The 2010 season will see the return of the highly successful Sho-Air/ Specialized factory team. The '09 squad cleaned up in their first year on the national scene. Max Plaxton and Sid Taberlay both dominated on the Pro XCT series while Many Prado took top honors at the La Ruta. New to the group this year is Durango, CO native Tad Elliott. The team will open up their season officially at round number one of the US Cup Triple Crown this March at Bonelli Park, CA. You can follow the team's journey here: http://shoair.wordpress.com/
UPDATE: Max Plaxton
17 02 2010
It’s been almost a week here in sunny Tucson
There is some great riding around Tucson, and lots of friendly people as well. I rolled in here Thursday night and met up with the rest of the Canadian team athletes that are here for the 10-day camp. We have split the days between the road and mountain bike, most days have been around the 4 hour mark, with a couple shorter days, and one long day in the saddle. I did a great mountain bike ride Tuesday, which took me up around the backside of Mt Lemmon. There was some pretty hairy technical stuff, but the Epic took full control, and I managed to clear all but 1 section on the 45 min DH. We followed a river a lot of the time, and there were some pretty amazing swim holes to dunk our heads in. It’s been really great to have a good chunk of the national team here in Tucson, it’s a great group, and there is some real good team-bonding going on.
3 more days here in the Desert, and then back home to Victoria. I’m looking forward to riding all the way up Mt. Lemmon tomorrow; I hope it isn’t too cold at the top! I gotta say the body is feeling pretty good, it doesn’t hurt that I am down at the pool lounging in the 75 degree sun, surrounded by palm trees, with a cold one in hand, post ride of course:)
I’m glad I didn’t get my new SL3 in time for the camp as the majority of the roads around here about as smooth as teenager’s face with a healthy dosage of acne.
I’ll check in next week from back home with a full Tucson review, and hopefully some tired legs.
Plax
UPDATE: Sid Taberlay
17 02 2010
Last week at home
It’s been a productive week I’m on top of all the chores, and everything I needed to get done before heading back overseas. Training has been good, though I had my legs ripped off this week by Jai Crawford from Fly V-Australia Team, other than that it’s been a pretty routine week.
I’m now getting ready to fly back to LA, after the Otway Odyssey: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/world-champions-to-line-up-at-otway-odyssey. This is another must do Australian event, it’s a challenge for most just to finish, myself included as the length and the amount of climbing has gotten the better of me the last two times. Hopefully the third times a charm!
Sid Taberlay
UPDATE: Manuel Prado
16 02 2010
As
I write this all I’m telling myself is goodbye summer, good-bye 32km
climbs, good bye family, I’m leaving for now, but I will be back again
as soon as time allows it.
On the other hand the highlight of last week was the 7th annual Ticos Jam. The event is another dream come true, and a huge goal of mine to support the sport that kept me out of trouble when I needed it the most. Flatland also gave me a chance to compete around the world, and I inherited some good handling skills to that I’ve kept with me through MTB racing career.
This year’s event had a special guest and a living legend Jesse Puente, from Los Angeles California, made his way down to Costa Rica to share more than 25 years of experience with all kinds of original tricks in front of the hundreds of spectators and the many riders who visited us from all over the world.
What a day we had, impacting all the riders who attended this years Ticos Jam. Now that the event is over they will go home, and practice hard all year and come back next year to try to grab a top 3 spot and get crowned as the Ticos Jam champion. This year Jorge Vasques from Panama won the Ticos Jam crown, congratulations to him.
Well next week I will be talking about my return to the US, and the races that we have just around the corner.
Talk soon!
MP
UPDATE: Tad Elliott
11 02 2010
Man it has been a busy winter!
I went from Alaska straight to California, Germany, home for a night, then to Canada. This was all for cross country skiing with a stop to California to meet the team, and preview Bonelli Park. WOW what a great experience it was meeting the Sho-Air crew and pre riding Bonelli. Scott and Ty are working very hard, and are putting together a very awesome race series. I was able to pre ride Bonelli with Ty and we did the old course and the new one, the new course is awesome. For the terrain there I believe that they built the most fun and best course they could. I did not race the old course, but if you did I believe you will be quite excited by this new one. More hand cut single track and some steep punchy climbs in there, RAD! The new triple crown series is going to be fun, and I hope to see a lot of excited people out at Bonelli. I have two more ski races to go, but I am out on the bike some now. Durango has the most snow in the State right now. Crazy for the desert. I hope it warms up soon so that I can get out and ride some trails to get ready for what is sure to be a fun and hot sprint out in CA.
Tad
