James wins AXS Purgatory Challenge overall title!

Representing Team GoLite Multisport: James Kovacs

Purgatory Challenge, Durango, CO

June 19, 20, and 21, 2009

Representing Team GoLite, James headed to Durango to put all my endurance to the test. Put on by the Adventure Xstream Adventure Racing crew, the Purgatory Challenge asks for both skills and endurance. A stage race of epic proportions, the first day begins with a 20 mile kayak race, 10 miles of which are upstream. Day two dawns with a 50-mile mountain bike race through mostly single track and tough terrain. The last day ends with a mountain marathon – 26 miles on trail with enough climbing and rocks to make your legs go numb. All three days, all in a row. Bring on the Challenge!

Day 1: 20-Mile Kayak

The morning of the kayak race came with the anticipation of trying to race a kayak both downstream and upstream. Starting up the winding Animas River, kayakers jumped into all sorts of boats, ranging from down river kayaks to sea kayaks to an eight foot white water boat. Starting out a moderate pace not knowing what to expect of the competition, after the first couple of bends I was out of sight of any competition. The scenery was great, the wildlife was spectacular, making the kayaking all that more enjoyable. At eight miles was the turnaround and the start of the much anticipated trip back down river. After meeting the closest competition about seven minutes after the turn-around, it seemed my lead could be the potential event winner. Not wanting to leave anything to change, I dug deeper for the return and ended up with a 15 minute lead going into Day 2 , a good place to be!

Day 2: 50-Mile Mountain Bike

After a good night’s rest at the local campgrounds, day 2 came thinking about some mountain biking fun. The weather looked good; sunny and cool in the morning. The local crew of pro mountain bikers leapt off the start, making for a good legs and lungs burn to the top of Purgatory ski area. At this point, the clouds rolled in and brought the rain, which settled in for the remainder of the race. As the rain became heavier and heavier, the rain felt as if it was coming from every direction, creating mud bogs that coated bikes and riders alike. A few serious stream crossings helped to clean up the bike’s drive train a bit before the last six mile climb back to the top of the ski area, finishing with a quick and rocky descent to the finish. After a rough day in the rain and mud, I was relieved to find out that I was still 15 minutes ahead of the nearest competition in the Challenge, and still in the lead heading into the final day.

Day 3: Trail Marathon

With the realization that I had 15 minutes on the nearest competition, I came to the start line on Day 3 feeling great. The plan for the day was to pace with the nearest competition and see what would happen. The start gun went off, and all the racers ascended up 2 miles to the top of the ski resort. Trying to go conservatively, I started the downhill and let my competition take the lead for a bit, but always within sight. The scenery was awesome; the wildflowers were in full bloom and running next to the creek proved relaxing and calming for my tired body. Running a bit faster than what the race director was expecting, another runner and I arrived at the first aid station without them being ready. Hurrying to get us water bottles, I grabbed one and continued on my way again. At about mile 20, my fellow runner and pacer during the race began to slow down and at that point I saw it as my chance to take off on my own. Running my own pace through the end, I crossed under the finish line

in under 4 hours, what I considered a great time for a trail run in the mountains on the third day of tough competition. In the end, I put an additional 10 minutes on my closest competition, winning the overall title!

The weekend proved to be an amazing time, another amazing finish for Team GoLite, and one more win for all our sponsors.

Teva Mountain Games 2009

Vail, CO played host to one of the biggest weekends in athletic events, once again bringing the Teva Mountain Games to town and attracting talent from all over the nation. With the current economy, Teva proved to be an attractive draw for many top elites and pros, as the significant prize money could more than make up for the reasonable entry fees. Competing in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, Brooks and James took on 4 events to race for the overall crown. The Ultimate Mountain Challenge consisted of 4 events over 2 days; the white water down river kayak sprint and mountain bike cross country race on Saturday, followed by the 10k mountain trail run and the Vail Pass road bike time trial hillclimb on Sunday. Tiffanie joined in by competing in the same mountain bike and trail run races.

James arrived for the weekend with a nasty stomach flu, yet joined in on all the fun and never let it stop him. With a clean run in the white water, he continued with a solid mountain bike and then ran a blazing time in the trail run, finishing 19th in his age group. At this point, he was 7th overall for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, and held on to his position as he raced through the snow, hail, and rain during the final road bike leg. Upset stomach and all, James sailed through the competition and finished 7th in the pro division of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge.

Brooks went up against James in the Challenge, also racing in the pro division. He quickly checked off a clean run in the kayak, and followed with a solid race in the mountain bike. The next morning dawned with the trail run, and Brooks posted a great time, finishing 23rd out of 77 in his age group. Finishing up the weekend, he fought through the same afternoon storms to race up to the top of Vail pass in the road bike. Setting a strong pace, Brooks managed to join the ranks right next to James, finishing in 6th place overall in the pro division of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge.

Tiffanie opted to play just twice during the weekend, starting with the mountain bike cross country race. Fighting through traffic on the technical single track, she managed to find her own space halfway through the race, and held on to a podium finish. Her 3rd place finish (W’s Expert) earned her a trip to the awards ceremony, and gained her recognition in a national-level race. The next day brought the 10k trail run, and she continued her strong showing by placing 4th out of 52 runners in her age division.
Thank you to all for helping us to gain recognition and great results at the
always popular Teva Mountain Games. As always, stay tuned to http://
boulderarteam.blogspot.com for more information and news!.

Gearing Up for Teva!

The team is preparing for the Teva Mountain Games this weekend, to be held in Vail, CO. Tiffanie will be competing in the Sobe XC MTB race in the Expert division on Saturday and the 10k runoff trail race on Sunday morning. Both James and Brooks will be competing in the GNC Ultimate Mountain Challenge - a 2 day, 4 event competition with a 4 mile downriver paddle (Gore Creek) Sat. Morning, the MTB race (Pro division) on Sat. afternoon, the 10k trail race on Sunday morning, and the Vail pass hillclimb on Sunday afternoon! Should be a weekend filled with fun and pain! I will try to post updates throughout the weekend as I get a chance (and an internet connection).

Cheers,

Brooks

Rando Racin'!

Ever wonder what the Elite adventure racers do in Colorado during the winter? As it turns out, they are all Ski mountaineering (randonee) racing. Geared up with some light-ish gear (at least compared to the 1100 gram setups the top guys are using) Brooks headed up to Arapahoe Basin for the Marmot Grind, the last race in the COSMIC (Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup) series for the season. Being my first race, I had sort of rigged up a good setup, and decided to sign up for the pro race division.

The race started at 8:30am at the base area of A-basin. Start with a 100m run to your skis (already skinned up) then climb up High-noon, across to Chisolm, up wrangler, and then up Grizzly road to the top of the Pali chair. My start included not getting the touring locks set tight enough, and immediately blowing out of both skis upon trying to skin uphill! After watching everyone tear up the hill as I fumbled with my bindings, I finally got going, and set off trying to catch the lead group. The first descent was down Pali run, which was in prime frozen coral bumps condition, down to the base again. Luckily, I was able to capitalize on those years of skiing and pass quite a few people on the way down. After skinning back up at the bottom, another ascent, but this time all the way past the top of Pali to the Snow Plume Refuge. Ripped skins on the ridge, took the Zuma Cornice(while trying to get down some gel) dropped the cornice, and skiied down to the bottom of Montezuma Bowl. Skin back up, head up an insanely steep run and across a ridge traverse to the top of North Pole. This is where my inexperience reared its ugly head! I was starting to get tired up the last skin (did I mention it was really steep!) and was having trouble getting my skins to hook-up. I started traversing the hill, while others were able to go straight up. On the ridge, I opted to try to ski down with my boots unbuckled, bindings in tour mode, and skins on! Needless to say, after falling a few times on icy hardpack, I just pulled off the skis and booted it. Much faster! After a ski down the tight couloir I hit the East Wall traverse, strapped my skis to my modified GoLite pack, and boot packed it up Willies Wide. The ski down Willies was painful!From the bottom of the wall, across the base and back down to high-noon and the finish! I had a great time. In the mens division, the race was won by Pete Swenson, followed by Mike Kloser and Travis Scheefer in 3rd. The womens race was Monique Merrill, just nipping Sari Anderson at the line, with Jari Kirkland in 3rd. I placed 14th overall in a little under 2h, 30min. Not too shabby for 5300 vertical feet in my first race!

Lot of fun (in a painful way). Looking forward to doing the series next year! See you out there!

Moab Spring Training

Been more than a month ago now... ugh... At the end of March, the team headed out to Moab, UT for some spring riding in the warm desert! Unfortunately, that was not what we got! After driving through a horrible blizzard to get out there (30 ft max visibility over Vail Pass), a late arrival and camp pitch, and a shelter which ripped out of the sand in a windstorm in the middle of the night, we were ready to ride Thursday morning! Starting riding up Kane creek road, over Hurrah pass, and down into Jackson's hole, the skies turned dark, and alas another blizzard was upon us! Jackson's hole is a sandy valley adjacent to the Colorado River, and when the sand gets wet, it sticks to EVERYTHING, most notably your drivetrain!

As it continued to snow sideways, we did the vertical hike-a-bike up Jacob's ladder, and finally descended down Amasa Back, cold, wet, and amazed with how much it had snowed!

Over the next few days, we would also ride our standard Porcupine rim loop, volunteer at registration for the Adventure Xstream race, (which James raced and placed 5th overall!), and then on the last day rode Gold Bar, Golden Spike, and Poison Spider.

Despite the cold weather, we still had a great time, out riding with our friends. The new Sparks are awesome!

Powercordz!

We are happy to announce our new partnership with Powercordz! Powercordz are the world's lightest bicycle control cables - and being smooth and non-corrosive, might just be the most durable as well! These things are 75% lighter than standard steel brake and shift cables, so quit saving up for that XTR crankset and just get some of these! We can't wait to get some on our bikes!

Moab 12 Hour Adventure Race - Adventure Xstream

March 29th, 2009

Saturday morning greeted 350 eager adventure racers with warmth and sunshine; ready to kick off the first Adventure Xstream adventure race of the 2009 season. Butterflies took hold as I waited for my first solo race to begin, mostly from worry about not remembering to punch my racer passport at all the checkpoints along the course. The race started on bike with a blazing peloton towards Long Canyon as its steep climb to the top of the mesa. The climb pulled apart the peloton and I traded drafting positions with others up the canyon, passing all but one solo racer. Pulling up our bikes at the 350 ft rappel area, I quickly strapped on my climbing harness and enjoyed the ride down the rope. At the bottom, I pulled out my running shoes in a sprint back to the bikes, in total about a 6 mile dash through the sand. I strategized about how to catch the one man out front, and all that kept running through my head was my best Goose impression from Top Gun "there are no points for second place today!". Back on the bike, the course brought us down to the final leg: the kayak section. At this point I knew that I had to get into my eleven foot white water boat and paddle as quickly as possible, but needless to say my boat choice was no match for the carbon shells that sliced through the calm waters around me. I finished in 5th place overall, not bad considering this was my first race against very experienced athletes and world-class paddlers (with awesome boats). It was an incredible day and a great result for the Team, taking just over 5 hours to complete! Special thanks to GoLite, our wonderful title sponsor, Scott Bicycles & Boulder Cycle Sport, who got us new Spark bikes just in time for the race and made the rocks and sand so much more enjoyable to ride, and Tifosi for providing us the best eyewear to transition seamlessly between sand, water, and rock!

-James Kovacs

Back in the swing...

Finally, things are getting back to normal. Tiff is finally fully recovered from her heart arrhythmia procedure, and another mild ankle sprain (nothing sets back a setback like another setback..... say that 3 times fast :)) I am finally making enough free time to make sure I get in my training EVERY day, after a few weeks of missing days here and there.

We just had a great weekend of mountain biking! We finally got the Sparks (after lots of anticipation), and they are FAST, FAST, FAST! Buffalo Creek with our friend Lee Mebel on Saturday, and Chimney Gulch, Apex on Sunday. Tiff and I felt great after longer back to back days in the saddle at easy efforts, and are looking forward to upping the pace and duration in the following weeks! This week we head to Moab, UT for our spring "training camp" and will be looking to put together 3-4 days of 6-8 hours of riding. Although we aren't doing the Adventure Xstream Moab race as a team, teammate James is going to rock it solo to get some more experience.

Cheers! hope to have some great pictures to share next week! Oh, and after 3 rides, seriously - go to Boulder cycle sport and buy a Scott!

Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon 2009

Hello, this is my first post and try at this blogging adventure! Hope you enjoy the race report as much as I had racing the Quad. Sorry I don't have any pictures...was racing too fast.

The morning of the race was quite crisp and sunny with little wind, and it all began with a twelve-mile road bike ride towards Mt. Taylor. We started at a pretty mild pace; I stayed tucked into the lead pack until about three miles, at which point I went ahead with a couple of other riders to put a few minutes on the main group. The first transition area was well organized and as I arrived I realized my number was already relayed into the transition area where upon my running shoes were ready for me at transition -- what service! After a fairly calm run of five miles the dirt road turned to ice and snow, yahoo!

At the next transition I strapped on my lightweight AT gear and started skinning the two miles up the mountain. This section was a great deal of fun and served to warm me up as the reports from the top of the mountain were coming back to us with strong wind gusts and cold temperatures. At the final transition I dropped off my skis and boots and traded them for snowshoes for the final mile up to the top. The snowshoe gradually climbed for the first half mile, but the final half mile proved daunting as the pitch turned aggressive and the winds picked up. As I approached the summit and the elevation sign signaling 11,301 ft, I had a quick chance to look out and enjoy the view. It was really quite amazing how far I could see! Such a beautiful view; too bad I was headed back down as soon as possible.

The snowshoe down was a lot of fun, slipping and sliding down a steep half-mile pitch followed by another half mile of easy running. The snowshoe to ski transition proved to be more difficult than I wanted it to be. I was trying to get my feet into the boots which were already attached to the skis, sounds easy enough, however I managed to click out of my bindings and sent a ski barreling down the hill without me. After wrangling my ski back I was off, screaming down the switchbacks at what I hoped to be super-g mach-two speeds. The run down was a bit difficult as well, the ice that I had seemed to forget about now plagued me as I carefully picked a route.

As I approached my last transition there was one athlete left in view and one event to go. The first three or four miles of the bike were well sheltered prvoed to be a very fast downhill and lots of fun. After I crested a little pass I was looking forward to more downhill flying, but to my surprise I met a horrible headwind (we are talking about 20-30 mph headwind - ouch!) and after already racing for about three and a half hours it didn’t make things easy. Some points of the last six miles on bike I had to look at the trees just make sure I was still moving. Although I felt a world of hurt, during this time I apparently gapped the last athlete within reach to finish in third place overall!

The Mt. Taylor Quad is a fun experience and if you're ever up for a good winter challenge this is certainly the race for you. The support is phenomenal and the volunteers were amazing! I have done many multisport races, but this one stands out as having the best volunteers. I would like to thank GoLite for the super lightweight clothes and pack, Smartwool for great wool socks, Tifosi sunglasses for protecting my eyes and Nuun for the hydration tablets to help me get to the top of Mt Taylor and back!

Have a good one.
James

Boulder Cycle Sport!

We are really happy to have Boulder Cycle Sport and Scott bicycles on board for 2009! Boulder Cycle Sport is bar-none the best cycling store in Boulder, and was rated the best new U.S. bike retailer in 2006. With a super friendly and knowledgeable staff, they are definitely the shop we go to keep our bikes running well, despite the fact they are the furthest from our house. We really want to thank the owner Brandon Dwight for being amazing with us, and going above and beyond the call of duty to help our team. He is amazing to work with, and about the nicest guy you will meet in the bike industry (not to mention he is FAST!). On that note, we are super excited to be riding Scott bicycles for 2009! The Scott Spark is one of the lightest, stiffest, fastest mountain bikes in the world. With their proprietary trac-loc rear suspension, the sparks are perfect for when you need to hammer on pavement, fly up fire-roads, and then rip apart technical singletrack. These bikes are beautiful, and we can't wait to put rubber to dirt!

Save the economy - go to Boulder Cycle Sport and buy a Scott right now. I promise it will be worth it.