About Our Team
We are a 4 person Adventure Racing team based in Boulder, CO. We pledge to give back 5-10% of all sponsorship money and winnings received in 2009 to environmental nonprofits. Through these efforts, we will again be a carbon-neutral race team for 2009 with all carbon offsets sponsored by Native Energy!
Several members of the team took some time off work this week to provide a bike maintenance clinic and answer questions at the City of Boulder bike/walk/bus commuter of the year award ceremony. Tiff, Boyd, Colin, and Brooks had a great time, and although the rain chased off a lot of people, we were able to help educate people on how to maintain their bicycles.
Not only did we have our bike stands and tools, we had the fleet of Rocky Mountains bicycles, Ay Up lights, Tifosi Sunglasses, and Maxxis tires on display.
This was just a start, and the team is already looking forward to more opportunities to give back to our community. Not to mention we got to reload after the last race with some delicious Glacier ice cream!
Cheers!
W
hat a race! I don't even know where to begin! Maps at 5pm Friday, CP's 1-4 given at start and Cp's 7-10 given at the Kayak-Bike transition. The race start at 11:50pm was a pretty calm one, with everyone getting the coordinates of CP1-4, plotting, and putting a strategy together. We started out at a reasonable pace, keeping in stride with Team Eolus and Team Salomon/Crested Butte. After 7 miles on trail, we headed into the woods to get CP1 at a high point at 9262’. Straight uphill to the CP, and straight downhill to the road at McGee Gulch at 8900’. No rest, and straight back uphill to CP3 on a ridge at 10130’. This where it got interesting! Scrambling hands and feet avoiding 40’ sheer rock faces on the climb up, the skies opened up and began dumping wet, heavy snow. By the time we reached the summit, between the clouds and heavy snowfall the visibility was les than 15 feet! After a quick, blind search for the CP, we found it and headed off for the beginning of the O-course at CP-2. We got a few points on the way to CP4, ran the long distance to CP4, and then back on the o-course to get some more points. We determined that we had to leave for the ropes course by 7:15am to get there in time, and headed out right on time. After the beautiful but grueling 400’ Tyrolean Traverse, into the kayaks for a trip down class II and class III water on the Arkansas River. At 1250 cfs, the river was raging, and Brooks and Tiffanie ended up going for a bone chilling swim when they got caught in a nasty hydraulic. After pulling out the boats and trying to get warm again in a nasty wind, we got our new CP’s, plotted the maps, and headed out on the bikes. A long, steep, sandy ATV road climb really tested the new Rocky Mountain Elements and Maxxis Monorails, and they performed flawlessly! A quick trip through the second O-course and a downhill-singletrack to the finish. It was a great race, and the conditions really tested the toughness of the team. Although we finished in 3rd position, we were plagued by O-course penalties from injuries, and were relegated to 4th place by a team that finished behind us. Lots of adversity, lots of bad weather, and lots of great teamwork: we had a great time, and are now looking to get everyone healthy again for the 24hours of Erock. We will also be doing some community outreach—providing a bike maintenance clinic and Q&A session for the City of Boulder Alternative transportation awards Ice cream social. Keep tuned to the blog for information!
Team GoLite would like to thank all of our sponsors, GoLite and GoLite Footwear, Smartwool, NUUN, Tifosi Optics, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Native Energy, Maxxis Tires, Ay Up lighting, Boulder Performance Lab, and Alta Physical Therapies. We thank you for your continuing support. We have had a strong start to the season, and we are only getting stronger as the year rolls on!
The Team met up with our Rocky Mountain Bikes sponsor this past Saturday at Heil Ranch as they teamed up with Sports Garage to put on a bike demo. Eph, our rep from Rocky Mountain, proved to be as cool in person as he is in emails. For the first time, we tried out our new Element 90 Bikes, which rode like a dream. We're all really excited to have them in time for our race this weekend in Buena Vista. The Element 90s are among their top-of-the-line cross country bikes; check them out:
www.bikes.comBrooks and Tiffanie continued on Sunday to train and get a little more time on foot in preparation for Buena Vista. After summiting Flagstaff, Green, Bear, and South Boulder peaks in one shot, they ended their day after 4.5 hours of running and major elevation change. Now, a little taper time until the next race begins at midnight on Friday...
