Jim Hewett's Blog – March 2010 Archive (4)

If you are an American pro mountain bike racer without the support or ability to race in Europe, the Pro XCT is the series on which you will focus in 2010. Though I will probably not do every race in the series, I am compelled to do Fontana and Sea Otter because they are relatively close. This is a completely different level than the local stuff. Sure, there are some fast guys in NorCal, but these races bring the fastest guys in America and Canada. The question changes from "will I win this…

So I'm on my way down to Fontana for the first Pro XCT national race. I am seeing accounts as I go, which has brought me to Santa Barbara today. I got into town and checked into my hotel by 5:30. After all of the driving over the last two days, I knew I needed to spin around for an hour. I kitted up and started tooling around the strip malls on my Superfly. There were some beautiful hills in the distance, but I was having trouble navigating my way through the neighborhoods and private…

You never know what the weather is going to be like at this race. Last year was raining and very sloppy. This year it was sunny and still sloppy. I have to say I prefer the sun to the rain, and I don't mind the mud so much.

I won this race last year, pretty much riding by myself from the halfway point. I was hoping for a little more competition this year and I got it.

Timmel won the race in 2008 and he was here again this year. I knew there were some fast young guys that would…

A portion of the team met this morning to do a time trial up Eldridge Grade on Mt. Tam. Paul, Carl, Kevin, Mandy and I left together and did our first timed run up Eldridge for the year. It is still a little early in the training for a personal best, but these times give us an idea how our training is going and a good benchmark by which to judge improvement in the months ahead. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of other people out. Luckily we were going uphill on a fireroad, so…