GoPro Games (luke jay)

GOPRO games was awesome. I raced the Ultimate Mountain Challenge again and although bettering my times from last year I dropped a spot and finished 4th place. Its cool though because the three dudes in front of me are all real deal fast ass pro athletes. Josiah Middaugh won again (for like 5th straight year) and Travis Macy as always was right behind in 2nd...and Adam Wirth (xterra buddy) from Idaho brought his fast cycling legs to Vail to claim third. So sat morning starts with the 4mile downriver kayak down gore creek (class 2/3) ...20:00 min later and its over. No swimming or major mistakes and I'm stoked. A few hrs later all 8-9 Pro UMC guys lined up behind the huge PRO mtb field. Its a brutal course of 3x6mile laps...lots of climbing. I felt ok but lost enough time to Adam that I knew a podium repeat would be tough. Early sunday morning at 8am we are all lined up with a very fast and large field to race the 10k trail run (11k) ...its at 9,000 feet and we climbed 2k in just 6.5-7 miles...its brutal. I felt strong on the run and could tell all my running helped (weird huh?) I finished 16th overall (with some very strong pro runners) and beat Adam by 5min. (54min finish time) Next was the classic Vail TT up vail pass. 9.8 miles up to 10,000 feet. Once again my legs felt decent but no "snap"...I finished 4th place overall Pro after the 4 events. It was a great weekend with Becca and Ryder. Ryder had a blast at the games doing the zipline, slackline, free stuff, biking, and watching pro BMX dudes jumping. Its rad to see him hyped on this stuff and he yelled at me to "drop the hammer" a few time during the races...so good!  Got home late on sunday from the games and was pretty tired ...but Monday I had a 3hr trail run as Patrick told me I had to run on tired legs...it went solid and I did 20miles with 3k+ of vertical.

A few "gear notes" ....For tires I have been running the GEAX AKA and really like this tire for 95% of Colorado conditions. GIRO aeon helmet has been awesome! super light and comfortable. I'm running the GIRO code mtb shoes this year and have been super impressed with the fit, comfort and stiffness. I used swiftwick socks for all the events and will be using these socks for all my Leadville races including the Leadville 100 run. Don't underestimate the need for good socks and swiftwick is the best in my opinion.  The badass dudes at Adrenalin cycles keep my bikes running smooth and have everything you need for cycling or racing.

Supporters of the project

Huge thanks to Champion System for helping us with the new kits. They are top notch. Shoot me an email and i'll get you in touch with their custom rep if you are interested in getting some custom kits (great pricing!)
Also a shout out to GIRO for shoes, helmets, gloves, and LIFEPROOF for the amazing waterproof (bikeproof) iphone cases. Seek and Enjoy!

300 miles of ________

"Is this the hardest thing you've ever done?"

"yes it is...you?"

"yes....this is harder than i thought it would be"

"I'm so thirsty"

300 miles of riding. Mostly hard singletrack. Tons of hike-a-bike. Arizona sun, cactus, rocks. This is the AZT300 in a few short words, minus the cuss words one feels during this amazingly hard bikepacking race.
It was brutal and as much a mental challenge as a physical one. Finish time was 3day 3hrs. 75hrs total and of that we rode/hiked for 58 hrs!The lows and highs were extreme. Patience and fatigue was tested to the limit. It's pretty amazing what the body can do if you really will it or just believe you can do something. It was a deep and hard experience but something I am glad we did.

Here is my best recap of what happened. Myself (Luke Jay) and Adam Vaughan drove from Colorado on Thursday for the Friday start. We got stranded on a closed 1-25 (near Trinidad) due to ice and snow on the road. 12 hrs later we met up with Casey Hill and Jason Michalak at the finish trail head (picket post, Superior, AZ) We prepped the bikes and drove to Tucson that night. Our buddy Steve Osborne (bikepacking forum) picked us up early in the AM and drove us to the start right near the Mexico Border...THANKS STEVE! Jason, Adam and Myself rolled out with about 40 other racers at 9am. It was pretty warm by 10-11am and me and Jason just forced the early calories down knowing we had a few LONG days of saddle and suffering ahead. Casey's bike had some tire/tubeless issues late the night before so he decided to get brand new tires on Friday morning in Tuscon and meet us in Patagonia...he would miss the start and first 30 miles but Casey is punk rock and was ready to roll when we came into Patagonia. We filled up the bottles and headed out (all 4 of us together)...we knew if probably wouldn't stay this way as there are way too many variables out on the trail to stay together. In Sonoita Adam decided to sit and refuel as he wasnt' feeling great. We later found out his stomach was pretty messed up and he was dehydrated and cramping. He rode all the way to Kentucky camp before making the wise decision to pull the plug and then having to ride all the way back to Patagonia...brutal. So it was Casey, Jason, and Myself cruising along feeling good with the first 60-70 miles under our belts...we didn't know what lay ahead, oh what naive littlet boys we were! At roughly 85 miles in Jason's light was stuck on dim and we were on tech single track...Me and Casey trudged on and left Jason to handle himself. He was fine but just moving slow. We figured we would cross paths soon enough. About 100 miles in me and Casey had almost no food left...we decided to push to Tucson (122 miles) and make sure we had food and water first thing in the AM. It was a serious push and we rolled into Safeway around 3am. We grabbed some warm junk at gas station and found a good spot to camp near school. We slept in a bit and rolled to Starbucks about 7am...we where pretty shelled and tired so we took our sweet time. Casey proceeded to order 2 Venti Coffees and down them both in 10min.

We stocked up with food at Safeway and where back on the trail by 8am...after some serious climbing and missing a turn we where cranking away the slow miles in the heat...it was getting brutal. Almost ran out of water and filtered some from a sketchy "stream". After a massive hike-a-bike out of some canyon we made it to the bottom of Mt Lemmon...refill with water...Casey pooped for 10min...We started the long 18mile haul up Mount Lemmon and Casey hammered the climb like the roadie he is...I passed Max Morris and Aussie Ross on the climb and we all rolled into the Summerhaven cafe about 7:50pm (20min behind Casey)...we ate alot! Sweet potato fries, coke, coffee, pie, hummus, chicken wings. We felt good and full and decided to ride as much of Oracle as possible..well 5 min into Oracle we realized it was "hike as much as oracle" as possible..our plan was to hike till 1 or so and then sleep. We saw a light catching us from behind, it was Neil. The dude had to buy a new fork in Tuscon and had made great time and caught back up to us. He was speed hiking like a runner and had his headphones in and was jamming. The three of us passed Dave Wilson in his bivy and he yelled something funny about us missing our campground. The three of us rode/hiked till 1-2 am then found a good bivy spot. Amazing sunrise and then Dave rides by as we are getting ready. Neil took off after a few minutes of riding and me and Casey kept moving along.

We rolled into Oracle (gas station) about 9am and bought a ton of food and ate as much as we could (about 18hrs later we found out we grossly underestimated how much food we needed) a few hrs of pretty fun riding and things are a little less clear after this...i think because i was focused on the GPS, worried about water supply, etc....we just basically went into "tunnel vision survival mode" and do what you need to do to keep moving. We suffered in the heat and my rear tire was getting bald...so i had to take it easy on the rocky sections and descents...I hear my tire go psssssss! crap!. Hopped off and turned the leak down and within a couple seconds the Stan's plugged it up...but our stress level was pretty high as we are 60miles from anywhere and its almost 90 degrees, no shade, no water for 20+miles. Pray and hope we make it. We finally hit the Freeman water cache (mile 226 ish) late that afternoon (2nd day) and our bottles where bone dry (after no water antelope) as the sun was going down we stopped for bit (15min) to eat ...we saw two guys behind us and realized it was Jason and Ross...seeing them was a good moral boost and the 4 of us rode together. I was still pretty worried about my tire (geax aka) as it was getting more and more "bald" with each mile. Ross kept hammering leaving Jason, Casey, and myself back together again. The "Bro-muda triangle".

As we started getting later into the night I truly feel this was the time where the real challenge started. It was dark and technical and the miles where barely ticking by. The smallest things seem to aggravate us. It's hard to focus and your mind really "wonders"...you start "seeing things" and your butt hurts. Knowing we still had 50-60miles left of really hard terrain was extremely hard to digest and accept. We rode late into the night thinking we might be able to push up and over through the night. We had almost no food left. After some debating back and forth we finally just stopped and camped
around 2-3am.

We had about 30 miles left. We woke up at dawn and where back riding by 5:45. The sun and heat came way to soon. We made the decision to filter water from the Gila river. Its gross and metallic but we needed water so be it. We all had spread out to suffer solo at our own slow paces...but making sure we stopped and could at least see each other. I saved one single GU for when/if things got "bad enough"  I took it around 10am. The final 9 miles was downhill and took forever but we made it around noon. Casey finished about 30min in front of me and Jason was a 15-20 minutes behind me. I had zero food left and 10oz of water left. It was 92 degrees. My tire looked like a road tire. Blistered hands. Jason's hub axle broke in the last 1/2 mile. Numb toes. Adam was waiting with some gatorade, coke, snacks with Ross. I think i just sat there for 10-15 minutes decompressing....it was done. Loaded up the car.  "Let's go get some pizza".   

bikepacking for Arizona 300

If  this picture doesn't evoke an awesome feeling of adventure and fun...then something is wrong with you. Here are a couple of our setups for the upcoming AZT300. We will be pedaling 300 miles across the AZ desert (self supported) ...follow along with us here!    http://www.trackleaders.com/aztr13     its starts friday at 9am (april 19th). 

AZT 300 mtb ride countdown (1 week away)

This feels more like a small expedition than a race. Checklists, logistics, gear, gps files, more gear, getting water on course, bike prep, etc.... The feeling is accurate and I am being 100% honest when I say our goal is to finish. We will be riding 300 miles in the desert of Arizona next week. Fully self supported. No drop bags, no support crew, just us, our bikes and the legs (hopefully) to get to finish. The crew will be Jason Michalak coming off a 3rd place ride at 24hr of old pueblo covering 250+ miles in 24hrs. Our buddy Casey Hill coming from oregon with enough power in his legs to race in Europe (he did). Our other buddy Adam Vaughan who just rode 150 miles at the "anti epic" on his CX bike last weekend, and Myself, Luke Jay.  Stay tuned as i will post links to spot trackers, bike setups, gear lists. SEEK AND ENJOY!

 AZT Rules: No entry fee, no prizes, absolutely no support1. Complete the entire route, under your own power.
2. No support crews
3. No caches
4. No motorized transport or hitch-hiking, even off route
5. Gear - Nothing required, nothing prohibited

The Arizona Trail 300 is a self supported, wilderness mountain biking race held on a portion of the cross state Arizona Trail. The race follows the trail as closely as possible from Mexico to Superior, AZ, covering some 300 miles of varied terrain (elevations range from 1600 to 8100 ft). The trail surface is primarily singletrack, but the race will detour on dirt and pavement to bypass wilderness areas the trail passes through. This is not an organized or sanctioned event in any way. It's simply a group of friends out to ride their bikes on the same route at the same time. We'll probably compare times afterwards, but more importantly, we'll compare experiences -- the highs and lows the trail and mountains offered us.

warming up

"Seek and Enjoy"...it's a play on the classic "seek and destroy". But happier and It fits our "mission statement" as a collective of endurance athletes. We are all gearing up for the season to start, pound our legs, and race our face's off. Racing and training is what we love. Spending time in the Colorado mountains is truly a gift.

Here is a quick snapshot on what we are all gearing up for. WILL KELSAY, PATRICK VALENTINE, and JASON MICHALAK are all hard at work getting ready for the XTERRA pro national tour. Most will kick of the season at XTERRA Las Vegas. TRAPPER STIENLE is piling on the bike miles whenever possible (after just having their second kid!) and gearing up for a solid summer of mt endurance racing. Look for him at Leadville as well as the RME races. JASON HILGERS and SEAN FEY have teamed up to tackle the uber tough BRECK EPIC later this summer. They will be both be racing a solid mix of mtb races, xterra , and endurance events in preperation for the big show. Keep and eye out for JASON MICHALAK and LUKE JAY as they tackle the tough AZT300 in arizona starting april 18th...its a 300 mile self supported mtb race along the AZ border.

***Also check out our instagram page....instagram is a rad platform for capturing pics of everyday training and playing. Follow along with us for good times.   Instagram: theadrenalineproject

sneak peak (press release)

Amazing new team kits are coming soon from Champion System. We are very stoked to have them helping us out with the adrenalin project and couldn't be happier on the design. Huge shout outs to Giro who are providing killer shoes, helmets and gloves. Also very excited to have Lifeproof   providing us with their amazing cases for Iphones which allow us to document our adventures with waterproof, weatherproof, tough cases. We also believe in supporting your local bike shop and that's why we ride with adrenalin cycles check them out for the best product and service in Colorado.

Will Kelsay, Trapper Stienle, Jason Michilak, Patrick Valentine, Luke Jay, Sean Fey, Jason Hilgers