I love ashland. Like last year, it gives me the first real taste of summer. The nice weather + re familiarization of some of the raddest trails ever combo works perfectly. There's also a large portion of the industry gathered making it cool to see, meet, and ride with so many different faces (the most stoked pro field with top endurance downhillers, downhillers, marathon xc riders, world cup xc riders, and more). Add in some of my favorite places to eat and awesome prizes and you get a truly great time.
This event was new to me since they skipped it last year. I couldn't use my xc fitness to win. The course was fast turny drifty double track that rides like singletrack with some tech rocks/massive ruts near the end. There were a lot of shin to waist high water bars / rollers to manual, jump, or suck up to keep and generate more speed which were super fun. Since most of it wasn't too steep any errors would be detrimental. Dialing in your lines/position/speed was essential to hit the sweeping turns fast without drifting too much. It's a total mind game between not over-braking or blowing corners, ruining your run completely. Some sections feel super slow without pedaling, which is unstressful as far as racing goes yet annoying while you must keep your head in the game. I had a clean run, nothing super loose or amazing but it was enough for a pretty fast time! loved pumping like crazy, tucking, and just riding as smooth as possible. I ended up 6 seconds faster than second place!
Ashland Mountain Challenge
Ashland, OR
Junior Men Open 13-18 (25)
Result: 1st (37:42)
Mostly remembering the pedaly nature of the course made me completely forget about the awesome downhill sections. From railing the upper loam to sliding sandy banked switchbacks around trees and some doubles in between at the bottom, with pumping some high speed Third Divide type flow in between, it's impossible to not have a blast.
I mainly killed myself up the main 4 minute climb and rode smooth is fast on the downhills. I definitely made fewer mistakes than last year and ended up with a clean but fast run (just not really what will get me a competitive time in the pro field). I did start to get a bit excited/rowdy on the bottom corners, trying to really get my roost on. I drifted completely around one of the last sandy switchbacks, hearing tons of sand and rocks thrown off the trail a second later. Easily the highlight of my race as it was like making one of the best powder slashes in snowboarding or off the tops surfing. Thinking about it still makes me smile.
I finished ~1 minute up from second place. Almost backing out of the trip to let my back heal faster in preparation for the big races ahead, I'm super stoked I went ahead with it. I even got a Rockshox Lyrik fork for the Super D and Elixir 9 Brakes for the Chainless Race! I look forward to returning next year and working my way up in the pro field.
Subaru Mt Morris Pro XCT
Mt Morris Nordic Ski Area, WI
Cat 1 17-18 (17 and 130 Cat 1's)
Teammates: none
Result: 3rd
FOOD HERE
Even beyond the race my whole experience on this trip was nothing less than amazing, from staying with team specialized in a kick ass house on a lake to riding an epic course. After some gnarly unfortunate travels (not that bad when your with awesome super knowledgeable Specialized USA Marketing Manager Sean Estes) I was a bit burned going into it but once I got to the front after a bottlenecked massive cat 1 field (thought juniors would get first call up like last year so missed the front line) I began duking it out the entire race- totally rad.
I lost a lot of time in the first wooded single track section from the ball ups, but did successfully work my way up in the field pretty fast given (far from my first time with this). I also fortunately discovered the most technical section of the course followed by sweet fast and flowy singletrack during the race, which added a lot to the tight twisty tacky east coast singletrack course. The third junior I caught was Ryan Standish (Merida Flight Centre, USA World Cup Team member and 3 time Ozzy Champ) at the top of the climb on lap 1 and then Payson McElveen early in lap 2.
The course was pretty hard to give it with few real climbing sections and short flats you had to really focus at any chance to pedal and use all those efforts to add up to a fast time. I wasn't quite by myself with other cat 1's yet not quite up there with Casey Williams (2nd, Bear Valley Bikes) and Brendon (Ellsworth Jeep, African Continental Champ) either making this nature of the course even harder. It was still sick having guys on my heals at every second. That's fun bike racing!
I even got paid for 3rd place overall in cat 1! Congrats to Casey for an awesome ride and Brendon Davids as well because he is really cool.
I'm glad with my performance and another consistent result. Can't wait to train in Tahoe, shred Downieville, and kill it at nationals!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Into Summer: Ashland and Wisconsin - Max Houtzager
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sol Vista Triple DHip
Great shots of Mikey Sylvestri at last weekend's Sol Vista Triple DHip. He managed an impressive win on Friday's first round. Scoring a 4th place overall!
Ashland Mountain Challenge - Jordan Lopez
Yet again, The Ashland Mountain Challenge was a huge success for the All-Mountain racing and definitely pushed the movement in the right direction and towards a greater popularity. With almost 400 racers, both men and women racing in all categories on the 12.12 mile course, the weekend could only be seen as a success.
I was able to get up to Ashland on Thursday Morning and after 3 practice runs and 1 more on Friday I felt very comfortable and confident for my race on Saturday.
My start time was bright and early Saturday Morning and at 8:20am the top of Mt Ashland was a brisk 48 deg. My run went good with no major bobbles or blown corners. In looking back, I would have like to run a 40t ring (I was topped out on both of the fire roads), but I stupidly left it at home.
I am very excited to say that I finished my race run in 35:59 which placed me into 19th place out of 67 PRO Men and overall. To show how tight the competition is at this race; 7th through 19th place were all in the 35 minute mark. For a race of this length of time and distance, this grouping is incredible.
I would like to specifically say thank you to Real World Cycling for the amazing pivot bearings, enduro fork seals, and suspension linkage bearings they sent out to me. My bike felt amazing all weekend and it was more responsive than ever.
A huge thanks is definitely necessary to Wild Bill and his lovely wife Sue at Ashland Mountain Adventures for another amazing event and for all of your hard work, it really paid off – http://ashmtnadv.com/
Friday, June 17, 2011
Family Rides
We always like doing our group rides, it gives us a great time to not only continue to test our products, but also to enjoy being in the presence of family. Here are a few recent ones from Santa Cruz and Morro Bay.
Skyline XC - Max Houtzager
Skyline Park, Napa CA
Cat 1 19-39 (35)
Teammates: Tony Smith, Dario Fredrick, Bobby Zidek
Result: 2nd
FOOD
I wasn't sure about this race. I just got back from Europe, had high school graduation/graduation parties, a rest week, and a packed 6 weekends of racing/travel ahead. I've experienced this race once before, attempting to race singlespeed but DNF'ing from a mechanical (had to break the curse). The course is too epic to pass up, so I made every effort to get my back/hip feeling better from my crash in Switzerland on Sunday. I'd ridden easy all week with out the pain getting worse, but it by no means felt good or even ok and was unsure it wouldn't get worse going race pace. The race turned out to be successful and worth it in every single way! I felt my ailments for sure but they didn't hold me back too much. Two treatments and some Rock Taping by the team doctor Sara Lemarch made all the difference!
had a solid start after a long warm up doing half a lap of the course with Dario, which seemed like too much at the time. I was stoked to ride in the top 3 with Mark Weir (WTB-Cannondale-Fox) and Dario, but then settled into the top 10 behind Mark. I haven't raced against all the regional pros in the field this year so didn't know where I stood nor how i'd fair in my longest race of the year yet so Mark's pace seemed solid.
Riding his lines and speed on the first descent was definitely a highlight for my race! I soon remembered that he was riding a trail bike, beefier tires, and a dropper post so rode a bit more with in my control. I passed him on a short climb and then he flatted following my lines (he let me know later), which left me pretty much alone. My plan/goal to pace off him was short lived.
The technical rocky sections were a blast although I mostly just rode smooth is fast with in my ability, which I was fine with given how fun it was and that I really didn't feel like hanging it out after eating it last weekend. I was surprisingly ready for lap 3 to get to ride more of the epic course!
I was stoked that everyone in the top 10 was fast at descending so I never got held up except for minor lap traffic. My rear tire seemed flat on lap 2 so I nursed it to some degree but in the end it was fine. I caught glimpses of Will Curtis at the top of some climbs and could tell I was getting closer on them so really wanted to catch him (also because he's an amazing super fast rider). I wasn't fast enough on the downhills on lap 2 and made a huge effort on lap 3 to catch him, but he started having a stronger lap as well. I did catch Kevin Smallman (Cannondale-Incycle) in the process, so duked it out with him for most of lap 3.
I finally dialed in the descents at this point (forced to since Kevin was on a trailbike). After I got in front of him I knew getting small gaps on the climbs wouldn't be enough especially with the lap traffic. I finally pulled away running faster on a hike a bike section and rode smooth is fast to the finish (still hoping to catch Curtis but not seeing him).
I ended up 6th overall and 2.5 minutes off the winner which I'm totally stoked on given the stacked pro/expert field and places/ways where I can make up time. Nice job to Dario and Tony for going 1-2 and absolutely killing it!
Leogang World Cup
Great shot of Curtis Keene at last weekend's Leogang World Cup. Podium Pedals perform at the highest level of competition.
US Open - Evan Turpen
Better late then never I say...One of these days I'll be on top of this whole "blogging" thing.
After racing in Plattekill, New York, PJ and I headed back to Jersey (Hoboken to be exact) so that he could go back to work and I could kill time between races.
Coming from a small town in Northern California, life in a densely populated city was pretty overwhelming for me. Luckily I had brought two bikes along with me (my TR450 and Double) so I had a short travel bike to mess around on to remain sane. 
The weekdays before the U.S. Open were mostly spent recovering, catching up on the internet and laundry, and dialing in of bikes. I did venture out a few times for rides in and around Hoboken. Since there was almost no dirt and definitely no mountains nearby, I improvised. I scoured the streets looking for anything to bunny-hop over, jump off of, or slide around on. I eventually settled on this cool little area under a bridge where there were raised sections of cobbles forming rollers in the street. I started pumping and jumping off of them and eventually had a little course going complete with a rutted cutty berm. This was the most fun I had in a long time in Hoboken, but man I miss the trails back home!
One of the days (following the suggestion of my girlfriend) I went on a Manhattan journey. PJ let me borrow his around town beater bike which after some major mechanical love I deemed safe for my solo city mission. I rode it to the PATH (Jersey/New York transit train) and took the PATH train all the way to 33rd in Manhattan. 
As much as I thought Hoboken was culture shock, New York was 10 times as much! I have never seen so many people and cars packed in to an urban area in my life! So crazy! Riding a bike here was hectic as could be! There were no bike lanes (for the most part) and what seemed like no consistency with the flow of traffic. I looked to other cyclist for guidance by following there methods of travel. Still not much consistency there, but it sure was better than what I would have done on my own.
From 33rd I took a journey up to Times Square just to see it then up further to central park. Central park was cool, green, and alive with the energy of those wanting to escape the madness of the city. All it needed was a pump-track and some dirt jumps under the trees and it would be complete! I got lost in the park riding all over and enjoying the lack of traffic and noise until my phone rang, bringing me back to reality. It was a massage therapist that I had tried to schedule an appointment with, but she had been out of the office. She said if I was around that she could fit me in to her schedule within the next half-hour. I told her where I was and she gave me directions to her business. 
I managed to make it to her massage studio six stories up in the heart of Manhattan in a timely fashion. $145 later I was shocked and questioned the benefit of massaging my messed up shoulder. Oh well...what's done was done and it was time to head back to Jersey.
Once Thursday rolled around I was excited to hit the road again headed out to the U.S. Open for the weekend. The U.S. Open has always been one of my favorite events and I've had some good results there in the past. This year the course had been changed drastically and to be honest I didn't really care much for its new flow (or lack of). Regardless, it was still a good track and the weather for the first time was hot without much threat of rain (a welcome change compared to the other East Coast races).
My practice sessions here were pretty strange. I never seemed to get that many runs and I was always stopping and starting. I never managed a full run until qualifying Saturday and that didn't go so well. I clipped a pedal hard and blew both feet off entering the first main woods section. I tried to regain my composure but for some reason struggled to get my feet back on in the exact right spot. Maybe the thousands of rocks I was riding through were to blame! Eventually I would find my flow (sort of) and qualify 27th out of roughly 150. Not bad, but not good either.
Once Sunday rolled around I still didn't really feel prepared for the finals. I had some mistakes and line changes in practice right up until the end (something I don't normally do). Feeling a little nervous before finals due to my lack of preparation, I had a beer with Nick from Shimano to calm my nerves. It must have helped cause I only made one mistake costing me a tiny bit of time and eventually finished 18th, 3.74 seconds off of top ten and 8.78 seconds off podium. Not too bad given the circumstances.
Overall it has been a fun trip, but I will definitely plan my East Coast travels better in the future. It is looking like I am short on funds at the moment so unfortunately I will be staying home to work instead of racing Mont-Saint-Anne and Windham World Cups. Bummer! But I'll be back racing soon enough...
Happy Trails,
Evan
Monday, June 6, 2011
Offenburg World Cup + Euro Camp - Max Houtzager
Offenburg, Germany
Junior Men (126 starters)
Teammates: Keegan Swenson (USA-Cypress Gorry, Ryan Geiger, Casey Williams, Tyler Coplea)
Result: 88th
Pre-riding with former-Olympian Adam Craig was incredible. Following his playful yet aggressive riding style made me feel super dialed on the technical sections and really got my trail mojo flowing. I couldn't stop saying how I've never had more fun on an XC course than a proper super d or downhill track. It is in a park nestled in the city of Offenburg yet weaves and switches between wine country hills and dense European forest. The short punchy climbs follow with downhills consisting of high speed flowing single track, a couple drops/chutes (very west Marin, thank you WA team rides!) and built up bermed sections on mostly tacky hard pack dirt with some roots thrown in for good measure. There was nothing beyond technical, but this was definitely the kind of course I've been itching to get on all year! Although my teammate Tyler fractured his collarbone in the 'Snake Pit' section, I could not be more excited to race.
Between warming up on the road next to every country's fastest juniors (in their national team skinsuits, including some fierce looking junior women) who did the most intense focused openers, to lining up in the 6th starting box back mid-pack in the largest most competitive field ever (all the riders that attend worlds and then some, the most attended world cup), you could say I was pretty nervous. Despite my strongest start of the season and not horrible starting position, I couldn't get to the front half before the first climb which led to participation in a massive ball-up. Thus, all the USA juniors but Keegan ran the entire first climb, and nearly the rest of the climbs on lap 1. When things sorted out slightly after the mess, I started lap 2 last American.
I took my hardest individual effort/attack from every other race this year and did the same thing, but on every single climb. It seemed ridiculous crossing the start line after only 1 lap pedaling like I was in a sprint finish. You had to constantly balance making the most aggressive passes of your life without errors or wasting energy, at the same time brain-dead from turning yourself inside out. On all the downhills I'd usually catch up and get stuck behind some Euros which got pretty annoying, although I was able to pull some pretty gnarly passes (like passing twice on the inside of a right hand turn into the steep drop to G-Out berm dubbed the 'World Class Drop'). I was totally stoked on how I rode (especially compared to the Euros on downhills) all around and learned a lot about how to race at this level. In the end I was only 10 minutes off the leader which isn't too bad given all the running on lap 1 and traffic later on that the front group did not deal with what so ever (shown in lap times). A rider finished no more than every 10 seconds and I worked my way up to 3rd American (11 seconds off 2nd, stuck behind a Euro for the entire last downhill on the last lap as I closed the gap)! Keegan totally killed it as well despite some unfortunate mishaps and I can't wait to do some more world cups (especially the less attended). The results show lap times, and my fastest lap was 60th fastest out of the whole field(which isn’t too bad for a world cup and being forced to go slow on a lot of the downhills)!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Whistler Snow
Tavish Capewell from Royal Racing just sent these over, check out how high the snow walls are in Whistler! Also Infinite DM stem in action...
Hood River, Oregon Super D - Jordan Lopez
What a Memorial Day weekend: drove 1200 miles in 19 hours over a 3 day period and raced in one of the toughest Super D’s I have participated in.
Practice:
The first practice run on Saturday morning was wet and wild; the course had several “buttery” mud sections, boulders covered in mud and the top half of the course was hidden in a rain cloud. After this run, I and many of the racers decided to take a break for a few hours and let the course dry out. 3 hours later when I did my second run the course had completely changed and had dried out significantly. Many of the buttery mud sections were dry and the course in general was significantly faster. I then proceeded to take another practice run and again the course was even faster and now all of the mud was dry.
Race:
I was the 13th racer on course and as I went down my legs felt good and I was excited for the race. In the rock section at the top of the course, I got off my line and I almost had a “yard sale”, luckily I was able to save it and continue on. At the hill climb, my legs felt good at the base and as I topped the hill I was breathing hard but not deterred. Yet, from this point my run began to fall apart. I lost the front tire in a tight steep section of the course and I crashed off the bike down a steep hill. I then had to climb back up to my bike and try to get my flow back for the steep sections that followed. Finally, as I neared the finish line, I pushed to hard into a wet berm and lost the front tire again, going down onto my side and losing the much needed momentum for the last flat sections of the course.
With my two crashes, my finishing time was 24:13 which was off the top guys and put me into 13th place in the PRO Men Category and 15th overall.
Yet, with the disappointment of a poor race run, I still had a great weekend with friends and I was able to ride on some amazing terrain in Northern Oregon. Also, thanks to a good friend, a couple of items were revealed to me about my race training and prep which I now am working on and I am excited to see these correction to fruition.
Thank you all again for your support and sponsorship and I now look forward to the Ashland Super D and a little retribution
