Specialized’s Snowbird Product Launch

I’ll never complain about riding new bikes. Riding something fresh and new to the world is always fun, and doing it in a place like Snowbird, UT is always a treat. This year was no different as all the family from Specialized rolled out along with some of their top athletes for some high altitude riding, impromptu racing, and tech clinics.

Darren “D Claw” ”Bearclaw” Bearcloth. Super cool guy and for someone who can throw himself and his bike off cliffs, he’s one of the best women’s teachers I’ve ever spent time with. He took multiple runs with the girls and in really simple ways was helping us learn to take tight corners faster by whipping the rear wheel around and getting low on the bike. It was a blast to ride behind such a great rider. I made him ride uphill on the last run, so he chose a Stumpy 29 HT for the climb, then flatted the rear wheel on the descent! I got to coach him a little there about not sitting down on the saddle when descending on a hard tail! He had a new respect for XC riders after that run.

Good thing we had the Bearclaw with us on the ladies rides, so we had someone to fix our flat! What a gentleman!
With Amy Shreve (Specialized Women’s Product Mgr) and Selene Yeager (Fit Chick / Bicycling Mag)

Global Marketing manager Sean Estes and Gold Medalist skier, Ted Ligety. The cool thing about Specialized is that all of the staff absolutely shred on the bikes too! Ted was a surprise guest and I was a little star struck. I got him on the uphill part, but never even saw him on the descent. I guess he’s used to speed on the downhills. He uses his Specialized bikes a ton for summer training sessions.

Candy in the candy store. I love the new color accents for 2013

Ned Overend at the SnowCross race put on by Specialized for the media, staff, dealers. There are some seriously fit and serious riders attending this launch. And some great costumes too! The big highlight was the new carbon Crux with disc brakes!

XC National champ Todd Wells sort of crushed everyone. It wasn’t even fair. He and Ned both did take beer handups though! I did the women’s race and there were about 8 of us, mostly Specialized staff. It was a blast and I’m proud to say I took a beer hand up every lap from my friend Dave Pryor . He’s obviously VERY pro at the ‘cross beer hand ups! It was my first time, but I didn’t bobble the cup!