Mafia Racing Blog

In our adult lives, it’s easy to let days go by without truly learning anything. As kids and young adults, learning is a daily routine, but that routine abruptly ends at age 21 or 22 (or 18 for some) and then what? That’s the beauty of challenging yourself with something like bike racing–in some ways, it fills the need to learn and explore.

One things for sure, school was certainly in session up at Winter Park last weekend as I raced the Trestle All Mountain Enduro. It was humbling, inspiring, sometimes painful, and ridiculously fun.

Lesson #1: Big drops are different when taken at race pace on a smaller bike with clipless… good thing this happened in practice, not the race!

Lesson#2: Yes, you may have grown up riding slippery East Coast roots, but you aren’t invincible, and if you let down your guard, you will slide out on that cross-wise angled root.

Lesson #3: Consistency pays off, even if you don’t have the perfect run, or if you wish you hadn’t blown that berm and turned your elbow into hamburger (and I surely do), you’ve gotta get up and finish.

Rest assured, this won’t be the last enduro DH race for me. There will be more, and you can bet I’ll be ready, but first, I’ve got some studying to do. Check out this sweet race recap on VitalMTB:

2011 Trestle All-Mountain Enduro at Winter Park — More Mountain Bike Photos

As the old saw goes, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” and sure enough, this gruesome maxim applies to bike racing, especially when it comes to tactics. The two Super-Ds I’ve done so far this year (Winter Park and Keystone couldn’t have been more different in every way, but fortunately the outcomes were the same.

At Winter Park, the course was very XC-oriented. Lots of pedaling and nothing crazy. Sure enough, the two guys on hardtails smoked the start and were right in front of me going into the only fast, technical section. Knowing they’d slow things down, I made two aggressive passes and was able to take the win, using them to block a little to get the gap.

On the flip-side, Keystone was Burly I mean like downhill bike burly, like don’t forget your kneepads burly. Again, I slotted into third after the start,  but the dudes in front of me weren’t about to let me sneak by so easily. They were battling, so I figured I’d hold the wheel and see what happened. Sure enough, things started to sort out. One of them flatted, and before I knew it, I was riding second, waiting for the perfect place to pass. Sure enough, the leader overcooked a super-fast, loose fireroad corner, and I hit the late apex, coming through on the inside, gapping him in the final singletrack for the win.

The beauty of bike racing is its subtlety. Whether it’s a road race or a downhill, it takes a lifetime to learn the little contradictory nuances. I’m no expert, but I do know that you gotta be aggressive and seize the moment… or be patient and wait for the right moment to come. See, not so simple is it?

Jagwire has partnered with the Mafia Racing Team to help support the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) National Trail Fund. All proceeds from sales of Jagwire’s new limited edition 2011 Mafia Plaid Ripcord Derailleur kit will be donated to IMBA. Profits from the 200 kits will fund almost an entire trail construction project. The Mafia Plaid kit is sold exclusively through the Mafia Racing Team and IMBA online stores.

Pick them up here!

Mafia Racing Online Store

IMBA Online Store (coming soon on IMBA)

For more info please give us a shout: info@mafiaracing.com 0r 970-389-0310

Maybe it’s just me, but usually when I’m riding, my mind is in the here-and-now. The trail is dusty/dry/tacky/wet; I am riding crappy/slow/angelically; it is cold/humid/hot/puking snow. However, getting out and riding Boulder’s new Valmont Bike Park got me thinking more of the future than simply the present.

The fact is that any given trail or riding venue can improve the riding community long-term and give rise to more people who love to get out and ride–whether they just do it once in awhile or almost daily like myself and many of you. Valmont especially drives this home for me because every time I’ve been out there, whether at the crazy busy opening day or a mellow pre-work ride, I’ve seen kids, some hardly old enough to spell their own names rocking out on bikes.

This, my friends, is what it’s all about. Whether you’re fortunate enough to live near Valmont (or something like it) or just have a couple of miles of trail to call your own, remember that beyond today’s ride, or even next year’s ride, it’ll be gradually introducing more people of all ages to the awesomeness that is riding. Respect that, and do your part to share the love!

Photo: Jen Dzuivenis

Midweek training races are just that: Training. So, when something gets jacked up on your bike, it’s a bummer to miss out on that hard effort you’ve been anticipating all day long, sitting at your work desk, watching the clock and eating food at unusual hours for optimal performance. Now, I’m not usually a play-by-play style blogger, but I think this story is worthy:

Summer is upon us! Thank God. That means, for Boulderites, time to race the CU Short Track on Wednesday nights. So, as per usual, I went off to the Research Park last night, all jacked up on a late afternoon coffee, ready to rip some legs off. Things were looking promising, as I lined up on the front row, inside line for the first corner, but I conveniently ignored a little crash during warmup–a bad omen. Things went South quickly as I missed my pedal as the gun went off. Not a moment later, I looked down to see no chain on bike. It broke.

As I said before, I wasn’t about to miss a hard (and in some ways fun) effort, so I hurried back to the Full Cycle tent (a Felt dealer, in fact… how convenient!), and asked the mechanic to get me back on track. As he fixed my chain, my friend Becky was kind enough to loan me her bike, so I took a couple laps on that before making a moderately clumsy ‘cross-style bike swap to get back on my Nine Team. This meant I had to work through the same group of guys twice throughout the course of the race. Again… training.

The beauty of it all is that it doesn’t really matter. I finished the race exhausted from the effort, and that was the point. It would have been fun to mix it up at the front, but I’ll tell you what; even back half of the race is plenty hard and fast. I’ll be back, but next time I’ll have a new chain.

Photo: Bobby Knight

Who’s to blame when a race goes pear-shaped, or, less dramatically, when it is underwhelming? My time out on the Superior Morgul Classic Road Race course fell into that second category, and at first, I was quick to point the finger at my fellow cat-3 racers. They raced negatively. There weren’t enough attacks. The race was too easy. Everyone sat in until the final time up “the Wall.” Then, I stopped and realized that I too shared in the blame. I didn’t risk attacking, and I too sat in until the end.

I was bummed because I wasn’t being the racer I wanted to be, the racer I thought I was. The fact is that being true to who you want to be as a racer, even in the face of failure, is the only way race. Now, I know some folks, especially roadies, sit in for the sprint, and that works for them. But I for one refuse to race that way, and even in the face of failure, I intend to take this lesson to heart. As much as I can, I’m not going to cross any more finish lines without the satisfaction that comes from a race that took place on my terms. I suggest you try the same thing or at least know that only you can define what makes a race successful. And only you can prevent forest fires.

Photo: Courtney Livingston

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that we Mafiosos will race on the road from time to time–heck, we do all sorts of other crazy stuff like Xterras, running, skiing… you name it! Springtime in particular seems to be the time of year when I hop on the skinny tires and get shouted at by a bunch of high-strung dudes on carbon wheels. It’s good for fitness and definitely keeps the ego in check.

This past weekend saw me hop into the Louisville crit, mostly on a whim, and it ended up being pretty fun! Yes, I had just gotten off a plane from a work trip that involved extensive beer consumption, but despite this debatable handicap, I was able to hang just fine. The course was nice and technical, which helped, and although my ill-fated late race attack failed miserably, at least I tried. I figured that, regardless of whether I attacked or sat in for a field sprint, I’d end up mid-pack, so why not do it with panache?

Next weekend will be the Superior Morgul Classic here near Boulder. Should be fun, but I’ll be honest, there are many good reasons why I don’t race road full time, and I’m starting to feel the stoke for the real racing out on the trails.

Photo: David Kutcipal and 303Cycling.com (Note the muddy MTB shoes)

Many things in life are governed by the laws of momentum and inertia. While I’ve never taken a physics class in my life, I feel pretty confident that these two basic principles apply to racing. Once it’s summertime, you have a great race on Sunday, and you’re psyched for the Wednesday training race. Then, you have a bad race, but you still are pumped for the next weekend, so you can seek revenge, and on it goes.

Well, on the flipside, I find it’s kind of hard to get the ball rolling in the spring, and sure enough, this weekend’s Battle of the Bear race was just as excruciating as I feared. All the workout plans and training in the world can never fully prepare you for the chaos found in the first lap of a mountain bike race, and this was compounded by a rather nonsensical start order that had me, and some far more worthy pros, starting behind several other waves. Ah well, nothing to do but laugh it off and drink as much water as possible to stave off heatstroke–the 80-degree temps did me no favors.

After it was all said and done, I was glad I broke the seal and got my first race in the books. Sure, I did drive my lovely wife to the ER afterwards for a couple bags of IV (lesson learned: DON’T miss a feed), but what can I say… I am looking forward to the next race now. Oh, and yes, Kate’s doing just fine now!

(Photo: Michael Kane)

What did you do yesterday? If you’re one of the handful of internationally elite cyclocross racers, you were racing World Championships in Germany, and I’m sure you check our blog regularly (haha). I’ve pontificated on wintertime ‘cross racing before, but yesterday further reinforced my opinion that, for myself, ‘cross needs to end when the snow starts to stick.

First off, I’m not hatin’–if you want to race ‘cross all year long, have at it. To each his/her own. Second, I LOVE ‘cross. I really do, trust me. It’s just that when it comes to winter, I need to do my sliding on two boards, not two wheels:

So, although I was ever so close to making the world’s team this year (note: ABSURD SARCASM), I spent my Sunday skiing backcountry in Colorado’s beautiful wilderness. I’ll be ready to rock when ‘cross season comes along in September, but for now, I’ll stick to cross training.

Lovely scenery near Forest Lakes, just East of the Continental Divide by Rollinsville, CO.

Thanks to my neighbor/buddy Bryan Grace for the photos!

The end of ‘cross season comes with some seriously mixed emotions. Let’s be honest, it is no fun at all trying to squeeze in training around a full-time work schedule when the sun is rising at 7 and setting at 4:30. In fact it’s practically impossible, although our unseasonably dry and warm Colorado weather has made it easier. But on the flipside, Nationals is looking pretty rugged. Ankle deep mud, snow, you know, REAL ‘cross conditions. But alas, we can’t be in two places at once. Plus the skiing will be quite rad this weekend.

So how did it all end? Much like it began, on a fast, flat, grassy course. A quintessential “grass crit.” Sure, it’s better than battling rough prairie grass, goatheads and rocks, but let’s be honest, many of this year’s ‘cross courses seem to be cut from the same cloth as Crossvegas, minus the enormous crowds and flame-spewing praying mantis. So here’s to hoping next year brings a little more gnar because if we really wanted to be roadies, we’d have to stop drinking all this PBR, especially while racing. And that would be sad.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller