Little Cottonwood

     It was hard to believe, but two weeks of the trip had come and gone. Now only the final weekend remained. We had some plans on Friday, so I only had the morning free to ride. My legs were pretty destroyed from the last assault on Butterfield Canyon and the numerous sprints at the bike park. I needed a shorter ride, so I went to the only local hot-spot that I have not ridden before: Little Cottonwood Canyon.

     Little Cottonwood Canyon parallels Big Cottonwood Canyon, running east from the valley up into the Wasatch Mountains. Only a single row of mountains separate the two canyons. Little Cottonwood is shorter and a little steeper than Big Cottonwood. I parked a little over a mile from the official start of the climb, but it was still uphill from my parking lot to the turn onto Little Cottonwood. That gave me a little time to see how the legs felt before the climb began. I actually felt much better than expected, so I decided to hammer it once the main climb began. There was a rider with me when I started hammering. He caught me just before the turn and was sitting in my draft. I attempted to talk to him, but he would not pull up next to me. That was part of the reason why I decided to turn up the pace.

Going up Little Cottonwood Canyon

     The climb is steady early on, then has some steeper sections, but nothing incredibly difficult. I managed to shell the wheel-sucker and got into a great rhythm. I caught several other riders who were much nicer and more social than that guy.

     My legs faded out after three miles and my hammer ride turned into a fun, sight-seeing ride. The leaves are changing more in this canyon and provided some very bright colors, especially at the top in Alta. The Tour of Utah finishes a stage on this road. They climb to the Snowbird Resort, which comes after 6.5 miles of climbing. The road continues up for two more miles to the small town of Alta, which sits at 8,717 ft. elevation. It looked like the road went up even farther, just on gravel and dirt. It makes me want to do some research for next year and maybe bring my mountain bike to do a long combination ride of pavement, gravel/dirt roads and singletrack through this whole section of the Wasatch range.

Looking down on Snowbird and its green grass rooftop

Bright fall colors at the top

     There are no hairpin turns on this road, but there are plenty of fun corners that are sharp enough and fast enough that you can really lay the bike over on the descent. I had a lot of fun. It was kind of cold at the top with dark clouds hovering over the canyon, but the bottom was still warm and sunny. It was like descending into a totally different day.

Alta ski area

On my way down Little Cottonwood Canyon

Back to full sunshine near the bottom

     After riding, the whole family met up at one of our favorite places to eat, Brick Oven. They have good pizza and homemade root beer. I'm all about the root beer. I've also discovered apple beer here in Utah. It has a strange taste, but I like it and will be bringing at least one case home with me.

     Thunderstorms rolled in after lunch and made for a soggy afternoon. We had planned to go with Amber to her school's homecoming football game. She works at Summit Academy High School and they were hosting Milford High School. It seemed like a bad idea to go to the game with such bad weather looming, but somehow we ended up in the car and on our way to the school. We got there and sat down in the stands just in time to get hit with a massive storm. Lightning was flashing alla round campus so the game was delayed and everyone took shelter inside the school for about 20 minutes. Then the storm passed and we were treated to a sloppy football game. It was a dull first half until three touchdowns were scored inside the final 1:30 of the second quarter. The teams were tied at halftime and played really well in the second half. The game went down to the final 30 seconds, when Summit made a goal-line stand to keep Milford out of the endzone and secured the win. It was totally worth getting wet for.

     It rained all day Saturday, And I do mean all day. It was colder too so I did not venture out for a rain ride. The Tour de Donut was supposed to be on Saturday morning, but I was not about to eat soggy donuts, so I stayed home. The forecast called for three more days of rain, so we decided to pack up on Sunday and head for Tennessee. The skies cleared a bit as we loaded the car and we could see the storm had left some snow on top of the mountains to the east.

     We left just after lunch and drove straight through to get home in just over 24 hours of driving. Thankfully, we did not encounter any tornadoes or bad traffic like last year, but we did go through a nasty storm around Cheyenne, WY just as it was starting to get dark. I was dreaming of the Curt Gowdy trails until we got to Laramie and it was pouring rain. There actually was a nice rainbow over toward Curt Gowdy as we went by. The storm featured some of the most impressive streaks of lightning I have ever seen. Each streak was longer and brighter than I have ever seen before. They seemed to jump cloud-to-cloud several times before finally shooting down to the ground. Also, the streaks were slightly red in color making them even more visually stunning.

Rainbow over Curt Gowdy

     I think this was the best trip we have ever taken. I had a great time and got in a lot of riding while still getting to do the family thing. I still cannot believe how good of shape I was in for this trip. So many things were better. My endurance was killer. I did four 5+ hour rides each week with little fatigue in the legs. I handled the altitude with minimal change in fatigue levels and only one headache this year. My speed was obviously better. I blew out my previous best times up Big Cottonwood Canyon, Pine Canyon and Butterfield Canyon. And I stepped up my game on the downhill/freeride trails at Canyons, hitting bigger jumps, taller drops and higher skinnies than I have ever ridden in my life. All of these things were such a surprise to me. I guess all the hard work at the end of the summer finally did pay off.

     My main goal for the trip was not to gain weight. I have been steadily dropping weight since last November. I was up to 17-18 lbs. lost when I started the trip. Last year, I gained six pounds while we were gone, even with all the riding I did. Gma is a food fanatic. Seriously, she cooks big meals every night and as soon as we clean up for one meal she begins to talk about the next one. It's hard not to fatten up when you stay with her. Now I now where Shannon gets it from! Add in several meals at restaurants and you have a great recipe for weight gain. I dropped weight the first week of the trip, but then Gma started to get to me at the end. In all, I gained less than a pound. Now I just have to make sure I don't get into a bad habit of eating too much here at home.

     Thanks Gma and Gpa for hosting us! I really do enjoy coming out there and am happy that they can tolerate me for two weeks every year. It was good to see the family and I cannot wait to go back. We may go at a different time of year next year. I would really love to go out in the spring or early summer to do some training, but we will have to see how the budget and race schedule are looking before that can become a reality. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures!

Going Big

     One of the may things I love about cycling is the variety it offers through the many different disciplines. Most often the sport is split into Road, Mountain, Track and BMX. Within those groups there are even more options. As a road racer you can do long distance road races or time trials or criteriums. Mountain biking offers cross-country racing, long-distance endurance races, downhill, enduro and freeride events. I enjoy them all. I was always a jack-of-all-trades kind of rider when I was younger. Somewhere along the way I wound up only being a cross-country racer and then transitioned to only a criterium racer.

     One of my goals the last two seasons has been to return to that jack-of-all-trades rider. I want to be a threat in every kind of race I line up for. Up until the past few weeks, I felt like criteriums were the only type of race I could be competitive in. Then the Lock 4 win came out of the blue. It really surprised me. This trip has given me opportunities to ride all the disciplines I love. And again, I have surprised myself with my riding.

     Thursday brought an opportunity to worked on one of the disciplines I don't get to ride as often as I would like. We mixed things up with some downhill and freeride mountain biking. I love riding downhill, but there are no places in Tennessee to do it. My only training/practice comes from the few things I have built on our backyard trail. Shannon and I went over to the Canyons Resort in Park City to play at their bike park. We got there before the lifts even opened so we would not miss one single minute of fun! We started off in the main part of the bike park, riding the two Beginner trails White Rabbit and Flying Salmon. They were good starter trails for Shannon, though they were a bit rough for her Santa Cruz Superlight. We swapped bikes for a few runs so she could enjoy all six inches of travel on my Remedy. We found out she is not fond of steep downhill berms. This one berm on Flying Salmon bit her twice early in the day. She got a few scratches, but otherwise was ok and kept riding throughout the day.

Lift ticket

Looking down on the Wild Mouse trail from the lift

We saw a badger today and a herd of sheep moving up the mountain through the resort

A rider getting big air on the Rally Cat trail

Following Shannon on some wood on Flying Salmon

Shannon pops out of the woods on Flying Salmon

     I enjoyed playing on Wild Mouse, the only trail I rode the last time we came here two years ago. It has many big tabletop jumps, some huge berms and a few wooden obstacles that are not too difficult. The size of the jumps scared me a little. I was far from comfortable on them. I was, however, carrying good speed down the hill. I had fun toying with two rather cocky riders who thought they were awesome. They made a comment to Shannon as I was getting ready to go into the trail that they should go in first because, after looking at me, they were sure they would be faster. When they dropped in, Shannon said "Go catch them!" So I did. I let them go in ahead on the next run as well just so I could run them down again. I love how people look at my skinny physique and my "short-travel" bike (by downhill standards it is a small bike) and assume I don't know what I'm doing on a downhill trail. If they only knew how much I raced road they would really think I was slow and didn't belong in a freeride park! Again, I just love being able to ride it all. Race a crit. one day, then do big jumps and drops the next day. How many road racers do you know that can do that?! It's fun to surprise people.

     My uncomfortable-ness carried over to the Skills Park as well. I was a little disappointed with myself when we stopped for lunch. I was hoping to feel a little more comfortable on the jumps after hitting the bike park in Green River last week.

Me on Wild Mouse

Boulder sticking up through the wood on Wild Mouse

Wood berm on Wild Mouse

More wood

Big berm near the end of Wild Mouse

Doing the biggest drop in the Skills Area

View from the Short Cut lift

Fall colors on the mountain from the lift

Ricochet trail

Shannon on Holly's trail

View from Holly's trail

     After lunch, something clicked. We went over to the more advanced side of the park. I started off by riding the Expert-only Cliffhanger trail. This park is for real. When they say Expert-only, they mean it. Cliffhanger starts off with a lot of rocks, then has an elevated ladder ride about 6 feet high that ends with a big drop, followed by another ladder that rises to 10 feet off the ground! It then rolls down to the ground before ending the trail with a wooden kicker gap jump. I got the urge to try the ladders. I didn't really think I could do them, but I wanted to give it a shot. I rolled up on the first one and before I knew it I was going off the six foot drop at the end. I landed it and went on to the next ladder, also making it. But I bailed before the gap jump. A few minutes later, I tried again, this time doing the full trail including the gap jump. What a rush! I can't believe I got up the nerve to try that and actually pulled it off. I guess my skills are better than I thought.

Cliffhanger

In the tree tops on Cliffhanger

Gap jump coming!

In the air over the gap

Me riding up the lift

     I spent the rest of the day on the Dropkick trail. The jumps on Dropkick are bigger than on Wild Mouse, but my confidence was high after clearing Cliffhanger. After a few runs, I was jumping all the big jumps. At the end of the day, I took one more run on Wild Mouse and it was a breeze compared to Dropkick. I cleared all the jumps except the very last one on Wild Mouse that last run. The news of the day was that I flatted four times. The first one happened on the rack before the ride when my valve stem broke. Then I pinch-flatted twice on Dropkick, even though I was running 55 psi in my tires. I guess 2.1" XC tires can't take the abuse and forces that come with downhill riding. I hate pinching tubes, but I am ok with it when I know it is because I have stepped up my game and have surpassed the capabilities of my equipment.

Riding down Dropkick

Getting air on a tabletop jump

Wood feature on Dropkick

Huge wooden berm on Dropkick

More air time

     My fourth and final flat of the day came after the park closed and we were riding back down the mountain to the car. I pinched yet again on a jump on the Ricochet downhill trail. This time I was out of tubes and had to walk about two miles out of the woods. I'm actually out of tubes completely now. I have used all my spare tubes with the eight mountain bike flats I have had on this trip. I wanted to bring more tubes, but Maxxis has been out of all tubes since at least July. I don't understand how they could be out of tubes when they are a tire and tubes company. It baffles me, just like when our local SubWay in Pleasant View went through a phase where they ran out of bread about three times a week. How do you run out of bread when you are a SANDWICH company?!

    Below is a video we shot at Canyons. It is mostly helmet cam video, starting with me following Shannon down Flying Salmon. Then you can see me making a run through the Skills Park, followed by runs down Cliffanger, Dropkick and Wild Mouse. There are also some shots Shannon took from the side with our other camera.

Video: Riding at Canyons

     After Canyons, Shannon and I drove over to Heber City to eat at our favorite place, Granny's Drive-In. They have the best milkshakes and really good hamburgers as well. I love Utah fry sauce so I got a burger smothered in fry sauce to go with my tall Oreo shake. Mmmmm!

My shake from Granny's. More above the cup than in.

     Hitting all my favorite disciplines this week has been a good time. I am so happy with how I am riding. I would go back to Canyons, but without mountain bike tubes I guess I am restricted to the road for my final few rides. I had hoped to go to RedBull Rampage this year while we are here, but they sold out of tickets months ago so I guess we will watch it online instead. The trip is nearing an end, but I am sure the adventures are not over. Stay tuned for more!

Running Hot

     The second week in Utah started with some yard work. I promised Gma and Gpa I would do any yard work they needed just like I did when we were here last year. The yard was in a little better shape this year, but it still took a good part of the day to push mow the grass, weedeat around all the trees and the fence that lines the property, trim all the trees, trim bushes in the front yard and finally cut back their grapes. Afterwards, Gpa insisted that we go to Wendy's for lunch to thank us.

Picking grapes for Gma

     After a late lunch, I had little time to go anywhere to ride, so I kept it close to home and did a short ride up Butterfield Canyon. I love this climb. It's 6.5 miles long and gives you a little bit of everything on the way up. It starts with 3.7 miles of rolling climb. There are several flat spots and false summits in this first section. Then comes the punishment. There's a 1 km section that ranges from 15%-20% grade up to a tight switchback. The rest of the climb is narrow along the side of the mountain, twisting its way up at 6%-8% grade. There are also several patches of gravel on this top part, making it more of a climb for the mountain biker-types. The gravel washes off the hillside and is different every time I have been up this climb.

     Last year, I did an easy ride up the first time I came here, then returned a few days later and hammered the climb to see how fast I could get up it. I wanted to hit it hard today to get another comparison of my form. I did a short warm-up, then hit the climb at TT pace. My heart rate ran 165-168 for the lower portion with the occasional bump up to 170 on the rollers. I was strong up the steep section and was able to run 172-175 heart rate up that section. I had to back off some once I got on the upper section. It was more of a breathing and heart rate issue than a leg strength problem. The altitude was holding me back just a little.

Going up Butterfield Canyon

     Around the last turn I spooked a couple taking their engagement pictures. I'm pretty sure I am in the background of one of their pictures. They were standing in the road with the view of the mountains and valley behind them. It was an awesome backdrop for engagement photos. I reached the top of the paved road at 7,786 ft. of elevation in a time of 38:49, shattering last year's PR by 6:38! That ranked me as 8th overall on Strava! I never dreamed that I could climb with the locals, but I guess I can on a good day. I stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view. The sun was setting and casting both sunlight and shadows across the valley below. I made sure to leave in between pictures so I would not photobomb the engaged couple again.

View from the top of Butterfield Canyon

     The descent down was an interesting one. There was less gravel in the road than last year so I was able to hang the upper corners a bit more. The bottom section is fast and scary. There were plenty of mule deer grazing near the road in the evening light. I had a hard time seeing them with their dark coats. They ran across in front of me at least four times in the last three miles . It was a relief just to make it to the bottom without a new fur coat.

     The next day it was back to the mountain bike in Park City, taking my parents out for another ride on some different trails than we hit last week. Shannon also came along for this ride. This time we started halfway down the mountain and rode the rolling Mid Mountain trail out to the Park City Mountain Resort trails. We did one long climb up the mountain on Tommy's Two Steps. It's about the easiest climb you can find here, taking the way long route up a steep slope to keep the grade minimal. The altitude was still killing my Mom and she needed a few rest breaks before the top.

     Once up the climb, we descended the fun Mojave trail that was built last season. I was ripping the downhill, jumping everything I could and railing the big berms. I was just feeling in the groove today. But I made a slight error in one of the rocky sectionss and pushed the bike down a bit too hard to prepare for an upcoming jump. I felt the rims hit a rock and within seconds both tires were flat. It was my first-ever double pinch-flat. I am going through tubes like crazy on this trip. I flatted twice at Curt Gowdy, once on my road ride last week, and now twice in Park City.

     Our loop was shorter today, but nobody wanted to do any more. I went back out for another climb so I could run the downhill trail Payroll. It was my fastest ever run down that trail and by far the smoothest. I am finally getting the hang of these bigger jumps and blind drops. I was hoping for more riding, but my Dad was pressing me to leave. He has still been in a rather grumpy mood. I don't think he is enjoying the trip very much. He has let the little things get him upset every day. This morning he would not eat breakfast with us in the house and then wanted to stop somewhere to eat on the way to ride. The first stop was at Wendy's and nobody ever came to take his order at the drive-thru. That pissed him off. Then we went to Burger King and he just ordered a chicken biscuit without even looking at their menu. Burger King does not have chicken biscuits. He was mad because he believes every place should have the same breakfast menu. Yep. Dad has also tried to keep us on a schedule and wants to be back to the house every day by two o'clock so we don't miss dinner or get stuck in the dark. It drives me crazy! We are on vacation! No schedule is needed! Besides, dinner is usually between 5 and 6 and it does not get dark until 7:30. Anyway, he pushed me to end my ride so I did. Once we got back, we went out to eat at Golden Corral as my parents wanted to take Gma and Gpa out for hosting them this week. Gpa loves Golden Corral so it was the perfect choice. Gpa can really put away some of their coconut macaroons! He was eating them while walking back to the table. He just had a hand full of sticks everyt ime he came back. The food was gone.

     On Wednesday, my parents left to explore American Fork Canyon on their way to southern Utah to see Arches National Park  and Canyonlands National Park in Moab. I was free to do whatever I wanted! I chose to go back to Butterfield Canyon. I thought I could climb it faster. My legs were a bit stiff on Monday after taking a day off the bike completely on Sunday when it rained all day. Tuesday's ride at Park City was a perfect recovery ride and should have primed my legs for another hard effort. The plan was to warm up thoroughly, then give my all up to the end of the pavement. I wanted to see if I could be top 5 overall on Strava. Shannon was going to bring Gma and Gpa up the climb in the car and meet me at the top, where we were going to then take the gravel road all the way to the top. We had heard that there was an overlook of the Kennecott Copper Mine at the top. Gpa worked there when he was younger, laying railroad track, so we thought it would be cool for him to see it from above.

     My climb went good. I had a slight headwind in the first three miles, but I was able to hold my heart rate in the 170-172 range all the way to the steep section. I got there 12 seconds faster than on Monday. The steep part hurt me more today. I guess I came into it a little too hard. I held my heart rate over 170, but I was wheezing hard. Again, the lungs and heart were my limiter. I felt like I backed off too much at the top on Monday, so I pushed extra hard there this time. The last 1.5 miles I buried myself. I sprinted the final minute and was about to pass out when I hit the top. I clocked a time of 37:57, knocking another 52 seconds off of Monday's PR. That was good enough to bump me up to 5th overall on Strava! And that time is just 1:33 off the KOM. I could totally see myself being able to pick up that much more if I work at it.

     I sat at the top for a few minutes to catch my breath, then started up the gravel section. Shannon was further behind than I expected, so my new plan became to beat them up the gravel to the top. I was thinking I had read somewhere that it was 1.5 miles to the overlook. The climb was steep and the gravel was deep in places. My skinny road tires were having a hard time in the deeper sections, but I managed to get up without having to push. It turned out to be 2.5 miles to the top. I was exhausted after trudging through the gravels, but it was more than worth it when I saw the overlook. Yes indeed, you could see the mine. It was a better view than you get from the mine's Visitor's Center. I beat Shannon up there by about a minute. I only beat them because Gma had to take a nature break on the way up. The bouncy gravel road was a bit more than she could take. I was proud of her for, as she put it, "going in the wilderness" for the first time in her life.

Going up the gravel road to the Copper Pit Overlook

View from the Copper Pit Overlook. You can see the entire Kennecott Copper Mine from here. The mine was founded in 1903 and is the second-largest copper producer in the US. It provides about 25% of the country's copper use each year and has produced more copper ore than any other mine in the world. They also mine gold, silver, molybdenum and sulphuric acid here. Between the mine itself and the business units for the Rio Tinto company located at the bottom of the mountain, the mine provides 17,200 jobs to Utah.

     My time turned out to be quite fast on the gravels. I took the KOM for the full climb, including the paved portion and the gravel, even though I had a five minute rest break at the end of the pavement. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could get a KOM on a big mountain such as this. This climb is 9.1 miles long and goes up to 9,007 ft!

     Just as Shannon pulled up in the car, steam started pouring out from under the hood. Gma's PT Cruiser was overheating. It had barely made it up the climb. We raised the hood and let it cool down while we enjoyed the view. We met an older man at the top that told us a lot of history about the mine. I had no idea that there were several small towns that had been torn down over the years as the mine expanded.

     Gpa could not have been less interested. He just wanted too sit in the car and eat his sandwich. We did manage to get him out of the car long enough to get a quick picture of the four of us in front of the mine. Then it was time to see if the car was going to make it down. The radiator was low and we did not have much water. I had to pour the water from my bottle into the radiator. It was enough to get the car to the bottom where my car was parked. I had more water in the trunk that we added to the radiator and it made it home with no problems.

Gma, Gpa, Shannon and me at the overlook

Going down the gravel road back toward Butterfield Canyon

     My descent was crazy. The gravels were tough on a road bike. I had to be intensely focused to pick a good line through the gravel. My arms were exhausted by the time I hit the pavement. I have never appreciated pavement so much in my life! There were no deer out today, but I popped around one corner to find four cows standing in the road. You really never know what you are going to see up here!

XTERRA USA and 16%

     Our first Saturday in Utah brought the XTERRA USA Championship. It was one of my targets for this season when I planned out my goals at the end of last year, but with all the hamstring issues I have had with running I had no chance to qualify this season. So, like last year, I was stuck on the sidelines as a spectator, which is still better than not being there at all.

     It was a beautiful day. Cool morning temps gave way to a warm day. I made the drive up with my parents to watch the race. We got there in time to see the start at the Pineview Reservoir. We watched from across the lake at a point that juts out toward the marina where the swim begins. It's not the best vantage point, but then again, nothing is really good outside of having a boat. At least by being on that side of the lake we were not going to get stuck in the traffic that always forms as spectators try to race the riders to the different vantage points on the bike course.

Our view of the swim at XTERRA USA

     We raced up the mountain to the first spectator spot just in time to see Craig Evans roll by. He was running 9th at the time. He is from our area in Tennessee and also a regular on the local mountain bike scene. We watched a few riders come by, including the Pro Women's leader Flora Duffy, who already had a big lead. She was actually the 4th person out of the water overall. I was cracking up at my Mom trying to figure out this guy's sign that read "Turn Yourself Inside Out!" She was not getting it at all.

A rider nears the first of the two main climbs on the bike course

     Next, we went to the transition area at Snow Basin to catch the leader. It was current XTERRA World Champion Ruben Ruzafa from Spain out front. He had about a minute lead over American Josiah Middaugh. Then it was a HUGE gap back to a battle for third. Craig had moved into 7th by the end of the bike. I almost missed getting a picture of him.

Ruzafa was first off the bike

He had a super smooth and super fast transition

Battle for third

I almost missed Craig yet again. This is the only shot I snagged of him and it is from a distance.

     It was a little disappointing to not have the helicopter overhead filming this year. There's just something about the helicopter flying overhead that adds to the excitement! That was a huge expense for the XTERRA crew. To save dough, they instead bought two drones to fly overhead and get the aerial shots. That would have worked great, but they crashed one of them right in the middle of the trail just a few seconds after Craig went by. That's what scares me about drones. At some point, they will come down. And one day, someone will be underneath.

     I ventured off into the woods to watch the riders negotiate some singletrack. The course here is not all that difficult outside of the immense amount of climbing. It has few technical sections, but I managed to find one that was giving people fits. There was an option to ride through a rather smooth creek crossing, or take a long way around for a bridge. It amazed me that only three riders out of about 50 even attempted the creek crossing. Of those three, two were women. Props to the women for trying more than the men! Most of the riders I saw had horrendous skills. How do you make it so far in this sport with no technical skills? It made me want to be out there so bad because I knew I could eat this course up. But then I thought about the run. Oh yeah, good thing I'm not racing!

Adam Wirth

Australian Ben Allen

Ryan Ignatz

Ben Torvik

Barbara Riveros finished the bike course on a flat rear tire. And she was still cranking faster than most of the riders I saw.

Riders taking the bridge

This Luna Chick decided to take the bridge as well

     I jogged over to the run course after the top two had finished. Ruzafa took the win over Middaugh. The 18-year old from Mexico, Mauricio Mendez, took third. Craig finished in 8th and was just a few seconds behind 6th. Actually, 6th through 9th were very close together at the end. I was happy for Craig. He has worked really hard this year, quitting his job to pursue his triathlon dream. He was part of the inspiration for me to cut back to part-time. Great job Craig!

     Flora Duffy smashed the Women's race, coming in over six minutes ahead of second place Riveros, who made a good recovery after her flat on the bike. Read more about the race here.

Ben Allen during the run

Flora Duffy on her way to the win

     I have a short video posted below of some of the action during the bike and run segments. After the race, I grabbed lunch at the Expo Area thanks to some samples from PowerBar and Muscle Milk. Then it was my turn to ride.

XTERRA USA Championships Video

     I brought my road bike because it would be hours before everyone would be off the trails. My plan was to ride Powder Mountain and then see how I felt. I have done a lot of riding on this trip and I was expecting to have tired legs. Plus, I heard Powder was very hard. The ride began with a 1.3-mile climb out of the parking lot, then I descended for six miles to the Pineview Reservoir before getting in some flat miles along the shore. Snow Basin is on the south side of the Reservoir and Powder Mountain is on the north side. I took the east side around and started up Powder Mountain after a little over 15 miles of riding. Powder is brutal to say the least. The climb is 7.2 miles long and the final four miles average 16%. Yeah, average. It's pretty much the same grade the entire way once you hit the first steep pitch. It gives you no breaks. Whoever built this road had never heard of switchbacks. The road basically goes straight up the mountain. Even more crazy than the road builder was the guy that made this a summit finish climb in the Tour of Utah.

     To add to the difficulty for me, it was 93 degrees today and the tar in the road was starting to melt at the bottom. I could hear my tires sticking as I pedaled my way up. But the higher I climbed, the cooler it got. By halfway the tar was no longer melted. I just paced myself because I did not know what was ahead. These climbs are steep enough that you better always save something in reserve or risk catching a steep section when you are gassed and having to stop. I only used my 30-tooth cog once climbing out from Midway for maybe 30 seconds. I used it for a good two miles on Powder Mountain.

16% baby. The sign says down, but it covers both ways.

The pavement ends right at the top.

View from Powder Mountain

Starting back down

     Going down was exciting. I rode the brakes because I was not familiar enough to go blasting down, not to mention that there were numerous dump trucks going up and down the mountain at low speeds. Still, with riding the brakes rather heavily I ran 47 mph for most of the way down.

     I still felt good after Powder, so I decided to ride over the North Ogden Divide both ways. It's a short two miles up the east side of the Divide. There were some nice views on the way up. Then I got a three mile descent down into the town of North Ogden.

Going up the east side of the North Ogden Divide

Looking toward Powder Mountain from the North Ogden Divide. Squint and you can see the road going up Powder Mountain in the dark spot in the middle.

Another view from the North Ogden Divide

     I turned around in North Ogden and began the climb back up. It was three very hot miles in the blazing sun. I was starting to feel the ride now. And I was out of water by the top. It was a good climb though. It's a steady, challenging 10% grade with many beautiful views of North Ogden and the North Ogden Canyon.

The start of the North Ogden Divide on the North Ogden end

Looking down on North Ogden, made hazy by forest fires in California

North Odgen Divide

     After the fast descent back to the town of Eden, I rode around the west side of the Reservoir and eventually turned up Old Snowbasin Rd. This road climbs from the Pineview Reservoir all the way up to Snow Basin. It begins with a 2.7-mile climb and then features a short descent to the Wheeler Canyon Trailhead. From there, the road is closed to traffic. Only bikes and hikers are allowed to use it. After going through there, I see why. The road is in sad shape with many sinkholes and cave-ins.

Old Snow Basin Rd.

Better pick your line wisely on this road, especially if descending.

     Out of food and water, I struggled the last three miles to the car. it was nice and peaceful though without traffic. Just me and the Fall colors. It was a good way to end the day after 62 miles and 4 hours and 40 minutes of bike time. This ride wrapped up the ninth day of the trip. I have put in nearly 34 hours of riding so far.