Decisions, decisions...

Race Season is upon us all...

You can smell the hard work in the cool brisk winter air as cyclists of all shapes and sizes prepare for "the race season". This winter has been great and I've been fortunate and had the best base training ever. Not that my racing history is extensive but anyways, last year I thought I knew what I was doing preparing for the race season but I really feel I'm prepared now, better than ever. I have had an amazing off season full of logging base miles/hours and now it's time to go fast!

Everyone has races they want to do, love to do and so forth. One thing is for sure, I will be going after an overall podium finish in the SERC series, that being said I will def do 7-8 SERC races without a doubt. I also want to race a few PRO XCT events as well, these races are the bigs! I never would have thought I'd be fast enough to tow the line with the best in the country, but here I am and I want to test myself and all the effort I've put into my training. A few of these races cross paths with some good local races and it's tough making the call. PRO XCT races will cost me alot of money/time in travel and etc. I have no real sponsorship to speak of. I work at a bike shop and earn very little money. For every dream there is sacrifice. The first race in the PRO XCT series is just outside Austin, TX and is called Mellow Johnny's Classic. Its a UCI c1 level race and promises a huge turnout with all the best in attendance. The date for this race is less than a month away and is also the same day as Snake Creek Gap. Right now, I'm sitting second overall in the Snake TT series with a decent cushion back to 3rd place by about 20 mins or so. March is the last race and I would expect everyone's times to greatly improve, meaning if I don't race the March race, my January time of 2:47 will compete with those in March. That's a toughy! I really want to race it again, I am in better shape now and really feel I can improve and at least beat Thomas Turner's January time. I fully expect him to come out and destroy his January time as well. It's all just a gamble...

 All that said, I've decided Mellow Johnny's is more important. I need to gauge myself and see where I am at going into XC season. I will not get the push I need racing Snake Creek. I will completely get my ass handed to me in Texas and that's what I need.

I want to wish the best of luck to all of my friends going after the coveted belt buckle at Snake Creek and all those just going drop the hammer! Make me proud and kill it!

2013 Snake Creek Gap, the January Edition.

The Beautiful Pinhoti trail system.

Holla from the hills of North Georgia!

2013 Snake Creek Gap TT was this past Saturday. For those of you that don't know what Snake Creek is, I'll give you a brief run down... Its a 34 mile mountain bike race with a time trial format. Sending racers out in 20 second intervals to conquer their best result ascending over 5,000 feet of climbing and racing over the best singletrack the Pinhoti trail system has to offer! And oh yeah, it gets progressively more challenging leaving the most difficult rock gardens for the last few miles when you're at your weakest.

This was the first time I have had the chance to do this race but I'll be honest, I was well prepared having ridden the course several times prior. My friends and I frequent North Georgia to ride the Pinhoti trails all the time. I had a goal in mind for this race, there is tough competition and I signed up for Money Class hoping to make a podium spot. Typically, the Man himself Thomas Turner(Jamis Bicycles) wins this event with a low 2:40ish time. Smokin! My goal was to get in the 2:50ish range.

We arrived at the Dry Creek Trailhead at what we thought was plenty of time to get a head start from all the other racers. Everyone on our team wanted to be some of the first to go off, advantage being that you don't have all the "trail traffic" passing all the slower racers that start ahead of you. Well, no such luck for us. The line was already massive and some racers were already leaving!

We got geared up/bundled up, said our best wishes to each other and the race was on!

And as if a 30 degree start isn't cold enough..... try this...

Being this race is in January it's cold as balls. The most talked about part of this race is a creek you have to ride across 10 mins into the race. It's deep. It's cold. And it's gonna suck for a few miles after you ride through it! On the double track climb after the creek crossing, I probably passed over 50 riders. All of them very polite with my eagerness to pass with every second counting in a TT. I encountered my first and only real issue with the race on the first singletrack climb, it was bottle necked with over 30 people and everyone walking. WALKING! NO! I had no choice but to throw my bike over my shoulder and pass how I could. I've ridden this climb in training several times and I lost major time due to the pile up. I keep my nerves under control. Reached the summit and started the gravel road descent to Pine Needle Hill. The race has a "half-way" point. The first half of the course is super flowy and way faster than the last half so I rode conservatively passing as safe as I could. My mentality was to conserve energy for the last half, especially the last 8 miles, because those are the most technical and will suck the life out of anyone with weak legs and soft lungs. I reached the half way point somewhere around 1:15. YES! 5 mins under my goal time, I was stoked and keep my head down with a bright attitude for the hell that awaited!

The last half of the race starts with a 2.5 mile climb with some steep pitches. The trail basically continues to climb until you dump out into a double track/gravel road climb about 1.5 miles long that then enters the last singletrack section of the race. Get your food in here because you can barely drink in the last hour of the race if your objective is to hammer. It's rock city! This was it, I conserved all I could anticipating this section. with about 5 miles left to go there is a sections called "the wall". Fear by most and conquered by few. However short, it's steep enough it's hard to walk up without a 200+ HR. I kicked it into low gear and climbed the wall with 2:20 on my clock. Right on schedule for a 2:50!

I think it was the fact that I had most of the team just behind me, I really expected a few of them to catch me at this point in the race. It gave me extra motivation to hammer down. I felt great and cleared the last few miles with confidence.

My official time was 2:47. just under 3 mins slower than Thomas Turner. I'm ecstatic. Hard work and training really does pay off. This race was a gauge for me. A test to see how my season my go. It's early in the season to be digging so deep, but it's nice to know that without any intensity training I had this good of a result. Right now, I'm sitting 2nd in Money Class and I'll be back in February to hopefully beat my January time!

Anyone looking for a sweet ass back country MTB race. The Snake is it! Great trail, great support and great fun!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Shake what ya momma gave ya!

Alot has happened since my last post on this thing. So, I decided to dust of the cobwebs and bring her back from the dead! 2012 is almost over, the Mayans didn't know shit and we are all still alive, so hooray for that. Bikes are still the center my life and not much has really changed in that department. I did have a super hot girlfriend for a while there but it didn't work out so well for us. Who needs chicks when you have bikes?!

Im still wrenching at and managing the shop here in Tennessee. We actually just expanded and opened a new location is Mt. Juliet. Work was a bit crazy this summer and really got in the way of bike racing for me. I guess that happens sometimes but for 2013, it's race like mad or bust! I finally have things set up at my employer to where I will be able to be off on saturdays for racing/traveling. I'm so damned happy!

A few major points in racing for me in 2012 was a big win against Mike Olheiser in a MTB race in Chattanooga at Raccoon Mtn. He and I were the only ones in the Pro category so it was a head to head battle. I let him have the hole shot so I could study his weaknesses since I know he is a powerhouse stud on the road, I knew his fitness was top notch. I laid down my attack on the first lap in a technical rocky section and dropped him, he was over a minute behind me after the first lap. I threw down on the second lap making it even faster than the first wanting to bury his chance of bridging the gap back to me. As it turns out Mike dropped out of the race after that lap. He did Tour of Utah a week before hand and was toast I guess, Pehaps that race didn't mean much to him but to me every race is a battle, it's a war. I'm sure he won't forget me after that race, I'm certain he just thought he could walk away from me no problem so I'm glad with that result and I'll take it as a big W.

Here is a shot from that race! And oh yeah... I'm rocking the dually these days!

Another big win for me was a Pro123 crit downtown Nashville. Ive had several top 5's and a second place finish once. I'm a tiny dude, at 5'8'' and 125 lbs. I'm not exactly a stellar crit racer. But on this particular day,

I played my cards right, got in the break, pulled hard and attacked right for a solo finish to the line.

Perhaps the biggest result for me all year wasn't even a first place finish but second. The first loser. 2nd sucks ass. The Black Bear Rampage brings some big names to the table and I was honored to finish second place to Thomas Turner. I trailed him by 5 mins in a 2:30 race, never could close the gap but it never grew. Although the race was in Ocoee it was relatively flat for being in the mtns, with a little more climbing I think I could have done a little better. Anyways, congrats to Thomas and next year I'm coming for ya!

So in the shape of things to come, 2013 is going to be a big season for me. I'm turning my focus off of endurance racing and I will be racing the PRO XCT and SERC series. I will only miss 3 PRO XCT events and I'm hoping to do well enough in those to gain some UCI points to have a good starting position next year. The SERC series is a more regional but boost big name pros like Ryan Woodall, Thomas Turner, Robert Marion and sometimes Drew Edsall. I want to be more competitive in this series and really roll my dice to potentially podium in the overall standings. We shall see how it all unfolds!

I'm going to start posting more often to hopefully gain some publicity for myself and my racing endeavors.

I will leave you guys with this final picture of my racing bike for 2013 because I think it's gorgeous as hell. 2013 Specialized Epic with American Classic race 29s. Kaboom!

Thanks for reading and until next race...



Chickasaw Trace Classic

The 17th annual Chickasaw Trace Classic was this past sunday. 17 years?! Wowza, I was stoked to be a part of a race that has that much local history. Ive heard since moving to Nashville this was one of the largest participating MTB events in the TBRA series. I think their were around 265 racers in attendance, not too shabby. Chickasaw is my favorite trail in the Nashville area even though Ive only ridden it twice, once in preride and then during the race. It has a bit of everything, a technical uphill rock garden, some short steep climbs to keep you honest as well as some all out bigring sections where the limit of how fast you can go is decided by your two cylinders!

The PRO class was small but stacked with some respected guys. Dustin Greer(maxxis-wood n wave) got the hole shot and charged in the muddy corners of the first few miles of our first lap. I attacked with Craig Evans in town on an open field flat area. That attack was good enough for he and I to take the 1-2 win. I was able to hold Craig off for the first lap but he killed it the 2nd lap posting the fastest lap of the day and also bridging back up to me. We cruised the 3rd lap into the finish together with a sizable gap on the rest of the field.

Start of the race.

PRO podium, that's right TEAM BC sweeps it!

Booker MR. T!

March 11th was my first XC race of the 2012 season. It took place in Chattanooga, Tn at the Booker T. Washington state park. Typically when I go to Chatty I ride Raccoon Mtn and I was excited to ride somewhere new even though I knew the course wouldn't be as fun as Raccoon. Alot of the Nashville locals told me not to expect much from this race as far as competition and cash payout for podium finishes, and they were right. I was a little disappointed because the course was actually a freaking blast and the venue is super nice.

So I haven't raced my new Superfly let alone raced a MTB since the lock 4 six hour challenge months ago! I was stoked to see how my legs would feel especially since my winter training has been different from most cyclists training and I have done very little intensity.

Here are some pre race pictures...

This is my teammate Josh Lewis and I.

Downing a Larabar for prerace fuel and a nice solid post race dump!

My darling girlfriend and I before the start. She was a big support, she rules!

This year is my first year racing as a PRO. I'm not really super confident in my abilities as an XC racer and I prefer longer endurance events. I figured this low key race would be a good warm up for Chickasaw Trace in two weeks and a big confidence booster. Only one other PRO dude showed up so they raced us with all the other Cat 1 guys. There was 18 of us total.

The race went pretty textbook. The start had a little paved road climb that allowed me to get a gap on the field going into the woods. I love getting the hole shot and riding upfront and riding hard the first lap is my preferred way to race. I pretty much mantained that gap for the entire race. Every lap I put about 2 mins on the second place finisher. Think my total time over him was about 6:30 mins. I felt good, my superfly was legit and flawless. I just put down a steady hard effort and the legs never really felt bad. I am ready for the new racing season, so bring it!

Here are some shots from the race.

Podium Shot Courtney took, 1st and 2nd place PRO class. I'm tiny!

 Trek Superfly HT 29er at work!

 The course was actually dry and fast but a few of these made it seem like it was a mud fest.

 Butt Shot, get at me.

 This reminds me of my BMX days, love it.

Thanks for reading and all that jazz.

2012 Trek Superfly Elite

Most anyone who knows me, knows I've been racing an Orbea Lanza HT 29er for a while. It served its purpose for me, I did countless races and endurance events on it. I felt it was time to get something a little nicer, I have some big goals for the 2012 racing season and that bike was starting to hold me back. Alot of crazy good things have fell in to place for me since moving to Nashville. I have a great job and a great boss who has a deep passion for his customers and their athletic goals. It doesn't stop there, he is super supportive of my racing as well. Along with David and the help of a Trek rep Will Stoffel, I will be sporting a 2012 Trek Superfly Elite HT 29er this year.

It has been close to a month since I built this badboy up. I have already done three 5+ hour rides on it. It is really difficult to describe how a bicycle can be so freakin' comfortable and yet be crazy stiff and accelerate like a bat outta hell. This bike is just that. It is by far the nicest MTB I have ever gotten to ride. It comes with a full Shimano XT package. The new XT is phenomenal. I think Trek really has the edge over many other competitors this year by specing their bikes more than not with Shimano components. The wheels Trek spec on this bike are the Bontrager RL's which are one tier down from the top shelf aluminum RXL wheels. Some people will say they are on the heavy side but these are the most responsive wheels I have ever ridden. Although the 142x12 rear end helps! They make my Stans Crest wheels feel like noodles. I think too many riders get caught up over weight and neglect ride quality. This superfly weighs in at 23 pounds, hard to complain about that anyways.

My first A race this year is the Cohutta 100 in Ducktown, TN. I finished 17th overall last year around the 7:30ish time. This year I have a top ten goal and I know I am now one step closer with this Trek Superfly!

I will post pictures soon.
Thanks for reading.
-Kyle Taylor

2011 Berryman Trail Epic

Oct 22 was the 4th annual BTepic. I wanted to do this race really bad last year so I was super stoked to do it this year. Bt epic is a 55 mile MTB race in the Ozark MTNS of southern Missouri. The course offers just shy of 6k feet of climbing with mixes of fast flowy benchcut style singletrack to all out "bigring" doubletrack. The race has a pretty big payout and even higher level of competition. This was without a doubt the most competitive race I've done all year.

So, I was fortunate enough to have the company of Craig Evans on the trip with me. Craig is a professional triathlete and Xterra athlete. Needless to say, he's a hammerhead. The insane thing is Craig has IM Florida in less than two weeks and decided to race the BTepic on a whem. Pro's can do that I guess.

We left late thursday after I got off work, Loaded up in Craigs baddass Audi and headed to St. Louis. We stayed the night with one of Craigs friends, Matthew. Matthew was super nice, thanks for the hookup dude! We woke up and made the drive together down to the race venue site where we had a cabin reserved that was ballin' out of control. Super cool.

This was my seat in the back of the car!! Damn, to be so tiny...!

This is Craig assessing how much luggage a man needs to bring for a mtb race, apparently its more than a woman needs!

Our cabin! Total summer camp style, it was awesome.

Matt, Craig and I wanted to preride the last 15 miles of the course. We drove to one of the checkin points of the race, ate lunch, geared up and rode a bit. It wasn't long into the ride that it became apparent this was going to be a very fast section of the course. There was a lot of leaf cover of the trail, it made some of the off-camber twisty sections difficult. And.... Not even 5 MILES into the trail I took a spill on one of those sections. After the crash I thought my race was over. I broke two spokes, bent my derailleur hanger and derailleur. The spokes breaking pushed into my tape and caused a flat as well. So, my preride turned into a 4 mile run! YAY! I wasnt giving up that easy. Back at the cabin, I was able to get the bike rideable for the short track race that evening. I was having issues with the threads on the derailleur being compromised but luckily it held up for the race that evening.
Here's a pic of Craig and myself before the short track race...

The short track didn't receive as many riders as I was expecting, but it was a freakin blast. 15+ riders would have been a mess on that course anyways. A crash in the second lap pretty much caused a break of 3 guys in the lead consisting of Craig, some pro dude from Colorado and myself. Garth Prosser of Cannondale almost bridged the gap back to us but came a little shy... must have been the 8 hour drive straight to the line up of the race that did him in! I haven't done alot of high intensity training in a while and the short track hurt so good. Craig and I fell into the green on the race with a 1-2 finish, we worked together perfectly and I learned alot during that race.

Later that night we had some s'getti for dinner and rested our legs. I was able to change my rear wheel so that I wouldn't have to race the epic on a wheel with 2 broken spokes, so I was very happy about that.

We woke up to a very cold Saturday morning. We knew it would warm up quick but freezing at the start is no fun. I overdressed and regretted it later in the race. I think there were around 300 racers totally. The start to this race was a 2.5 mile gravel road that dipped into missouri's best singletrack. The gravel road climb start saw alot of accelerations due to the $75 prime for first to the singletrack. No joke, this was the fastest start to any race I have ever been in, faster than any XC race, anything, period. I was happy with my position going 7th into the woods and felt that was optimal for trying to secure a top 10 in the race. Craig was 9th into the woods and quickly made it to 8th right behind me, so it was off to a perfect start. All until we come to the first climb(always the real deciding factor of any race)... I was still having shifting issues due to my wreck the day before and my chain got caught in between the spokes and rear cassette. I worked like hell to bridge back up the lead group and made contact to see only another climb with the same issue. It was here I realized my top ten wasn't going to happen. Due to my bent hanger and derailleur I wasn't able to use my lower gears and saw issues of my chain popping under heavy pedaling. I was able to finish the race but I was forced to walk the steep climbs... basically making my strength my weakness. Everyone that knows me, knows I love to climb. Midway in the race, I was still sitting top 20 and a group I was in made a wrong turn onto a fire road causing us to lose a total of 20 mins. I thought I had it bad, but later found out some guys lost 30. The race was marked well all but in this one spot. Craig finished a solid 9th with a few flats slowing him down. I limped in with a 23rd finish in the time of 5:01... All of the negatives aside, the top 30 racers all could have and should have broken 5 hours. That's one hell of a race and why I will be returning next year with a vengeance!! The same things you hate about MTB racing are some of the things you have to love. Racing is character building, to hang on, fight and never give in. Even being held back by things you have no control over, you put your head down and hammer the sections you can! Until next time, cheers!