Go Pro HDissle

You can watch it in HD the link under the video.

Go Pro HD test from Kyle Miller on Vimeo.

This is a VERY good thing!!

Lots a Racin'

Lots has been happening since my last post. Bear Creek was the MASS and my season finale, for mountain biking that is. Off the start I was 2nd into the single track. I knew it was a long race and when Julian pulled away I was terribly worried. At the top of the climb it was just me and Jacob. Luckily I prerode the course the weekend before so I knew most of the lines down the mountain. I was able to get a bit of a gap on Jacob on the descent. Onto the second lap I knew Jacob wasn't far behind. I hammered it up the climb and tried to save some on the descent. I was feeling great and pulled out a second. I was happy.

The team was able to grab a third overall!

This past weekend was Whirlybird. My second cross race of the season. Nittany was last weekend... we'll skip that. I can finally say it, CROSS is BOSS! It has been so much fun so far. I really really like the Whirly bird course fast, swoopy, and technical in cross terms. Felt great off the start probably top 10 or 15 into the second lap. But I started to slow down and ended up 23rd I think it was.

No thats not a laser on Jeffs helmet, its a video camera.

Zach killed it and came in 5th!

Sorry

Riding cross bikes on mountain bike trails is sooo much fun.

I think I looked like a pretty pro surfer, as long as I wasn't surfing.

Well lets forget the fact that I haven't posted in over a month. Here is a summary of what I've been up to: Racing lots, riding lots, hanging out down at the outer banks for a week, more riding, thinking about cross, oh and school. Bear Creek is coming up this weekend, last mtb race of the season. Then it's time for cross. I'm getting super pumped!!!

Nationals and much much more

Well this past weekend was Nationals. It was in Colorado, Sol Vista ski area to be exact. If you don't know our elevation was roughly 9000 feet. That is why we went out 2 weeks ahead of time to acclimate. Though nationals was the entire point of the trip it was probably the smallest part. Our trip started the day before The Long Pine classic, the whole team plus a lot of other people showed up at Brett and Donna's to eat some good food and shoot off some fire works. It was a fun time and the fireworks were sketchy! That night we stayed at Zach's house to then help set up the next morning for Long Pine. Everything went super smooth, the course was awesome, the venue was perfect, and there was tons of good competition. With roughly 3000 feet of climbing, it was brutal. From the "neutral" start I was in the front group, it wasn't very neutral though. The start was one big fire road climb and we were flying up it. I was probably top 20 into the single track with Forest, Jacob, and Julian still in sight. I could still see them for most of the first single track. I lost sight for a while but when we opened up on a fire road I could see Jacob, which meant everyone else was close. I was able to get my roadie on and draft for most of it then zipping around them right before the single track. Now it was one big descent back down to another fire road. I now had to look up at the first big climb it was loooong. I haven't had to climb something like that in a while. I felt awesome up it. The next big climb was just as bad as the first. Though slightly shorter it was much steeper, I could only ride up about half of it. It was pretty uneventful till I saw Julian finishing up his flat. I really turned it on on the downhill, but Julian was catching up. We spilled out on a fire road and I was on Julian's Wheel. We had one last climb, and Julian road right by the entrance, talk about luck. With Julian most likely still behind me I hammered up the hill and could see Jacob. He was close but I didn't have enough time to get him. I think the podium was the best part of Long Pine. Champagne, the winner got to spray champagne, it was so cool until you got it in you eyes! I didn't know it burned that bad.

After a cook out and some more fireworks it was time to go to bed and get ready for our marathon trip out to Colorado. We were supposed to leave only an hour earlier then everyone else. But it ended up being 2 hours and they didn't catch up until about 24 hours later. Lucky for us we were in the crafter, everyone else was crammed in the Subie. It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, we were very lucky compared to the Subaru. We had Iphones, computers with 3G, DVD players, and a small sleeping hole in the back.

We got to see Saint Louis and the Arch since we were ahead of schedule.

31 hours later we were at the house and ready to go for our first ride.

Day 1: We unloaded, went for a ride around the house, felt the altitude, spun home and made dinner.

The next morning I stepped out into the garage to find out it was freezing. Probably 40-50 degrees. I also found Tom pretty much rebuilding Forests bike.

On Thursday we went to Boulder, we went through rocky mountain national park. We hiked up a trail to get up on top we were at 12000 feet, about 2.3 miles up. It was cold and windy.

Once we got to boulder we still didn't know where we were going to ride, so we stopped at a bike shop to get some advice. We ended up riding a Heils ranch I think it was called it was really cool, but completely different terrain. The plan was to sleep over at Yannicks house (a super fast junior). But we ended up not having enough cars for everyone to sleep over so that plan failed. We still ate dinner and hung out with Yannick. After some good pizza at Protos we went down to Pearl Street Mall, an awesome outdoor mall. Jeff, Gunnar and I got some wool panchos that are awesome, from this hippy shop, the guy at the register looked a little scary! After eating some delicious cake that Yannicks mom made we came home.







We just chilled out until Saturday which was race day #1, Winter Park point to point. It looked like it was going to be a tough course with a long climb at the start. It was pretty eventful when Tom and Forrest had some miss-communication and all Forrest had was a half full warm-up bottle. So Forrest had to start about 10-15 seconds later then everyone else. I really chilled out on the start since it was my first race at altitude. I felt pretty good I was in the second group and was able to get past a few other kids before the single track. After the first downhill it was a long downhill, unfortunately there were a few slow people and I got a little held up, oh well. After about half way through I started to turn it on. As I did I could see I was gaining on Jacob every minute. So after a long fire road climb I was right on his wheel. He tried to attack but I just stayed with him. After a few minutes I launched my own attack before we went into a single track climb. I was able to drop him and gain even more time on the downhill. It was nice to descend behind a super fast local! There was a climb after the descent and I was still feeling good so I attacked that to make sure Jacob didn't catch up. Now all that was left was some sweet downhill and a lot of flat. I ended up 2nd with some local kid 30 seconds ahead. I was happy!

After a rest and recovery day we went back to Winterpark to hang out and find something to do. We ended up doing the alpine slide, it was really fun! Luckily we did it when we did because it started to rain when we were at the top. After that we just hung out and then went to get some pizza in the town of Winterpark.

We made another attempt to stay at Yannicks house and this time it worked. When we got there we went out for a casual 3 hour ride around Boulder. Boulder is sweet! We saw the indoor velodrome, it was a lot smaller then the Trexlertown one but the walls were really really steep. almost vertical. We saw the dirt jumps which were cool also, there were so many different lines, most of the jumps weren't mandatory at all. Yannick said they have stxc races and cyclocross races there, they must be awesome. Forrest almost ate it, it was pretty scary. After some chipotle and checking out Colorado University we went back to Yannicks house. We just chilled out ate an amazing dinner and went to bed. The next day we went out for a legitimate ride. Yannick took us to a long steady climb so we could do our 1 minute efforts. It was right after one of the biggest and best breakfasts I have ever had, almost all pastries and meat, needless to say I felt it. Once we finished our efforts we spun back to the park by Yannicks house. It had a creek in it, people were tubing and swimming. Thats when we saw the rope swing, Yannick said it was definitely deep enough so we decided to do it. Jeff went first and it worked perfectly. Next went Forrest then went me, the water felt sooo good, it was really cool, we did it once or twice then rode back to the house. We changed and packed up, after getting some izzi (fruit soda stuff that is really good) we said goodbye to the eckmanns.

Now all we had to do was rest and wait for nats. I was pretty nervous the day before but I settled down. We got there right as Aarons race was happening, he ended up 7th!! Forrest and I warmed up on the trainers and then road around a little more on the road. Tom got us an awesome starting spot, 2nd row! Which is good when you have a 50+ field. On the start, which was a hard climb, I really just chilled out and stayed on the rear of the group. I was able to be about top 20 into the first single track. Then I dropped my chain on the climb and couldn't get it back on so I had to dismount and put it back on, I lost about 5 spots doing that. So now I just hung with the people in front of me. When we prerode we ended up riding the wrong loop since the promoter decided to change it like 2 days before the race. So I didn't know how much climbing we would be doing I just had to ride, which I was fine with. I felt awesome on the first lap apparently 18th or 19th at the top of the climb. But unfortunately I was really feeling it on the second lap. I really cracked and had to dismount once. I was on the wheel of some kid at the top and for most of the downhill, even until about 2 minutes from the finish, but luckily like many other people in the class he couldn't descend. I was able to drop him and ended up 24th.

The venue was awesome, I can't say the same for the course:(

The top with an awesome view!!

This was taken at pretty much the end of the weekend, everything on the course probably had a layer of dirt.

The stxc course wasn't the best either, it did have this cool wood thing though.

Jeff ended up third!!!

Zach also did awesome, he got pushed into the tape at the start and was dead last. He was gaining on second but dropped his chain, I think he could of got him, but he still ended up 3rd. Yeah Zach!!

JB's flash 17 lbs I think, not production which will be 16.4 for a medium frame.

It was really cool believe me.

Jake also picked up Adam Craigs Bottle

Colorado

Well nats is tommorow, I excited, and nervous. This is my first nationals and there are 50 people in my class. I am pretty much banking on the normal Jr. start and having them bonk half way through. Oh yah I got second last weekend at winter park point to point, I felt good. I didn't bonk and altitude wasn't bad. Here we go.........

Register!!

Register For

The Long Pine Classic!!!!!!!!


The one lap course is going to be awesome. It's michaux what do you expect.

I wanna race

I haven't raced in 2 weeks and I'm starting to loose my mind.


I'm getting tired of rain, really really tired of it.


Maybe a full weekend of racing at marysville will quech my thirst.


At this point I am just counting down the days until a full 3 weeks in Colorado, which I must say I am very very excited about!

This made me laugh

Don't worry he is okay.

I guess I'm a little behind....

It the last 2 weeks a lot has happened. I don't really have much time so I will make this quick. The day before Iron Hill Gunnar and I went up to the PA high school state championships which is part of Zach's Tuesday night series in May. With a small turnout it was only me and Gunnar in the Varsity class, so we decided to save it for Iron Hill and only race 1 out of the 3, 3 mile laps. It was a very slow course with about 24 minute laps, it was more about handling then strength. It had a lot of logs and some really cool creek crossings. But Gunnar got the best of me and we headed home. Now all I had to do was recover for Iron Hill as best I could. On the drive down there were some rain showers and apparently in the morning it had pored. So the course was pretty wet in some spots, which made it very interesting. Off the start I was about 5th into the single track which wasn't very smart because I got stuck behind two slower juniors. I lost some time on the leaders and couldn't make it back up. But I felt strong for it being my first serious XC race back. But the podium was stacked with Cyclesports/Fast Forward Team with Jacob in first, Forest in second, and me in third.

This past weekend was the Hoo-Ha! This is my second time in 3 weeks driving over 5 hours to a race and I'm starting to get used to it. This race was really worth it, not only was it fun but this was my qualifier for nationals. We all prerode a lot of the lap the day before and it was brutal. It was the kind of course that I love, the kind I always ride, go up for a long time, then go down for a long time. Off the mass start I went pretty hard to make sure I didn't make the same mistake I did at Iron Hill. I was in the top 5 or so going into the first single track section. There was a junior right in front of me, I rode his wheel for a while until we got to the climb, I got into a pretty fast tempo and was able to hold on up to the top. There was a lot of traffic right before the downhill which slowed me down a lot. Once I got to the top I turned around and Jacob had made his way up to me.

Cresting the loooooong climb with Jacob right behind me

Now we got to the most technical part of the course, also the most backed up. I had to walk many of section that I could have atleast ran. Once past all this I made alot of passes on the downhill but still couldn't see Jacob. When I made it to the bottom I hammered up what I thought was the last hill, but we didn't preride the whole course and there was still about 3 miles in the course. Luckily I still had enough to keep a good pace. I finished 2nd and most importantly I'm qualified for nationals.

Finally I can race

Well it's been a while since I have filled you in on what happening. I can race, which I am very happy about. My first race of the season was the wilmington grand prix, it was a really really fast race with a scary turn 3. All you need to know is that I got dropped. After the race Jeff came back with us and was going to stay at gunnars for the night. But we ended up doing a night ride at Spring Mount which was fun. Then the next day we went down to wissahickon for a long day which didn't turn out as planned. We were going to do a loop then ride to Cadence, then get lunch, then do another lap which we figured would take about 6 hours. But with flats and a person (who will remain nameless) forgetting all of there riding stuff we got our 6 hours outside but only about 4 hours of riding time. By the end we were all super tired and couldn't wait to get home. Now it was time for recovery with Burn 24 hour challenge coming up. The team in order was Forrest, Jeff, Sam, Me, and Dan. Zach was doing it solo. After the 8 hour ride down we finally got to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning it was time to get to the venue.

The course was amazing, probably one of the best race courses ever. It was super fast, with lots and lots of rootes. I felt pretty good on the first lap, but not my best. When I got back I soon found Brian sprinting back saying Forest flatted (luckily it was about 100 yards away from the transition area and he was allowed to run back) Jeff was abruptly waken up and forced to go out on a lap. Luckily we didn't have anymore problems for the rest of the race.

This was the coolest course at night, you feel like your going so much faster then you were before, I was so excited when I got back from my first night lap. But that didn't happen on my next lap since it was 3:00 am I was to so tired and had to put a wet chamois on, not fun. So we ended up in 6th with 35 laps, each of us doing 7 laps. My garmin said I rode 42 miles, climbed 16591 ft , and total ride time was 4 hours 29 minutes. Now all I wanted to do was sleep I slept for about 5 of the 8 hours back home. Yes those are new bikes too, a good thing about getting hit by a car is you get a new road bike! But I don't suggest doing it.

End of last lap

Mud Fest

This past weekend was Granoque, still no racing thought. The rain seemed like it would never end, which it really hasn't. It has rained here for the past like 9 days. Anyways I don't really think you could call Granoque a race. It was kind of a Try-to-finish-and-not-break-your-bike-and-maybe-you'll-podium kind of race. Basically the only place were you could make up time was the last hill which is pavement and running anywhere you can't ride. From what I heard you were walking/running about 3 out of the 4 miles, and your bike would get so caked with mud that your back wheel would stop spinning. Peoples bikes had wheels that were 3 inches wider than they would be. In other news I can race next weekend, and we have a 24 hour team coming together. So I have a feeling May is going to be way more fun then the last month and a half.

Today was a good day

Today was the first time I've ridden a bike outside in over 6 weeks. I didn't even care that it was 90 degrees out. I took it slow since I have only ridden the trainer for the past 2 weeks. I just road on the perkiomen trail for about an hour, spinning through greenlane. I went through a lot of water bottles. I still can't race for another 2 weeks but after that I should be good. So overall it was a good ride, it was nice to not be on the trainer.

What!

Maybe it's just me not watching trials videos but this is insane. I found it on some colorado cross website. Just like they said it is a combonation of BMX and trials. This just blew my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o

Back again

Well kind of, I was at the doctor Monday again and he said that I can ditch the cast and crutches. So I am limping everywhere. He cleared me to ride the trainer as hard as I would like and pretty much do whatever I want. That's for 2 weeks then in another 2 weeks I can get out on the road bike (a new road bike). So hopefully my first race will be the Rocktober XC loop. I am pretty confidant I will be back at 100% by then. The scary part is that I can see that my left leg is tiny compared to my right it looks kind of funny. I will be at Fairhill this weekend I hope so see everyone there. Look for the one limping.

Well my focus for this week has been drink lots of milk and ride the trainer. I think I have accomplished both even though I am drinking grape juice right now. After putting away all my ski stuff today I figured I would put some pictures up of my ski season. These are all from one weekend at Bear Creek that my friend Ethan Jeremias took. I don't really feel like typing much so here's a summary. Had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and went to Colorado.

Getting artsy

Best sunset I have ever seen

Our pride and Joy, even though the park manager wasn't very happy when he saw us spraying his lip away. (Gunnars the one spraying)

You don't know what you got till you lose it

I just got back from my orthopedic appointment. Good and bad I can start to walk on it with crutches and I shouldn't need crutches when I go back in 2 weeks. The best part is I can start to ride the trainer every so often. Basically he said overall if it hurts don't do it sooo I guess we will see what happens. Bad is I still can't race for at least another 2 weeks possibly 4. I am starting to figure out how boring my life is with out being able to ride. But I plan to make up for this down time by putting a lot of energy into the season. I am going to be overly excited for the first race, this may just be a good thing :) I should be able to get a ride to the IIGOMBTRCUIAMO (Visit PA Relay) so hopefully I will see everyone there.

Broken

Here's my leg. I figured I should put some stuff up that I broke my fibula. Which is the small non-weight bearing bone next to the tibia. I have a soft cast from my mid thigh to right above my ankle. I can take it off when I take a shower and stuff. Here is how it happened, none of which was my fault. I was rolling down the road towards the end of my 2 hour ride, going about 20 about to go through a intersection with stop signs on either side of me when a car pulls out and well hits me. It hit me right on the side throwing me down and rolling on the road into the grass. I guess I broke it when the car hit me and then just got a lot of road rash and trashed my road bike. So I can start putting weight on it in a week or 2 then should be good in a month. So I am going to Rockburn this weekend to help out a little, probably very little then just rest and start getting my bike, new bike together.

Colorado

I don't feel like writing much so here are some pictures. I cooked that steak.

D-Town Summit County with Steamboat.

I went dog sledding too.

I thought this was cool

We got 10 inches on our 2nd of 5 days of skiing. It was amazing.

This was one of our awesome finds.

Local candy shops rule. It was called a Peanut Butter Bucket.

One of the biggest drops we did, about 12 foot.

They were doing a lot of building and stuff

The Gondola.

We had plenty of blue birds.

There superpipe was really fun it had 18 foot walls. In the end it was a great trip, and I had a lot of fun. We even drove by Granby were Nationals is going to be. It looks like it will be really fun in a really cool town. I think the elevation sign said like 7500 or something.