Start of the Road Season

Although Colorado's weather may say differently, another cold, off-season has come and gone. The road season is now upon us.

Valley of the Sun is only a week away. With snow on the ground here and the forecast in Phoenix heating to the mid 80's, we will see a drastic change in climate. Being from Colorado and training here all winter creates a huge handicap for racers who are looking to have a good spring. We are stuck inside or have to be tough and ride when it's 35 degrees outside.

This will be my second time racing Valley of the Sun. This year is an opportunity to redeem myself from last year. Bronchitis, a word any athlete never wants to hear or even see. Last year, the sickness grabbed me and literally pulled me from the race. But now is no longer a time to focus on the past. 

My development through the years has finally seen me, according to USA Cycling, become an "adult" racer. No longer able to race in the juniors, I can turn my attention 100 percent towards racing with the 3's and hopefully the 2's. Adult racing is much different than junior racing. When a junior race has great turnout, such as Valley of the Sun, or Nationals, they function a lot more nervous and jumpy. As racers progress through the adult ranks, they tend to calm down. Everyone there is about the same level as you. Often, 3's and 4's races are races of attrition. The fastest one left will win. The more experienced the group, the longer it stays together. At large junior races, including Valley of the Sun, the 17-18 year old junior group will usually contain many guys who are already 1's and 2's. These races are often much more difficult than the 4's or even the 3's. Surely, the dynamic of this race will change and I look forward to it.

I will be traveling out with my team again this year. We have less racers this year making the trek to Phoenix, but are still going to make the most of it. We will be spending the week together, renting a house, having fun, and racing our bikes.

I am flying out next week and looking forward to the new competition and the time with my team.

Look forward to some updates about my travels, races, and maybe we'll see a blog from some of our other teammates in the coming weeks.

Mixing it Up

Hello Readers,

Seeing as how I live in a popular city like Denver, convenient and safe riding options are not what I would consider ideal. Last year I rode the same trail almost every day and rode around the same state park countless times. This often made training seem tedious and fairly mundane. There were times were I didn't want to ride simply because I was bored of riding the same route. I wanted to try and ride different trials and get to the mountains more often but I didn't have a driver's license at that point. This year I hope to make training more exciting by riding different routes around Denver and also riding in nearby areas like Colorado Springs or Boulder.

If you find yourself getting tired of your training routine I would try tagging along with a friend or teammate on their favorite roads or trails. Or even better, try a mountain bike or cross ride to mix things up a little bit. You don't want to get tired of your training routes during the early season. I can tell you from experience that when this happens you loose a lot of motivation. A loss in motivation is NOT what you want when you're preparing for the upcoming season.

If you have anything specific you want me to write about next time please leave a comment below or message me on Facebook.

Thanks for reading,

Jackson Hootman

First Cyclocross Race

Hello Readers,

For those of you who don't know, cyclocross is the art of racing around short technical loops with a mix of dirt, grass, and road terrain. Added to the mix are obstacles that require riders to dismount, run with their bike, and remount at high speed.  In other words, it is absolute mayhem. For a long time I have considered giving it a go but I didn't actually have the guts to show up until last weekend at Primalpalooza. I spent the whole week before-hand practicing dismounting, running with the bike, remounting, and riding through tight grass corners. But in the end I was foolish to think that any amount of practice would prepare me the tornado of chaos that is cyclocross racing.

Forty-five seconds after the start of the first lap someone slammed into me, knocking me on the ground. If your interested in a good laugh, another racer got it on camera (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feWTQ2F0xMw). Look closely at the right side of the screen at 47 seconds. 0.5 or 0.25 speed is recommended. By the time I was back up and riding I was in last place. To make things worse, I crashed again five minutes later in a gravely corner. And on top of that, both my teammates got caught up with mechanical problems. Things were't looking good but after the first lap I started feeling better. I started passing people and was able to take corners more quickly than before. I was finally able to enjoy the course. By the end of three laps my teammate Zach caught up to me and I was able to follow his wheel to the end of the fourth lap and to the end of the race. At first, 35th place may sound pretty terrible but I was happy with it for my first go at cyclocross.

Overall, I had a blast trying something new. If you're feeling a little bored with road riding then I would for sure give cyclocross a try. Just go in with reasonable expectations and don't be surprised if you crash once... or twice.

Thanks for reading,

Jackson Hootman

The Importance of the Off-Season

Hello Readers,

Given the time of year I thought it made sense to talk a little bit about the off-season. Right now I am taking some time off.  I didn't realize I needed it until I spent a whole week off the bike after my last race of the season.  I didn't feel tired or sick of riding after my last race but that week long break sure felt good. For the first time in months I was able to eat whatever I wanted, stay up late, and spend the whole weekend just relaxing. It also provided an easy transition when I returned to school. After a summer filled with just riding, sleeping, and eating, hours of calculus homework was quite the shock to the system. But because I didn't have any training to do, I had the time I needed to focus on school and finish all of my homework. Since starting this off-season, I have also been able to look at colleges, start applications, and even apply to join the National Honors Society.  I have a feeling that this nice break will have me motivated to start training again when December comes around.

I wouldn't consider myself extremely qualified to be giving training advice but if you too are in your off-season, why not take some time to focus on school or work? Eat some ice cream if you want to, go to bed at midnight if you want to. Now is your time to recharge. Don't be afraid to let loose a little bit and have some fun. It may feel like all your work from the previous season is going to waste but that is far from true. If anything you are rewarding all of the blood and sweat you put into a long season. The only exception being the slim chance Chris Froome is reading this right now. If you're a Tour de France champion I would suspect things are a little different. No ice cream or late nights for you. But for the rest of us, we should just try to have some fun.  We deserve to sit back and relax before we need to start building those base miles again.

Thanks for reading,

Jackson Hootman

A Little Bit About Me: Jackson Hootman

Hello Readers,

My name is Jackson Hootman and I am a 17 year old cyclist born in Utah but raised in colorful Colorado.  I race road for the Prestige Imports Cycling Development Team, one of the up and coming development teams in the country. The purpose of this post is to simply introduce myself so current and future readers can have a better understanding of my perspective as a racer.

Warm up fun

Crit racing in Arizona

Cycling has played a large role in my life thus far. It has kept me motivated and has taught me a lot about setting and achieving personalized goals. After heart surgery at the age of 3 and stomach surgery at the age of 16, cycling was the only thing that pushed me to stay healthy and maintain an active lifestyle. In addition, when school gets stressful, cycling is always there to provide an outlet. When I ride my bike, I'm taken to a whole different world. I truly owe a lot to this sport. It has opened me up to a community and to a lifestyle that I have cherished for the last couple of years and will hopefully continue to cherish for the rest of my life.


I have been riding my bike for as long as I can remember but I just started racing 3 years ago.  After a slow first year, I've been able to achieve a lot of my goals these last 2 racing seasons. I've won a race out of state, gone to nationals twice, podiumed at a state championships road race, and I also had the opportunity to race for Team USA at the Colorado Junior Challenge.  Even though I am proud of what I have achieved, I still think I have a lot to learn and still have a lot of room for improvement. This is the aspect of cycling I look most forward to exploring in my future posts.  In general, I'm planning for this blog to act as a catalog of my struggles and successes as an athlete, embedded with lessons for fellow cyclists. As I grow and learn, I hope readers will learn alongside me.

Thanks for reading. You'll be hearing from me again soon.

Jackson Hootman