12 Hours of Temecula #1

You can be the fastest racer, the best endurance rider but if you don't prep right all your training is for nothing. It is harder to realize it when you are doing a shorter race but nutrition is everything and a long race really shows just how important it is.

Going into this race I knew that prep was everything but because of school,  prep was harder than usual. I wasn't expecting this race to be all that great because my prep wasn't there. I did what I could to have the best race possible, trying to eat better and drink as much water as possible the week before. Another thing that helps with prep is sleep. Sleep is very important and it isn't good to stay up late or get up early so that is what I did.
On race morning everyone would think that I would be nervous but I really didn't get nervous because I had done long races like this before and I knew that this was my strong point. I woke up and helped get all of the stuff in the car, then I ate breakfast. When we got to the venue it was like 40 degrees and the first thing we did was register. After having to fill out papers to register my hands were so cold it felt like they were going to fall off. Once we were registered we started to set up the pit. By the time we finished that it was 8 o'clock and it was time for the racer meeting. Coach J talked about the rules, the course and what time each race would end. After that everyone got ready for the start of the race and the teams figured out which person was going first. For my group, we decided that I would do the first lap, and the second, and the third, and the fourth and so on. This was because I was solo so I didn't have a team, its just me, myself and I.

The race started at 9:00am and went until 9:00pm for me. My goals for each lap was to drink a full bottle every lap and try to keep the same cadence. If you have good cadence then you will have good power and if you have good power than you have a good heart rate ultimately leading to a good race. I think the hardest part about doing a solo 12 hour is keeping one solid tempo and not faltering from that the best you can. When you are a racer and someone rides by you and you know that they are not your competition, it is hard to not pretend like you are racing them. It is just something inside of us racers that tells us that we can stay with them and our ego can't take it when someone goes by us and we know we can keep up but we don't. It is hard to overcome this but in order to race a long solo race like this, you have to be able to do it. Not only do you have to do all of these things you also have to be able to walk up certain hills at certain times. You aren't walking because you can't ride it, you are walking so that you don't blow up. If I road up every hill every lap especially with this course I wouldn't have been able to do as many laps as I did. For young cyclists like myself, it is a rare occurrence to walk up something, because it hurts our ego to quit so this is a hard thing for us to do.

9 o'clock rolled around and we were all at the start line. The first lap is a little longer than all the other laps because we stay on the open road a little longer so people can get spaced out. Go! The first 6 and 12 hours of Temecula of 2018 was underway. The first 2 laps where the most crowded and slow because everyone goes off together and you get stuck behind someone that isn't as fast as you. I raced the first 2 laps without stopping for anything.  After lap 2, I stopped after each lap to fill up my bottle with water or half Gatorade half water and to get a few crackers, fruit or half of a PB&J. I only stopped for about 3 to 5 minutes in between laps. One of my nutrition goals, when I was on a lap, was to drink a full bottle and to eat a gel, block or some other form of bike food before I started to bonk or cramp not after the fact.

By the time the 5th or 6th lap came around the guys Devo 4 person team lapped me. This one team lapped me 4 times during the 12-hour race. The four-person Devo ladies lapped me once. When my own teammates lapped me it made me feel really slow but I knew that I had to keep my same pace no matter who passed me. After the six-hour ended at 3 o'clock the trails were practically empty. There was close to no traffic on the course and now you didn't get held up on the course hardly at all. At this time I was at about 7 or 8 laps in and was depressed because I realized I was only halfway done with the race.

At 5 o'clock it was required to have lights on our bikes. It is much harder to ride in the dark because you obviously can't see well. You can see about as far as your light will shine and most of the time at the speeds we are going downhill that isn't enough. Since we can't see, our lap times are a little bit slower than during the day.

Throughout the whole race I felt pretty strong up until the last 3 to 4 laps. I started to get fatigued and started to walk more of the climb that is called "bridges" to make sure that I didn't blow up. Each lap it got harder and harder to make it up that climb. When I went out for what I thought was the last lap I had about a little over 2 hours left in the race and I had been riding about 47-minute lap times. This was lap number 13, and I road it with two of my friends that were racing on a team. When we got back from that lap I had about an hour and five minutes until the race was over. I had plenty of time to go out for another lap but I didn't have to and since I had gotten to my goal which was 100 miles I decided that I didn't want to do another lap. Then my coach pulled me to the side and told me if I did one more lap that I would be rivaling the pros and that no other kid my age had done 14 laps. Ultimately the choice was mine whether or not I wanted to go out on another lap or not. This was enough to convince me to do another lap and I went out knowing that I had plenty of time to finish the lap, it was just a matter of turning the pedals over and surviving. When I got to bridges instead of walking I decided to ride it because it was my last lap so it didn't matter if I blew up as much because there was no next lap. Once to the top, I felt such a relief and even though my legs where on fire it was a good feeling because I knew that the hardest part was over. Coming through the finish and knowing that I had done the most amount of laps that anyone my age has ever done was the best feeling in the world. Like my coach said 14 laps will sound a lot better than 13 laps the day after, he was right.
Thanks to all the Devo sponsors for all the support. ASG, Ellsworth, F-tech cycling, Rudy Project, Sidi, Scicon, ESI grips, Ryno power, Ridefast, kenda and gup industries

Fontana Winter Series #1

Competition is a good thing. It is what makes you better and faster. Competition is the person you see in front of you when you are training that gives you that little bit more motivation to give it your all and be the best because when you finally beat them it is the best feeling in the world.

Race day: I got up at 5:30 super nervous because it was the first race of the season.  The first race is always nerve-racking because you never know how fast your competition got over the offseason. I had done all the race prep the night before so it was just a matter of putting it all in the car. When we got to the race venue at 7:00 and found parking the first thing we did was get the papers for registration. Once all registered we got the trainers set up for the warm-up. At around 7:40 I got on the trainer for my forty minute warm-up. When the warm-up was over I did last minute preparations and started making my way over to the line.

Start/Lap 1: My group was the second group to go off. I was racing the expert men 15 to 18 and there was some stiff competition. Each group had a two-minute gap between each start. GO!! Oh wait that's the other group, now the nerves are really starting to get to me. GO!! it's my group the race is on! One of the riders(Nate Hickey)went out pretty hard at the start and by the time we got to the first big climb he had a good gap on the rest of the group. It helps to know who you are racing and what their strengths and weaknesses are because it might just help you beat them. For me, I knew that the person that I was riding next to was very fast at descending and less so on the climbs. So I attacked on the climb to try to get to the downhill before him. Once I accomplished this I focused on catching the leader Nate who was now quite far in front. I finished the first lap and grabbed a new bottle from the feed zone and ate an energy gue.

Lap 2: Thinking that the Nate was long gone I settled into a pace and was focused on not letting anyone in my category catch me. Little did I know that he was not far ahead and he was really tired. I caught Nate on the same hill I made my attack on in the first lap but I didn't realize it was him until I had already passed him. This time I put an even bigger gap on him than he had on me on the first lap. Going down one of the descents on the back side of the hill the wind was so bad that I was blown into the side of the mountain and almost crashed.  There was a lot of close calls on that lap but I guess that is what happens when you are pushing really hard. I didn't see Nate again until the very end of the lap on the fire road where he can put out a little more watts than me. We finished that lap with Nate just ahead and I was fighting to try to get into his draft.

Lap 3: I closed the gap on him on the same climb as before and like last time I got a very large gap on him. By this time there was very little traffic on the trail because a lot of the other riders only doing two laps had already finished. Since there weren't too many riders between us on the decent and he is better at descending than me, he caught me right at the end.  We were very close to each other and he managed to out power me at the finish and ended up beating me by five seconds.
Overall I think this was a very good way to start the year and I am looking forward to an amazing 2018 season. Big thanks to all my sponsors Ellsworth, SoCal Endurance, Ridefast, Ftech, Sidi, Rudy project, ESI grips, Kenda tires and Ryno power.         

      
    

SoCal Devo Boot Camp 2018

     A new year means new opportunities and another chance to better yourself as a rider and more importantly to better yourself as a person. This year because the team was smaller than past years it felt more like an elite team. Every rider is fast and deserves to be on this team and it makes me feel privileged to be apart of this amazing opportunity. 

     The camp started at 6pm at Coach Jason's house. The first thing that happened at our 2018 camp was one of the past riders Kahlo Chitraoff who now rides for Colorado Mesa University talked to all of us about what to expect for the following years. He told us all the thing that colleges look for and gave us good advice for our racing career. After that, we ate some amazing food and got to know our team a little better. Most of us already knew each other but for those of us that didn't after a weekend of hard training and learning, we all became much closer. The atmosphere of this team is much different than what you would expect out of an elite team. It feels like a bunch of friends getting together to get to know each other and to train together.

     After dinner, all the parents left and coach Jason passed out all the new gear from all our sponsors. Those sponsors are Ellsworth bikes, Kenda tires, ESI grips, Rudy project, Sidi shoes, Scicon bags, Ftech and Socal Endurance. All of these amazing products will help make this next race season the best it ever could be. He then went over the rider contract. Coach talked about the weekends schedule and shortly after that we were all getting ready for bed.

     The next morning we got up at 7:15 and we were at the park by 7:45 for our upper body workout. When we got back to the house and ate breakfast and got ready for our first ride at Vail Lake. When we got there we got the bikes ready to roll and put on the new gear. The first thing we did was do the dam climb twice for time. The dam climb is one of the hardest and longest climbs at Vail Lake. After that, we worked on line choices and how to look at a section and find the fastest line for us. Next, we did several mini short tracks efforts for the intensity part of the ride. Right before we were getting ready to leave we all tried to make it up a short and steep hill right by the cars. I was the only one to make it up the hill and I did it on my first try.

     When we got back to coach's house we had a late lunch and got comfortable. Coach J then put on different skills videos that went into depth about different riding techniques. He then went over all of our racing categories to scope out the competition for the year. Next, he went straight into a class that went into depth about our training schedules and the importance to follow them to a tee. By that time dinner was ready so we got to eat. After dinner, they turned on supercross which didn't end till 10. It was only 8:30 and I was struggling to keep my eyes open but I made it until the end and I fell asleep really fast.

     The next morning we all woke up to the Star Spangled Banner and loud rock music. Just like the day before we went to the park for our morning workout then went back to coach's house for breakfast. Then we got ready for our first ride of the day which was at Greer (nursery, 215 trails). All of the team and three past Devo members road there from coach's house to the trails. We did one fast lap on the fire road loop before we started riding the trails. We worked on technical climbs and descents. In the middle of the ride, we stopped to try to take one of the KOMs or QOMs (king/queen of the mountain). On the ride home half of us decided to race back to coaches house. Even in our biggest gears, we were spinning out but it was still fun.

     Once we got home we had lunch and a few of us tried to see what the highest power we could get was on the trainers. We didn't waste any time getting ready for our next ride which was in Lake Elsinore. We went to the new pump track to work on skills. Once back to coach's house he recapped the weekend and talked about the upcoming season and that was the conclusion to the 2018 SoCal Devo boot camp.