especially after I did a hot lap for Don and the race director to check Elite lap times.

I tend to want the hole shot to see if I can put the pressure on right away, so what am I doing in the picture below…8 wheels back???  Rear cog “ghost” shifted all the way to the first single-track.  Fought a bit for it, but eventually made my way to the front.  Lead group quickly formed  with 3 of us, Mike Phillips, Cole House, and myself after half a lap.

Equalizer hill climb play by play photos. They pay ya $5 at the top just for climbing this thing clean with no foot dabs, if you can grab it while your tongue hangs over the handle bars along with your head..  

Slick-Rock drops are sweet!

After 2 Laps I went to the front and drilled it, had a good gap but didn’t fully commit to the solo ride.  Cole was able to come back and the games began!

Lap traffic neutralized the race on the last 2 laps though.  We would attack only to be immediately held up by traffic, eventually we just laughed it off and settled into dodging human obstacles till the last half lap.  Cole and I were pretty evenly matched, but I felt  had the best legs going into the last half lap.  I just could not find anywhere to get by him, it was almost comical as I tried to attack only to be forced into a dismount due to lap traffic with 1/8 of a mile to the finish line!  Ended in a Sprint finish with some lap traffic in the way. 2nd overall with a 1 second split, good racing!

Had a few shifting/sprinting issues, thought they could be worked with a little lube in the shifter housing prior to the race…NOPE, should have changed them out after the mud race at Bear Paw. Lack of maintenance probably cost me this race. Anytime I tried to sprint the bike would ghost shift and lose all momentum.  Every move I made had to be a “wind-up”.  Guess you can tell it is the end of the season, plus there is very little time for maintenance with school and sponsor searching.  Parts have seen a whole season of racing and were on edge these last two races…

Here is a post race interview.  Not sure why, but some computers have trouble with the sound and others do not.

Next Up…

October 14th-15th Peak2Peak race report tomorrow!

As the focus starts to shift from racing to school and off-season I am doing something new with the blog. Questions to think about and perhaps discuss in the comments section at the end of each post, about almost any topic.  Looking at the trees outside my window today I thought of this one…

Senses perceive reality, hopefully…but there are only 5…what does this mean for reality?

For those reading through a remote feed you can answer in comments sections found here.

All is new, nothing is mundane it is only in You,

Nathan

Technorati Tags: WORS,Sheboygan,Nathan Guerra,Mountian Bike,Racing,senses,perception,reality

Hiatus

Computer was in for warranty, been gone from the blog scene a while.  Here is what has been going on in the last month…

Rapid fire posts over the next 3 days starting with where we left off, the double header weekend  Sept. 24-25th

Fall Color Festival Sept. 24th

This is my main training grounds on the bike, so it was break away and then just flow and have fun.

Nothing like 30 miles of single-track to open up the legs after a few rest days.

Bear Paw Rock-N-Roll Sept. 25th

Started with a good lead, but a busted cleat had me clipping out all race and…

well, the picture says it all…

Started pouring at the start line…Bad tire selection + broken cleat = rough day…

4th place Overall.

AMAZING Legs with little results was slightly frustrating…after 2 laps I figured out it was out of my control and let go of any thought of catching up to 1st-3rd.  That is when I started having tons of fun seeing how hard I could push myself whenever the bike was working, or how crazy I could get the bike swerving and maneuvering through non-existent lines in 6 inch deep mud.  Quite a few trees were checked and new lines created off trail.  Suddenly enjoying myself so much I was actually really disappointed when waved off course after lap 3.  They cut off a lap because the times were ridiculously long, it was turning into a marathon race due to the mud.

Onto the weekend of Oct. 8th-9th for the Sheboygan race re-cap tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!