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| 6/13/09 Race Report: 24 Hours of Big Bear My time in west Virginia was great I cant complain at all I got to hang out for a week and a half checking out the area and riding the local trails. It rained a good bit the week before the race leaving the course a little muddy but by race day the weather was beautiful and things were drying out quickly. The run to start the race was really long but thinned things out well. by the time we hit the singletrack I was in a group of four we hit a slick muddy rock section and guys were blowing up left and right so that put me in the front I rode with a duo guy for that first lap and posted the fastest lap of the race. I continued to turn out fast lap times and was just having a blast on the rocky and rooty course, my Santa Cruz carbon blur was eating the trail up I literally had a huge smile on my face I was having so much fun. At about 3am my back started to hurt I figured it was normal back pain because I have dealt with this in past 24's, It continued to get worse forcing me off the bike several times to try and stretch things out. The repeated stopping was making me really cold and my back even worse. My back seized up so bad I could barley ride and to make maters worse I was shivering uncontrollably. With about three miles to go I saw a fire at one of the aid stations and stopped to try and warm up and stretch out my back, I could barely move my back was so stiff so I decided to pull the plug, it's never an easy decision especially when you have a 30 minute lead, but I figured I could do some serious damage to my back if I continued. 24 hour racing is extremely hard on the body especially on such a technical course I've never really done a lot of core work but I think it will be something I need to work on for the future. |
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| 6/3/09 Race Report: Mohican
100 The second stop on the NUE series the Mohican 100 was the 3rd race of the season for me. The weather was perfect, sunny skies and temps in the mid 70's, the start of the race was a mad dash up a steep road climb out of downtown Loudonville OH, when we made it into the first section of singletrack I was sitting in the top 10, for the next 25 miles we rolled through some very fun and flowy singletrack. Near the end of this section the group of 6 that I was in made a wrong turn and we ended up loosing about 5 minutes after we got back on track I figured we were still in good shape and was happy to have some guys to ride with. When we came through the second aid I figured everyone would stop but I was the only one how did, then they couldn't find my bag so I lost more valuable time I finally got my stuff and was off to chase the pack down. I had them in my sites but they slowly slipped away farther and farther, working as a group there was no way I was going to catch them. The rest of the day I destroyed myself working alone, not until the last hour of the race did I have someone to work with by that time it was to late. I finished in 13th with a time of 7:28, the bar has been raised in the NUE series if you make any kind of mistake it's hard to make the top 10, the competition is great, it's good to see this kind of racing has become so popular. |
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  5/18/09 Race Report: Dirt Sweat and GearsMy race report for dirt sweat and gears is coming a bit late but it has taken some time to get the sour taste out of my mouth. as you can tell the race didn't go as planed, to sum up the area in Tennessee got 7 inches of rain in a week and it poured for the first lap, the mud was the worst I have ever seen. By the second lap it was not rideable and on my third lap I snapped my derailleur, I decided to cut my losses and drop out rather than get my other bike and possibly break something on it as well. It's always a bad feeling when you drop out of a race but the circumstances in this race made it an easy decision, although the race did not go as planed I had a great time meeting some new people and hanging with friends. All in all it was a great time other than the actual race. The promoters did a great job and even though it was a bad result for me I will definitely back for next years race. |
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| 4/29/09 Race Report: Cohutta 100 I got to Tennessee on Friday to beautiful weather but very hot, temps were in the upper 80's and were looking to hit the 90's for race day. Race day morning came after decent sleep, all the heavy hitters were here including Jeff Schalk, Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Michael Simonson, Sam Korber and Christan Tanguy. The first climb is a 5 minute hammer fest up the highway then into the first section of single track, I ended up right wear I wanted to be in the back of the lead group the pace was really high with Schalk at the front pushing the pace. I stayed with the group for about the first hour then I started to get dropped by the time we hit the dirt road section I could still hear the lead group but couldn't see them. After the first aid station I was feeling pretty good and was starting to reel someone in when around a blind corner I met face to face with the side of a ford truck he luckily was going slow and I was almost able to stop but banged my knee really good. It was my fault and he was more concerned about me he said are you OK and I said sorry and was off. Back to the chase I was reeling this guy in when I got to him I realized it was Rob Lichtenwalner, really cool guy and we worked together well for about the next hour until he made a stop at aid 2 I had no drop here so I blew threw. I quickly caught the next guy I didn't know him he looked pretty rough he jumped on my wheel and I pulled him for a wile until Christan Tanguy came along with another guy in tow I stayed with them for a bit then got dropped by Tangay. The next 40 miles I rode alone I was felling great but was starting to cramp from the heat. At about mile 70 I passed 3 or 4 people and was pumped to be reeling in so many riders. At 80 miles I caught up with Sam Koerber he was looking raged but jumped on and we rode together the rest of the way I was nice to have someone to ride with for the last section. The last section was back into the single track for some really fun riding I was felling good and was trying to drop Sam but he was getting his legs back and was hanging tough I finished the race without a sprint with Sam, I was happy about that because of the precarious bridge before the finish. I finished in 6th place with a time of 6 hours 49 minutes I'm very happy with the first race and am feeling good about the year. The new carbon Santa Cruz Blur performed flawlessly the bike is amazing and cant believe I get to ride it all season. |
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10/13/08 Race Report: 24 Hours of Moab Saturday morning I woke to even stronger wind and got to the venue around 9am and to my surprise my tent was still standing. The race start was the usual long run and got out on the road quick and was in good position entering the single track with me were Tinker, Eatough, and the new comer Roan Exelby, for the first few miles we all jockeyed for position, then I went to the front to go with a little faster pace after a couple minutes I saw that I was pulling away I kept the pace high and by mid way through the lap I saw I had about a minute on the other guys. I could see them and they were in a pace line so I figured that they would catch me but I don't think they were working together well. |
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9/12/08 Race Report: Tahoe Sierra 100 By the first aid station (mile 41) the lead group was just out of site, going hard on the next downhill I misted a turn and went down for about 5 miles and came to the 79 mile aid station where I was told I had gone the wrong way. For about 5 minutes as I started my climb back to the turn I had missed, I felt like dropping out, but this soon turned into determination to finish. Without the pressure to win I took in the scenery and got to chat with a couple of racers along the way and had a great training ride. |
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| 8/3/08 Race Report: 24 Hours National Championships by Josh Tostado:  This was my first time at 24 nationals the course was much different than what I expected instead of smooth buff single track the loop consisted of tight rocky single track with some fast dirt road sections, hardly any climbing to speak of but all the single track really kept you on your toes.The run at the beginning was ridiculously long but I kept up front and found myself in the top ten right where I wanted to be, Nat Ross was very aggressive on the first lap and started moving up to the front so I stayed with him. the next couple laps Nat and myself traded pulls and kept ourselves in front of the rest of the field. After couple of laps I started to feel good and upped the pace a bit and found myself alone at the front I knew it would be a matter of time before Chris Eatough would catch up, when he finally did we rode together for about 3 or 4 laps, he attacked several times out of the pits but every time I was able to bridge the gap, right before it started getting dark Eatough's crew called him in for a clothing change seeing the opportunity I attacked hard and put couple of minutes into him for the next couple of laps I put more time into Chris then disaster struck my lights went out half way through a lap at about 3:30 in the morning. To get back I had to sit on someones wheel and try and stay with them using their lights for navigation, it took doing this with 3 riders before I finally made it back to the pits. Back at the pits thinking I had done a pretty good job of keeping my loses to a minimum my back up battery for some reason would not work so we tried the back up system and I was missing a Cord , finally I got anther battery to work just then there goes Chris I lost an 11 minute lead because of the lighting problems, feeling a little discouraged at this point I tried to put it behind me and race on Chris and I raced together the rest of the the day and decided together to call it a day on lap 20. On the last lap I had to go pee really badly I tried to put it of as long as I could finally I had to stop Chris gave me a look like what are you doing but it was ether stop or piss myself. I tried as hard as I could to sprint back to him but he obviously sough his opportunity and ran with it, my back had been in serious pain for about 4 laps and on the last lap was becoming a real problem, I had to stop and lay down and stretch it out several people stopped to see if I was OK thanks Frank and Josh for stopping. After stretching the back for about 5 minutes I was able to finish out the race in second place. Huge congrats to Chris for taking the win I was very happy to give him a run for his money he is an incredible bike racer and I feel like I'm right there at the top of the heap. |
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| 7/22/08 Race Report: Breckenridge 100 by Josh Tostado:  I woke up at 4am for the 6am start of the breck 100, the race kicked off under clear skies with a temp in the 40's. The first climb up Breckenridge ski area and then up to some beautiful alpine single track was a nice kick in the teeth to get you going, I wasn't felling great to start but I knew that this would pass and settled into my pace Evan Plews had put about a minute into me on this first climb but I was confident I could catch him on the long decent down to Copper Mountain.I did catch up about halfway down and we rode together until about halfway back on the peaks trail when Evan was having some problems in a very technical section knowing there was more teck to come, I decided to attack and pulled away. After the first loop I had put a gap of about 2 minutes into Evan so I continued to push hard and lost site of him little did I know Evan took a wrong turn and ended up loosing ten minutes I didn't find this out until after the race. Continuing to push hard on the second loop I was felling good and finished the second loop with a 15 minute lead. Evan is a very strong rider so I didn't want to take any chances and pushed as hard as I could all the way through the 3rd loop. Taking the win for the forth year in a row was kind of a surprise but with bike racing you never really know how your going to feel or what is going to happen anyone can be beat on any given day. |
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6/24/08 Race Report: Cowbell Challenge 12 hour by Josh Tostado:  Finally a race with no rain, the course for the cowbell consisted of about 7 miles of single track 4 of it was a fun twisting and turning ride through rooty and short technical sections. The rest of the course was a burned in trail from a weed whacker that outlined the edge of a field, this section was much better than it sounds.They decided to mass start the race it was a furious pace from the gun Brandon and Nat jumped out to the front with Cris, Ernesto, and myself following. After the first couple laps me and Cris had put a gap on the other guys and were riding well together Cris held strong for about 5 hours at this point I could see Nat was about a minute behind and riding strong I knew I had to ramp up the pace a bit. Cris dropped of the pace at this point but Nat was right their every lap, we battled like this for a long time I was pushing hard and so was he something had to give finely I started to put some time into him first another minute then I couldn't see him any more. I continued to push it to the night lap then when I got my lights I got the news that I had lapped him so I pulled up with the win in the bag. |
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6/3/08 Race Report: Mohican 100
I woke up at 5 am to a steady rain in loudonville OH it had benn raining all night but by the start of the race the rain had stoped and it was clearing. The start of the race was straight out of town up a very steep paved road which did a great job of string the field out I managed to stay up front and dropped into the first single track behind about 5 or 6 people. The first couple miles were a mix of fire road, hike a bike and single track, then the fun started the next 20 miles was some great single track fast and flowing muddy and slick with roots and rocky sections. I was in the lead group of five through this section with a blistering pace, when we reached the first dirt road three riders had gaped me and I got caught by a couple more. |
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5/6/08 Race Report: Dirt Sweat & Gears Now to the actual race, the night before it rained
pretty hard and left the course very muddy. The first
lap was a night mare my bike got clogged up so badly
with mud that I actually came to complete stops on the
down hills. When i finally finished the lap I had
lost 25 minutes on the lead so with a fresh clean bike
I put my head down and went to work. The second lap
was a 100% improvement everyone took all the mud of
the course with their bikes. Every lap the course got
faster and I felt great by the middle of the day I had
moved into 3rd place and started to pressure the
leaders I pushed till the end but the first lap
deficit proved to be to much. Tinker won, Brandon got
second and I came in third. |
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4/21/08 Race Report: The Cohutta 100 |
I arrived in Moab on Thursday to set up by myself and proceeded to get sand blasted for about 3 hours of set up time. When I finally got my light weight screen tent up I sat there and watched it get abused by the wind and figured it wouldn't make it through the weekend.
