With all the fuss over and focus on whether Boulder’s Flagstaff climb will feature in stage 6 of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, it’s easy to lose sight of the stage 4 finish into Beaver Creek.
Beaver Creek Village (via Explore Colorado Blog)
Adam Lueck, local organizing committee chair for Beaver Creek, confirmed the stage 4 finish will be uphill. Lueck shared on Tuesday night at the celebration for the 2012 host cities that three options exist: Village Road, Bachelor Gulch, and Strawberry Park. “We have a lot of homework to do,” to select the best option, he said. The selection will consider, “what makes sense for the community and the competition.”
Following are speculative routes for these three options from Avon to Beaver Creek Village, traced on MapMyRide; all end in the same place. Route reconnaisance could point to potentially different finish lines. The race organizers say the final route is expected to be announced in March.
- Option 1: Village Road — the shortest option with a length of 4.3 miles, a steady category 2 climb* with average gradient of 6.5% and no descent to break up the climb to the finish.
- Option 2: Bachelor Gulch Trail / Daybreak Ridge Rd — 10 miles long with a category 1 climb* of 5.5 miles followed by a descent and almost 1 mile 4% ascent.
- Option 3: Strawberry Park Rd — 6 miles long with a category 2 climb* of 4 miles followed by a short descent and a final uphill of nearly 1 mile.
*MapMyRide category
Tom Danielson (l), 2003 Tour of Langkawi
Has Tom Danielson reached back to memories of his 2003 Tour of Langkawi win to frame his approach to his 2012 season? Here’s what he told the Norwegian Syklingens Verden.com in 2003 when asked if his win in Langkawi came as a surprise: “Yes, it completely came as a surprise. I was just going over there to learn and become a better racer, I had no expectations.”
That’s how the Team Garmin-Cervélo rider intends to approach his primary goal for 2012, the Tour de France, where he finished ninth in 2011 as the highest placed American. On Monday night at a meet and greet for fans in Boulder which doubled as a celebration of the city’s selection as a finishing location for the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Danielson was asked this question: “Do you have a placement in mind for the Tour de France?”
Danielson replied, “Nope, I can’t say…” He paused. “I have a performance in mind.”
So the reporter reframed the question: “What marks a good performance for you in the Tour?” Bingo.
“Now that’s the best question I’ve ever had,” Danielson said. “A good performance for me in the TDF is going in with confidence and without expectations. I think to go into these events with an expectation is a limiter for me, because I either meet that expectation and then I stay at that expectation or I don’t meet it and become frustrated that I didn’t meet it. So my goal and a good performance is to go in there with no expectations and with a lot of heart and just give it my all every single day from the start to the finish line.”
Tom Danielson autographing photos at Tossa (photo by Mary Topping)
It sounds like Danielson plans to repeat another approach from his past, this one from last year: spending as much time as he can training at home and with his family. The team’s training camp in Calpe, Spain, is slated for mid-January. Danielson intends to return to Boulder before traveling to Malaysia to start in the Tour of Langkawi on February 24th. He said, “I’ll train out of Boulder or if it’s too cold I’ll go somewhere else, but try to do a little altitude if I can.” He’d like to “try to stay relaxed with the family and in familiar environments early on in the season, and then really intensify the focus and training as we get closer to July,” he said. His program doesn’t include the Giro d’Italia in May.
2012 will be his first time competing in the ten-day Malaysian race since 2005 when he placed fifth while riding for the Discovery Channel Team. He’s looking forward to everything about the Tour of Langkawi: the country’s tropical heat and humidity, the pristine roads where monkeys sometimes play, and the huge crowds. “Of course I’m very passionate about that event. There’s a time trial this year, and a finish on Genting Highlands – I love that climb,” Danielson said. Genting Highlands is a steep 25 km ascent; Danielson won the stage that finished there in 2003. “I’ll want to do well there for sure if I can, but it’s early in the year, and it’s not really worth worrying about all the variables I can’t control,” he said. “I’ll just go there and ride as well as I can and test out how I’m going after the off-season.”
Tom and Stevie Danielson before Thanksgiving Ride for Juniors (Mary Topping)
Timmy Duggan, Dominik Nerz, friend of Ted King, in Lucca (l to r, photo by Ted King)
[updated 5/28/2012. Timmy is the new U.S. road champion for 2012.]
Timmy Duggan is brave.
He recovered from a traumatic brain injury and returned to professional cycling. After just one year on the Liquigas-Cannondale Pro Cycling Team, he completed a video in Italian during the team’s first 2012 season camp in Passo San Pellegrino. He’s building a house in Nederland, Colorado, a town that’s best known for its Frozen Dead Guy Days’ coffin races. Mama mia.
And as if that’s not enough, he agreed to beta test the first set of Off the Beaten Road questions. The purpose of Off the Beaten Road is to provide original interview content that offers insights into athletes’ personalities. All of Timmy’s replies are via email.
Timmy’s first race of the 2012 season will be the Tour de San Luis in Argentina in January. He should know more about the rest of his 2012 racing program during Liquigas-Cannondale’s second camp, which is underway in Sardinia. Be sure to check Timmy’s journal and tweets for more about the team’s camps.
Before digging into the test questions, Timmy described a typical day at the team’s training camp: “Wake up, breakfast, yoga, suit up and go on a ride, usually in a couple smaller groups. Return, lunch, nap. Then I go to lift weights in the gym. Get some computer work/emails done. Dinner. Bed. Also camp is the time to get equipment issues ironed out before the race season gets underway.”
Q: Do you all do yoga at training camp? What’s your favorite pose?
“I just do my own yoga at camp. My Italian team doing a group yoga class would be comical. We can barely do basic stretching all together ha ha. Fav pose…I’m working on my head stand right now.”
Dolomites, near Passo San Pellegrino (photo by Timmy Duggan)
Q: What is one of your passions outside of biking and why do you love it?
“Passions…my wife/dog/family, the mountains, skiing, going fast. Food and wine. I love how food and wine is a window into the culture of every little region or town. We have a cattle dog/black lab mix named Karli we got from the humane society. She’s awesome.”
Q: Do you have a business on the side and what is it?
“No business on the side other than the Just Go Harder Foundation.”
Q: When you think about life after you retire from pro-cycling, what does it look like?
“Life after cycling…I want to stay involved in sport, but not necessarily cycling. Sport politics…governing bodies, Olympic committee, anti doping. I think I will be back into alpine ski race coaching in some manner.”
Q: As a climber specialist, what do you think about in the start house before an individual time trial or prologue?
“I’m not only a climber, but a pretty good time trialist as well. Since my brain injury in 2008 I haven’t time trialed as well as I used to. But I love being in the start gate. It’s really familiar to me from ski racing. A really intense moment when it has to all come together in 3,2,1 go! I like the mental aspect of that moment because your mind could be in so many places and it’s really satisfying to be in the place you need/want to be in.”
2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge Denver, Timmy Duggan won Most Aggressive Rider for stage 6 (photo by Mary Topping)
Q: What’s one thing you don’t like about wearing lycra so often?
“I’m pretty used to it…any sport I’ve done since I was about 8 has involved lycra. I’m probably in lycra or my pajamas and sleeping more time than I’m in proper street clothes!”
Q: The night before my first pro bike race I ___ (fill in the blank with first thought).
“The night before my first pro bike race…I don’t remember. That was probably Redlands or something. So we were in someone’s house probably getting a home cooked meal. That’s not too bad a start. The dining only went downhill as the competition level went up!”
Q: What is your favorite electronic toy and what do you use it for?
“My favorite electronic is my Blackberry. I can get so much done all over the world at any time with it. And most importantly communicate instantly, easily, and cheaply with my wife back home.”
Q: What’s the funniest / weirdest thing you’ve ever seen happen during a race?
“At the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, we were like 5 km into the race and on the side of the road is a motorcycle cop, off his bike, waving his nightstick at this giant cobra that was all reared up and hissing to get it off the road and away from the race.”
Timmy Duggan cooking in Lucca (photo by Ted King)
Q: What is your favorite, I’m out of the training table mode, guilty pleasure food?
“My favorite guilty food is ice cream from Glacier Ice Cream in Boulder.”
Q: Do you have a good luck charm that you wear / carry to races? If yes, what is it?
“I carry a picture of my wife and dog in my jersey pocket in the race.”
Q: As a teen, what celebrity did you have a crush on and why?
“I didn’t really care much for celebrities I guess.”
Q: What’s the happiest moment you’ve ever experienced on or off the bike?
“The happiest moments on the bike are when the whole team comes together to pull off a big win. Everybody does their job and it works because of the team effort. Those are definitely the most satisfying days.”
Q: Is there a bike you don’t race and really like to ride?
“I really like racing on my Cannondale EVO Supersix. If I wasn’t racing, that’s the bike I would ride anyways.”
Timmy Duggan (photo via JustGoHarder Foundation Timmy Duggan)
Q: What piece of clothing have you owned for the longest time that you still wear?
“I still wear a pair of Adidas warm-up pants with the three stripes that I wore when I was like 13. I haven’t grown much I guess.”
Q: What is the slowest, longest ride you’ve ever done and who did you suck it up and ride slow for?
“Slowest longest ride ever was the Triple Bypass Charity ride in CO. I was riding with some team sponsors. Luckily they eventually quit early and I rode on. I was on the bike for 9 hours.”
Q: What’s your favorite place to be a tourist?
“My fav place to be a tourist is some random little town in the middle of nowhere off the beaten path when on a road trip with my wife. You find the coolest things and people and things to do where you never expect it.”
Teams
- Liquigas-Cannondale Pro-Cycling Team 2011 to present
- Slipstream Sports program beginning 2005 as Team TIAA-CREF through 2010 as Team Garmin-Transitions
Career Highlights
- USPRO Road Champion — 2012
- Multiple time member USA World Championship Team
- USPRO Time Trial / U-23 Championship Podiums – 2008, 2007, 2004
- 2011 – 7th overall, Tour of Utah; Most Aggressive Rider Stage 6, USA Pro Cycling Challenge
- 2009 – 2nd, Stage 8 Dauphiné Libéré
- 2008 – 1st , Stage 4 TTT Tour de Georgia; 2nd overall KOM Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana
- 2007 — Colorado State Road Race Champion; 2nd overall, Tour of Elk Grove
- 2006 – 5th, overall Volta Ciclista a Lleida
- 2005 – 1st, Stage 1 Tour of Puerto Rico
- 2004 – 3rd, U.S. U-23 National Road Race Championship
At the Tossa Restaurant in Boulder last night, Tom Danielson said the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC), “needs a mountain-top finish, and we need it on Flagstaff.” He mentioned several reasons why a finish on this popular and difficult ascent in Boulder would please everyone, including the convenient Starbuck’s location at the bottom of the climb.
Danielson likes his coffee, but he doesn’t need any caffeine. He’s already totally buzzed by what lies ahead next August.
Special menu at Tossa in honor of Boulder's selection and Tom Danielson
Danielson, who finished fourth in the UPCC in 2011 and rides for Team Garmin-Cervélo, appeared at Tossa to mingle with fans. He also joined Boulder local organizing committee (LOC) members and city and UPCC officials at the restaurant to celebrate Boulder’s first-time selection as a UPCC host city.
The next to last stage of the 2012 race ends in Boulder on August 25th, but the finish location hasn’t been decided.
Racing from Durango to Boulder
The UPCC will begin in Durango on August 20th. Danielson attended Fort Lewis College there, and he lived in Durango before moving to Boulder. He’s ecstatic about racing in these two places he’s called home, and at Tossa jokingly referred to the selection of both cities to host the UPCC as “part of my plan to win” in 2012. If he couldn’t win in 2012, he said, “then maybe the next year the race will have to stop in Connecticut.” Danielson grew up in East Lyme, Connecticut.
Tom Danielson autographing photos at Tossa (photo by Mary Topping)
The stage ending in Boulder will depart from Golden. Golden hosted the start of the final stage in the 2011 UPCC. Extraordinary attendance at the Golden start prompted many — even experienced guys in the pro peloton — to describe the crowds that morning as rivaling any they had seen while racing around the world, even at the Tour de France.
“Golden to Boulder is going to be scary big,” race CEO and co-chairman Shawn Hunter said, at Tossa. He’s betting it might be the most well attended stage of the 2012 race, possibly exceeding the final day’s time trial in Denver.
But Hunter expects large crowds in Durango on stage 1, too. “I think the crowds in Durango will astound everyone,” he said. Durango’s cycling culture runs deep across many of the sport’s disciplines. Danielson said, “You have people road biking, mountain biking, cyclocross, track racing; there’s a nice BMX community. Everyone down there is passionate about cycling. It will be an insane crowd.”
Fort Lewis College in Durango, bird's eye view
Danielson has talked to the committee in Durango and would enjoy a start there that incorporates his alma mater. Hunter mentioned the UPCC considered compelling bids from both Grand Junction and Durango. Conversations with Danielson about starting the race in Durango helped sway the UPCC to select it over Grand Junction as the overall start of the 2012 event.
Why the race needs Flagstaff
Will Danielson, as well as many Boulderites and other pro-cycling fans, get their wish for a Flagstaff finish? When asked about the chances for ending the stage there versus downtown, Barry Siff, co-chair of the Boulder LOC, said the final decision lies with the race organization. “We’d love to see a Flagstaff finish, but it’s all up for discussion,” Siff said. “In January, February, we’ll look at routes with the race organization. We’ll need to involve downtown Boulder for sure. No matter where it ends, Boulder will come out in droves.” Siff’s co-chair on the LOC is Andrew Shoemaker. Shoemaker owns a law firm in Boulder. Siff has experience in sports event organization through 5430 Sports which he previously owned.
Barry Siff and Andrew Shoemaker, Boulder LOC co-chairs
Danielson said at Tossa that Flagstaff is one of the hardest climbs he’s ever ridden. He described the climb as unique in the state. Unlike most Colorado roads which rise gradually, Flagstaff challenges riders with grade changes and a degree of steepness at the bottom and top other climbs don’t offer. Average gradient for the Flagstaff climb can vary depending on start and end points; one rider pegs it at 8.5% with a maximum grade of almost 13%.
Another interview for Danielson at Tossa, while a young fan waits for a dream to come true
The UPCC, “needs a stage finish that’s our Alpe d’Huez, the one climb that everyone associates with the race and wants to keep coming back to see, like Brasstown Bald in Tour de Georgia. That’s what makes memories for fans, spectators, sponsors,” Danielson said. He believes the entire peloton would be disappointed if there isn’t a mountain-top finish. Compared to ending a stage after a descent, he said, “We all love to finish on top of a mountain.”
The crowds along Flagstaff will exceed those attending a flatter finish because, Danielson said, “Everyone knows a mountain-top finish will be a defining moment in the race. I just get goosebumps thinking about how many people will be on the side of that road.”
And what could they be talking about? Tom Danielson, and UPCC's Rick Cord & Shawn Hunter (l to r) at Tossa
View of Lyons cyclocross course from hillside
[updated 12/12/2011]
It’s been a back-to-back cyclocross win weekend for single speeder Jesse Swift on the Gates Carbon Drive Team. Yesterday he won the E2 Cross of the North in Loveland, Colorado. He won the last of the Boulder Cyclo-cross series, race #5, today in Lyons, under a setting sun.
Single speed entrants get ready to race in Lyons, Jesse Swift center, Carlos Casali right (photo by Mary Topping)
Single speed start line, Boulder Cyclocross Series race #5 in Lyons (photo by Mary Topping)
The sunlight had already started to fade when the single speed men took off at about 4:05, just behind the senior men 3 group. According to Co-Race Director Lance Panigutti, ninteen riders registered for today’s race, a number that’s grown since the start of the series.
Most of the snow-covered course, including the start, ran along the athletic fields behind Lyons High School. One section of the course snaked along the side of a hill that rose behind the fields; here the riders’ path wove through grassy areas covered in a few inches of sugar snow.
Frost dusted sections of the course, and as the sun sank more riders slid out on some icy areas. They pedaled through plenty of muddy sections, but according to Swift, it didn’t cake up thickly on tires like the Loveland mud of yesterday’s race. The course didn’t feature any barriers.
On the first lap of the single speed race Joe Saperstein never lost sight of Swift. By lap two Saperstein had found Swift’s wheel.
Run-up in Lyons, first lap, Jesse Swift leads, followed by teammate then Joe Saperstein (photo by Mary Topping)
The announcer provided Swift with an important piece of information during his commentary half-way through the race. Saperstein’s trademark, he said, was to ride in the leader’s slipstream until the last lap when he’d overtake the leader. Saperstein lived up to his reputation; he passed Swift on the last lap just before the run-up on the hillside. On the way to the finish line Swift traded places with Saperstein in the growing darkness and rode to first place.
Jesse Swift leads Joe Saperstein on another hillside section (photo by Mary Topping)
Joe Saperstein on Jesse Swift's wheel before the steep run-up; Joe passed Jesse here on the last lap (photo by Mary Topping)
Jesse Swift wins just ahead of Joe Saperstein in Lyons
Saperstein has won two of the Boulder Cyclo-cross series races, in Valmont Park and at Interlocken. Going into today’s race Swift’s teammate Carlos Casali wore the single speed series leader’s jersey. Final results for the series were not available at the time of this story, but it’s likely that with his sixth place finish today Casali will retain the series leader’s jersey for the Gates Carbon Drive Team.
Jesse Swift, Carbon Gates Drive Team, just after winning in Lyons (photo by Mary Topping)
Listen to Jesse’s race summary and future racing plans in this post-race video.
Jesse Swift and Joe Saperstein after Boulder Cyclo-cross series race #5 (photo by Mary Topping)
Many thanks to Bob Pearce for his assistance with photos.
Tom Cruise in Risky Business
It all started with a phone call in November. A prospective client said she wanted interview content people hadn’t read before that offers insights into athletes’ personalities and could answer to the description “quirky.”
A few days later hints from the universe began to arrive.
First, a tweep I rarely interact with, @petereum tweeted me with a link to the Ushi video interview of Andy and Frank Schleck. Whether or not it was staged, it was different from any interview I’d ever read or seen, and hilarious. I’m not sure I learned anything new about the Schlecks or the sport of professional cycling, but I was entertained. Ushi asked several questions that were very personal and had nothing to do with bikes or bike racing.
Not long after experiencing the Ushi interview, INRNG wrote about how larger than life professional cycling personalities seem fewer than in the days of Bernard Hinault and Mario Cipollini. The second hint from the universe appeared in this comment on the INRNG story:
RiderCouncil: “Riders are not allowed anymore to freely express their mind, how do you suppose we will see some personality? Man, the interviews have been getting more boring over the past few years, there is really no excitement to them anymore.”
The universe dropped the third hint via another tweep, @cycletard, who shared a link to an opinion piece on ESPN.com by Tim Keown called, “Death of the Interview.” The article focuses on the plethora of safe, trite athlete comments that the press conference interview format generates. But he also relates this outcome to a lack of insight into the athletes as human beings. Keown wrote: “…there’s really no time for subtlety, or expecially an athlete’s personality – to intrude.”
I started to wonder: are the number of characters in pro-cycling really dwindling, or are formulaic questions and writing failing to uncover the quirky sides of our favorite cyclists, which might only emerge off the bike?
That’s how the series “Off the Beaten Road” emerged.
Creating questions that coalesce in the intersection of not asked before, fulfilling for fans, and topics the athletes would be willing to explore becomes the challenge. I proposed one to my husband: “Yes or no: I can count on one hand or less the number of times I have danced and sung in my underwear.” I was sure this one would be great.
“You can’t ask that,” my husband said, “that’s too personal, embarrassing.”
“But what’s-his-name did it in a movie. That means other humans do it too.”
“That’s the movies,” he said.
To see what questions made the cut, check back for the first “Off the Beaten Road” interview, with Timmy Duggan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale.
——————————
P.S.
Fourth, TourChats. Every Sunday night at 7pm mountain time Neil Browne and Dan Wuori host video interviews of people in the cycling industry, including athletes. They pepper the interview with a lot of what that prospective client might call quirky questions. “What do your pants look like?” “Tell us about that haircut.” I didn’t mention TourChats because I began to experience it long before the phone call with the prospective client, but it definitely belongs in the hints from the universe bucket.
2011 UPCC stage 6 downtown Golden at noon after last riders passed through (Mary Topping)
[updated 12/9/11]
The host cities and stages of the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) were announced ahead of schedule, after the Denver Post unveiled nearly all of the cities together with route details shared by anonymous sources.
- Monday, Aug. 20 Stage 1 Durango – Telluride
- Tuesday, Aug. 21 Stage 2 Montrose – Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte
- Wednesday, Aug. 22 Stage 3 Gunnison – Aspen
- Thursday, Aug. 23 Stage 4 Aspen – Beaver Creek/Vail Valley
- Friday, Aug. 24 Stage 5 Breckenridge – Colorado Springs
- Saturday, Aug. 25 Stage 6 Golden – Boulder
- Sunday, Aug. 26 Stage 7/ITT Denver
The UPCC press release indicated the final route will be determined in the spring, while the Boulder Daily Camera claimed it would be publicized more specifically in March.
The Denver Post article provides enough content to once again construct a hypothetical final route.
Stage 1, Durango to Telluride, via Lizard Head Pass.
113 miles, easy climbs with no grades over 4.1% for a sprinter’s finish. MapMyRide route for Stage 1. The 2012 edition eliminates the prologue feature of the inaugural race, a suggestion ProVéloPassion offered when examining the impact of route dynamics on GC standings.
Leopards Watering and Feeding in Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, pre-UPCC 2011 Prologue Recon (Mary Topping)
Stage 2 Montrose – Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte, via Blue Mesa Reservoir.
95 miles, easy climbs but short uphill finish to Mt. Crested Butte, which was part of the 2011 route, is likely a GC contender finish. MapMyRide route for Stage 2.
Stage 3 Gunnison – Aspen, via Cottonwood and Independence Passes.
130 miles with Indy Pass near the end will wear out much of the peloton and create a select finish with GC contenders and possibly strong descenderers like the 2011 finish into Aspen. Watch out for storms to again affect the race. MapMyRide route for Stage 3.
Independence Pass ascent view from 1K to top (Mary Topping)
Stage 4 Aspen – Beaver Creek/Vail Valley, via Independence Pass and Minturn.
98 miles, this route leaves Aspen up the steeper side of Independence Pass and winds through historic Leadville (North America’s highest incorporated city at 10,430 ft), along 10th Mountain Division Memorial Highway, and down past the quirky little town of Red Cliff. It continues through Minturn then into Avon (just west of Vail) and finishes uphill. It’s not the Mount Evans finish the UPCC said it was considering. But a 3 – 4 mile climb at about 6% grade from the town of Avon to the base of the Beaver Creek Village ski area should result in a select GC contender finish and small time separations. MapMyRide from Avon to Beaver Creek Village ski area.
Stage 5 Breckenridge – Colorado Springs, via Hoosier Pass.
About 104 miles, this includes three passes along a high elevation route — Hoosier Pass (11,541 ft), Wilkerson Pass (9,507 ft), and Ute Pass (9,165) — that drops into Colorado Springs for a break-away win or sprint finish.
Ward, Colorado. Roadside Art (Mary Topping)
Stage 6 Golden – Boulder, via Peak to Peak Highway.
About 60 miles as described by the Denver Post. Golden to Ward along the Peak to Peak Highway, Highway 72, includes about 5,000 ft elevation gain before dropping down Lefthand Canyon into Boulder. A finish downtown could promise a sprint finale. The shortage of miles in this stage begs further examination. A circuit in Boulder would raise the mileage and provide a feast for sprinters. Tom Danielson, in his comments on stage at the Team Garmin-Cervélo 2012 presentation on November 17th, suggested the Flagstaff climb is under consideration.
Stage 7/ITT Denver
The least amount of route information has been reported for the final stage, quite possibly because multiple options are under consideration or organizers have yet to identify a route. Repeating the 2011 circuit allows race organizers to memorialize another portion of the route in addition to Stage 3 over Cottonwood and Independence Passes; this yields a short eight mile time trial. This stage likely must cover more than eight miles to afford riders the chance to leapfrog in GC and maximize excitement in the final stage. Some scouting around downtown Denver is in order. A pass by the State Capital is nearly certain, and at least a small hill might lurk nearby to make the time trial that much more interesting.
These routes are rough approximations, and not meant to be interpreted as exact street-to-street selections.
Legos were Jesse Swift’s favorite toy as a kid. “There’s a freedom that you’re allowed,” he explained. “Every day you pick up your Lego set and there’s that new challenge, the idea of ‘what do I want to build today?’”
Thirty-something years later, Jesse has built a family, a list of racing results much longer than his very long beard, a teaching career, and a solid footing in the pure joy of cycling. And he just completed what he described as, “the hardest stupiest craziest most fun insane race ever!”
Jessica, Lucy, & Jesse Swift at SSCXWC (photo by Kara Kull)
Like many racing cyclists, as a young kid he jumped around in the street on a BMX bike. Jesse started pedaling a mountain bike out of necessity. “When I got into high school I was on a year-round swim team and needed a way to get to swim practice. My mom got me a mountain bike for that,” he said. “My first year in high school that was how I got around – mountain biking to school, to swim practice. That was in the early 1990’s and when mountain biking exploded, so I really got into mountain biking then.”
Mountain biking and trials riding
Fort Lewis College in Durango, bird's eye view
At Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where the dormitories hosted weekly mountain bike races, Jesse earned a degree in civil engineering in the company of guys like Tom Danielson and Todd Wells. Jesse glowed as he recounted his experience there: “Being in Durango and Fort Lewis there is no way to avoid spending every moment thinking about mountain biking. There the cycling team was the hot team on campus; it wasn’t a school that was focused on the football team or traditional jock sports. You were surrounded by others that were equally excited about cycling. People that you went to college with are now well-known cyclists. At Fort Lewis at that time it was just incredible to be there, and I loved it.”
Jesse laughed when asked if he thinks of himself as a well-known cyclist. He said, “No, I don’t. Because I still have a job. I just like to ride my bike and feel lucky I can still do it, still have fun at it, and challenge myself every year with something new.” Jesse previously taught math and science; now he teaches computers to 7th and 8th graders in Golden, Colorado.
trials bike
Jesse also began trials riding with mountain bikes while at Fort Lewis College. He competed in his first trials event in 1995, the year he also entered his first mountain bike race, the Arizona Cactus Cup, where he thinks he finished 2nd or 3rd in the sport class.
One day in 1999, as he gave it everything once again during trials and mountain bike competitions over the same weekend, he realized he couldn’t maintain both cycling disciplines. Cross-country mountain biking became his focus. In those days he rode to victories in races such as the Mountain States Cup Series, Rage in the Sage, Telluride Mountain Bike Classic, and Hell in the High Country. His tires rolled on World Cup dirt. He placed top ten at more mountain bike races than the number of teeth on a traditional chainring – make that chainrings.
Time for change
By 2009 Jesse had raced The Chili Challenge and other races six to eight times each. “I was tired of doing the same courses over and over,” he said. Taking time off became his new challenge. He went to British Colombia in Canada to enjoy the singletrack BC Bike Race stage race. The Colorado Trail became home for 60 miles daily nine days in a row in the company of friends all the way to Durango. He got married, became a dad, and finished his Masters degree in Technology in Education.
After about two years, Jesse was ready to return to racing bikes and build a new experience – single speed mountain bike and cyclocross racing. After his first single speed mountain bike race in 2010, he raced almost exclusively single speed in 2011. He loved it. In 2011 Jesse won the mountain bike single speed category of the Winter Park Epic Series and Iron Horse, and tied for 1st in the Steamboat Stinger single speed race.
The end of 2010 brought another new test for Jesse: growing a beard. A student he taught in middle school, now in high school, challenged Jesse to a no-shave November. Jesse said, chuckling, “So I went last November without shaving and that turned into no-shave December and he [the student] didn’t shave either.” After growing the beard through March, Jesse decided to see if he could keep it through the summer. “I started racing and it wasn’t that bad this summer to have a beard. So I thought, I’ll just let it keep going.”
Jesse Swift, November 2011 (photo by Mary Topping)
Now Jesse has worn the beard for a year, beating his past record of just three to four months. He has trimmed it several times, once with disappointing results. He said, “With clippers there’s that number four guard. I’d never used this really long guard. Finally I had some length to it [the beard] and I used that number four guard and it took off way more than I thought.”
And soon, to others’ dismay, it will all come off. “My wife is pregnant with our second child and she’s due in February, and I don’t necessarily want to look like this for his first moments. So I’ll shave before the baby comes. I’m hoping to make it all of 2011 with the beard.”
Cyclocross
When he competed in cyclocross during 2000 to 2002, Jesse raced against guys like Travis Brown. “My only training for cyclocross then was racing, so I stopped,” he said. Jesse returned to cyclocross with the 2011 season on a single speed bike with the Gates Carbon Drive Team. With a practice course in Golden not far from his work and home, he feels more prepared racing cyclocross now. So far this season he’s entered at least eighteen cyclocross races; he won nine of them.
Golden cyclocross course, Back to Basics race
After dueling with Craig Etheridge at the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross – New Belgium Cup in Fort Collins this past October, Jesse was disappointed he didn’t make it to Kentucky and the Derby City Cup in the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross series. Craig competed there; he won both races.
Jesse said, “I wish I could go to all the big races. There’s lots of cross racing in Colorado, just not as many big races.” Racing against new people he hasn’t raced with before is one of the reasons why he likes riding at bigger races, like CrossVegas, where he finished 3rd in the Wheelers and Dealers category this year. He said. “Racing against new people is another challenge. When someone new comes by, you have to be alert because you don’t know their style. It keeps things fresher instead of always racing against the same people.”
Jesse Swift & Craig Etheridge at SSCXWC (by Jessica Swift)
Like all bike racers, Jesse wants to win. But a different twist on that drive is emerging for him. He explained: “As you get older, you get more grounded, know your place in the world, enjoy sharing love of the bike with others. You realize it’s just a race.”
That’s a perspective he and Craig Etheridge shared at the recent San Francisco Cyclocross World Championships (SSCXWC). The start, like many aspects of the race, began unconventionally. Jesse wrote in his blog, “The race director had us gather like cattle in 3 different spots completely rearranging all of us and eliminating any organization to the start. Once we were in the 3rd location, he told us to put our bikes down and scramble down into the field. We then had a 50 yard run, to a mud hill about 50 feet long before we would try to single out your bike amongst 150 other bikes and then you could ride. The first of the tree log barriers, which were about 3 feet in diameter, all the racers were stopped due to shear number and difficulty getting over the log in the mud in a costume with a bike. From that point I knew I was out for a fun ride and decided not to take it too seriously.”
Jesse finished 27that the SSCXWC. He thinks Craig placed in about 43rd place. “He [Craig] told me once the race started and he was minutes behind off the go, he just tried to have some fun with the race,” Jesse said.
Goals and dreams
Jesse described himself as a sequential type of person. He prefers to focus on one thing at a time. “I’d like to finish well in the Colorado series and the Colorado championships, and keep spreading the word about the Gates Carbon belt drive – I really think for single speed it’s the answer. Then my next focus is my second child.”
Gates Carbon belt drive system
As he waits for his second child to arrive in February, Jesse dreams about things other than bikes. He said, “I dream about the day my kids will hopefully love cycling as much as I do. I hope that that happens; if it doesn’t that will be fine, but that would be my hope – to raise kids that want to grab their bikes before they grab their soccer ball or baseball.”
In this dream, his kids grab their bikes in his company. “I just really enjoy sharing my love of cycling with people, and if I can have that connection with my kids…hopefully it will bring them the same amount of joy it’s brought me.”
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Bonus interview out-takes:
Q: Do you have a favorite out-of-training-mode guilty pleasure food?
Jesse: “I don’t, because in my training I’m one of those guys who eats anything and I’m not very picky. I already eat anything, so when it comes to off-season there’s nothing specific that I crave.”
Q: Is there anything you’re eating that you think other bike racers wouldn’t be eating?
Jesse: “I’d say school food. I eat lunch every day at the school cafeteria. I get my little milk carton.”
Q: Chocolate milk?
Jesse: “Well, sometimes. It might be a thing of salad and little tray of green beans and pasta.”
Q: Do you have a nickname for your bike?
Jesse: “No. the problem is I have a collection of bikes. You start getting so many you kind of run out of…Maybe a better question would be, ‘do you have a bike you don’t race and like to ride?’”
Q: Is there a bike you don’t race and really like to ride?
Jesse: “I like riding my bikes I can pull my daughter with. I like being not in that training mode and putting the trailer on the back of the bike and looking back at her and seeing her reading a book or looking around. Like an old Gary Fisher, a 1989 mountain bike.”
“‘Pagosa Springs is offering Wolf Creek Pass as a mountaintop finish to the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge,’ said Morgan Murri, chairman of the town’s local organizing committee, and Mt. Evans is also under consideration.” The Denver Post article including this quote also listed 24 cities who bid to host the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) in 2012. Originally news accounts mentioned 27 cities had applied; likely the difference is due to initially counting cities that submitted joint proposals, such as Telluride and its ski resort sister, The Town of Mountain Village, as two bids instead of one.
The same Denver Post piece alluded to how, even with the state’s plethora of ski resorts, not many offer a mountain-top finish. The suggested mountain-top finish, however, had to be Wolf Creek Pass as in the point at the top of the Continental Divide on Highway 160. The 1.8 mile stretch of road to the Wolf Creek Ski base area from Highway 160 is not up; mainly, it descends.
Wolf Creek Pass (via theyeagergroup.com)
The distance from downtown Pagosa Springs to the intersection of Highway 160 and County Road 391 which ends at the Wolf Creek ski area is about 23 miles. The run-up to the last six miles is pretty shallow, but those six miles include pitches of what appears to be 8 % to 11% (a glitch in MapMyRide prevents tracing the road from town to the pass fully).
If the organizers are considering Wolf Creek Pass, this brings into question the validity of the eleven “leaked” host cities, a list that excluded towns within striking distance of Wolf Creek Pass over road surfaces. A Durango to Wolf Creek Pass route is feasible but would seem to remove Telluride from the route and add a long transfer if Ouray is the next start town. One option would be to run an uphill about 3 km prologue as day one of the race from the base of the ski resort up to Highway 160.
There’ll be lots of time to speculate on the route. According to the Denver Post’s John Henderson, the host cities will be announced in the third week of December. The actual route, however, will materialize at a later date.
In tonight’s TourChats with guest Jonathan Vaughters, Nathan Haas’ name appeared a few times in the chat room. Team Garmin-Cervélo fans might be asking: “And who is Nathan Haas?”
Nathan Haas with Jonathan Vaughters (Mary Topping)
Nathan’s Australian, 22 years-old, and previously competed in mountain biking. He burned up the roads in Australia and Japan in 2011, facing off against top riders as part of the UCI continental Genesys Wealth Advisors Team, in what Nathan called, “essentially my first full-time year on the bike.” In 2012 Nathan will ride for Team Garmin-Cervélo.
After winning this year’s Jayco Herald Sun Tour in Australia, Haas told the Herald Sun, “It’s a really special moment. I don’t feel as if I’m a spectacular rider, but I am part of a spectacular team.” Sounds like he’s made a great match with Garmin-Cervélo.
Learn about Nathan by perusing the following links. Follow him on Twitter, @NathanPeterHaas.
- Haas to Garmin-Cervélo, Von Hoff to Chipotle in 2012, cyclingnews.
- Haas set to begin Garmin career on home soil, Sydney Morning Herald.
- Haas and Von Hoff – a class above in the NRS, cyclingnews.
- CyclingTips interview with Haas.
- Haas’ bio on the Genesys Wealth Advisors Team website.
- Nathan Haas follows up Herald Sun Tour win with Japan Cup victory, VeloNation.
- Nathan Haas claims Herald Sun Tour victory, Herald Sun.
- Genesys Wealth Advisors Team website interview with Haas, earlier in the year.
None of these links mention that Haas plays the tenor sax. His favorite jazz musician? “I have to mention Charlie Parker,” he said, at the Garmin-Cervélo 2012 team presentation in Boulder, “and I’d say Grover Washington Junior.” Last link: a short interview with Haas at the team presentation.
Finally, someone is going to have to ask him about the origin of this nickname, “Nate Dizzle.”
ProVéloPassion 