Pan Ams 2011

Elite Women's Podium, Pan American Championships 2011

Two weeks racing in Puerto Rico followed by four days in Columbia followed by a week back at the homestead in Massachusetts was the latest example of how varied our time and locales can be while making and effort to be at races that matter to us.   Mary and I love to travel and race our bikes and have the opportunity to ride trails and experience the bike community in many different countries…  However the logistical planning for any serious race trip is pretty daunting.  With this trip the extra travel and training time really complicated our basic needs as did competing in the varied climates and conditions, all of which made things really quite interesting on this go round.  

here is what $525 of luggage fees looks like!!

Anytime we are competing away from the luxury of spare equipment (as is always the case with the shockingly prohibitive airline weight restrictions and fines) it is critical to have brought the right gear along. This is never more true when in far off foreign lands where getting things right really requires a lot of fore thought and planning as it is critical to maintain an equipment advantage and properly represent our sponsors while at the races.  Having a clear idea about the conditions you are getting into regarding climate, local weather expectations, course topography, soil type and really everything you can expect while while there is critical.  Prior experience and or first hand info is the best guide and even then hoping for conditions that cater to you selected equipment is something that we see even the best prepared riders and teams doing little more than hoping for.  2011 Pan American Championships were held in the town of Chia, a suburb of the capital city Bogota, a place that certainly qualified as far off and logistically demanding.  

Mary's sweet 29er Seven Sola SLX

The land we saw was beautiful and wide with open with views for miles, limited only by lush green peaks that stabbed skyward through ever present rain clouds.  After driving 45 minutes to the outskirts of Bogota (massive and sprawling) Farm lands and  jumbled colorful villages were interspersed by quiet roads and connected by more hectic highways that flowed easily through the broad river valleys.  Chia's climate is particularly nice, temperate and very stable with almost no seasons (except heavy rains).  It's proximity to the equator and elevation keep things consistent on a year round basis.  This is probably one reason why bikes seem to be the transportation option of choice, and a good thing as their presence clearly helps to alleviate what would otherwise be a pretty dense population.  Life seemed to flow pretty smoothly here through the small towns where an air of rural tranquility made us think how much sense the bike makes in general as a daily transportation alternative for so many of the right reasons.  

Stopping for a chocolate milk (and some PSI)...

The Andian region of central Columbia really blew us away making the 4 days we spent in a remote 18th century hacienda feel incredibly short.  Our days there amounted to little more than building and tuning the bikes, training on the race course and catching up with our group of athlete and staff friends on the US national team.  Even still we were there long enough to realize that the pre conceived notions in the western media depicting Columbia as a place to avoid for safety concerns seems far from the truth.  

US Women prepare for battle

The oxygen content at 8000 ft on the other hand did feel a bit dangerous and made our time in Columbia all the more demanding.  It was apparent we were far from our preferred o2 concentrations as simple stairs became a cardio workout and sleeping was often punctuated by waking gasp as our bodies struggled to acclimate.  I was a bit nervous for our cause seeing Mary go through a bout of headache and nausea (some of the clear indicators of elevation stress) the night before the race.  Amazingly she managed to pull it all together on race day and cap off a stellar early season run of racing with taking home a bronze medal for the USA  and our Team Kenda/Seven/NoTubes.  I ended up having a tough day at the office slipping a foot avoiding some carnage in the first seconds then putting myself into oxygen debt to catch back on to the lead group. This sharp effort turned out to be a big mistake as the aforementioned lack of o2 had me in the hurt locker for the remaining  two hours of the competition and finishing an eventual 27th.

Mike suffering it out...

Clearly preparing for a high elevation race at sea level is not ideal but we have no regrets as we enjoyed our best early season run to date and feel on track with some hard racing under our belts to bolster our mental and physical state for the world cups that are coming up quick.  

Our time back home in MA felt incredibly short but allowed us to catch up with the family, and enjoy having our backs against the wall in familiar surroundings allowing for a rare moment to be pretty much completely relaxed.  It was a pleasure to have some time to work on bikes in a proper shop with a proper "Feedback Sports" Bike Stand and be able to update our bikes with the latest even more radical equipment from the SRAM family of companies.  Other bike build highlights include the new impossibly lighter "29er Gold Race rims" from NoTubes.com and some very very exciting prototype 29er tires from our title sponsor Kenda Tires!    

We are currently half way through a travel marathon to South Africa, this includes back to back overnight flights separated by a 10 hour layover in the Munich airport,  OUCH!   We are headed over to attend the first World Cup of the season a week early to attend a national race and make sure we can sort the legs out as it will clearly take a bit of time to climb out of the travel hole on this one.   Mary and I are also determined to experience a bit more of South Africa on this go round,  perhaps see an exotic animal or two, get in a couple of weeks of solid training  and hopefully have the chance to sample some of epic surf spots I have been researching on the south east coast of the continent.  

Hometown sunset

Good rides! 

Mike and Mary 

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