"Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
–Lance Armstrong
"Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
–Lance Armstrong
This past Saturday, Troy started the Warriors Society "Vision Quest" at 5:30am at Blackstar Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains. The mountain bike ride would not be easy: 56 miles, 12,000 feet of elevation gain and strict timed cutoffs that would cause a DNF if he was late. Tinker Juarez raced the VQ also, but Troy never got to see him since TJ finished in about half the time.
At 12 years old, Troy is the youngest finisher EVER to complete the Vision Quest. The trails included: Blackstar, Main Divide, Silverado Motorway, Maple Springs, Main Divide, Upper and Lower Holy Jim, Trabuco Trail, West Horsethief, Main Divide, Trabuco Trail to Trabuco Creek to the finish line.
Santa Cruz Bikes supplied troy with the ultimate race machine—a Santa Cruz Blur XC Carbon! Furthermore, they didn't just give him the frame but ALL of the top of the line components to go with it. The MSRP on this bike is $7,439 and they gave it to Troy for FREE.
Troy typed out his own schedule, taped it to the top of his frame and raced ahead never complaining. After almost 40 miles and 5.5 hours, Troy was pumped up and not even tired. However, the last 15 miles proved to be VERY difficult but Troy pushed on (literally) up West Horsethief taking several breaks as the sun beat down with no shade unless he crawled under bushes for relief. After the steep 3 mile hike-a-bike section, Troy took a long break enjoying a BBQ cheeseburger courtesy of the Warrior's Society and pushed on.
Troy started training in December with his dad riding numerous 25 mile rides. Eventually they were riding up to 40 miles. With the wet weather the last couple of months, they were training in the rain, hail, snow, mud and freezing cold temperatures. There were some days of six hour rides where only a couple of other riders were seen due to poor riding conditions.
Troy's last race in Aug 09 was in Colorado where he won the US Cycling National Championship in "Downhill" mountain biking. Troy will compete next week in Fontana at a national series race where he will race Cross Country and Downhill mountain biking.
Race results on the Warrior's Society web site.
Pictures from the event.
