US Cup Missoula Pre-ride (presented by Ridebiker :)

Friday's are for course pre-rides. For most domestic races like this we arrive on Thursday, pre-ride Friday and race Saturday and Sunday. It's a great routine and Friday may be my favorite day of the race weekend shenanigans. I love getting familiar with courses I haven't seen since last year, seeing all the usual familiar racer buddy faces and meeting racers I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting.

My pre-ride here in Missoula today was short and sweet, beginning with a lap with two of the coolest teenagers I know, and ending with a sweet little 'ride with the pros' group lap. The course is the same awesome epic climb followed by steep fun descent on trails that wind up the ski slopes of Marshall Mountain and down through the trees between the slopes. The climbs twist their way up narrow, buffed out singletrack, creating a maze of course tape as they twist back and forth between steep, sharp switchbacks. The descent is screaming fast, down tacky steep trails with a few fun jumps and the usual scary A-line gap jump.

This year the Missoula race is extra exciting/special, because for one this race has stepped up its game and is now an HC category race where coveted UCI points are more abundant (those are the hard to earn points that help me move up my start position in World Cups and World Championships!) AND the title sponsor is Ridebiker Alliance, who is also MY title sponsor :)

Adam, ground support super hero!

So cross country mountain bike racing is growing in the US because Ridebiker is working hard to provide us with UCI races where these valuable points are available, as well as a level of competition which could help riders like me develop and improve my racing for the global stage. Yeah, I feel really lucky to have opportunities like this AND to have such a stout support crew on the ground here in Missoula taking care of us.


I have felt compelled to blog about Ridebiker for the past couple weeks because, as the season progresses, I feel like the emphasis of my blog and social media has swung heavily towards day to day occurrences and race recaps. I know that's the exciting stuff (maybe, you tell me!), but between those glory moments when my face is full sized on Redbull.tv or I'm on the podium at some race, these guys are still here for me. They provide support for 16 of us 'professional' mountain bike racers at and in-between the races to help us chase the dream that is developing talent and hard work into something more. They pour money and resources INTO the races themselves to cultivate a competitive racing scene at which we can develop our skills, and for all of this I am extremely grateful.

So between the support from Ridebiker and our staff of amazing, hardworking people both in SoCal and here on the ground, and the support from every single person who has cheered for me, read my blog, commented on Facebook... I am pretty much always overwhelmed with gratitude to be surrounded by such awesome people. I honestly don't know what I did in my past lives to deserve you all :)

And I want to do more for my blog readers, kinda like a little thank you! That's why I'm going to pick a comment-er from THIS POST at random to give one of my Ridebiker kits to. I wish there was a way to pick a reader at random because I think commenting requires logging on to blogger or some business, but I don't know how to do that (yet), so for now you have to jump through a hoop or two to win :)

On Tuesday (life on the road :) I will announce the winner and I will get in touch with you about kit size and your address so I can mail it to you.

And to everyone who doesn't win but wants to rock the kit, YOU CAN BUY IT on the Ridebiker website!
http://www.ridebiker.com/sign-up which also requires signing up (which is free). I'm told they can make the kit in men's sizes, but they may need to tweak the site, so maybe email me if you're a dude and I can work directly with Sugoi.

AND LASTLY, if you REALLY want to support me and my team mates and every aspiring mountain bike racer (and road and CX... actually) and the whole mountain bike racing scene in the US you CAN! If you are a member of a club or race team who wears custom kits, like all matching ones, switching your clothing manufacturer to Sugoi through Ridebiker Alliance goes a LONG way to keeping races like this on the calendar, and supporting our team. It's free to join Ridebiker Alliance, and Sugoi has crazy good pricing on team clothing, plus no minimum orders, and great customer support in creating your team's custom kit! I know it's kinda hokey to plug this on a giveaway post, but hey, I got your attention, right :) haha, but really, I do feel pretty convicted about how much Ridebiker has done for me and the XC race scene in the US so I wanted to take a minute to share the love :)

Thanks for reading my blog. Seriously, thank you. I could go on and on, but I'll stop here. You guys rock and I'll try to arrange other giveaways to express all my gratitude and love! :)

And now a picture from the 'ride with the pros'... check out that little climbing harness :) pretty cool stuff!