Bonk Days in Moab

Greetings from Moab. Welcome to my blog everyone, I'm Chris and I'll be your waiter this evening. Tonight’s specials are... hold on a second, wrong season. Sorry about that. Thankfully, I won't need to recite that trite spiel for about eight more months when I return to The Lodge Bistro up at Snowbird. You'll have to excuse my tangent, I'm still recovering from post-bonk daze disorder. Back-to-back Moab XC epics following a ridiculously windy crash-infested dirt jump final at the Sea Otter and the subsequent fourteen hour drive have taken their toll. (If you’re looking for a new XC thrill in Moab, Amasaback to Pothole to Rockstacker is a doosey with some great technical sections, breathtaking views of the Colorado River, and a chilly nipple deep river crossing out). Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop off Main, staring at the bottom of my second cup wondering if I should be concerned with this new immunity to caffeine...


Chris getting some air at the Sea Otter...

First off, I feel somewhat obligated to issue a disclaimer to everyone out there in cyberland. I'm new to the blog game, and more importantly I'm an uneducated, unruly, hedonistic, often contumacious, gen-Y-er with a proclivity to adrenaline. I haven’t written a journal entry since my "Comp 150" class during my first and only semester at Fort Lewis College in Durango a few years back. I think I took home a “C” in that class for the fridge. Not to brag about my lofty scholastic accomplishments, I'm just trying to give you a little background, and apologize in advance for the grammatical errors you will encounter. Simply put, I'm no ex-research scientist like Marla, but I'll do my best to make it worth your time. No promises. The only thing that differentiates me from your typical slack-jawed college dropout is that I'm fortunate enough to spend my summers on the road touring the blue marble with my bikes.

Having said that, I'm not going to bore you with a lengthy Sea Otter rundown, those are easy to find. I will say that this year's Otter introduced a new generation of gravity racers to the podium. The gravity omnium was dominated by the young guns, and many of the established and dare I say, well-paid racers were sent to the showers early. I’d have to say that his year’s event was the best ever in my book. I had a blast racing the legendary dual slalom and sessioning the revamped dirt jump sets with some old friends. I never really took the time to appreciate how good of a job the organizers do at the Sea Otter. In the past I was too preoccupied complaining about the lack of technically challenging elements in the downhill to notice. But where else in the U.S. can you enjoy an internationally stacked field of mountain bike and road racers competing in numerous events? Not to mention participate yourself as an enthusiast, if so inclined. The Sea Otter definitely does California and the sport of cycling proud.

Tune in next week for an update from Durango, Colorado. I’ll be heading down to the old stomping grounds for a two week training session to prepare for the US Open. Keep it clean.

-chris