Skinny #1 Racing

I can't believe that it's almost November, and I've been in school for two months already. I have a Chemistry test tonight, my third one so far. I've got an 80 on the first one and an 85 on the second one...does that mean 90 on this one?!? I hope so. I have class in a few minutes then I'll go to a review session to make sure I really know what I'm doing. That doesn't leave much me any time to ride, so I guess I'll have to get my exercise trick or treating tonight. I still don't have a costume yet, and it's going to be cold, so I'll have to think up something.

We had a not so good game of capture the flag last night. The people who are organizing the games this year aren't doing as good a job as I would like. Last night, they had their flag hid in a ridiculous spot that nobody would be able to find. About halfway through the game, I ran into a group of people that were playing sardines (some sort of flashlight game where people hid and you have to find them) and decided to play with them rather than run around not being able to find the other team's flag.

I think my auctions are going to end on a pretty good note today. I've been getting lots of questions for pictures and shipping costs, so it seems as though people are interested. 10 people have my Rogue on itemwatch, and 15 have my Azure on itemwatch. I guess they don't realize that the Rogue is way sweeter, but that's their own fault. Hopefully I can get those two bikes out of my room before Colt arrives with two more bikes on Thursday..

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.aspx?layout=product&taxid=81&pid=160

Well these are the wheels I'm going to get for next year. They are made by FSA which means they are sweet. I haven't had any big problems with my road wheels so I figure they can't be too bad. I looked on mountain bike review and there are only like two bad reviews, but everyone else gave them full marks. They are lightweight, and the best part is that I can get them for $300 brand new. There is a pair on ebay right now that is only $200. I may have to start bidding pretty soon...

I just found out that the U23 race at cross nats is on Saturday, and the Collegiate race is on Sunday. This means that I'll be able to fly in on Friday, and still be able to do both races. The best part is if that my legs are bad on Saturday because of the plane flight, they will be better on Sunday. In two days, I'm pretty sure I can put together one good race. It would be great if I pulled off a top 10 in both races. I've still got another week off before I start racing. I can't wait!!!!!

This is the National Champion jersey that I was presented at the meeting on Monday night. Last year at cross nationals Brad won the B class, and with it came this jersey. I guess they saw it fitting to present this jersey to me. The only problem is that I really wasn't sandbagging...I really wanted to do the A race. Hopefully next year I can get a real one...

I've been drinking a lot of tea to try and get rid of this cold/sore throat that I developed. I'm to the point where I can fill my Nalgene with hot water and two tea bags and not use any milk or sugar but the tea still tastes good. I guess that's pretty good, because before I used to put 4 packets of sugar in it.

I had a good ride on the cross bike, nice and easy on some of the local mountain bike trails. I need to dial in my brakes a little more before it will be set to race. I think I need to run my tires at a little higher pressure because I was bottoming out on everything today!!!!! I have these next two weeks really easy, so I'm going to concentrate on my techniques. What I need to work on are barriers. The ones that are wide open on the flats aren't too bad...but it's the ones that they place halfway up hills that really give me a hard time. My left hip was hurting today when I was walking...I hope there's nothing wrong with it.

Gilmore Girls is on in an hour, followed by Veronica Mars. I don't really care for the first show, but Veronica Mars is great. After that me and Patches have the "Roomywed Game," which we plan on winning. Wish me luck...

This picture pretty much sums up my weekend at collegiate mountain bike national championships. This was the B short track, and the photo is compliments of Brad Cole. You can't see from this picture but I actually threw in a kiss before I threw the hands in the air. We ended up fourth as a team. Peter was our only podium of the week, taking 5th in the men's short track. We did really well as a team, hopefully next year we can take it up a notch. I guess this means there will be red, white, and blue stripes on my jersey for next year.

So this is going to be a very short week of school for me, with a lot of work involved. I have decided that I'm going to mountain bike nationals to compete in the B race and cheer on the other riders. We will be leaving Wednesday at 2 pm, and it's about a 6-7 hour drive, so it's really not a whole lot of travelling. Before tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to have to read an article and summarize it for my biology lab, write a paper on a research talk for my biology class, and write an educational biography for my education class. Also, I have a dietary project due Tuesday at 8 am, that I will have to complete Monday night. Sheesh...

You can check out the bike that I'm going to be riding next year by click on this link: http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=16878. I'm making a few minor changes to the components, which I will list. I have not yet decided if I will run XO twist shifters, or the X-7 triggers that come on the bike. For changes that I'm definitely going to make though: cassette- sram pg 950 11-16, saddel- slr, pedals- eggbeaters, wheels- whatever I end up going with. I'm bidding on some wheels that are XTR hubs laced to 717 rims. Hopefully I'll win them.

If anyone is interested in buying a new bike or two, both of my IronHorses are for sale. I'll be riding the Rogue until Saturday and then retiring it. Both bikes are in great condition and have always been maintained. I'll probably put pictures up on here when I put them on Ebay next week.

Where should I start? Maybe the 4:45 AM wakeup call would be appropriate. So yeah, the race began at 8:30, so we left Fort Collins at 5:15 this morning. I was able to chug a glass of oatmeal for breakfast. (Seriously though, two packets of oatmeal in luke warm water is not very cool for breakfast.) We arrived at the venue and I got in a good warm up. For the race I decided to go skinsuit with arm warmers, in my best immitation of a long sleeve skinsuit. I don't know if I said this already, but this course wasn't the Tim Halliday, but the "New Tim Halliday" showed up anyways prepared to race. I ended up 14th, if the official counted correctly. Nick came right behind me, putting 4 CSU riders in the top 15. I was happy with my result, especially because this race was suited for me very well.

Looks like I won't be attending Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals again this year. It's dissapointing after such a great race to hear, "So Tim, would you go to Nationals and do the B race?" Of course I'm too prideful to do that, especially when I've been riding so well the past few weekends. With this shocking piece of information, I'm seriously beginning to weigh my options as far as riding and school goes. I'd love to continue racing mountain bikes at the collegiate level, but I just don't know if I can do it here at CSU...

The short track was today. We heard that it was going to be at a campground, so I figured I'd bring my cross bike along in case it was super easy/fast. I'm lucky I brought my hardtail too though because this was probably the burliest short track I have ever ridden. It started out going down a big hill, then a technical downhill through the woods, and then a granny ring climb for like 1.5-2 minutes, then the cycle started over. I got a great start, but on the climb on the first couple of laps I was really hurting, like I was even cramping around my stomach area. I decided to back the pace off a bit in an attempt to recover. I guess it worked because in the last 3-4 laps I really turned up the pace and passed a lot of riders, the last being Brady Kappius. I ended up beating some fast people today, and earned some points for our team. Steve had a great ride, and Peter did pretty well, then I came in right behind Nick with Phil and Caley right behind me. We actually got lapped so did not ride the final lap. I had just passed Phil and Caley and was planning on picking off Nick before the end too but I wasn't given the opportunity.

I already cleaned my skinsuit and have it near my fan drying off for tomorrow...anyone on the team will know that "The New Tim Halliday" will race only on a hardtail with tubeless wheels, in a skinsuit. Although these may not seem important, they really are. The hardtail is vital because it keeps the overall weight of the bike down. The tubeless wheels are important because it lets me run my old tire pressure of 30 psi front and 35 psi rear without flatting...ever, and the skinsuit is just necessary because it's well...a skinsuit. When the guys get back from eating dinner I think we're gonna go hot tub it for a little while so I can get a leg massage in and try to recover from my effort today. Tomorrow isn't exactly my type of course so I'm gonna need a little luck to pull this one off. I hope I can keep the rubber side down tomorrow...

I've got both my bikes ready for regionals this weekend. The two bikes being my hardtail and cross bike pictured above. Tomorrow is the short track, and I'm going to bring both bikes, just in case the course is super fast and well suited for my cross rig. I just put the brakes on that I got this morning. They are the Empella Froglegs. They aren't working that great right now, so hopefully they just need to be broken in a little bit and then they'll be sweet. I got the silver and black Hutchinson cross tires to match my FSA wheels, too. I think it looks pretty sweet right now. I'm trading Evan my Candy SL pedals for a set of his stainless steel Eggbeaters. I don't use the Candys anymore, and he needs a little bigger platform for cruising around campus so this should work out well for both parties involved. Well looks like I have to take care of some more race preparations before I head off to dinner. I hope this weekend goes well...

I have three tests this week, the first of which I took today. It went really well. It was a hard test in that we have fill in the blanks and we have to pull the words out of our memory, so we have to know the material pretty well. I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I got at least an 80%, which is what my goal was going into the test. All it takes is attending class and studying a couple of hours before the test and I'm usually ready to take it.

AC sent out a "long team" for nationals, and I'm on the list for both the ST and XC. That means that this weekend I really need to throw down. I'm going to do everything possible to be ready for this race, because for me this is almost as important as nationals, because this will determine whether or not I go. It's good that I have two tests because that means I'll just lay down in my bed and read notes and the textbooks, expending little to no energy. Hopefully the tests and the races will go well...

This weekend we traveled to Grand Junction for the last race before Regional Championships, and two weeks before National Championships. We arrived to our host housing at about 8 pm on Friday night. Waiting for us was potato soup and bread...it was unbelievable to eat good home cooked food. It rained all night, and when we arrived at the short track location, it was too muddy to race, so the race was moved to the college campus. I sat out this race, but had a great time watching. Fort Lewis swept the podium as usual...our best rider was Steve who finished around 10th probably. Phil was having a good race but flatted on a stair set, and Gordon would not let me take the wheel off his bike to give to Phil...what a jerk. For the most part it was a pretty uneventful day, but I had fun watching the action.

The XC was what I was waiting for. I knew I had fresh legs and I also knew that it was going to be a little sloppy...perfect conditions for me. I was super aggressive from the start, trying to make my way up to the FLC train. I think I ended up somewhere around 12-13th after the first lap. I ended up just powering down and riding the race so well, working my way up to 8th for my best finish of the year. I beat some good people, like Yuki Saeto, Blake, and Trevor, so I was really happy with how I raced. I got 8th last weekend, but FLC didn't have any riders, so it was good to get that same result with all the fast guys there. Hagman won, I think I was a little over 10 minutes off his pace. The best part about this race is that it really wasn't my type of course. I'm really looking forward to the XC next weekend because my form is coming along really nicely. I have no idea what our team for nationals is looking like right now, but I know Andy has a lot of confidence in me so hopefully that means I'll get to race once or twice in New Mexico. I guess I'll just have to throw down next weekend and see what happens...

After a somewhat scary experience on Thursday, I decided to get some new brakes for my cross bike. I was descending Rist Canyon, and near the top this is this right hand switchback that you come into pretty hot. My brakes weren't really slowing me down too well and I ended up in the wrong lane, and almost in the guard rail. I was lucky another car wasn't coming. I'm gonna get the Empella Froglegs, I hear they are pretty sweet brakes. I still haven't decided whether or not I'm going to run a single on my cross bike or not. If I want to do it the good way, I will have to order a 40 tooth chainring, some Cane Creek hoods, and a 3rd eye chain watcher. If I want to do it the ghetto way I can take the 39 tooth off my road bike, use the same brake hood/lever, and still buy a 3rd eye. Option one will cost probably cost me about $70, whereas option two will only cost me about $8. I just ran the numbers, and the Cane Creek hood is only 37 grams lighter than what I have now...I guess I'll go for option two. I'll end up saving the weight from the cable/housing of the front derailleur, the front derailleur, and the teeth that I'm going to grind off my 48 tooth. I could also bring the lever to the bike shop and ask them to take out all the shifting mechanisms and see what they can do...

Well I think I went from my worst race of the season to my best race of the season in a matter of two days. I'll start off with the bad day in the XC first. I started off slow like I didn't really have the legs, hoping that they would come around and I could pick off lots of people. Well, at the end of the first lap there was this huge ditch, and I attempted to bunny hop it. I bottomed out my fork and got a little disoriented...and took a wrong turn. I rode for about 10 minutes until I came across a barbed wire fence that ended the trail. So, I turned around and continued my expedition back to the start/finish area where I talked to Andy. We decided that I should just ride tempo and treat the race as training because there wasn't any hope left for me at this point. That was all good until I got the climbing done, and on the top of the descent managed to hit my rear tire just right on this rock and pinch it. For all of you know it alls out there I was riding a 2.0 Larsen with 35 psi in the back, so I just got unlucky this time when I flatted. I changed it, but didn't have quite enough CO2 to fill so had to borrow a mini pump from a teammate. I was back on the trail, and soon after that I was lapped. I ended up getting lapped by about the top 5 riders in my race.