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