Let the Racin Begin, ICUP style.

Let's get it on!
This is about 90 minutes before the start of the race. You can see some of the course on the hillside. Niiiiice...
The Three Amigos - Mad Dog's senior ambassadors. Bill, Dwight, me.
Mad Dog Director Sportif Keith Payne, Fidel Lisonbee, Dwight and Bill on the Zen Trail.
Oh yeah! That's what I'm talkin about. Standing on the box always feels better than the dirt.

The 1st ICUP race of 2010 took place in beautiful St. George Utah this past weekend, and nobody left disappointed. The weather was better than expected, the crowd was large and the course was in fine shape for the Red Rock Desert Rampage season opener.

It was great seeing all the "usuals" and how white most of our legs were. I think our pasty whites made the sky a little brighter and definitely brought out the humorous side of even the most serious racers.

I'll keep this short. My race went better than I anticipated as I was able to hold a much higher HR than at any time last year, and I finished on the podium - 3rd behind Roger Gillespie and Dwight Hibdon. My 1st lap was 32 minutes and the 2nd 33 minutes. I spent almost 37 out of 65 minutes above 165 bpm (my max is 181, I think). I never saw that last year. I stayed with Dwight for the entire 1st lap and then he dropped me when I stopped for a new water bottle at the start of lap 2. To my surprise, he finished less than a minute in front of me. Never got that close to him last year so I'm encouraged. Joel Quinn hung with us on the 1st lap and we gapped him by a couple minutes on the 2nd. He's riding strong, along with Bill Dark, so I'd better ramp up my training if I want to stay close. One fun thing was all the riders we passed during the race. Our group started at the near end so passing was a necessity. That makes for a suspenseful and exciting race. I bet I knocked off 50+ slowpokes :-) Sure made me feel like a big shot - hahaha.

Coach Lynda spanked the Pro Women's group which was loaded with Utahs' best MTBer's. Anybody that can do that to my hero KC Holley is off the charts. The Mad Dog Team had a good showing with several podium placers. Don't know what the team points are but Mad Dog's gonna give the Overall Points Trophy a run this year.

After the race a group of us went and rode the Zen Trail and had a blast. We rode CCW and for the 1st time ever I cleaned the nasty short downhill sidecut that has the wicked sharp right hand turn and drop at the bottom. Shortly after that I fell on a flat section of the trail. Go figure!

Sunday was a sweet 2-hour recovery ride with Coach Lynda, Dwight, Bill, Chris and KC and Noah. We hit the Church Rocks and part of Prospector Trails and dodged a few rain drops and small puddles along the way. There's nothin as nice as stacky desert single track with your best friends. All of Northern Utah was there doing the same thing as we crossed paths with groups from UMB, Revolution and Mona Vi all out having fine time on our day of worship and thanksgiving.

The 2nd stop on the ICUP circuit is the Cholla Challenge in Hurricane April 3rd. I can hardly wait.