Crusher Registration Opens Wednesday January 3rd at 7 p.m.

The time to commit to the 2018 Crusher is right now.

https://tusharcrusher.athlete360.com/

A Couple More Christmas Videos

Casey Brown's Corbet's Crash

TGR Presents First MTB Descent of Jackson Hole Corbet's Couloir

GoPro: 'Tis The Season To Be Shredding Bikes with Santa

Bicycle Repairman - Monty Python's The Flying Circus

A Tough Day at the Fat Pursuit. Hopefully, I learned a Couple of Things.



photo credit Trent Bora/Fat Pursuit

Jay Petervary’s cycling events are second to none-organization, volunteers, participants, aid stations, gift bag, and raffle are all first rate. But as Jay himself reminded us today, not even he can control the weather.

We had good participation at the Fat Pursuit today from locals and near locals (Zac, Lance Parker, Zac and Lance’s friend Nate, MIke Schjeldahl, and Gabe who always keeps the fast guys honest). Tony was there as well to provide logistical and moral support.

The original 60 K route (to the top of Chick Creek Road, north on the Fish Creek Road, looping back on the Chick Creek Flat Road) should have been pretty rideable in 4 hours with decent conditions, significantly faster for the top guys. But there were some complications. The snowmobile grooming can’t start until there is two feet of snow at the base. There is about four feet of snow at the top of Chick Creek, but well under two feet in the valley even though Island Park received a fairly heavy snowfall overnight last night. The connector road along the pole line from the Island Park Ranger Station to the Chick Creek Road was covered by new snow over a minimally tracked base. The west end of the Chick Creek Road featured fresh snow over icy ruts. It was reportedly unrideable with deep untracked snow above the aid station at about mile nine.

Jay P’s plan B was a double out-and-back to the aid station. I started with tires a little over inflated, but by the time I was in the middle portion of the Chick Creek Road, I had lowered the pressure to what I judged to be a minimal sustainable level based on feel. When Tony checked my pressure at the finish was just over 2 psi, front and rear. I was making good progress on the lower part of Chick Creek, but by the middle, the snow got softer and deeper, and it became a real battle to continue moving forward at any speed.

I arrived at the turn around at about 1:50, still planning on the double and hoping to make up time on the return, hoping for better conditions, Instead of improving, the snow got softer and the track got deeper. My return trip took twenty minutes longer than my outbound trip. It stopped being anything even remotely related to racing and became a matter of pure survival long before it was over. Of the sixty something participants only about half even attempted the second lap. I was absolutely destroyed by the end of the first lap. The second lap would have taken me days.

Here is something to put my day in perspective. The top eight guys finished two laps faster than I finished one. What did these guys have in common besides being younger than me and having a significantly higher level of talent? Every one of them was on five inch tires. I rode my stock 3.8 inch tires which are great on hard pack, but were a disaster today. Better tires would not have put me anywhere the leaders, but they may have ameliorated a significant amount of misery.

I like to believe I have a fairly wide range of skills on a bike, nothing really exceptional, but a minimal level of competence. Today I realized that my very worst skill is riding in a deep narrow rut. By the end of the day, I was willing to ride in some pretty soft snow to avoid the misery of riding in the single tire track.

If you need one more reality check, think of the 200K and 200 mile versions of the Fat Pursuit that will be taking place in January. Even with good conditions, it is difficult for me to wrap my head around that. In bad conditions, those distances become unimaginable. 

Fat Pursuit a Short Film

The Fat Pursuit 60 K is 3 days away, Saturday December 16th

Fat Pursuit A Short Film from Salsa Cycles on Vimeo.

Chris Froome fights to save career after failed drugs test result -The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/13/chris-froome-team-sky-reputation-abnormal-drug-test

Touching the Sun from Salsa Cycles

Salsa Cycles Presents: Touching The Sun from Salsa Cycles on Vimeo.

Book excerpt: A guide to Crusher in the Tushar | VeloNews.com

http://www.velonews.com/2017/12/news/book-excerpt-guide-crusher-tushar_453004

Congratulations to Kelton on His CX State Championship

Kelton Williams is the new Idaho State Champion in Men’s Cat 3 cyclocross following a victory yesterday at Shoshone Falls Park in Twin Falls. Kelton is still young enough to race juniors but the state of Idaho does not have any other juniors at his level. At Twin Falls, Kelton raced with intelligence and maturity, hopping barriers and riding difficult lines on a technical course which featured off-camber sections and a big run up, winning the Cat 3 race by a margin of a minute over second place. The State Championships are a USA Cycling sanctioned event so the points that Kelton earned there should help him to qualify for a better starting position at Nationals in Reno.

Ensign Peak MTB

After the Barnes Park race, there was really only one thing to do-ride some more. Thomas does a lot of mountain bike riding on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and related trail networks just north of Salt Lake City. A year or so ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts on some rides that we did there. Thomas wanted to show me a newer trail near Ensign Peak. I have included a link below to the rides in the area. None of the routes matches ours exactly, but the Ensign Peak Loop generally matches the middle part of our ride.

http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/ensignpeak.htm

Thirty years or so have passed since mountain bikes became relatively ubiquitous, and in that time, people have gotten a lot better at building mountain bike specific trails. The new trail starts just north of Ensign Peak and descends along its west side through a long series of switchbacks terminating just north and west of the Utah Capitol. Most of the trail probably falls into a high intermediate range with a handful of expert sections.

The engineering quality of the trail and its numerous switchbacks is outstanding. It is insanely fun to ride. Thomas tells me that he seldom sees other riders on the trail. The reason for that is probably fairly obvious. It is a tough climb to the top. We ran into some last minute mechanical issues with Thomas' mountain bike so as plan B, he rode his Surly fat bike. Even on the fattie, he rode better and faster than me.

Wrapping Up the Cross Season at UTCX Barnes Park

The 2017 UTCX season wrapped up Saturday with a fine race at Barnes Park in Kaysville. Participation numbers were high for the final race of the season no doubt augmented by the mild weather. I have occasionally heard flat non-technical cross courses described in a pejorative way as grass criteriums. The Barnes Park race is indeed a big grass criterium with a lap distance of just under 3 km and a couple of deep sand sections. Even though this is probably not my favorite format for a cross race, every now and again, it is absolutely the best. It is very satisfying to ride a cross event with the throttle wide open for extended periods, especially as a contrast to those really slippery days in which you never really run at full power.

No cross course is perfect. Barnes Park has some problematic transitions between grass and sidewalk with a chain link fence along the sidewalk. I saw a very ugly crash into the fence. It has always featured a transition from the west side to the east side of the park via ascent and descent of short cement staircases. The worst part about the transition is a dismount on concrete. (Presumably, a top tier rider could ride the stairs without dismounting, but I did not see that guy). Logistically, the stairs might be tough to avoid, but if it were my race, there would be no dismount on a paved/cement surface, period.

Oh, and the sand. It was tough. I am not a huge fan of sand or mud, but I am realistic enough to understand their place in cross. The sand works well in the context of the Barnes Park race, making it much harder than it would be otherwise.. I feel like I was about average in the sand, but the people who could really ride it well were at a significant advantage.