Pre Mountain season update

It's been a while since I updated this with some race information! I know all of you sit by your computer all day and click the refresh button awaiting a fruitful new post, but no worries, the time has come. Mountain bike season is approaching quickly. The first WORS race for the Wisconsin folks is coming up on May 6th. As for myself, and a couple of other team members here in Fort Collins, Colorado, collegiate road racing is taking up the majority of training time in preparation for collegiate road nationals, and of course mountain bike season. Mountain bike races for this summer that the team will be appearing at include US Nationals (Ketchum, ID), some Mountain States Cups, Rocky Mountain Endurance Series, Forty in the Fort, Collegiate MTB in the fall, and many others that will find themselves on the schedule. Our new kits are supposed to be delivered May 1st via declare, and I couldn't be more excited to see how they turn out. As for now, here's some pictures to keep you motivated to check our blog throughout the season!

Clint ripping it in the Stazio Crit earlier this collegiate season.

Zach Bodhane (Bodice) coming in hot at the Air Force Academy Collegiate Crit this weekend. He plans to do a lot of mountain racing this summer, and is in pursuit of his pro upgrade. (Photo Cred Dean Warren)

Me failing to get a draft off a mines rider this past weekend at Air Force. Notice the Moots full campy! (Kents old road bike) (Photo Cred Dean Warren)

Todd and Cameron gettin' it done with a night ride!

Cameron training to get in 100 Miles in at the Greenbush Trails in Wisconsin

Review: Pacenti TL28 Rims (Building)

In order to attract more readers to our team blog, I'm going to be reviewing various bike related products that I feel people would enjoy. I'm going to start off by reviewing the new Pacenti TL28 29er rims. Let me start off by saying that Kirk Pacenti is the man. Super nice guy, and really easy to work with. Anyway, this review will be more about the building process and features. I will do an actual ride review once the snow melts here in Fort Collins. I turned to these rims because I was looking for a training wheel set for the season. I decided instead of building another wheel set, I was going to look for a rim that could be used for training and racing successfully. I wanted something wider, to get the benefits of a wide rim (see pic below).

These rims are 28mm wide, and have an inner bead width of 23mm. Comparatively to my Stan's ZTR Crests which were 24mm wide with a 21mm inner width (see picture below). Also the TL28's are eyeletted, which allows you to run higher tensions, and makes for a stronger wheel. Kirk recommends 100-110 Kgf. Below is a diagram of the rim profile. These rims come in at a average weight of 450 grams a piece, but the rims Kirk sent me were lighter than this (luck of the draw).

On the left is the TL28 rim, and on the right is my old ZTR Crest rim. The difference is obvious.

I built these rims up with CX-Sapim ray spokes (best strength to weight ratio), 14mm aluminum sapim nipples, and Chris King Iso Disc Hubs. I'd say my wheel building experience is moderate, as I have built somewhere around 20-30 wheel sets before. These rims built up very well, and I had little problems getting them tensioned, true, and round. After building them up, I used 25mm Stan's tape to make them tubeless compatible. I threw on my Maxxis ardents (2.4 front, 2.25 UST rear) and pumped them up to 30 psi a piece. The rear one went up with a floor pump, but I had to use a compressor for the front one. They sealed up pretty good, but not quite as good as my old ZTR crests. I won't see how this tubeless system really works though until I get out on the trail.

If any of you read Velonews, Nick Legan had a great explanation to why wider rims are better in the 2011 buyer's guide. In short, wider rims offer more volume which makes for a cushier ride, straighter sidewalls, which provides better cornering and less chance of you denting your rim, and a wider contact patch. The contact patch is actually shorter, but there is less rolling resistance because there's less of the tire length wise on the trail (see diagram).

Here's a snapshot of them all built up. As soon as I hit the trails I will do an actual ride review. If you liked this review bookmark our blog so that you can see other reviews I plan on doing, and keep up to date on Team Eriksen's 2012 race season!

Tucson Trip

Early January usually marks my annual trip to Tucson, AZ with the Colorado State Cycling Team. After spending sometime back home with the family, I headed back to the Colorado on the 7th. We hauled down to Tucson at 4 am in the morning and got there around 9, and unloaded the 20+ bikes out of the trailer. The week was mainly going to be comprised of mountain biking, because I can do road biking in Fort Collins any time. So The first day was to venture some of the stuff close around of the house such as gates pass, brown mountain, starr pass, etc. Besides the occasional pricker in the leg and shoe it was a success.

Eriksen guys Matt Fox and Zach Bodhane enjoying the temperatures and sun on gates pass. Also gates pass isn't the easiest trail ever, if you're not about to crash you're not going fast enough. A lot of crashes caught on film, unfortunately not on a helmet cam that I own though.

On Tuesday we decided to climb up the Mount Lemmon trail called "la milagrosa." A lot of hike a bike was involved, but it was fun to try and climb some of the gnar. Our legs looked like mince meat because of the cacti grabbing and pulling our skin back. The descent was pretty long, somewhere in the range of an hour and a half filled with tons of drops and loose rocks, the loose rocks seemed to be to much for Fox as he merely missed a cactus.

The day was also so long we found ourselves descending in the dark. Picture of new Eriksen member Clint and Fox all smiles towards the end.

The last day we did something called the Lemmon drop in reverse. Basically stringing together certain trails on Mount Lemmon. We made it near the top but got turned around by snow. The video below is a of us at the top, but the cell phone doesn't do any justice for the views. Also, sorry about the videos not being rotated the right way, but apparently you need to pay for software to do that now.

Also a video of "The shoots." These are very eroded fast trails that have really banked turns and a few drops, they are just off the 50 year old trail.

As of now in regards to Team Eriksen, all the sponsors are setup and you can check them out in the sidebar. Kits are on order and should be here in 10-12 weeks. Training is just starting up again as late January approaches, and Team Eriksen is off to a good start. Hope you saw the kit, if not check out the twitter feed in the sidebar as it is top notch, thanks to Chris Hall's graphic design skills.

Moab Trip

Over this past thanksgiving break, a few of us took a pilgrimage to Moab. Of the five I was the only one who has never been there. We headed out late Saturday morning, and loaded up the subaru outback to the brim. Going through Glenwood Springs, Matt Fox joins the party. We squeeze one more roof rack on, and continue on.

We rolled into town later, got groceries, and checked in at the hostel. First morning after a big batch of pancakes, we headed to the bottom of the porcupine trail head (by the river). We continued to climb all the way up, until we hit so much snow that we had to turn around (made it around four and a half hours up).

We turned around and continued down the epic decent of rocks, drops, and fun. Here's a video of Brady, Fox, and Clint.

Monday we woke up again with the standard pancake ritual. We headed to poison spider trail, and rode up to the top of the "portal trail". This is definitely by far one of the craziest trails I've ever done. The start of the trail has a sign that says "caution, 3 bicyclists have died on this trail." So we rode a little bit of it, but decided to hike the rest because it was really sketchy. Here's a video to show you why. The bottom part of the trail isn't as bad, just lots of gnarly drops and rocks.

After grabbing a quick bit to eat, we headed to the famous slick rock trail. This trail is different than anything I have ever done. It's literally all slick rock, and you follow a white dashed line so you don't get lost. There's lots of up and down on this trail, often you can't decide what gear will work. We were running low on daylight, so we had to pick up the pace. We ended up finishing just in time to enjoy a big spaghetti dinner at the hostel.

We left Moab early Tuesday Morning. No trip is complete with a ride in Fruita on the way back, though. Exhausted, we rode around four hours to complete our epic trip. Overall the trip was really awesome, and surprisingly had very few mechanicals between the five of us (one flat and one broken chain). I will definitely be going back there again.

2011 Season Coming to a Close

The season is coming to a close, and Team Eriksen is hoping to finish strong this weekend for the last race of the season (sheboygan)! I just wanted to give thanks to all of our awesome sponsors. Eriksen for their great frames that propelled across the finish line, Ergon for keeping our hands comfy all season, Genuine Innovations in the case of a flat during a race, Honey stinger for the race fuel all season, and Mt. Borah for the awesome kits. We hope for your continued support for the 2012 season. Also 2012 sponsor hopefuls for the team include maxxis and chris king. Below is some highlighted results from everybody. Good work boys, and here's to a great 2012 season!

Matt Fox

Subaru Cup Pro XCT Cat 1 19-29----------------------9^th overall

Mountain states cup #8 snowmass cat 1 19-29------1^st age, 1^st overall

Look out for him this year!

Greg Krieger (myself)

2011 Mountain bike nationals Cat 1 19-23---------------2^nd place Cross Country

2011 Mountain bike nationals Cat 1 19-29 Super D----1^st place national champion!

2011 Mountain bike nationals Cat 1 19-29 Short Track-----4^th place

Subaru Cup Pro XCT Cat 1 19-29---------------------------------7^th overall

12 hours of northern kettles duo--------------------------------1^st place

Cameron Schave

WORS #11 Bear Paw Rock n’ Roll cat 1 17-18----- 3^rd place

12 hours of northern kettles duo----------------------1^st place

Zach Bodhane

Leadville Gold Belt buckle winner, under 9 Hours!

Joel Finkeldei

Subaru Cup Pro XCT XC cat 2 25-29----4^th place

Most improved Rider for sure! Up and rising Cat 1 racer for the team.

Matt Dale

Crystal Lake Classic WORS #2 Cat 2 40-44-------3^rd place

Subaru Cup Pro XCT Cat 2 40-44 XC-------------------7^th place

WORS #11 Bear Paw Rock n’ Roll cat 2 40-44------5^th place

Dakota Dale

Crystal Lake classic WORS #2 Cat 2 19-24----------- 1^st place

Subaru Cup Pro XCT Cat 2 19-24-------------------------4^th place

Chippewa Valley Firecracker WORS #5 Cat 2 19-24-----2^nd place

WORS #11 Bear Paw Rock n’ Roll cat 2 19-24----------2^nd place

Chris Harrison

Crystal Lake classic WORS #2 Cat 2 19-24-------4^th place

Alterra Coffee Bean Classic WORS #6 Cat 2 19-24---3^rd place

Todd Nutter

WORS #9 Suamico Cat 2 39 under Clyd-------4^th

New members include category 1 racer Matt Millin, and Category 2 racer Clint Mitchell. They are both looking forward to representing Team Eriksen and all of our great sponsors.

Eriksen Cycles on the Road?!

This weekend was the Fort Collins cycling festival. Joel had two great races, and represented the kit with a near two first places. Here's his take on the weekend.....

Rocky Mountain Criterium 2-20-2011

After racing mountain bikes all summer I decided to switch it up and partake in some local road races. I lined up at 3:25 P.M. with the rest of the Cat 4 racers after waffling back and forth all day about racing. I took my Honey Stinger Ginsting gel right before we went off since I like the energy boost and the caffeine before a race. The race got under way and was fast right from the gun. The course was a flat and fast figure eight. I tried to place my self in the top third of the field while I bided my time during the first 15 or so minutes of the race. About 15 minutes into the race I tried an attack through the start/finish straightaway. No one followed me, but in standard Cat 4 fashion racers did just enough work to pull me back to the field. After a counter attack by a friend was unsuccessful I decided to attack on the back straightaway of the course. This solo break stuck for a little more than four laps before I was pulled back to the field after winning a prime. I felt fairly spent after my effort but sat in for the rest of the race until 1 lap to go where I maneuvered myself into about 8th wheel. Several riders opened up a sprint really early in the back straightaway and I found myself boxed in and unable to respond. About 100 meters before the second to last turn I saw an opening and opened up my attack/sprint since there were already 2 riders up the road. I was able to catch 2nd place with the field hot on my tail but was able to put enough power down in my sprint to hold off the field for 2nd place. Although it wasn't a win I feel good about my performance since I stuck with my plan and my aggressive riding animated the race (got some attention for our sponsors!). It was nice to represent Team Eriksen Cycles on the road and make a few dollars and win a lot of ride food in a prime.

Rist Canyon Road Race 2-21-2011

I decided to race the Rist Canyon Road Race even though I was sick since I felt that I had a legitimate chance at winning and had wanted to since the beginning of summer. I registered at the last minute (literally) and tried to get a decent nights sleep. Morning came and I toed the line with 61 other Cat 4/5 racers. We went off to a neutral start through Fort Collins and arrived at the first climb of the 66.8 mile race (with 6,114 feet of climbing!); the infamous Rist Canyon climb. I had intended to do a little work and drive the pace up Rist to force a selection, but I decided against this when I noticed a decent selection was being made without working too hard. I made sure to stay on top of my nutrition with lots of water/sports drink and my Honey Stinger Gels and Chews on the ~10 mile climb. I went over the top of Rist about 10-15 seconds behind the first rider with another rider hot on my tail. We worked together to pull the 1st place rider back while descending through the back side of Rist and Stove Prarie. Once we pulled that rider back I convinced both riders to work with me to put a gap on the field. We were pulling turns but I never felt that we were going fast enough to hold off the field. At about 38 miles into the race the rider that had went over the top of Rist first was spent and dropped off of my wheel and it was just myself and the other remaining rider as the lead group. About two or so miles later on a small kicker climb I noticed I was riding my breakaway partner off my wheel. I felt strong and knew that he would hold me back if I were to wait for him so I upped the pace and rode him off my wheel. At this point I knew that if I wanted a win I would have to give everything I had to stay away from the field since there were 25 miles left. I put my chin down on my stem and my hands as close to my face as possible and rode all the flat sections and false flat sections close to threshold. There were several short but not insignificant climbs left in Horsetooth Reservoir which I was fairly worried about since I felt like I might start cramping from going so hard for so long. I tried to pace myself up each climb as best I could and get as aero as possible on each descent so I could rest while I was spun out. I arrived at the last real climb of the day, Bingham Hill, and looked back to see if the field was bearing down on me but I saw nothing. I still wasn't ready to let up since there were still several miles of roughly flat road with a decent headwind left. Again, I got as aero as possible and gave it full gas, which was becoming hard to do since my arms were getting especially tired from trying to be aero for so long. I made the last turn into town and still saw no one behind me but I decided to keep my head down and hammer anyways for the few miles left to the finish section. The finish was essentially a reverse lap on yesterday's crit course and when I turned onto the course it started to sink in that I was really going to win. I turned the last turn and was glad to hear that Greg and a few other people I knew were there cheering. After zipping up my Eriksen Cycles jersey I sat up and spread my arms out to celebrate. It felt good to win a legitimate road race, but it felt even better to come in solo like I have watched some of my heroes do. After the results were posted I found out I had finished the race in 3:07:xx and had the second place rider gapped by 3:51. I believe after this weekend I am going to be requesting an upgrade to Cat 3 in both USAC and ACA. A big thanks to our sponsors for all the support, each of you make life as a bike racer/rider easier!

Next stop is the finale winter park race and perhaps the last mountain states cup!

Leadville 100 and Ore To Shore Reports

This pas weekend we had to great results coming from the famous LT100 race in Colorado, and also the Ore To Shore in Michigan. Here is Zach Bodhane's and Cameron Schaves reports!

I raced his very first 48mile ore to shore. I tookk 109th place overall and 2nd in my agegroup had no problems and the course was very dry. Hitting speeds of 35 miles per hour at the start as soon as they hit the first part the trail it was a wall of red dust. The trail was sandy with a few tecnical climbs. The most technical was a hill that was all loose rocks called misory hill that was un climable. Overall I felt real good the entire time, until the last mile where I had a few cramps. I ignored them and charged to the finish for 109th overall and 2nd in the Juniors. Can't wait until WORS Border Battle!

Just a little dirty.....

As you'd guess Zach's report is a bit meatier as a lot happens in nine hours!

I lined up for the Leadville 100 earllllyyyy at about 5 AM to try to get a decent spot in the "first timers" coral that they threw us all into. I ended up lining up about halfway back in the first timers group which was at the back of the 2000 person field.

The first climb up St. Kevins is fairly steep but short. It was frustrating being at the back of the field going up that because I couldn't go my pace and had to come to a complete stop and track stand multiple times going up the climb due to how bottlenecked it got. I took every chance I could to move up and ended up sliding up a couple hundred places by the top of the climb.

My legs felt really good and I was pacing myself possibly a little too much all the way until the 50 mile point at the top of the columbine mine climb, which is the signature climb in leadville (and it is a beast). Columbine goes up from about 9000 ft and tops out at roughly 13000 ft. I hit that climb hard and moved up a lotttt more places. It felt really good to basically be constantly passing people for the hour and 40 minutes I was climbing.

I descended columbine a little slower than I would have wanted due to all the traffic and headed back for the last 40 miles. There was a pretty decent headwind coming back from twin lakes to the bottom of the pipeline but I still negatively split my time out by about 20 minutes. I had saved a lot of energy for the 2nd 50 miles knowing how much harder they are than the first 50.

I ended up flying through the last 20 miles of the race. I was incredibly motivated because I knew I was right on the edge of going sub nine, and I had paced myself very well (probably too much) and slacking even a little bit on the last 2 climbs in the race would put me a few minutes over 9 hours. with 5 miles to go and about 20 minutes left before nine hours I just put my head down and suffered all the way to the finish and ended up finishing in 8:55.

I was super pumped to go under 9 and completely out of gas. That race is the sort of hard that you really can't understand until you do it. I have never done anything like it, but the feeling from finishing under my goal of 9 hours made it all worth it.

Awesome Job Zach! Next year I may have to join in the suffering!