How Nordic Has Helped Me - Howard Grotts

          Nordic skiing is easily one of the hardest sports. The mental and physical strength required for the sport is enormous. I learned that shortly after joining the DNSC, even before there was snow on the ground. Coming from an athletic background almost entirely composed of cycling, Nordic skiing seemed very alien to me (I mean, who puts ski boots and roller skis in 80 degree weather?). I wasn't used to the precision or the intensity of the training involved.  But now I couldn't imagine not having different intensity training periods or skill specific workouts. I've found it very easy to apply the concepts I learned from Nordic skiing practices to biking. These concepts included having easy and harder weeks of training, technique specific days, and interval workouts.

            While all members of the DNSC were very fun people to be around, it was also my first introduction to young athletes who were truly dedicated to their sport. This was exemplified by the seriousness with which they approached their training and the amount of time they devoted to it. I was inspired by their drive to improve, and perhaps more than a little bit humbled when kids 3 or more years younger than I am were beating me. It was hard for me to embrace the sport at first, despite being around people who loved it, and, even now, I very much prefer biking to Nordic. But I have come to appreciate it, if only for the inspiration it gave me to bike at a brand new level.

Howard placed 2nd at US MTB Nationals in the Cross Country (XC) event and was crowned National Champion in the Short Track Cross Country (STXC) event.

Euro Mountain Bike Trip

We are in Champerey and it is unreal!  We are surrounded by super beautiful and tall mountains. 
It is unreal!! Gino raced today and the rest of us race tomorrow. The course is ridiculous!! Yesterday preriding there were 4 huge crashes in the first 10 minutes. One girl broke her helmet, it sounded like a car crash. I did a huge endo and landed on my head and scraped up my new glasses and my face!! :( Thankfully it was soft ground though because I left a huge head plant which probably saved my helmet. (we have a good pic of it) my neck and back are super sore and stiff, not good. 

The experience is really cool because the Rabobank team is staying right next to us. We have kinda made friends with them, haha.  It is impossible to explain it here. There is a creek right by us and we went there yesterday. The water is super clear and awesome. Today I also bought about 2 pounds of chocolate (!!!!) so get ready. Haha.  The above pic is from our ride today.

Alicia

Mtn Bike Worlds Race Recap from Tad Elliott

I was riding well I started dead last out of 70 riders and moved up ok. 48th on the first lap. I moved up to a group of 30th through 25th. Felt strong my 4th and 5th lap. My times on those laps were 19th and 18th fastest laps. It was hard having dudes bobble in front of you and get gaped off the pack. I cracked hard with half a lap to go only 10 minutes to go and I went from 30th to 36th. Just spent to many matches during the race. If only I could have better UCI points and gotten a better call up at the start. Damn.

Went on a ride today saw a blue and red Parrot saw a Kangaroo jump a fence and petted a mini horse on the bike path all in ten minutes. Pretty cool. Eating a Steak dinner tonight at the hotel. Kangaroo steak that is. Should be cool. The Ausies hate the meat here for some reason. I watched all the four cross last night and that was really cool.

Also, Todd Wells was 8th. Congrats to both Tad and Todd.

More from Tad Elliott at World Championships

Things here are looking good. I broke my race shoes, went to my back up pair and then was able to repair my favorite race shoes. My knee is sore from the new position on the shoes but Bernard is here on will dial me in for the race. For the hammer head section on the course. I am going around the easier safier way which may be two seconds slower. Also going around is US National Champ, Jeremy Hogan-Kobelski, Colin Cares, World Cup leader Wolfram, and the Junior Women are riding it. Sketchy! Rob Squires crashed super hard there today and hurt himself. He is OK to race but he is sore. Man, still no Kangaroo sightings. I Saw a mini horse but no Kangaroos. I guess I repel them. Todd Wells is staying at our hotel. So is Bury Stander, and Christof Sauser. Pretty cool to see them eating breakfast with us each morning. The Ausie people are super nice. They have been helping us out a lot. Also they come over and talk to us about our bikes and travel and America. It's pretty rad. When I talk, people instantly know where I am from. I am resting up well and hope things will go OK. I start at the back so hopefully I can move up well. Weather should be good and cold. temperature will be around 60 degrees. Should be nice for racing.

you can go to cyclingnews.com to check out photos from the race course they are pretty rad.

World Championships for Mountain Biking

Tad Elliott is at the World Championships for Mountain Biking on the USA Team racing in the U23 class in Canberra, Australia. Tad is a product of the Durango Nordic Ski Club, Rocky Mountain Nordic and the Durango DEVO Club. He left last Friday and I believe he will race this Friday or Saturday. Canberra is 14 hours ahead of Colorado. Todd Wells from Durango is also there. Here is a little blurb from his trip so far:

Flight went well, economy plus on the isle with no one next to me. I slept for 7:30 hours straight no sleeping pill. Woke up ate some food then took another 1:30 nap. I had so much food I did not even eat the airplane food. Very Nice. Course is good with a lot of single track and tons of option lines with jumps over ditches, drops, and fun stuff. It is a lot like Colorado trails. I hope to do well. Colin Cares and I are roommates. Hotel room is so swank. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, big flat screen TV, movie channels, two bathrooms and showers, plus our own laundry. So nice. Food set up is rad. Walk downstairs and there is 4 star restaurant preparing our meals. We see tons of Cockatiels and Parrots flying around, Kangaroo dead on the side of the road, I have not seen a live one yet but I hope to soon. It is very cold and windy here. Thermal stuff like spring in Colorado. Talk to you more when there is something cool to report.

Tad Elliott on Houffalize World Cup Race

Houffalize was awesome for me. The town is so sick. It is really small with stone buildings cobble stone streets. We stayed in a small hotel 10k away from the venue. I got my own room because I snore and keep everyone else up. I am not complaining. The elderly Belgium couple cooked all of the meals for us, and it was to order, so we ate well. The course was rad, we started right in town and went up a road climb and then jumped onto the course. The road climb is in Leige Bastone Leige and is 14 percent and about 3 minutes long. There was still paint on the road cheering on Frank and Andy Schlek. The course was long at about 25 minutes per lap with some longer climbs, technical rocky single track climbs, and steep rough descents. I liked it, and hoped it was a chance for me to make it all the way through the race without being lapped. My start number was 107, but the UCI implemented an "Insert rule" where they could insert riders they deemed fit to start higher up in the call up. I was one of these riders. I was called up 68th out of 230 riders. Before Jeremy Horgan Kebelski. No rhyme or reason just the UCI thought I could do well or something. I didn't ask too many questions. The start climb was again CRAZY. I was staying in position and even started to move up a bit. I even caught up to Sam Schultz. Then I had some Euro take me out. I was riding strong and I was around top 80 going into fourth lap and in the middle of the fourth out of five laps I started to go under. The fifth lap I went under major. Both quads, calves, triceps, and forearms started to cramp. I took in a lot of fluids, but I approached the race as a four lap race and wanted to be able to finish and not get lapped, I accomplished this goal, but only if I could have held on. I ended up 114. I raced the whole time, never tried to recover, and was always looking for speed, until 20 minutes to go. I ended up being the second American in the race. JHK crashed out Todd did not start; Sam Shutlz had a rough day. I passed him on lap three. So I was riding really strong which feels good over here.

There were 30,000 fans. All crazy about cycling and you can hear them roar all around the course when the leaders come through. When I came by it was pretty silent. Some fans love the US and I got some good cheers. On the last lap I was hurting up the climbs and I think they could tell, so the cheers picked up and were pretty loud. In lap 2 and 3 I was riding with the U23 world cyclocross champion and 2nd place finisher in Cyclocross Worlds last year from Netherlands. Holy cow were the fans going crazy when he came by. In the lap we rode through town and it was hard to breath with all the grill smoke, cigarette smoke. The weather during the race was different. The warm up was cold. The race started cold, then it rained, then it got really hot and sunny. Europe Weather?

Rob, Was 146. He blew his rear shock in the race, flatted, messed up his shifting somehow and he got pulled with one lap to go. In the pre-ride Ethan Gilmore’s tire was defective and rolled off the rim. He crashed hard, which swung his bars around sending his stem into his top tube on the carbon frame. The stem hit the frame so hard it broke. Ethan was ok but his bike was done. He ended up having to ride Marc G's Large epic instead of a medium frame. He had a hard day and got pulled with two to go. Adam Craig learned that Ethan needed a new bike and offered Ethan either one of his race bikes. Hard Tail or Full suspension. His quote "Choose your poison." That is crazy nice of Adam. Ethan stayed on Specialized to not get Marc in trouble with sponsors, even though Adams bikes would have fit him better. That is all from here.