The other sports activities thread.

[LocoTone]

Due to snowy conditions, the bike park is closed today. We're hoping for maybe tomorrow.

[Jackie]

Triathlon season has come to a close . Good year 12 races 7 wins. No national races this year but had a great time hitting locals in bear lake, st George, utah lake, Herriman etc. Next big race is st George ironman 70.3 in may. Be kind if you see me on the road bundled up through the winter

I did ride 1 outdoor race and plan to hit south Jordan indoor looking to catch up with everyone.

[bnd]

Mt. bike season is here, thank god!

Here's the results from last weekends race at Bootleg Canyon in Nevada. Some names you might know.

http://www.downhillmike.com/reaper-madness-results.html


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[joeynsophia]

The race was a lot of fun. In fact the entire series was awesome. We had many UT riders that attended some or all of the events. The organizer, Downhillmike.com does a great job putting this on every year and has decided to add another weekend of racing next year starting in Nov. He plans on adding the Dual Slalom events to all 4 of the races. This is a great opportunity for those of you who want to try out MTB but haven't had much time on a MTN Bike.

Some highlights of the series were:

Cody Kelly (Mr. Bootleg) killed it in all the Pro classes, getting on the podium 12 out of 13 times. These types of results in the Pro class are seldom seen.

Joey Foresta won the DH races in his class and the overall for the series along with the Dual Slalom category.

Steve Spencer and Carson raced Dual Slalom and both did great. First time for Carson and only the third time I believe for Steve.

Mike Day (Yes the olympic silver medalist) is trying his hand in the gravity sports and got his first 2 podiums in this series.

Logan Mcphie got hurt the first weekend of the series, but has come back nicely and am sure he is going to post some great results in the UT series.

I know there are many in our BMX community that are looking at giving MTB racing a try. If you have any questions, go see the guys at Lake Town bicycles or feel free to come talk to me and I can get you all the info you like.

[Jackie]

St george iron man 70.3 coming up next weekend we will see how the new achilles tendon holds up

[bnd]

Hey Jackie, been wondering what you've been up to. Good luck & keep us updated on events & results.

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[bnd]

5-Mile Pass, May 4th. ICup #4.

This is the 5th or 6th time Iv'e raced this event over the years, I think I raced at the 3rd race out there (97?) & you know what? Nothing has changed about it. Still the same brutally crappy course. It beats the **** out of the rider, the bike & in my case my attitude. Why do I come back every few years? I guess it's the "time heals all wounds" thing. It's still mtb racing & the journey & hanging out with friends is worth the trade off, I suppose.

I got out there early & picked up my plate, which are top notch I might say. I had a great chat with Mikey & introduced myself to a few of the guys that hang out in here. Met Nutbuddy. Anyways, 40-49 Sport had a decent sized class as usual. I have never done 2 laps here & this early in the season I knew it was going to be rough.
Start goes off & I don't get caught up in the fast pace, trying to save some for later. By Yellow Page Hill I was about mid-pack & feeling pretty good. Came down the downhill rock garden section & as I exited, my rear tire blew out. I coasted to that flat area & was bumming. I could of changed that tire out in under a minute or 2 but decided to take my time. Of course my mind set went South as everyone of my class passed on bye. I must of spent 10+ minutes taking my time with this change & got back on my bike telling myself I'll just mail it in. After about a mile I decided to give it a go & finish the race.

About 2 miles into the 2nd lap I started to suffer, legs started to get tight & I was just really feeling it. 2nd go up Yellow Page....about a 1/3 of the way up I was redlined & had to stop to catch my breath. I swear to god I thought I was having a heart attack. I must of stood there for 5 minutes before I cleared my head & moved on. The rest of the race & had a fast pace then cramps would slowly start so I had to pull the pace back. I actually finished ok but as I crossed the finsh line it looked like our whole class was there, most looking like they just got done with trench warfare. I think I got last or close to it.

Running this distance, 21 miles so early in the season was in my eyes, way too much for the average joe lunchbox like me. This was honestly one of the hardest events I have ever endured. Also, this is it for 5-Mile for me. The terrain sucks, bottom line. There is GOT to be an option somewhere close for an event this time of the year on the Wasatch Front. Is there anything on the West side of the SLC valley? Kennecott area, Copperton area?

The flip side is the journey, the excitement, meeting & hanging out with people before & after the race exceeds the actual race itself. It was nice chatting it up with alot of the UtMtBiking crew & I had a few guys introduce themselves to me after seeing me post in these forums. I met a really cool guy, Jim Spears(?), I need you to PM me with a contact please. An ex-bmx racer & I think we helped each other get through the race.

Next weekend is Lambert Park in Alpine, that should be a great time for sure. Oh yeah, sign ups & the new guys were great but I went left twice when I should of gone right about 2 miles in. The track could of been marked better. Other than that, no complaints.

Thanks for reading,
Bruce

[bnd]

May 10th, Lambert Park, Alpine. Icup #5.

Lambert Park race.

I'll start with the good first.
- The venue just kicks butt. The view, location, the course, you just can't ask for anything more. The weather was perfect too.
- The course, it was tight single track but 99.9% of racers I dealt with were polite & as long as a heads up was given, passes were no big deal.
- Again, it was cool to see some people we haven't seen since last year. As we start going to more & more ICUP races, we meet new faces, all very friendly.
- The UTMTB.com crew is a cool group of people, love hanging out with them.
- My wife finally won a mtb race!
- Even though I finished out of the top 10 in my class, I felt really good about it. The times from 1st to last were acceptable I.E. no sandbaggers. The way it should be imo.
- I converted back over to tubeless, ran 30 lbs & felt ok. It was tough to tell if I had it dialed as the dirt was hero & i'm sure I could of put 90 lbs in & it would of still stuck like glue.

The not so good but not terribly bad.
- Directions to the venue..............Uugh.
We have been to the Park before but we still got turned around. We arrived around 8am & there was no signage, none. We followed another truck that was lost & we stumbled up the Rodeo drive & found everyone. This was a common complaint. I had to talk a friend on the phone up into the Park because they were lost. GPS in the area was very spotty. So, a couple of signs on the road would of been a HUGE help. Tell you what, I'll volunteer to build & donate a few signs for ICUP to use in the future. I'm pretty handy that way. I'll build them & get them to whoever before the next race. Just let me know.
- I had 2 mechanicals during the race, the first one was a killer with about a minute spent fixing the damn thing. It's always something new too every race, chain suck up & over granny in the rear, NEVER happened before. What's next? My seat post busting off, lol.
- I hit a kid standing on the course, hard. Last lap near the end. I ended up running my bike up the final little hill near the finsh line. Please don't stand on the course.
- My wife complained about riders practicing on the course while she was racing. She was desending & a few guys were right on her ass. After a bit she slowed & told them to pass. One asked if she was racing & she said yes. The dude said they were not & don't worry about it. Well, having someone wheel sucking you on the dirt can get you off your game after awhile. Hopefully this stops. Isn't it against the posted rules?

On a side note, I thought I would try to impress my kids so at the end of the 2nd lap I pulled a wheelie for them, rode it for a while but when I put my front end down, I hit that loose gravel & almost landed on my face. Got heckled by my wife.


This was a good day for sure, good times were had & can't wait till Draper.

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[bnd]

Nothing like changing the rules mid-season, get this.........The Deer Valley I-Cup race is this Saturday, I race the 40-49 Sport class. New ownership of the I-Cup has made some class changes & combined the 35-39 Sport class to make 1 big 35-49 Sport class. Wow, it's going to be even tougher to make the top 10 or even 15 with 30+ riders to compete against now.
I actually like the change but to implement it 3 days before the next event kind of sucks. Oh well. 11 miles & 2400' vert ft of climbing here I come.

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[bnd]

I've go to give a shout out to Danita and her friend Andee.
They went up to the Spudman Triathlon in Idaho and absolutely killed it. I believe this was a 1/2 Ironman distance.
Danita placed 5th out of 60 in her age group and Andee placed 5th out of 83 in hers, amazing. Danita was only 14 minutes off of 1st place.

All those 4:30am workouts over the past year has paid off!

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[bnd]

Last weekend we went to Big Piney, Wyoming to do their annual Sprint Tri, Beau Mahaffey is now an official roadie. He was the bike rider on the winning team, riding 12 miles. I teamed up with an 8th grade swimmer & my 8 yr old son. I had to play catch up on the road and got our team the lead. Grady had about a 2 minute lead but got reeled in by a high schooler on the run. He still finished with a respectable time. As always, we had a great time.


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[bnd]

1st trip to Vernal for Mt. biking......................was awesome!
Iv'e never rode in Vernal & only drove thru it to Flaming Gorge 8 years ago. We made plans a month ago & spent the last 3 days there riding.

The first stop was to my friends bike shop, Altitude Cycles, the owner Troy & I raced BMX together 15 or so years ago & it was nice catching up. He is the guy to talk to about the local trails, He's had a hand in what seems to be most of them over the years & has a nice map booklet you can purchase for a few bucks with excellent details on each trail.

We rode at McCoy Flats, Jazz & Serendipity & Racetrack. All three were cool and kid friendly but you can really haul ass if you want. Serendipity was my fave as we all just went straight flat out on a great flow trail. The conditions were perfect! The fun factor was great! We all agreed that what we saw & rode was Moab without the crowds. We hardly saw another biker in all 3 days.

Vernal really surprised me, I thought it was some run down old mining town but its not. It's got everything a modern city has with a small town feel. We took the kids to the Dinosaur tracks & museum in town. The Vernal Brewery & for Mexican......there is a small restaurant right next door to the bike shop, the name escapes me but it was top shelf. We got there just in time before it filled up. We stayed at the Comfort Inn, brand new & great service.

We are going to try to slip in another trip to Vernal before Memorial day, I can say though that this area just leap frogged Moab as a destination. It was about 3 hrs away & the traffic was nonexistent.

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[bnd]

Utah CyclocrossRace #1.

2018 season opener.
It's been a looong time since I raced 'cross but I've been looking for a new challenge (again) & decided to try my hand at Cyclocross this Fall. I had to sign up for the 35+ C class which sucks because I'm 52 now & not getting any younger. Plus, before committing to the season & buying a new cross bike, I'm running my cross country MTB hardtail with skinny tires. Even though it weighs 21 lbs you can get cross bikes down to 16 and they roll a lot quicker.

The race was out at a Jr. High School in Kearns & basically on the grass. It was about 8 minute laps in tall grass, it was like pedaling in sand. I had a good warm up and I had about 15 in the class. I got off to a good start in 2nd to the grass after a parking lot sprint lead up but quickly got shuffled to the back of the pack by the halfway mark of the 1st lap. WoW! I couldn't believe much faster my comp was. I put my head down & hammered the best I could. I suffered horribly on the 4th lap & was told the 5th lap was the last after 40 minutes. I finally caught one guy near the end & nipped him at the line. I think I placed 2nd to last, lol.

Cross, IMO is still the hardest cycling discipline i've ever done. You need the bike handling skills of BMX & mt biking plus the conditioning of a road bike time trialist. One of the highlights of the day was hanging out with Steve Oblad as he was there cheering on his son MIke & his wife Maria.

Next race for me is in 2 weeks and I have a nice Cross bike lined up to use, I'm hoping that using the right tool finally will at least keep me in the mid-pack.

* Results came out today & I finished 7th out of 16 racers.. I'll buy that for a dollar!

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