2012 Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory/Devo Sweet Elite

Sweet Elite Pre-Season Schedule
March 22 Sweet Elite Rollout Party at Mountain Bike Specialists Durango, Co
April 6-8 Devo Top Secret Training Camp Somewhere, Nm
April 16 &23 Sweet Elite Photo Shoot Durango, Co

Sweet Elite Season Schedule
April 19-22 Sea Otter Monterey, Ca
April 27-29 Whiskey Off Road Prescott, Az
May 12 12 Hours of Mesa Verde Cortez, Co
May 18-20 Mountain States Cup Salida, Co
May 26-27 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic Durango, Co
June 2 Teva Games Vail, Co
June 15-16 Pro XCT Colorado Springs, Co
June 22-24 Mountain States Cup Crested Butte, Co
June 30 New York World Cup Windham, Ny
July 5 -8 USA National Championships Sun Valley, Id
July 13-15 Pro XCT Missoula Mt
Sept 5-9 World Championships Austria

Sweet Elite Local Fun Schedule
May 6 Alien Run, Aztec, Nm,
July 28 Hermosa Classic, Durango, Co,
August 11, Escalante Days, Dolores, Co,
August 10-12 Mountain States Cup, Telluride, Co,
September 29, Dirt Lovers, Durango, CO,
October 6 Road Apple Rally, Farmington, Nm.

A future RMCF/Devo Sweet Elite rider and current Junior Devo fun haver, Ivan, has his day in the sun.

These two races were a great way to get back in the Colorado groove after a few weeks traveling.  They both have fun but demanding courses, which is how bike races should be. Hermosa was even more special because Todd Wells showed up to race. Todd, Colton, and I were together for nearly the first half of the race before Todd pulled away (and proceeded to gain time at a rate of nearly 1 minute per mile!). I bonked pretty hard, but even that’s good to do every once in a while I think. As always, there were great brats afterward and some super sweet prizes. After that race I took a few days to recover from those 40 miles.

There was still some lingering fatigue from Hermosa for the next week, but luckily I felt totally recharged by Saturday’s XC in Snowmass. I sat in for the first bit of the starting fire road climb, but pulled away before the single-track. I was climbing great and apparently descending pretty well too because I held off Jay Henry who said he was pinned on the descents. Sunday’s short track had a few less competitors, but felt even harder than the XC. I guess that’s what short tracks are about though. There was a group of three of us for the majority of the race, and Colton was sitting 10 seconds back in fourth most of that time. But with three laps to go I surged and the group strung out, leaving me to ride the final two laps with a small gap.

I’m now focusing on my final couple weeks of training before Worlds. Just a little bit of intensity to keep me fresh. And next week I’ll help coach a camp at DMR for Devo.

Howard

Wow, it is hard to believe that we only have one more race left in our season. This summer has really flown by! These last three weeks have gone especially fast as they have been packed with excitement. Two weeks ago was the mountain bike national championships in Sun Valley Idaho. I had never been to this area before and it turned out to be an awesome place. For nationals I raced the U23 cross country and the pro mens short track. It was kind of a bummer because I didn’t receive a call up for either of these races and ended up starting in the back. The xc race started off well and I was able to pass quite a few people on the first climb. The climb in this race was 10 minutes on a terribly steep dirt road. The downhill in the race had tons of switchbacks and took as long as the climb. Unfortunately I was stuck behind some slower traffic on the first decent which slowed down my progress. I continued to move up on the climbs and going into the last lap I had made it up to 6th place. To my disappointment, on the last climb I bonked really hard and I even ended up walking up the last steep part of the climb. I think it was just a combination of working hard to catch up from behind and the heat of the day (we raced at noon!). I ended up losing a couple of places and finished 12th. The short track race went a little better though. I still started in the back, in a group of 60 or 70 riders, but I was able to consistently move my way up through the pack and I finished 26th. We then spent the next couple of days staying in Sun Valley. Besides doing some sweet rides, I also did a little fly fishing. I had a blast and even caught dinner for the team one of the nights. Before going out to catch the fish for dinner I was explaining to the girls that they really better want fish for dinner because I am not a huge fan of killing anything unless it will be put to a good use. After explaining this, Alicia’s response was “I’ll kill them.” Apparently she really wanted fish for dinner! This response did surprise everyone on the team because Alicia comes across so sweet and innocent. Needless to say, we had a good laugh over that and ended up having a great fish dinner.

After staying in Sun Valley for a few days, we headed to Missoula, Montana. Yet another awesome place I hadn’t been. For this race we stayed in host housing and at first I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It turns out we couldn’t have gotten luckier! The family Howard, Tad, and I stayed at was awesome. They were super friendly, offered us any of their food, and even put together a whole BBQ for us on friday night. When we arrived thursday night, Doug even offered to take me out on a ride and show me how to get to the race course. They even came out to our races and yelled and cheered us on! The race course in Missoula turned out to be my favorite of the whole year. It had good climbs broken up by little descents, and then the final descent was amazing. It had some good fast corners with some well made switchbacks and it also had an option line half way down. The A-line, as it was called, was a 5 ft manmade drop and the other line took a switchback around the drop (adding about 15 extra seconds). We had all been told about this drop and were excited to check it out! It was a little scary looking when we first saw it, but after watching someone take it I decided to go for it. Turns out it looked way worse than it was and it provided a good adrenaline rush. After a couple more laps, Tad finally hit it too. The next day was the race and it ended up going pretty well. I had to start in the back again but being at low elevation I was able to pass quite a few people before the first single track section. Then I dropped my chain and ended up about second to last before I was able to get my bike going again. I continued to move up throughout the race and ended up finishing 13th which I was super stoked with! During the race there was about 200 people spectating at the drop which made it pretty exciting!

After this race we were finally heading home. You can read Alicia’s post to discover our road trip problems! Thankfully it wasn’t too bad and we made it back home safely. Just yesterday was the Hermosa off Road Classic race. This race is put on by Dave Hagen and is one of my favorite races. As it is every year, the course was a little wet in spots from the recent rains. It was nice and cool though and as always, the hermosa trails was beautiful! Todd Wells, Howard, and I ended up breaking off the front early. Howard led from the start and then I took over the lead for a while. I was a little intimidating having Todd Wells sitting behind me though! Half way up Hermosa Trail I ended up spinning out on a rock and Howard and Todd went around me. Both of them accelerated at this point and I ended up not seeing them until the finish. Howard said it wasn’t long after that that Todd past him and proceeded to drop him too. In the end I finished 3rd only 2 minutes behind Howard and 13 minutes behind Todd. It was a great race, and even though I suffered hard, it is still my favorite race. This was also the first year I had a full suspension 29er bike too which made a huge difference. I am still so thankful that we were able to ride these bikes for the season. They have worked so well and seem to match any course.

Well one more race to go in the season and then we will be done. Kind of bitter sweet, but I definitely have some good memories I will keep. I will check in next week and let you know how the Final race goes!

Colton

After a busy few weeks, it’s nice to finally be home in Durango.

After Windham I flew back to Durango only to turn right around and drive to Sun Valley, Idaho for mountain bike nationals. The XC went great, even though I felt as though I wasn’t mentally “ON” (that may have been a result of all the traveling, or maybe it was just the killer climb that we had to do each lap). I started in the third row, but because of the long climb ahead I figured there would be plenty of time to move up. Keegan Swenson started impressively fast and had a good gap on the rest of the field by the time I got past everyone. I closed that gap and we stayed together for the rest of the first climb. By the descent we were catching U-23 guys who had started 3 minutes ahead of us, which allowed Keegan to get a little gap since passing was pretty tough on the descent. By the time the climb loomed ahead of me on the second lap I was told that I was about 30 seconds back. I definitely pushed myself harder that lap than any other. Once I caught him I decided not to back off the pace and kept on going, trying to get a few U-23 riders in between us before the descent. I gained about 30 seconds from this attack. On the third lap the gap stayed about the same, but on the fourth and final lap Keegan was definitely gaining on me. Luckily it was enough for me to roll across the finish in 1st, leading by only 20 seconds.

The short track was a pretty straightforward race. I got a call-up this time which was immensely helpful as I was able to get in front by the second corner. After that point I pushed the pace as hard as I was comfortable with, and while everyone remained pretty close to eachother, I remained in front for the duration. Payson McElveen really proved what he’s got and was in second for most of the race before a last lap attack by Keegan.

For the next few days I got to hang out in Sun Valley with my teammates and enjoy some of the great riding in the area. Especially memorable was hearing Colton sing and play the guitar and also having freshly caught trout. Then we traveled to Missoula for the Pro XCT finals. Our host housing was great (if you’re reading this, thanks Doug and Jeannie!) and the course was really cool as well. In fact, I found myself wishing that Nationals had been held there instead of Sun Valley. My race was pretty low-key, but watching the Elite men afterward I was reminded what was in store for me next year! Then we traveled home and everything went perfectly smoothly. Except for some car issues.

Howard

While sitting in the auto shop I noticed a quote on the wall, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; its learning how to dance in the rain”. I thought it fit our situation perfectly.
Last week all of us minus Sage drove up to Missoula Montana for a PRO XTC race. It went by pretty smoothly but we were sure happy to get out of the car. This race went by a little differently compared to the others. We stayed in host housing there rather than staying in a condo or hotel. Teal and I stayed together with an extremely nice family. The boys stayed right across the fence from us. It is so nice to stay with such supportive people, not to mention located right next to some great trails with the inside scoop on everything!
After four solid weeks of racing and traveling I was starting to feel a little run down, but I was there for a pretty big race so pulled myself together and actually had a good time out on the course. Compared to the course at nationals this was awesome. It was filled with lots of fun single track. The good part about racing at the crack of dawn was that I was able to watch everybody else. It was a really long day, Tad and Colton did not race till 6:00. A little after Teal and I got home we got a call from Howard saying that they had broken down!
The next morning Teal, Howard, Colton and I started our travels back to Durango. We unfortunately had to leave Tad with his car in Missoula. Driving through Montana was beautiful, nice rolling green hills, with various rock formations. As the trip continued it became flatter, browner, and hotter. It was all fine except the heat was kind of annoying. Teal’s car lacked ac so it got a bit toasty in there. We were on the road for about 10 hours, right out of Price when we noticed a funny smell, we had the windows open so we thought it was a passing car however, not much after that we saw smoke coming in the car. Sure enough when we pulled over we saw that the rear wheel was smoking like crazy and dripping oil. We were SO lucky that that happened where it did. Once leaving Price there’s not much out there. We were only about two miles out of town, so once the smoke disappeared we coasted/drove in first gear back to town. The car was making an awful whomping noise, and being extremely jerky. A while later we pulled into a cheap little motel that had a small restaurant in it. That was all that I really cared about! We walked in and the waitress informed us that all we could have was a burger or sandwich, because they were supposed to close in eight minutes! Oh man, I don’t want to even think about what would have happened with no dinner! The waitress also told us that there was an auto shop right across the street. Luck was truly favoring us that day and it rolled into the next. The workers at the auto shop were really nice and helpful. They were able to see us right away even 15 minutes before they opened. After we where there for about an hour they said if they did not have the right parts in town we might have to stay the night, and we might need a new axel. Fortunately we got really lucky again and they did find the parts and we didn’t need an axel. By 11:00 we were on the road again making good time. The rest of the trip went smoothly.
I am so delighted to have the team mates that I do, I had a wonderful time traveling, riding, and hang out with them the past couple of weeks.
AliciaRose

Race weekend number four… complete. I have been racing every weekend for the past four weeks, It is super fun but I can feel it catching up to me a little bit now, which means that today is going to be a relaxing day off, maybe a stop at our friends for coffee then the thrift store.
Nationals were last weekend and I would have to say that it was very successful. I raced my cross country race on Friday morning. The course here in Sun Valley was not like a typical xc course. It went straight up the mountain on a loose fire road. It was not all that long but crazy steep, during my race I was in my easiest gear and still pressing hard on the peddles, there was no break till the top. Pre riding it took me about 12 minutes to climb. At the top we then proceeded down on a single track that was full of switch backs. At the bottom of the course by the base area the course continued threw a man made rock garden. My group only did three laps but let me tell you, that was way plenty for me. At the end of my first lap at the bottom of a rocky section by bike started making a terrible rattling noise. My first thoughts were that my frame was surly cracked, or that my wheel was not on all of the way and was about to fall off. As the race went on though, and nothing bad was happening I started to get more confident that I would complete the race with my bike in one piece. When I finished I realized the noise was coming from the brain on my bike. The bolt had somehow loosened and was hitting my frame and spokes. Luckily that was a really easy fix and nothing was broken. The rest of the day and the next I was able to cheer on my teammates and friends which was super fun. On Sunday was short track. This race was crazy. I was lucky enough to have two starts, my first one was at 11:30. For this race all cat 1 women were combined together, there were about 15-20 of us lined up on the line. On the first lap one of the ladies crashed super hard on the fly over and coming around for the second lap they made us stop, because when she crashed she was unconscious. She did not suffer from any permanent damage but did break her jaw, and is looking at facial reconstruction. I wish her a speedy and easy recovery! We then started again at about 12:20, and raced for a little less than 15 minutes plus two laps. After that race I took home my second stars and bars jersey of the weekend. We are staying in Sun Valley till Wednesday and then will head over to Mazula for a PRO XTC race. After this race I will be pretty much done racing till Worlds at the end of August.
AliciaRose

Wow! Things have been pretty busy and I have forgotten to check in in a while. Not too much has happened though. The most exiting thing that has happened to me recently was talking a rest week and getting sick, thus taking another rest week. I got over it the week right before Crested Butte, but it was still a bummer. I don’t like going that long without riding, but it was probably for the best. I am getting super exited to race nationals and then the pro xct in Montana after that. These will be the biggest races of my season. This will also be my last year racing U23 at nats. I was checking out the start list and the BMC/USA national development U23 team is all going to be there so there will be some great competition. I will definitely post some more over our trip this next week but I wanted to check in before we leave.

By the way, Howard Grotts is Amazing! Big congratulations to him on his win at the Windham world cup! Best thing is not only is he fast, but you would never know it if you met him. He is super humble about his talent and hopefully now he will start to get some recognition (world-wide).

Colton

My gosh these past couple weeks have been absolutely amazing. I have met many wonderful people and had many experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life. Last Monday I drove over from Mont Sainte Anne to Windham NY. The drive was about 7 hours but we were stuck in the slowest possible line going through boarder control, we were stuck there for over an hour! However, when we did make it to Windham we arrived just as the local 4th of July parade started. I was with some of the BMC riders and a lady from Germany who until that moment did not know what 4th of July was. So it was perfect to show her what we Americans do! Later we walked down to the base of the mountain to watch a spectacular fireworks show. It was advertised to be the best in the world, but I think that Silverton has a better show. For the next few days I road some beautiful roads and the course to prepare for Saturdays race. I was the only US junior girl so I stayed with BMC for Canada and Windham. That was really great getting to know and hang out with them. One of the days mid week we went cliff jumping with a couple of the Subaru Trek riders at a spot down the road about 10 minutes. It was about a 20-25ft drop but from the top it looked a lot higher! I am pleased to say that I jumped off!
I raced on Saturday at 5:15, there are two things I am pleased about, one, I am so thankful that I could watch the pros race on freecaster.com! They have live streaming of about 80% of the course, with commentary of the race, Willow Kroeber was a guest commentator which was kind of fun! Two, I am so glad that I usually do not race at 5:15!! All of the pre race excitement, nerves, and anxiety, just kept building and building and building. However once I started it was all fun and games. The course was just 5km. It was a typical ski area course, up, down, repeat. It was really not very technical, some rocks and roots but nothing bad. Earlier in the week it had rained and was super muddy, but by my race it was pretty much dry. I raced on my own for most of the race the girl in first finished a couple minutes ahead of me and the girl in third was a couple behind. This race I felt better than Mont Sainte Anne, and I was closer to the girl who won than I was in Canada. After my race I went straight to the podium, where they did the flower and metal ceremony. There was hardly anybody there but it was still really cool! Then I got to go to the lovely doping control. By the time I got there it was about 7:00, I was there till about 8:30. My flight out of Albany was at 6:00am the next morning. The BMC riders had flights at the same time so we all drove down to Albany that night. Though we did not leave till about 9:30, because I had to shower, wash and pack up my bike. Thankfully I got some help on that I was finally checked into my hotel room in Albany at 11:00 ish but still had no cool down after my race or dinner! The worst race recovery possible. I had hardboiled my left over eggs that afternoon so gobbled those down with a cliff bar and called it good. Do to the fact that I had drank about 6 bottles of water at doping control I was up about every 30 minutes! 4:00 came way to fast and before I knew it I had about 2 hours of sleep under my belt. Luckily, my travels to Sun Valley went well. My flight to Boise was early so I was able to make the earlier shuttle to Sun Valley.
I am staying with some friends of a friend in my absolute dream house! It is a huge log/stucco house. The outside is beautiful but the inside is amazing! The family is from Guatemala and they have all sorts of neat nick-nacks all over. But seriously, if I could have any house in the world it would be this one! The father is majorly into coffee and as soon as I arrived he was at his little espresso station weighing the perfect amount of coffee grounds to make me a mocha, as soon as I finished that he made me a late. Over the past year he has spent what seems like MUCH time testing and researching coffee. The mother is an amazing quilter. There are quilts hung all over the house which are just breath taking. She and her son are also amazing cooks. He went to culinary school and is currently working at a restaurant, so needless to say I am eating very well here!
Today I went for a ride on the road then went back into town to do some groceries and check out the town. The grocery store is really nice, but very pricy. However I did find a thrift store which was quite the opposite. There were some really nice things and everything I saw was around $5 and $10. Score!
Tomorrow I think I will go ride the race course, I hope there are some switch backs because this mountain looks steep!
AliciaRose

After missing out on the Mont Sainte Anne world cup because my passport didn’t arrive in time, I was pretty disappointed. But things really seem to have turned out for the better in the end. The day after missing my flight, not only did I find out that I would be able to make it to the Windham world cup, but I also set my PR on the Telegraph time trial! I spent the next few days riding in the Junction Creek area, which is rapidly becoming my favorite place to ride around Durango, before heading out on a long travel day on Wednesday.

I spent Thursday and Friday familiarizing myself with the course as well as riding in the East Coast air. Luckily the first day was the worst as far as humidity goes, and by Saturday I hardly noticed a difference. Our race wasn’t until 5:30 pm on Saturday, which led to a whole lot of downtime (filled with eating and watching tv for the most part).

In the hour or so before the race I really didn’t find myself being overly nervous or anxious as I executed the warm-up I’ve become very familiar with since the start of the collegiate road season in March. Then we were herded (much like cattle) into a fenced off area before our call ups. I think I really must have been in some sort of trance at that point because the the time between the one minute and 30 seconds to go felt like five seconds. Our start was fast, as I expected, but I found that I was able to make it up to the top 6 fairly quickly. About half-way up the climb on the first lap I noticed my handle bars were loose at the stem, but I figured there wasn’t much I could do about it until the tech zone at the start of the next lap. Having that issue proved to be pretty sketchy on the descent,  but I made it through safely and only lost a few places. The repair went smoothly as well and I fairly easily caught back up with the lead group before the half-way point on the climb. For the next lap or so I sat in with that group, reminding myself not to make any rash decisions. But by the top of the climb on the third (out of four) lap, I decided to get in front for the downhill. The group hadn’t been gaining any significant gap on me on the downhill, I just figured that I’d be more comfortable going at my own pace. On the start of the last lap I began really pushing the pace off the front and immediately the group got strung out. At that point, there was really no looking back, so I gave it my all where I could and played it safe on all the downhills. By the finish I had twenty-four seconds on second place, not to mention a big ol’ smile on my face!

I also want to give a big thank you to Ned Overend for getting me flights to this race, and to Rich Stewart who helped fund my food and bike shipping fees.

Howard