Josh Carlson blogs from Boulder, Colorado

Hello everyone!

I have been a bit slack with my updates lately and i do apologise for not keeping everyone updated as frequently as i would like. For some reason it’s really hard to sit inside at a computer when you’re living in boulder, Colorado and at the base of the Rocky Mountains 

So it’s been 7 WEEKS since i left home now and i have been in boulder, CO for 6 weeks. I’m finally getting the hang of the place and finding my way around much easier without getting as lost as easy as before. Still, i have an amazing talent to still turn easy little trips into MISSIONS as i take a wrong turn here or there and before I know it...I'm lost!

I’ve been able to get some killer training done while I’ve been here and the weather has finally let up and summer is well and truly on the cards! Sunny hot days are on the menu most days and everything is bursting with colour and greenery and the whole place has a wicked vibe and feeling at the moment that you can’t help but get excited about.

May has been pretty quiet on the racing front, with no big races for me but a few local races around boulder keeping me interested and sharp. I've been hitting up a few road races and crits and man they have been SUPER hard! My lack of roadie expertise and red head A.D.D makes for a good hard hit out but unfortunately, not the best result! A couple of weekends ago i raced the 'Morgul Superior Classic' 2 day road race. Saturday was a crit and Sunday was the road race. The crit was pretty cool as it weaved through a couple of back streets around some houses and had some cool fast corners that if you hit fast enough, you could use the gutters as berms. It definitely freaked some of the roadies out and was an easy way to gain a few bike lengths without much effort! 

A breakaway of 8 got away and our bunch was controlled by their team mates, so i rolled in with the bunch in 17th. The road race the next day was BRUTAL to say the least! It was 6 laps of a 13.3mile course and headed up a climb called 'the wall', a 1.5mile climb that was 12% gradient, 7 times....i had full intentions to snivel for this race like i had never snivelled before!!  (Pretty much because i had actually never snivelled in a bunch before)

So the plan was going well and i wasn’t doing too much work and feeling good. Then the wheels started to fall off my little red wagon..After the 4th time up the wall, i got dropped over the top when they attacked and was now WELL off the back of the bunch. Race over i thought! So i settled in to a solid pace with another guy and before i knew it, we were nearly back on to the bunch! YIEEEW! So i stepped into it and got back onto the bunch and settled in for another lap. Lap 5 up the wall, same thing..Dropped even bigger again! This time, i was by myself so i was sure my race was over. It was about 2hrs 40min into the race and once again i settled into a good pace and ate some food to ride home by myself. AGAIN, i rode back onto the bunch, but this time i was STOMPING!! I got a second wind and i took full advantage of it. I drove the front of the bunch all the way for the rest of the lap, then big ringed the wall and to my surprise i rode off the front of the bunch and dropped the rest of the field. With another break up the road i held it on and started chasing.

About 5km later the bunch caught up with me, but i still felt good so i stepped into it again and brought back, by myself, the masters bunch up the road and a 3 man breakaway that was behind the leaders of our pro field. As we headed to the final hilltop finish up the wall, i just popped at the bottom and rode in behind the main field in 28th. I was pretty happy with this race and stoked to just finish with the main group!  3hrs30mins, 130km, 2000m climbing..great day in the office!

The weekend before that i had an awesome weekend on the dirt with a couple of mates over here, up in Wyoming. Some killer trails and a low key cruisy xc race over 3 laps of a 12ish km course. I ended up winning this race by  nearly 5mins and felt great on the mtn bike!

This weekend just gone i raced another xc race up in Vail, CO. The Teva Mountain Games. An event held up in the wicked snow region of Colorado with some EPIC scenery and some serious elevation. The race started at approx. 2600ish metres and climbed up to just under 3000m each lap! 4 laps were on the cards and it was about 23 or so minutes a lap. There was still a fair bit of snow around on most of the mountains and some of the event village had HUGE snow pieces hanging around. we were lucky to have dry conditions and come race time it ended up pretty hot which made it that much tougher.

I started well but as soon as we hit the climbs, the boys pushed the pace and i rode quickly backwards as i gasped for air and wished the D's would hurry up! i settled into a rhythm and tried not to push too hard on the climbs and make it up on the flats and downhill sections. This kind of worked and i consistently passed a heap of people each lap and rode back into 17th. About 12mins off the leader over the 1hr 37min race. Bit disappointed with my result but it was a massive eye opener to racing at REAL Altitude!

Once i recovered from that and drank a THOWSAND water bottles and endura drinks, we chilled out in the village and watched the dog jumping! the most popular event there by far!who would've thought watching dogs jump to grab a plastic hot dog, then splash into a huge pool would be so entertaining!

So now it’s pretty much GO TIME! i have a heap of big races coming up and i cannot wait to get amongst it! Next Tuesday, I’ll fly to bend, OREGON for a local fun invitational race with Adam Craig and a whole bunch of pros to race for prizes that include the longest wheelie, biggest air, longest air, fastest road section and race winner..sounds like a race too good to be true huh? then after that head down to Ashland for the 12mile super D race on June 18 and chainless challenge the day before. The weekend after that is the Subaru cup Pro XCT race in Wisconsin, June 25/26, then off to Canada for a round of the mountain bike world cup on july2nd. The final stop will be in California for the weekend of July 9/10. That will be the Downieville Classic which is the All mountain World Champs. I was fortunate enough to get a Pro entry from the GIANT Factory team over here and i am really looking forward to this event!

So definitely a whirlwind next few weeks and some exciting times ahead. I do apologise for the long report this time, but that is 6 weeks’ worth right there. Ill upload some videos and photos to facebook tonight also from the past few weekends so be sure to check them out and you might have a bit of a giggle.

I hope all is good at home guys and i look forward to chatting to you guys soon.

I’d like to send a massive thank you out to GIANT Bicycles for helping me out with an entry into downieville, SHIMANO USA and SHIMANO Australia for helping me out with parts and accessories over here which has been extremely helpful. Ben from KENDA Tyres for tyre support. Also massive thanks to Dwight, my team manager from ROCKSTAR Racing for organising some support and sending bits n pieces over to me and Mark Fenner, my coach, from www.ftptraining.com for dialing my training and getting me ready for these upcoming races.

Thanks for your support from home too guys! it great to hear and definitely provides me with extra motivation to get amongst it.

Luv ur work!

JC.